Memoirs of a RAFian

[guitarhero01234]

Thanks, guys

Really liked the last couple chapters. I'm pretty eager to see what this stuff with Saffa is gonna build to

[Cloak]

Okay, new chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Citadel Core

They entered the Citadel Core room, in a deeply domed room, with the drive floating at the center. It was still generating the wave, the pale blue energy generating the pale green crystallized material. The room was rather like Technodome in design.

"Okay. We're here." Underseen said, back in his human form. "Now what?"

"Destroy it?" GH guessed.

"That might not stop the Crystallization Wave," Cloak said. "Who knows? It might exacerbate it."

"How?" Abby asked.

Cloak did not elaborate, as the Crystallization Wave snapped like lightning. He looked at the situation, and tried to analyze it for a solution, while the others did that same.

"That key is still in it," GH said.

"So we just turn it off?" Underseen asked.

"Simple, but effective. I like it." Saffa said.

With a snap, part of the crystallization energy was flung between the RAFians, but Cloak managed to redirect it back at the Drive, which wasn't affected. And it happened once more, and again Cloak redirected it.

"But easier said than done," Cloak said.

"And no guarantee that it will even work," Abby added.

"Got anything better?" GH asked.

Neither Cloak or Abby said anything, with Cloak continuing to redirect or deflect the crystallization energy strikes.

"Didn't think so," GH said, smugly. Then he shrieked after a crystallization strike almost hit his right foot.

"Oopsie," Cloak said. "Sorry."

"No, you're not." GH said, mulishly.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
A Key Moment

"Okay, then," Abby said, "how do we even get up there?"

"Especially because I can't keep deflecting and redirecting these crystallization strikes forever," Cloak said, hoping not to sound glib. "I'm already starting to wear out."

"We need to ground it somehow," Saffa said, astute. "We're not fliers -- unless Abby and I morph or Underseen shapeshifts. Even then --"

Cloak had missed a crystallization energy strike, and she had to dodge. The Elements Master was starting to tire, and he was starting to show it.

"GH, do the thing!" Saffa shouted.

GH unshouldered his guitar, and strummed aimlessly a bit, while he thought of a song. Then he thought of one, as he played a slight rock introduction.

"You hear the screeching of a Noctowl,
You hear the wind begin to howl,
You know there's RAFians on the prowl,
And it's mission time again,
It's got you running though the night,
It's mission time again,
And you just might die of fright,
It's mission time,
You hear the beating of your heart,
You know the screaming's gonna start!
Here comes the really scary part,
'Cause it's mission time again!
It's got you running through the night,
It's mission time again,
Oh, you just might die of fright,
It's mission time."

The crystallization energy had abated with the music. He played a guitar interlude.

Underseen leaped at the opportunity, shapeshifting into a lion, transitioning into a bat. He was winging towards the Drive, toward the Crystal Key.

"All the trees begin to moan,
And the RAFians grunt and groan,
Menacing faces full of grime,
Don't you know it's mission time?
And it's mission time again,
It's got you running through the night,
Yes, it's mission time again,
Oh, you just might die of fright,
It's mission time!!!!"

As GH finished, Underseen landed on the Drive, just inches away from the Key, and transitioned to a small monkey -- a Capuchin monkey to be specific. He was trying to cling onto the Drive, which still revolved at a good clip. It was not easy.


Song source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GkNask_pMKo

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
Turn It Off!

"Why hasn't he turned it off yet?" Abby asked.

"It's rotating too fast," Cloak said, "it's just enough that he is managing to keep his hold."

"The energy is starting to stir up again," Saffa said. "GH! We need another song!"

GH just sang a song he just thought of.

"When no one will listen
To what ya wanna say.
You're too dumb, too young.
You haven't begun
To learn the games that they play."

The Drive began to slow, but Underseen still had to cling on for dear life. He was wondering how well he thought this through.

"Don't sit around
And just wish
For it to be a better day!
Speak up! Be heard!
If ya don't say a word,
Everything will stay the same way."

The Drive slowed down more but Underseen couldn't risk losing his grip. He could shapeshifting into something else, of course, but everything else he thought of didn't have opposable thumbs.

