Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

I guess you'll have to wait until we get there, to Book LXXIX, to see what I mean then. In the meantime, I've got four more book ideas. I hope I didn't rehash anything.

• Book CCCXXXIX: "Dial-A-Monster" -- An old enemy creates a Monstrotrix.
• Book CCCXL: "The Lazy Laser" -- The RAFians must cope with a laser beam that causes those affected to become lazy.
• Book CCCXLI: "Dial-A-Parasite" -- A device is reformatted into a Parasitrix.
• Book CCCXLII: "An Unlikely Army" -- The RAFians must deal with a old enemy who is amassing an army, and who has an enemy of his own, unknown to the RAFians.

Again, hopefully, these aren't rehashes. I will admit, it is tough not to run into that hazard with 342 book ideas. Granted, I could always turn these books into follow-ups of those books if they are rehashed . . .

New chapter . . . sorry for the delay.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Amnesiac Amenities

Cloak watched as Kelly tried to use her healing powers on the three. He knew that it wouldn't work -- once something is taken, they can't just spontaneously regrow precisly identical to the first. Even had her healing powers worked, Az, Faerie, and Sakki would not be the same people that they knew. Not really.

There might be documented accounts of people coming back from amnesia as exactly the same person, but Cloak doubted it. That's a soap opera cliche, and an overused one at that. There was only one solution, as far as he saw. But he didn't say it, because he didn't like it. But they had to act quickly.

"Kelly," Goom said. "I don't think it's going to work."

"You're right," Kelly said, ruefully. "I guess I've become accustomed to being able to heal anything. . . . Except Arachnoid venom."

"Maybe we can remind them of who they are," Goom said, somehow setting up a film projector. Cloak had given up asking how a Goomba could accomplish these things.

"Pootang shorts, RAFTA-shows,
Infinity bling, Horse's bros,
Horse is unwell, Cloak epic fails,
Whacking trolls, that monorail,
Mr. Guy, poorly paced,
Maul Demos makes,
Shadow's future, Ash's hubby,
Queen too proud, the Knight's too chubby,
Cloak worries about RAF today,
KitsuneMarie, E2, RAF is okay,
Hippies, Vegas, and Japan,
That boy band,
Jess murmurs, who croaks?
Someone's Buddhist, and Shadow pokes,
Horse blows Pootang away!
What else do I have to say?!
They'll never stop RAF.
Have no fears,
We've got stories for years.
Like Horse becomes a robot.
Maybe Pootang gets a cell phone.
Has Jack ever owned a bear?
Or how about a crazy RAFwedding?
Where something happens and
Doo doo doo doo doo.
Have no fears,
We've stories for years . . ."

Nothing. No recognition, nothing.

Cloak left, feeling that he bore witness enough. There was only one way to get their memories back, and Cloak will deal with his guilt later.

"Uncle, what happened?" Shadow had asked.

"Come, Shadow," Cloak said. "We need to get Yarin. We need to go to the SMB-3 Nebula."

[Cloak]

'Nother chapter. I need the stress-relief.

CHAPTER SIX:
No Other Choice

"The what nebula?" Shadow asked, as they approached Yarin and Abby.

"The SMB-3 Nebula." Cloak repeated, then addressed Yarin, "We need to go there, and we need you to pilot."

"Why?" the Nyac said with mild surprise.

"Because that is where Letheterra is rumored to be." Cloak said. He expounded on this when he met their blank faces, "The theoretical home of the mnemoraptors."

"You want to chase a rumor? I though Goom and Kelly were going to fix those three." Abby said.

"Why try to fix something that's not there?" Cloak said, rhetorically. "It's the only shot. We have to go retrieve the memories from those mnemoraptors."

"Uncle, Letheterra and the mnemoraptors are just a children's story," Shadow interjected.

"Shadow, Faerie, Sakki, and Azguard are in that condition because seven mnemoraptors came here and took their memories." Cloak said, primly. "If they exist, then, logic follows, so does Letheterra."

"While I cannot argue with that logic, Cloak, there is still one problem." Yarin said. "I do not know where this nebula is."

"I have the rough coordinates," Cloak said.

"You do realize how big space is, right?" Abby asked.

The question was rhetorical, but Cloak answered enimatically, "Bigger than you realize."

"In any case, if it does exist," Shadow said, still a little doubtful of her uncle's assertion, "I doubt it would be hard to miss. It is a nebula of bluish-red and bluish-green hues, after all."

"That's oddly specific," Abby noted, as they headed off to the ship, detailing the reason for their mission in a report to the mods.

***

They found the nebula easy enough, though it had the unmistakable air of intimidation, like anyone seeking it would be a fool. Like the nebula that the Pain Reliever sought out.

"See? I told ya," Shadow said, with a satisfied tone.

