Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Parker, it didn't hurt.  Just the gesture smarted a little.  I suppose I should have put "Hey", but well, there you go.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Hunger

Back at the bay, Horse stirred.  She suddenly dived in the bay and swam out to sea!  Her last words were "sooo hungry . . . food . . . need food . . ."

"No, Horse!" Guy called.

Then a sudden noise, and Cloak leapt up and deflected tank missile into the bay causing a considerable geyser.  Cloak could not see their threat through his eyes, but turning to his Earthsight, he "saw" a massive machine that only vaguely resembled a tank, but it "appeared" to have six large ATV wheels.  But Cloak had a very strong sense that it was a military vehicle.

Parker readied himself, straightened out his helmet, and aimed his Megatron/Galvatron fusion cannons in the direction that Cloak was staring with quiet intestity.

"Wait -- we have a significantly bigger problem!" Gaz pointed out.

"Well, at least you recognize the situation, subhuman." a deep, condensendingly haughty voice said.

"Ol' Loose Cannon," Parker said.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT, YOU TRAITOR!" General Cannon said, stomping out of the brush.

"I'm no traitor, Cannon," Parker said, clearly incensed.

"No?  You're rubbing shoulders with monsters, aliens, and . . ." he glares at Cloak and Gaz.  "subhumans."

Cloak bared his teeth in a feline snarl.  Gaz, however, had far more decorum than to be offended at the slur.

"Forget him, guys.  We have more PRESSING matters to attend to," Gaz attempted to remind them.

"You and Guy go after her," Cloak said, barely repressing a growl.  His tail was thrashing agitatedly, and he was haunched over as if prepared to pounce and rend the general with his own claws.

"Yeah, Cloak and I've got this," Parker agreed, his helmet's visor flashing dangerously.

Gaz heaved a deep sigh, and exclaimed quietly, "Boys!"

"Hey!  I'm a boy too, you know!" Guy protested.

"Yeah, I know," Gaz said as they left.

[Cloak]

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Trolls and Misnomers

Ash sat atop the ceiling, considering her options.  She could crawl up one of the scientists' pants leg . . . but decided against it, deciding it was far too gross.

She could shapeshift into something massive and either knock them out or scare them away.  But the later could raise an alarm, and she really didn't want to hurt them.  But it was still a viable option, but she decided to save it as a last retort, er, resort.

She could shapeshift into something super-swift, like a Garatron or XLR8, and snatch the exoporon, then flee.  But the door was shut, so that would be a no-go.

The other options?  She couldn't think of any.  She knew that she would have to make her decision soon.  Horse was getting bigger and bigger, as she knew from her last briefing.

But the choice was eventually taken out of her hands.  Three large, hairy and quite smelly trolls broke down the western-most wall of the warehouse.  They terrorified the scientists out of the room.  Ash had to act now!!

"Where pretty rock?" one said in a deep, gutteral voice.

"Wow, a two-syllable word, you must be tired." Ash said, quickly shapeshifting into a Triceratops.  Holding the sample in her mouth, she plowed through the trolls as if they were traffic cones.

Then she shapeshifted into a golden eagle, transferring the exoporon to her newly forming talons.  Then she took to the sky, leaving the trolls screaming and roaring in rage.

"Ash to RAF, Ash to RAF!" Ash said to her communicator.  "Mission accomplished."

[Blazing Angel]

Sweet. We got it!

[Cloak]

That was the easy part, Blaze.

[Gaz]

Great stuff! This is fun to read.

[Cloak]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Rockin' Out

Cloak and Parker stood steadfast.  Loose Cannon was yelling at his men to fire, but Parker's armor was sufficient enough to deflect the bullets.  Cloak's energy shield was more than sufficient.

"Pathetic, General." Cloak snarled.

"Don't you DARE to speak to me, you subhuman Fido!!"

Calling any cat a "Fido" . . . well, this is pretty much the ultimate insult.  This is what drove Cloak into his spiel, "You holier-than-thou dolt.  You have no idea with the powers in which you're meddling.  The elements themselves are nothing more than mere playthings to me!"

