Memoirs of a RAFian

[Underseen]

That changes everything 

[Cloak]

Yeah, here's the next chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
More Good News

"Now," Cloak said, with a heavy sigh, "Yarin destroys the ship."

"He what now?" Blaze said quickly.

"I must not have heard you right, Cloak." Gaz said.  "It sounded like you said 'Yarin destroys the ship'."

Cloak looked directly into her eyes.  After a pregnant pause, where he pulled five curious black disk-shaped devices with red centers from his cloak, said, "I did."

<Wouldn't that, oh, I don't know, KILL US?!> Noelle pointed out.

Cloak said nothing but slapped one of the device to her chest.  A form-fitting, dark tan suit with black accents oozed out, wrapping itself around her body, including little glass spheres for each of her stalk eyes.  Noelle looked at her own space suit with sincere surprise.  Her eyes kept blinking in a most distracting way.

"This was Plumber-issue," Cloak explained, as he handed another to Gaz, which she activated when she attached it to her own chest.  "I didn't think they would miss five."

Then he slapped one of the devices onto Blaze, which he didn't really like because it felt weird on his wings.  Then, ignoring any protests, Cloak slapped on onto Parker's chest and then the last on onto his own.  They were prepared for the vaccuum of space -- but then Cloak saw the XBs moving vigorously, as if they knew something was going on.

"Cloak, Goku, Sam and Helen are here." Yarin reported.  "What now?"

"Is Parker okay?!" Helen demanded.

"Not if this doesn't work," Cloak replied drily.  "Yarin, I'm gonna try to crack this thing open like an egg."

"Cloak, wouldn't --"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! We've been through the whole survivability thing!  You need to destroy this ship, Yarin!  And the pirate's one, too!"

"You want to strand them --"

"They're no longer what they were when they disembarked." Parker said flatly.

"Parker!"

"Not the time, Helen!" Parker said, his helmet beneath his space suit hiding his blushing face.

"Guys, watch those XBs!  Yarin, get the Lanturns and Helen out of the ship!  They're gonna need to play 'catch-the-RAFian'." Cloak commanded.  "I'm gonna rip this thing apart now."

<Cloak, I know you're powerful, but even you may not have the str-->

Cloak's glare was venomous, as his bent down, wedged his fingers into the the floor, and used all his mastery over metal to pull the floor appart -- standing on a red energy disc with golden highlights and used his mastery over Metal to push the sides further away.  He was, little-by-little succeeding.  Eventually, he breached the outer hull, and the vaccuum suched him and his compatriots out, while he used his mastery over Metal to seal the hull again, when the five were free of the ship.

"YARIN!!  FIRE!!!" Cloak roared through the communications.  "DESTROY THE SHIP!!"

[Cloak]

Two more to go.  Then the, well, trilogy, I suppose.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
No Regrets

Yarin fired his ship's weapons, but it seemed to do nothing to the warship.  It couldn't have been the XBs -- they seemed to possess rudimentary intelligence.  The Lanterns and Helen caught the RAFians who were starting to spiral out of control.  Then they returned to Yarin's ship.  Sam was low on power, so he pulled his lantern out of his pocket dimension and charged his ring.

Gaz was struggling getting the suit off.  "HOW DO YOU GET THIS THING OFF?!"

Noelle calmed her down, and showed her that all she had to do was press the center button.  The suit raced back into the device like a tape measure retreating within it's housing.

Helen was fawning over her "brave, brave Parker", which Parker's face was burning from embarrisment.  He was pleading with her to stop the baby talk and pet names -- the whole "not in front of the guys" scenario.  It would be pretty funny, if not for the given situation.

Cloak was standing right by Yarin, far more concerned with preventing those monsters from being unleashed on the galaxy.  He was shrewdly observing that Yarin's lasers were only doing minute damage.  At this rate, it would take forever.

"Aim for the seam I made." Cloak suggested.  Perhaps it would ignite something, or do something.  But nothing happened.

It so happens that Parker managed to extricate himself from Helen and saunter over to the Walker and the Nyac.  "Nothing is working?"

"Does it LOOK like it's working?!" Cloak snapped.

"Well, then," Parker said, small smile playing around his face, "it's a good thing that I planted that bomb in that engine room."

