Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

And I am intrigued about the red-tailed hawk that Aquilai thought he saw.  Was that someone we know?

Nope. Just a throwaway reference.

As for the Faerie plot idea . . . I have a feeling that wasn't the last we've seen of that guy?  I almost hope not, because I now want something horrible to happen to him.  And given that he messed with Faerie, I think it probably will.

Not for a while yet, if I still go through with it.

And Rotiart's back again!  I wish gh the best of luck trying to get through to him.  Poor Rotiart.

More like a cameo. But don't worry. We haven't seen the last of him. I do have a plan for him and he may not stay a -- er, spoilers.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Around the Twist

"I theorized that it may be possible to harness the natural magnetic field and rotation of a planet to produce energy," said Asphodelus "Del" Amy Tom, a contemporary of Gaz's, though completely human. She was defending her doctoral dissertation in Applied Physics to Professor Johan Katzenberg, who was stroking a calico cat with tortoiseshell patches, including one covering his left eye, almost like an evil eyepatch. The cat was rather distracting, as Del had a minor allergy to cat dander. "It could very well solve any possible energy crises that might appear in the future."

It was a bold, grand, idealistic claim -- but one that wasn't backed up too well by verified evidence. Gaz had tried to talk her non-RAFian friend out of this, but Del was a stubborn sort. Gaz could not convince her of the nonsensical nature of her theory, nor how precisely she would go about to implement it.

Only to find that she pulled a "Yarin's microwave", as it were, and had already built a machine that would do just what she theorized. Gaz warned her against doing this, that someone could use it for malicious purposes.

"No matter how technology progresses, Rachel, there will always be people out there to pervert it for nefarious purposes." came Del's reply. "When mankind first invented fire, it was a matter of time before the first arson. When mankind invented weapons to protect them against wild animals -- would-be predators -- it was only a small leap in logic before they turned them against rivals. When cars were invented to make travel easier and faster, there was that one person who turned it into a high-speed weapon. No matter what is invented for innocent reasons, there is always that one jackoff that would misuse it in ways that it was not intended. But that doesn't stop technology from progressing."

"But isn't progress for progress's sake just as dangerous as having a doomsday machine?"

"That's an extreme way to put it, Rachel," Del said, rather dismissively.

"Have you considered the consequences of what such a machine would do?" Gaz said. "What if it stops the earth from rotating?"

"It can't do that," she said again. Gaz was frustrated, but not surprised. When Del got excited about seeing new possibilities, she shut her mind off to anything that could possibly undermind that.

"Del, you need to consider the implications! The consequences of this ambition!" Gaz implored. "Say that it did manage to stop the rotation of the Earth, Del."

"Rachel --"

"Just hear me out, okay?" Gaz insisted. "What if your machine suddenly stops the Earth? Completely stops the Earth's rotation?"

"I'm sure everything would sort itself out," Del said, as if she had no interest in pursuing this topic with Gaz. But Gaz had to make her see.

"The Earth rotates at, what, a thousand miles an hour?" Gaz said. She had to make Del see reason. "If it suddenly stopped, everything not bolted down into the Earth would be subjected to Newton's First Law! Everything will go flying eastward at a thousand miles an hour! Including the atmosphere! Winds like an atomic bomb!"

"An inconvenience," she said, trying not to listen.

"Inconvenience?" Gaz said, thinking God! She is SO GODDAMN STUBBORN!

"Rachel, it can't --"

"Say that it could, Del. Just humor me on this," Gaz said. "Please, Del."

She, although visibly reluctant, allowed Gaz the benefit of a doubt.

"If the Earth suddenly stopped spinning," Gaz continued, trying not to sound hysterical or fanatical, "it would send massive tsunamis traveling at least sixteen or seventeen miles inland in minutes. Possibly faster!"

Del fought an urge to roll her eyes. Her machine could not stop the Earth's rotation. There was no way it was that powerful.

"The difference between a day and year would evaporate," Gaz continued. She had to impress upon Del the weight of what her machine could do in a worst possible case scenario -- because she clearly wasn't even remotely considering it. "That would be a long time in scorching sunlight or freezing cold, Del. Think about it."

Del was feeling impatient. She really was not taking in anything Gaz was saying.

"The equatorial bulge would --"

"Rachel, I gotta go," Del said, clearly not taken in a word Gaz said.

"But, Del --"

"Bye." And she left for her doctoral dissertation, which she found herself stumbling through. She was utterly disarmed by all of their questions, and obviously nervous.

Needless to say, it was rejected.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Blame Game

"Rachel, this all your fault," Del said, confrontationally, when she next met up with Gaz.

"Wait, what?"

"I lost the defense of my doctoral dissertation," she spat.

It seemed as if any warmth in the room was sucked out in an instant.

"You're blaming me for that?" Gaz replied coldly.

"You made me nervous!" she said, clearly not willing to take accountability for her actions. So she had to place blame at the feet of someone else. "You caused me to lose focus!"

"'Lose your focus'?" Gaz said, inflection icy. "Just because I tried to get you to actually think about the possible consequences and drawbacks of such a device?"

"You cluttered my brain with stupid information!" Del declared, still refusing to take responsibility for her own actions and inactions. It was a lot easier to transfer that to someone else, and be royally ticked off at them for it. And Gaz was the last person she spoke to before defending her dissertation.

