Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Well, that's enough shrooms for tonight.

Cloak was sleeping. Dreaming. But I fixed it to make it a bit more clear.

Also, loving the hot Skitty on Wailord action.

Well, it fits doesn't it?

. . .

Wait . . . that came out wrong.

Wasn't the title "Petulant Pests" used somewhere else or am I hallucinating?

Possibly. Some chapter titles are liabel to be the same, as I don't memorize them.

God knows I've used the "It's A Trap!" chapter title a number of times.

Sorry for the delay.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
No Means No!

Cloak still was a bit groggy, but he was becoming more and more awake with each step. With each step, his Earthsight told him again and again that RAF was no longer connected with the ground, other than the floating mound upon which the forum's buildings stood. The Board Bored building, the auditorium, the Media Area building, the mess hall, the General Board building, the infirmary, the Animorphs Section complex, the personal thread buildings (the housing building, in another words -- the dormitories, so to speak), the nearby lake, and the maintenance and administrative buildings . . . all intact. Even Pootang's prison (although it was more like a habitat, if anything) was still intact as well and Code Avalon was still in place. It was like Asteroid M and Angel Island mashed together.

Cloak was the first one to arrive and analyze the scene. They were quite a distance up, above the clouds, but still well within the atmosphere. He knew the sprites were annoying and grating on one's patience, but he never bothered to fathom just how spiteful they could be. Cloak noted the impressive stamina they possessed to have hefted up what essentially amounted to a mountaintop, though Cloak surmised it could just be due to sheer magic, an art that he, admittingly, had little knowledge with.

He wondered, about a half-hour later, just why no one else was showing up to notice this. Then again, it was still dark out. The sun has not yet rose. Cloak had a habit of being a bit of an early-riser anyway.

Soon enough, the others started to filter out of their threads, and seemed unaware of the change at first. But it was readily noticeable by slightly thinner atmosphere and by the sprites everywhere, each wearing a spiteful look on its face.

"Now you hafta play with us," one sneered. A bright orange one.

"And if we say no?" Faerie growled.

"You won't!" another said, colored a metalic blue.

"Hopin' you're not hedging your bets on that one, Hon," Faerie said, dryly.

"Come!" said one the color of a Twinkie. "Come come come come come come!"

"It's time to play!!" said one the color of a doxy. "Playtime!! Now!!"

"No," Cloak said, standing with his feet apart, cloak billowing melodramatically.

"It's playtime. It is time to play." Said another of indefinate fur color. Its tone was supossed to be dark and intimidating, but came off laughable with that squeaky voice of its. "Or else."

"Don't you threaten me, pipsqueak." Cloak growled. "No means no. We all have had far enough of your antics. Now, listen to me. We do not want to play with you. We haven't any interest in it. You shall leave without any resistance. No means no."

"Play with us," a pinky, frilly sprite spoke. "Or else."

There was no mistaking the threat in that line. Cloak didn't take kindly to threats.

"Or else! Or else! Or else!" It had now become a rather beignly sinister chant for the sprites. "Or else! Or else! Or else!"

[redtailedsaffa]

Good thing I stalk the chat history, or I would've missed this chapter.

[Cloak]

Exactly why I put it there. 

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Peskipiksi Nomi!

"Or else! Or else! Or else!"

"Or else what?"

"Or else! Or else! Or else!"

"Isn't it obvious, Dpsb?" Cloak said, staring at the gyrating sprites coldy as they continued their chant.

"Or else! Or else! Or else!"

"Is what obvious?"

"Or else! Or else! Or else!"

"SHUT UP!!" Saffa and GH roared, the sprites' grating chant having pushed them too far.

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!" It just served to make them louder and more obnoxious. Both Saffa and GH facepalmed hard.

"We're hovering in midair, maybe fifty or a hundred of your miles," Cloak said.

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!!"

"But . . . it doesn't look like we're --"

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!!

"-- The landmass itself is floating. Not unlike how they supported the nonflier RAFians for the past couple days."

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!!"

"So we're basically screwed, right?" GH said. "If we don't give in, they let us drop to our doom, right?"

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!!"

"You insult me, GH." Cloak said, quietly, though his voice was lost in the sprites' loud, cacophonous chant.

"OR ELSE! OR ELSE! OR ELSE!!"