"You what?" Yarin asked.

"You knew we'd be blowing up the ship," Cloak replied shrewdly.

"Not 'knew', just . . . suspected."

"That's a large risk to take." Cloak said through narrowed eyes.

"So is ripping a hole in a warship." Parker countered.

"Touche." Cloak conceded.  "Detonate it."

Several explosions took place, that shook Yarin's ship.

"I thought you said you placed one bomb," Cloak said.

"Okay, so twenty," Parker admited, "but all in strategic spots.  Right after my first encounter with that first born."

"There were mor -- you know what?  Never mind.  I don't want to know."

The ship was nothing but shrapnel now, and the parasites were just bits of atoms.  They were done.

"Okay, Yarin," Cloak said, "what do you say about goin' home?"

"Aye aye, captain," Yarin said warily, with a wry smile on his Nyac face.

[Underseen]

Those chapters was great (as always) how many RAFians are you planning on mentioning, I am waiting for a chapter with Richard (That was a joke btw).

[Cloak]

Acknowledged.

Probably won't be able to get on at all tomorrow -- gonna be busy.  But Wednesday, if I can get on, I start the new book -- Book XIII: The Forbidden Arts.

Warning: Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
A Breath of Relief

The battle-worn RAFians return to the forum for some much needed R and R.  The other RAFians were breathing a sigh of relief, and regaling the others with their tale of adventure and horror.  All but Cloak.

Cloak was in his thread, feeling unbearably restless and anxious.  He did not know why.  He was malcontent with sitting, laying or standing.  He wish he knew why he felt so antsy, it's not like he and the others hadn't came from hell and back.  But there was something . . . something deep down in his soul that told him that something was wrong, or going to go wrong.

Little did he know, his instincts were right on the money. . . .

***

Meanwhile, in the Nexus, homeland of all Realm Walkers, Malice had stole into the largest, and most ancient, Realm Walker library.  This was the reason that she had nearly unleashed a parasitic plague upon the Prime Universe.  She needed time to sneak into this library without alerting that infernal Elements Master.  His neice was too busy with other things to bother her, and she wasn't nearly as paranoid and suspicious as her uncle.

She needed this map, this manuscript.  The one that could lead her to ultimate power!

Those fools at the council did not even know what they had!  And they were so kindly ignoring her continued existence, even though Cloak had appealed to them to believe him.  Those doddering old fools were sealing their own destruction!!  She could help but elate, excite with her newfound path.  The spawn of the spawn of Sage couldn't stop her -- he didn't know that she even had the manuscript!

The Arts . . . the Arts were hers to take!!

With that joyous thought, she proceeded to clutch the manuscript to her breast, and creep outside, where she vanished into the night.

[Underseen]

And I will read the chapter once it comes out...

[Cloak]

It's in the previous post.

Now, next book Wednesday -- unless I get busy again.

[Underseen]

No need to get ahead of yourself though...

[Blazing Angel]

Ah, I could never dislike a story that personifies me as a badass. 

[Noelle]

That was awesome!  ^_^  Can't wait for the next book.

[Cloak]

Thanks, Noelle, Blaze.  And that's a good point, Underseen.

I'll start the next book momentarily -- but just a warning: it's gonna be mostly me and Malice . . .

Hope this chapter is up to my usual standard.  Probably gonna be a short one.

BOOK XIII:
The Forbidden Arts

CHAPTER ONE:
Reflections

Cloak stood on his favorite hill, thinking over his history with RAF.  He was a RAFian during the Banning of Queen and Aloth.  He heard Queen's threats to sue RAF if she got banned.  He remembered his forced exhiles from RAF when the realms were in flux -- a random event.  I doesn't affect him while still in-universe, but still.

Cloak crossed his arms, and bowed his head as he remembered how he came to RAF those four Dweller years ago. . . .

He remembered getting to a large fight with his mother, who he had been with that day.  She blew up on him, over a very small incident.  He could not find an item she wanted to cook with dinner for that night.  She flew off the handle and Cloak ran from her, ran from her blaming him constantly, and deliberately dove into a nearby realm, he didn't care which.  Just to get away from his mother's fury.

