Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

Wait, what? And where did Cloak come from?

[Cloak]

Jarring, eh? It'll be answered in the next chapter.

To tide you over until then, here are a couple of book ideas.

• Book DLII: "Party Time!" -- The RAFians must deal with a pair of ghosts seeking a hedonistic lifestyle.
• Book DLIII: "My Yeerk Thipp" -- A voluntary Controller boy is afraid of telling his mother about his Yeerk.
• Book DLIV: "Boom Blast" -- A man seeks to tangibly weaponize sound itself.

There. Tell me what you think, hopefully I didn't repeat any plotlines.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOUR:
Jetsettin'

"There's Yarin already," Cloak said.  "He must have been listening into communications. He'll pick us up."

"Wait," Abby said, still groggily. "How'd you get here all of a sudden, Cloak?"

Cloak gave the human RAFian a long, piercing look, as if he suspected that she might be playing a joke or kidding, as humans are known to be apt to do at times.

"'All of a sudden'?" Cloak echoed, not taking his eyes off the direction that the ship went. "What do you mean 'all of a sudden'? You and Saffa have been out of communication for at least three of your hours. We got concerned and I came out to see what happened."

"Three hours?" Saffa inquired. "Seriously?"

"Why would I lie?" Cloak countered.

"It must have been the nexus --" Abby began.

"The what?" Cloak said, very seriously.

"Nexus." Saffa said. "They must have had some sort of sleep-inducing --"

"Why were you battling nexus?" Cloak demanded. "And just why was I not told of this?"

"You didn't know?"

"Does it sound like I knew?" Cloak said. "That was incredibly dangerous! You could have been killed. There is a reason why nexus aren't in zoos!"

"Have you ever handled --" Abby began.

"Someone ask for pickup?" Yarin interrupted unintentionally, as the door to the ship opened. Wild, Sakki, Gaz, and Shadow were already onboard.

"We'll get back to this later," Cloak told the other two. Then they followed the direction of the ship.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FIVE:
Strapped and Trapped

"Yes, Master, I hear you," said Garrotik's Herald, the anthropterosaur. "I hear you, Master, I obey."
 
Garrotik's Herald had gathered the Infinity Blades -- the Tempest Blade, the Fissure Blade, the Damocles Blade, the Sun Blade, the Light Blade, and the Gale Blade -- and had stacked them rather like one would stack wood for a funeral pyre or a smile campfire. It was difficult to differentiate either one. It looked like they were obscuring something that could be an Odd Keystone, only about ten times bigger.
 
Their rightful owners were strapped with heavy chrome brackets to cold, steel, upright laboratory tables. Phoenix's was fire-proof, Underseen was incredibly rare tylee metal (which negated his shapeshifting), Faerie's was iron, while the others were plain and generic.
 
"They are ready, Master," Garrotik's Herald said, reverently.
 
"Wh . . . what are you doing?" Goom said groggily.
 
"Quiet, nonbeliever!" Garrotik's Herald snapped imperiously.
 
"Nonbeliever of what exactly?" Phoenix replied, semi-lucidly.

"Quiet, nonbeliever!" Garrotik's Herald snapped again. "The will of Garrotik commands it!"

"Garrotik can go and shove his will up his --" Faerie began crankily, before being cut off.

"You dare disrespect the majesty of Garrotik's divine will?!" the Herald snarled imperiously.

"Okay! We get it. Religious nut." Mithril said, sounding rather punch-drunk.

"The will of Garrotik is the only true path of enlightenment," the Herald said, rounding on Mithril briefly, before turning his back upon them all.

"But why do you need us?" Underseen asked.

The Herald remained silent, as if unconcerned with them now.

"Isn't it obvious?" Horse said, bitterly. "We're sacrifices to his pagan god."

"Oh, wonderful," Faerie said, bitterly rueful.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SIX:
Silence and Speaking

The flight towards where the star fighter, the ship, the whatever it was went was smooth and uninterrupted. Cloak did not know whether this uneventful trip was a good or bad omen. All he knew was that he had the faintest disconcerting feeling that he could not explain, to himself or anyone else. He passed it off as pre-battle jitters -- although he had never really experienced pre-battle jitters to this extent before.

