Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

 New . . . ish book ideas!

• Book CCCLXXI: "A Graveyard Ghoul" -- An old foe comes back from the grave with a very ambitious scheme.
• Book CCCLXXII: "A Totem Token" -- The RAFians must destroy a stone with addictive properties.

BOOK LXIX:
DINOSAUR ISLAND
CHAPTER ONE:
The Nothlit Dinosaur!

Gaz was with some campers at a campfire, strumming a guitar -- or at least, it looked like a guitar -- while Laserbeak watched overprotectively from a sturdy branch from the oak nearby. He did not want Gaz to come here alone, so he followed her. But she had suspected that he would and was resigned to having a robot parrot for a chaperone.

As the kiddies gathered 'round, Gaz sang:

"Long ago on a thread top,
A mighty egg was laid.
Burned by the light
Of the circle bright,
And cooled by the forum shade.
Then one stormy evening,
When the icy rain did pour,
Out of the egg
Appeared the leg
Of the Nothlit Dinosaur!"

"SQUAWK!!" Laserbeak protested to this inaccuracy of Dino's origin. It was assumed she was an actual dinosaur nothlit, due to her full moniker.

"Oh, be quiet, Beaky," Gaz said, without missing a beat, as the kids looked around confused and curious. Gaz continued:

"Her neck was thick but limber.
Her shoulders broad and lean.
Her eye was as high
As the morning sky.
And her vision, they say,
It was keen.
She wandered strong and silent
Across the forest floor,
And everybody called her . . .
The Nothlit Dinosaur!
Dinosaur!
Her tail was quick as lightning.
Dinosaur!
Her heart was breave and pure.
Dinosaur!
Whenever times were frightening
Call her name and she'd be there for sure.
The Nothlit Dinosaur."

She strummed a little without singing, before launching into the next verse.

"One day when she was roaming,
Alone on an important quest,
A vicious pack of trolls came
And became a provocative pest.
She warned that pack of varmets,
Then fought them by the score.
She left them lying fleshless
And she gave a mighty roar.
Dinosaur!
She promised her protection.
Dinosaur!
To the helpless and poor.
Dinosaur!
Whenever ther was danger,
They'd never be defenseless anymore.
This, she swore,
The Nothlit Dinosaur.
Dinosaur!
Her tail was quick as lightning.
Dinosaur!
Her heart was breave and pure.
Dinosaur!
Whenever times were frightening
She'd stop that evil boor.
The Nothlit Dinosaur."

Gaz ended her song, then ushered the kids back off to bed, as another counselor person doused the fire. The kids loved her tales of RAFians for some reason.

[redtailedsaffa]

Haha, nice fourth wall break of sorts, considering Gaz is actually at camp now.

PDF of the last awesome book.

[Cloak]

Eh, Gaz had to be doing something between the Bucky book and this one. Remember, the last ws was outside of normal continuity.

New chapter. Might be a bit on the short side.

CHAPTER TWO:
Doctor-asaur*

Deep in the bowels of an abandoned laboratory, a lanky man worked. He was modestly tall with a somewhat thin frame. He had scruffy gray hair, which was balding, and a prissy, pretentious mustache design of the same color. He wore a pristine white lab coat with dark clothing underneath, and polished shoes. His name was Anton Retrofilius, although he called himself Dr. Anton Retrofilius. However, his credentials were dubious, to say the least.

He did have extensive knowledge in evolutionary biology and anatomy, with a working knowledge of engineering, genetics, and reverse engineering, but there was no proof he was professionally taught any of these skills. He could just be extensively self-taught.

Of late, he had grown a passion for dino DNA, ever since he watched "Jurassic Park III" and was absolutely outraged that the tyrannosaur lost to the Spinosaurus. He originally intended to clone two into existence to prove the fallacy of such a decision on the part of the movie makers. But, as he got into it, that goal was long forgotten.

He decided on a bit more extreme methodology. He would take the entire world back to the beginning. Yes, that is what he would do. He had pictures of the Darwin gun when that fool used it like a child's super soaker. So careless, so unaware of the greater good that could be accomplished with it.