It turned out that realm was the Prime Universe, the home of RAF, though he did not realize that until much later.  It was when he met Myitt, that she gave him his "in-universe name" of Cloak, and showed him RAF.  And it was in the forum that he found friends, a community, a place where he belonged.  It was precious to him.

He eventually reconciled with his mother, but that did not make her any easier to get along with, being such a dominating, controlling personality to Cloak's innate timid, anxious personality.  Strange that that part of his personality disappears when he's among his RAFian friends.  Even Cloak himself doesn't know why he feels more confident, more relaxed, and just plain happier in RAF.

***

Malice was pouring over her notes and the manuscript.  She had to be sure, absolutely sure.  The Fractured Realms were an easy place to get lost in.  No one knew just how they got fractured or if they were, ah, "born" that way.  But Malice didn't care.  Surely the six times she was after was in one of those eighteen realms . . .

She ruled out the Fractured Nexus (a different nexus from the one Realm Walker homeland, this one was nothing but an empty void) and the realm called Aruten.  But one of the other seventeen realms (the Fractured Nexus doesn't count as a realm), surely they are in there.  She knew that they'd have been spread out through those realms.  And she was more than ready to fight for them, kill as necessary.

As long as that infernal Elements Master doesn't catch wind of her plans, she'll be able to obtain them and obtain the ultimate power. . . .

[Cloak]

'Nother chapter while my legs rest and heal (I walked 14.8 miles yesterday -- and, of course, it was rainy )  Might be another short chapter.

CHAPTER TWO:
Evil Ambitions

Cloak felt a wave of nausea, and chill that ran down the length of his spine to the tip of his feline tail.  Something of immense evil was coming . . . but the strange thing was, only he seemed to feel it.  The other feline RAFians sensed nothing.  This alarmed Cloak a great deal, but he hid that emotion from the others.  This feeling must have something to do with Realm Walker artifacts, or this sense of dread within him could really be nothing at all.  But his gut told him otherwise.

He had to find out for sure, but he hadn't an idea of where to start.  There were so many possibilities of what could be causing this feeling of dread in him.  But Cloak had to know . . . he'd check the Nexus.  Perhaps something has transpired there that he wasn't privy to.  He swirled his cloak and returned to his birthland.  It was perpetually dark. The only light coming from the roads, buildings, and the citizens.  Cloak pulled down the hood of his cloak, and walked toward an older Realm Walker, a chiropteran-form Realm Walker, and inquired what had happened.

"The Rothbart Manuscript was stolen from the Library," she replied in a manner-of-fact tone.

Cloak took this information far more seriously than this old bat, "The Rothbart Manuscript?"

"That's what I said, sonny!" she said, irritatedly.  Then she moseyed on forward, her knit cloak pronouncing her wizened gait.

Cloak did not react to the waspish comment of an old Realm Walker -- as with all species, not every individual is gonna be pleasant all the time.  But he was still in shock from what she said, and how she said it.  The Rothbart Manuscript!  Stolen!  Pilfered!  Unguarded!  How could they not be getting more worked up over that?!

He remembered his grandfather telling him the story of Cloak's ancestor how he defeated the Realm Walker who styled himself as Rothbart, and banished his weapon, his power, to what was known as the Fractured Realms.  It was warned to every Walker that they must never go there, it was dangerous.  But, Cloak knew, Malice would have no such compunction to such tales, tales to scare the youngsters.

The Fractured Realms . . . that's where Malice, yes Malice, must be going.  Only Malice could have seen the true significance of that book, and yet, the others wanted to display it, as a mere ancient artifact, with no real power.  Fools!  The lot of them!  Fools!

Cloak could see his path now.  He could see what he must do, what he had to do.  He would need to prepare.  He went back to the realms, and dove back into the Prime Universe.  He would have to tell his RAFian comrades, his brethren, some unfortunate news.

[Gaz]

Wow...that is a really long walk.

Nice update!

[Blazing Angel]

Wow that's a long walk. Is it wrong that we profit from your sore, sore legs?

[Darth Revan]

Great ending to the book Cloak. You know me well. Though you do take the occasional creative license.

Good book so far as well. I found something interesting though, Myitt was the first to call you "Cloaky". You said it sounded like being called a Pokemon.