"'Stupid information?" Gaz said. It was kind of impossible not to get offended at such accusations, especially from someone that you once considered a friend. "Del, those were the possible ramifications if something went wrong with your machine. It's not my fault that you got so enthralled with your idea that you willfully and wantonly ignored possible dangers that went along with it. That was and is your responsibility, not mine."

"It's YOUR FAULT." she insisted angrily.

"I will not be held accountable for your decisions, Del." Gaz said, frostily. "YOU made the decision, not me. I will not accept the responsibility for you --
yes, you -- deciding to go forward with such a poorly thought out dissertation subject."

"'Poorly thought out'?!" Del raged. "I spent --"

"Yes, Del," Gaz said, seizing upon her moment's hesitation. "Just how long did you work on this dissertation? One where you shrugged off any criticism, no matter how legitimate. One where plowed forward without caring about any of the consequences or ramifications that would come from it, without even bothering to address them! Of course they'd steamroll you, Del!"

Del struggled to come up with a coherent argument in the form of a "gotcha" question, but she couldn't come up with anything. All she knew was this, somehow, wasn't her fault. She quite obstinate with this.

But Gaz was a RAFian, they weren't accustomed to backing down when confronted. "Del, you can't just blame others when you screw up. You have to be a grownup. You have to be accountable. You have to accept responsibility for you actions."

But Del ignored this, Gaz's almost plaintive words. She refused to believe that she was at fault, refused to accept her fallibility.

"It's not my fault," Del said, again, stubbornly. She turned her back to Gaz and walked away. "This is entirely YOUR fault."

And, like that, Del and Gaz's friendship ended. All because she was unable to accept her failures as her own.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Hmm.  Would this be a bad time to admit that I was on Yarin's side throughout all of the 'food yield increaser' debates?  I felt, and continue to feel, like he was unfairly demonized, and I was legitimately sad that the project, basically his life's work, was ultimately scrapped for being 'too dangerous.'  Yes, it was dangerous, but not as dangerous as world hunger currently IS, and in any case you don't just give up on something because it has risks.  You try and mitigate the risks in any way you can, put in a thousand different redundant safety features and beta-test the ever-loving crap out of it, and then build it.

Granted that this project is slightly different, in that Del doesn't even seem open to beta-testing or acknowledging risks at all, not to mention that the risks are far greater since they'd impact the entire world rather than just one city as Yarin's FYI did . . . but I still pretty strongly got the sense that Gaz was more interested in the risks than the potential rewards of such a device.  Yes, Del was in the wrong not to be worried about the risks at all, but I think Gaz immediately attacking her idea without acknowledging the good it could do was also the wrong approach.  And given how big a threat global warming currently is to our world, albeit on a much longer timescale, any technology that promises free energy without relying on fossil fuels NEEDS to be explored.

Although . . . Gaz's mention of the equatorial bulge reminds me of a map I once saw, of what the earth would look like if the equatorial bulge suddenly vanished.  There'd be this huge band of land that would appear around the equator, while all the northern continents would start to flood.  That's slightly terrifying.  O.O

Okay, okay, I'm going to shut up and let you write your story.  The premise has me quite intrigued.

[Cloak]

Understandable. I would say something more, but I have to remind myself -- I know what comes next. Although I think it's fairly obvious what this book is based on, unless you're not a Futurama fan . . . oops -- I think I said too much!


New chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Secretive Workings

But apparently someone saw merit in Del's work, someone who worked through the night. Someone who had hands and arms not unlike that of a Necrozma with thumbs. Del's machine was inherently flawed -- it would not be able to harness the true amount energy produced by rotational movement of the planet. With its abysmally finite and phenomenally weak power source.

This wasn't a precaution so much as it was a mechanical oversight -- the pins used to hold the thing together wasn't really strong enough for what she had planned, and their seemed to be superfluous hinges and ratchet joints everywhere. They didn't really serve any real necessary purpose other than giving the machine a rather cluttered, rushed look. Something that wouldn't have looked out of place in a grade-school science fair, but looked rather poorly executed for a doctoral dissertation level device.

Possibly another reason why Gaz believed the machine was more risky than beneficial, as she did see the machine. It didn't help that it immediately reminded her of the gravity incident some months ago, which had immense destructive potential, and spurred her into commenting about the risks, which Del never paid any heed to. She always let her ambition drive her, leaving her good sense in the dust.

But now someone else was working on her device. Not only working on it, but improving it. The power source problem was of little issue with a better (albeit less stable) power source. And this person worked in absolute secret, and in the darkness.

But darkness was no barrier to this person, whoever he or she was. And, whatever it was, it was small, almost like a Planchakule (or whatever that species name really was). But it was without cries of "FIX! FIX! FIX!", so it was either a very quiet or otherwise mute Planchakule, or something else entirely. It couldn't have been a Galvan or an Arquillian, as it was considerably larger than both those species. It could have even been a very small human, but that was really unrealistic when you looked at it.

When the person behind this finished, the machine, while still looking like a mishmash of parts cobbled together for this makeshift device, still looked more professionally made than Del's original design. But there was one thing missing, one thing that Del never included in her design because it went against her base reason for even building the thing in the first place.

A satellite array.

She never included such a thing in her designs as she had no intention on sending the energy gained and harnessed away. That was the only possible reason for wanting to include a satellite array.

But why? Why would this being, whoever or whatever it was, be so intent on sending the rotational energy of Earth off into space? What possible reasoning could there be?

