Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

Lovely chap.

[Dylan]

O . . . kay . . . Dbsp. . . .

I just needed a reason to post that bad greenscreen gif

[Cloak]

Uh, if you say so.

Anyway, I'd like to register my amasement that we're a hundred books beyond how long I thought this series would go on for nearly four years ago. I guess sometimes ambition is a good thing.

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
A Sad Truth

The reedy man, a gofer for Sluggard, stopped and spoke over his shoulder, "Do not say that you weren't warned."

Then he continued off on his merry way, taking out a rather expensive-looking smart phone. A gift from Sluggard to ensure his loyalty, especially since Reed E. MCReederson over there had the loyalty of a toaster oven. He made a call to his benefactor, his employer, and, from there, left the eyeline of the RAFians, as he turned around the corner of a building as the morning sun glared and blared down, unforgivably bright.

"Warned?" Dbsp asked. "What could he possibly mean by --"

"BEHIND US!!" Cloak shouted suddenly. He had seen the danger via Earthsight long before it lumbered into view. Each step they took was like a deafening air siren to Earthsight. "Keep on your toes, everyone."

"Oof!" Dpsb was caught in the chest by one of their wild swings and sent into the side of the riht hand bricked building. He fell to the ground, but was up second later, saying in a rather Milhouse Van Housen way, "I'm okay."

"Good to hear it," Underseen said, in an almost perfunctory way, as he focused on the battle. He was trying to thjnk of a form in which to battle these three. In the end, he settled on a Tetramand while Ash went to a Vaxasaurian form. "I think we know why this area of the city is abandoned now."

Dbsp shook his head to clear it a bit, then flew up, and dived down in a classic Superman-fashion. Only to be barely avoid another swipe. He didn't care to become one with the side of a building again.

"Dodge!" Cloak roared, unintentionally sounding like the DBZA Piccolo. Cloak was utilizing his feline speed and agility to its absolute zenith, by dodging and weaving through the three giants' myriad of bestial attacks. Whatever concoction they were on, it lessened their intelligence. He was momentarily distracted when he noticed the exposed vertebrae and the muscular and facial disfiguration.

This was not Venom.

<Cloak, look out!> Saffa cried. She had morphed Psycholeopterran, the perfect defense against these creatures. Cloak was forced to execute a move that only a feline could pull off, with their flexible spines and tails as a balance, while Saffa used her Psycholeopterran hypnosis abilities to still and pacify the three thugs.

But it didn't hold for long, but they didn't press the attack. The three slumped to the ground, their breathing rough and ragged as they began to shrink back down. Cloak was horrified, as the greenish tinge to the three confirmed his suspicions, as their control devices fell of with resounding clanks and thuds.

"Oh, no," the Realm Walker said aghast.

The three infected individuals, bare-chested, and naked from the knees down. From their beards and debris caught in there hair, it lead to the assumption that these three were street people. They were coughing, and it seemed that their health was deterioriating before their eyes, almost like at time lapse video.

"This isn't Venom," Cloak said.

"What?" Sakki said at once.

"This what is it?" Ash said.

"It looks like a derivative of Venom that I saw in the other Realm," Cloak said, as their breathing became really labored and shallow. Far faster than Cloak was expecting. "It was called Titan. It was more potent than Venom. It was also more fatal."

The three breathed no more. They were turned into monsters just because they misjudged the kindness of others, because they were not weary, or because they were just that hungry. In the end, it didn't matter, any way you sliced it, they did not deserve this. These poor forgotten, dehumanized individuals.

Cloak felt bad because he knew, if they were homeless and destitute, they may very well not have any family that would know or care about their sad fate. Whether they chose it or not, they did not deserve such a fate.

The silence stretched as the sun galloped higher and higher in the sky. It was Dbsp who broke it.

"Why?"

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Expendables

"Uh, sir, an unexpected circumstance has come up," the reedy man said, after he witnessed the death of the three Titan thugs, "it turns out the inoculated concoction has a time limit."

Sluggard was displeased at this news. "How so, David?"

"After a time, they shrink down, and --"

"And what, Donaldson?" Sluggard asked forcibly.

"And they die," David replied, matter-of-factly. "The cloaked one was saying that it was apparently fatal."

"This isn't really a viable concern. I still have Titan, and an near-inexhaustible resource of subjects," Sluggard said, dismissing this as worry. "Subjects that no one would miss."

"Yes, sir," David said, a bit sycophantically.

