Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

MAY be a little longer than twenty chapters.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
They Come

"But why?" Cerulean said. "There's no danger her--"

"Don't argue!" Parker yelled. The stress of urgency needed to be communicated with as few words as possible. "Remember Gaz's words."

"They didn't make sense." Underseen said.

Fortunately, the assimilated did not run. This gave them time. But it still left them with a quandary. They would pull punches, for fear of harming their friends, though they haven't any control over their bodies.

<Underseen,> Saffa said, unintentionally terse, <just do it.>

<They come,> Noelle noticed.

<Why isn't the Mark stopping this?> Abby asked, as Cerulean hefted up Gaz, and sped to the forum, still a hidden bastion for the RAFians. <It's supposed to prevent things like this!>

"Didn't stop that vampire business last year." Ash pointed out.

"Or Horse's poisoning by that Arachnoid," Parker added.

"Or --" Underseen began.

<Alight, alright,> Abby conceded, <point taken. The Mark isn't infallible. Got it.>

Then they came. Shuffling along at a tepid, languid place. The flower-like dermal chakra implants gleaming in a most sinister manner, looking as if they were blemishes gone awry.

<GH,> Saffa said, sadly, noticing him first.

"Horse," Parker said, noticing the seal first.

"E-way re-ay e-thay Alevolence-may. Our-yay iological-bay d-anay echnological-tay istinctiveness-day ill-way e-bay dded-ay o-tay ur-oay n-oway. Our-yay ulture-cay ill-yay dapt-ay o-tay ervice-say us-ay. Esistance-ray is-ay utile-fay."

<Anyone else heard that?> Saffa asked.

"Heard what?" Parker asked.

<Never mind,> Saffa said.

But, suddenly, Horse was behind him, and extended her assimilation tubules into his ankle. Fortunately, his armor was completely self-contained, so Parker's flesh wasn't touched. But, on the other hand, the assimilation tubules also served as computer interface. So, while Parker wasn't assimilated, at all, his armor -- and Tyr -- were. His metallic skin that was his armor became a prison as bad as an iron maiden. Parker couldn't move of his own accord anymore, but his voice was still his own! But he was still entombed in his own armor! It was like he was infected by a Reach Beetle, or a Controller, or a victim of a symbiote.

GH infected Underseen and Mithril infected Ash. However, they were not assimilated. At all. Their forms just undulated and the nanites, condensed in ball bearings a half-inch in diameter fell from them as their malleable bodies rejected the introduced nanites.

Helpless from within his own armor, Parker yelled, "Get away! Everyone get away!"

They, albeit reluctantly, complied. And Parker resigned himself to the knowledge that he would be assimilated as soon as his armor removed the helmet, exposing the naked flesh of his head. There was nothing he could do to stop it, and he rsigned himself to his fate.

[guitarhero01234]

Pig Latin? Really?

[Cloak]

Would you rather tiger Latin?

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
You Wouldn't Want to Mess With Me

Malice bore witness to all of this with her mind's eye. As she was connefted to the Malevolence collective, as their queen. Unfortunately, she was the only Realm Walker able as the nanites could not survive in Realm Walker ichor-stream.

But she was very confident that she had basically already won, and she was elated enough to indulge herself in a little song:

"With one wave of my hand
You know who's in command.
I'm the quintessential queen of all I see!
I keep a potion in my purse,
That's worse than any curse!
No, you wouldn't want to mess with me!
Take a barracuda's nose
And a half dozen ninja turtle toes,
And the venom of a sea anemone,
Eye of Agamotto, tech of Stewie!
Stir the goop until it's gooey!
That's my favorite rancid recipe!
No, you wouldn't want to mess with me!"

Now she indulged herself into a cackling fit. Despite her song, she wasn't concocting any such potion. One could make the argument that, by being the Malevolence's queen, Malice's psyche had been fractured in an irreparable way, but there was no way to really substantiate this notion.