***

Meanwhile, Cloak was struggling with another incomprehensible Truth Dream. Honestly, they were less frustrating and more controllable when he didn't know they were Truth Dreams.

There was a . . . well, there was no other way to put it, a prophecy of sorts. Though Cloak would never say it aloud, as he didn't believe in prophecies. They were the sort of the the gullible and desperate and craven buy into.

It said:

BEWARE THE JUDGING EYES OF THE CHILDREN OF BAST.
THEY HAVE BEEN HERE IN DAYS SINCE PAST.
THE THIEVES WILL PILFER AND STEAL
WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM AND ZEAL.
THE SON OF THE ELEMENTS WILL HAVE TO CONTEND
WITH FOES OF POWER THAT ARE ABLE TO BEND.
BEWARE THE MAN WHO ANYTHING HE CAN SHAPE,
ANY FORM OR SUBSTANCE OR MATERIAL, HE CAN APE.
BEWARE THE KLETPOMANICAL ANGEL,
WHO POSSESSES WINGS PELL-MELL.
STOP MUST BE, THE THIEVE OF TALENTS,
WHO COLLECTS THEM, KNOWN OR LATENT.
AN OLD FACTION WILL DESPERATELY CLING TO ANY SORT OF RELEVANCE,
BUT BE ROUTED JUST THE SAME, AND BE OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE.
BEWARE THE AVARICE OF THE SNAKE,
THE TREACHEROUS BITE IT WILL MAKE.
BEWARE THE ROBOTICIST GONE INSANE,
OR DESTRUCTION ONLY REMAIN.
BEWARE THE PARABLE OF TRAPS AND TRICKS,
AND OF THE VOICE HEARD WITHOUT LIPS.
AID YOU MUST THOSE WITH A TERRIBLE ADDICTION
TO LIFE, AND HEDONISTIC PURSUITS, IN ADDITION.
THE PURSUIT OF THE SCROLL OF THE DEATH TOUCH
WILL COME TO PASS LONG FROM NOW, OR SUCH.
BIGOTS OF SUCH UNFATHOMABLE RAGE AND RIDICULOUS HATRED
WILL COME TO WEAR THE SIGIL OF THE BUTCHER, IN RED.

It would still take Cloak a while to sort out what they meant, and he couldn't even be sure if he interpreted it right.

[Cloak]

Since I am posting this now, the next chapter probably won't be out until Sunday night, my time.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
A Kitty Cutie

Gaz was still grousing about Del as she decided on a slow walk back to the forum. How could Del blame her? It wasn't Gaz's fault that Del did not want to consider any of the potential risks. She never wanted to consider any of the risks. She just wanted to move forward, with almost the buffoonery of Jack Fenton from "Danny Phantom". Only its more frustrating than entertaining 90% of the time.

And if she would only take goddamn accountability for her own actions! But, no. No, it's always someone else's fault, because it can't be her! She's so perfect, isn't she? Making mistakes is for the commoners, isn't it, Del? Gah! Why Gaz ever decided to be friends with such a pretentious twit, she will never know.*

Yes, mankind's dependence on fossil fuels is more than likely embarrassing to the galaxy at wide -- she somehow doubted that Andalites and Nyacs and whatnot depended on fossil fuels in their homeworld society. Granted, none of the RAFian nonhuman species jeered at mankind for it.

But there had to be another way that wouldn't have any risk like stopping the Earth's rotation. Sure, that may be an extremely unlikely to happen, but the mere possibility scared her. Though, yes, she was a vampire, and so she would not be as vulnerable. But the thought of the catastrophe the sudden or even gradual stop of the Earth's rotation would inevitably bring . . .

It cause a icy cold shiver to go down her spine. The bulge at the equator would cease to be. The oceans pulled to the poles. The protection from cosmic rays -- gone. Earth . . . barren. . . .

It would be just as dangerous as that gravity manipulation device that guy made -- and she couldn't even remember his name. Funny how mankind always seems to want to mettle with forces they either have little comprehension of or underestimate the sheer, unadulterated power of. Forces better off left alone.

"Oh, hi, Beaky," she said, as the Cybertronian parrot circled down, and landed on her right shoulder.

He puffed up and his single squawk and body language clearly said, 'Oh, hi'?! 'Oh, hi'? You leave me alone for hours! Days! Months! Years! And all you can say to me is 'oh, hi'?!

It had been four hours, at most.

"Oh, Beaky," Gaz chided affectionately, her anger evaporated for the moment, "don't be so melodramatic."

Laserbeak huffed, as if saying, Melodramatic? Me? You abandon me for days on end, and you say I'M being melodramatic?

"Oh, Becky," Gaz chuckled at Laserbeak's indignation. Then she heard a soft mew at  her feet,and saw a white calico cat with tortoiseshell patches on his fur, including one covering his eye like an eyepatch. "Oh, hello there."

He sat down, and Laserbeak was rapidly looking at Gaz to the cat and back again. Almost as if he couldn't believe she was giving this cat attention when he wasn't done grousing.

"Well, you are a cutie," Gaz said, taking note a rather expensive-looking collar. He had an owner. "Aren't you?"

As Gaz bent down to get eye level with the handsome feline, Laserbeak fluttered to the ground, and flared his wings. Then he gave a hiss, rather like an angry snake, and scared the cat away.

"Beaky!" Gaz scolded her now churlish pet.