He would remake the weapon. He would make the world better, he would rid this world of weakness. He would make the world stronger. Yes, everyone would thank him for it, too.

The scientific community thought his experiments were mad. That they were immoral. That they were impossible. He would show them. He would show them all!

Now he just needed was to complete his . . . his special little device, his little bang-baby**. He had only barely begun construction on it.

***

Meanwhile, in the forum, Dino was conversing with Gaz, when she shivered slightly and looked over her shoulder.

"Why'd you shutter just now?" Gaz asked.

"I don't know." Dino replied.

* Sort of a reference to "Dinosaucers".

** Yes, this is a reference, just not a dirty one. [spoiler]Reference source.[/spoiler]

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Nightmare at the Museum

"There is only on thing that I need now!" Retrofilius declared aloud, in a most Dr. Animo type of way. "All  I need is viable deoxyribonucleic acid from those mighty creatures."

With that he left for the Museum of Natural History, carrying with him a knife -- a dagger really -- made of bone. This was so he would get discovered by metal detectors, as that scanning tech that was in the airports a few years ago never really caught on beyond that.

He swept from his admittingly well-hidden laboratory.

***

"Wait, what?" Gaz blinked.

"You cannot be serious." Parker replied when he saw what Gaz saw.

There was a crowd in front of the museum. But this wasn't the big spectacle. It was smaller group of individuals in front of it. The signs of bright primary colors -- predominately red -- showed that this group were protesters. But protesters of what? What at a museum could people find so offensive that it would motivate them to organize a protest?

Then Cloak read the sign. He blinked, unable to believe it. He looked at Dino and back at the sign as if he coukd not believe that these people were such denial about the existance of dinosaurs. Cloak could not really fathom anyone being that stupid, especially because Dino is bona fide proof right here.

And he couldn't tell if the protesters were just creationism extremists, deluded stoners who believed dinosaurs to be a project of Hollywood and "the media man", or just plain losers with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon.

When Dino had read a couple of the signs, she said, "Huh. I don't know if I should find this whole futile protest offensive, in a speciesist sort of way, or funny. I mean, I am standing right here."

"This can't be legal," Cloak said. "They're barring entry into the museum. They may have the right to assemble, but they don't have the right to do that, no matter what 'rights' they think that they're entitled to."

A moment's pause.

"Yep. There come the police." Cloak said, having felt their seismic impressions and heard the sirens.

[redtailedsaffa]

Heh. Now I know what to do if I ever want to stab somebody on a plane.

[Gaz]

I'm actually all done with camp now.

Good chapters, cloaky!

[Cloak]

Saffa, you have a bone strong enough to survive that, and still be unnoticable? Retrofilius (get the reference for that name?) Carved his from a -- a -- well, I haven't decided yet. But it won't really -- oops, almost a spoiler.

And, Gaz, now we know what song you sang last when you there!

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
DNA or Bust!

Anton Retrofilius had calmly walked through the chatoic mess that was the protesters, and easily strode into the museum. He went through the rather lackluster, lazy, and overly lenient security force. They all much rather have been sitting on their butts, but Anton knew better than to hurry them along. He had his dagger in his bag, in case the security team was up to scratch. He had not truly expected this security team to be so lax.*

They didn't pick up the dagger on the metal scanner or the x-ray machine (Anton had thought ahead and packed what would appear to be a lunch atop it. As it turns out, it was unnecessary. The guard didn't even pay very much attention to it. His supervisor wasn't here, so he thought he could afford to be lax about security.*

Anton went to each of the exhibits, and used a scanner whose sophistication was strangely uncertain. It looked to be of his own design, and somewhat cobbled together. The scanner was scanning for viable deoxyribonucleic scid, or DNA. Not just any DNA, dino DNA. Surprisingly, he managed to get some readings, but they had holes in the sequencing. But Anton was not discouraged, he believed that he could fill in the gaps with educated guess and further scans. . . .

