Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh man that is one helluva way to end a chapter. *mic drop*

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Denial

Ricky was silent for a moment, but when he "spoke" again. <You don't know what you're talking about.>

<There is no shame in it, Ricky.>

<Don't talk down to me like that!> Ricky snarled in blatant overreaction. <I am perfectly normal.>

<Having Asperger's is nothing to be ashamed of, Ricky. It's not abnormal.> Yarin said.

<I don't have -->

<You were officially diagnosed a few months ago,> Yarin said.

<No, I wasn't. I took the tests but they were, uh, inconclusive!>

<Ricky, you do yourself no favors by lying to yourself.>

<I'm not!>

But he was, and he knew he was. He refused to believe it because he did not want to believe it. He did not want to be different like this, didn't want to be the outsider at school, he didn't want to be that weird boy that the other kids mocked and teased. This would just give them more ammunition against him.

<You're not doing yourself any favors, Ricky.> Yarin intoned gently. <It also explains why the mind control cards don't work on you, but clearly works on the others. Your neural biochemistry is different from the others, which allows them to be subject to the mind control.>

<So what? I can't do anything to stop him. The Hatter will eventually find me out. I dunno what he'd do with me when he finds out.>

<But you are doing something to stop him.> Yarin said. <Just tell me where you are.>

<I couldn't answer that, even if I wanted to. Rollo and I got lost in the sewers and stumbled upon a tea garden, I think it's called.>

<Tea garden, you say?> Yarin said. <Hold on, we should be able to free you soon.>

<Yeah. Right.> Ricky said, with disinterested sarcasm and a dull tone.

[guitarhero01234]

I'm starting to get really invested in this one. I'd kinda like to see more of Ricky after this book, there's probably a lot more you can do with his character.

[Cloak]

Perhaps, GH. Perhaps.

New chapter. This chapter may get into some dark areas.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Facade Fumbled

"They're in some sort of tea garden," Yarin reported dutifully.

"Tea garden?" Faerie said, voice heavy with skepticism. "Seriously?"

"Down here?" Cloak said, equalling Faerie's skepticism. "There's no way that the plants necessary for such a garden could stay down here and live. I don't think they'd survive. Then again, I'm not a botanist."

"I'm with you on that, Cloak." Parker said. "You certainly aren't a botanist."

"Very funny," Cloak said dully, fighting an urge to ferrokinetically trip him up. Now wasn't the time for slapstick. Perhaps later, at a far more appropriate time.

"Cloak, are you within Earthsight range?" Yarin asked, pragmatically.

It turns out that he was. And he discovered something rather odd about this supposed tea garden.

"Well . . . that makes more sense, I suppose." the Realm Walker muttered.

"What is?" Faerie said, at once.

"Tell you on the way." Cloak said. "This way. Come on!"

***

"Such lovely little poppets," the Hatter said. He was much too close to them now. Ricky stayed stiff and still, eyes shut. He had to be careful not to clamp them shut, the Hatter would notice it.

Ricky was beginning to hear sounds that he was hoping that he was misinterpreting the meaning of which. And wish he could forget. He was just happy he didn't have to see anything.

Then Ricky realized. If this crusty old man came over and started to do the same or similiar to him. He would not be able to keep up the facade. He would no longer be able to maintain this charade. He would have to drop the pretense, as he would fight back against it. He would resist.

He would fail. He would have to abandon Rollo in order to save himself. He didn't want to do this. He didn't even want to come down here. He never wanted to stay here. He never wanted . . . he never wanted any of this!! All he wanted was all the stereotypical things you saw sitcom families have, for a boy his age. But no. When ever something good happens to him, ten more bad thjngs take their place!! Why did he never get his wa--

"No! Stop! Don't touch me! DON'T TOUCH ME!!"

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh my god.

[Cloak]

I did say we were going to hit a dark area.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Irate Ire

The Hatter recoiled at once. He had believed that this was one of his precious poppets, one of his coveted little dolls. To him, it was like a pet that had decided to turn against him and bit his hand.

But, in his heavily-skewed mind, it couldn't be because his mind control technology wasn't sufficiently equipped to deal with the mind of someone with Asperger's syndrome. He didn't even consider that. But, granted, he didn't know about this facet of Ricky's. That Ricky retain his own mind because of this fact.

"You defy me?" the Hatter said, speaking more like a mechanic looking for a problem in a small car.

"You bet your obscene, garish hat that I do, Hatty!" Ricky snarled, pulling as far away from the Hatter as possible. He was bracing himself for a fight . . . which he knew, on a visceral, bestial level, he would enjoy immensely.

