Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWO:
The Seekers

"How many, Mauler?" Malice asked.

She stood in front of several beings, which were illuminated fully. They had heads like Sentinels, but their bodies were more like the Manhunters. It made for a rather sloppy design -- as it appeared the heads were like character mascot heads or vacuform masks of sentinels on the stereotypically built male bodies of the machines. They were primarily orange with black highlights and trim. Their eye sockets were blank, as they were turned off.

"How many?" she asked agin, not even looking at him. "How many of my Seekers have been made?"

"Twelve." Mauler said. He was devoid of emotion, and, as such, that's how his response came out. Without emotion. "Twelve total, and still generating. Still building."

Malice was like a little girl impatiently waiting to open her Christmas gifts. She was excitedly, anxiously pacing between the twelve -- which she could have easily counted herself, but she could be lazy like that sometimes. Everyone's prone to a little lethargy once and a while.

"Twelve seekers." Malice said. "Versus how many RAFians?"

"Approximately four hundred and seventy-six, give or take.*"

"Itellsya's intel still proves viable, I hope. Four hundred and seventy-six, you say?" Malice said, replying before Mauler could process a reply, "Well, that's more RAFians then I remember seeing."

"Four hundred and seventy-six are registered.*" Mauler spoke in a calm lilt that unintentionally and unknowingly disguised the monotone of his voice. "This does not mean all are within the forum at any given point. Some have not been to the forum for a while, if data is accurate."

"It matters little anyway," Malice said. The making and programming of the thirteenth Seeker was taking too long for her. She would find a way to speed up production. But for now . . .

"Mauler, activate and launch the twelve Seekers. Set them to destroy the RAFians, Cloak's cretinous cavalcade."

Had Mauler not been stripped of his free will, his emotions, his sentience, and his sense of identity, he might have questioned the wisedom of the act. It would be more prudent to wait, but Malice was impatient. She wanted to see her Seekers in action, she wanted so desperately to see them succeed.

As each was activated, each said in a far more robotic voice then Mauler possessed, "The Seeked cannot escapt the Seeker."

It was heard twelve times before they flew up and away. Away to do their Seeking.


*Not counting lurkers, of course.

[redtailedsaffa]

You actually did a count of the number?

[Cloak]

Not exactly.

It went to the member list, sorted it by position. When to the last page where the first lurker appeared, counted how many there were on that page and subtracted that from the number at the top of the page (it staes "Viewing Members # to #"). The number is more than likely inaccurate, speaking from within the narrative, as there are probably more as it doesn't count the fictional RAFians like Helen and Rotiart (bit of an oversight on my part, but I'm not going to correct it because think about just how long ago Itellsya/Rumor abandoned and betrayed RAF).

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Night of the Seekers

Twelve silhouttes streaked the sky as the sun began its slow descent into the horizon. The Seekers.were coming for the RAFians, their software tuned to scan for the Mark -- but the scannerss in their eyes seemed to mistake every "R" etched in the same style as a Mark. There was no visual discrepancy in it. They did not scan for the unique Unity Energy or anything. They did not have the processor power to do as such, apparently.

These were Malice's perfect RAFian-Killers?

They would occasionally spout out "Nothing Seeked can escape the Seekers" or some derivative of that motto. It got fairly annoying after a while.

Cloak saw them streak toward them. It was a few hours since the who Cold Stare thing, and Cloak was preparing to got to his usual spot and meditate some. Cloak knew at once that Malice had played her next card, but not shown her hand just yet. Cloak couldn't see their details yet, but knew that they were coming for them.

"The Seeked cannot esape the Seekers." Cloak could hear them quite clearly and easily with his feline hearing. "Nothing Seeked can escape the Seekers. Everything Seeked will be destroyed."

"Yeah?" Cloak muttered to himself. "Good luck with that."

Sam happened to be standing nearby, and he saw the twelve automatons begin their approach to the forum, he exclaimed, "Manhunters?!"

"Not unless they are big into crappy cosplay," Cloak replied. "Those heads are more like Sentinels."

