Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Another chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Sterility and the Dinosaur

Dino landed on her feet, which she was thankful for. It was difficult for her to right herself when she is on her side. But she was disoriented enough to have to struggle to know if she was at her true size or her compacted form. The very notion of which terrified her, the not knowing.

She was also quick to notice how the floor felt beneath her considerably large feet. It felt unnaturally smooth and polished, as if her very feet were dirty when they were, surprisingly, not.

"Methinks Petunia Dursley is somewhere nearby." Dino croaked out. She didn't like the way that this made her voice sound and how very echo-y it was. The whole place had a feeling of sterility, lifelessness, and isolating. "Wherever this is, I don't like it very much."

She took a step and could actually feel the impact of her foot. Felt the vibrations that her foot's impact made in a way that seemed louder and more obvious than any moment before she became the nothlit her name implied.

"Don't care for that very much, either."

She continued, ignoring the impact sensations from her feet as best as she could. She was taking in as much of her surroundings that she could, but finding it only being flat, polished pristine, and metallic. It was like living in a Roboticized world. Dino found her self really despising the decor -- or, more accurately, lack thereof.

"Intruder alert!" came a robotic voice.

Dino, taken aback by the abject suddenness of it, recoiled. Then the alarm came and the revolving red lights were far more distracting. "Wha . . ."

"Intruder. Return to your pen." the same voice said.

"Return to my what?" Dino said, now more angry than puzzled.

"Inferior being, return to your pen."

"I will do no such thing! Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Gaze upon the form of a superior being, then, organic filth." said the voice.

Suddenly, before her, a figure rose from the floor. It was hard to determine if the guy was a Robotic Knight, a Perfect Machine King, a Tenkai Knight, or one of those unarticulated Transformer toys. The figure wore a smug look, which was made harder to read due to the lack of a mouth.

"Great. A technophile." Dino said, clearly unimpressed.

"Silence, worthless creature of flesh." said the robot, eyes burning red.

"And if I don't?"

"You will obey your master."

Dino laughed. She couldn't help it.

"I, SAL-H, am your master!"

"You, SAL-H, are deluded." Dino laughed.

"Silence, saurian beast!"

Dino glared at him and said, challengingly, "Make me."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Cross That Bridge . . .

Blue landed upon a dark blue Prius, and wasn't injured. However, he didn't like feeling so exposed. It went against his ninja instincts, as ninjas tend to prefer the cover of shadows. So he hopped down and crouched amongst the abandoned vehicles to collect himself and assess his environment.

It was about midday, yet the area was abandoned, cars left behind. There had to be a reason for this. Blue checked himself, and was relieved to discover he still had his ninja arsenal. He was afraid he might have lost them in the fall. From there he continued to assess his situation.

He was on a bridge over some brackish, black slime-like water, and the bridge stretched out into darkness on both ends. Yet the sky was a merry blue with narry a cloud in the air. Blue found this rather contradictory. And reason to be cautious.

He moved stealthily, sneakily, and deftly to a chosen side of the bridge, proceeding methodically forward, careful to stay out of sight. If he did this right, he might escape without anyone even realizing. It would be a testament to his ninja training.

FFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

Suddenly, the SUV that had been blocking him from view twisted and disintegrated. Leaving only a trailing vapor and scorch marks as any evidence that it had ever existed. Blue was perfectly fine however, though a bit nonplussed at how he was found out.

"Organic, I say, Organic," came the voice. It sounded like the Abridged Vegeta with the vocal mannerisms of Foghorn Leghorn. "Stop your hiding there and come with me."

Blue said nothing, but narrowed his eyes at the being before him. He wondered if he had time to reach for his ninjabo, as he took in the creature's appearance. It appeared to be Mummymon's so-called "human" form with the face of Jinzo. An elegantly disturbing visage.

"Are you, I say, are you deaf, Organic?" it said again. "SAL-C doesn't repeat himself."