Cloak just smirked a bit, choosing not to remind her of how skeptical she was at the beginning. Though if he had, it would have been rather hypocritical of him.

"Okay -- you weren't kidding, Shadow." Abby said, with an appreciative whistle.

"Taking us in now," Yarin said.

"So Letheterra is the only planet in here, right?" Abby asked, as she realized this should have been a question she asked at the start.

Cloak and Shadow said nothing.

"God," Abby said, with slackened shoulders, "neither of you know for sure, do you?"

Again, they said nothing.

[redtailedsaffa]

Good to see you using the chapters for stress relief.

[Cloak]

It's when I'm not writing that there's a problem, usually.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
A Grass Land

"Still no change in their statuses," Abby reported, having contacted Goom.

"Don't expect to stay in contact with them, though. Remember we're going through a nebula. There is a strong chance that it will interfere with communications." Yarin said, conversationally.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know." Abby said, with a heavy sigh.

"And there's no guarantee that we'll reach it immediately. We might approach another planet instead." Cloak said, with arms folded imperiously.

"What?" Abby said.

Shadow looked sincerely perplexed. "You didn't think that Letheterra would be the only one did you?"

Abby didn't answer, though her face said it all. This was, in fact, her initial assumption. She cursed herself for being that shortsighted. But this exchange was quickly forgotten when they approached a planet with clouds, but it appeared to be all grassland.

"I'll take us in-atmosphere," Yarin said, matter-of-fact.

"It's all grass land?" Abby asked, skeptical. "What is this? 'Star Wars'?"

"I don't think this is Letheterra," Shadow said, as the looked around the landscape. There were a plethora of dog-sized tortoises ("grass tortoises"), suitcase-sized mushrooms ("chair toadstools"), and larger draconic turtles with spiked shells ("spiked shellheads"). And this was only a small snippet of the local wildlife -- and they were wildlife, as the highest level of sentience belonged to the spiked shellheads, and they were only semisentient, if that.

"It's more likely Faerumterra," Cloak noted.

"Do all the planets end in 'terra'?" Abby asked.

Cloak shrugged. "Maybe."

"And the planets are Digimon now." Abby sighed facetiously, shaking her head.

"Yarin, take us back out into orbit. The mnemoraptors aren't here." Cloak said.

"But we don't know that for sure." he argued.

"This is Faerumterra." Cloak said firmly. "They aren't here."

"What if there's a colony of them here? They obviously can survive space travel."

"According to the stories and legends, they breed very slowly," Shadow said, even bring out a book from her Cloak. She was just as much of an incurable bookworm, though she far more active than Cloak was at her age. "And they rarely, if ever, leave Letheterra."

"Then why did they?" Abby asked.

"I guess we'll find that out in due time as well." Cloak said, as they left atmosphere of Faerumterra.

[redtailedsaffa]

Abby sounds a bit like the kid in the back of the car going "Are we there yet?"

[Cloak]

Well, I am kinda using her for an audience surrogate, at the moment. . . .

• Book CCCXLIII: "Behind the Goomba" -- Delving into a possible backstory for Goom.

Remember all titles are subject to change.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Bone Dry Land

"They're waking up!" Kelly said, excitedly. Then looked visibly deflated when she saw that there was no flicker of recognization in their eyes. It was as if they just remembered to open their eyes, that their eyes could open.

"Don't take it so hard, Kelly." Goom said, soothingly. "They managed to remember this much. Perhaps, in time, they'll come to remember more."

"Not according to Cloak," Kelly said, miserably. She was starting to lament how useless her healing powers had seemed to become.

"Cloak would be the first person to tell you," Goom said, "that he can be wrong as easily as anyone else can be."

***

"And that's Tattooine." Abby was saying as swept down onto a desert planet.

"Looks more like Khoros, or Anur Khufos, or some mixture of the two." Cloak said, seriously.

"It's Deserterra," Shadow said, matter-of-fact.

A brief silence followed this pronouncement, as they observed skeletally thin turtles ("osteotortas"), animate cacti that reproduce like tapeworms ("animacacti" with "cacticephalus" sections), and sub-like radiation beasts ("solarcidals"). The dominate lifeform seemed to be a spiked-shell variant of osteotortas. All seemed to thrive in the arid environment, taking their water from their food. Only the spiked shell osteotortas seemed semisentient, nothing else did.

"Desert . . . terra." Abby said, slowly and skeptically. "You cannot be serious."

"What's wrong with Deserterra?" Shadow asked.

"It just sounds . . . weird."

"You know, 'Earth' might sound weird to aliens," Cloak pointed out benignly.

"I don't think the mnemoraptors would be here anyway," Yarin said, taking them off-planet. "I would think too arid for them."

Cloak nodded. "I concur."

