Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Sorry, no chapter today. Don't feel up to it.

Couldn't pay my rent for next month -- not because of insufficient funds, mind you, but because the landlord won't be available until the second, and it's due on the first. :'(



You know, what? Scratch that. I won't feel any better wallowing in despair or worrying about things outside my control. Hell, I might even expand this book. . . . Maybe.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
Sonic Strategy Successes

Cloak, Shadow, Sakki, Aquilai, Aila, Sam, Helen, Parker, and Dino were to go and face them. Nine RAFians, nine symbiotes. It was thought that it shouldn't be so hard. It was thought that they would be rather easy to find.

They were right.

It was in the new mega mall called the Mega Metroplex, which Cloak thought sounded a little hokey and wordy. It sounded almost as if the Autobot Metroplex had Mega Evolved, which may have been the very idea behind it.

They were not all that hard to spot, and each RAFian -- and Shadow -- split up and took on a symbiote. Cloak took on Warpath, Shadow took on Misery, Sakki took on Horder, Aila took on Hopeslayer, Aquilai took on Nameless, Sam took on Lethal Force, Helen took on Heartbreaker, Parker took on Gravesupplier, and Dino took on Brutality.

Cloak looked at Warpath and sense a lot of anger and rage coming from him -- it? Cloak wasn't sure that the host was in any control, or else he wod have spoke by now, as the Realm Walker used his feline speed and agility to deftly dodge all Warpath's attacks. It wasn't too terribly hard, as there was no tactical strategy being used by the red symbiote, just the old brutish "hit, and when that doesn't work, hit harder" stratagem. It was the symbol on the bonded symbiote's chest that worried Cloak.

He had a notion what it meant, but was hopeful that he was mistaken. The beast was locked away . . . locked away for good. The beast of rage could be brought here. . . . He hoped. . . .

But enough of this brutish battle. Cloak inhaled and aerokinetically enhanced his roar to be louder and more powerful than ordinary -- his "Mega-Roar," as he called it. The symbiote stopped its fruitless assault and held its head. Cloak did it again, and the symbiote seemed to recede from its host.

Cloak recoiled at the sight of the human skeleton that was left behind as the symbiote receded and vanished from sight, as well as being practically invisible to Cloak's Earthsight. Cloak found that this did not seem to bode well.

He gazed at the others looking at eight more skeletons. Shadow had emulated his technique into the Ultra-Shriek, Sakki had her innate sonic scream, the two corpsmen used their hard light constructs to make a megaphone and a bullhorn, Dino's strongest bellowing roar was strangely sufficient, and the Time Lords did something with their sonic screwdrivers, Cloak did not see what.

But all of the symbiotes had fled. They were still at large and they could still breed potentially. . . . and there was Cloak's other concern about the Beasts of the Spectrum. . . .

This was clearly not over yet.

[Cloak]

Wow. Five guests are reading "Memoirs" as I type this.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Sewer Symbiotes Sync Up

The symbiotes did not go far. They had oozed their way into the city's sewers, and remained there, as if they were pools of lycra material. While hostless, they were vulnerable and formless. They were only a real threat in combat when they had a host body. A support structure.

But these were not necessarily ordinary symbiotes. It was true that they had been altered, altered by Malice, who had really questionable ethics. Manipulating the genetic structures of creatures to obtain that which she desires isn't beneath her. And she desired the grewt beasts of the spectrum. But she didn't realize that they were still firmly enclosed in the batteries.

These symbiotes oozed and slithered toward each other, with strange undulating, sidewinding movements. It was unknown how they could move about in such a deliberate way when they seemingly possessed no eyesight of their own. Their movement was hypnotizing and somniferous at the same time.

When each of the nine touched each other, something strange happened. There had been a reason that Malice had kept them separate, within those orbs of hers. She was also aware of the possibility of this happening, as she used a tad of her remaining Concoction left to manipulate the biology of these creatures.

When they made tactile contact with each other, they immediately quickened their pace and all pushed against each other, as if trying to destroy each other in some perverse amalgam of Death Battle and that show "Earth". In the flurry of sudden frenzied movement, it was impossible to tell one symbiote part from the other. Impossible! They were becoming so entangled, so meshed together, thwt it almost looked like there was only a single symbiote.

NISSSSSSSSSSS!

And, quite as suddenly as it began, the movement stopped with that strange hissing sound. There were no longer nine symbiotes, and none of them bred more. They had unified into a singular symbiote, which completely overrode Malice's biological programming of abject loyalty and obligate devotion. This symbiote was now itself, subservient to no one. The minds, bodies, and wills of all nine had merged and fully integrated into one being.