"If ya wanna change the way your life's arranged,
Then you have that choice!
To be a star that you know you are.
Be loud, be proud and rejoice!
And find your voice!
Just find your voice!
You know you've got that choice.
Now go find your voice!"

The Drive began to slow its rotation considerably now. Underseen found it safe to relax his grip a smidgen.

"You see a boy or girl,
That you know you wanna meet.
Come on, stop messing around!
Get up off your seat!
They might see inside of you.
The superhero that you never knew.
He was in there all the time.
Now just let him through."

Underseen tentatively released his handhold with his left hand, and then began to reach for the Key. . . .

"If you wanna change the way your life's arranged,
Then you have that choice.
To be the star that you know you are.
Be loud be proud and rejoice!
And find your voice!
Just find your voice!
You know you have that choice.
To find your voice!"

It was just at his currently-simian fingertips. He would have to scoot a bit to the left to be able to grasp the Key handle. . . .

"Find your voice!
Just find your voice!
You know you've got that choice!
Now go find your voice!"

There! Underseen grabbed the handle, and turned it as GH finishd up.

"And find your voice!
Just find your voice!
You know you've got that choice.
Now go find your voice!"

Ka-THUNK.

Underseen removed the Crystal Key and deftly shapeshifted into a long-necked bird, and passed it off to Cloak. The Realm Walker shattered the key as the Crystallization Wave began to recede with alarming rapidity to the Drive, which was destroyed when the Wave reached it.

"Ooh," Abby said, "look at the pretty sparkles."

Cloak couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or sincere.

[Cloak]

Now, meet the Memoirs version of the Cabbage Merchant. 

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Full Reversion

Fortunately, the Crystallization Wave never got too far. It never crossed an ocean, in any case. And it withdrew very quickly, even quicker than its spread. The taydenite taken back with the Wave, which was unfortunate, considering just how much taydenite was worth.

Of course, one little rich-boy prick by the name of Donald Couch, which happened to be driving in his cherry red expensive car, decided that the warnings were for the poor people --the "peasants", as he chose to think of them. He decided the Crystallization Wave was just a bunch of nonsense, and that his rich daddy would bail him out of anything.

Naturally, he was trapped in taydenite, encapsulated within his car. This had left Couch livid and apocalyptic with rage. But he couldn't do anything about it, and he was completely and totally unaccustomed to not getting what he wanted, the pampered, self-entitled, spoiled little "prince".

He was whining about it all the while, despite the fact that no one but he himself could hear the mutinous whines. And the world was grateful for that little favor. He had missed a couple of meals, and, to someone accustomed to exquisite feasts, it made him downright unbearable to be around.

But, of course, in Donnie's minute mind, it couldn't possibly be his fault. He most certainly wasn't accountable for anything that he did. It was everyone else's fault. Everyone else. It wasn't his. It couldn't have been his.

Of course, with the taydenite issue, that was partially true. But no one told him to flagrantly ignore the warnings as for being for what he perceived to be lesser people. His arrogance and insistence on being able to do whatever he wished, despite any ramifications or consequences.

He never learned. He never learned from his actions, having been rather coddled and sheltered. He was completely selfish, materialistically greedy, and rather friendless. He drove recklessly, spent money like it was water, and denigrated others if they held less wealth and didn't live as lavishly.

As the taydenite retreated and receded, he was furious but elated. But then he saw the state of his car.

"MY CAR!!!" he shrieked.

Its paint job was horribly scratched up, and the roof was showing stress marks on it. No other car had such damage, as they chose not to ignore the warnings and took steps to prevent damage to their cars and other assorted vehicles.

Donnie was the only one who was flippant enough to completely and totally disregard them. So he was now paying the price.

But, of course, in his mind, he wasn't the responsible party.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
Gone and Terror

"Is Andy home?" GH asked.

The portly man with little neck looked at GH with an imperious, drunken glare, and said that his son (he spat the word son) wasn't there. Then he uttered a homophobic slur, describing his own son. GH couldn't say he was all that surprised that a man of this intellectual stature was homophobic.