* I assume most, if not all, reading this knows someone like this.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Another Dream, and Growing Impatience

After the Truth Dream, Cloak's dream eased into another one. A familiar one, but an old one.

Cloak stepped upon dark, arid ground, barren of any sort of life. Devoid of tangible, organic evidence of life existing upon this poor planet, at least within his life time. There was no magnetic field to speak of, and the sky? There was no sky anymore.

"What happened here?" Shadow said behind him. She was not the age she was in present, but more like five or six. Which would mean this was a time before he was a RAFian.

"I cannot say," Cloak answered, "it could be a plethora of reasons. War. Famine. Climate change. Political corruption. Natural disasters. Or some combination of them."

"But . . . why?"

"Fear tends to bred anger, anger can lead to hatred and radicalization," Cloak said, "and that leads to suffering."

"I . . . I don't understand," she confessed.

"Neither do I, Shadow," Cloak said. "I don't truly understand how a species could disregard the health of their world so brazenly, so . . . so indifferent. I have ideas as to why, sure, but none of which I have concrete proof of."

"Huh?" was her reply.

Cloak gazed around, and saw that there actually was, indeed, evidence that civilization had once lived here, an intelligent one. Intelligent enough to shape metal and stone to their needs, but not wise enough to maintain the health of their homeworld. Perhaps some had survived into deep space, but he saw very little evidence that this species was capable of long-term space voyages.

He ad unearthed what appeared to be a bronze statue of a creature with round ears, pointed nose, round face, gloves, shorts with two white buttons, and rounded shoes. His hand appeared to be holding the hand of a taller creature which apparently was severed at the elbow.

It was a Mickey Mouse statue from one of the parks. The area in which they stood was the relic of the time when humans used to come here for joy and entertainment. Now it was lifeless and forgotten. A species, a world, who had come and gone. Seemingly in a blink of an eye, if one were to use celestial terms.

The human race was dead. The Earth was dead.

But was this the Earth from the Prime Universe, or just an Earth from a different Realm spun off from the Prime Universe? The dream was never very clear about that, though the clarity of everything was like a high-resolution television screen.

It was at this point that Cloak had truly awoken, he said, groggy and grumpy, "Great, a Truth Dream with a false ending."

***

This was frustrating.

There shouldn't be so many obstacles to complete this mission! The creature couldn't use the array from the ship. This small creature couldn't even find the damn freighter that brought him here. Some native must have took it without realizing what it was!

What was worse, he discovered that the previous team that was sent here did not accomplish their mission millions of Earthen years ago. It was outrageous! It was a scandal! They allowed themselves to lose sight of their objective when the natives began to worship them as gods.

These stupid, clunky humans. They were slow in both mind and body, blind at night, usually easy to manipulate, and also very ugly. That lousy team and their descendants -- yes, descendants! They interbred with a similar species on this planet, and as a result their offspring and the descendants of said offspring became lazy and their minds regressed so much that they couldn't even speak the proper language anymore!

Disgraceful! He would have to finish their job, and save Thuban 9. And, unfortunately, he would have to do it alone.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Investigations

Gaz realized that she had to go and ask Professor Katzenberg something the very next day. Along the way, she had a sudden chill go down her spine that she couldn't explain. She stopped only momentarily to consider, before dismissing it at something unimportant.

Although, Cloak didn't know how she did it, but she had somehow roped him into coming along as well. He was still cranky from his dream (Truth Dream included), but complied. As he had the same chill go down his spine to the tip of his tail. But, like Gaz, he dismissed it as unimportant.

"What's it that you have to ask this Katzenberg person, if I may be so bold as to ask?" Cloak said. His groggy state made his voice sound terse. "I thought your degree wasn't in Applied Physics."

"Just some odd occurrences," she said, vaguely, as they entered the university's campus. At Gaz's urging, Cloak donned his ID mask, projecting a holographic image of human on him. It was rendered as well as a Chee hologram. Although, his cloak actually hid most if not all of his nonhuman-ness, unless you looked him in the eye and he unsheathed his feline claws. She continued, "Some thefts of at tech industries."

"How would a professor of applied physics know anything about that?" Cloak asked. "He's not a police investigator, or a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, or anything. Right?"

"He was apparently a police detective as he was working on his doctorate way back when," she replied. "Or so he claimed. . . ."

"You don't believe him," Cloak said, speaking the obvious, and well-aware of his doing as such.

"I did some background checking," Gaz said. "There was no record of a Detective Johan Morris Katzenberg in any of the police personnel files --"

"Is that legal?" Cloak said.

"It was RAFian business."

"Was it?"

"Yes."

"Did the mods okay it?"

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"Okay, okay," Cloak said, relenting on his questioning. "Go ahead and knock."

She did. There was no answer, though.

"The lights are dark," she said, "and the door is locked."

"So, I guess this was a dead end lead, then," Cloak said. But he thought he knew what was coming. This was like what happened in that other Realm . . .

"I'll unlock it," she said, turning into a cloud of purple smoke, and slipped under the door. She unlocked the door and allowed Cloak entry. "He's there, back to us . . . but there's something odd . . ."

"There is no other living creature in here," Cloak said.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
The Reveal

"What d'you mean?" Gaz said, taken aback. "He's was right there. He probably can hear me talking right now."

"He can't," Cloak said, confidently, striding toward the high-backed leather chair. The chair was a swivel one. Cloak grasped the back of the chair, preparing to turn it around.