He ruthlessly slayed a boy wearing a "DINO NERD FTW!!" shirt when the boy babbled on and on and on about his knowledge of dinosaurs. Anton did warn him to leave him alone, but boys that age do not know better, although his parents probably should have kept a better eye on him, but they lost track of him. And Anton was well outside the security camera range. He cleaned up his blade and quickly stowed back to his bag and walked on without a second glance.

When he was satisfied with his scans, he left. He just missed seeing Dino. He would have been estatic to meet her -- to use her in his experiments. Heck, he may even had wanted her to be his queen.

Yes, queen. Retofilius had decided to take up the ostentatious, pretentious moniker of "Dino Lord".

Meanwhile, the police were using the RAFians' help rounding up the rowdy protesters, who seemed to have forgotten their cause for even being there. The RAFians were instrumental of this not turning to a riot.

Some particular troublemakers did not care anything about the cause of the protesters, foolishly futile though it was, but only came to turn it into a riot. They were the sort of people who loved the anarchy and chaos. They didn't care anyone else got killed or injured in the crossfire. Those kind of people sickened Cloak.

However, the protest was ended peacefully, and these troublemakers made no secret of their intentions and were prompy arrested for trying to start a riot.

That's when the boy was found. Dead. Body cold to the touch.


*I must admit it. This is what campus security was like at my last job. They even locked me into a building once, without even bothering to check to see if someone was in there. I yelled at them for it, and he had the nerve to be angry at me for yelling at him (he tried to treat it as a joke, and I wasn't havjng none of that crap). Could be one of the reasons that I was fired.

[Cloak]

New, out-of-continuity book idea. Don't think I've done this one.

• Book CCCLXXIII: "Back to RAF" -- Cloak forbids his daughter, Melody, from Realm Walking. Out-of-continuity.

The title is subject to change. Anyway, new chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Da Bomb

Now the security guys decided to take their jobs seriously. And Cloak wasn't just going to let it slide.

"Are you going through these procedures because Dino and I are decidedly not human?" Cloak said. According to the security guard's expression, he mistook Cloak for a human eccentric in a cloak.

"No," he said, and Cloak could hear a definite something in his tone he didn't like. Cloak's seismic sense also told him that the guard was lying. He was a closeted speciesist. Cloak found himself not really liking this man.

"You're lying." Cloak said, deciding to call him up on it.

"I am not." he said, as if this would refute it. He was lying so obviously now that one didn't need a seismic sense to pick up on it.

"Yes. You are."

"You don't know that."

"I do."

"You can't know that for sure!"

"I can, and I do."

"Cloak," Parker said, with folded arms, head tilted in such a way to convey nonverbally how boring he was finding this exchange. "Do we really have to deal with this guy? We do have official RAFian business inside, as you know."

"True." Cloak admitted. "Let's go."

"Wait!"

"We are RAFians," Gaz said, her patience getting taut. It usually takes more than this for it to do that. "Read: government agents. Read: back the heck off or you'll find yourself buried so much legislation that you'll need the jaws of life to get out!!"

He let them go after that.

"Nice job, Gaz." Cloak said.

"Let's just hope that he isn't smart enough to actually look into that." she replied. "Now let's see what we could do to help."

***

Meanwhile, the "Dino Lord" had made it back to his laboratory and he was quickly cobbling something together. It looked like a blue winged Koopa shell that was either infected with the Technarchy or being controlled by a Galvanic Mechamorph. Atop this shell-like structure was something like a toy crank, or the crest atop a Chronosapien's head. There bits and bobs missing from the interior of the device.

He was working diligently, humming something that sounded like an off-key "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". He cold-bloodily didn't give the boy that he murdered a second thought. In the "Dino Lord's" mind the boy was just a minor obstacle that got in his way thwt he took care of. The man was incapable of empathy or love. He just saw the world as black and white, strong and weak.

It would be sad if he wasn't so heartless.

"Nearly, nearly done," he said to himself. "Soon. Soon I shall wipe away the dreadful weakness.of this world, and found a dino-topia!"

Yep. He was crazy.

[redtailedsaffa]

Yep, you definitely haven't done that one.