Beneath his helmet, Parker smirked.  He knew that Cloak was just blowing smoke, trying to intimidate this arrogant general.

"My question is how you ever rose to the rank of general," Parker said, rather more coolly than Cloak, "when your crimes against other species -- hell, other RACES -- is quite well-known.  Or at least I thought they were."

General Cannon's face became the color of drywall.

"Oh, don't they know?" Parker said.  "That farm couple, that young boy, and those tax collectors that you slaughtered under the pretenses of them being -- what was it?  Oh, yeah, 'home-grown terrorists'.  Using the war to justify your slaughter of innocent people of Middle Eastern decent.  Tsk tsk tsk!"

"You will be silent!  They were terrorists!" he raged.

"How is an eighteen-month-old a terrorist?" Parker asked, pleasantly.

"KILL THEM!!  KILL THEM BOTH!!"

"Fool," Cloak sniped, "only a Realm Walker can kill a Realm Walker, everybody knows that."

"Shut your snout, subhuman filth."

That's when the tank-ATV hybrid fired again.

***

Ash had arrived at RAF and delivered the sample to the four hands of Yarin, who lead Goom and Aquilai to his lab.  They began to fire off multiple questions and statements, so their voices tended to overlap each other.

But they agreed that they shouldn't use all the sample, just in case their first valiant attempt at an antidote failed miserably.  So they have backup sample, so to speak, because Ash made it perfectly clear that this was the only sample in the military warehouse.  There wasn't anymore.  Not even in Yarin's farfetched microwave.

"FOOD YIELD INCREASER!!!!!"

Okay, okay, sorry Yarin.

Not even in Yarin's Food Yield Increaser.

***

"There she is!" Gaz pointed.

Horse was somehow moving through a city street, she seemed to be riding small glacier of ice and water.  However, this tended to cause tremendous property damage.

"FOOD . . . NEED FOOD . . ."

"She's growing taller by the minute!" Guy gasped.  "That's why she's so hungry!"

"Not to mention what a PR nightmare this is gonna be," Gaz said, a valiant attempt at a joke.

"That's not funny, Gaz," Guy said, quite seriously.

Suddenly, powerful strums of a large guitar was heard quite audibly.  The two turned toward Seal, and blinked furiously.

"Where'd she get an electric guitar?!" Guy exclaimed.

"Never mind that!  How is she playing it?!" Gaz commented.

Then Horse dropped the neon guitar, saying, "FOOD . . . NEED FOOD . . ."

[Blazing Angel]

That's a kuttle bit awesome 0_0

[Gaz]

I'm trying to imagine a giant seal playing a giant guitar....that's an interesting image. Lol

[Darth Revan]

She'd more than likely just be slappin' a bass. Bow chicka-wicka wicka-wicka.

[Cloak]

But it was one of those Hard Rock neon guitar things, like in "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid".  Of course, this is more "Honey, I Blew Up the Seal".  Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Blaze's Mistake

Back at the forum, Goom, Aquilai, and Yarin were feverishly working on a cure for the unstable growth of Horse.  Blaze had dragged a television into the lab, so they could see if the news media caught wind of Horse's, uh, rampage.  They had nothing yet -- although Fox News apparently were focusing on some nonsense thing in an obviously biased way.  Blaze quickly changed the channel, then went down to the cafeteria.

"-- maybe a couple ccs of methyl zoodeitite?"

"No, that would just make her break out into purple and black polkadots!"

"Okay, that wouldn't be good."

"How about crushed fireflower petals?"

"No, that would inflame her . . . her . . . her everything."

"I withdraw the question."

"Perhaps, an infusion of anima ether?"

"That should work."

Soon, Blaze returned with an overlarge ice cream sundae.  The other three didn't look up, so intent they were on their work.  They didn't even notice when Blaze started to hover behind them.

"There.  The cure is complete." Goom declared.  Then added hastily, "We think."

But Blaze, jarred by this sudden pronouncement, accidentally sloshed some of his melted ice cream into the cure solution.

"Oopsie."

"BLAZE!!!!"

[Blazing Angel]

How is that a mistake? We can give seal the cure in a delicous nutricous sunday rather than an overly large needle.