"Still," Sluggard said, thinking aloud. He only waxed on thoughtfully like this to David Donaldson only, what amounted to his second-in-command. "Still this oversight was significant. I'll have to do something about it."

David had an idea what he meant by that.

"So, they did not take the payoff, did they?" Sluggard said, in a more casual way. "Even a small sum of one million?"

He did not think how infuriatingly worded that sentence was to the common people and the poor. He never did, because he just saw them as mere riffraff. They were just names and numbers to him, the only part of him he gave a rodent's rear about, as he could get money from them, and all you had to do is sign a check to make them go away.

"No, sir," David said, differentially. "They seemed very hostile to the idea. Almost seemed as if the mere offer was offensive."

"Oh, they're people of 'integrity', are they?" Sluggard sneered. He rolled his eyes at the very idea. He thought people like that were losers and fools. Everyone had their price, these RAFians were surely no different. "Ridiculous people to be ridiculed. 'Revolutionary' wanna-bes."

David said nothing, but let Sluggard go off on this tangent.

Eventually, Sluggard stopped his tirade, and replied, "Anyway, good work, David. I have to go and find why my scientists either overlooked this little snafu or willfully withheld information from me. Looks like having my own personal army is not in the cards. For now. But, at least, I can have a couple of enforcers on hand with suitable assets should I need them. Very good. Dismissed."

Then he hung up.

[redtailedsaffa]

It's funny, because in India, it's often the other way round. The rich don't usually give a **** because they already have everything anyway. The poor are convinced that their life is **** and they can't do much more about it, so they get into every bad dealing possible. They'd be more likely to have utter disregard for everyone else around them because of that "I have nothing so I'll wallow in self pity" complex.

Just thoughts from what I've grown up with.

[Cloak]

Actually, America is heading in that direction. Especially if we get a warmonger for president next year. America hasn't been a democracy for a long time. We're an oligarchy and a plutocracy. "Whoever has the gold makes the rules".

The affluent only care about us when voting time comes 'round. Dunno if it's likewise in India.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
Cures and Exploitation

"I cannot answer that, Dbsp," Cloak said, "but a cure exists, I put it into the database myself. I had no idea it existed in this Realm, though."

"What if some of the ingredients don't?" Dbsp said.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it," Cloak said, decisively. "But I believe all the necessary ingredients exist in this realm. It's actually a simple formula that the lab boys could synthesize in no time."

But Saffa knew Cloak better than that, so she prompted, "But what?"

"But there's this one plant whose pollen spores are necessary to facilitate the chemical binding, I believe," Cloak said. "It's rare, usually."

"Usually?" Sakki asked.

"I doesn't exist here, does it?" Underseen asked.

"Actually, it does." Cloak said. "I saw it a while ago, when we fought the Spirit-Drinker."

"None of us were there. Other than you." Underseen pointed out.

"It was in the sewer," Cloak said.

"Wonderful," Saffa said.

***

"Think of as . . . as incentive," Sluggard said, lazily casual, as he blew off the barrel of his faithful gun. "Incentive to not withhold information from me again. Or overlook anything again."

"We didn't know!" a scientist protested, then immediately put his hand on his mouth, terrified. He was sure that he was going to get shot.

"Care to rephrase that?" Sluggard drawled, in an almost bored way.

The scientist stammered many hurried apologies, and prostrated himself upon Sluggard's shoes. Sluggard enjoyed every bit of this. He got a masochistic thrill from it, though he would never admit it aloud.

Sluggard was also secretly glad. His gun was empty, and he did not want to reload in front of these people, to present even the merest sign of weakness. He knew that they'd capitalize on it, if he had.

"Make sure it doesn't happen again," Sluggard said. "I want seven Enforcers by this time tommorrow afternoon."

Then he kicked the prone, lifeless body that he shot. "And get rid of this garbage while you're at it."

[Cloak]

New chapter. Sorry about that brevity.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Sewer Savage

"Ugh," Sakki was saying.

"If you don't like it, you can always go back to the forum," Cloak said, prowling into the sewer, the entrance only mere feet behind him. He was immediately flooded with memories of their chase of the Spirit-Drinker, but he ignore it.

"And miss out on this? Not likely."

"Probably would have been prudent to bring along Faerie or Horse or Parker -- someone else who has been down and seen the plant," Ash said.

"You don't think I'm capable of finding it?" Cloak challenged, moodily.

"I did not say that," Ash countered easily. Cloak was in one of his moods, and she was very well aware of this. But she nothing further, assuming that this just might further antagonize the Realm Walker.