"Make way, I'm in charge!
Your fate is looming large.
It won't do you any good to flee.
My machinations never fail.
So you'd better watch your tail!
No, you wouldn't want to mess with me!
When you think I'm on the brink of going under,
I've a way of coming out on top!
Oh, my darling applicants,
I always get just want I want.
And I want this mucky luck to stop!
I'm the mistress of mystique,
With a slender slim physique!
I'm an idol in the circle of infamy!
I admit I'm quite a catch,
But I've never met my match!
So, you shouldn't test the best!
'Cause you couldn't stand the stress!
No, you wouldn't want to mess!
With me!"

Yes, she was a tad egotistical. And this song echoed throughout the Malevolence collective, becoming a somewhat pseudo-marching song, briefly replacing the whole "We are the Malevolence" spiel, which they now stated openly, as Malice decided to drop all pretense. Considering she only took over one city over who knows how many exist, it coukd be a bit premature.


Song source: https://m.youtube.com/?reload=2&rdm=1s4usx1r#/watch?v=aGp1479XJzo

[redtailedsaffa]

Funny how the computer student was the only one who heard the Pig Latin.

I'm a pretty hopeless computer student but still

[Cloak]

Honestly, I didn't know that when I posted the chapter. Anyway, new book ideas.

• Book DCCCXXIX: "The Chakra Relics" -- The RAFians must race against a terrible foe to obtain the Chakra Relics.
• Book DCCCXXX: "RAFSlayer" -- The same terrible foe discovers a way to resurrect all of the RAFians' slain foes, and merges them, fuses them, into one singular being.
• Book DCCCXXXI: "Bad Influences" -- A beast is hypnotizing children into being naughty and misbehaving. The RAFians must stop this. Yes, even Saffa.
• Book DCCCXXXII: "A Steal-Life" -- The RAFians must deal with a portrait that steals the life force of who it depicts.

Hope I didn't rehash anything. If I did, I'll find a way to make it work, I hope.

[redtailedsaffa]

Heh, I was just updating the list as this post came out. Was behind quite a few titles.

• Book DCCCXXXI: "Bad Influences" -- A beast is hypnotizing children into being naughty and misbehaving. The RAFians must stop this. Yes, even Saffa.

goddamnit

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Search and Ambush

Helen, Sam, Blocky, and Oceanspray were still searching for the drakon. They were looking in what could be considered to be the slums of the city, as the forest and warehouse district had been thoroughly searched already.

"It's pointless," Oceanspray was saying. "It's not here."

"We don't know that," Helen said, quickly. "Not for sure."

"It could be dead for all we know."

"Sam!" Helen said, reproachfully.

"Well, it could," Sam said, with an indifferent shrug. "Who knows if a drakon can survive in weather such as this?"

"Our information has that it is very difficult to kill," Oceanspray said. "Somehow I doubt the elements would get to it in such a manner."

"I only know of four varieties of drakon," Blocky said. "The Aethiopian from Africa. The Lydian from Lydia. The Thebian from Thebes. And the Maeonian from Turkey."

"Wait," Helen said. "You mean it isn't an alien beast?"

Blocky looked at her as if she should have already known this, as if it were obvious. "Yeah. I mean, obviously, Earth can boast some fearsome creatures, too, you know."

"Yeah, well --" Helen blustered before being interrupted by Sam.

"What's going on over there?"

"We are the Malevolence." came a chime of monotone voices.

"What does that mean? What's the Malevolence?" Oceanspray said.

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own." The chime of voices was getting louder.

"Oh. That type of creepazoid," Blocky said, with dawning realization, thouh no real concept of what the Malevolence really was. "Why can't we ever seem to complete a mission before getting handed a new one?"

They were still getting louder. "Your culture will adapt service us."

"This doesn't sound good," Sam said.

Then the firet of the Malevolence drones showed up. Some seemed to have the dermal chakra implants, while some lacked them. Their eyes were vacant and rather glassy. It was as if their bodies were moving of their own accord.

"Resistance is futile."

Oh, and they were dressed as the cast of a high school presentation of "The Wizard of Oz", complete with rather superb costuming, which probably would have looked stellar (for a high school play) if these poor cast members were not a part of the Malevolence collective. They shuffled closer, nit running, almost if they didn't want to damage their costukes any more than they already had.

"We are the Malevolence."