"Where is he, if I may ask?" GH said, politely, despite wanting to give the guy a right cross to his jugular. "Killing them with kindness" seemed to appropriate way to go here.

"I don't know, do I?" he snarled, rosary dangling haphazardly. Apparently, he took his son's sexuality as a personal affront. "I don't care where the little f--"

"Thank you for your time," GH said, leaving as politely as he could. It was taking him all his self-control not to slug the man. When he was a sufficient distance away from the homophobe.

No wonder Andy didn't want GH there! How must he have suffered from such a parent. Parents? Was his mother as bad? GH couldn't imagine such an abusive parenting. He would most certainly not disown Leatherhead for something as banal as this.

Poor Andy. GH never knew, would never guess. He hid this horrendous home life well, Andy did. But worry did not leave GH. Andy had nowhere to go now. Where would he go? Where could he go? GH may have been . . . Andy was his friend. He needed to be there for him in this trying time.

Oh, where were you, Andy? Where on Earth can you be? GH had nothing -- no leads, no clues. Nothing. Zero. Zilch.

***

"I consider myself a reasonable Realm Walker," Ursa said, "I set certain rules, and I expect them to be obeyed."

"But --"

"Is it true you made contact with Dwellers?"

Cloak felt fear again. It was commonplace whilst in his mother's company.

"Contact between Walkers and Dwellers is strictly forbidden!" Ursa snapped before Cloak could answer. "Son, you know that! Everyone knows that!"

It was not true, but that never stopped Ursa in one of her rages.

"Mother, they're my friends!!" Cloak blurted, before shrinking before the hard, imperious Ursa threw his way.

"No . . ." she seethed. "have you lost your senses completely?! They're Dwellers! You're a Walker!"

Cloak didn't care for the distinction, knowing that it was just speciesism, but said nothing. There is a reason that his mother was so feared by him. But Ursa correctly interpreted his silence.

"So help me, boy, I am going to get through to you," Ursa said, reaching for Cloak, "and if if this is the only way -- then so be it!"

She had taken ahold of his right ear, and pulled on it hard. Then --

"ANIYU, STOP!!" Cloak shouted. This was intense for him. Why couldn't he be battling a Transylian DNAlien, like Ghost?

"Cloak, I know it's hard," Aniyu said, gently. "I know it's painful. But you must face this. You must face it, or else this will keep holding you back."

"I know, I know," Cloak said, breathing heavily, "I know."

[Cloak]

New book ideas.

• Book MV (1005): "Pretenders!!" -- A small group of Ixtl pose as Realm Walkers, despite being Dwellers, believed to be from Void Space.
• Book MVI (1006): "Renegade" -- A Kylothian comes to claim asylum on Earth, but she actually has other plans.
• Book MVII (1007): "Blaze's Bullies" -- A group of Grigori, believed by Blaze to be extinct, come for Blaze.

All titles subject to change. Don't think I rehashed anything.

New chapter.

BOOK CXXVI:
THE ELEMENT FEEDER
CHAPTER ONE:
Answers and Unclouded Eyes

GH was still worried about Andy, but he moved on with his life as well as he could. Yet Andy remained in the back of his mind, and wondering what became of him. Wondering if he was okay. Wondering if he was even . . .

No. No, he didn't need to be thinking like that right now. If he allowed himself to think that way, it would open the floodgates of negative thinking, abject anxiety, and frenetic worrying. He couldn't have permitted himself to think in such a manner.

"Daddy?" Leatherhead asked, as Dek took his children to his thread. The little anthropomorphic crocodilian sounded concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, LH," GH said, kindly. But he couldn't really hide his worry, but Leatherhead was a bit too naive and young to pick up on it anymore. "Don't worry 'bout it."

Then he took out his phone -- the one he used for personal reasons, unlike Cloak who only had and used his communicator -- and checked his FaceBook. He was surprised to see that Andy had posted. This assuaged his worries instantly about Andy's state. He was most certainly alive!!