"Sentinels?"

"Never mind." Cloak said, quickly. "Even from this distance, I can tell that they're metal. Why would Malice do that? She knows I have mastery over all metals."

"How can you be so sure it's Malice?"

"Well, isn't it always?" Cloak said, waiting for the metal men -- these "Seekers" -- to come within range. He easily crumpled them like soda cans. It was so easy that it was laughable. They plummeted to the ground, twisted metal.

"Hey! You didn't leave me any!" Sam complained.

"You can have the thirteenth, then." Cloak said, pointing towards a latecomer.

"Alright," Sam said, taking off towards the Seeker, taking his time in destroying it as Cloak wondered. Wondered why Malice would send in such pathetically weak villains for them to fight. Did she honestly imagine that they would succeed in killing them? Could she be that deluded?

[redtailedsaffa]

Heh, I did that once, but I botched up the math.

[Cloak]

I may have myself. Who knows? (Or who cares enough to double check?)

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
No Defeat is Worthless

"Twelve . . . gone." Malice said. There was no emotion in her voice, no remorse, no sorrow. No anger. It was quite unusual for Malice. She did not throw a temper tandrum like a child or assume some delusional, poorly-thought-out stratagem. No, she acted quite sane in this defeat. "Yet, no defeat is worthless when sufficient data is acquired."

"Production had been streamlined and made more efficient." Mauler said. It was impossible for him to feel anything anymore. He was little more than a mindless machine, a mechanical manservant. "The Seeker 2.0 automatons are being crafted swiftly enouth that we will soon be at one hundred and twenty within the hour."

"Ah, yes. My Greater Seekers." Malice said, with a dramatic flair that she was so prone to these days. "All outfitted with the durasteel endoskeleton with the adamantium-vibranium alloy."

It did not possess the n^th metal, making it not nearly as explosively volatile. She inspected the Seekers 2.0, which were superficially similar to their predecessors in appearance except they were sleeker, with their heads actually appearing to match their bodies. They all stood nine feet tall, just an inch or two taller than Cloak, and they towered over Malice being over twice her height.* They were colored predominately green and gray color scheme.

"The metamorphic capacitor and facilitators?" Malice barked.

"Installed and operational."

"Very good. Better Mark targeting, scanning, and tracking software?"

"Uploaded and fully functional."

"Excellent. Monitoring cameras."

"Functional and online. They'll transmit as soon as the first Seeker is activated."

"Good. Combat prowess?"

"Yet to be tested thoroughly."

"Well, then. Now seems like a prudent time as any, I'd say." Malice said, with relish, revealing her intentions with a simple, sinister smile. She snapped at Mauler, "Activate them when we reach one-twenty Greater Seekers. And send them on their way."


*This may be a bit of a retcon, but the general idea is Malice stands around four feet tall, Mauler is.around six, and I'm roughly eight. I'm as well reading up on Tasmanian devils to make sure my presentation of Malice is rather accurate -- it is, I think.

[redtailedsaffa]

The title is so misleading. Sounds like a hero chapter.

[Cloak]

Not to me, since I hear Malice saying it in my head.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Seekers Deployed

The RAFians were afforded some time to rest, oblivious for the most part of the attack (at least until the early morning briefing). The sun had already set hours ago and was now rising, almost lazily. The morning itself seem to mirror the languidity of the rising sun.

Cloak was on the shore, by the lake, meditating. He easily ignored the splashing and frolicking of the other RAFians. There was little time left in the year to enjoy such temperate weather. Cloak didn't really care, although he really didn't care for snow, personally.

"Nothing Seeked can ever escape the Seeker," came a monotone, robotic voice.

They came and landed without preamble. The RAFians weren't really perturbed all that much. After all, they had faced more intimidating threats. And these 120 Seekers were only nine feet tall. Dino towered over them at her full size, seeing them rather like edible raptors.

"You have been sentenced to death," one Seeker said.

"Oh, that's a new line." Sam said.

