Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
The Argument

"What am I doing here?" she said, slowly. Her anger simmering slowly. Dangerously. "The question, Aloth, is what are YOU doing here?"

"I asked first!" Aloth said, ripping away his poor disguise.

Kluge was relegated to the sidelines, forced to watch this argument as if he was at a tennis match. He didn't much appreciate being sidelined in such a way, but he was unable to get a word in edgewise. Yeah, that tended to grate on him, and his propensity for politeness in inordinate circumstances. He was taught the lessons of politeness too well as a child, apparently, as he didn't try to object while either one of the Banned were speaking. He tried to get a word in edgewise one or twice, before it became perfectly obvious that that would never happen. So he stopped trying to find a way to interject into their little spat until he could find a more auspicious opening.

"You don't tell me what to do, Aloth!" Queen had countered swiftly and easily. "It is I who have such a distinction."

"Oh my god, you think that you are so smart, don't you, Queen?" Aloth snarled. "Well, news flash, prima donna -- you aren't. You aren't nearly as all-knowing as you think you are!"

"And you think that you're smart? You don't have enough intelligence to even have the semblance of being even remotely intelligent." she said, scathingly. "That disguise, for instance. A toddler of three could see right through it. And, yet, you pride yourself on being a so-called master of disguise. Your disguises always have a piss poor, lazy quality about them, Aloth!

"You lie!" Aloth retorted. "You think you're so great, so high and mighty, so holier-than-thou. And, yet, you OBSESS over that goddamn forum. They BANNED you from there, just as I was. Only difference is that I don't constantly harp on and on and on about it. I don't care if you don't think it was justified -- it's really old, Queenie."

"And you don't harp on about your Banning?" Queen said. "But never mind that now. Stand aside, boy, while I procure what I want."

"No, Queen. You don't seem to get it." Aloth said, voice low and dangerous. "You don't call the shots. Not anymore."

"The hell I don't!" she shouted, slamming her fist on the table. The table that had the vibranium tub with the Kluge Glue on it. Queen was getting quite careless, in her anger. Kluge wanted to warn her about it, but he still couldn't get a word in edgewise, as the argument was getting more and more heated. Kluge was helpless to stop this -- unless he was willing to be rude, and he was taught, severely, to never be impolite. And Aloth escalated this argument even further by getting in Queen's face.

"The hell you do!" Aloth said, intending to shove Queen. He didn't care about treating this annoying woman with kid gloves. She wanted to push him? He would push back. Literally, if necessary. "I am so SICK of this attitude of yours. What exactly makes you my boss, Queen? Why are you 'Number One'? I'll tell you why, Queen. You're only 'Number One' BECAUSE YOU DECIDED THAT YOU WERE. And I'm not going along with it anymore!"

"You don't know want you're talking about," Queen said, dismissing everything that Aloth just said. "I'm Number One because I'm the smartest, strongest, and generally best in the Bannedlands."

This wasn't really anything to boast about.

"The hell that you are!" Aloth said, slamming his fist upon the table.

"Watch out!" Kluge said, but his warning came too late. He really should have spoken up before now.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
A Sticky Situation

The entire left side of Queen and the entire right side of Aloth were covered with the Kluge Glue. And you couldn't say that Kluge didn't warn them, granted he could have done so beforehand if not for his determination to be absolutely polite to a fault. But the two Banned found themselves stuck to each other, Queen's left arm and Aloth's right arm pinioned against the sides of the other, and her left leg and his right leg were as if they were one. No matter how they tried to twist and contort themselves, they could not get unstuck.

"What the --" Aloth said, desperate to get away from Queen, to be free once more.

"What is this nonsense?!" Queen demanded.

"Interesting," Kluge found himself fascinated. The Kluge Glue seemed to have been a bit runnier than he had anticipated, and apparently soaked through the two intruder's clothing and allowed this fusion of the two. He was very tempted to experiment and satisfy his scientific curiosity. But he resisted this excitement, thinking it to be improper and impolite. There was a societal procedure to these sorts of thing, he knew. He would have to make sure the two were medically safe first and then --

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID, YOU BUFFOON!"

Queen wasn't addressing Kluge. She was blaming this all on Aloth, who was used to this sort of reaction, but he had no intention on letting her scapegoat him once again.

"What I did?!" Aloth countered, shrilly. "Oh-ho-ho-ho no, Queen. No. You're not putting this on me."

"It's your fault!" Queen shrieked, as if that would make it true."

"It is not!" Aloth responded in kind. "I will NOT be taking sole responsibility for this, Queen!"

"You shall!" Queen snarled. "Because you are at fault!"

"You slammed your fist down on the counter too!" Aloth said. "You are equally responsible!"

"I am not! I will not allow your lies to besmirch my flawless reputation!"

"You are so full of yourself!" Aloth shouted back. "You will not push this off on me, just so you can save face! This is just as much your fault as it is my own! At least I'm grown-up enough to be able to take my share of the responsibility! You can't even do that!"