GH swiftly read through the post and was confused. His profile had said that he was now working for Disney as a "cast member", which GH knew that that was what all Disney employees were called. But why was saying he was friends with the Tweedles, Lauchpad, and Genie? Was he just friends with those actors?

GH decided to message him about it.

***

"Remember, Cloak," Aniyu said, as Cloak faced a larger-than-life energy construct of his mother, grossly distorted by Cloak's own fear of her, "look with unclouded eyes."

Cloak looked at the distorted, monstrous construct of his mother. It looked genuinely terrifying. It was difficult not to cower from it, and cowering would not do him any good. He wished he was with Dino, battling that Gourmand DNAlien. It would have been a lot easier.

"Unclouded eyes," Aniyu intoned.

"I told you never to do that!!" the construct yelled, voice distorted by the fear Cloak felt to be thunderous and monstrous. Cloak flinched. "Have you lost your senses completely?!"

"Cloak!" Aniyu said, knowing that Cloak was wavering. "Look at it objectively. Look at it truthfully."

Cloak closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. As he did, the yellow thorny plants blocking his access from his true zenith of power began to wilt and wither.

"Long live the RAFian!" the construct hissed.

"You," Cloak said. There wasn't a trace of fear in his voice now. His voice was cold but steady, not brittle but strong. "I see you."

The distortions vanished from the energy construct of his mother, whom he was addressing, showing her true form as the ursine Realm Walker that she was. It was revelatory, an epiphany, for Cloak.

"I see you as you are," Cloak said. "A petty old spinster that has control issues. One who isn't above using violence and hurtful language to garner what she thinks is owed her."

Cloak took another deep breath. The vines collapsed into nothingness, but Cloak wasn't done.

"I am done with you, mother," he said. "I wash my hands of you. I want nothing more to do with you."

"But, Cloak," Aniyu said, "this wasn't the final layer to get through."

"What?"

Cloak went over to see what she meant. Behind the yellow thorns was another wall of thorny plants, only a verdant green this time.

"This wall looks like it will deal with --" Aniyu began before Cloak finished her thought for her.

"Disgust."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWO:
The Egg

Meanwhile, in the Knights' HQ, they were up to no good. They were flagrantly breaking their own ideological rule that everything non-Terran was bad as they were manipulating some unknown genetic sample, from some unknown species. They were all secretly hoping that it was Realm Walker genetic material, oblivious to the fact that a Realm Walker's genetic material was more immaterial than material. An overly complex and complicated energy sequence was what consisted as their variation of DNA, but the Knights were (rather willingly and wantonly) unaware of this.

Their great effort, their grand endeavor, only yielded something infinitely less impressive. Something the Knight scientists -- really a contradictory term if there was one -- found to be incredibly disappointing.

It was an egg. A plain, colorless egg that was only a half inch in diameter.

All their time and energy spent on this project . . . wasted! Wasted on a fruitless effort, an assiduous, sedulous failure!! It was a complete letdown. With that disappointment came frustration, anger, and passing the buck.

But they didn't realize the inherent dangers of the creature whose egg they just created as the egg's white shell faded to violet. Then it progressed into indigo. Then blue. Then green. . . .

***

Meanwhile, at RAF, LH and Nak were having fun in the forum. GH, who had managed to forgive the Zirkonians, couldn't help but strum as he sang:

"Taming the tides, swarming the seas
Beware Banned, drop to your knee!
Defending their friends and enemies!
As big as a whale (but with a much smaller tail).
Facing the foe with our fearless glutes!
Daring the dastards to put up their dukes!
Great globs of gore, they'll storm the shore!
And seek the unknown, then will they go home?
Titanic LH and Daring Nak,
Adventurers-slash-RAFians!
Titanic LH and Daring Nak!
Adventurers-slash-RAFians!
Our gallant quest to do their best
And smile for their adorers!
They'll save the day and make a splash!
They'll LH and Daring Nak!
They'll clobber those monsters with their clammy claws!
They'll sever those monsters with their savage jaws
The battle is fierce and mercifully brief,
The conquering heroes return as kings of the reef!
They'll dine with the best, dressed with a flair!
Climb every mountain because it's there!
Come on, follow me,
They'll make history!
To courage, to us, the Mark or bust!
Titanic LH and Daring Nak!
Adventurers-slash-RAFians!
Titanic LH and Daring Nak!
Adventurers-slash-RAFians!
We'll save the day and make a splash!
Titanic LH, and Daring Nak!!"