It called itself Niss, a word in a long forgotten alien language. Supposedly, it meant either "nine-in-one" or "supreme being". It shuffled and slithered and undulated about, looking for its next host. It was famished.

***

As they were heading back, thinking that the symbiotes were destroyed, Cloak stopped still. He turned around, and looked toward the mall. He had sensed something. But he didn't know how to interpret it.

He must be getting paranoid again. And yet . . . he got the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, brilliant.

[Cloak]

To what do you refer, Saffa?

[redtailedsaffa]

The combined symbiotes.

[Cloak]

There is a wrinkle that I hadn't introduced yet. . . .

New books, and a new arc! (And I realize there was actually an arc earlier in the series, but forgot about it as an arc -- the Traitor Arc.)

Anyway, here's the Reality Shift Arc.

• Book CDXXIX: "Meet the RAFians" -- Reality shifts into a Flintsone-like prehistoric one.
• Book CDXXX: "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, It's Off to Work I Go" -- Reality shifts to pirate times.
• Book CDXXXI: "Roarin' RAFians" -- Reality shifts to the 1920s America.
• Book CDXXXII: "Anime-Verse" -- Reality shifts to an anime style.
• Book CDXXXIII: "RAF Racer" -- Reality shifts to a "Speed Racer"-like one.
• Book CDXXXIV: "Another Dark Future" -- Reality shifts to a dark, dystopian future.
• Book CDXXXV: "D &D: Disillusioned and Detatched" -- Reality shifts to a "Dungeons & Dragons"-like one.
• Book CDXXXVI: "Will You Stop It Already?!" -- Cloak and Shadow discovers the culprits of the reality shifts.

And that's the arc. Remember, the titles are subject to change. So let me know what you think.

New chapter. Tad short.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Mithril's Unexpected Surprise

Mithril was in his bathroom, preparing for bed. You know, brushing teeth, pajamas -- that whole shebang. It had been a long, tiresome day. He wasn't one of the ones that had to deal with the whole symbiote mess, but it wasn't like he hadn't interests outside of RAF.

"Heresy!" Sakki would tease. "Sacrilege!"

. . . At least, Mithril hoped that she was teasing him. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell with her. He was in his thread's bathroom -- yes, each thread had its own bathroom. Some looked vastly different from each other, because, after all, different species had different needs.

Mithril went his tap and discovered that it didn't seem to be working. It was odd because it was working just fine a moment ago. Mithril was perplexed. Hot . . . cold . . . neither worked. He puzzled about this, then his right hand seemed to feel ever so slightly warm. He looked and saw his Mark on his hand. There wasn't anything unusual about it. So why did it seem to alert him like that? With a sensation that could easily be misread or gone unnoticed?

Then he heard it.

NISSSSSSSSSSSS!!

"What in the w-- AHHH!" Mithril began as the symbiote attempted to take him as a host. But the Mark wasn't about to have any of that, and glowed brightly. Niss hissed and recoiled from the bright light, and Mithril kept it on it until it fled to parts unknown. Only then did the Mark stop belching out the Unity Light.

"What was that thing?" he wondered aloud. But he thought he had a rather good idea of what it was already. "Looks like it's gonna be a late night meeting tonight."

***

"Are you sure?" Cloak said. "Absolutely certain?"

"Why would I lie about that?" Mithril snapped. "Why would I disturb everyone at this hour of night with this?"

"This doesn't bode well," Cloak said, agitatedly. "I have never known symbiotes to merge. Unless they came in contact with some of that Concoction of Malice's . . . but no. She couldn't have made any more of that. The flowers are extinct."
 
"Cloak, why are you so agitated?" Sakki said, with a complacent yawn. "If we run across it again, we'll just sonic it into submission again."

"Don't give in to complacency, Sakki," Cloak warned. "This is unprecedented for symbiotes to do. I've heard of them propagating, bearing progeny. But merging? Never. Never in any of the other realms I visited. This could be purely cosmetic, sure. But, for all we know, it could be a game changer. It could have ascertained powers that we don't know about or recognize. We are leaving the comfort zone of verifiable fact and delving into a mystery that requires itself to be solved."

"Where do we start?" Richard asked democratically.

"I . . . I don't know." Cloak answered.

[redtailedsaffa]

It... came out of the tap? O.o

[Cloak]

Yep, Saffa. And, now, some new book ideas. Let me know what you think.

• Book CDXXXVII: "Son of RAF" -- A married RAFian couple have a son, Pierce.
• Book CDXXXVIII: "Bane" -- The RAFians meet Bane, a person somewhat familiar to them. (Still debating whether it'll be in the regular continuity or not.)
• Book CDXXXIX: "Oberon's Children" -- Oberon's Children want Pierce, who isn't even a year old yet. Each want him for their own reasons, each believes he bolds great power but none can agree on what power that is.