While the others talked about what could potentially lie before them, Cloak lapsed into a deeper, and deeper silence. This seemed to go unnoticed by the others, distracted by what possible dangers awaited them in whatever land they would land on.

"We're in the place humans call . . . Antartica." Yarin announced.

"What . . . in the . . . world?" Saffa asked, perplexed.

Cloak moved to see what she saw. He saw, hidden by all the ice and whatnot, a verdant jungle land. A land thoughly esconced and hidden by the harshness of the ice outside it's borders. The warm was given seemingly by the singular volcano seen in the distance.

"What is that?" Wild asked.

"Never mind that, how is that even possible?" Sakki asked.

Cloak narrowed his eyes, and said, very softly, "So . . . even here, the Savage Land exists. . . ."

***

"Hey! What are you doing to my sword?!" Faerie demanded.

Energy had began to gather on the sword, and was being siphoned off into whatever was beneath it. The more energy that was siphoned from each sword, the duller and more tarnished the blades were becoming.  The RAFians, who had become rather attached to their blades, strained and pulled at their bindings.

"Leave it alone!" Horse screamed, as if she was losing a part of herself.

"Stop it!" Mithril yelled with equal passion.

"Stop it!" Underseen agreed.

"Give it back!" Goom shouted.

"Give it here!" Phoenix called out.

"You'll destroy it!" Faerie cried out.

"That," the Herald said, "is the general idea."

This silenced all six for a moment.

"What?" Faerie said, flatly.

[redtailedsaffa]

What on earth?!

[Cloak]

Sorry about the lack of chapters today -- I'm just not feeling it today. Especially with the kind of day I had at work. . . .

Sorry.

[redtailedsaffa]

That's alright.

[Cloak]

Thanks.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Garrotik's Story

The swords soon clattered to the dirt floor, revealing a stone head, chin level with the ground. It looked rather reminescent of MaloMyotismon and a moai (you know, those Easter Island heads). It had yellow marking around the eyes, and the eyes themselves looked rather like Olmec's from "Legends of the Hidden Temple" -- the Nickelodeon game show in the nineties. It was an overall hideous face, as well as a grotesque head of granite.
 
"Master! Master Garrotik!" his Herald cried out.
 
"His master has a face that not even his mother would love," Faerie said, with acidic sarcasm.
 
Garrotik's Herald smacked her on her temples with his right wing, snarling, "You will show respect to the One and Only Savior."
 
"You're kidding," Phoenix said, tonelessly.
 
"Your lord and master is an Easter Island head?" Goom asked, skeptically.
 
"Hold your tongues!" the Herald snapped. The swords were being slowly swallowed by the Earth around the statue.
 
"You regularly worship slabs of stone?" Horse asked, scathingly.
 
"You DARE to disresp--" the Herald snarled.
 
"They're not enough," said a deep voice, rather like that of the tiger head of the Cave of Wonders. "They expended too much energy in destroying their counterparts . . ."
 
"Master! Master, you waken!" the Herald said, with reverent fervor, Horse's barb quickly forgotten.
 
"Wonderful. Ol' Olmec-Head is awake," Faerie said, with an almost depressive irreverence.

"You think yourself tough, do you, faerie?" said the head.

"Tougher than you, Granite Brains," Faerie said, unimpressed.

"Oh, I see. You think me a parlor trick." the head said, knowingly. "I am Garrotik. And I am quite real. I was, at one time, much more majestic and mighty than the being you see before you. I had everything -- slaves, worshippers, power. Everything the strong, the mighty, the powerful, the all-seeing -- everything a god could want!! I was on the top of the world! I was the most benevolent --"

The RAFians reacted most disbelievingly at this.

"-- the most benevolent dictator any governmental body could have. And what happened? Some upstart thought to challenge me!! A creature from some unknown world had the gall to challenge me!! Garrotik the All-Knowing! Garrotik the All-Seeing! Garrotik --"

"Garrotik the Long-Winded." Phoenix added, snidely.

The talking head (though the mouth never moved) continued as if Phoenix said nothing, "Garrotik the Almighty! But this upstart gets lucky and manages to defeat me."

"And funny how your ego never gets smaller," Goom noted.

"Defeated me and locks me in this prison for countless eons!!" Garrotik raged. "Unable to move, unable to speak! He stole my power from me! He made me forgotten!"