This actually stunned the four RAFians in their tracks. Whatever they had anticipated, this wasn't it. This front line of Malevolence drones were adolescents, high school adolescents, dressed as Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and so on. Apparently, they were assimilated right before, during, or right atter their performance and hadn't any personality or identity enough to change out of their theatrical costumes.

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own." they said in that monotone, manner-of-fact way, many voices issuing from every single mouth. "Your culture wil adapt to service us."

"I'm thinking a big 'no' on that," Oceanspray said.

"Resistance is futile." came their reply.

"Nope," Sam said, with gusto.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Unseen Pricks

"We are the Malevolence. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

"That," Helen noted, "is becoming monotonous."

"We are the Malevolence."

"Yeah, we got that," Sam said. It would have been prudent of them to run away, but they didn't know the danger they were in. Communications had yet to inform them of this threat, as Yarin, Goom, and Aquilai were not aware of the nature of the threat as of yet. Phoenix and Demos had not called it in yet, and Cerulean had just arrived with Gaz at the forum. "What's their deal?"

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own."

"And are they on some sort of unending loop?" Blocky wondered aloud. "Or do think that 'learning through repetition' thing is true to a fanatically religious extent?"

"Your culture will adapt to service us."

"Hey! Ow!" Blocky protested, as a boy in the Tin Man theatrical costume, face painted silver, probed him and penetrated his flesh by putting the assimilation tubules between Block's scales. He had infected the dragon.

"What's wrong, Blocky?" Sam said at once, an aura of green light enveloping him instantly, as he floated up.

"What did that kid in the Tin Man costume do to him?" Helen said, following suit. Then she shrieked when the dermal chakra implants bursted from his skin and scales. He was assimilated, but in body only. His mind remained separate, isolated, burdened with fear, shame, guilt, illusions, and hallucinations. His body recited the same refrain as the others.

"Wait, what about --" Sam said, before noticing Oceanspray's systems had already been hacked and assimilated. Sam finished his thought with a disheartened, "Oh."

"We got to go back to the forum," Helen said, ruefully decisive. Her voice was full of grief. "There's nothing we can do for them now."

The two ring-bearers looked at their fallen comrades, the two, and, hating themselves for it, flew to the forum. Nobody liked feeling this helpless, least of all any RAFian.

[redtailedsaffa]

The exams bored me to tears, so I drew up Photoshop for even more procrastination. I had done this banner-thing years ago in Paint way before I opened PS for the first time:



So I took it now and improved upon it a bit, played around with brushes and fonts and made banners for all the Years that are planned out in the series so far.

Year 2


Year 3


Year 4


Year 5


Year 6


Year 7


Year 8


Year 9


I didn't really go with a specific theme in mind for the years (from the book summaries), though I suppose gh has already accounted for the coffee stains on Year 2.

[guitarhero01234]

I am so gonna put one of those in my sig when I get home.

Still not removing the Cinnabons though.

[Cloak]

You never cease to surprise me in such pleasant ways, Saffa! 

I want those to be official. Can you incorporate them in some way into the PDFs? If it's not too much?

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Awareness

"Seriously?" Blue asked, having taken a call from the guys in the dispatch part of Communications. "You're really serious about this?"

"Hmmm . . ." Cloak said, pensively. "If I have heard your description correctly, Aquilai, it sounds like what we're dealing with may very well be a hybridization of --"

He stopped speaking, having heard something with his feline hearing.

"We are the Malevolence."

Bladeh and FuBar heard it, too.

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own."

"Heard it that time," Blue acknowledged, having ended the Aquilai's verbal communiqué. "What are they?"

"I don't . . . I don't know!" FuBar said, somewhat freaking.

"Calm yourself," Cloak said, calm and rational.

"Your culture will adapt to service us," came the voices again.

"What are they?" Bladeh asked, as they still were not in sight, in this twilight gloom. "I still . . . I still can't see anything."

"I can," Cloak said, Earthsighting the crepuscular creatures. "From what my Earth tells me its a group of a few people. My guess is, due to the information presented to us is that it is some matter of a gestalt mind, a collective."

"Resistance is futile." came the chorus of monotone voices.

