Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

New book ideas.

• Book CDXCVI: "Charybdis's Secret" -- The truth about the mythological Charybdis . . . or is it?
• Book CDXCVII: "Creepypastas? Really?" -- The RAFians must deal with creepypasta manifestations.

Titles are subject to change.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Mauler Enters the Fray

"Can't we be adults here?" Nina said, trying to be reasonable. "Now, Malice --"

Malice curled her lip at Nina, looking at her as if she was scum. Naturally, this was very hypocritical of Malice, due to the fact that Mauler was also a Dweller. But she did not share the automaton's unwavering loyalty. Malice was only loyal to herself.

"Now, Malice," Nina tried again before Cloak cut across her.

"Save your energy, Nina. Malice cannot be reasoned with, no matter the consequences of her schemes and machinations." Cloak said, with the merest trace of a feline growl in his voice. "She doesn't care the harm, the destruction, the chaos she sows. As long as she gets what she wants."

"Guilty," Malice said, unabashed.

"Hand it over," Cloak said. "Don't force me to take you down. It won't be pleasant. For you."

"You overestimate yourself," Malice said. She snapped her fingers and Mauler took immediate attention. "Mauler! Defend your mistress."

Mauler stepped in front of her, and Cloak was perplexed. Malice knew better -- Cloak could sense the metal in her mindless stooge. What was she playing at? Cloak was sure that Mauler didn't really have any unique features -- maybe a hand blaster like a Mega Buster, maybe some antigravity boots, and such. But he was no AMAZO.

"You cannot be serious." Cloak said, with folded arms.

"Oh, but I am. You will never have this camera."

Cloak held out his hand, mechbending Mauler (and hating himself for doing it). Then, with the most casual of flings of his arm, he threw Mauler into the nearest tree. He was smashed rather brutally. Cloak had his qualms, but quieted them out of necessity.

"Oh, right . . ." Malice said, as if she had forgotten that Cloak could do that. "Mauler, initiate internal and external repairs."

Mauler's body seemed to be quickly mending itself. Cloak didn't see why this was a thing, he could just do it again and again.

[redtailedsaffa]

Creepypastas? Really?

[Cloak]

Yep. Or was it the title that caused you to respond like that?

Sorry for the delay, more tired than I thought. New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Ninja Vanish!

"Fear what you have wrought, Cloak!" Malice cried out in a rather insane cackle. "Mauler can mend himself faster than you can smash him!"

Cloak smashed him again. He wasn't very impressed.

"Yes, more!"

Cloak smashed him again, frowning deeply. Malice as getting too much of a thrill from this.

"Again!"

"You are one sick puppy," Cloak said, not bothering to do it again, for Malice's masochistic entertainment. She was so heartless that she didn't care about the devotion and utter loyalty that Mauler showed her. Granted, he didn't have a choice, as his free will had been stripped away.

"Do it again." Malice ordered, the manic glee still etched on her face. It was sickening, and yet . . . and yet, it was somehow . . . somehow insecure. Yes, insincere. Cloak couldn't explain it, but he raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Malice raised her empty hands, and pointed at Cloak, in an overly overdramatic way. "Smash him again!"

"Is she serious?" Nina asked, thoroughly incredulous.

"I . . . I'm . . ." Cloak said, perplexed. "I'm not entirely sure anymore."

"Do it again!" Malice ordered.

"I . . . I think she's snapped." Blaze commented. By the way his eyebrows knit together, it was almost as if Blaze was feeling concern for Malice's sanity. Almost.

"Or it could be an elaborate ruse." Cloak said.

"What for?" Blue said, hefting the camera. He had snuck up on Malice and purloined it directly from her hand. "We have what we were after."

Cloak gave Malice a sideways glance, and saw that she was still demanding that he destroy her own minion. Why? There just had to be more to this. There just had to. Malice seemed perfectly sane one minute, stark raving mad the other.

Cloak didn't know if it was some form of Realm Walker bipolar or just some act, and she was just hamming it up. But the others began to leave, and Cloak was the last. He eyed Malice suspiciously and warily. Then he turned to leave too.

[redtailedsaffa]

It was a play on the title, yes.

[Cloak]

Ah.