"ENOUGH!!" Cloak roared a roar that could be heard for two miles. The sprites piped down. "Sprites. It is time you left. And left for good."

"But they are holding up the forum!" Dino protested.

"Some of us can't fly!" Goom protested.

"What?" the sprite called Sprinkles spluttered.

"You heard me." Cloak said. "Let it drop."

[redtailedsaffa]

OH MY GAAAWWWDDDD

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Landmass Levitation

Saffa's response was an elegant one.

"OH MY GAAAWWWDDDD!"

"You don't want us to drop your home," a sprite called Rainbow said. Cloak really was not liking these overly saccharine names. "You'd die when you fall."

"But will we fall?" Cloak countered, wiggling his toes and smirking mischievously.

"Why is it when he smiles like that I get a chill up my spine?" GH said.

"Because you're a pansy?" Abby teased.

"Hey!" he protested.

"We are holding you up," a sprite called Flower said. "We stop. You fall."

"Oh, really?" he said, unimpressed, examining his black gloved hand almost indifferent, as he addressed the swarm of millions. "Are you sure about that assertion, sprite? I think your plan to unify your home with ours has a gaping flaw in it."

"No flaw!" Cupcake said, with hearty, virulent dispute.

"Perfect plan!" Rainbow replied.

"Is it now?" Cloak said, with mock surprise. "When you are not holding up the forum?"

"We are!" a sprite called Sugar said.

"No." Cloak said, firmer now. "You are not."

"Lies!" Several sprites hissed out.

"But it is true," Cloak said. "If you are so confident that you are holding the forum up, stop supporting it for the briefest of seconds. Let it dip, let it fall."

"Cloak, are you sure about this?" Saffa said, anxiously.

"I know what I'm doing Saffa." Cloak replied calmly, over his shoulder. He hadn't moved from his spot an inch. And he had good reason for it.

"You're crazy," Sprinkles said.

"Indulge me," Cloak said, with a steely glint in his eye. "Just stop for a moment."

With some hesitation and trepidation, they acquiesced. But the forum did not fall. It remained hovering there, seemingly unsupported.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Wising Up

"Impossible!" Rainbow gasped.

The forum remained intact, hovering pleasantly and benignly. It remained stationary, not rotating at all. All the building remained intact and undamaged, even cosmetically.

"How?" Cupcake said.

But the RAFians understood what was going on, and they watched Cloak intently, wondering how he was going to play this.

"See?" Cloak said, with a snap to his tone. "You weren't supporting anything. Otherwise, the landmass and buildings probably would not be intact."

The last bit was a bit of conjecture, but the bluster might work in their favor. But it was best not to play all of his cards just yet, he felt. He had to keep it hidden that he --

"You." came the reply of a sprite named Muffin. It's tone and body language was accusatory and angry. "You did this. Somehow."

Cloak played it cool, "Did I now?"

"Yes!" it proclaimed. "Why do you want to take our fun from us?!"

"Your fun." Cloak repeated harshly. It was a deliberate harshness as his eyes became golden-scarlet suns. "Your fun. You attempt to kidnap all of us, hold us hostage, just so we can bend to your whims. You have no concerns for our wants and our needs. No, in your constant search of 'fun', you completely disregard them for your own wants and needs."

Silence.

"I initially thought of you sprites as irritating creatures unaware of just how annoying they are," Cloak continued, voice low and constant. "But now I see an underlying truth. Yours is a selfish species, an ethnocentric one. Though one could argue that of any species, I suppose. I just hope at least one sect of your species is not like this, I hate to make sweeping generalizations about this."

Silence. They didn't understand what Cloak was saying. This frustrated the Realm Walker.

"They don't understand a word you're saying, Cloak," Faerie said.

"I realized that, Faerie, thanks." Cloak said, rather more curt than he intended.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it!" a sprite called Cake (though it is unknown if it is a liar) demanded.

"No," Cloak said coolly.

"Stop it!" a sprite named Cinnamon yelled.

"Hmmm," Cloak said, as the forum started to slowly, subtly sink beneath the clouds once more. "If you insist."

[redtailedsaffa]

Well, you have done this before, after all.

Heh, chucked at the Cake.

[Cloak]

You chucked what at the Cake?

New chapter. Sorry about the brevity.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Down, Up, Down, Down . . .

