Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
La Ni Asylum

"What is the name of this place again?" Blue said, feeling rather exposed as he, Parker, Aquilai, Phoenix, Blaze, Cloak, and Gaz (Laserbeak firmly on her shoulder) approached a rundown asylum.

"Lansdale-Knight Asylum," Parker shrugged.

"Actually, its the Lansdale-Knight Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center and Home for the Criminally Insane, technically," Aquilai noted.

"Yeah, that rolls right off the tongue." Gaz muttered, as Laserbeak nibbled on her ear affectionately. Gaz addressed the Cybertronian bird, "Yes, yes. I love you, too, Beaky, but we've got to be professional here."

Laserbeak flat out ignored this, which caused Cloak to smile, despite himself and the nature of this mission. Beaky could be a stubborn bird when he wanted to be.

"But the sign says 'asylum'." Blaze pointed out.

"Technically, it says 'La Ni Asylum'," Parker said with a concealed smirk.

"Why are we here again?" Cloak said, levity leaving him very quickly, evaporating.like water on a stove burner that still very hot.

"The distress signal coming from the basement level." Phoenix said. They were unaware of who sent the signal, but came to investigate anyway. "It seemed too important to ignore."

"It's gotta be a trap," Cloak said, as he looked at the old building that had debris everywhere. The building itself was the color of sand and sandstone, but looked as if it was rather haphazardly cleaned, but had not for quite some time.

The iron bars, painted black, around it still stood solidly around the ground's perimeter, with only for a bit of rust here and there on it. They entered through the kissing gates of wrought iron. The hinges of which seemed encrusted with rust.

Blaze commented on Cloak's statement with, "I hate it when he says that."

"Cloak, you say that about everything." Blue chided.

"And how frequently am I wrong about them?" Cloak said, walking forward more and more hesitantly.

[redtailedsaffa]

Everything's a trap.

[Cloak]

But of course, Saffa. You'd think we'd get use to it by now. Then again we're still in basically Year 1 as of this book.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
IT'S A TRAP!!

"Odd." Cloak said, suspicious off the bat.

"What is?" Blue asked, his ninja training making him want to stick to the shadows. Cloak's own innate feline instincts told him the same.

"I can't Earthsight in here."

"It has hardwood floors," Gaz pointed out. "You need earth to Earthsight, right?"

"But I should be able to feel the vibrations through the wood," Cloak said, more to himself than the others. It was the same basic concept as Earthsight and Metalsight. Cloak supposed it was because he had more of an affinity for those elements than with Wood. But no . . . Shadow has no particular affinity for any of thr Six Elements that she mastered, and she is no less powerful than Cloak was at that age.

He thought he might have been able to do it, but hasn't really tried. Cloak.was one who did not like to leave his comfort zone too often, as far as the elements were concerned. He was afraid of growing too powerful. He was afraid of being corrupted by power, both in the most literal of senses and metaphorically. What most the RAFians, the ones he doesn't have regular contact with, didn't know was Cloak harbored a deep fear of himself. This was only really brouht to the surface again, after years of being buried in pretense and mental suppression by Corruption's touch.

Cloak forcefully pulled his mind to the present. He had been dwelling on the past with a lot more frequency lately. It wouldn't do to do that during a mission. He hid from his emotions, just like he hid how damaging Corruption's touch was to him.

Yet the other RAFians, like Gaz, Saffa, and Kelly, seemed to already understand this without Cloak saying a word. It's why RAF would always be his true home, despite not being a Dweller himself. And such an action was still unfathomable and unseemly to Realm Walker society -- but an action that was seen as such by less and less Walkers, unbeknownst to Cloak.

But Cloak should have been paying attention to his surroundings, as he had not yet mastered feeling the vibrations through a wooden medium, though he may have thought he did at some points (he was just extraordinarily lucky at those times). As the trapdoors opened to claim Parker, Blue, Phoenix and Aquilai with suddenness of a Cavernmouth or a crocodilian's snap of a jaw, Cloak realized just how dependent on his Earthsight he had become. There was virtually no reaction time to do anything and it was impossible to see where the trap doors opened up.

And now four of his friends may pay for it . . . with their lives.

[Cloak]

And, btw, I'm currently planning out the chapters for Book CCCXXXVI ("Ivan's Gak"). 'Bout a fifth done with planning it out. If I make it to Book M, I'm gonna laugh. Because then that'd be a thousand books. And I haven't even finished the first hundred.