"But he does evidently speak in the third-person," Blue muttered, not really paying attention. He was conceiving a way out of this mess, and merely hoping to distract SAL-C into letting his guard down.

"Now, now! We cannot have such disrespect for one's superiors, Organic!" SAL-C said. "Let's try that again now."

"'Superiors'?" Blue said, standing up straight and proud. He reached back and held the handle of his ninjabo. "Who are you to decide that? Who are you to decide who and what is superior or inferior?"

"I didn't, boy," SAL-C said, and Blue found himself hating him, "the Great SOMNUS has decreed it so. And the Great SOMNUS's word is law."

Blue quickly and adeptly unsheathed his ninjabo.

"We'll see about that," he said, voice dangerously quiet.

[Cloak]

Aaaaaaand another chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
Rationality

"Do not resist. Your efforts will prove futile." SAL-R said.

"You obviously do not know me very well." Cloak said, sending out a pulse of energy. But SAL-R absorbed some water to deflect it back at Cloak at twice its original strength. Cloak took the attack, felt the attack.

"Great. It knows Mirror Coat." Cloak said, snarkily.

"Be reasonable, cloaked one. You cannot win. Every attack you expend at me will only serve to hasten your own demise."

It would be true. Cloak could be killed, as since his own attacks would count as being from a Realm Walker. It was rather ingenius, he had to admit, though he was sure this was unintentional brillance by SOMNUS's stooge here. Cloak would not be able to just bludgeon his way through this obstacle. He had to think in order to get by this obstacle.

Fortunately, he was not a brutish brawler who thought of only force to win. He could strategize -- though he would be the first to admit that he wasn't the foremost strategist in existence, he could do it well enough to get by here.

"Do not struggle," SAL-R said, reasonably, though the request was thoroughly unreasonable. "There is no possible way that you can win. You have failed. You can do nothing. If you try to attack, you will get knocked down again and again until you stop or die. It would be a waste for energy, of effort."

Maybe if Cloak can get it talking, perhaps he could divine a weakness, a chink in the armor. True, SAL-R's defense seemed insurmountable. However, there were many things in his life that seemed insurmountable at the time. This was nothing more than yet another one of those moments.

"I know you're thinkig of a way to escape. There is none. You was your time." SAL-R tried to impress upon Cloak the futility of such an endeavor.

Then something clicked into place. It was so perfectly pieced together.

"I see."

"You finally see reason."

"No, I see that you are not an unique individual." Cloak said, standing up tall. "I see that you are nothing more than a part, an extension, a construct of SAL SOMNUS. His rationality, his reasoning. Hence the 'R' in your name."

"You grasp at straws."

"Your program flickers," Cloak said. "This must be a very good computer simulation. Near as good as the ones in the training room. But it's not real."

"Do not lie to yourself," SAL-R said, but his form flickered noticibly.

"Very believable," Cloak continued. "It came very close to fooling my Realm Walker, and my RAFian, sensibilities. But play time is done. I have things to do."

"NO!" SAL-R said, losing all pretense.

Cloak's Mark glowed brightly, and he used a Unity Blast to dissolve SAL-R destroying him utterly and the very swamp flickered and became a empty, featureless room with a treadmill track-like floor. But Cloak concerned himself with climbing upwards.

[redtailedsaffa]

Well. That was easy.

[Gaz]

All caught up! Good stuff, Cloaky.

[Cloak]

Glad, Gazzy.

Perhaps, Saffa, perhaps. But I want to end this book around Chapter 26 or so.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Contempt of Court

"Pootang dung!" Saffa spat. "I don't care what that idiot says. Mere existence isn't a crime! I have a right to exist, a god-given right!"

"The time for testimony has ended." SAL-I said impassionately. "Judgement will be passed."

"Like Hell, it will." Saffa snarled. Already she was growing larger, scales growing upon her skin as her hair retreated. A large barbed tail shot from her and whipped dangerously on the stand. Her forearms remained roughly the same thickness as they elongated, as her legs became more therapod in nature. Her hands cracked open as her fingers on each side dwindled into a single claw. Her feet cracked open, reddening into two large claws. Plated armor grew along her back as spikes began to protrude from od angles.