Well, now this thread has the fourth-highest views. That's something, right?

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
The Tape

Cloak's disquiet, his qualms and uncertainties, did not ebb when they entered the forum. He wasn't sure if Malice's insanity was entirely truthful. It caused him some anxiety, but he tried to ignored it. . . .

Well, ignored it the best he could.

"Okay, we got it." Broken said. "Now what do we do with it?"

"We can't destroy it, naturally." Nina said. "We don't want to kill Phoenix."

"And the Knights?"

"I didn't say that," Nina said, with a coy smirk.

"And the Polarisoid?" Cloak said quietly.

"Pardon?" Blue said.

"Malice had the camera, she must have tricked him into giving it to her. She could have taken his picture. Thereby sucking him into it."

"She could have just killed him." Blaze said.

Cloak shook his hooded head, "No. You Dwellers are not like Realm Walkers. When you die you leave bodies. Residue. There was none of that there."

"Let's get back to business," Broken said. "This camera is rather like a camcorder, with whole boxy thing going on. I wonder if there is a --"

"There's a tape," Cloak said.

"And you know this because?" Blaze said.

"I have had another encounter with another Polarisoid. Different time, different realm." Cloak said, with his arms folded. "I think I remember how they rectified this mess in said realm."

Suddenly, a video cassette, a VHS tape, popped up from the camera, surprising Blue. Cloak caught it in midair. He realized how outdated this item was on Earth nowadays. They would need to find a video cassette recorder -- a VCR -- to playback the tape.

[Cloak]

New shortish chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Bursting the Bubble

"But destroy the camera itself," Cloak said. "Gut it first, if you want. Just destroy --"

Cloak saw a rather hungry look in Yarin's six eyes. He forgotten that Yarin could be a bit of a technophile.

"Watch him.*" Cloak directed. Then he looked over to the communications, and said, "Let's go."

Blaze was took up the directive of gutting the camera and destroying it, along with Yarin, Aquilai, and Goom. And they quickly went through dismantling it. One could argue the point that that the RAFians had no right to dismantle an object that did not belong to them. But one could also argue that the camera was a dangerous weapon, or like a kidnapper's van or something.

In any case, it shouldn't be on Earth. It had too much dangerous potential, it could be too easy abused. This was the rationale, but there would always be opponents to such actions.

***

They put the VHS tape into a rather antiquated VCR in the communications center -- people had stopped calling to report things missing ever since Malice took the camera from the Polarisoid.

"Huh," Mr. Guy said. "It usually display a boat on water."

On the screen, with a black background, were Phoenix, the Knights and the Polarisoid.

"That's great," Broken said, "But how do we get them out of there?"

Suddenly, a tendril of golden-scarlet energy smashed the monitor.

"Cloak, I needed that!" Mr. Guy chided.

The Knights, the Polarisoid, and Phoenix tumbled out of the television monitor. All seven were dazed and disoriented.


*Sorry, Yarin, I couldn't resist.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Skirmish and Threats

One problem was over. But a new one arose.

"Filth! Filth everywhere!" the Knight, Marik, said.

"We must destroy them!" another Knight, Maximilion, said.

"We haven't any weapons!" another Knight, Ziegfried, said.

"Oh, yeah, overlooked something." Cloaked said, looking at the five Knights. "How to do this properly?"

"We cannot possibly kill all these vermin ourselves," said the Knight named Noah.

"Speak for yourself," said the only other Knight to not to have spoken, named Dartz.

"Then put your money were your mouth is." Nina said.

Dartz curled his lip and said, "It dares to address me? An inferior being addresses a superior without being addressed first? Ugh."

"Wrong answer, pallie," Blaze said, with folded arms. "You seemed have forgot where you are."

"Your bigotry is not welcomed here," Blue said.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

From the view outside the forum, five silhouettes streaked above it, on golden-scarlet discs of energy, and landed well outside the forum. They survived the fall, naturally.

***

"You five are cast out," said the recent Knights of Humanity King.

The five Knights were brought before the King of the Knights of Humanity when their exploits became known. Mostly, because they couldn't shut up about it. They weren't very smart.

