Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Oh, you wanted spoilers? Well, you see -- I was only joking, put away that skillet.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
A Frosty Reception

Saffa shivered, "G-g-great. I g-g-got to be an ice c-c-cube for f-f-fifteen seconds."

"Three, maybe four, hours, actually," Cloak said, holding flame in his hand sound the three could warm up.

"Wh-wh-what?!" Abby demanded. She was shivering, too.

"Wh-wh-why didn't you go and stop him?!" Underseen queried urgently.

Cloak was really tempted to make the flames half their current size just to spite them for such accusatory tones. Cloak managed to control his temper, he didn't know how though. He knew that this was a potential problem, however. He knew he must control his emotion, that he must never relinquish that control. It was a Sisyphian task, he was well-aware.

"I was frozen too, Underseen." Cloak said, with determined and deliberate calm. "I only freed myself by feeling incredible anger, channeled into the Element of Fire. I also had to be careful not to cause undue harm to any of you."

"We could j-j-just morph away the damage," Saffa said.

"Not if you were dead," Cloak said, quietly. The he pointed out something the others hadn't quite considered. "Besides, I'm not the only one with assets to give the ifrit pause, to give him a cause for alarm."

"Huh?" Abby said.

Cloak ticked them off on his fingers, while holding the flames in his other hand. "Blaze. Demos. Phoenix. Aquilai, if he regenerates again. Horse. Azzy. Broken, with magical fire and fire spells. Yunyun with her magic cards. Probably more than that, that I can't remember off-hand. We're well-prepared for anything that the ifrit can throw at us. I don't have to be the one to do everything."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Abby said, "but I don't want to miss all the action!"

***

"Hey, ice-prick!" Blaze shouted, addressing the ifrit.

"What is an 'ice-prick'?" the ifrit asked, not understanding the insult. This irritated the angel/djinn hybrid. "Does it require a glacier thorn?"

"You are so stupid," Blaze said, exasperated, facepalming quite openly. "It was an insult. I was calling you a name."

"But my name isn't 'ice-prick'," Ifrit said, still not getting it. "It is Ifrit."

"Oh, my god," Blaze said, facepalming harder.

"It's a sign of disrespect, you cretinous piece of . . ." Horse stopped herself to compose herself.

"Disrespect?" the ifrit said with mild surprise. Then his expression turned cold, ruthless, hard, and merciless. "You disrespect me? After all I've done for you? After I liberated you from that stifling, asphxiating unpleasantness?"

"Heat?" Phoenix inquired good-naturedly, though his annoyment was as great as the others. "You are against heat?"

"So the unpleasantness has a name," Ifrit said. Then an irritatingly smug smile appeared on his face. "Well, no matter, no matter. It will soon be nonexistent. Soon."

"Don't think so, pally," Blaze growled.

"Then," the ifrit said, pulling the same thing he pulled with Cloak, Abby, Saffa, and Underseen, "you're useless to me."

But he was surprised to discover that Blaze had shielded his body with fire-engulfed wings, and the ice blast failed, as it did not succeed in turning them into misshapen ice cubes.

"You think that we wouldn't have seen that coming?" Demos asked. "It's almost offensive."

[redtailedsaffa]

sorry

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
An Ifrit Melt

"We give you another chance, ifrit," Phoenix said, in commanding tones as he dismissed the fiery phoenix avatar (a la Phoenix Force) around him with but a gesture. "This time, do not spurn it, if you wish us to remain on these rather tenuous amicable terms."

Phoenix stood up straighter, and he prepared for possible conflict, as he reissued their ultimatum. "Stop what you're doing --"

"And leave, preferably," Blaze imput rather rashly.

Phoenix proceeded as if he had not been interrupted, " -- and we won't have to resort to force. Please, consider reason over your snowy brand of terrorism."

"You dare to rebuke my gift?" Ifrit answered hotly.

"It is not seen as a gift," Phoenix said, attempting to negotiate. It was a rare opportunity that the RAFians could try such a peaceful route. It was an opportunity that was almost required to be taken. "You are burying people in snow and ice. You are not delivering a great service, as you seem to think you are. You are entombing people in snow and ice. We ask you and urge you --"

"Very strongly urge you," Horse commented.