Gaz gasped, as she realized that she couldn't smell his blood. It should have been easy, as Cloak hasn't any blood to smell (he had golden ichor). "Is he dead?"

"You'd have to be alive once in order to be dead."

Cloak turned the chair around. Both recoiled at the sight of this placid, blank face with empty eyes. Both were forcibly reminded of Scott Roberts and Rod Murray respectively. Only, Professor Katzenberg was fully seated and fully clothed. But he sat as if he were nothing more than a mannequin or doll or animatronic or something.

"This thing has a metallic endoskeleton," Cloak said, in explanation as to his confidence of his inanimate state. "Not like an Arquillian or Gargantian exosuit, though."

"Then what?" Gaz inquired.

"It is a puppet of some sort," Cloak said. "Something used this thing. There switches and valves all over its lap. Something external was puppeteering this thing. Perhaps an ailurosapien --assuming that they even exist in this realm -- I haven't had a chance yet to confirm with Esty through her interstellar sojourns whether or not they do."

"What's an . . ." Gaz said, before another thought in her head beat that other one into a bloody pulp, "wait. My friend . . . well, former friend -- let's not get into the messy details -- anyway, she told me that Professor Katzenberg always had a cat on his lap."

"Well, there's the culprit, then," Cloak nodded.

Gaz hesitated, as if she couldn't quite believe what Cloak was suggesting. "The cat? Seriously?"

"Probably not a cat at all," Cloak said. "Not a Earthen or Terran (whatever the proper term is) one anyway. More like an ailurosapien."

"Ailurosapiens are cats?" Gaz asked, skeptical.

"Yes, hyper-intelligent cats," Cloak said. "At least, they are in that other Realm. If I remember correctly, they hailed from Thuban Nine."

"That's . . . a little disconcerting," Gaz said.

"There are Terran cats, you know," Cloak said, "this could just be a blatant example of covergent evolution. Or parallel evolution. It does happen, you know. For instance, Pyronites and Methanosian can both generate fire in a form of pyrokinesis."

Cloak waited a beat, before clarifying, "Okay, not the best of examples, but I've made my point."

"But the bigger question is why an ailurosapien would go through the trouble of coming to Earth?" Gaz asked. "For what reason who he or she travel all that way? I doubt its for scratches behind the ears and being, hyperbolically-speaking, the living embodiment of sloth?"

"Well," Cloak said, "in that other realm, they wanted to steal and transmit that realm's Earth's rotational energy to --"

Gaz's eyes widened. "Oh, no."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
Rush to Judgement

"Hurry, Cloak!" Gaz said, ignoring Beaky's squawking-and-body-language harangue of her ditching him. "There may very well not be any time left!"

"What makes you so certain that the ailurosapien has any means to accomplish this monumental task?" Cloak inquired as they ran. "For all we know there is just the one ailurosapien -- how could it possibly build a machine to --"

"Because it had already been built," Gaz said, sharply, as she kept surprisingly in stride with Cloak. Cloak was aware that she was mostly doing that for his benefit, as he can't truly fly unassisted -- forming the energy disc under his feet and "flying" that way, wasn't true flight.

"Do you even know where it could be?" Cloak asked, pragmatically, but Gaz already had her communicator out, and apparently already had it dialed into the communications array of the forum.

"Xeno -- has any small cat infiltrated the communications department?" she said, almost desperate to get to the point.

"No," he said, almost as if she had roused him from the deep boredom that comes with communications duty. Despite their rhetoric of these life-or-death missions happening, many of them are just very procedural and not worthy of much note. Like dealing with Demos's fiends, one could argue. "The only cat in the forum right now is just FuBar. Say hi, FuBar."

This was actually becoming a common practice, two RAFians manning the communications, as so to alleviate the inherent boredom with the duty. Cloak thought this was a good practice to have actually, unless the two sharing the duty did not get along (which can and theoretically could happen). It would make the job overall easier and two pairs of eyes were better than one -- ask any Andalite.

And Bladeh apparently had business elsewhere to take care of. Cloak didn't want to be nosy in that regard.

"Good," Gaz said, with a clipped, succinct tone. "Is there any satellite arrays that could be used to transmit energy to another planet?"

"Hmmmm . . ." Xeno said, as he checked.

"Please, Xeno. This is urgent," Gaz implored.

"Looks like the aeronautics facility about fifty miles west of town," came Xeno's rapt reply. "Why do you ask?"

"At a later time, Xeno!" Gaz said. "There's a potentially world-ending catastrophe before us!"

"Not to mention the ailurosapien has a big honkin' head start on us," Cloak said.

"Ailurosapien?" FuBar said,as if he had some familiarity with the term. Then evidently his resolution was cemented with some temerarious decision. "I'm going, too."

"How are you're going to get there?" Xeno asked. "No offense, but you can't drive and you can't cover that kind of ground in the time allotted."

"If you fly me over, Xeno," FuBar said. He was determined he was going to get there one way or another. "Your communications duty is minutes from being over. Here comes Aquilai and Aila now, even as we speak!"

Xeno hesitated, almost as if he was mentally question FuBar's motives. Almost as if he picked up on something that neither Cloak nor Gaz had apparently. "Why is this so important to you, FuBar?"

"Priorities, Xeno!" FuBar yowled. "We have to be there! Now!"

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Hurry Forward! Time is Running Out, Guys!

"Gaz! Go bat mode!" Cloak said. "Running is taking too much time, and we'll both be winded by the time we get there! Not to mention that it might be too late."