And I never thought of myself as ambitious before this fanfic.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Ripping Apart and Geist Wraiths

Cloak felt thoroughly apologetic. He knew this place was a trap, and still proceeded with everyone. He allowed the mission to continue. He hadn't seen the trapdoors. It was entirely his fault that this had happened.

"Cloak," Gaz said, sharply, "don't."

"What?" Cloak snapped, rather more roughly than he intended. Laserbeak squaked rather indignantly.

"I know you well enough that you're blaming yourself for this," she said. "And you're being far too hard on yourself."

"I should have known that --"

"No, Cloak." Gaz said, folded arms and a very parental sort of look in her eye, "you expect too much of yourself. Now is not the time for beating yourself up. We need to find the trapdoors, so help us start looking."

"Hey, guys?" Blaze asked, not even looking at the two. "What's that?"

A sheet was floating down the hall, it was much too heavy to be held aloft on a mild breeze, and, even if it was, the air was still and calm here. Yet, it continued to move of its own accord, as if something invisible was piloting it. But it wasn't the case because nothing is invisible to Realm Walker eyes, unless of Realm Walker origin.

"Dementor!" Cloak proclaimed.

***

Parker awoke feeling groggy. He looked around, waiting for his vision to clear. But no . . . this couldn't be right.

Everything was grayscale and somewhat blurred where there was supposed to be clear cut edges and whatnot. What the hell?

He found it difficult to grasp what was going on. He tried to speak, but found that he couldn't. No words came out, no sound. It was a frightening sensation. He had no idea where he was, and looking down on himself, he had no idea what he was anymore. He wasn't a ghost, he was sure of that. But he interpreted the unnatural lightness he felt to mean he was now bodiless.

What was he? Where were the others? Were they the other three floating consciousnesses that he saw? And, for that matter, how could he see without eyes of his own, hear without ears of his own?

What was he now?

[redtailedsaffa]

Well you are quite. It's quite intimidating how you plan to write nearly 500 books.

[Cloak]

Plan and fully intend to write nearly 500 books. In fact, I'm working on the next chapter as we speak in my email.

Although, many of the newer books doeln't seem to be as lighthearted as some these books. . . . And I know of one that gets REALLY dark at one point (and no, it hasn't been posted yet). . . .

:edit:New chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
Body and Soul

"Can't be," Gaz said, "I can see that sheet too."

"Then what --" Blaze began, as the sheet swooped closer.

"ooooooOOOOOOooooo!" came from the sheet.

Not remotely terrifying, more like a child trying to be frightening and not really succeeding. It was rather pathetic and poorly thought out.

"How's it floating? Aerokinesis? Telekinesis?" Blaze asked, in a rather clinical manner, as if they were only discussing a mildly interesting YouTube video. Mildly interesting, not spectacular. "Or perhaps some elaborate movie prop involving strings and such."

Cloak thought this seemed familiar . . . perhaps from another realm he visited before discovering RAF? Perhaps sometime when he was in the limbo of time during his mother's tyrannical control over his life?

Cloak decided to try something. He pointed at the oh-so-spooky sheet, and said, "Expellicorpus."

It was a weak spell, as all Realm Walker attempts at magic tend to be, but it was sufficient to get the sheet to drop to the floor. It was obviously possessed, though it was remarkable that "expellicorpus" worked on a possessed inanimate object instead of an actual body. But clearly it was weak possessing spirit.

"What was it?" Gaz asked, and Laserbeak squawked quite noticeably. "Beaky, what's wrong?"

He was calling their attention to the vaguely humaniod form that hovered before them. It had silver eyes, and was composed of wispy, white energy that made its form seem solid but obviously not.

"What is that thing?" Blaze asked.

"What thing?" Gaz asked, earnestly perplexed. She couldn't see it.

"I think it's called a wraith," Cloak said. His face scrunched up as he struggled to remember. "A geist wraith."

The geist wraith fled for no reason. This puzzled the three RAFians.

***

The four disembodied RAFians get the hang being geist wraiths, learning how to move around in their new states. Get used to being fundamentally mute, but able to hear and see well enough. They also possess another power that they are currently unaware of.

They also discovered that their bodies are being loaded up into a truck and . . .

And there is nothing that they can do to stop them.

[redtailedsaffa]

WAIT, WHAT?!