"But," Marik stammered, "but my liege --"

"SILENCE!" the King roared in deafening tones. "You won't poison our ranks with your taint, with you weakness."

"Your Highness, we are not --" Maximilion said.

"You allowed yourselves to be rescued by non-Terran filth and sympathizers! Worst of all, you allow a nonhuman to capture you! You! Are! WEAK!!! Now get out of my sight, and never come back!!!"

[redtailedsaffa]

I'm assuming the Knight king has his own throne flanked by cats.

[Cloak]

More like carved, ornate serpents.

Anyway, I'm currently planning my way through Book CCCXLVIII ("Mindscape"), and pretty soon I'm gonna have to switch to a fresh notebook, the fifth one for this series.

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
The Ultimatum

"Can have my camera back now?" the Polarisoid said, with a naive chuckle in his voice.

This was met with some of the coldest looks the RAFians had ever issued anyone. Was this Polarisoid truly that naive, that gullible, as to think the RAFians would acquiesce to such a request, no matter how good-naturely put? Was this Polarisoid so truly lacking in good sense to actually issue this request, after all that godforsaken item has put the RAFians through? He simply could not have been serious.

If the Polarisoid picked up on this hostility, he didn't show it. He, rather stupidly, said, "My camera? Have you seen it? May I have it --"

"No." Cloak said, tone stone cold.

"Pardon?"

"No, you can't have your 'kleptocorder' back," Cloak said, a repressed snarl intermingling with the words. This was sufficient to intimidate the Polarisoid. "It is a dangerous weapon."

"It's not a weapon, it's a camera!"

"Oh, save it!" Genies scolded. "You 'abductocam' may not be considered a weapon to your kind, but here, it will be."

"I'm a tourist! I'm supposed to take pictures!"

"Pictures are images, you dimwitted piece of --"

"Parker, language!" Helen scolded quickly, much to Parker's chagrin.

"My! You lot are being unreasonable!"

"Unreasonable?" Saffa snarled. "It is unreasonable to chafe at someone absconding with our landmarks and people? Unreasonable to take offense of our culture and indigenous peoples being pilfered by a mere tourist? What you and your kind do is thieve and take, Polarisoid, under the guise of tourism -- tourism of this kind we can really do without."

"But --"

"'But' nothing!" Phoenix said. "We have confidcated your camera. And you are -- and I believe everyone here would agree -- you are hereby given a choice. You can leave this planet --"

"With an escort." Yarin interjected, both set of arms crossed.

"-- with an escort," Phoenix amended, before continuing, "or stay and be subjected to Terran law."

"Which means," Kelly added, "being charged with grand theft, kidnapping, and attempted kidnapping. You will very likely be given the highest sentence allowed by Terran law."

"The choice is yours, Polarisoid." Cloak said. "And know -- if your kind comes back here, especially with those camera, they will be met with open hostility. So . . . make your choice."

[redtailedsaffa]

The highest sentence is life imprisonment, if I'm not wrong. India still has the death penalty.

[Cloak]

As does America, if I'm not mistaken.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
The Escort

"I-is this all really necessary?" the Polarisoid asked nervously. He was standing right outside his ship, or "shuttle" may be a more accurate term. Cloak and Yarin had, somewhat roughly, escorted him there. This may be grounds for warfare between Earth and Polaris, but Cloak somehow doubted it. It was a planet of tourists with dangerous cameras, not militaristic strategists with weapons of mass destruction.

"Yes," Cloak said gruffly, addressing the Polarisoid.

In any case, Goom, Yarin, and Aquilai were devising a countermeasure against their cameras, coming from the dissection of this Polarisoid's camera. So they couldn't just build an over-large one.

"You needn't be so --"

"I disagree." Yarin said.

"And don't think we don't know about that ship you have in orbit." Cloak said. "Don't try any funny stuff once you're inside there, either. I have ripped a larger ship in half before. I won't hesitate to do the same again."

It was a bluff, Cloak was incapable of being as heartless as he was pretending. But the Polarisoid needn't know that. The alien just gulped and entered his shuttle as Cloak and Yarin boarded Yarin's ship, the Nyac's pride and joy.