Cloak stalked cantankerously further into the sewer, without another word. He really hadn't any excuse for this sudden mood swing, but he just put it to lack of sleep. He was having nightmares about having used bloodbending. He could understand just how the unscrupulous and amoral would be able to use such an ability without any negative consequences. It weighed a lot more on someone with ethics and values and morals.

Yes, one could say that he really hadn't any choice in using the ability, that his hand was forced. But that didn't change the fact that Cloak did not like it, that he detested it so thoroughly. That he had hated himself for even thinking of doing that instead of coming up with some alternate solution.

The RAFians continued to walk further into the sewer in silence. The labyrinthine passageways and catacomb feel of the bricked tunnels and walls had something of a forboding tension to them. If Cloak noticed this, he deftly ignored it. He had his mind on other matters, more prioritized matters.

He walked in a haunched position, not unlike Wolverine when he had his claws extended. Almost as if he was ready to pounce on the plant when they came to it. As if he anticipated someone would try to stop them.

He was expecting Malice to be directly behind this whole thing. But . . . if she was, she'd make sure thst they knew. She was vain that way. It could possibly have nothing to do with her. That was always possible.

"C'mon," Cloak urged the others when he felt that they were srarting to lag behind.

"What's the rush?" Dbsp asked.

Cloak said nothing, too focused on the goal at hand.

[redtailedsaffa]

Well, there's lots of different types of affluent people. The only affluent people who do use that voting-time mentality are the politicians,since every caste and religious group is a vote bank for them. The other affluent people just fund the politicians. They don't interfere with anything below that because it's not necessary.

[Cloak]

Ah.

It just seems to me that they just want to punish the poor for daring to be born poor. But I guess Americans can't hold a monopoly on that line of thinking.

. . .

This book is getting too political, isn't it?

[redtailedsaffa]

It is.

[Cloak]

Yeah. And it'll probably not be the first. And it's probably already really clear where I am, politically. Not to mention what I think of politics, considering the state of the Realm Walker Council. Remember how many times they've changed Councilors, and it hasn't even been a full Nexus year!

. . .

No, it's not because I forgot which Councilors were there beforehand! How could you suggest such a thing!

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Crocodile Bling

It didn't take long before they located the plant. It was ground-growing pod, with bing fleshy petals, not unlike a Rafflesia, the largest (and certainly one of the most stinky) flowers found on the plant. Fortunately, this plant was not as big, but clearly shared some ancestry with it. The fleshy petals were not red, but a vibrant yellow when blossoming. It wasn't very big with it was closed up into a pod, no bigger than an ordinary football, with a somewhat similar shape.

It wasn't going to be enouh spores in it, they would need about two or three more, which he knew would be nearby. Though he wasn't very botanically gifted, he knew that these plants usually grew in threes or fours, conviently enough. But there was no telling how far away the other pods would be.

They didn't have time for a lengthy search. Malice should whould have used the Titan on more hapless victims, leading to their inevitable deaths. They needed to have a stock of the cure ready, as well as give some stock to the local hospitals to use, if they would accept it, because he knew some wouldn't.

They approached the plant swiftly, but Cloak was starting to get uncomfortable. This was starting to be too easy. Far too easy. If he knew Malice like he thought he did, she would have set up some sort of booby trap or misdirection or distraction or ambush. Of course, the prudent thing would have been to destroy the flower pods, but Malice liked the sport of it. Though that didn't mean that she wouldn't have tampered with it beforehand. They'd have to worry about that later.

"Cloak," Ash said, "we should also take some of the spores or seeds or whatever, so we can continue to make a cure if needed."

"Agreed," the Realm Walker said, though he still sounded uneasy.

"What's wrong?" Dpsb said.

"I know," Sakki said, "it's too easy, isn't it? It just feels like there'd be some sort of test or challenge or trial in order to get the spores."

"Or a booby trap," Saffa said.

"Or a misdirection," Underseen added.

"Or," Cloak said, aware of the new prescence, "an ambush."

It was a gigantic crocodile, like a modern-day Deinosuchus. A Deinosuchus with . . .  with bling. Some sort of chest plate amulet thing around its neck.

"A petsuchos," Cloak said. But he didn't know much beyond the name.

"A son of Sobek?" Dpsb asked.

The other five looked at him.

"Hey, I know things too!" he protested at this reaction.

[guitarhero01234]

WORD UP, VEX!!!

Sorry, had to make the obvious Sonic the Hedgehog joke.

[Cloak]

WORD UP, VEX!!!

Sorry, had to make the obvious Sonic the Hedgehog joke.