[Cloak]

Didn't think so. And I am conceiving a idea for a sort of mini-arc in the books . . . although it may seem repetitive. On the surface.

New chapter. Short one.

CHAPTER SIX:
Strange Vibrations, Self-Injections

"Finished." the self-stylized "Dino Lord" said. "The Gene Slam Bomb is complete and operational. All the DNA scans are uploaded and all is ready. All I need to do now is activate it with the push of a button."

His finger hovered over the button for a moment. Then he thought of something, he wanted to be the apex dino, the best of both dino, pterosaur and plesiosaur . . . and he had that injection that he forgot about when he came up with the design and implementation of the Gene Slam Bomb . . . it would make him truly the Dino Lord . . . more so than his improperly named Gene Slam Bomb, which was more of a wave emitter.

He injected himself with the greenish, purplish, reddish liquid. The results were almost immediate as his skin broke out into purplish scales, and his clothes began to rip among its seams. But before the transformation could proceed forward (his forehead broadened, his mouth widened as his teeth went from the wimpy human teeth to something stronger and more intimidating, his eyes got a sinister red glow), he pushed the button to activate the "bomb".

Imperceptible waves of energy emanated from the device, easily eclipsing the immediate area, as Retrofilius* had his transformation accelerated. The serum would also give an unprecedented amount of control over dinosaurs. And pterosaurs. And plesiosaurs. . . .

His hands expanded to match his now fully purple-scaled body, and reshaped into a three-fingered-hand, with one being opposable. Thick, strong claws sprouted from them and his feet went from the human plantigrade style to the saurian digigrade. A thick, therapod tail erupted from his backside as his feet lost the weak human toes and reemerged as saurian toes, each of the three ending in a thick claw, with a dewclaw on the inside of the foot. His face bulged out and he lost all his hair, facial or not, as his nose rounded out into the shape of a generic therapod's.

The transformation was done, and he was a generic theropod. An anthropomorphized theropod, but a generic one. He still retained his falculties, and his clothes, though they were torn from the stress of the transformation, but he was still dressed rather like Dr. Curt Connors when he became the Lizard.

All the might of a dinosaur, but with the intellect of a human. This was only a good combo in Dino.

And, all the while, the wave generator were sending out those mysterious, imperceptible energy waves, encompassing a larger and larger radius. Who knew what the possible ramifications of this would be?


*"Retro" + "-philius" (likes) = liking retro things, like dinosaurs, for instance.

[Cloak]

Now, what I call the "Moreau arc". You see why soon . . . okay, I'll be honest. It'll probably be about two years before you find out why. Maybe more.

• Book CCCLXXIV: "Project Waterworld" -- A man seeks to flood the planet after genetically-altering people into fish-people.
• Book CCCLXXV: "Project Hive Mind" -- A man seeks to genetically alter people into insects.
• Book CCCLXXVI: "Project Sky High" -- A man seeks to break apart the planet after genetically-altering people into bird-people.
• Book CCCLXXVII: "Project Muggle Extinction" -- A spellcaster seeks to eliminate all non-spellcasters in a way that most wouldn't realize.
• Book CCCLXXVIII: "Project Hell on Earth" -- A strange man seeks to bring Hell onto Earth.
• Book CCCLXXIX: "Project Fairy Form" -- A woman seeks to turn everyone into fairies.
• Book CCCLXXX: "Project Skin Deep" -- A man seeks to mechanize everything. And everyone. (Not through Robotization.)
• Book CCCLXXXI: "Project Hot Stuff" -- A man seeks to ignite Earth's moon.
• Book CCCLXXXII: "Project Purity" -- A man seeks to force everyone to evolve beyond a corporeal form.
• Book CCCLXXXIII: "Project Mind Growth" -- A man seeks to force everyone to tap into their psychic potential.
• Book CCCLXXXIV: "Project Wormy" -- A man tries to turn people into worms and wyrms.
• Book CCCLXXXV: "Project Toon World" -- A manchild tries to turn reality into a cartoon.
• Book CCCLXXXVI: "Moreau Raid" -- The RAFians raid the Moreau family island.