"-- to reconsider what you are doing." Phoenix continued, still trying diplomacy. "There is no need for this to devolve into unneeded viol--"

"Ingrate," the ifrit interrupted, as he blasted them again, but Horse deflected it this time. He was being very hardheaded about this.

"We did try to be nice," the little seal said, as Phoenix gave a resigned sigh.

"I was hoping you'd see reason," Phoenix said. "Your options were limited. You're made of ice."

Phoenix looked up and at the ifrit, feeling regret. "You leave us little choice. Blaze. Demos. Together."

Three concussive blasts hit the ifrit straight in the chest. Melting him into oblivion. . . .

[guitarhero01234]

. . . Well that was sorta anticlimactic

[redtailedsaffa]

Surely it isn't over yet

[Cloak]

Ah -- Saffa's all too familiar with my writing.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Refrozen

"That's that," Phoenix said, as he turned to walk away.

"What about all this snow and ice?" Blaze said. Then he said, expressionlessly, "We're gonna have to take care of it ourselves aren't we?"

"Cloak can help when he gets here," the mod said, wearily. "But I understand what you're saying. It's a tall order."

"Az and I can lend a hand --" Horse said, before looking at her flipper as if she momentarily forgot she didn't have hands. "Or flipper, as the case may be."

"Don't we have someone else for clean-up?" Demos complained.

"Just because Rotiart tries it, Demos, doesn't mean whining works."

"Don't you know how much that STINGS?!" a voice behind them complained. It seemed to get deeper and deeper with every word.

"Impossible," Phoenix said.

"We're getting to the point where that word is losing all meaning," Horse pointed out, turning around.

"Sheesh," Blaze groused, as he turned as well. "Why can't anything be easy?"

Ifrit had managed to refreeze himself, not only back to his original size, but getting larger . . . and larger . . . and larger . . .

"Think he's over-compensating for something?" Blaze asked rhetorically.

"You dared to destroy me. You tried to kill me. You spurn my gracious gift." the ifrit boomed thunderously. He was at least twenty feet tall now.

"Can we talk about this?" Horse asked, not really intimidated.

Silence for a moment, before being followed by a quick "no" from the ifrit. The snowstorm increased in its intensity.

"Oh, wonderful," Blaze said, with dry sarcasm.

"You finally appreciate my work, my gift?" the ifrit said. Blaze facepalmed hard. ""It most certainly took you long enough! Such a pity that it's far too late for that. You tried to murder me. That is quite unacceptable."

"Oh, God," Blaze muttered.

[redtailedsaffa]

See

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Another Standoff

"Scatter!" Phoenix ordered, and only a split-second later did ice stalagmites erupted from where they had stood only moments before. Phoenix's mind raced. He would barrade himself later for daring to let his guard down. After all, he didn't have Cloak's Earthsight or Yarin's telepathic sensing.

"Ungrateful insects," Ifrit spat, seeing his intial attack fail.

"Um," Blaze said, "any idea how to put this guy down for good?"

"I'm . . ." Phoenix said, "I'm working on it."

The ifrit punched the ground between them, somehow gaining an additional five feet, with equalized humanoid porportions.

"The better question," Horse observed, "is how we stop this ifrit from growing. At this rate, he'll be fifty-feet tall in the next fifteen minutes or so."

"Glorious destruction," Demos said, almost hypnotised. He was falling to his demonic instincts. Well, he was, up until Phoenix slapped him, and allowed Demos to recollect his good sense again. "Thanks. I needed that."

Phoenix said, getting to the point, "We must fight ice with fire."

"Didn't that fail last time?" Blaze asked, taking to the air to get away from the ifrit's swipes, his body taking on a more jagged, feral appearance. He proved his aerial adeptness by effortlessly dodging these swipes.

"No," Phoenix said, "the ifrit just regenerated from it."

"And what exactly will stop it from doing it again?" Blaze asked, pointedly.

"Perhaps it's a limited number of times, like Time Lords," Phoenix said.

"'Perhaps'?" the angel/djinn hybrid echoed.

"Got something better?"

"Nope."

"Then shut up," Phoenix said, unable to stem his own irritation with the situation, "shut up and fire."

They blasted the ifrit as one again. Only this time . . . this time it wasn't enough. It still did serious damage, sure. But when it abated it regenerated faster and faster each time.

"Not," Blaze said, "working."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Horse said, snippily.

"Well, it isn't!" he protested.