They rode next to it, watch it attach to the main ship, which was smaller than Cloak was expecting, and led him outside Terran space. They said and waited for sensors to be unable to detect the Polarisoid again. It took longer than Cloak would have liked.

As the two returned to Earth, Cloak began to second-guess his actions. Did he have the right to do thst? He wasn't even native to this realm, though he has lived in the Prime Universe as his primary residence, despite the jeering and catcalls of the other Realm Walkers. Did that truly make him a citizen of the Prime Universe? Would ever be considered a citizen? Will his heart ever leave him alone to give him pesce?

How nice it must be to be assured that everything that you do is always in the right, that you never make a misstep or mistake. But that also has its pitfalls. People like that generally always underestimate their foes, most always (if not all the time) to their costs.

Cloak kept his heavy heart as he prepared to deal with the potential fallout from his decisions, a burden he would not, could not, put onto anyone else but himself. Their would be consequences, he was sure, but whether or not they were immediate remained to be seen.

[Cloak]

New book ideas, completing a bit of a story arc, so to speak.

• Book CDXCVIII: "Paper RAF" -- The RAFians become two-dimensional in a three-dimensional environment.
• Book CDXCIX: "Soul Smoothies" -- The RAFians must deal with a device that siphons out one's personality, identity, mind, and soul and turns into a frozen yogurt-like smoothie, leaving their body empty husks.
• Book D: "Freedom Pendant" -- An old enemy the RAFians had sealed away is freed, with some new abilities. Potentially a long book.
• Book DI: "Pendant Phantoms" -- The RAFians must deal with the creatures from mythical pendants.

Don't think I rehashed anything. But, with these books, we enter Year Six of the narrative.

New chapter. Last one of this book.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Back to Business

"Is this really worth keeping this thing here?" a lowlife said. His name was Robert Patterson*, and he was a bandit.

"Are you kidding?" said Pat's obnoxious lowlife friend, Glenda Peck.* "With this beast's feathers, we are unstoppable!"

"Yes," said a third bandit lowlife, Drayton Dump. "We wouldn't have a quarter of this loot without them!"

"But the caging and cost of keeping the cantankerous beast more than we --"

The massive roc squawked with disconsolate indignation, which caused the dust to wrench itself loose from the earthen ceiling. The light was limited to a couple of oil lamps, which emitted a very low light. The glitter from shiny bits and baubles were plainly visible.

"Shaddup you --"

"Endangered species," came a new, cold voice.

"Who said that?" Pat said. "God?"

"You wish." said a new voice. "Perhaps he would have mercy upon you."

"Rocs are a Class-1 protected cryptozoological species," said another, far more clinically-toned voice. "Your cartel has been busted. You are under arrest, by International Statute --"

"Who are you?!" Glenda demanded.

"That," Parker continued, as the light now gleamed of his armor in a rather inhuman way, "is not the issue right now."

"You have no right to --"

"Who are you to speak of rights?" Blue snarled, causing the thieves and bandits to shriek like little girls, as he had silently snuck up behind them. He's a ninja, after all -- they're very good at that. "You, who keep that poor creature in a cramped cage, with the merest food and water?"

On the surface, it may look like Blue was being hypocritical, seeing how the Pootang seemed to be in similar accommodations. But the truth was that the Pootang's cage was actually pretty comfy and it was well-fed and well-watered. It just preferred seal meat to anything else, for some odd, unknown reason.

"Your actions had prompted such a reaction." Cloak said, though he blended too well into the darkness. "You thieve and take and loot whatever you can. You don't even realize you have a juvenile roc. His mother will be rampaging with his disappearance. And you don't care do you?"

The RAFians were back to business.

* Thinly-veiled impersonations of three people in my country that I really do not like politically.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

BOOK LXXVI:
A PERSONAL GREMLIN
CHAPTER ONE:
Ineffective Interrogation

Cloak and Yarin were sitting in a chair, bound by thick hemp ropes, both looking rather bored and aloof. Before them was a character that was somewhere between Dr. Gero and Psimon, who claimed himself the most powerful telepath in the world. That might have been true, if that was restricted to humans and/or human analogues.