"Objection! Stop this now or we shall hold you in contempt of court." SAL-I protested, but in a very indifferent way.

"A little late for that," Saffa said as her face bulged outward into a near skeletal grimace, as her face became more and more red. Then she grew two more sets of arms and a secondary pair of legs. Her eyes lost their humanity and became the pitiless red eyes of a Tyrannopede. The forehead horn nozzle grew, completing the morph.

Saffa liked the Tyrannopede morph. It was strong, heavy and powerful. Certainly one of her stronger morphs. Its mind was wild and difficult to control at times, but never outside her control. It could take on Vaxasaurians, so it was no pushover.

"You are charged with additional charge of unprovoked metamorphosis." SAL-I said.

<Do you know what the meaning of 'unprovoked' is?> Saffa zaid, switching to thought-speak. <But I have really had enough of you, Sally.>

"You are not allowed -- get back on the stand!" SAL-I changing from impassioned to indignant.

<Oh, I think not.> Saffa said, lumbering towards SAL-I who was feeling intimidated. This was amplified when she let out the Tyrannopede's mighty roar. She saw this poor pathetic being for what it was, for what it embodied. <You represent SAL SOMNUS's impassion, his indignity.>

"You can't get away with this!" SAL-I said, launching into a tirade. But Saffa used the Tyrannopede's web-shooting horn to silence him. It was a testament to her experience with this morph, as the eyesight was more or less human. SAL-I tried to leave, but Saffa webbed him to the spot, as he manged to rip the web of his mouth, revealing himself to be a hologram. "You can't do this!"

Saffa turned her attention from him as she said indifferently, "So sue me," as she discovered a way out. The illusion flickered and died, after which she morphed back, following the way out.

[redtailedsaffa]

I like this morph.

[Cloak]

Right. And for anyone reading who doesn't know, this is a Tyrannopede:

The collar thing is not a natural part of its anatomy. It's the Nemetrix.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
That's Cold

"You can't fool me!" SAL-F squawked. "I know that you tremble at the sight of my demon penguins! You put on a brave front, but it's transparent. I know fear as easily as the back of my flipper!"

"Oh, eek." Az said, completely toneless and indifferent. He wore a heavy-lidded look that clearly said that he was unimpressed, not fearful. SAL-F seemed unable to recognize this fact. "Oh, the terror."

"Yes! Tremble at the terrible march of my demon penguin troops! Cower before their every mighty waddle! Dread every flailing flipper!"

Az couldn't help it. He was only human after all. He burst out in hysterical laughter.

"What's this?" SAL-F demanded, as if he did not know what laughter was. "What are these sounds you're producing? Are they high-pitched shrieks of terror?"

Az managed to get control over himself, just enough so he could choke out, "You don't know what laughter is? You're obviously supposed to be the embodiment of SAL SOMNUS's fearmongering -- hence the 'F' -- and you're completely inept at it!"

"Fool! I am fear incarnate!" SAL-F protested, but it came.off as pouting.

"No, that would be Parrallax." Az corrected. Then he lectured, "So you, in all honesty, thought that demon penguins were frightening? Well, let me tell you, you really missed the mark on that one, SAL."

"You'll regret your flippant lecture, boy!" the devil penguin squawked. The he put a flipper to his beak and somehow whistled. Suddenly, torpedo-like penguins filled the sky and plummeted down to Az's position, only to be met with a wall of ice that obscure where Az was. It shattered upon the contact with the explosive penguins.

"What the -- " SAL-F uttered.

A voice from behind him said, "We RAFians aren't so easy to dispatch."

SAL-F spun around and his very form flickered. He found Az standing behind him, holding a shard of ice the size and rough shape of a stake.