Cloak didn't care. He wasn't too pleased with tthe disruption of his meditaton. These may have been the next generation Seekers, but they certainly weren't anything to write home about.

Suddenly, their hands spun like turbines, transmogrifying into various blunt weaponry. An apache war club, a samurai kanabo, a Spartan shield, nunchakus, a baseball bat (seriously, a baseball bat), a Shaolin staff, a Shaolin whip chain, a Maori shark-tooth club, a Maori taiaha, a war hammer, a ball and chain combo, a targe, a Hun lasso, brass knuckles -- there was probably more, but Cloak either could not see what they were or did not know what they were. But did it really matter?

"Whoa," Sam said, having made a green energy construct of a buzzsaw to try to cut down the Seekers. While he was making very productive headway, it was somewhat more difficult than last time.

But not by much. Within moments, the ground was littered with debris from the defeated, deactivated, and destroyed Seekers. Faerie was reported to have said, "Aw, no more?"

[Cloak]

Guess RAF Party is overshadowing this thread . . . anyway, new book ideas!

• Book CDLXX: "Valhalla Vanguard"/"Deadliest Warrior" -- A deadly warrior seeks out Parker.
• Book CDLXXI: "Rise of the Third Army" -- The Guardians seek to destroy their own Lantern Corps, and their grievances with Cloak (and other Realm Walkers) are explored a bit.

The titles are subject to change.

Now, a new chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
Undaunted

"Confirmation: all one hundred and twenty have been destroyed," Mauler intoned tonelessly some hours later.

"It matters little," Malice said, waving her hand dismissively, as she hemd the other behjnd her back. They were now in an abandoned aircraft hangar, another one of Malice's dens, or lairs. "We acquired plenty more requisite data. So, those Seekers served their function."

"Fourteen Seekers, Version 3.0, completed." Mauler announced, deadpan.

"Fourteen, huh?" Malice said, appraisingly.

"Insufficient material and components for more," Mauler said.

"Yes, yes," Malice said, waving away the concern. She saw these Seekers as nothing more than cannon fodder as well. She had easily stolen the material and componets beforehand, and would just simply take what she needed next go 'round. She had no qualms about it, none at all. "They are enough for now. These Ultra Seekers should gather the final bits of actual data we require. Their enivitable destruction will not be in vain."

Maul did not answer, because, after all, Malice was simply speaking to herself jnstead of requesting anything for him to supply an answer. That would come momentarily.

"Yes, all of this was necessary," Malice was saying, addressing herself an no one else as she continued to assess and appraise the Seekers.3.0, seeing if everything was to her liking. "Careful planning -- that's the only thing that my previous schemes lacked. That, and vision. Focus. Deliberation."

Silence fell, as she gazed at the twelve-foot-tall automatons. They were colored predominately purple and gold, and looked more human than their predecessors, though the faces looked as.plain as any of the other Seeker models. Their limbs seemed blocky and heavy though.

"Metamorphic capacitors and facilitators?"

"Fully functional and more sophisticated than the 2.0 model, they shall be able to form bladed weapons."

"Excellent." Malice said. "The experimental tech?"

"Installed."

"Wonderful. Sent them out, like the adorable little lambs they are." Malice said, as Mauler complied. "Little lambs . . . for the slaughter."

[redtailedsaffa]

Heh, I didn't even attend the party, as a matter of fact. Too busy sending out nearly 300 text messages.

[Cloak]

Ah.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
An Inconvenient Onslaught

It was the next day. Cloak was standing at the edge of the lake, pondering, wondering. Those previous Seekers . . . they were absolutely no match for the RAFians. Any RAFian could have slew them single-handedly, so much so that it had become little more than a game for them. Cloak did not share in their ambivalence and overconfidence, he was in fact concerned by it.

Malice had fought and schemed against them for a long time now -- not quite a year, but still long enough to cause Cloak disquiet. It should have not been this easy. It really should have not been this easy.

"Oh, Cloak," Gaz said, chastising him playfully. "You worry too much."