"Onto the next planet then," Shadow said, returning to her book.

"This is gonna be a looooooong trip, isn't it?"

No one answered. It was a rhetorical question, after all.

[redtailedsaffa]

It does sound weird. Strange mixture of English and Latin.

[Cloak]

Well, according to Clea Translations, Latin for "desert" is "desertum", and "land" is "terram".

CHAPTER NINE:
It's A Wet, Wet, Wet World

"Coming up to the next world," Yarin said, his four hands working expertly.

"How'd Leera get here?" Abby said incredulous. "And I thought their continent was destroyed."

"I will admit that it share some resemblance to Leera," Cloak said, as Yarin took them in-atmosphere for a closer look. "But it also bears some resemblance to Piscciss."

"To where?" Abby asked.

"The homeword of the Picciss Volann and the Picciss Premann. Aquatic species." Cloak elaborated thoughtfully.

"It's Aguatopia," Shadow said, looking up from the book, and saw the creatures that skimmed the surface. The man-sized, semisentient frogs ("hominiranas"), small red fish with yellow fins ("sharkleapers"), large red fish with white fins and small eyes ("berthas"), the bleached-white squids ("blinkays") and their offspring ("demiblinkays"), bioelectic jellyfish ("zappers"), and spiked-shelled Archerons ("spiked covershells"), and a menagerie more that they could not see. "It's beautiful."

"How does it stay together, though. The atmosphere is a rather thin layer." Yarin said. "There is just one continent the size of a tri-state area, and the core. Neither are attached. The atmosphere itself should be insufficient to hold everything together."

"The core exudes a powerful magnetic field supposedly," Shadow said, consulting her book. "Which work in a complex conjunction with the atmosphere to keep the place in one piece."

"What book is that?" Abby asked.

"A book of myths and such. It was a hatchday present from Uncle Cloaky when I was three." Shadow said.

"A little advanced, dontcha think, Cloak?" Abby asked sardonically.

"Shadow has always been smart for her age," Cloak said, with an almost noncommittal tone. "Besides, I assumed it was more of a storybook than anything factual at the time. I did not think these planets existed."

He paused prudently, before admitting, "I was wrong."

"So," Yarin said. "What is the likelihood that the mnemoraptors are here?"

"This is Aguatopia, not Letheterra." Shadow said.

"Besides, I think the mnemoraptors would be a fairly isolated species. Aguatopia has too much biodiversity. Almost on par to Earth." Cloak said.

"Okay, then." Yarin said, leaving the atmosphere of Aguatopia. "Onto the next world."

[Cloak]

New chapter, a shirt one, and conceiving a new book idea . . .

CHAPTER TEN:
World of Giants

"Next wor-- oh my!" Yarin yelped.

There would be a reason for that. The next world was gigantic, massive, and, well, big.

"There can't be anything living on that thing," Abby said. "It's the size of Jupiter!"

Shadow flipped a page in her book, finding the article she was looking for. "It is Gigantoterra."

"That's lovely," Abby said, as Yarin took them into the atmosphere. "I'm still shocked this planet looks so Earth-like, being so huge."

They had to duck, dodge, and barrell roll from the gigantortaves (slow, flying turtles with avian wings that appeared as if they were superglued to their shells, which were the size of two Priuses) and parafungi (Paragoomba-like creatures with avian wings and minute, black legs like Arachnoids, which were the size of three fire hydrants). Down upon the ground there were shellheads (turtles the size of a couple of Volkswagen vans) with uglier, angrier, more violent, spiked variants.

"Yarin, take us back up to orbit." Cloak said, voice silkily quiet. "Now!"

"But what if they are here?"

"Don't argue with me right now," Cloak said. "It's only a matter of time before the more hostile turtle giants, the ones with the spiked shells, decide to attack us. We cannot afford to get this ship damaged by them!"

"You underestimate my craftsmanship," Yarin sniffed haughtily. Cloak had had hurt the Nyac's pride by suggesting that his ship had limitations, and could not literally do everything. It was an irrational response from a member of a very rational species. "The hull is protected by a similar technology to the Code Avalon and --"

"Save the lecture, Brain Boy, and do as Cloak says!" Abby snapped. "We don't have time to linger about!"

"Besides," Shadow added, "this isn't Letheterra. It's Gigantoterra."

"And the mnemoraptors are far too small to have originated from such a planet." Cloak added. "Gigantoterra is clearly a place that places emphasis on the phrase 'bigger is better'."

"Oh, fine. We're leaving," Yarin said, one of the spikeshells jumped up and snapped at the ship. But they were well outside it's range within minutes.

[redtailedsaffa]

We're going in circles...

[Cloak]

Dissatisfied?

Anyway, two new book ideas.