This character called himself the Master of Minds, Mastermind. Very creative, right? He was not as powerful as he thought himself to be. He might as well called himself a Super Human, only without a hairdo change. In fact, he had no hair, just his brain encased in a transparent case in his noggin.

"I can delve into your minds, uncover you deepest secrets," he was monloguing to the bored RAFians. Figures that after they finished the kidnapped roc chick case they came across this pathetic upstart. "You will swear your loyalty to me, and your secrets remain safe."

Cloak glanced at Yarin and rolled his eyes. He could have just tried it and be done with it. But there was a reason that the RAFians allowed themselves to be captured and bound. This just allowed Mastermind to get egotistical, which nearly always meant that they get careless.

"Are you going to ever shut up?" Cloak said, having had enough of Mastermind's prattling monlogues. "If you're going to act, just shut up and do it."

"How dare you speak to me in such a disrespectful manner! Have you forgotten who captured you?" the pompous fool said, all puffed up. "I shall reduce your mind to tapioca pudding! I . . . I . . . I . . ."

"Can't read our minds," Cloak supplied. "No matter how hard you try."

"Such a pity, too." Yarin said, sadly, shaking his head. "I had anticipated a challenge, not a novice."

Quite swiftly and easily, the RAFians became unbound. Both wore looks of deep disappointment. This pathetic little man wasn't what he claimed to be. It was a shame, really.

"Y-you can't! I . . . I captured you!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Yarin sighed.

"We allowed ourselves to get captured to see if you're the real deal. To see if you're a threat to society." Cloak replied, elaborating. "You'd be lucky to get employment at a carnival. Better stick to the kid bithday parties."

"I am the Master of Minds! I am! Don't doubt --"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Yarin said, as he and Cloak exited the low-ceilinged, bare-walled building.
Outside, it was fairly nondescript, recalling the Flintstones home, only slightly more modern.

"That way," Cloak said, pointing with his forefinger and middle finger together.

[redtailedsaffa]

At first I thought the capture was a training sim.

[Cloak]

Not all of our missions are extraordinary, Saffa. Some are just very mundane. Sorry if I'm coming of touchy or anything. I'm exhausted from work.

Anyway, I've nearly finished planning out Book CCCXLVIII ("Mindscape"), and I, for one, really like the way that it came out. Saffa, this isn't a spoiler, but you shall be in it. With a major part.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWO:
A Little Shop of Corridors

"Helen, are you sure about this?" Shadow said. "Uncle said --"

"Oh, Shadow, it's just a little harmless shopping!"

The Star Sapphire thought it was time for a little R and R, with Parker away on another mission (one of diplomacy) with Richard and Yarin. She thought she'd get out and have a little fresh air.

"In a small, dimly-lit, Asian-themed shop with more corridors than the Library of Congress," Shadow said. The young Realm Walker still did not know how she got roped into coming along on this shopping spree. "In a shop that I am sure wasn't here when the sun was up."

"Oh, you're just like Cloak," Helen teased. "You are worrying too much!"

"And you're not worrying enough!" Shadow countered, not realizing that her uncle would have made the same counterargument if in her shoes right now. "You do not know what dangerous things could be in here. There are other realms where -- oh, never mind. The point is --"

"Ooh!" Helen said, looking at some new, mystical-type bauble.

"The point is that you're not listening to me," Shadow said, with a heavy-lidded look, feeling rather like Lisa Simpson. She decided to make herself heard. "Helen! Listen to me! You have to be careful, you never know if one of these things might be cursed or something. This could very well be this realm's version of Borgin & Burke's -- or whatever that place was called."

Helen was too engrossed with shopping to notice.

"Ugh." Shadow said, getting annoyed. She was so engrossed herself she didn't notice that they were being watched by a fluffy, foot-high creature with bat-like ears. If she noticed it, she probably dismissed it as a miniature chihuahua.* "Helen!! We must be going!"

"Oooh! Look at that!"

"Helen!"

"You think that they'd take credit?"

"Helen, I think you're a shopaholic." Shadow said, weary and wary. Shadow didn't notice that Helen's bag suddenly got heavier and bulged a bit with a slightly moving lump. That she had picked up a stowaway. . . .

*Reference of how my aunt's miniature chihuahua got his name of "Gizmo".