[redtailedsaffa]

How do you stop this thing?!

[Cloak]

Well, here's an idea.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
More Ingrates

"INGRATES!!" the ifrit roared.

"Is he losing sentience or something? He's acting more bestial," Horse observed.

SMASH!!

The snowdrift to her left exploded as it struck with the force of a head-on collision. Horse easily rode the snow to safety, blending in with it, being very difficult to spot.

"Bestial or not," Demos noted, "he's equally dangerous."

"Wait, what are those?"

The ifrit seemed to be bothered by bugs that appeared to buzz around his head. He tried to swat at them, but his limbs seemed far too slow. Or if he did make contact, they just phased through it.

They just circled his head, not unlike the flaming heads of Max from the last season of "Sam & Max" game. Phoenix was sure that irritating the ifrit was not the wisest thing for them to do right now.

<Sleeeeeeeeep,> one of the bugs said.

<Sleeeeeeeeeeeep,> the other agreed.

It was Saffa and Abby, of course. In Psycholeopterran morph. They were using the special power of Psycholeopterrans -- to release a gas and transmute it into concentric circles. Whether it had any effect was actually debateable.

And there, at the ifrit's feet, was a rancor, slashing at the creature's legs. The ifrit didn't seem to notice, as he regenerated rancor slash marks -- the deep gouges -- quickly enough. But still, Underseen tried his best, although another form probably would do better, but he stubbornly stuck to the rancor form.

"Ifrit," came a carrying voice. "You have done enough here. You must leave. You are not welcomed here."

It may have been hypocrisy on Cloak's part, for uttering these words, not being native to this world, this universe, this realm, at all. But no matter -- he would angst about it later, when there was time.

"INGRATES!!"

"Oh, SHUT UP!!!" Cloak roared, his patience far shorter than Phoenix's. Cloak funnelled two concussive blasts of fire from his palms. You know that Cloak would have be really annoyed to do this, considering his pyrophobia. "No one here is an ingrate!! No one asked you for your so-called 'gift'!! No one welcomes it!!"

"Cloak, we already tried that!!" Phoenix said.

"I gathered," Cloak said, swiftly. But the obstinate nature that was the hallmark of his family line had reasserted itself, and Cloak didn't not stop. His eyes flickered a scarlet-gold glow and back. He was starting to tap into the potential that always frightened him. "And I'm gonna give it a try."

[guitarhero01234]

Ooh, we get a chapter early! Good thing too, this book has been really good so far.

[Cloak]

Thanks.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Huh, Really?

Cloak let up momentarily, and watched the ifrit intently. He was watching and scrutinizing the ifrit very carefully. He didn't know why precisely what he was looking for, but he believed he would know it when he saw it.

"See, Cloak?" Blaze sniped, as the ifrit regenerated.

Cloak said nothing, still scrutinizing the ifrit very carefully. He noticed something very interesting that had to do with this regeneration. It was nothing like Demos's regeneration, or that of Aquilai's. The snow at the infrit's feet was far more shallow than the surrounding area.

And it seemed more shallow than mere moments before.

The Realm Walker narrowed his eyes at this, and then turned his attention back to the ifrit. That was it, wasn't it? The snow, the ice . . . it wasn't really regenerating, per se. He was just assimilating the snow, compressing it into ice to replenish the corporeal ice lost . . .

"I suppose that's clever," Cloak muttered, unimpressive. "He's using the snow and ice around him to heal himself. But that has a major flaw."

Horse got what Cloak was getting at. "And there's a finite amount of snow. And ice."

"It might be in limited supply," Phoenix pointed out, "but there's still plenty around. I don't know if we can get into a battle of attrition. We all have limited endurance. Even you, Cloak."

"I'm aware," Cloak said, hyper-focused. "But there is another away. We blast him --"

"Yeah, 'coz that worked so well last time," Blaze said, caustically sarcastic.
 
"We blast him," Cloak continued, the merest trace of a feline growl intermingled with his voice. "We blast him, and Horse and I will drain the water generated from the melted ice from him."

"I can hear you, you know," the ifrit said.

"Then what comes next will come as no surprise," Cloak said, without any hesitation.

Four continous streams of flame are blasted and hits the ifrit square in the chest. Cloak's eyes begin to glow scarlet-gold again, only steadier this time. He was unknowingly tapping into his potential again. Only to stop abruptly, still afraid of tapping into that potential, of the potential destructive capability of it.