"Or detain." Az added, as he charged. But the whole area vanished, as if it was never there. Az casually assessed this. "It wasn't real. How come I'm not particularly surprised?"

Then he made his way out.

[redtailedsaffa]

It's a bit like everyone found themselves in a training sim room again.

[Cloak]

New book ideas. I think.

• Book CCCXLVIII: "Mindscape" -- An altruistic boy uses a Psycho Portal to help people deal with their mental cobwebs, figments of their imagination, emotional baggage and the like.
• Book CCCXLIX: "M'arillian Incursean" -- The RAFians must deal with a M'arillian invasion of Earth.
• Book CCCL: "Die Danians" -- The RAFians must deal with the Danian Parasites.
• Book CCCLI: "What If . . . ?" -- A retrospective book (after 350 books, I think this could justify a retrospective book, thoug not the last book of the series) detailing several "what if" scenarios" through the series. There may be more "what if" books down the line.

Don't think I rehashed anything, but, if I did, I think I can work around it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
[Censored]

"Now, now. That's not good." SAL-C said, seeing Blue's unsheathed sword. "That's too inimitable. Let's go for something a little better."

Now, Blue was confused. "What in the world are you talking -- "

Suddenly, Blue's ninjabo was a comically large meatball sub. Blue blinked a moment before realizing that it was nothing more than a hologram that had been projected over his ninjabo. He could help but feel a little relieved. He liked this sword.

"Come now, you're not believing!" SAL-C chided in a most irritatingly condescending way. "You don't have a sword now. It's a sandwich."

"No, it isn't." Blue said. The projection of a sandwich flickered and dissolved.

"Fine, then. How's about we just edit it out then?" SAL-C said, and Blue's ninjabo appeared to vanish instantaneously. But Blue could feel the handle quite solidly in his grip. He easily broke through the apparent "white-out effect" that SAL-C apparently had cast over it. "You know, boy, this would, I say this would go on a lot easier if you'd just cooperate."

"Cooperate? With you? My would-be jailor?" Blue said. His voice was soft and subtle, but it concealed a great amount of sheer irritation and annoyance.

"No, boy, your, I say, your current jailor."

Blue, despite himself, laughed. "You cannot even convince me enough to see my own weapon as what you wish. You have insufficient will. Your arrogance and ill-concieved sense of superiority has deluded you into believing yourself to be stronger than you actually are."

"How dare you --" SAL-C said, dropping the facade of pleasantness. But Blue continued, talking over him.

"I see you for what you are. You embody SAL SOMNUS's censorship. You aren't his censor, but the one he uses to censor everyone else. If I didn't know any better, I'd call you 4Kids."

"You insolent little --"

"Are you done? I have places that need to be. Places I much rather be, right now."

SAL-C fire his.optic blasts, but Blue easily deflected them with his ninjabo blade as if they were jets of water. Blue was not intimidated at all, but bored and unimpressed, now that he determined the truth. Blue began to walk, blatant and cavalierly past SAL-C. When SAL-C tried to attack him, his head and body parted company as Bkue sheathed his ninjabo. The illusion flickered, then died.

[redtailedsaffa]

You could make the "what if" books a periodic thing, considering how many situations and RAFians are there.

[Cloak]

True, but chances are there won't be another "what if" book until Book DCCI (701). Because I am gonna try to encompass as many "what if" scenarios to Book CCCLI as I can think of (only being a single chapter or two long).

I got the idea from the "What If . . . ?" comics of Marvel. If any reader has an idea for one, P.M. me. So far (from a while ago) only Underseen has sent me an idea . . . which might be spun off into a full-fledged book instead, or not.

I would post another chapter, the penultimate for this book, but I really need to go to bed.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
Imperfect Hatred

"I said silence, beast!" SAL-H snarled.

"And I said," Dino countered, "make me."

Then Dino slammed her tail absently and accidentally into the wall, which bent to force of the blow, and cracked, and splintered. There was a very obvious impact point upon what had once been painstakingly smooth, shiny and clean. The futuristic facade was lost apparently because of how it easily it buckled beneath the impact.

