Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

It's a bit strange to fathom how your mother thought your being male was a crime, when in the country I come from, thanks to deep-rooted culture a lot of times being female is a crime.

Just deep random thoughts. Anyway, here's the PDF.

[Cloak]

My mother is a piece of work alright. I know if Shadow or Faith reads this, they will think I'm just vilifying her. But neither of them saw the side of her I saw on an everyday basis, Shadow managing only the briefest of glimpses -- the day she kicked me out of the car and me walk "home" (it was more of a prison shack than a home). It was a two hour walk at least.

And neither of them knew this woman told me the proper way to slit my wrists (which, I actually already knew, overhearing some privates talk about it at boot camp, but that's beside the point). It was then I realized just how little I truly meant to her. I can't remember if she was drunk or not, but either way, there was -- there is no excuse. I realized that she would just use my death to garner sympathy -- for herself. I just wish she'd get some help -- like I did.

I do honestly wish that. Because . . . she is still my mother, and nothing can change that often-lamentable fact.

. . .

Wow, I blathered on a lot, and it wasn't even a chapter. Sorry 'bout that.

CHAPTER TWO:
Beneath These Streets

Meanwhile, well beneath the land between the city and RAF, nearby the old RAF, something stirs. Beneath the ruins they slept, they hiberated, they bided their time. The RAFians did not knownthey built their old forum -- long before Cloak or Saffa or Gaz came along and joined -- built their forum newrby the Arachnoid nest.

They were gender segregated, physiologically-speaking.

The males had a scorpion lower body, with a humanoid torso with arms like Scorponok with a face to match, though they possess two bead-like eyes the size of normal human eyes. There tails were large and reeked of malevolence. These males walked with a canter similar to Andalies -- if Andalites had eight legs. They stood roughtly the size of an adult male Andalite, if not slightly bigger. They were venomous, with their venom coming from their tails, which contained a toxin that granted them greater psychic contol -- able to mentally dominate those who they have stung, or simply a severe neurotoxin. They come in metallic greens, cobalt blues, albino white, bronze or browns.

The females did not resemble the males too much, if at all. They had a spider body, including spider legs, and some possessed human-like arms for front legs, but these are nearly always the gold variety. They possess a the face of a human female, complete with long hair. But they possess additional eyes at the temple, in addition to their human-like eyes and sharp, black, and inhuman fang extending down from their otherwise human lips. Their bite is venomous . . . and bone-crushingly painful. They can spin webs, but with far more creativity than mundane spiders -- they can use them as nets, as gags, as whips, and the like. They come in golds, metallic greens, albino whites, and cobalt blues.

Both genders could stick to and climb walls. The males seem to more prone for brute force and violence, preferring straight up offensives. The females are quite the opposite, preperring to plan and scheme and wait. The males are skilled with close-quarters combat while the females are skilled tacticians and trappers. This stark differences naturally causes friction between the two genders, the males thinking the females are wasting time with unnecessarily intricate and elaborate plans, while the females believe the males to be mindless brutes with an insatiable bloodlust. Yet they manage to get along enough to perpetuate the species and work together as a single swarm.

Neither gender has parental instinct though. When the young hatch, they're on their own. Their survival depends on them, and them alone. But only the Scorpius and the Ariachne of the Swarm are allowed to breed. Any other that reproduces is killed, killed without question.

And yet, for a millennia or two, they slumbered in a cave beneath stone and spongy earth. But now.they were just starting to stir. . . . Again. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

Like scorpions weren't bad enough. *shudder*

[Cloak]

Okay . . . I really need to do this right now. I need to relieve some stress.

CHAPTER THREE:
Crappiness Mo--Oh, My God!

A shabby motel in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of the city. It was called Crappiness Motel, as the owners decided to be straightforward with their customers, apparently. Well, at least until they started paying rent, but that was a story for a different time.

Two lone figures approached the front desk, where a wrinkly man with a toothbrush mustache and excessive flabbiness made him look like a human Boss Nass. He had white hair like cotton candy, done the way Arnold does his in "Hey Arnold". He was snoozing soundly, as the two figures sauntered up, awaking the hardnosed fellow.

He jumped to the assumption that they were checking in, and, obligatory music started up.

