Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, the Pootang! Wow, I nearly forgot about him, he's been quiet for a while.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER NINE:
It's Mine

"Cloak! We cannot fight them off!" Aquilai said. "Not like this!"

"Yeah! I know you and Shadow may not have any problem fighting them being functionally blind, but --"

"I know, Sakki!" Cloak said. "I currently looking for an exit strategy!"

"An edit strategy?" Blaze said*. "What the bloody h--"

"An exit strategy!" Cloak enunciated. "An exit strat-- there! Shadow, with me!"

They opened a fissure in the ground, large enough for the lot of them. They yanked everyone into the fissure, sending everyone tumbling head over heel, screaming as if they were on the slide from hell. The Realm Walkers managed to seal the fissure before they tumbled on down.

When the tumbling stopped, silence was cast upon the RAFians, and Shadow. It took a while for them to gather their senses. They all stood shakily on their feet, and put their hands on the rough hewn walls.

"Well, I think I may have lost my lunch back there," Blaze said.

"Thanks for the image, Blaze." Horse said.

"Where are we?" Gaz said.

"A tunnel carved out for excavating auric material," Cloak said. "To put it bluntly, a 'gold mine'."

"Gold mine?" Sakki said, accidentally kicking an old forgotten oil lamp into a crevice, obscuring it from view. "There's gold here?"

"Don't let your avarice get the best of you, Sakki," Cloak warned. "The Orange Lanterns -- er, Lantern -- may seek to claim you as their own."

Cloak placed hand on the rough, rocky wall's surface.

"Besides," he continued, "there is none of it here. The gold's been played out, as they say. There are no active veins in this part of the mountain, as far as I can Earthsight."

"Oh."

"Where to go now? We didn't go underground to get to that shack," Gaz said, prudently.

"It's gonna be guesswork, isn't it?" Blaze asked.

Cloak and Shadow did not answer.

"This way," Cloak said.

"You sure?"

Cloak said, nothing, but glowered at Blaze. Before remembering that he couldn't see him.


*Based on a typo written in the above line. Thought it might be funny.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TEN:
Cave Comfort

They came to a small, cozy cave in a cove-like area. There was a familiarity to it, but none could put their finger on it. But it wasn't the forum.

"This isn't RAF," Horse said. "But why does it feel so familiar."

"I think . . ." Gaz said, hesitantly, "I think that this is where . . . where we sheltered you when you had the, uh, big problem."

"What big problem?" Blaze asked.

"When she grew to fifty-plus times her original size," Cloak said bluntly.

"Well, that means we're going the right way, then!" Sakki said. "Let's get g--uh."

Sakki nearly passed out. Cloak and Shadow easily and quickly recognized that they expended more energy than they thought with the oversized trolls. More energy than was probably prudent.

"No. No, Sakki, we shouldn't get going." Aquilai said, firmly. "And least not until we all recoup our energy some."

Sakki wanted to argue, but her body would not allow her to. So she slumped down against the wall and rested. The others followed suit, but this blindness with the silence made it seem like they were really alone, though the others were nearby.

A little distressed, Shadow sang:

"When the lights went down
And everyone was sleeping,
If I heard a sound,
Like things around me creeping,
She would wrap her tail around me
And tell me, "Don't be scared,"
And I knew that I was safe.
Because . . .
She's always there."

Yes, Faith was a good mother, Cloak noted. Far better than what the both of them got saddled with.

Sakki sang:

"When the storms would come
And things would seem so bad.
When I'd want to cry --"

She added, in speech, "Almost." Having said that she continued:

"I'd listen to my dad.
He'd promise that the rain would pass.
The day would soon be fair.
And I never was afraid,
Because . . .
He's always there."

They all sang in a chorus:

"Always there.
Someone you can count on,
To comfort you.
Always there,
Like a green forum valley,
You can come home to."

Cloak was sitting crossed-legged, apart and aloof, gazing of his blank eyes. He sang quietly:

"I remember now,
Like it was just yesterday.
Sage would hold me close,
And then I'd hear him say,
'You know, I'll never leave you,
You can find me everywhere.
I'm always there.'"

Hidden from the others by their literal blindness, a single tear falls from Cloak's eyea seared the ground slightly.

Then they sang out in chorus again:

"Always there.
Someone you can count on,
To comfort you.
Always there,
Like a green forum valley,
You can come home to."