"It isn't like Malice to be this careless," Cloak said, stubbornly. "She would know our capabilities much better than this! Those Seekers were laughable!"

"Are you sure that this what you think is happening, or just your pride talking?" Saffa said.

Cloak said nothing, and wore a quite severe, very dour look.

"Oh, don't be that way." Abby said, blithely. "Even Malice could have an off day or two!"

Cloak said nothing, but folded his arms in a very austere way. Then they came, like a swarm of locusts in fourteen silhouettes. But Cloak did not gloat. He worried if the others might get overconfident from the first two hordes. No, he was letting his doubts and innate paranoia get to him again.

No words were wasted before the battle commenced. These Ultra Seekers proved to be a rather steep learning curved, and they were not the pushovers their predecessors were. The RAFians struggled battling them. The Ultra Seekers possessed a regnerative ability that the RAFians found that they had to burn out to even make a dent in their numbers.

"Well, this is a significant challenge," Faerie said.

"Nothing Seeked escapes the Seekers." one of the Seekers said.

"Oh, shut up!" Faerie replied.

It was a long and arduous task, but it was doable. And they completed it.

And it was all according to Malice's big master plan.

[Cloak]

*wonders if it would be in bad taste, unfair and self-entitled, or just plain rude, to remind Saffa that she didn't make a PDF file of the last book when she was and is clearly very busy, as indicated in her last post.*

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
The Magnum Opus of Seekers

"Total destruction of Seekers pending confirmation," Mauler announced blandly.

"Huh. It's taking them longer than I anticipated." Malice said, in a benign, thoughtful sort of way. "It's almost disappointing. How is the data collection coming along."

"Data is being collected at an uninterrupted rate. It is compiling and being filed away as we speak."

"Excellent." Malice said. "Then the true meat of this scheme can finally take off. Just as soon as Cloak and his nitwits --"

"Confirmation: all Seeker 3.0 units have been destroyed, and the data is ready to upload." Mauler interrupted.

"Excellent!" Malice said, ignoring whatever impertinence she felt when Mauler interrupted her. She headed over to a more moderately sized seven, eight-foot tall Seeker. Her "Master Seeker". It was primarily black with gunmetal gray accents and highlights. It looked more like Master Mold from "X-Men then a Manhunter, although its gunmetal gray face resembled a Manhunter more than Master Mold. Its eyes were shut and it was powered down. "Begin the upload sequence, Mauler. And be quick about it!"

Mauler quickly acquiesced without a single complaint or query. The upload went about as fast as you'd think it would. It would take hours to compile from the upload, and Malice was perfectly aware of this. She didn't care. She knew these six Master Seekers would be more than a match for the RAFians. They woukd be able to generate any melee weapon -- perhaps even projectile weapons -- from their vast, sophisticated databanks. They would be able to generate any injury within a matter of seconds, and their duraplastic "skins" and frames made them lightweight, agile, and, best yet, immune to Cloak's mechbending. They will be able to scan for any signs of weakness and exploit them. They will also be beable to pinpoint, lock kn, and target their objectives by their Mark. They can even detect a Unity Energy discharge.

They would be very dangerous foes for the RAFians. Very dangerous.

And yet Malice repeatedly refuses to acknowledge one danger. She never really considered the possibility of a Seeker gaining sentience, gaining an identity for itself. Never really entertained that a sentient Seeker might decide, whether out of a superiority complex, self-preservation, or a simple mean streak, might wonder why it had to take orders from her. Might decide to disregard any order she gave and operate on its own prerogatives and initiatives. That it might form its own opinions and agendas.

True, she did implant an A.I. limiter and hardwired unwavering loyalty into their programming, but that didn't mean they could never fail. It failed with the geist wraiths, but one could reason that was because they had free will before, and the Seekers had never experienced free will.

Eventually, they were ready to be sent out into the field. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, crap! I forgot about the PDF. I meant to get it done, but I have short-term memory problems. Thanks for the reminder Cloaky.