Remember all titles are subject to change.

Now, a new chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Reports Coming In

"What in the world . . . ?" Dino said, craning her neck upward, just as they arrived back at the forum. She saw nothing, but felt something. Something that was happening and it was not good. She turned to address Cloak, "Do you feel that?"

"Yes," the Realm Walker said. "And I see the slight green tinge that's oscillating on and off."

"I don't see anything."

"To be honest, I anticipated that. Realm Walker eyes are tough, if not downright impossible, to fool." Cloak said, as politely as he could.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I don't rightly know," he answered honestly and earnestly.

"Oh, wonderful," Dino said.

Meanwhile, Aquilai and Yarin were at communications and they were inundated with reports, strange reports that they could not make heads or tails of the --

A professional martial artist was becoming a red-scaled tyrannosaur.

A Navy Admiral was becoming a brown-scaled Allosaurus, as well as his young daughter and wife, while his rival was becoming a red tyrannosaur with black claws. Also his sister and three nephews were becoming pale yellow pachycephalosaurs.

A gymnast was becoming a pink pterosaur.

An engineer was becoming a light green Dimetrodon.

A manchiod prankster was becoming a dark red hadrosaur.

A nerdy high school student was becoming a blue Triceratops.

A baker was becoming a bluish-gray Apatosaurus.

A thug was becoming a gray brachiosaur with gold highlights.

An Army General was becoming a silvery monochromatic brachiosaur.

A police officer, walking his beat, was becoming a caramel-colored Triceratops.

A criminal dentist was becoming an orange Styracosaurus with a black nose horn.

Four teenagers were becoming Velociraptors, each colored red, blue, yellow, black and white.

A swimmer was becoming an ichthyosaur.

A self-taught inventor was becoming a plesiosaur.

A soccer star was becoming a red tyrannosaur.

An actress was becoming an white Archeopteryx with whitish pink plummage.

A fighter jet pilot was becoming an orange Pteranodon.

A young techie was becoming a blue Triceratops.

A cowardly man was becoming a blue stegosaur with pale yellow plates.

A sycophant was becoming a deep red ankylosaur.

A lounge singer was becoming a yellow pterosaur.

A paleontologist was becoming a black brachiosaur.

An artist was becoming a pterosaur.

A forestry worker was becoming a teal Dimetrodon.

A salon stylist was becoming a pale green Parasaurolophus.

A dog was becoming an ankylosaur.

A professional soccer player was becoming a red Styracosaurus.

A surfer was becoming a predominantly red Stegosaurus.

Two homeless people became a Chasmosaurus and a Carnosaurus, respectively. . . .

"More and more!" Aquilai exlaimed. "More and more people turning -- as crazy as it sounds -- turning into dinosaurs!"

"More like anthropomorphic dinosaurs." Yarin said.

"It's not like it's nothing, Yarin. You don't have to be so matter-of-fact about it."

"Indeed. But I fail to see just what we can do about it."

"We need to report this to the others. Like now."

"Agreed."

[redtailedsaffa]

I suppose all the villains in the arc-series of books belong to the same family?

[Cloak]

Eh, more or less.

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Lording It Over the Rest

The "Dino Lord" strolled through the street as his anthropomorphized therapod self, as if he was just some tourist out to see the sights. He now wore a form-fitting black suit made out of a lycra-type material, but it was stronger than that fabric and was if Anton's

He loved what he was seeing. Humans were, recently, effectively extinct. But the wave emitter had affected some domesticated animals as well. He delighted in seeing the humans-turned-dinos. He was estatic at his own dino form.

"Hold on there!" said an authoritative voice. It was the Tricera-cop. Apparently, the Dino Lord had jaywalked and had been caught doing so. Anton was not in any mood to be inconvenienced in any way today. Considering what he did at the museum, jaywalking was the least of his crimes.

"Back off." Anton said firmly. The Tricera-cop's eyes glowed red for a moment, as he hesitated. Anton noticed this immediately, and extrapolated what it meant in an instant. He looked at the confused-looking Tricera-cop, and decided to test out his hypothesis. "Dance like a chicken."