"Oh, there's no fire alarms in the place.
There's no carpet on the floor.
Don't try to order dinner,
There's no kitchen anymore!
But if the road's been kinda bumpy,
And you need to rest a spell.
Well, welcome home to Crappiness Motel.
If you've got luggage, keep it handy.
But you're running out of luck.
'Cause the front desk ain't too organized,
And the golf cart's stuck.
Still, if you don't mind friendly animals,
And can learn to stand the smell.
Well, welcome home to Crappiness Motel!
Welcome home.
Oh, welcome home.
No matter where you wander
You will never do as well.
Okay, the lobby's looking shabby,
And it's got the wrong address,
And the whole dern thing has been condemned by 'Merican Express!
Still the management is assuredly awful, though the whole joint's gone to hell.
Well, welcome home to Crappiness Hotel!
Oh, there are bugs.
(There are bugs.)
And there are lice.
(There are lice.)
Sure, we have our little problems.
But you'll never beat the $500 price!
You've got every kind of critter,
You've got ev'ry kind of pest.
But we treat 'em all as equals,
Jes' like any other guest!
Though you're cleaner than the others,
Still as far as we can tell,
You'll fit right in to Crappiness Motel!"

Then he got a good look at them . . . a male and female Arachnoid. His screams were more on-key than his singing. The rest of the residents -- which was virtually nonexistent -- and the other employees soon joined him as more of the Swarm joined the frenzied feast.

[redtailedsaffa]

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place, such a lovely face.

[Cloak]

Right.

CHAPTER FOUR:
On The Case

"See, Uncle?" Shadow was saying, as they used their Earth Mastery to make a sandman. Cloak's looked rather generic, while Shadow's bore a striking resemblance to Olaf from "Frozen". "Isn't this better than locking yourself away from everyone?"

Cloak said nothing, but managed a small wry smile. Shadow did not know how hard Cloak trying to refrain from brooding. He was rather prone to it, prone to over-analyzing every nuance, every word spoken, every minute gesture, every slight change of tone and inclination. He was very sensitive to the perceived subtext in everything, even when, perhaps, none exists. It a tendency that he had and has tried to deal with, to cope with. Although . . .

Cloak glanced at Shadow. These were the moments of life that made life worth living. Shadow has far more light within her heart, within her soul, than her chosen name implies. Cloak sees himself as exceptionally lucky that such strong-hearted person is his neice, and so lucky that such a compassionate woman such as Shadow's mother his sister. Those are easily two people his life that he feels immense gratitude for being in his life. He meant that with every ounce of sincerity that anyone could possibly possess.

"Cloak, Horse, Gaz, Demos, and Parker," came Aquilai, over the intercom. "Check out the following coordinates forward to us by the police commissioner."

"I don't care how mundane it seems, I wish they wouldn't broadcast cases over the intercom. Anyone or anything could be listening in." Cloak muttered, shooting his neice an apologetic look, before turning to go.

"I wanna help! I wanna help!" Shadow said, tagging along, mirroring how she got her name all those years ago.

***

"Blood was spilt here," Cloak said, as the six examined the mouldering, molding, delapidated hotel. There were holes in rather inconvenient places in the floor, as well as ceilings and walls. "Maybe not a lot, in terms of sheer quantity, though."

"Still, somehow, disturbing." Parker added. Clearly, he sensed something wrong too.

"Eh, the place doesn't look too bad. A couple of throw pillows, a little potpourri . . ." Demos said, flippantly.

"This is no time for joking, Demos." Horse said, in her humanoid, armored form.

"Who's joking?"

"Enough clowning, guys. Laserbeak, reconnaissance. Go."

Laserbeak, the Cybertronian parrot, flew off Gaz's shoulder and around a corner to investigate. He squawked when he flew around the corner.

[redtailedsaffa]

I can imagine everyone standing around in trenchcoats and holding magnifying glasses to the floor.

[Cloak]

Shadow and I have cloaks -- we don't need trenchcoats. j/k

[Gaz]

I feel like I should do a character sketch of Gaz me and Beaky.

[Cloak]

*fidgets nervously* Uh, right, you do that, Gazzy.

Anyway, new chapter. Sorry if there's grammatical errors, I am somewhat sleepy.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Squish, Squash, I Need A Bath

Laserbeak blew back around the corner, like Pumbaa after meeting Nala for the first time. He perched on Gaz's shoulder chirp and cittering in a very agitated way. Gaz showed great concern at her Cybertronian companion's blind panic. Laserbeak isn't one to panic -- he's one of the more laidback Cybertronians there is, though still being very protective of Gaz.