[Cloak]

Ah, any time. I was afraid I was being impolite and imprudent about it.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Humble Pie Tastes Horrible

Cloak still had his qualms, but he was always a suspicious, paranoid, if not sagacious person. His disquiet could simply amount to nothing, nothing but delusions, but he somehow doubted it. Cloak had always been a pessimist, or "realist" as some would say. Considering his past, it was not a farfetched way for him to be somewhat of an introvert.

He watched as the RAFians easily rebounded from the serious bout with levity and laughter. Cloak could never bounce back so quickly. He had to dwell on things, as was his nature. He always had to think over things and overanalyze them, no matter how long removed the event was.

Look at the case between him and his mother. It happened a while ago, but he still thought about it. He didn't feel the rage of the injustices that he had to endure by her hand, for the only crime of being her son, having to endure constant, neverending comparisons to his father (who she HATED with a fiery passion), . . . her knack for emotional blackmail (fear, obligation, and guilt -- all wielded as weqpons). These feelings eventually ebbed over time, and he began to feel a deep sadness whenever he thought about it instead.

He could accept what happened, though he may not have liked it, but it happened. Nothing could change it. No, not even Aquilai's TARDIS, as such things do not work in the Nexus, or affect Realm Walkers in such a way.

Cloak spent several hours with these ruminations. He psychoanalyzed both himself and his mother. He kept having to wonder, what exactly made his mother like this? There just had to be a reason. They say narcissism stems from entitlement and fear, but Cloak couldn't begin to hazard a guess where --

His thoughts were interrupted when he spoted six Seekers streaking straight for the forum. Was this here plan? Sending wave after wave after wave of Seekers? She couldn't have an endless amount of supplies and material to make them. She already used a monumental amount. Surely, these were last.

"Ah! More!" Demos said, allowing his demonic bloodthirstiness bubble up beneath his demeanor. "I yearn to rend them to -- OOOOOOOOOF!!"

He recieved a swift kick upside his head. These Seekers were faster than their predecessors, obviously. The damage was healed far quicker than Felix Fixit Jr.'s hammer, but Demos's anger didn't dissipate as quickly.

"Hey! Wait for the quips to be -- UGH!" Demos lectured before getting punched kn the gut.

"Hey!" came a mangled voice. Saffa was in midmorph to Tyrannopede, but the Seekers did not wait until she finished. She had to demorph quickly, shrink rapidly . . . or die. The Seeker would not relent its attack, but was quickly distracted by Underseen.

They weren't being as merciful as their predecessors were. They were dangerous.

Cloak glanced to his left and saw Esty there. Even she was having trouble. She was a restricted as Cloak himself was. But they could hold off the six . . . hold them, so the others could escape.

"Go!" he shouted. "Go! Esty and I will hold them off. Get away!"

"What about you?" Abby asked, having been in the same situation that Saffa was in previously.

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT US!!" Esty shouted, agreeing with Cloak's plan.

"But --"

"GO NOW!!!!" Cloak roared to all the RAFians.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
Safe-For-Now House

"Three-to-one," Esty said, standing to Cloak's right as the Seekers approached them both. The other RAFians had escaped, though some had some reluctance to do so while others, like Rotiart didn't waste any time. "And these are no pushovers. We have no back up. So, summing up, what do yo think of our chances?"

"Considering that neither of us can really use our powers at their absolute zenith without undue damage to the planet -- whether it be igniting the atmosphere, causing a massive storm, or whatnot --I don't think its good. Besides, they'd probably just regenerate from it." Cloak said.

"But they couldn't kill us," Esty said.

"Doesn't mean that they won't try," Cloak said, very seriously. "Besides, you never know what you can live through. There are worse things than death."

But the Seekers had stopped stock still for no reason. Their cold, expressionless LED eyes revealed nothing about what was going on behind them. Cloak knew it wasn't good.

"Prerogative update recieved," they all said in a creepy unison. "Target termination postponed for the time being. Retargeting . . . retargeting . . . retargeting . . ."

"Um, any idea what this is about?" Esty asked. "You understand the way Malice thinks better than I do."