"But you can't --"

Cloak formed a disc of golden-scarlet energy, and threw in front of him, before leaping onto it. It took a scarce moment before he he got his balance, then he sped off, outstripping both Gaz and Laserbeak. Gaz immediately transformed to her bat form and flew all out with Laserbeak, now flying all out too, keeping pace with her.

"If we're late . . ." Gaz squeaked.

"Focus at the task at hand," Cloak advised.

"But what if --" she started.

"Worry about now, not later," Cloak advised. Granted, this piece of advise was not applicable everywhere, in every facet of life, but still. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It is pointless to fret over the what-ifs now. It will serve no other purpose but distract us from getting to the destination."

"But --"

"Focus on the task at hand before you move on to worry about other things," Cloak advised. Then he looked about seven o'clock. "There's Xeno and FuBar now."

FuBar was gripping very tightly with claws upon Xeno's pack, looking very much as if he regretted his reckless choice. Xeno wasn't even going at his full, all out speed either. But they were fairly high up -- if FuBar fell . . .

He tried not to think about that. He had to go. He had to find out if the hearsay he heard was right. He had to find out if he . . .

"Hold on, FuBar!" Xeno said. "I'm going to step up the speed."

"Wonderful," FuBar said, ears flattened against his skull. He had to fight the urge to hiss. "Absolutely wonderful."

Xeno poured on the speed to catch up with Gaz, Cloak, and Laserbeak. Within moments, he was flying in tandem with them. "The facility should be just beyond that gathering of shrubs."

Cloak landed, dissipating the energy disc. Gaz touched the ground in her vampiric human form, while Laserbeak perched on her right shoulder, righteously preening himself, as if he was the hero of the day. Xeno landed, dainty on all four paws, and folded his wings against his back in a most dignified manner. FuBar hastily slid off of Xeno's back and attempted to get his "land legs" back.

"The door's open," Cloak informed his fellows, having "saw" it through his Earthsight.

"Numbers?" Xeno inquired.

"One."

"One?" Gaz said, skeptical.

"One." Cloak replied.

"The ailurosapien?" FuBar said, trying to hide just how much this interested him. He had to know if the heresay was true. Had to know if he . . . if he was . . .

"Most likely, unless I'm misreading the vibrations in the ground." Cloak said, giving a disclaimer.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Lol

"We have to hurry," Gaz prompted. "The ailurosapien may have already started the rotational harvester."

"'Rotational harvester'?" Xeno said. His tone clearly indicated that he thought the name was questionable.

"That's what Del called it. Let's go," Gaz said, offhand.

When they entered, a voice spoke, "It's about time. I was wondering when I was going to receive any resistance to my endeavors."

"You're the ailurosapien," Gaz said, as the calico cat with the tortoiseshell patches, with one acting like a sort of eyepatch, came into view.

"Very good, human," he said, with a sarcastic tone. His voice was rather like the lead cat in "Cats & Dogs". "Next thing you'll tell me is what two plus two equals."

"Katzenberg, I presume?" Gaz said, coldly.

The ailurosapien wrinkled his feline nose at this. "My name is not Johan Katzenberg. That was just a pseudonym. My true name haz . . . er, ahem, has more regal dignity, more grand timbre, and evokes a more powerful image."

"Which is?" Cloak said, clearly not impressed.

"Lol!"

All four RAFians were either stunned or confused into silence. Maybe both.

"Seriously?" Cloak said, highly skeptical of the ailurosapien's sincerity on this.

"Laughing out loud at what?" Xeno said at the precise same moment as Cloak's reply.

"Philistines!" Lol decried. "My name is not a joke! My name is not a reference to an meme! You insult me, sir! You insult and disrespect me! You derogate and deride!"

"Oh, shut up!" FuBar snapped, annoyed.

"You can talk?" Lol said. Apparently, Lol had an amazing grasp on the obvious. "You're an ailurosapien, like me?"

"No," FuBar said, audibly disgusted."I'm nothing like you!"

"Yes," Lol said, his inflection betraying his disappointment. "You're not a true ailurosapien. But, obviously, a descendant of those stupid, lascivious, prurient lechers who neglect their duties and interbred with lowly Terran cats . . ."

He clearly did not think highly of them, all those years ago.

Then Lol decided to exposit, "Long ago, life there was ideal. Leaping to and from scratching posts. Our sun provided plenty of warm, dozy light. The chicken-salmon roamed free. We loved to pounce on the animals. Yet disaster loomed. Our planet's rotation was gradually slowing. At first, it seemed beneficial. Long, dark nights for sleeping. Long, sunny days for sleeping. But then it got too hot and too cold. Our top scientists went to work. At long last, they located a planet with the necessary orientation and magnetic field to harness the rotational energy. "

"Earth," FuBar said. He had hoped Lol was wrong and he was not related at all to ailurosapiens. But then again . . . that was probably the reason why he could speak. He rather not think about it.

"Yes," the ailurosapien said, "though we called it Blue Blue Shiny Ball."

And FuBar's humiliation was increased far more at this.

"Oh," Lol said, as if he just remembered, "and one more thing . . ."

[Cloak]

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.

Awww . . . the banners are broken again. . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Too Late

Suddenly, the strange device in the window behind Lol started glowing a dark pink. It like a 1980s Technodrome the size of an average refrigerator, and attached to the satellite like some grotesque, malignant tumor. It was metal white and gray, only now with a dark pink tint. The energy travelled up to the satellite before it fired what appeared to be a spiralling laser off into space.