The others nestle down to nap, and Cloak still "looks" off into space, before finally looking down.

"Always there . . ."

Then he followed suit.

[redtailedsaffa]

Great. Now I feel homesick.

[Cloak]

Sorry 'bout that.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Meanwhile, at the Forum . . .

"They're still not back yet," Saffa said, concerned.

"Relax, Saffa," Guitarhero said, placidly strumming his favorite guitar. "They're big boys -- and girls -- they can take care of themselves."

"No, Saffa's right," Abby said. "It was a simple mission. They should have been back by now. It was like six hours ago, seven or eight tops."

"Could it have gone south?" Underseen asked.

"That's a possibly for any mission," Parker said, pensively. "But I don't like it much either. There were seven of them -- counting Shadow -- that went. That should have been more than enough to secure the building and take down Rex Ruthless."

"There is always the possibility of complications," Helen said, biting her lip in a nervous, anxious way. "We all know this. But, if it went bad, why had they not gotten into contact with us? Isn't that common procedure, policy, or protocol?"

"Their communicators could have been damaged in some way," Goom postulated thoughtfully.

"They could be dead," Rotiart said, bluntly cavalier.

Of course, this was a bad idea, not because he was within earshot of the other RAFians, but he was within earshot of Laserbeak, whom Gaz firmly insisted stay behind. Laserbeak obeyed only reluctantly, because Gaz really put her foot down on this one.

So, naturally, Laserbeak was sick with worry about her, still as overprotective of her as ever. So Rotiart's carelessly crass comment was not taken lightly, and Laserbeak swooped down at Rotiart and began to peck him without mercy.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rotiart protested loudly. "Knock it off! Leave me alone! Stop it!"

"Serves you right!" Saffa snarled. "Next time, watch your mouth! Think before you speak! I know that that is a challenge for you, but still!"

"Get it off!"

The rest of the RAFians decided to ignore him. He was getting his just desserts -- if you want to mouth off obnoxiously, then you take the consequential ramifications of such decisions. This was the lesson Rotiart never seemed to learn, or, at least, remember on a consistent basis.

"Get it off!!"

He ran off, being harassed by the Cybertronian parrot, until Laserbeak seemed to be satisfied that Rotiart lost his flippancy. He settled down in a rowan tree nearby the obnoxious teenager's hiding place, glaring at it and Rotiart mutinously.

"You could have helped me, you know," Rotiart said petulantly, addressing the others. But Laserbeak gave a threatening squawk, and Rotiart withdrew further into his hiding place -- fittingly enough, it was under a large rock.

"Okay," Saffa said, addressing the others, "is there anyway we can track them."

"Well, unless their communicators have been completely atomized, we should be able to track them by those." Goom guessed.

"But doesn't that mean the Banned, the Knights, Malice, or anyone of our increasing rogue's gallery could also track them?"

"I don't believe so," the Goomba noted, "it would require a complex triangulation requiring the use of the Mark, and --"

"We don't need the techno-babble," Parker said, more roughly than he intended, "if it is possible, we need to do it. They could be in jeopardy right now."

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Troll Annexation

"Interesting, very interesting . . ."

The giant trolls were not going to be left alone. Queen and the rest of the Banned had come to their home, looking to swell their army's ranks. Queen's near constant coups had caused her troll army to thin out a bit, and she did not like that. Not one bit.

It was somewhat of a challenge to bend these goliaths to her will and whims. Even she wasn't precisely sure how she managed it, but trolls tended to be not very big on the intelligence spectrum, and were easily manipulated.

Queen took some small sense of delight when these giants resisted her "charms". But they fell to her domination and control. But they were not loyal to her, they had no concept of such a thing. They told her everything.

"Blank, white eyes, you say?" she continued as she blithely interrogated them. "Well, this really unprecedented good news. There has been a disturbing lack of which in recent days, I must say."

Aloth's face was blank, and Yorick just rolled his eyes, arms folded tight. When Queen became haughty and over-the-top like this, she was practically unbearable. And it didn't help matters that Yorick was in a rather irritable mood.

"Yes," Queen continued. She loved monologuing, as clichéd as it was. "Yes, it is clear what we do now. Very clear."

"Go after the seven or eight blinded RAFians?" Yorick guessed, without any real conviction.

Queen gave Yorick a long, distainful, haughty look. Yorick quickly put two and two together, and, despite his initial instinct to just keep his mouth shut, he blurted out, "Queen, you cannot be serious."