[Cloak]

Yeah -- the Ectoplasmer got 'em.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Wait -- What?

The truck trundled off, its driver's body hijacked by one of the wraiths by scaring him by making the truck seem to hiss his name. Of course, it was a moot point since the wraith that possessed the truck to do this remained inhabiting the diesel vehicle.

But there was actually a reason that the driver's body was necessary, as the hefty, clean-shaven man in the bland company uniform held a curious device in his hand, that he had not before his body was commandeered and his mind suppressed. It was cylindrical and made of a silvery metal. Atop it was a plunger, like that atop of syringe.

It only had one purpose . . . and he pushed it. . . .

***

Meanwhile, within the cargo hold of the truck, four geist wraiths guarded the four inert RAFians. The thought of possessing them had occured to a four, as the mechanic that required them to be frightened before possession could take place was presumably absent with the bodies being naught but empty shells.

But it was an impossible task. Not because of the needing to scare factor, but because of the Mark. The Mark, by design, was created to protect the mind, body, and soul from any sort of subversion, seduction, mind control, or possession. Sure, there were always around it, as Madre de Vampyra discovered, but those loopholes have closed in the intervening time. As the RAFians, Cloak included, assumed it to be so.

***

Blaze, Gaz and Cloak were standing outside -- but no. No, this was just a section of the asylum that had been rotted away, exposing a gaping hole in it that was nonetheless unseen from the exterior ground-level.

"Somehow," Gaz said, "this doesn't bode all that well."

Laserbeak agreed with a brief, sullen chirp.

"There you are!" Blaze cried out at an approaching flowing, glowing geist wraiths.

But then it was joined by three compatriots. These had a bluish tint hereto unseen in the geist wraiths. There seemed to a miniscule something that bounced along in their spectral forms, but Cloak could not identify what it was from this vantage point.

"Gonna stand your ground this time? Or are you gonna run away again?" Blaze challenged.

It was precisely at that moment when Cloak recognized, and identified, that miniscule something that was bouncing along inside of them.

"Huh? Huh? Huh?" Blaze said, continuing his challenge.

"Blaze, enough!" Cloak said, harshly, to a surprised squawk of Laserbeak's.

"What? Why?" Blaze said, apparently going all Monty Python or something with his challenging.

"They aren't the geist wraith that ran from us." Cloak said.

Gaz immediately picked up on the near-imperceptible crack in his tone. "Cloak, spit it out. What's wrong."

"They're . . ." Cloak said, not wanting to go any further. But he found that he must, "They're Parker, Blue, Aquilai, and Phoenix. Somehow, they've been turned into geist wraiths."

"But . . ." Gaz said, flummoxed. "But . . . HOW?"

"That," Cloak said, "is a very good quest-- get down!!"

He had heard a faint click, and he followed his first instinct. He didn't know if it was the right move.

BOOOM!!!

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
The Wraith Master

The truck pulled into a strange area -- an out-of-the-way, boonies type.of place thst no one would find unless they actively sought it out. It was here that the geist wraiths had their boss. This was here that their master resided, at least for the time being.

The geist wraith who had possessed the truck had swiftly abandoned it as the truck driver threw the detonator on the passenger side seat. It was a rather careless act, but what did the geist wraith care that this body get indicted and arrested for blowing up an abandoned asylum? It was his concern.

His only concern was not disappointing his master, and that was a hard enough task, in and of itself. The truck driver stepped out from his vehicle. He was quickly joined by a hipster (scared by seeing himself as fashionably outdated by a possessed mirror), a homeless man (which was easy as the homeless tend worry and fret about where to get their next room, where they can sleep next, etc. as the city's programs to combat homelessness were largely unattainable due to politics), and a bartender (night shift at a spooky bar). All three possessed by geist wraiths, all possessed for the sole reason of pulling out the bodies from the truck and presenting them to their master.

They did not possess the foresight to keep the inmates (who never left) that they took over to load upon the truck, due to that annoying alarm -- shrill and pervasive -- from sounding when ever these bodies left the gate. It was annoying them, so they decided to improvise. Well, as much as you can improvise once you have had your free will corrupted and wiped away, like the streaks on a glass window and Windex.

They haul the bodies before their master -- though the proper English would have been 'mistress', had that word not devolved to essentially mean an adulteress in these modern times -- and the four bowed deeply to their master in their commandeered corporeal transports, which they still piloted.