Horse and Cloak also siphoned off the water, Horse going so far as separating the ifrit from any nearby snow.

It was working. The ifrit was shrinking down. Melting. Melting . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

SCIENCE!

[Cloak]

Saffa -- huh?

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Vapor Talk

"There, done," Phoenix said.

"Don't be so quick," Cloak said, shrewdly. He narrowed his eyes and squinted around. "These things are hardly ever that easy."

"You call that easy?!" Blaze demanded.

Cloak did not answer, but waited. If his gut was right, the ifrit wasn't dead. At least, not in the conventional sense. They siphoned off the water, true, and they melted him into nothingness, but Cloak wasn't ready to accept victory just yet.

"Cloak, you're being too paranoid," Saffa said.

"Is he?" Demos asked. "That thing regenerated before when we thought we had 'im."

"If he revives . . ." Horse said. She let the thought hand in the air, implications abound in the chilled air.

"I don't think he will revive, per se," Cloak said.

"Care to explain for us mere mortals?" Underseen said, testily.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIngr atessssssssssssssss sssss . . ." came an almost ghostily wail.

"What the bloody Hell is . . . " Abby began.

"Ifrit," Cloak said, standing up straight, addressing the being before them as if he was an unpleasant acquaintence that he was just meeting anew. "I see you lost some weight."

The ifrit had no body of substance. He was now sentient water vapor, in the form of forgotten breath with an imprint of his face. The water vapor that had steamed out of his body when they were melting him and siphoning off the water.  This was all that was left, essentially a ghost that was lesser than an actual ghost.

"Yeah," Saffa noted with caustic sarcasm, "that's certainly not creepy, or anything."

"Yooooooou . . . iiiiiiiiiingraaaaaa aaaatessssssssssss . . ." he wailed again.

"Oh, knock off the ghost-speak schtick," Cloak said, annoyed. "Speak properly!"

"Oh, fine." the vapor said. "You lot are clearly more ungrateful than I thought initially."

"Again, we did not want your gift," Phoenix said, his last nerve being plucked by this creature. "It was not warranted, it was NOT welcomed!"

"Lies," the vapor dismissed. "Everyone worth their weight would love such a gift!"

"You are delusional," Abby scoffed.

"No matter!" the vapor snarled. "When I refreeze -- and I will refreeze -- I will give you such a pinch!!"

"But you'll be in the Artic by then," Underseen pointed out.

This took the ifrit vapor off-guard, "Really? How do you figure?"

Cloak gave a small hop with his back to the vapor, then he quickly turned on his heal, and held his arms out with his palms toward the vapor. The aerokinetic blast was gale force strength. Cloak's eyes were streaming the trails, the tongues of scarlet-gold energy.

When the vapor was gone, Cloak closed his eyes, causing the trailing energy to dissipate, and he placed his hand perpendicular to his chest, trying to calm himself down.

[Cloak]

New, shortish chapter. End of this book.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Winter Wonderland Clean-Up

The snow melted partially, but some of a significant amount still stuck around, ever so stubbornly. It still was winter, after all. Snow was not all that uncommon at this time of year, but they really did not need the sheer volume that the ifrit was foisting upon them.

Still some of the more snow-happy RAFians sang:

"Thread bells ring, are you listenin'?
In the lane, snow is glistenin'.
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Talkin' in a winter wonderland.
Gone away is the ifrit world.
Here to stay is a new bird.
He sings a love song,
As we stroll along.
Walkin' in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow, we can build a snow-RAFian
And pretend that he is Parson Dawson.
He'll say "Are you married?", we'll say, "No, man",
But you can do the job when you're in town.
Later on, we'll perspire
As we dream by the fire.
To face unafraid
The plans that we've made,
Talkin' in a winter wonderland."

Cloak scowled and glowered at this. No, not because of the song, but because how they seemed to be celebrating the snow. Cloak wasn't especially fond of snow, especially after the ifrit business.

The snow wasn't nearly as bad, though, now. The roads were clear and free to use, the schools (much to the schoolchildren's chagrin) were all open. It was time to put the artificial second ice age behind him . . .

But this Cloak. Cloak's mind tends to dwell on the past, whether he wanted it to or not. Cloak was still working on this personally disliked aspect, but things like that are not so easy to change.