"They aren't targeting us now," Cloak said slowly. "But that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. We are -- at the risk of sounding immodest -- we are the two RAFians with the most raw power. Why not try to take us out first? Unless . . ."

The Seekers flew off, like bloodhounds on a scent.

"They're after the others!" Cloak and Esty shouted together.

Of course, Malice would want Cloak to survive and be conscious when she destroyed his surrogate family, his RAFian friends. She would take immense pleasure in it, and it also proved that Malice did put a safeguard in the Seekers. She disabled them from achieving true autonomy, they are dependant on her instruction.

Esty and Cloak, naturally, followed them.

***

"I really don't like coming here," Horse said.

"We didn't have much choice, dear sister," Guy said, tersely.

"I know that, Guy." Horse snipped. "I meant because of what means. We never come to this fallback place unless we have to."

They looked over the plsce, and saw Kelly, Goom, and Broken tending to the injured. It happened so quickly, and so ruthlessly and viciously. They barely had time to acquiesce to Cloak and Esty's demand.

But they were safe here. They could regroup here and come up with a plan. Communications were down though, Aquilai and Yarin were fiddling around with it, trying to get it to work.

"I hope Cloak and Esty are alright," Nina said, looking towards the entry point.

"We all do," Shenmue assured her. "We all do."

"Right now, it's all we can do to tend to the wounded." Richard said heavily to Phoenix, SuperNate and the other mods. "It's a miracle no one was killed."

"Poor Saffa and Abby came close, though," SuperNate intoned gravely. "We can only hope that Cloak and Esty can stop them."

"And what's to stop Malice from sending more of them?" Phoenix asked. "Stronger and more deadly this time around?"

<No amount of materials are infinite.> Russell said. <She would run out of those resources eventually.>

"But we don't know what her resources are," Richard pointed out. "Otherwise we could have limited her acess to them before now. Right now, we can't do anything on the offensive."

[Cloak]

Alrighty, I have finished planning out the chapters for Book CCCXLI ("Dial-A-Parasite"), which probably will be a very morally-gray book. I can't say more, or Saffa will hurt me.

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Nowhere to Hide

The sound of jet propulsion was quite audible all of a sudden. The RAFians weren't sure what it was, but remained hunkered down, hoping that the dense upper canopy of the forest could hide them.

But the Master Seekers were not so easily fooled. They were not organic, their eyesight was far superior. They were also targeting the RAFians by their Marks. Yet another liability that came from the Marks . . .

The RAFians quickly decided to try to move out stealthily, unnoticed by the Master Seekers, which appeared to hover in the air. They assumed that they were still looking for them through the thick foliage. Dino actually blended into this foliage surprisingly well, while Horse stuck out like a sore thumb, in seal form and human form.

They had locked on to the RAFians, locked on their Marks, but yet, they did nothing. Why?

"Requesting permission for pursuit," one of the Seekers said, revealing the reason behind their hesitation. It must be another contingency of Malice's, to prevent their sentience and autonomy. After the briefest of silences, another Seeker said, "Acknowledged."

They decended below the tree line, towards the forest floor. They landed to ominous silence, and the place appeared to be deserted. The Seekers had briefly lost their lock-on, and now recommenced with their scanning.

"Marks detected." one Seeker stated, as they suddenly sank to their knees into the soil,though the machines did not react at all. They had no emotions with which to react with. They were just soulless machines without conscience.

"You noticed me," Cloak said, sarcastically, as he burrowed up from the ground rather like an Excadrill. His voice still drenched with sarcasm as he continued, "I'm flattered!"

"Does not compute," one Seeker said.

"Only one logical possibility," another said. "The star and the infidel knew the location of the hiding place."

"Theory: They know where the others are hiding now."

"Theory: They know how they are blocking our scanners."

Esty was at Cloak's side as the Seekers were coming to this conclusion. She looked worried about this.

"They're showing sufficient intelligence to know cause and effect," Estelore said.

"So they're smarter than a Congressman," Cloak said. "So what?"