"Watch what you are doing, you stupid beast!" SAL-H scolded scornfully.

"I'd watch my mo-- . . . oh, wait, you do not seem to have one. My mistake." Dino said, this time making a deliberate strike on the adjoining wall.

"Watch it!"

"Oh, I am." Dino said, in a bored, indifferent voice. She watched as she made a third strike.

"Stop this now!"

"Stop what?" Dino said, feigning ignorance rather unconvincingly, deliberately making another blemish against the wall, so it wasn't remotely smooth anymore.

"Hear me, beast!" SAL-H said, unbridled hatred in his voice. "You will stop these stupid shenanigans right this moment and return to your pen!"

"Naw, I don't think that I will." Dino said, rather bored and unimpressed with everything that was going on. She hadn't anticipated that SAL-H would devolve into such a whiny, wimpy crybaby like this.

"Do as I command!"

"And, if I refuse?"

This seemed to stymie him a bit, but he went back to the reflexive, "Do as I command, beast!"

"And what will you do to make me?"

Stymied again.

"Honestly, I've seen far more frightening and intimidating representatives of Hate than you -- yes, yes, I know that you are SAL SOMNUS's hate given life." Dino lectured, becoming aware that she was, in fact, in her compacted form. "All in all, it is rather disappointing that you'd turn out such a boorish, wimpy, whiny --"

"Stop it!" SAL-H protested, but Dino continued without interruption.

" -- childish, meek, little man. I will not go to any pen. I do not have to listen to your petty little demands. I. Am. Leaving."

She turned around, and began taking large therapod steps to the nearest exit.

"No! Go to your --"

SMACK! SAL-H just got up and personal with Dino's tail. And it smashed him to pieces with one smash.

[Cloak]

Last chapter of Book 64.

I think due to the fact I use Roman numerals, that I didn't originally think "Memoirs" would go on this long. Or, for that matter, be so vital in the reduction of my innate anxiety. I'm glad it has. There are gonna be several intresting books in the future, but I won't spoil anything. Saffa would kill me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX*:
Shell of a Machine

There was loud boom as Cloak exploded from his room into SAL's throne room. Another two booms indicated Dino and Saffa (in Tyrannopede morph) burst into the room.  A circular spot on the floor crusted over with ice and shattered when Az punched it, shielding his eyes from shrapnel. In the last apot, a blade was stabbed through the smooth metal disc that blocked the trapdoor. The blade moved in a rough circle in a single stroke of the ninjabo, and it opened like a can. Blue leaped out, landing soundlessly several feet away.

"That was interesting," Az said, dusting off the small bits of shrapnel from his shoulders, as Saffa began to demorph. "But SAL, you really have to much -- what's wrong with him?"

They looked at SAL, but he didn't respond. He didn't react to any stimuli apparently. For all intents and purposes . . . he looked . . .

"He's . . . dead?" Saffa asked. "How could that happen? I just took out his impassion!"

"I took out his rationality," Cloak said.

"Hatred," Dino said, seemingly dawning on something. "The one I had was Hatred."

"Censorship," Blue added.

"Huh, I didn't --" Dino began to protest, mistaking Blue's message.

"No, that was the SAL I fought. Censorship."

"I fought his fearmongering side," Az asked. "He wasn't very good at it. Thought demonic penguins were scary."

"Wait," Saffa said, looking at Az as if she was sure she hadn't heard him properly. "Demonic penguins?"

"Yes, demon penguins. Like I said, not particularly smart."

"So, five different sides of his personality represented in each of the custom-made illusions." Cloak said thoughtfully. "Rationality. Fearmongering, or instilling fear. Impassion. Hatred. Censorship. These must be the five major components that made up SAL SOMNUS. When we destroyed him, assuming that they weren't real, we actually destroyed that aspect of him. Elimating it from his being without either party realizing it."