"And I'm believing that it's a hybridization," Cloak continued to elaborate, "though I haven't any proof, I am of the belief that these things are hybridizations of nanochips and Borg nanoprobes."

"We are the Malevolence," the chorus of voices insisted.

"Meaning?" Blue said.

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own."

"Meaning that I have reason to believe that this hive mind aspect of them, I believe that they need to assimilate others into this gestalt collective," Cloak said.

"Your culture will adapt to service us," the monotone voices intoned.

"At least our Marks protects us from it," FuBar said, the hair on his back raising up, his tail fur jumping up.

"Resistance is futile."

"You are getting complacent by over-relying on your Marks," Cloak said, reprovingly. "It is not infallible."

"We are the Malevolence."

"You're not saying what I think you are, are you?" Blue said, at once.

Cloak didn't need to saying as they shuffled into view. Clearly, assimilated.

[redtailedsaffa]

Thanks! It's always nice to brighten people's day with whatever you don't suck at doing Yeah, I can put them into the header of every upcoming PDF.

Those Cinnabons. Pure evil.

[guitarhero01234]

Glad you're still mad about them!

[Gaz]

Still following this when class reading and time allow.

[Cloak]

Thanks! It's always nice to brighten people's day with whatever you don't suck at doing Yeah, I can put them into the header of every upcoming PDF.

Excellent. Thanks!

Still following this when class reading and time allow.

Great!

Yeah . . . this may be longer than the requisite twenty chapters.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Bending

"You mean RAFians can be assimilated, too?!" Bladeh demanded with a feline screech.

"We are the Malevolence."

"Your own eyes can tell you that," Cloak said snappishly, "as I've said before, the Marks are fallible. They have been broken once before, during the Phalanx thing."

"Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own."

"No need to get touchy, Cloak," Blue said, evenly.

"Your culture will adapt to service us."

"That, however," Bladeh said, referring to the assimilated RAFians constant refrain, "is getting to be a touch annoying."

"It's appears to be on a contant loop," Blue replied. "Perhaps designed as a means of intimidation?"

"Don't you get it?" FuBar said, rather hysterically. "They're going to assimilate us too!!"

Of course, Cloak's natural physiology made this quite impossible, as well as the fact that Realm Walkers are notoriously difficult to control and nigh on impossible to capture involuntarily.

"And you just thought I'd sit idly back and allow that to happen when I'm present to actually do something about it?" Cloak asked, rather tartly.

"What can you --" FuBar began without thinking, before remembering the nature of Cloak's powers.

"The nanites are metal," Cloak said.

"But wouldn't that be like trying to manipulate grains of sand suspended in a watery concoction under a tarp that you're not allowed to peak beneath?" Blue queried.

"I can do it." Cloak said, confidently.

"And, if you can't?" Blue said, without missing a beat. "Even you have your limits, Cloak."

"I can do this," Cloak repeated. He didn't need Blue echoing his own doubts. He didn't even need to think about what he may have to do.

"Resistance is futile."

"Yeah?" Cloak challenged. "You may want to reconsider that statement!"

Cloak found himself focusing and he was able to halt their movements, albeit rather jerkily. It took every bit of his hyperfocus the Realm Walker possessed. It was very difficult, precisely how Blue described.

"Bad idea, Cloaky," came the chorus of voices. The intonation and lilt of the crowd voices was familiar . . . of course. Who else? Who else would be behind this? Cloak wouldn't have been surprised if Malice's voice issued from the nanites themselves. "Stopping the nanites won't save your friends."

Cloak said nothing. He needed to focus, to concentrate on doing what he was --

"Careful, dear Cloaky," Malice taunted gleefully. "You might inadvertently cause a blood clot in one of your beloved RAFians here. In trying to save your pets, you very well might end up killing them!!"

Her cackle incensed Cloak, causing his power level to start to spike.

"Ooh," Malice mockdd most irritatingly, "the scary eyes."

Cloak found himself coming to a decision. He didn't want to do it. Commiting to it would be committing to going down a very dark path. He felt his reluctance, but necessity required him to forgo this hesitation.

"Malice," Cloak said, voice taut with tension, "you force me to do something that I really don't want to do."