Titles are subject to change.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Niss to King, Check

Niss had retreated back to the sewer to recuperate. The plumbing to the forum was mostly self-contained. It was a miracle that Niss was even able to breach it. It was a miracle that it even managed to survive that burning light.

The earth swallowed up the only pipe to RAF, done by Mithril as a reflex. Though he wasn't able to use seismic sight as Cloak was, he was strong terrakinetic in his own right.

Niss recoiled and shrunk away from the pipe as it remembered the light. The burning light. It appeared as if its entire body clenched, like a fist. It hesitated for a moment or two before moving on. Desperate to find a suitable host, one that would last it longer than the pitiful nine its parts had before.

***

A man was pacing around an obnoxiously opulent office. There were so many expensive bits and bobs here and there, placed so carelessly. All the office furniture, barring the swivel chair, were made out of an expensive mahogany.

In the black swivel chair, behind the dark-lacquered mahogany desk, sat a man in stately royal robes with a circlet of gold nestled comfortably against his dark hair. He wore an excessively luxurious cape of fur and velvet. Clearly, he was one of the 1% and so frivolous with his money on luxury items and expensive houses or offices that it was wonder why he was still rich. His name was Rodney Grace -- which was contradictory, as he had no grace.

But, more to the point, there was a reason that he was dressed as an idealised, romanticized king. He had garnered the title of King of the Knights of Humanity. He had become their supreme leader, though just exactly how was open for speculation. He didn't really know when to stop spending, he treated his company's employees like dirt and paid them just under the minimum wage (bribing several people in law enforcement to look the other way, and ordering Knights to do so as well).

But lack of genuine intellect was mandatory (and a prerequisite) for such groups that expouse vitriolic hatred and advocate abject discrimination. And he didn't get to be so high up without fully committing to that foolish cause.

Of course, in his pompous lifestyle, he never expected someone to take it all away from him. He never expected anything to leak from the tap and spill silently over to the washroom floor. Never expected anything to slither and undulate so sneakily and stealthily from the washroom toward him, as he leaned over his desk, templed his fingers and rested his forehead on them. He was reading an unknown document -- probably one of questionable relevance in this day and age.

He never expected anything to slowly, almost lovingly, start to rise up against his left leg. Bu the time he did notice, it was too late. Niss had taken him for its host. Even when it recede and disguised itself as a ordinary blue pinstriped suit, it still maintained control over Grace.

Worst of all, Grace was aware of all this happening, but unable to do anything to stop it. He hated this creature for doing this to him. But this only nourished the parasite, but Grace didn't think of this possibility.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
Uh . . . What Was That?

"Cloak," Gaz said, "I sense that there is something that you're have not told us yet about the symbiotes."

"I told you everything I know about them," Cloak said.

"Wait a minute," Abby said, with the air of someone with a game changing idea, "do the symbiotes have a predator? We could just go and acquire one of those and --"

"No." Cloak said firmly. "No, you can't."

"They don't have a predator?"

"I didn't say that." Cloak said. "But this isn't like making a Nemetrix or something like that. You, Saffa, and Noelle got your Crabdozer, Psychlopteran and such morphs from a zoo. While you might have been able to have acquired them in the wild, you can't with a Xenophage."

"Don't underestimate --" Saffa began to argue.

"You don't understand!" Cloak exploded. "The Xenophage isn't just some stupid beast that could make a mistake and accidentally allow itself to be acquired! It is as much of a shapeshifter as Underseen and Ash are! Maybe, just maybe, more proficient! It has an amorphous, brown body normally, as if its body is composed of tendrils or roots. Its salvia carries an incendiary neurotoxin, which I've only seen paralyze symbiotes, making them dead weight to their hosts. I don't know what the effect would be like on other species, and I really don't want to try it out on RAFians -- the Mark may not even protect you from that!"

<Maybe we could just stun it. Like a Shredder on the lowest setting.> Noelle suggested.

But Cloak countered. "They don't feel pain! They have no pain receptors. And they speak, so they're sentient. I don't know if they are truly intelligent, but I know that they are entirely too dangerous to even consider acquiring. Not to mention ungodly difficult to do so. And besides, I doubt they'd discriminated between symbiote and host."

Underseen stayed quiet. This Xenophage scared him. What if came to Earth and mistook him for a symbiote?

"So, then, you have a better plan?" Sakki said, rather huffily.

But Cloak could say nothing, as Yarin received an alert. Something had penetrated Earth's atmosphere.