"One more thing," Lol had said. "You're too late. The harvester is already online and cannot be destroyed. I've made sure of that!"

"At least you'll suffer, too!" FuBar said, feline growling intermingling with his words.

"Me?" Lol said, with mocking surprise. "Oh, heavens, no. I'm not sticking around, dear boy."

"But you have no --"

Just then, they heard what Cloak was sure was the "Meow Mix" jingle played on a loop. Lol streaked by the four RAFians to go outside, and see a silver ship right out of that old "Cat From Outer Space" movie from the 1970s.

"Nice ride, no?" he jeered. "Since someone decide to take my shuttle, I guess I just have to use this the main transport instead."

"You can't do this!" Gaz accused.

"But I have." Lol said, without breaking stride to board the spacecraft. "Have fun cooking or freezing, primitives. I don't really care which."

Then he paused, and looked over his shoulder at FuBar. He said, "But I'll offer you, part-ailurosapien, some mercy. You may join me on my journey back to Thuban Nine."

FuBar looked revolted by the offer.

"Go to hell," he spat. "I'd rather die here than live as your oddity. I'd rather die than be your trophy!"

Lol gave a gesture that implied a shrug, as if he didn't really care, "Your choice. Have fun dying. Your planet is already slowing down."

Cloak could actually sense the truth in this statement. Through his Earthsight, or another sense altogether perhaps, or perhaps it was just his own imagination, but he believed that he could actually feel the Earth slowing.

From eleven thousand miles an hour roughly, to approximately 10,890 miles an hour . . .

"Bye." Lol left without another word to them, as he barked orders at the crew of the ship as the door sealed up. Then the ship lifted off through the atmosphere, never to be seen again.

It now went down from roughly 10,890 miles an hour to about 10,672 miles an hour. . . .

"What do we do now?" FuBar demanded.

The planetary rotation slowed to about 10,320 miles an hour . . .

"Destroy the machine!" Gaz said at once.

"But Lol claimed it was indestructible!" FuBar argued.

"The villains and terrorists always make that claim," Gaz said, though it sounded as if she were grasping at straws. "But it is rarely, if ever, true."

The rotation slowed to about 9,804 miles an hour, and the world was already starting to experience the inertial effects of this catastrophe. This may have been a bigger threat than Galactron or Garrotik combined.

And it was put into motion by an intelligent cat.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Apex Tier

Cloak was feeling dazed and disoriented by this before his mind and his will snapped him out of it. There was one thing to do to at least mitigate this. But in order to so, he would require his absolute zenith of control and power. Perhaps it was overkill, but he didn't thinks so. But he would have to do something he really, really didn't want to do.

Access his apex tier. Having his full potential laid out before him, like a deadly weapon he feared to use above all else.

But he hadn't any choice. If he were to chose not to act, this Earth would cease to exist as he knew it. It would become lifeless and barren. He could not, in all good conscience, allow that to happen.

He shut his eyes took a deep breath as he aligned himself just right along the planet's slowing rotation. He allowed himself a sharp exhale as he snapped his eyes open. His eyes were suns, with two tendrils of energy trailing off beyond view. But this wasn't his second tier of power, oh no. These tendrils were undulating and merged in a double helix pattern.

This was the apex tier of his power. The only way to describe the feeling of this power was as if the other Elements Masters, long since gone, were flowing their power through him. That he was channeling their in addition to his own.

He didn't like it. He really didn't.

No one being should have this much power. So much power . . . it was too easy to lose yourself in. Too easy to lose control. Too easy to hurt others. Too easy to be corrupted by it. Too easy . . .

"Cloak, what are you --" Gaz asked. He did not like note of fearful awe in her voice.

"What must be done," Cloak said. He did not like the slight ethereal timbre his voice now had.

Cloak forced the atmosphere to remain stationary, and not give into the rules of inertia. This may have sounded simple, but it was far harder and took a lot more power than it sound.

Then he took a stance and punched his fists forward. He was terrakinetically forcing the planet to rotate back at its normal speed again. This also took a lot of power. This was, of course, not a permanent solution. He was expending a lot of power, and he would eventually tire and be unable to continue. Then the planet will slow again, and there wouldn't be anything to be done.

This was just a measure to buy time to stop the machine. And the other RAFians got this gist quickly enough. They rushed to see just what they could do so that Cloak wouldn't have to continually expend this energy, this power.

***

Lol laid upon his captain bed, as his crew worked to man the ship. Lol looked around smugly. He had accomplished in days what the last team never could. They allowed those Egyptian humans to fond over them, allowed those primitives to worship them as gods. Allowed them to lose sight of their true goal.

Then they interbred with the native feline species. Those housecats. They allowed the noble genes of an ailurosapien to intermingle and intermix with the filthy, lesser jeans of that nonsentient species. It would be like a primitive modern day human hooking up with a Cro-Magnon hand producing hybrid children which would go on to dilute the blood even further.

Yet the one with that blue mark on his paw . . . Lol didn't know why and wouldn't admit it aloud, but he intrigued him. His ailurosapien blood -- because Lol was certain FuBar had ailurosapien ancestry -- should have been diluted to the point of being nonexistent.