Her manservant was a metallic humanoid with a televison-like screen on his chest. He was Mauler, unsurprisingly enough. And, naturally, than meant that the geist wraiths' lord and master was, rather anticlimactically enough, Malice herself.

The Tasmanian devil-form Realm Walker scrutinized the four RAFians crumbled in a heavy before her, as she sat on her chair, in a pose reminiscent of Loki. Her face was as blank and as hard as a smooth marble wall. The four weren't sure if they had upset their master. Unlike Mauler, they weren't that mindless, in the fact that they still had some semblence of personality and intellect.

"What do mean by this affront?" Malice said, beginning her cruel disparaging of these four (and the two unaccounted for) geist wraiths. "You should be wearing the bodies, not presenting them to me as if they were pelts you bartered for!!"

Malice was on her feet, with her arms folded tightly, and frightening look upon her face.

"And, pray tell, WHERE are the RAFian wraiths that the Ectoplasmer created? They need to be indoctrinated at once!"

A beat of silence.

"You do have them don't you?" she asked, her voice dangerous now, like the tone of a killer without mercy. "Don't you?"

[redtailedsaffa]

So wait. Who was in the truck?

[Cloak]

The empty bodies of the RAFians. As for the geist wraiths -- I did lose count while eriting, I admit. It was late and I was tired.

I'll post a new chapter soon enough.

check that. I had the whole chapter up and ready to go -- then clicked on the save button in my email, and it decide that I meant discard the ****in' thing!!!

[redtailedsaffa]

Gmail does not appreciate creativity. Bad Gmail.

[Cloak]

What really irritates me is there is no way to recover it. I'll have to retype -- rewrite! -- the whole thing. And I don't have much time on this, my last day off of the week.

Let's see if it'll work this time.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Never Gonna Keep Us Down

Back at the site of the asylum explosion, there was debris everywhere. Bits of wood, scraps of twisted metal shrapnel, and whatnot. There was a what appeared to be a soap bubble completely covered in sawdust and debris, obscuring any possible occupants from view.

A tiger's roar sounded and the debris flew from the bubble forcefully as it was revealed to be a scarlet gold forcefield. Cloak dropped it as Gaz and Blaze got to their feet, and Laserbeak flapped his wings in a doleful manner. The geist wraith RAFians were, of course, unharmed as they no longer were in possession of their physical bodies.

"I could have saved us, too." Blaze said, rather petulantly. Cloak couldn't tell if he was deliberately affecting the huffy attitude or if it was genuine. In any case, Cloak wasn't in the mood for it, as he was feeling kind of surly.

"You four," Cloak said, addressing the geist wraiths. They looked identical in appearance. Cloak couldn't tell which one was Blue, Phoenix, Aquilai or Parker -- it was impossible. The Realm Walker continued with his query, "what happened to you?"

Cloak quickly noticed how easily this could devolve into charades as the geist wraiths apparently could not speak without a body's vocal cords. So, simple "yes and no" questions would have to suffice.

"Are your bodies still intact?" Cloak asked, as Gaz and Blaze wonder what had got Cloak so serious. "Just affirm or decline."

Affirmation.

"Do you know where they are?"

Declination.

"Can you traverse in your current state at any respectable speed?" Cloak asked.

Silence from all four -- that is to say, neither yea or nay. Or that they are unsure.

"Cloak -- what's with the --"

"I'll haul you with us then, to the forum." Cloak said, deliberately interrupting the RAFian vampire. Laserbeak squawked in protest, but Cloak ignored him. There were far more pressing problems to deal with at the moment.

The lot of them began the trek back, though through the air: Cloak on his energy disc hauling the geist wraiths very Lantern-like, Laserbeak in parrot mode, Gaz in bat mode, and Blaze has natural wings.

What brought on this change in Cloak? It was nothing more or less than Cloak burying his feeling, his emotions. Forcing himself to be wholly rational. He feared if he allowed himself to feel freely, he'd get dangerously close to being the monster he was when he was corrupted. It was still something that he was dealing with, something he was still learning how to cope with.

Such things never come easy.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
The Schemer Schemes

Malice was using her own energy to beat and cow the geist wraiths into submission, after demanding that they abandon their hosts, and somehow the two unaccounted for showed up. Her energy could touch them as nothing else could, barring the rare supertangible materials. She was furious that they managed to get the bodies of the RAFians but not their newly-minted geist wraiths.