"Not by me, Master Garrotik! Never by me!" his Herald said devoutly.

"And I'm fortunate for that," Garrotik said, rather uncharacteristicall y humble. Then he seemed distracted, as if he senses something, "He comes . . ."

***

Yarin's ship had found a tentative landing point, and everyone disembarked. Except Yarin. Yarin never wants to leave his ship. Cloak was the last one to exit the ship, and from the minute that his foot touched the earth of this Savage Land, he knew.

"Something's wrong," he muttered, mostly to himself. "Something's very, very wrong."

[redtailedsaffa]

Is it just me or do most gods have watermelon sized egos?

[Cloak]

To paraphrase Albert Brooks from "The Simpsons Movie":

"Of course! Have you ever tried being a god without an ego? It's boring! No one listens to you."

And sorry, but no chapter today. After my little fall ( -- see "Totally Random Thoughts"), I'm not really feeling all that into it right now. And you'll have to wait until Monday for more. Sorry.

[redtailedsaffa]

Damn, I hope you're okay.

[Cloak]

I'm fine, Saffa. Don't worry. I came up with a bevy of book ideas in the meantime:
 

• Book DLV: "Killer Kouches" -- The RAFians must deal with some maneating couches.
• Book DLVI: "Star Hole" -- A man makes accidental Horcruxes.
• Book DLVII: "Molecule-Base Mayhem!" -- The RAFians must deal with a man who can manipulate matter on a molecular basis.
• Book DLVIII: "No Place to Hyde" -- The RAFians must investigate allegations of high school athletes using performance-enhancing drugs.
• Book DLIX: "Blue's Clues" -- The RAFians must deal with a rival of Blue's.
• Book DLX: "Facing Your Feelings" -- The RAFians must help a man able to involuntarily take the form of whatever a target hates, fears, envies, hopes for, desires, compassionate about, or loves. He has no control over this ability.
• Book DLXI: "Worm of Doubt" -- The RAFians must battle a Worm of Doubt.
• Book DLXII: "Bounty: Hunter" -- A Shistavanen bounty hunter is after Hunter.
• Book DLXIII: "The Legion Swarm" -- Shenecron ressurrects an old RAFian foe.
• Book DLXIV: "Slag-Spoutin' Saurians" -- The Ssi-ruu hunt Cloak.
• Book DLXV: "The Corona Reges Elementi" -- The RAFians must obtain the Corona Reges Elementi first, before their opposition.
• Book DLXVI: "Hearts of the Elements" -- The RAFians must obtain the Hearts of the Elements before they attach themselves to a human host.
• Book DLXVII: "Lost Faith" -- The populace begins to lose faith in the RAFians.
• Book DLXVIII: "Impersonated Surrogacy" -- A man uses "Surrogacy" technology to manipulate things (like the economy, government, etc.) via fully-autonomous "Surrogates" planted in key positions of power.
• Book DLXIX: "KOH and Koh" -- Koh the Face-Stealer makes a pact with a Knight of Humanity grunt.
• Book DLXX: "Surrogacy Implants" -- A man uses "Surrogacy" implants to control and manipulate people. The RAFians must stop his scheming.

That's it, for now. I'm kicking around another idea, but I'll wait to post that until I hammer out the details. Remember titles are subject to change. Tell me what you think!

New chapter shortly.

[redtailedsaffa]

For a moment I thought KOH meant potassium hydroxide and I was seriously wondering.

[Cloak]

Nah, just realized that the Knights of Humanity had the same basic initials as Koh.

New chapter. Might be a bit short.
 

CHAPTER EIGHT:
They Cry

Cloak stumbled abit as he took his second step on this Savage Land. He had never experienced something like this before. The very elements seemed in vicious turmoil, as if they themselves could feel literal pain. The air itself seemed to quiver unnaturally and vibrate with fear. The land itself seemed to tremble and tremor with fear and terror. The waters seemed to strink away from the source of these anomalies. More and more oddities seemed to be happening.
 
Cloak was nearly overwhelmed by it all. He remained on his feet but it felt as he was being yelled and pulled at from all sides. He could barely see straight. The elements themselves were alerting him to an imbalance. A dreadful imbalance that must be corrected --
 
"Uncle?"
 