One that I should have seen coming, too.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
New Batch of Thugs

The scientists tried to persuade more homeless people into their clutches, but they were having difficult recruiting them. Just because they had to live on the streets did not automatically make them stupid and unperceptive. The ones that might have been interested knew of the previous people who went for a hot meal, and never came back. They distrusted these scientists.

They were close to just kidnapping them, when they reached a quandary -- where would they draw the line to save their necks? What line would they be willing to cross? What they were already planning on doing to these poor people was already reprehensible. Would they go so far as to kidnap these forgotten masses just to make sure they still live at the end of the day?

More to the point, why were they still doing this? They should escape the city. Run away where Sluggard would never find them. But, no . . . no, that would never work. Several had already tried that. He found them before they could finish packing. They were trapped, and trapped in the worst possible way. Yes, it was a learned helplessness, but that can quite often be very potent and long-lasting than anything more physical.

It was with a mixture of fear, despair, and self-loathing that they followed through with their orders. They collected a homeless child, a mentally-unstable woman, a crack addict, a man with frostbite damage to his feet, a wrongfully-charged sex offender, a partially paralyzed man, a recreational marijuana smoker, a convicted arsonist, a depressed loser, a baby-drowner, a heroin addict, a HIV-positive person, a suicidal man, a scaly-skinned man, a woman on oxygen, and a masochist -- all people who either escaped jail, discharged from prison and unable to get or hold a job, or had their lives ruined by the system and were cast away, forgotten. Homeless and pariahs. Help declined, needs ignored.

They were all innoculated and all but seven dies within moments. These scientists would have a lot to answer for, and they can't really use any excuse for their actions, though they were already punishing themselves for what they were doing. Hating ehat they were doing, what Sluggard was importuning them for.

They harnessed the seven like they did with the first three. The seven who survived was the suicidal man, the arsonist, the pot smoker, the addle-minded baby-drowner, the partially paralyzed man, the woman on oxygen, and the mentally-unstable woman. But soon, when the Titan took hold, they'd remember none of this. Their death warrants already signed, and they would have no one to mourn them. They'd be forgotten within a week.

'Tis a sad fate to anyone.

[redtailedsaffa]

Don't think I uploaded the PDF for book 104 yet, so here it is.

[Cloak]

Thanks.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Pod Racers

Cloak was remember more about the creature. It was incredibly strong, probably being able to destroy homes and cars with ruthless ease. It was able "sweat" water from its scaly hide, and only control it to a small degree. And, while wearing the necklace amulet thing, the crocodile is completely impossible to kill, and would simply heal itself when injured.

Dpsb was detailing this to the others, almost as if he was reading the Realm Walker's mind. Of course, he wasn't -- it was just a coincidence.

Cloak looked at the "bling" around the petsuchos's neck, with narrowed eyes. The petsuchos's necklace was an ostentatious elaborate collar of gold chains and precious stones. Sobek's name was inscribed upon it in the form of hieroglyph, with a clasp above these hieroglyphs.

"What's the plan, then?" Sakki asked.

"You guys cut around from either side," Cloak said. "Get pass it in any way you can. Fly. Morph. Somersault. Just get over it, and get the spores, seeds, and sap, just in case."

"And you?" Saffa asked.

"I shall be distracting the petsuchos," the Realm Walker said, simply. "It may be able to influence the water it sweats out, but I can do more than influence it."

There was a low, rolling roar. The petsuchos was gearing up for an attack, and was preparing a lunge.

"Hurry," Cloak said. "The time to act is now. We may not get such an opportunity later. Go now."

"You heard the man," Saffa said, quickly morphing hawk. She was rather neglecting this particular morph, and it would service her needs just fine. <Let's get this done.>

The other five easily bypassed the petsuchos, who was unaware of this because the very water it generated was starting wrap around it, pinioning its limbs to its body, holding it fast. Leaving it virtually defenseless.

While Cloak lacked the finesse Horse had for her aligned element, he made up for in raw, brute power. The petsuchos roared its dissatisfaction with this circumstance, snapping its jaws in demonstration of its discontent.

"Wow," Cloak muttered to himself, "feisty beast. This isn't gonna be as simple and cut-and-dry as I thought."

The struggle wasn't over, but then sudden inspiration hit the Realm Walker. Cloak used the water to also bind its jaws shut, leaving the nostrils untouched. Cloak thrn began to work on undoing the clasp around the neck of the petsuchos while maintaining control iver the water it produced. Talk about your multitasking.