"You don't know what you're talking about, you dimwitted --"

"Don't call me dimwitted!" Aloth snarled. "And don't even THINK to call me 'Number Two'!"

"You two need to calm down," Kluge said, finally stepping in, trying to defuse the situation. "There is a dissolution solution that I --"

"SHUT UP!!!"

And both of them knocked him out.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Saddled Together

"WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT DID YOU MAKE ME DO?!" Queen demanded shrilly.

"I didn't make you do anything, Queen!" Aloth protested angrily. "You have your own agency! I will not take responsibility for your own actions! Not anymore!"

"It's your fault. All of this is your fault!"

"You are so damn unreasonable." Aloth said, resuming his efforts to twist away from Queen. But there wasn't anything to be done about it. He was hopelessly stuck to the one person he wanted to get away from the most. "You're so damn unwilling to admit fault, to take any responsibility for any of the negative consequence of your OWN decisions! You tell other people that they need to grow up, shame them as if they were basement-dwelling neckbeards, but you aren't as mature and grown-up as you THINK you are!!"

"Stop your babbling, fool, and fix your mistake!"

"Why do I bother trying to talk to you?" Aloth said, making no effort to lower his voice. "Why do I bother trying to reason with you?"

"Be silent and fix this, Aloth!"

"I will NOT be silent!!" the Banned snarled back. "Get a clue, Queen! You're not my boss, and I am NOT going to treat you as such. You need a hard reality check right now, you arrogant piece of --"

"Me? What about YOU, Aloth?" Queen said. She was very obviously trying to flip the conversation while not acknowledging a thing Aloth said. "From what I know of you and what I heard about you before you came crawling to me when you were Banned --"

"I DIDN'T crawl to you when I was Banned," Aloth protested hotly. "I was sent to the Bannedlands and just happened into you. And I allowed you to treat me like a goddamn servant for too long. I allowed you to treat me little more than you treated the TROLLS."

"When you came crawling to me when you were Banned," Queen said, plainly ignoring everything Aloth said and not bothering to take it into account. "You aren't the pinnacle of virtues like you're currently pretending to be. You were a liar and deceptive. At least I'm forthright and honest with everything I do. You thrive in insincerity and deception. You revel in lies and mistruths."

"You're making things up, Queen," Aloth said, now on the defensive.

Which was precisely what Queen wanted. She had turned the tables on Aloth. She felt that she allowed him to prattle on too long and had to put him in his place. She was far too kind to allow him to babble his vitriolic nonsense as long as he did. But her kindness had a limit, as with all powerful people. She felt as if she could take criticisms but not if they had, she felt, no basis in fact or reality. Aloth's skewed perspective was clearly not cemented in reality, she thought. She had to ground him back to reality.

"How many times did you try to return to the forum after you were Banned, Aloth? Thirteen?" Queen asked. "You must forgive me, but the story was so pathetic that I didn't bother remembering."

"It's -- I wasn't -- I didn't --" Aloth spluttered. He didn't have a comeback for this. He wasn't prepared for Queen to go in this direction.

"At least when I was Banned, I left with dignity and respect." Queen said, standing a bit taller. Of course, she neglected to mention the fight that she got into with the other RAFians about race relations and how she kept attacking Cloak, despite Cloak trying to reason with her, granted he got heated with her barbs. "And, once Banned, I never returned."

"That's bunk," Aloth said, finally having grounds for a comeback. "You spent several times, several schemes, to try to take over the forum, and oust the mods running it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Queen said, rather smoothly, though her eyes burned with anger.

"Bull," Aloth said, turning the tables on Queen this time. "You tried to invade and overthrow the mods no less than nineteen times! Possibly more than that, I lost count after nineteen."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Queen denied.

"You don't?" Aloth said, refusing to let up. "You should remember, especially when you allowed that Realm Walker to take the lead that one time*."

"That never happened," Queen said, repressively.

"Just because you refuse to acknowledge it, doesn't mean that it didn't happen." Aloth said.


* Book 1.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
If I Didn't Have You

They continued to bicker back and forth, and -- surprisingly -- this didn't help get anything done. It didn't make their predicament any better or move them any closer to solving it. But, still they continued to poke at each other with all theses jibes and jeers. They both had a tendency to not leave the subject alone and constantly blame the other for their current situation. They both failed to see that this wasn't helping at all.

"-- Only because you're holding me back! If I didn't have you, I could do a lot of things -- a LOT!

I'd be rocking with the winos  Swinging with the winos.
I'd de-Queenize this cave in a minute!
Aloth, they would sing,
'Cause I would be the Banned king.
I would love this world without you in it!
If I didn't have you!"

"If you didn't have me?" Queen said, miffed and offended.

"If I didn't have you!"

"Well, how about if I didn't have you, huh?"