"This doesn't bode well," Aquilai said, quietly.

[redtailedsaffa]

Where did the Xenophages come from now?

[Cloak]

According to Marvel Comics (yes, I did not create Xenophages, it's Marvel canon), they don't come from anywhere anymore. Galactus destroyed their world. And I'm being vague about it in this continuity for a reason . . . hopefully, a satisfying one.

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Things Are Not What They Seem

"Coordinates?" Cloak asked immediately. Yarin read them off, and Cloak turned to go.

"Wait, Cloak!" Richard said. "You'll need backup."

Despite himself, Cloak's pride rankled a bit at the perceived slight of incapability, but he quickly evaporated that feeling. Richard wasn't being personal, and Cloak shouldn't take as such.

"Abby, Saffa, Noelle, Gaz, and Hunter." Richard selected. He hoped it was the correct selection. "Off you go."

***

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Gaz said.

They were in a deeply forested glade, with a lovely looking cabin by a placid pond that bubbled a bit from the waterfall that fed it. It was like a still from a Disney princess movie, as if Princess Aurora's house plopped down into the setting of Rapunzel's tower. There was worn cobblestone patb leading up to the house, which actually had a white picket fence around it. It was scenic. It was idyllic. It was beautiful.

"These are the correct coordinates," Cloak said, haunched down, ears back. It was very easy to see him as an anthropomorphic tiger in a cloak now, simply due to this behavior. "And there was an impact here."

"How can you tell?" Abby asked.

But it was Hunter that answered. "Those branches there. They've been broken or bent unnaturally. The earth has slight skid marks on them."

"Then where is the object that crashed?" Saffa asked, practically.

Silence fell as a small girl which had heart-shaped face, bright blue eyes, a button-nose, cheery cheeks, and whose brunette hair was crafted into tight curls. She wore a red dress with white stockings, black shoes, and a red cloak. She couldn't have been any older than six or seven. Cloak couldn't tell if she was dressed up as Shirley Temple (as Annie) or simply as Little Red Riding Hood.

Yet, something told him that this girl was in danger. But something about the scene felt off. While it seemed perfectly harmless, a little returning home after . . . Cloak eyes widened a bit. The girl was presumably returning home. Alone. In this day and age.

Cloak was probably being paranoid, though. . . .

***

Niss was not an entirely stupid symbiote. It lived out Grace's life, as he would have. After all, it could see his memories and such. Though Grace fought this control, refusing to believe the futility of it.

What he didn't know was that by the mere action of fighting back he was releasing the adrenaline that nourished the symbiote. This was exactly the symbiote's goal. It would draw this out as long as it could, then, when Grace was sucked dry, they'd go and do it to a new host.

Niss delighted in this, though it could not hear Grace's struggling thoughts as a Yeerk would be able to, it knew that he was fighting. It made Grace's mouth curl into his signature cruel smile, knowing that this Rodney Grace human was a fighter, was strong enough to sustain it for a long while.

[Cloak]

Okay, I'm currently planning my way through Book CCCXXXIII ("Baaaaaad Gingerbread"), and I've nearly completed the brief chapter synopses (which we'll see if I stick to once it comes time to write them, because I can go "off-script" sometimes).

Huh. According to the stats on the forum, this thread has the fifth highest views of all the threads on RAF. As well as being the only fanfic on the list, unless I'm mistaken. Maybe it's a little arrogant and a tad conceited of me to be simultaneously flattered and proud of that fact.

Anyway, new chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Deception and Obliviousness

"Anyone else sense that?" Gaz whispered. "That something seems off? That it feels --"

"Foreboding, yes." Cloak said, only his tail tip twitching. The rest of him was perfectly still, like a tiger who spotted an unsuspecting prey animal. He was wondering if the girl was somehow some sort of lure. Like the glowing appendage of angler fish, luring them in to a creature that wished to feast upon them. He didn't say this out loud, as he was already known for being prone to paranoia.

But as the girl approached, the cabin's door exploded open, as the wood creaked and splintered, and a long rug rolled out like a frog's tongue. It wrapped around the girl's waist, as the house's front started to look similar to the eponymous house in "Monster House". The tongue rolled in the girl slowly.

Too slowly. Too slowly to be plausible. The girl's movements weren't exactly believable either. Her limbs didn't flail, and it only looked like she was struggling halfheartedly. She didn't scream, she didn't speak. Her face was as static as the character faces on a mascot head. Not to mention that through Earthsight, though difficult to "see", whatever this thing was (and Cloak had a shrewd idea what) the girl was a part of --

"Hunter! Saffa! Abby! Wait!" Cloak shouted as the three took off to save the girl. They could not Earthsight as he could they didn't know. Cloak had forgotten to disseminate that information immediately as he should have. But he wasn't sure if he had interpreted the vibrations right, though that was just an excuse. "The girl is not real! She is bait! She's a lure! Like an angler f--"

Too late.