"Oh, you know very well that I am," Queen said imperiously, taking offense at Yorick's tone.

"You do realize that it doesn't make any logical sense to do that?" Yorick said, not backing down this time. "I would make far more strategic sense this --"

"Don't you dare question my command?!" Queen shrieked.

"If you keep continually making decision that lack so much in coherent logic and defies all rational reason, well then, someone has to do it!" Yorick shot back.

Aloth was just watching this all play out as if he was at a tennis match.

"I am in charge here, Yorick!"

"I never agreed to that, Queen!" Yorick spat at once. "No one did! You came in and proclaimed yourself leader, the queen of the Banned. Pah! What a joke!"

"No," Queen said, her coice suddenly quiet, silky, and dangerous, "no, Yorick. There is more to that, and you know it. I am the Queen of the Banned because I have the power, the intellect, and the absolute right to it. It not only gives me the power to decide everything we do, but I also control the troll army. Directly. Can anyone else boast such a claim? No? I thought not."

She hadn't waited for Yorick's reply or rebuttal.

"ENOUGH." Queen said, super firmly, after she realized what Yorick's retort was. "My plan is great, just peachy. There are no gaping flaw in it."

"I see plenty, though," Yorick retorted.

"SILENCE!  Queen snarled.

"You first!" Yorick snarled back.

"Are you two gonna make out now or something?" Aloth said, watching the fight raptly, as if he were a kid with a free television, bowl of chips, and watching cartoons.

The two were repulsed at the very thought.

[redtailedsaffa]

[Cloak]

Thanks, Saffa. I think. Anyway, new book ideas.

• Book DCCXXVIII: "Resurrection Beast" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XXXII.
• Book DCCXXIX: "Hand of Doomsday" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon CVI.
• Book DCCXXX: "The Light Knight" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon X.
• Book DCCXXXI: "Psychro Psycho" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XIX.
• Book DCCXXXII: "Tech Tick" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XXXIV.
• Book DCCXXXIII: "War Machine" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XLII.
• Book DCCXXXIV: "Nightmare Boggart" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XLVII.
• Book DCCXXXV: "Shadow Puppet" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon XLVIII.
• Book DCCXXXVI: "Splash Abyss" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon LXXIII.
• Book DCCXXXVII: "Blade Obsession" -- The RAFians deal with Weapon LXXIV.
• Book DCCXXXVIII: "Datacard Reclamation" -- The RAFians strive to recover the datacards.
• Book DCCXXXIX: "Oh, Mumsy and Daddy Dearest?" -- Slayer strives to kill his progenitors.
• Book DCCXL: "Miserly Mess" -- The Music Miser has a serious problem. . . .
• Book DCCXLI: "Favors Owed" -- Shenecron calls upon a favor.
• Book DCCXLII: "Shenecron's Spunky Offer" -- Shenecron sends his minions to several seemingly disconnected from each others.
• Book DCCXLIII: "Another Offer" -- Shenecron offers a trio a deal, a Hobson's choice.
• Book DCCXLIV: "Unwanted Attention" -- The Music Miser attracts unwanted attention.

Remember, all titles are subject to change.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Moving On

The night passed quickly, it seemed. Daylight poured into the accommodating alcove, unnoticed by the blinded occupants. Shadow as the first one up, which was odd, since her uncle was usually up before the sunrise.

Shadow got a mischievous little thought. There was a stream nearby, and she needed to wake up her uncle and the others. Shadow couldn't help but smirk a simian smile at this prank idea.

She actually began to get up and go in that direction, smoothing out the cloak she had slept in on the way up. She tried to walk very quietly. She tried ever so hard. But before she even reached the mouth of the deep recess in which the rest slumbered, she heard --

"Don't even think about it, Shadow."

"Uncle?"

"I wasn't born yesterday, Shadow." Cloak said, getting up. He was a bit surprised that he no longer saw a deep blackness, he could make out the difference between light and dark, but still nothing really beyond that. "I pulled that trick on your Aunt Dagger once."

"Why?" Horse asked, blinking blearily.

"She needed to wake up for school, and she had annoyed me the night before." Cloak said, in a cavalier, conversational sort of way.

"School?" Sakki asked. "Realm Walkers have school?"

Cloak wore a look of perplexed incredulity, before remembering they couldn't see his expression. "Of course we do. Humans aren't the only species that educate their youngsters. Isn't this obvious?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Sakki said.