Yet he could speak coherently. Yet he was intelligent -- though that was debatable as he chose to stay on a doomed planet. His parents had to have been wholly or half ailurosapien, as there was no way that blood so diluted could produce an ailurosapien . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Making Haste

"C'mon, guys," Gaz said, immediately. "Cloak isn't immune from fatigue, and what he's trying to do is a tall order in and of itself."

"What's he doing?" FuBar asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. He just wanted confirmation.

"He's forcing the planet to rotate normally," Xeno said. He sounded legitimately surprised. "He's actually forcing the planet to rotate normally. I never knew he had this much power."

"Guys!" Gaz said, focused on the task at hand. Apparently, she was taking Cloak's earlier advice. "Focus! Cloak cannot do that forever. We have to destroy the machine or, failing that, stop it in some way."

"But Lol claimed it's indestructible," FuBar reminded.

"So does everyone who permits themselves to become overconfident in their abilities," Gaz pointed out. "Just because Lol claimed that it was, indeed, indestructible doesn't necessarily mean that it is. But time's against us on this. Come! We must hurry."

As they rushed toward the device, Xeno examined it in greater detail. It looked shockingly ramshackled and makeshift. It was entirely swathed in dark pink energy. Xeno touched it with a claw, let a small cry -- more out of surprise, than pain, and he withdrew it to see pink smoke curling away from it.

"Well," he said, "tactile removal seems to be off the table for the moment."

"Unless we can remove that pink energy," FuBar said, pensively. "But how do we do that?"

"I have a few ideas," Xeno said, "but I have serious doubts about their efficacious impacts. It could exacerbate the situation and just make everything worse. And, naturally, we don't want that."

"No. No, we don't," Gaz agreed. "But that leaves us at a bit of an impasse."

"I need Goom, Yarin, and  -- well, Aquilai is on communications duty, so just Goom and Yarin," Xeno said. "They may have ideas that I can't see right now, or help me refine my own ideas."

"I'll make the call," Gaz said, taking out her communicator.

***

The trip was, in Lol's view, was long and tedious. But his mission to Earth was a success. He took satisfaction in watching the dark pink energy spiral forward, outstripping their ship, and heading for Thuban 9, the planet that was scorched on one side, freezing the other. The only way the ailurosapiens survived was in the middle ring where it wasn't too hot nor too cold. But it was a ring scarcely 622 miles wide, though wrapped around the whole of the planet.

Lol took immense, smug satisfaction as he saw Thuban 9 start to turn normally when the spiraling dark pink beam hit the planet. Thuban 9 was slowly starting to rotate. He was devoid of compassion for the poor Terrans. He saw their plight as a needed sacrifice, and one that he was more than willing to make.

It would just be a matter of time before their planet, their wonderful Thuban 9 returned to its former glory. So what if Earth had to be destroyed for it to happen? It was an acceptable loss as far as Lol was concerned.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Working Fast

Yarin's ship landed quickly and quietly about twenty-four minutes later, and Yarin said, "There had better not be a scratch on my --"

"Priorities, Yarin!" Goom chided. "The Earth's rotation is at stake."

"By a machine the size of a refrigerator?" Yarin said. "That borders on absurdity, you know."

"Guys! Focus!" Gaz said. "Cloak's buying us sometime, but, no matter how powerful he is, he will tire eventually. The clock is ticking!"

"The pink energy sheath prevents any tactile contact," Xeno said, immediately, when they came to join them, "whether from fingers or tools."

"Have you tried any energy-based tools?" Goom said.

"The pink energy sheath interrupts them," Xeno said, almost clinically. "The energy sheath seems impenetrable."

"Nothing's impenetrable," Yarin dismissed, "not even Code Avalon. There has to be a way around this energy sheath. A weakness to exploit."

"Which is?" FuBar asked.

"That remains to be seen," Yarin said. "But there has to be a weakness. There has to be a weakness. Everything and everyone has a weakness. Flaws to be exploited for the greater good."

"Sounds good on paper, Yarin," Goom put in, "but we have a limited timeframe, as Gaz said. Can we find its weakness, the big flaw, to exploit in that timeframe?"

Yarin didn't have an answer for that.

***

"What happened to the previous team, Sir Lol?" said a ginger tabby.

"They debased and defiled themselves," he said, harshly. "They actually lowered themselves to mate with the native species, producing hybrid offspring."

"The little bastards should have been infertile then," said a long-haired calico. "That would serve them right, being the abominations that they were."

"They were apparently viable," Lol corrected. "I actually came across one that must have been a hereditary throwback. He was able to speak. He was able to think, if you could call it 'thinking', though he made the stupid decision to stay on a doomed planet."

"You would have brought a bastard like that here?" said a disapproving Maine coon.

"Yes," Lol said, "as an oddity. So all can witness the depravity and lascivious actions of the last team. An example of the moral debasement of that team of seven."

"Do we really need an example, a reminder, of that?" said a black ailurosapien with a white chest and paws.

"Yes, as a deterrent for the future if anyone else allowed their lewd, lecherous natures to get the better of them." Lol answered. "But he chose to die. But, in the end, it matters very little. Blue Blue Shiny Ball will die, and Thuban Nine will survive."

"What if our planet rotation slows again?" asked an American shorthair.

"Then we find another planet to steal the rotational energy once more," Lol said, unconcerned with possibly sacrificing another planet with life. Thuban 9 was the only planet that mattered, with its Day Desert and Night Tundra.

And, yet, something odd seemed to be going on. . . .