They couldn't even wear the bodies, making them useless to Malice! Worthless! Whh was she surrounded by such infernal incompetence?! Such persisting idiocy?!

Malice glared across the room, where there were ten cryogenic tubes, six occupied, but the glass had frosted over so the occupant within could not be seen. The geist wraiths had already had their minds twisted into a loyalty to her, and her alone. And they were unaware that Malice was keeping their bodies in cold storage . . .

"Although," Malice said, her fury evaporating into pensive thoughtfulness, "maybe I judged too quickly. Their bodies are here. They assuredly would come back to claim them once more. Become binded to them once more. . . ."

Malice smiled a smile to equal her name. She had an idea.

She placed the bodies in the remaining cryogenic tubes, to keep them "crisp" and "fresh", using her energy. She wasn't gentle with them either. Her smile never left her face. Her scheme was just so perfect in her mind. Everything just seemed to fit in so perfectly with each other.

"Wraiths!" she commanded in a deep booming voice. They paid her their undivided attention, afriad of incurring her wrath once more. "I charge you six with this task. It is a simple one, so you had better not fail me in this endeavor. And you had listen closely."

They hastened to acquiesce.

"Follow them, watch them. Do not let them know that you are doing such."

She thought a moment.

"Do not let yourselves be seen as geist wraiths," she added, wondering if the order was too specific for these six's limited minds. They left, and she reflected about the explosion of the asylum. Her Ectoplasmer was now ruined as it would have never survived such a blast. But no matter, no matter. She could just rebuild it if she needed. . . .

[Cloak]

Alright, I've been planning through Book CCCXXXVII ("A.R.M.A.D.A.", changed from "A.R.M" because there really is an Animal Rights Militia apparently), and nearly done with that.

New book ideas!

• Book CDLXV: "Smarty-Pants" -- A group of kids get ahold of a genius-granting drug that they use to allow them to do whatever they want. They think.
• Book CDLXVI: "Am I Blue?" -- Blue's backstory.
• Book CDLXVII: "Weapon-Plus Bites" -- The RAFians must deal with superhumans with vampire powers, all artificially-made.
• Book CDLXVIII: "Artifact Arsenal" -- A spellcaster seeks many magical artifacts so he can try to usurp the Sorcerer Supreme, which is someone we know.
• Book CDLXIX: "The Power Plates" -- Plates that grant the user powers (and megalomania) surface. One man seeks them out.

Don't think that I did these ideas yet, but if I did, I think that I can work around that.

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Who Are You Talking To?

"Who are you talking to?" Saffa asked, giving a look as if she feared for their sanity. "Cloak, you're not hauling anything."

"Actually, I am. You just can't see them." Cloak said, very seriously.

"Very funny," Saffa said, not appreciating the joke. Which was a good thing, as Cloak wasn't joking.

"He's serious, Saffa," Blaze said, cordial but serious.

"Okay, then but what --"

"Weren't Phoenix, Blue, Aquilai, and Parker with you?" Abby interrupted.

"About that --" Gaz began.

"Where is he?" Helen said, fretfully. "Where is Parker?"

Cloak saw from the corner of his eye how one of the geist wraiths wretched and writhed at Helen's beginning sobs. She was beginning to assume the worst.

"They're in the energy bubble," Cloak said.

"Don't you dare patronize me, Realm Walker!" Helen snarled, tears still in her eyes. "There is nothing in that bubble! Don't you dare try to toy with me like that! Or I'll . . . I'll . . ."

"Do you remember the Dementors?" Cloak asked, his tone gentle.

Helen shuttered visibly, but tried to hide it.

"Could you see them?" Cloak asked, already knowing the answer. Helen did not provide one though, so Cloak continued as if she had responded as he presumed that she would have, "I thought not. Does that not prove that you cannot see things that others can."

". . . He's -- he's really in there."

"Yes," Blaze said, "though I can't tell him apart from Blue, Aquilai, or Phoenix."

Six pairs of eyes widened at this pronouncement.

"They're all in there?" Saffa said, unsuccessful with keeping the surprise from her voice.

"Yes," Gaz said, "they've sort have -- uh . . ."

"Lost their bodies." Cloak said, rather unnecessarily blunt. "Look, we need to call a meeting to deliberate on our next move."