Then he ended the song, and glanced over to Leatherhead. Then he made a mad dash for him, "No, no, no! Leatherhead, you get that out of your mouth!!"

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Gassy Hatching

The egg was still green and half an inch in diameter. It quickly faded into yellow, then orange, then a deep crimson, and, finally, black.

What was remarkable was that the Knight scientists did not notice this at all. If they did, they just wrote it off as nothing. They never even bothered to dispose of it after they deemed it a failure, which was very sloppy on their part.

The black egg shook slightly. No one noticed.

It shook again a few minutes later. Still no one noticed.

It shook again, quicker this time. No one was around to see it, as everyone went home and the lab was dark. Only moonlight filtered into the room, the chilled night air filtered into the cold, sterile room.

The egg cracked. The crack deepened with each following second. And ended up with a pale yellow creature flopped out. It was difficult to tell if the creature was substantive or insubstantial, material or immaterial, energy or matter. It had a single deep purple eye and a single flagella-like leg. It measured a single inch long. It was a creature without a name, without an identifiable species. It had single proboscis which was the only mouth it had.

It could float unassisted, and it was hungry. It went to forgotten glass of water -- very careless and sloppy of the scientist staff, though that was hardly surprising -- and drank the whole thing down. Then it -- and there's no polite way to really put this -- it farts the oxygen out. It only cared about the hydrogen, as it apparently was hydrophageous.

Hunger satisfied for the moment, this creature, this Element-Eater, slipped out of the lab through the open window and was on the loose.

***

Cloak's eyes snapped open.

He felt the fur on his neck stand up on end. He sensed an evil, but it wasn't a deliberate sort of evil. It was a mindless sort of evil, like a force of nature.

This perplexed Cloak a bit. He interpreted it to be like the Spirit-Drinker, but decidedly different. But Cloak could not tell in what regard was it different, but knew that it was. His tail twitched, and he felt a need to prowl, to hunt for this thing, whatever it was.

But he hesitated. He probably should go tell the others first.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
A Metamorphosis or Two

This creature, this Element-Eater, had dined on the hydrogen in the environment that it could. Its appetite was implacable, it would seem. It would excrete any other element that it had to ingest to extract the hydrogen.

It wasn't above eating living, organic creatures that it could overpower to eat so it could extract the hydrogen in its digestive system. It was gluttonous in its search for hydrogen to consume. This also made it rather pyrophobic, until a time where it shut its overlarge eye and wrapped its flagellum-like leg around itself basically turning it into a mound a flesh -- if you could call it flesh -- essentially forming a cocoon, which ballooned up to two inches in diameter.

It was changing colors into a deep chartreuse color, as two human-like brown eyes opened as two frog-like hindlegs with two webbed, Greninja-like toes grew out of its posterior end and two proboscises sprouted from the other end. It no longer craved hydrogen, it had evolved that away. Now it hungered for the lightest noble gas -- helium.

It still could hover, but tended to use its frog-like legs to "swim" through the air. It's movement was almost sedate, as if very confident that it could find all the helium it need to ingest, even though it was really not all that plausible for the creature to metabolize helium, being a noble gas. But this was a world of impossibilities.

The Element Eater left to sedately garner its next meal.

***

"I dunno, Cloak," GH said, "I could do with more information than a gut feeling."

"First Light, why are we going through this again?" Cloak said, a tad irritably. "We all know that when we felines sense something like that, it means something's ways up. When hasn't it been?"

"When you claimed Justin Bieber killed Rebecca Black in a monstrous knockout," Saffa said, "or was it the other way around?"

"That was a Death Battle, and you know it," Cloak snarled.

"Cloak, calm down," Abby said. "This can't be good for your blood pressure."

"I have no blood," Cloak said, frustrated. He felt that he wasn't getting his point across very well.