Cloak gazed at the husk of SAL SOMNUS. His eyes were blank, black, and vacant. He remained motionless, cold as ice. Cloak could tell, via Earthsight, that the hulking mass was immobile. Not so much as a spark of in it . . . and yet . . .

"So . . . we killed him?" Az asked, in a small voice.

"I don't understand. SAL SOMNUS obviously murdered those people, and that Utrom, but . . . I'm feeling sorry for killing it." Saffa said, with a slight perplexed look upon her face.

"It's not a way anyone would want to go," Blue said, solemnly. "But we had little other recourse."

"We did what we had to do," Dino said. But it was clear she had a sense of guilt for it, too.

SAL may have been a machine, but he was a sentient machine. Did he have a soul, one that was twisted into what he had become? Blue and Dino was right. The five RAFians were left with littlw option.

And yet . . . yet, something tugged at Cloak's gut. Something that told him that appearances may be misleading. Could he trust this rather hasty assessment he made? Would it come back to bite them in the butt?

"What about his body?" Az asked. "What do we do with it? Do we destroy it or . . . or . . . or . . . I dunno."

Cloak said nothing. He was unsure of the proper way of doing this. Could that body present them a problem in the future?

"Blue?" Cloak said. It wasn't a request, and the ninja knew precisely what Cloak was asking of him.

"On it." the ninja replied.


*My Kindle's dictionary apparently didn't recognize "twenty-six" as a word. Fortunately, I turned AutoCorrect off -- more hassle than it's worth.

[Cloak]

Starting the new book.

BOOK LXV:
PRODIGY AND COMPOSITE
CHAPTER ONE:
No One Has To Be Alone

After the events with the whole SAL SOMNUS debacle, Cloak isolated himself. But brooding always had a habit of opening old, and sometimes forgotten, wounds for him.

Cloak always had a habit of unnecessarily brooding over things -- past failures, his victimization of wrongdoing by others, and such. It was not healthy, not even for a Realm Walker. Yet, he always fell into this trap of isolating himself from his friends, his surrogate family.

These were the times that Cloak felt alone in his suffering -- self-inflicted suffering by simply reliving the past wrongs. It is a trap, one that Cloak always bumbles into when he is confronted with a setback.

The RAFians who knew him best knew that this was a warning sign. That he would eventually crash into an emotional crisis if he continued. They cared enough about him to not let this come to pass.

Dino, Aquilai, Saffa, Noelle, and Gaz found Cloak brooding in solitude, in a dark corner of the forum. They tried to conjole him as he sat on his haunches, vaguely wondering if anything was worth anything, if he was worth anything.

Dino sang, gently:

"No one has to be alone,
In this forum we live in.
You don't need to feel
There's no one by your side.
Everything you see
Is a gift you're given.
Anywhere is home
And no one has to be alone."

Noelle added:

"There's so much around us.
There are friends yet to find."

Cloak glances over his shoulder toward the others, but doesn't move. He was always so infuriatingly fatalistic, and he was aware of this facet of himself, but could not control it. He always had a propensity for extreme pessimism.

Gaz continued, coaxingly:

"There are dreams yet to be discovered.
And dreams to leave behind."

Dino picked it up from there:

"All the wonders above us.
And splendors down below us."

All five sang:

"There is so much more to everything
Than we can ever know."

Then the five ushered in a new person, the one person that could possibly get Cloak out of this funk. Shadow. She sang:

"You don't have to be afraid
Of being lost and lonely.
Everything you need
Is right before your eyes.
Each bright and shining day
Is waiting for you only
To make this forum your own.
And you'll never be alone.
Remember, Uncle."

The other five chimed in with her.

"No one has to be alone."

Cloak turned around toward Shadow, as she gave him a hug. It was a very non-Realm Walker thing to do. Realm Walkers tended to show affection at arm's length without words, but Cloak appreciated it just the same. He relflected yet again on how ironic Shadow's name is when she provides him with so much light. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

That was a good book. And here's the PDF.