The clouds rushed over the landmass, like a frothing sea. It was almost a recreation of the sinking of Atlantis. The forum was being slowly lowered from this strange flooring of cloud. And, all the while, the sprites stared, dumbstruck and immobilized from sheer shock.

And, all through this, Cloak did not move, did not flinch, did not react. He had his arms folded to his chest in a relaxed sort of way, and an almost bored look on his face. To him, the descent wasn't at all frightening, as he was was in conscious control over it. The other RAFians were a bit more nervous, understandably.

The forum was quickly submerging beneath the clouds, and was completely below the clouds before the sprites reacted. They dove down, and began to whirl, to circle around the forum in a whirling dervish. They were trying to pull it back up again. Cloak had foreseen this, but it annoyed him just the same.

The sprites managed to make the landmass rise somewhat. Cloak could see that he would have to exercise more of his power in order to accomplish what he wanted. This was demonstrated when  a single tongue of golden scarlet energy flew from the edge of each of his eyes, almost like tears.

Of course, the sprites weren't going to stop trying to prevent Cloak from returning RAF to its rightful spot. And they quickly realized that they could not stop the momentum of the landmass, now that Cloak increased the amount of power that he was putting behind it. It was clear that they were no match, in terms of sheer power, as Cloak was still only using a fraction of his power. Mostly because tapping into his full potential actually terrified the Realm Walker.

So the sprites decided that the best option was to attack Cloak, to separate him from the ground, and he was aware of them coming to this conclusion.

They shot down, a comet of magical energy, only to be repulsed by a pulse of aerokinetically thrown wind. But this had the unfortunate circumstance causing the forum to lurch downward six feet before Cloak "caught" it.

It was no good -- safely lowering the forum back down to the ground and battling the sprites took too much concentration to do at the same time, even if he tapped into more of his power. He only had so much focus.

And, even so, he was only one man.

[redtailedsaffa]

... I meant to type "chuckled". My phone has a brain of its own.

Cloak could use some backup.

[Cloak]

Funny you should say 'backup' . . .

New chapter. Sorry about the brevity.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Pop, Pop, Pop

The sprites were regrouping for another attack, only they weren't going to be repelled by Cloak.

"Oh, I have had just about ENOUGH of you!!" Faerie roared in frustrated annoyance. She was accompanied by an agreeing hawk shriek.

Faerie and Saffa began to mercilessly pop the sprites out of the sky. But it didn't escape Cloak's notice that neither had actually killed the sprites. They weren't so cold-hearted to do so, though it was, admittingly, tempting to do such.

But the two women weren't the only RAFians getting into the fight. Helen and Sam were using their respective green and violet constructs to push the sprites away, popping them out the sky. Parker was using his Falco Armor, which allowed him to fly, though not indefinitely, and taking potshots at the sprites . . . and arguing with Tyr in a very much Iron Man-Jarvis way. The three RAFian dragons took to the air, lighting the sprites heinies aflame.

Meanwhile, Cloak concentrated on putting forum back on terra firma, carefully, concentrating intently. It was much easier now, now that the others had managed to get the pestilential sprites off his back.

Noelle and Abby managed to use their Psycholeopterran morphs to entrance a fraction of the sprites with their hypnotic abilities. Laserbeak and bat-Gaz were weaving in and out of the sprites, disorienting them. GH was playing a heavy metal version of "Flight of the Valkyries", which didn't seem possible, and it scared the sprites away. Leatherhead was tapping his tail in time with the music.

Slowly, now. Cloak thought, focused. But not too slow. Not too fast. Steady speed. Steady.

Empress Goose sowed even more confusion amongst the sprites by essentially body surfing sprite to sprite. Phoenix flew up engulfed in flames, with hopes of intimidating the sprites, but instead having them mistake him for the sun. Dpsb flew up, and tried to get all the sprites in his slipstream, to further disorient them.

More and more RAFians joined the fray, the ones that could fly unassisted. Cloak appreciated this, as he concentrated to lower the forum and to do it right.

[guitarhero01234]

I was thinking more "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," but that works too.

[Cloak]

Ah. 'Kay.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Slowly Now . . .

They were at least a thousand feet up now. Cloak was allowing the forum to fall at about five, ten feet per hour. With the others holding off the sprites, that made this job infinitely easier by scads. He was tempted to speed up the descent, get this over with sooner. But that would have proven disastrous.

Nine hundred feet up.