"Your ichor pressure, then," Abby amended, a bit exasperated. "You know what I mean."

***

Apparently, the Element-Eater had consumed sufficient helium that it became a wad of flesh, if it could be called flesh. It darkened to a deep bloodred. It was cocooned up, eyes shut, as it ballooned up to three inches. The three emerald green, human-like eyes opened, two on the bottom and one on top. A mouth lined with sharp teeth unzipped open as three thin legs with club-feet grew out of its soft, squishy body.

After a few moments, its body hardened to a hard exoskeleton, with a hard metallic sheen. It had no intention on eating helium anymore. It desired and hungered for lithium now. But it could not hover and levitate anymore, but it was quick to anger and agitation, as well as fearing water.

It immediately found lithium-containing granite, and immediately gobbled it down, excreting all elements that weren't lithium. It traveled quickly awayto find more lithium for it to consume. . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Gluttony, Sheer Gluttony

Soon enough, the Element Eater had enough of lithium as it quickly molted its metallic exoskeleton and cocooned itself into a wad of flesh again. It lightened in color until it was a very pale green and ballooned to four inches long.

Then it opened four human-like, deep maroon eyes, arranged like a square, as four legs issued from its body as its metallic exoskeleton hardened. The limbs were thick, like tree trunks, with two-toed feet with metallic claws tipping them. It had a wide mouth full of strong, needle-like teeth.

It craved beryllium now. And it was eating its way through some old, forgotten radio equipment. Which, as it turns out, belongs to a certain old school car that a prick who has the name Donald Couch currently owned.

"My car! Who effed up my radio?!"

He should feel grateful, as beryllium oxide is carcinogenic. But this kid hasn't been grateful for anything in his life.

***

"I'm certain that something is up," Cloak said, mulishly stubborn.

"But, with no real information to go on," Saffa said, practically, "what exactly can we do?"

"We have to do something," Cloak said. He thought he heard a very low, very faint hum. It was an almost electrical sort of hum.

"Cloak, you're being irrational," Abby said. "How are we to do anything when we don't know what we're up against, when we don't even have a location?"

Cloak said nothing. The hum was getting harder to ignore.

"Cloak, we have nothing to go on," GH said. "And anytime that I'm the voice of reason, you know that it's serious."

Cloak was going to say something, but that hum was becoming distracting.

***

With alarming rapidity, the Element Eater had found and consumed sufficient amount of beryllium. It shed its metallic exoskeleton, as it wadded itself into a mass of writhing flesh, ballooning up to five inches. It darkened to a dull green color. Then it opened its five pink, human-like eyes, arranged in a pentagonal pattern, above a wide, lipless mouth with needle teeth in the center of its body. It grew five thick legs, rather like Quintapeds, ending in three blunt claws. Then it grew pachydermic skin.

It was moderately aggressive, and surprisingly quick. It's temperament could switch on a dime, making it dangerous, for its diminutive size.

It had had enough of beryllium, and was after boron now, as it had long left Couch's car, leaving the radio broken beyond repair, by just breaking into and out of it. It craved boron now, proven as it began to scarf down a box of borax, excreting the non-boron elements out. . . .

***

"Cloak?" Abby asked.

Cloak didn't answer. The humming was becoming annoyingly distracting.

"Cloak?" GH and Saffa chimed in, together.

Cloak said nothing. The humming . . . the humming . . .

"Cloak? Um, Cloak? You okay?" GH asked.

Wait, the humming. It was a breadcrumb. A trail to follow.

Cloak didn't hesitate, he left immediately to follow it, only semi-aware that the others were following him.

[guitarhero01234]

I'm guessing it's gonna go for carbon next?

[Cloak]

Oh, you'll see.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
Strange Encounters of the Disappointing Kind

"Hey, Cloak!" Abby cried.

"Cloak, hold up a minute!" Saffa shouted.

"Man, that guy can really move when he wants to." GH panted as he readjusted his guitar on his back as they tried to catch up with the feline Realm Walker. He was starting to sweat where the strap was.