"We should get on our way," Cloak said, quickly, deliberately changing the subject.

They did so, and they had no idea what they were in for.

[Cloak]

This book may be shorter than the standard twenty chapters. But, considering the lengths of some of the past books (and some of the future ones), I think it'll balance out.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Well, This is Unprecedented

"Wait a second . . ." Horse said, blinking. "I can see color again."

"I didn't think seals could see color to begin with," Aquilai said.

"I'm not an ordinary seal -- unless you know of another one that can talk."

"Or bend water and/or ice to their will?" Cloak prompted.

"That too."

"The point remains, though," Blaze said. "I'm starting to see color, too. It's all blurry, indistinct blobs still, but still."

"The Energon is dissipating faster than I thought it would," Cloak said, almost academically, "this is unprecedented, but good."

"Unprecedented?" Sakki asked.

"I figured that it would take a while for it to do so. This was nust an educated guess on my part, as I wasn't aware there was any Energon on Earth . . . well, in this Realm, anyway. Or I may have forgotten, I'm unsure."

"Wait, faster?" Aquilai said. "Does that mean we don't need to return to the forum so urgently?"

"Possibly," Cloak said, vaguely, unsure of the ramifications of this whole Energon-based blindness thing.

"Could it be the fact that you can redirect energy, Uncle?" Shadow asked. "Your Marks link you. Could that play a part?"

"There is just one problem with that,"  Cloak answered. "You're gaining sight back as quickly as we are, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"But you don't have a Mark."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

"Anyway," Cloak said, with a rather abrupt change of demeanor, "we should be thankful for small favors. I don't know what caused the Energon dissipation acceleration -- could be the rest, could be distance from the site of the explosion, could be a number of other things, I cannot be sure -- but we need to press on. We need to get back to the forum."

[redtailedsaffa]

Of course the good thing is not really a good thing.

[Cloak]

Paranoid, Saffa? Good! Very good, considering this series.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Equip Spells

"Potestatem de quae accipiter. Potestatem de quae medusozoa. Potestatem de quae ursa*. You see, Yorick? You should never underestimate my plans," Queen said smugly, as she pressed her index finger on the left side of the chests of three of the giant trolls. Black tattoos of a hawk, a jellyfish, and a bear, each the size of a compact disc, were burned there. "Potestatem de quae corvus. Potestatem de quae pullus. Potestatem de quae lucanidae. Potestatem de quae dynastes hercules."

Tattoos of a crow, a crane, a stag beetle, and a Hercules beetle burned into the flesh of the lesft side of four more of the giant trolls.

"So what?" Yorick said, dismissively. "You're just giving them tattoos."

"Potestatem de quae centipes. Potestatem de quae colotes. Potestatem de quae scorpius. Potestatem de quae naja. Potestatem de quae bufo. Fool." Queen said, as she burned tattoos of a centipede, a gecko, a scorpion, a cobra, and a toad burned into the flesh of the left side of the chests of five more giant trolls. "These are animal sigils. They imbue the wearer of the sigil with the powers of the animal, as well as the inside of the animal mind. Potestatem de quae chelydridae. Potestatem de quae tigris. Potestatem de quae draconis avalon."

Three giant trolls gained the powers of the snapping turtle, of the tiger and of the Avalon dragon.

"Again," Yorick said, still flippant and persnickety, "so what?"

"Potestatem de quae phacochoerus africanus. Potestatem de quae bos. Potestatem de quae equus. Potestatem de quae hircus. Potestatem de quae mus. Potestatem de quae simia. Potestatem de quae canis. Potestatem de quae lepis. So it is powerful, difficult magic that no just anyone can do," Queen said haughtily, bestowing the powers of the warthog, of the ox, of the horse, of the goat, of the rat, of the monkey, of the dog, and of the rabbit, before finishing off the rest of the giant trolls. "Now, quiet your moronic doubts and allow me to finish the plan. Potestatem de quae mantodea. Potestatem de quae bison. Potestatem de quae manidae. Potestatem de quae murena. Potestatem de quae paguroidea. Potestatem de quae porcus. Potestatem de quae hystrix. Potestatem de quae papio. Potestatem de quae toxotes. Potestatem de quae corcodilus. Potestatem de quae strutionum. Potestatem de quae vulpes. Potestatem de quae lophiiformes."