The trio backed off as the creature took on its true form, its base form. . . .

***

Meanwhile, Niss remained blissfully unaware of the landfall of a Xenophage. Of its natural predator. Unaware that it would see it as a delicacy -- nine symbiotes in one! It would be like a nine-course meal.

It just continued its sadistic torturing of Grace by perfectly impersonating him to his wife of sixteen years and his boys, fourteen and five. The symbiote considered going for the teenage son after this host is dried up, and Grace was aware of this. This just added more fuel to the hate that Niss also fed off of, not to mention Grace's fury at being "sullied" by an "inferior" alien organism.

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, you should be flattered.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Predator Attracting Prey

The creature was a towering behemoth*. It was made of tendrils or roots -- Cloak couldn't tell. It possessed a face that not even its mother would love, with a gaping maw. Cloak soon discovered that his description of the beast was wrong. Completely wrong.

It possessed an armored exoskeleton which did not contain any pain receptors, and it appeared to be partially hairy but that could have been its metamorphic power or a mere optic illusion. It had a body style reminiscent to that of a Florauna.

This could have very well not been its true form, but it was enough to worry the Realm Walker. He wasn't sure how to defeat the beast, which could think for itself, which was obvious from a few minutes of battle. Though the fiery toxin had no effect on the RAFians, it still commwnted that it would like to . . . ewwww . . . like to feed on their brains.

Ignoring how impossible that was for it do to Cloak, it didn't mean the others weren't at risk. There had to be a way to end this quick. But how? How could they defeat something that feels no pain, that cannot be restrained easily, if at all?

Saffa was in her trusty Tyrannopede form, whose webs proved rather distracting to the Xenophage, but only in the way a fly buzzing your face ever so often is distracting. Noelle was in Rancor morph, attempting to overpower it, but failing miserably. Abby was in her Psycholepterran morph, attempting to mesmerize the Xenophage -- it didn't work. Hunter was dual-wielding his guns, firing as much as he could while Gaz did the same with Laserbeak in Blaster mode. Cloak was trying to use the elements to restrain it, but he was hesitating and it was.like holding onto a banana slug -- practically impossible.

This was a sentient creature. They were trying to destroy it. Cloak kept flashbacking to Cataclysm. The first person he . . . he was forced to kill. Those who have never taken a life can never know, know how difficult it is to let that go. But what other chose did they have?

Cloak knew of one way to destroy it, as his hand brushed the clasp of his cloak, still securely clasped. . . .

Little did any of them know that a bystander was out for a walk nearby, while its host was raging against it, nourishing it, draining himself to nothing. This bystander heard the noise and, curious, went to investigate it.


*

[Cloak]

Yes, yes. I've probably already used this parody before.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Terror Time Again

As the RAFians struggled with the Xenophage (who was proving to be more slippery than a used car dealer), Cloak thought that he heard the faintest of footsteps coming up behind them. But the back of his mind seemed to have bored of this conflict and was playing a song against the fight:

You hear the screeching of a Noctowl,
You hear the Hunter begin to howl,
You know there's Xenophages on the prowl!
And it's terror time again!
They've got you fighting though the night.
It's terror time again!
And you just might die of fright.
It's a terrifying time.

Okay, those were definitely footsteps that he was hearing.

SMACK!

The Xenomorph had taken advantage of Cloak's divided attention and smacked him upside his head, and it was with a lot of force. It wouldn't kill the Realm Walker, just make him irritated. Or worse, angry.

Still the song persisted in Cloak's head:

You hear the beating of your heart,
You know the screaming's gonna start!
Here comes the really scary part:
'Coz it's terror time again!
They've got you fighting through the night.
It's terror time again!
Oh, you just might die of fright.
It's a terrifying time.

Some was still approaching. Cloak hadn't the time or energy to consider the specifics f how and why, he was just as busy as the others with battling the Xenophage. If they were succeeding at anything, it was keeping it in this general location.

All the trees begin to moan,
And the Xenomorphs grunt and groan.
Menacing faces toxic sublime,
Don't you know it's terror time?
And it's terror time again!
They've got you fighting through the night
Yes, it's terror time again.
Oh, you just might die of fright,
It's a terrifying time!!!!"

A sudden scream rifed through the clearing. Saffa recognized him first, and spoke with distaste, "Rodney Grace. Wonderful."