So tempted. So sorely tempted to increase the speed of the descent. But that might lead to foreseen and unforeseen consequences and ramifications. He must strive to lessen bith of those.

Nine hundred and twenty-five feet up.

He mustn't get impatient. He must not give in to the easiest path. It woukd be easy to just slam the forum down to the ground, but that would just destroy it. He would not allow that.

Eight hundred and seventy-five feet up.

Seven hundred and fifty feet up.

The temptation . . . the temptation to give in to the easy path was undeniably great. He wasn't at the limits of his power, but it was still hard work. Very hard work. It would be easy to give up, but the easy path was usually the path not worth taking. The hard path of arduous and usually painstaking work is usually the one that bears the most fruit.

Seven hundred feet up.

Six hundred and fifty-four feet up.

Six hundred and forty-two feet up.

Not too fast now. Not too slow either. Careful . . . cautiously . . . must not be careless. Must not be reckless.

Six hundred and thirty-one feet up.

Six hundred and twenty-three feet up.

Six hundred feet up.

Five hundred and sixty feet up.

Steady . . . steady . . . steady now. . . . Don't get ahead of yourself. Don't get reckless. Don't get careless. Steady . . . steady . . . steady . . .

Five hundred and forty-five feet up.

Five hundred and thirty feet up.

Five hundred and fifteen feet up.

Five hundred feet up.

Not long now . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter. Sorry about the brevity.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Landfall

Five hundred feet up.

So close now . . .

Four and thirty-two feet up.

So very close to being done with this task. So close . . .

Three and twenty-one feet up.

Not long now . . .

Two hundred and ten feet up.

Soon . . .

One hundred feet up.

Very soon now . . .

Eighty-four feet up.

Gently now . . .

Fifty-nine feet up.

Nearly there . . .

Thirty-four feet up.

Sixteen feet up.

Nine feet up.

Three feet up.

There! Touchdown! The forum was back on its foundation! Cloak quickly fused the base of the forum back to the land of the foundation upon which it sat. The forum was now safely moored to the foundation upon which it belonged, Cloak did not have to waste the terrakinetic energy keeping it aloft.

He turned his sights on the sprites who managed to elude the others, who landed and glared at the sprites.

"You're mean!" a sprite called Eclair said snottily.

[redtailedsaffa]

Now can they leave?

[Cloak]

I would answer, but that's what this new chapter is for.
 

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Was That a Threat?

"You're mean. You're mean. You're mean."

It had become a new chant for the sprites. But, by this point, every single RAFian, from the newbies to the veterans, had quite enough of this.

"You're mean. You're mean. You're mean."

"SILENCE" Cloak roared.

"You're mean. You're mean. You're mean."

Cloak sliced his arm through the air in a diagonal manner, and caused a crescent of air to come out and down no less than six sprites. Whether they were simply unconscious or dead was unclear.

Abject silence fell, as the six sprites moved n a very stilted, stunned, and disoriented way.

"Now do you irritating pests get it?!" Cloak said, unable to keep the anger from his voice. "You are not welcome here!! Go away!!"

"Wh-what do you want us to do?" the sprite called Sweetheart said.

"LEAVE!!"GH said, as Saffa facepalmed. "Just how much clearer do we have to make it before you get the picture?!"

"I d-don't underst-stand," the sprite called Frosting said, sounding teary-eyed. "Wh-what do you want us to do?"

"Fly," Cloak said, with a growl to his voice. "Fly away, and never return."

"Wh-wh-what?" another sprite, called Confection, said.

Cloak's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Leave now. Don't ever return. Or else we shan't be so merciful."

"Huh?" Sprinkles said.

"Leave," Cloak warned. "Or it shall be a sprite slaughter."

Silence at this dark warning.

"I am not kidding," the Realm Walker said, very seriously, his eyes like golden scarlet suns. "And I am not someone that you would want to cross, sprites. You have only seen a mere fraction of what I'm capable of. Believe me."

The sprites hesitated for only a moment. Then they rushed away, a bright comet of light. They were gone, and, with luck, they were gone for good.

"That," Gaz said, concerned, "was rather dark for you, Cloak."

"It was necessary," Cloak replied, turning away from the spot where the sprites fled. He chose to ignore the heavy hush that had befallen the forum, and just continued to walk to his thread for a much-needed rest.