"'Hatty'?" It was astonishing that 'Hatty' was the only thing that was taken from Ricky's exclamation. The Hatter was appraising Ricky like a broken car again. "The card may have blown out . . . but no, that's not possible, there would be damage of a noticeable degree. The others seem to be working properly, so the link-up failing can't be what happened. Maybe if I upped the power on the master control unit?"

He scratched his head very oddly, as if not to jostle his ludicrously flamboyant hat too much. Ricky noticed this almost immediately, but did not know what to make of it. Perhaps he should be looking for escape, a way to leave this horrid place. But Ricky was as stubborn as Cloak, and that was saying something.

But Ricky had already decided. He wasn't leaving here until, not only Rollo, but every other child was safe from this evil pedophile. He could assuage his conscience if he did leave and leave these other kids to the pleasings of this deranged man.

"Come here, poppet," the Hatter commanded.

Instead, Ricky reached up , grasped the card firmly from behind his ear and took it off. Ricky looked at the Hatter with the same amount of rage, of hste, and of discontent. He held the card in his hand, and crumpled it until the minute, intricate circuity within it cracked, popped, and crackled. The Hatter decided to take Ricky as a more legitimate threat right then and there.

"Do you have any idea what you just did, boy?!"

"I destroyed the card that failed to take control of my mind," Ricky said.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to make one of those cards?! How many materials thst I need?!"

"Do you have any idea of just how little I care?"

"Oh," the Hatter growled, advancing on the boy hostilely, "I'll MAKE you care!"

"Oh," came another voice, "I don't think you will be doing that, you lecherous loon. At all."

The last sentence was a threat.

[redtailedsaffa]

What an entrance.

[guitarhero01234]

Please tell me it's curb-stomp time. Because I would enjoy that a lot.

[Cloak]

In due time, GH. In due time.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
A Coward's Defense

It was Parker who spoke. He seemed rather unintimidated by this lecherous, "Alice in Wonderland"-obsessive, little nerd. He was rather disappointed with the perceived lack of challenge. He wore this feeling very obviously in his body language.

"What's this?!" the Hatter demanded, grasping his hat in an almost fretful manner.

"You guys actually are RAFians," Ricky said, surprised awe evident in his voice. His eyes were on Cloak, who wasn't too sure that he cared for the attention, the hero worship. The Realm Walker was never too fond of the spotlight. Yet, some of his images had gotten onto television when the whole paparazzi thing happened. "Real RAFians."

"Looks like we have a fanboy," Faerie chortled quietly.

The boys, however, focused on the Hatter.

"What's all this, then?!" the Hatter said, fretfully twisting his hat on his head. "You dare to defy my sanctuary?! You dare to befoul my inner sanctum?"

"You just make me all kinds of sick," Parker spat with a distasteful sneer.

POW!!

Out of nowhere, a cannonball shot out of his hat. None of the RAFians moved an inch. Not a nanometer. The cannonball neared, looming to strike Cloak head-on. And still not one of them moved.

"Look out!!" Ricky shouted, but his warning was in vain.

The cannonball passed harmlessly through the Realm Walker. It wasn't real, but a hologram. The Hatter began to vigorously twist his hat on his head in a rather nervous way.

"You think we haven't dealt with holograms before?" Cloak said, his voice low as a tiger's growl. "You think a holographic tea garden would have fooled us?"

"You know NOTHING!"

Suddenly, the other eight kids stood up at once. He, without a single word, had them stand up, as the kids still possessed glassy, unfocused eyes. The Hatter's beady eyes gleamed out from beneath the moderate brim of his hat.

"Of course," Yarin said, quickly realizing what when on. "The neural interfaces had changed from requiring auditory imput to direct neural commands from the master interface control."

"Huh?" Ricky said.

"English, please, Yarin!" Faerie said, exasperatedly.

He was the one in my head, Ricky realized.

"That was English." the Nyac sniffed.

"He said that the master mind controlling thing is allowing Jervis McDowall there to control the kids doesn't require him to tell what to do aloud." Cloak summarised.

"So he's going to use them to attack us," Parker anticipated.

"Uh . . ." Ricky said, pointing. The eight kids were surrounding Jervis, a wall of flesh and innocence. A coward's shield.

"I'm really beginning not to like this guy," Faerie growled threateningly.

[redtailedsaffa]

This is so good.

[guitarhero01234]

Disturbing, but good

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
The Crumbling Defense

"You're in good company there, Fae," Cloak said. He scrutinized the situation, examining everything he could possibly ascertain. Jervis was just short enough to be hidden behind all the kids when he stooped over, which was naturally doing. His hat peeked over their heads though.

"The cards!" Ricky shouted at once, reminding them, trying to give the RAFians an edge. "The cards mind control them!"

"And removing them prematurely will cause their precious little heads to explode." the Hatter said at once.

"He's lying!!" Ricky insisted.

"I know." Cloak said, knowledgeably.