[Cloak]

Who said anything about a needle?  Oh, it seems to be a mistake for now -- because it altered the cure's chemical formula -- it wasn't capsulated yet.  Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Even Bigger Problems

"She's as big as Central Park now!" Gaz exclaimed as she and Guy continued to give chase to Horse.  It's amazing how much ground she could cover at this size.

"And she's still growing." Guy noted.  "They better have made that cure, and fast."

Horse slowed, picked up a telephone pole, and . . . and . . . and . . . used it to pick her teeth.

"HORSE!" Guy shouted reproachfully.  Horse appeared not to hear her brother.  But now a great deal of people will be without landlines.  But how many would notice with the prevalence of cell phones and whatnot?  Then Horse began to toddle onward.

"HORSE!"

"Guy, she can't hear you.  She's too big.  You're gonna make yourself hoarse." Gaz said, trying to soothe Guy.  She failed.

***

Meanwhile, Parker and Cloak failed to maintain Loose Cannon's attention.  He started taking his envoy back into the city.  Cloak and Parker attempted to intercept, but it was remarkable how quick they were.

"Parker!  Activate the Spider Ride Armor!!" Cloak instructed.

Suddenly, a shell of ammunition or something came their way, and Cloak just barely had time to use his ferrokinesis to deflect it.  But that sycamore will never look the same again.

Parker activated it, and the eight metallic legs nimbly covered the ground.  Cloak hitched a ride at the back -- ferrokinetically adhering himself to it.  Parker and Cloak wasted no word as they hurried back.

***

The three managed to synthesize more cure and encapsulate it, after they sent Blaze to the training room.  Blaze didn't see what the big deal was -- he thought the ice cream-laced cure looked better than the awful gray concoction the three made.

But they encapsulated the ice cream-laced cure, anyway.  But they did it absent-mindedly, without realizing what it was.  Then they take both pills (which were the size of sinks) with them to go to the city were Gaz and Guy were.  But it would take them little more than an hour, hour and a half to get there.

[Cloak]

'Nother chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Two Cures and a Loose Cannon

Cloak and Parker were having difficulty keeping up with the General and his military envoy.  That didn't mean that they didn't try.

"Hurry, Parker!" Cloak urged.

"Don't be a backseat driver!"

"I can't be one -- you don't have a backseat."

"Hardy har har."

They were at the city limits now, but the envoy had long since past this.  But they were clear of the trees now.  Using the Spider Ride Armor was no longer really useful.  Parker noticed this and hesitated for a moment before switching to the Hawk Ride Armor, and then flew the rest of the way.

***

Meanwhile, Goom, Aquilai, and Yarin had just barely made it to Guy, Horse, and Gaz.  Yarin was hefting both pills himself, holding them like footballs.

"Thank God," Gaz said, "hurry up and spray her with the cure!!"

"I'm afraid," Goom stated, "that ingestion is the only way."

A beat of silence.

"You mean she has to eat it?" Guy asked.

"Yes," Aquilai said.

"Why couldn't you synthesize it in a spray?" Gaz asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, perhaps we should run ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE LAB and resynthesize the cure into a form adequate for a spraybottle!" Yarin snapped.

"Okay, okay, geesh." Gaz said.

"Whatever do, you guys had better do it quick!" a voice shouted from above.

It was Cloak, Parker, and, coming in from the other direction, Blaze.  Cloak was the one who spoke.

"Yeah, Loose Cannon is coming closer!" Parker agreed.

The trio landed, and Parker deactivated his Hawk Ride Armor.  They saw the other five dash to Horse, who was starting to tottle off again.  They were attempting to coax her to look at them.

Meanwhile, Parker, Cloak and Blaze began battle with the General Loose Cannon.  It was here that Parker started to suspect that the General may have been acting outside the law . . . taking matters into his own hands without the government's okay. . . .

[Gaz]

Great chapters!

[Cloak]

Thanks, Gazzy, I'll probably wrap up this book tomorrow -- and I admit, I'm eager for the next one.  Although . . . beyond the next one, I'm out of ideas . . .