"Beaky! Beaky! Calm down," Gaz cooed, "and tell us what's going on."

"All he does is citter and squawk, how is he supposed to tell us anything?" Parker said, ever the pragmatist. Gaz gave him a fiery, scathing look. Parker, having been with Helen for a considerable time, knew when to back off.

Then the walls seemed a flurry of color. The Arachnoids had sensed fresh, yielding flesh and essentially vital bodily fluids. They were hungry. The people who had the misfortune to live here or work here had not been enough to satiate their hunger for long.

Cloak recoiled at the male Arachnoids. He never did like scorpions. Didn't help that one of his grade school bullies was a scorpion-form Realm Walker, so similar, in appearance only, to Scorpio. But history shows that Scorpio was childless.

Meanwhile, Shadow wasn't too fond of the female Arachnoids. She harbored some degree of arachnophobia, but it was mostly a learned fear, as both her mother and grandmother possessed it. Her grandmother, Cloak's mother biologically, was such a severe case that spiders could bring her to tears, despite the fact they can do no harm to a Realm Walker, not really. But fear is pervasive like that. Cloak was mostly indifferent to them, as it was the other type of arachnid -- scorpions -- that he couldn't stand.

Parker showed no fear off them -- but, after all, he was in armor. Armor durable enough that those fangs and stingers could not penetrate without blatantly violating the laws of physics. But he couldn't hide his realization that these creatures were the culprits, the reason for the blood stains found.

Gaz recoiled, as Beaky babbled in it chittering squawks. Gaz only had her pirate garb, and it wasn't much armor. With the classic transforming noise, Laserbeak took on his blaster form, which Gaz easily caught.

"Food . . ." one of the female Arachnoids said. The males were apparently mute, as none said a word. None could, it would seem. "Food . . ."

"They're sentient," Cloak muttered.

"Oh, that's very interesting. Can we get rid.of them now?" Gaz said.

"They killed the people here," Parker said. "We must contain them."

"You guys realize that they can hear you, right?" Shadow pointed out.

"Doesn't mean that the can under--" Demos began, when a male snapped his claws at him. "Oh, okay. They can understand us."

Then another male Arachnoid snapped off one of Demos's arms, but his regeneration ability managed to grow him a new one. The male feasted upon the demkn flesh and sinew and bone. But he was indignant just the same. "Hey! I was USING that!!"

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, wonderful.

[Cloak]

Oh, don't be so cheerful, Saffa! You'd think that I . . . Okay, that joke's not working here. Abort.

CHAPTER SIX:
A Small Casualty

"You have no idea who you're dealing with, Bug!" Demos snarled, leaping into the fray.

"They're not Bugs, that's a different species entirel--" Cloak said, reluctantly engaging the enemy, the Swarm.

"Like it matters!" Parker said. "Less talking, more hitting!"

But Cloak sensed something was off. This seemed to too . . . too . . . too convenient, too expected, too in concert. But Cloak couldn't see how it was a trap. The Swarm appeared to on the verge of decimation, just nearly there. He seemed to notice some heaviness and hesitation in their movements. Why?

They were sentient, he knew. They could speak. Granted, it was with hissing, breathy voices. Yet, as he blew several away with an aerominetic technique he learned from airbenders, he felt disconcerted and uneasy. He was reluctant to outright kill them, though he probably should have.

Demos had no such compunction, being born and raised demon. He was even singing to the tune of "We Go Bump in the Night" from "Scooby Doo Meets the Goblin King": "Who goes squish in the night? / YOU go squish in the night!" He just repeated that lyric over and over again, squishing an Arachnoid every time with flaming impacts.

Parker's body count was higher than the others (both Realm Walkers' were the lowest, with none), with Gaz's close behind. The Arachnoids really hadn't any defense for a person who had long distance weaponry, nor one with as tough armor. Laserbeak was only slightly less dangerous than Hermes's caudeaus in laser mode.

Horse found herself trapped in the claws of a male Arachnoid. She mutters, annoyed greatly, "Great. A giant, rabid Pikachu get to eat me all the time, but does that do me in? Oh-ho-ho-ho no, some great, ugly, dirty arthropod does it. Wonderful. Simply fan-friggin'-tastic."

And that seemed to greatly offend the male holding her.