"Bothersome brat!" the Hatter seethed. "There is no way I'll allow you to get close enough. Each one of my poppets loves being under my thrall. Right, poppets?"

"Yes, Mr. Hat," they all said in the same monotone.

"I didn't know he could make them talk." Ricky said, looking disturbed.

"Jervis," Cloak said, " that was, perhaps, the most pathetic ploy I ever seen."

"What about that Fmek captain a couple months ago?" Parker asked.

"Okay, that was bad, too."

"You take me seriously!" Jervis whimpered.

"Or what? You'll hide behind  more children, you pathetic sack of pedophilic buzzard manure?" Faerie sneered. "Your scope of doing much is prety much nil."

He began to shuffle around, apparently looking for something. Yarin knew what it was immediately, and saw fit to correct what he saw. "Your cards won't work on us, McDowall, not with our Marks."

"We wasted enough time with this oaf," Cloak said, curt and serious. He flicked his wrist and held it as a gust of wind began to blow about the enclosed space. Yet, the cards remained stubbornly in place, especially the ones that were hidden by the costume hoods. But the Hatter's hat blew right off his head by the rising gust.

The kids stood like lifeless dolls, not anything like they were before. It was obvious why.

[redtailedsaffa]

It's the hat, isn't it.

[Cloak]

Well, you're about to find out, Saffa.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Mercy

"GIVE ME THAT BACK!!" the Hatter said, carelessly knocking over some of the kids. Faerie was on it immediately. She deftly was removing the cards as carefully and hurriedly as she could. The Hatter didn't notice.

He was too focused on his hat. He clear had housed the neural interface within it. Surmising this quickly, Yarin telekinetically drew the hat to his upper right hand as if it was on a yo-yo. There he grasped it firmly, although Nyac grips were not like those of the Khoros Tetramands.

"Give that back!" Jervis snapped.

"As I thought," Yarin said, pulling out an inch-tall, millimeters-thick metallic ring with his lower left hand. "The neural interface. And apparently a telepathic probe nullifier. Also a holographic emitter -- looks like what I imagine a Chee's appendix would look like, assuming they have appendices. So, Cloak --"

"I SAID, GIVE IT BACK!!" Jervis screamed. He tried to lunge for it, but found himself being held fast and aloft, by some stone slabs pinioning his arms to his sides. He continued to wail, "GIVE IT BACK!!! GIVE IT BAAAAACK!!"

"Cloak, care to do the honors?" Yarin said, holding out the circuitry-imbibed metal ring to Cloak, who accepted it, and held it in his hand.

"Wait, what are you doing?" the Hatter said, stopping his wailing suddenly, realizing that something may happen to his neural interface. "What are you going to do with my -- NOOOOOO!!!!"

The ring crumbled to metal powder and twisted, distorted shrapnel.

"You had no right!!!" Jervis scream and screeched. "You had no right!!!"

"You want to talk of rights?" Cloak said, voice a dangerous hiss.

"Oh boy. Now he's in for it," Faerie said, rather exasperatedly, plucking the last card off of Dorian.

"Of all people, you want to talk of rights?!" the Realm Walker snarled, advancing on Jervis, in a slow and deliberate manner, his cloak mincing the air around him with each stride. "You take in kids, pretending to be some sort of affable benefactor or something, and force them to were your Wonderland costumes. If they refuse, you take their choice away. You take their choice away and force them to abide by your wishes and your pedophilic goals by functionally elimjnating their free will. I have an idea what you were doing to them, or planning on doing to them before we arrived.  What right do you have to screech and scream about infringed rights?"

Cloak quickly turned on his heel, the very sight of the Hatter was beginning to disgust him as to make the mere sight of him unbearable for fear of losing control over his emotions as he was nearing right now. He acknowledged this fact, and took several breaths to calm himself.

"Parker, contact the Commissioner and his men," Cloak said. "Then he can arrest this sickening piece of work."

"Already on it, Cloak." the SPARTAN replied. His face may have been shielded by his helmet, but by his tone of voice alone, Cloak could tell that Parker felt precisely the way that he himself did.

Cloak looked over his shoulder, and spoke very harshly to Jervis, "Feel fortunate, McDowall. Feel fortunate. Anyone else -- anyone -- would not be so merciful with you, after the heinous acts 'allegedly' committed by your dirty hand."

"No!" Ricky protested. "You can't let him get away that easy! He has to pay for what he's done!!"

Parker gave a mirthless chuckle, "Boy, he will. Inmates in prison aren't too fond of people who've done what he has done -- oh, wait, excuse me, 'allegedly' did. Rest well, boy, knowing that if the justice system doesn't punish him sufficiently, they will."

[guitarhero01234]

I cannot tell you how satisfying this was to read. Awesome work!