"He's a tiger, isn't he?" Saffa said, feeling that they were most definitely gonna lose his trail now. "I've read that they can go fifty, sixty kilometers per hour before tiring. Cloak must have the same capability."

"Kilometers?" GH asked.

"Thirty to forty miles per hour," Abby translated, as Saffa looked a bit exasperated, "but more to the point, we have to find him."

"Easier said than done," Saffa pointed out. "If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be."

"Who said that he doesn't want to be found?" GH asked.

"I certainly didn't," came a voice. They came upon Cloak, rather suddenly, that Saffa gasped in surprise. But he didn't look at them, but had his amber eyes trained upon something flying -- hovering -- erratically in the air. It was eight inches long, pale yellow, with eight deep indigo eyes that were human-like and arranged in two rows, and eight dangling, useless legs which ended in six wispy, fibrous toes. It also had three siphons which constituted a mouth for it.

"What is that thing?" Saffa asked.

"I still can't believe you guys can't hear it," Cloak said. "It is the source of the almost electrical humming I heard."

"But what is it?" Abby asked.

"I can say that which I do not know," Cloak said.

"You could just say 'I don't know'," GH commented benignly. "Besides, it doesn't look too dangerous."

"Neither does a Yeerk or Heilin," Cloak said, darkly, "until they get a host."

"You're saying that this thing is a parasite?" GH said, skeptically.

"No, I'm saying you completely missed my point."

[guitarhero01234]

So, everything is 8 now. So that means it's up to . . . oxygen, if I remember right?

. . . Oh crap.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Creature Lost

"Wait, where'd it go?!" Abby declared.

"What the deuce?" Cloak said, a feline snarl intermingling with his words. Then he let out a Realm Walker curseword that sounded like nothing more than an angry snarl to his Dweller friends.

"Cloak, just wait a minute before you take off a-- . . . and he's gone." GH said, as Cloak took off in the direction of the ringing hums.

"He doesn't like to mince words, I guess?" Abby said, with a shrug, as all three made to follow Cloak.

"This is the guy that has a predilection for monologuing rants!!" Saffa countered.

"I did say 'I guess'," Abby said, with dignity.

"I heard that," Cloak said, quietly. He had stopped short so suddenly that GH crashed into him and fell over while Cloak remained standing. His ears were twitching as much as his tail tip. He was listening intently, sniffing the air -- despite this creature, whatever it was, not having an apparent scent -- and he could not locate a scent trail.

The three indulged in a human instinct to give a hunting predator, like the tiger that Cloak was, a wide radius. Cloak resorted to his well-relied-upon Earthsight. But it was difficult as there were a lot of competing vibrations to sort out to find out where this creature was. Cloak was certain that this creature was the evil he sensed.

But using Earthsight to try and find an airborne target was actually, not surprisingly, a rather stupid move. But Cloak was desperate to find this thing before it could harm someone. And he genuinely did not believe that it was harmless in the least.

"Cloak, it's harmless," Abby said, though her voice betrayed her. She wasn't as convinced of that as she tried to espouse.

"You don't know that," Cloak said, voice unintentionally going all Batman on them.

"And you don't know that it's dangerous," she countered.

"I can sense a malevolence from it," Cloak said.

"Sure you do," Saffa said, skeptical.

Cloak stood up straight, rearing up to his full eight-foot height. Then he turned his head slowly toward Saffa. Turning his amber eyes to her.

"I did," Cloak said, seriously. "True, it wasn't the deliberate, premeditated evil of Malice. Nor the indifferent, flippant evil of Sluggard and his surrogates. It was araw, bestial sort of evil. The kind of evil thst comes from a mindless monster." 

"You're making all this up, aren't you?" GH said, almost hopefully. The creature they saw, harmless or not, gave him the willies.

"No," Cloak said with a chilling finality.

Then he saw a pale creature emerge parallel to them. This thirteen-inch creature with pale gray, metallic skin walked upon three Taxxon-like legs tipped with three claws. It had broad, lipless mouth full of needle-like teeth. It also had thirteen human-like eyes colored a deep brown arranged in two rows.

"There it is," Cloak said.