A dreadful imbalance in the elements . . .
 
"Cloak?" Gaz said, but her voice sounded distorted to Cloak. "Cloak, what's wrong?"
 
A dreadful imbalance in nature . . .
 
Another voice, who's owner was distorted beyond the point of recognition. Cloak couldn't hear it, couldn't understand it. The elements crying out over the imbalance were too loud. Was Shadow experiencing this chaotic mess of sensory imput? Cloak was too disoriented, too confused, nearly overwhelmed to consider much on this.

"Cloak, nothing's happened yet," Saffa said, clearly concerned. "Everything's okay."

"No," Cloak said, managing to clear the cries of the elements to achieve cognitive thought. "Everything is most definitely not okay."

"Cloak --" Abby said, disconcerted with the serious and deliberate tone Cloak had taken.

"There is much wrong here . . ." Cloak said.

"Uncle, what are you --" Shadow began.

Cloak uncharacteristicall y ignored her. Shadow, while not accustomed to such frostiness, took it in stride, far more concerned with her uncle's rather irratic behavior.

"Uncle," Shadow said, again, her concern paramount.

But Cloak was too intent on ending this elemental imbalance that was somehow in effect just here, in the Savage Land.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER NINE:
Gathering Strength

"IT MUST BE CORRECTED!" Cloak roared, his words intermingling a tiger's loudest, most primal roar. A swirl of air circled Cloak and buffeted the other RAFians away. Shadow was able to remain close due to her own Elemental Mastery. The other Five Element began to join Cloak in rings.
 
"Oh no," Abby said immediately. "Cloak's gone completely nutzo."
 
"No, he hasn't!" Shadow protested. "There is something odd here."
 
"But you're not getting as bent out of shape about it," Wild pointed out.
 
"My uncle has spent more time as an Elements Master," Shadow said, thoughtfully, though still concerned. "He must have some sensitivity to the Six Elements that I do not have."
 
"If he carries on like this," Saffa said in urgent tones, "we won't have to worry about the others -- they'll be killed like us."
 
"Uncle would never kill you guys!" Shadow protested swiftly. "You know that!"
 
"In his current state," Gaz pointed out, "I don't know about that."
 
"He would never do that," Shadow said, stubbornly. "No matter what state he's in."
 
"Look at it objectively, Shadow," Wild said. "Your uncle is in this -- TAKE COVER!!"
 

***

"Yes . . ." Garrotik muttered, quite forgetting his audience.
 
He was beginning to regain his strength -- albeit rather slower than he would have liked. But he had slumbered for so long, if he was honest with himself he didn't know if it was his former glory and power and might returning or just him coming out of his long somnolence and the grogginess of such a hibernation was wearing off.
 
"Yes . . ." Garrotik muttered again.
 
"Is this guy a god or a Megatron?" Faerie said sarcastically, voice flat.
 
"Master," the Herald squawked slavishly, "has your strength begin to return?"
 
"Yes," Garrotik said, ignoring the jeers of the restrained RAFians. "Yes, my power returns, my strength gathers. But slowly. Too slowly."
 
"What of them, my lord?" the Herald said, jerking his head in a most disconsolate and haughty way toward the bounded RAFians. "What of the infidels? The unbelievers?"

"They are of no concern to me, Herald." Garrotik said.

"Guess we're not sacrifices at all," Underseen said.

"I wish not to be impudent, my lord," the Herald said, oozing sycophancy. He did not finish his sentence.

"They are yours to have your pleasings with, Herald," Garrotik said in a highly dismissive way. The way a tyrant allows a starving slave a scrap of meat when they're full and fat. "It matters not to me. I have no need for these pitiful specimens."

"Pitiful?!" Faerie practically screamed. "You call us pitiful, Granite-Face?! Give me back my blade, and I'll show you just how 'pitiful' I am!!"

Garrotik's laugh was a cruel and nauseating thing. "Puny faerie, your Eternity Blades are long gone. Their minute energy was only sufficient to wake me up. You had drained their fable power long before I took that energy as my own!"

"You . . . you . . . you MONSTER!!" Horse raged suddenly.

"Yeah. What's your point?" Garrotik said, distractedly.