The dino officer's eyes glowed red for a moment before he . . . complied. Anton watched this greedily, as this confirmed his hypothesis. He could control the minds and bodies of the transformed! Remarkable! This could prove essential to his plans, to his experiments.

He moved on, but found his path blocked by some teenager "mean girls" with Valley accents that had been turned into a variety of pterosaurs. Anton could have just walked around, though it would mean walking in the street. He wasn't about to do that.

"Stand aside," he ordered the gossipy group. They all silenced, and glared at him, their eyes remaining the same. He didn't have control over pterosaurs, it would seem. At this, he felt like some snake was twisting and contorting inside of him. His form was changing into that of a scarlet-scaled Quetzalcoatlus similar in appearance and physique to Sauron. The gossiping girls didn't notice.

"Well . . . this is new," he said. The he turned to the girls, and he ordered forcefully, "now, STAND ASIDE."

This time the control powers worked as the gaggling group of mean girls had their eyes glow red briefly, and they moved with military precision to obey. Anton noted this as he continued his stroll, shifting back to his therapod form, his most comfortable one. The lyca-esque suit that he wore shifted with him to fit over the new form, like a wetsuit.

But apparently, Anton was a triple-changer as he discovered an Elasmosaurus form when he decided to go to the beach and waded into the water. He surmised that he could control plesiosaurs in this form.

Anton was very, very thrilled with this prospect.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Plots and Plans

The auditorium was loud and full of the buzz the "dino-ification" of the populace, as Cloak took his usual place, standing the back, half-immersed in shadow. Cloak did not know whether it was from his bumpy personal history or his feline form that came this predilection for shadows. It could be Cloak wasn't particularly fond of the spotlight.

Somehow, the RAFians were not affected by this strange wave generator. Cloak was sure that the Mark did not protect against sudden transformations like this, otherwise why would they have been at all affected by the planetary shockwaves that forced the other RAFians to be the other gender or have none whatsoever. Cloak could not come up with a conclusion that he found satisfactory.

But something was going on, and he wasn't entirely sure that it was a good thing. He could not ignore a foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach that he could not explain satisfactorily to himself. He had fold his arms, but was stroking his chin thoughtfully.

He did not realize immediately that the briefing had begun.

"-- and we do not have any precedent for this, not really." Richard was saying.

"What about the Hate Plague?" Kelly said.

"That was different from this," Yarin said. "These were physical, involuntary changes."

"It could be like those planets-exploding-shockwavy thing." Gaz shrugged.

"We are pretty sure no planets were destroyed recently within a close enough proximity to do that." Aquilai said. "And we would have noticed by now."

"But it begs the question," Parker said, "those shockwaves affected us. Which means even the Mark has its limits."

"Everything does," Cloak said, rather cryptically. But the manner spoken was forgotten due to the fact that Cloak could get that way sometimes. "The Mark is no exception."

"The question remains," Parker pressed. "Why aren't we transforming as well?"

"Code Avalon. More than likely," Goom speculated.

"Well, that does limit what we could do." Saffa said.

"Let's not overlook one thing, here," Abby pointed out. "Even if Code Avalon wasn't required to protect us from it, we don't know what to do to stop it."

"We can't make a cure without knowing what is mutating them, what is overwriting their DNA with this hybridization DNA." Aquilai said.

"I would think the energy waves were a dead giveaway." Cloak said, stoically.

"What energy waves?" Sakki said, bluntly.

"Oh, right. Forgive me," Cloak said, sincerely and humbled. "I had forgotten that you may not have been able to see them. Well, truth be told, I could just barely seem them."

"What direction were they coming from?" Richard asked, with professional interest.

"They are very broad, and it was difficult to pinpoint, but -- and this is roughly it, mind you -- but I'd say somewhere in that direction."

"That's out to sea," Horse said, reminded of the cove that sheltered her when she was going though, uh, "radioactive growth spurts". "Toward Sawyer Island."

[redtailedsaffa]

It's like he gained some sort of weird pseudo-morphing power.