"Okay," she grunted. "You're sensitive about your looks."

She looked at the others, her armor managing to provide her with protection, but she could still feel and sense the building pressure. She decided to go for surprise, and managed to sheath her Infinity Blade. She shifted back to her seal state, and slipped from the male's grip.

She let out a momentary sigh of relief. But it was a moment too soon, as she was scooped up and bitten by a female Arachnoid. A venomous female, who dropped the seal, not bothering to eat her, just poison her.

"Seal!" Gaz cried out, after glancing in that direction. seal weakly unseathed her Infinity Blade, returning to human form. The puncture marks were an eerie black with spidery veins the most infinitesimal distance away from the puncture marks, which were the size of pins. Horse began to sweat profusely as the Arachnoids, having the RAFians surrounded . . . withdrew. Without any reason to. They withdrew.

But they couldn't worry about that now. They had more pressing concerns.

"We have to get her back to the forum." Shadow said, immediately upon seeing Horse's plight.

[redtailedsaffa]

Noooooo!

[Cloak]

Yes, it happened. The Mark can't protect us from everything.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Addressing RAF

"Can't you cure her?" Mr. Guy fretted, as Kelly held a hand that glowed a soft blue over Horse.

"Guy, breathing down my neck won't heal Horse any easier." Kelly snapped uncharacteristicall y, proving everyone has their limits. Guy backed up a few steps, but looked on nervously. He was Horse's brother after all. Kelly continued in a voice of determined calm, "This venom is unusual, it can use my powers to slow it, but not eradicate it from her system."

She sighed heavily, as she deactivated her powers. "She's stable for the moment. This is unusual, though. I have never met such a venom that my healing powers could not eliminate. We need an antidote."

"How would we even know where to start to synthesize one?" Parker said, but there was something missing from his usual bravado. "The antidote could require a million ingredients, or just one incredibly rare one."

"We should take this talk away from here," Cloak said, looking at the suffering that Horse was going through, and wondering if it was his fault. His fault due to his reluctance to kill a sentient being, or even a barely-sentient being as these Arachnoids seemed them sometimes fluctuate between full sentience and near-sentience. They left Guy, Faerie, and Blocky to watch over Horse as Kelly continued her essential ministrations.

"I honestly haven't an idea what we could do." Parker said, with a deflated gusto. The helplessness in his voice was heart-rending. Helen hugged him, hiding her tear-stained face from the others. She was already in mourning.

"We can't give up." Shadow said firmly. "Would Horse give up so easily on us, were we the ones poisoned?"

"Shadow --"

"Uh-uh." she said, rather mirroring her mother which she caught Cloak in mischief when he was younger than Shadow is now. "Don't tell me it's hopeless. It's only hopeless when you allow yourself to give into it. There has got to be --"

"Cloak, I know you can hear me." came a bored voice.

Cloak looked and it was being broadcasted, audio and visual, from their archaic communicators. Cloak had forgotten that he was still carrying his.

"You really should update the encryption," the voice's owner spoke. The image was dark, but there was no mistaking the voice. And they hadn't bothered to shut down the old communicators after the newer models came out. Cloak would have responded, but the transmission was one-sided only. He did not really understand the logistics of it.

"Malice,"Cloak said, gnashing his teeth at the word.

"Who else?" Saffa asked, rhetorically and tonelessly.

"I know my Arachnoid 'friends' had succeeded in poisoning one of your filthy little Dweller pals. She was rewarded handsomely for it." Malice droned, as if she was deliberately trying to do a Ben Stein impression. She held a vial of greenish goo with a luminescence that one associates with radioactivity up in the choppy image. "I have the antidote for the venom. You can have it . . . for a price."

"Oh, big surprise." Abby said.

"Probably wants us to turn over the forum." Underseen said shrewdly. Although, the actual transforming into a shrew was unnecessary.

"The price is one hundred humans," Malice said. "Young, healthy humans -- or any creature of flesh, will do, I suppose. But a hundred of 'em. Gotta feed my friends, you see."

She laughed a laugh as malicious as her name. The RAFians were surprised at this, wondering why she would want such a thing.

"You're probably wondering why I'd want such a thing." Malice said, voice cruel, like Mark Hamill's Joker. "Well, let's just say that I want to see Cloak squirm when given a Solphie's choice."

Then the broadcast ended.

[redtailedsaffa]

Malice is getting creepier by the day.