• Book CCCXLIV: "Horcrux Hunt" -- The RAFians must destroy twenty Horcuxes. But there is a catch.
• Book CCCXLV: "Dragon Dilemmas" -- Delving into Block's past, and just how he got frozen in that block of ice before he became a RAFian. . . .

Remember titles are subject to change. Let me know what you think.

[redtailedsaffa]

That is a freaking lot of Horcruxes. Who is this murderous individual?!

[Cloak]

Someone we haven't yet met in the series (i.e. current book), but has appeared before that book. He has a rivalry with a RAFian. That's all I can give without venturing into spoiler territory.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Sky High Boredom

Malice sat on the throne like chair where all the mnemoraptor queens sat, usually becoming rooted to the spot after "her" reign is secured. Malice would not grow rooted to the spot, as her Realm Walker physiology would not allow it. The seven currently existing mnemoraptors hovered around her, the newly brain-like ones being more aftive, actually possessing memories now, though not their own. They acted like they could remember, though unable to speak, but this was a ruse. The act of taking memories did not enable them to make their own.

Anyway, Malice sat with her head resting on her right palm, legs crossed. Her expression said it all. She was bored. She was aggitatedly, aggravatedly bored. The mnemoraptors were not scintillating conversationalists and she had sent both Ravager and Mega-Maul on an errand long before coming here, to the misty world of Letheterra.

"Oh, where are they?" she groused quietly to herself. The mnemoraptors only paid a minimal amount of attention to these irritated mutterings. Malice had obviously sent the mnemoraptors to RAF to steal the memories of the RAFians, and they mindlessly obeyed . . . er, eventually. They had returned, and Malice had expected swift action from the Dwellers and Cloak. She had expected them to come storming into the mnemoraptor palace . . .

No. No that was pushing believability beyond credulity. It wasn't a palace, though gleamed marble white and smooth, and full of soft blue light. The word "palace" inferred sentience, and these creatures had none. It was a hive. It was an opulent, comfortable sort of hive, but it was a hive nonetheless.

Malice remained disgruntled. It was as if Cloak and his Dweller friends neglected an implied invitation! Oh, how she seethed with this thought. "They should have been here by now!"

The mnemoraptors did not answer or respond. They were not the best sort of company.

***

"That could be it," Shadow said, as the came upon what appeared to be a planet of condensed clouds. There was no way of telling, just by looking at it, if there was a solid surface on it. "Or it could be Caeliterra. I'm not sure."

"We can go through the clouds and see, then," Yarin said.

"I feel like I'm on the Magic friggin' School Bus right now," Abby said, getting testy. Cloak surmised it was due to cabin fever. They plunged into the clouds seeing black, armored, flying beetles the size of football helmets, flying turtles the size of little red wagons, and fungi shaped like the Air Screw. But was a good while before they saw the barren core of the planet, being slightly smaller than Earth's moon.

At once, they knew this was Caeliterra and not Letheterra.

"Where is Letheterra?" Abby demanded. "It's like we're going around in circles!"

[Cloak]

New chapter, I think. If my Kindle Fire decides to behave itself.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Hoth and Cold

"And now we're at Hoth!" Abby sighed, seeing the next planet. It was rather like Hoth or Io, but Earth-sized.

"Glacieterra, actually," Shadow corrected in a demurred way.

"Yeah," Abby said, in a remarkable imitation of Doug Walker, as her eyes narrowed and her voice flattened, " I don't care."

There were man-eating plants on the surface, bouncy ball-like penguins, albino turtles, and . . . Goombas? Cloak thought his eyes must have decieved him. Goombas, here? No, it must have been just a similar species, a product of convergent evolution. . . .

And yet . . .

"I don't think we need to stay here," Yarin said. How could he of all people not notice the Goomba? He works alongside Goom whenever there was an antidote needed, or a device to be built. "Let's move on, shall we?"

Maybe Cloak was getting himself overexcited. It was like discovering a new evolution, Mega or otherwise, of a Pokemon. Or laying eyes on a species no one else has ever seen before. He must have simply mistook a native species for a Goomba. After all, there was just that one . . .

Little did he know the truth. . . .

***

"I'm gonna make a call," Goom said, addressing Kelly.

"To whom, if I may ask?"

"Cloak's team in the G-- the SMB-3 Nebula." Goom said. Kelly eyed him shrewdly. She knew that he was hiding something. She could have called him on it, but settled for letting it go for now.

"But how will you get the signal through that nebula?" she asked instead.

"Oh, I have my tricks," Goom said vaguely and enigmatically. It sounded as if he was deflecting the question.

Kelly eyed him again, but said nothing as the Goomba left. Goom was thinking about his past, a past he had, insofar, shared with no one.

[redtailedsaffa]

Oookay. This is an interesting new development.