She bestowed the powers of the praying mantis, of the buffalo, of the pangolin, of the eel, of the hermit crab, of the pig, of the porcupine, of the baboon, of the archerfish, of the crocodile, of the ostrich, of the fox, and of the anglerfish.

Queen looked a bit wiped out by the effort, but satisfied. Almost as if she thought victory was now assured, which was a very bad train of thought. as there was always a chance for a come-from-behind victory.

"There." she said. "There. We are ready, but I must rest."

"We can go without you, you know." Yorick said, disrespectfully and distainfully.

"No! Don't you DARE go early, Yorick." Queen snarled, fire in her eyes. "I won't have you foul this coup up again."

"You're blaming ME?!" he roared. "I'm not the one calling the shots -- unfortunately -- or making the poor decisions that ruin the whole thing! That would be YOU, Queenie!"

"We leave in four or five hours," Queen said, deliberately ignoring Yorick's assertion in an overtly obviously way. "We make NO move before then."

"Like we could," Yorick muttered mutinously. "You have control over the Horde."


*Latin translation by a Latin-to-English dictionary by Clea Translations. When one could not be found, the animal's binomial nomenclature was used.

[redtailedsaffa]

You sure it'll be less than 20 chapters?

[Cloak]

I did say 'may'. I looks like that it may reach twenty chapters now.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Clarification

Their vison was rapidly and steadily becoming clearer and they were becoming more able make out vague details. They all felt a warmness on their faces that was not uncomfortable. The Energon energy was now being slowly dissipated at ambient heat from their bodies, enabling their vision to clear.

But it was still slow. It was faster than before, sure, but that didn't mean it faded with near immediacy.

"It's fading away," Gaz said. "My vision is getting sharper."

Yes, their irises and sclera were now visable, while their pupils were still whited out by the Energon energy.

"Yes," Cloak said, "it's just a matter of time when our vision returns to us as it was before."

"Leaving us with a memory we won't soon forget," Blaze said. "At least, I won't."

"Yes," Aquilai agreed, "I don't think any of us will take our sight for granted again."

Cloak said nothing as he thought about this. The more he mulled it over, the more he realized that Aquilai wasn't completely accurate. True, some people would take an experience such as this as a life lesson, and that would be the right thing to do, surely. But it was far more likely that, despite how traumatic such an experience such as this was, would be forgotten, despite claims to the contrary. And once forgotten, vision would be taken for granted.

Or Cloak could simply be wrong and overthinking it all. He did have a tendacy to do that, after all.

The blindness was passing, their vision clearing all the time. It should have been a time for even the smallest sense of jubilation. So . . .why was Cloak feeling this unsettling feeling in his stomach? Why did he feel the poison of dread in his heart? It couldn't be something related to the blindness thing. It had to be something else.

Something else . . .

But what?

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
The Horde

When the joyous occasion happened, the RAFians almost cried. Their sight returned in its entirety, and they greeted it with estatic jubilation. It was like a lost friend that was gone for centuries finally returned.

"I can see!" Blaze rejoiced. " I can see again!"

"So can I!" Gaz said.

Cloak and Shadow didn't share in with the celeberation. They were happy to have their vision back, sure, but they sensed something strange. Something neither of them had encountered before . . .

Shadow and Cloak walked, stalking low and carefully, toward the edge of cliff facing a bluff. They both travelled very quietly and stealthily, so much so that the others did not realize they had left until they witnessed the swooshing of their cloaks, cutting the air.

They were eventually stopped by the two Realm Walkers, who motioned them to quiet down. Then they peered over the cliff and saw something that surprised them. There was an unprecedented amount of trolls passing through the ravine at the bottom. Several of them seemed odd -- with bird-like wings, talons, claws, fur, and other really animalistic traits not normally associated with your average troll.

"That's . . . " Aquilai said, in awe, "not good."

"Understatement of the century," Sakki replied.

"What's the big deal?" Blaze said, dismissively. "They're just trolls. We beat them three times a week."

"Don't be a fool by getting complacent, Blaze," Cloak said reproachfully. "There's something out of the norm here."

"You're just paranoid."

"You're just complacent."

"In any case," Gaz said seriously, "we need to get to the forum. Which way would it be from here?"

"We're in the no-man's-land between the Bannedlands and the forum," Cloak said, analytically. "It can't be too far. There. That direction."

[redtailedsaffa]

It's going doooowwnn.