Than they sang together, but in an antagonistic way:

'Oh, what I could be if there was only me!
Oh, what I'd do if I didn't have you!"

Then Queen belted out:

"If only we were separated apart,
And you were the target for my darts.
I'd be the star of R-A-F, a lot!
You'd be the fool that the whole world forgot!
If I didn't have you!"

Aloth declared, "I should be so lucky!"

"If I didn't have you!"

"Oh, wait! You'd be dead!" Aloth announced.

Then both sang:

"Oh, what I could be if there was only me!  Oh, what I'd do if I didn't have you!  Oh, what I'd do if I didn't have you!"

"Trapped! Aah! Trapped!" Queen said, as she tried to free herself from Aloth, as she considered if this was a permanent situation.

"Stuck here with you for like 500 years!" Aloth snarled.

"Oh dear, it's learned to count." Queen said, condescendingly.

"If I'd gotten me a good lawyer, I would have split a long time ago!" Aloth said.

"Now, listen here, pal! I didn't come here to be insulted!" Queen argued.

"Oh?" Aloth asked. "Then where do you usually go?"

Queen gave him the stink eye, as she decried,

"You'd be nothing without me!
You'd be extinct! You'd cease to be!"

"I'm so tired of your nagging!"

"And I'm so tired of your bragging!"

"Without me you'd have no brain. . ."

Both sang:

". . . with which to think!"

Then they started to sing their respective verses, overlapping each other. This made a cacophonous mess. Then they concluded.

"I would love this world without you in it! If I didn't have you!
If I didn't have you!If I didn't have you!
Life could be so sweet if we were never to meet!
What I'd do if I didn't have you!?"

After a brief period of silence, they finally realized that this wasn't helping matters either. This, after all, wasn't a Disney movie.


SOURCE SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-nNhGikahU

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Shallowly Burying the Hatchet

"Look," Aloth said, trying to temper his anger and revulsion. Trying his damnedest to put them aside. "Look, Queen, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But the fact of the matter is we're stuck. We can bicker and feud AFTER we solve this damn mess."

Queen was sorely tempted to make a withering remark about Aloth, but, despite it all, she could not deny the truth of the matter. Despite not really liking it, Queen had to acquiesce to these truths. She had to be nuanced with her decisions here, and she wasn't really accustomed to it. She had to comply with Aloth at this. Or else she would, quite literally, never be free of him. She may have regretted taking him in and putting him into any position of power (though, to be fair, aside from Yorick, Aloth was the only really other intelligent, competent person in the entire Bannedlands aside from herself, as the trolls had really limited intelligence and rather below average competency at best).

"Fine," was all she said.

Then they had to figure out how to coordinate enough to walk in a halfway stable way. They had to walk as if they were in a three-legged race, only at a slow walking speed. They also had to learn how to coordinate their arms as well, as they couldn't use their other ones, as they were pinioned to their sides. Immovable. The Kluge Glue was stronger than any superglue imagined, though very runny when in its hydrated form, which made it very dangerous potentially. Unless an economically-viable dissolvent could be found.

The two moved as one toward the tub that contained the adhesive. It was mostly translucent, like water, with bits of what looked like rose quartz shards and pink diamond shrapnel within it, almost like glitter in glue. The main substance was obviously not water, though. Neither one of the two Banned were particularly gifted in chemistry knowledge without having some method to test and experiment. And both agreed, they did not want to wait that long if they didn't have to.

They tore the laboratory apart looking for the dissolvent solution, apparently neither paying attention that Kluge was actually still trying to devise one when they broke in to steal whatever invention that he might have been working on. Queen had heard about a mind control device that had a rather unique matrix of crystallized blue and white diamonds, but she couldn't find what it was. It never occurred to her that he might have already destroyed that invention because of the inherent dangers it presented to him and his work from unscrupulous intruders who were looking for it for their own schemes and desires.

It did not dawn on either of them to actually wake up Emanuel Kluge, as he would have made their search much easier. But people often have a knack to not see the simplest solutions for any given predicament they find themselves in. Even the wisest man could have difficulty with this, unless the solution makes itself apparent.

"There's nothing here!" Queen burst, unable to contain herself any longer.

"There HAS to be something here," Aloth said, sounding desperate. "ANYTHING."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Waking Kluge

It finally dawned on the two that they needed to wake up Kluge. Queen, in particular, was hard-pressed to turn to the Kluge. She had already sacrificed a lot of her own precious ego just to allow Aloth to help on an equal basis. Her inflated ego that blossomed due to an insecurity and a fear of loss of control. Aloth had to try to convince someone who did not want to be convinced.

"We have to wake him up," Aloth said.

"We don't need him," Queen said, repressively.

"We do need him," Aloth said.

"We don't," Queen repeated, silently rankling at being refused and argued with.

"We do," Aloth repeated, feeling annoyed at pointing out something so obvious that anyone could see what needed to be done.

"We don't."

"We do."

"We don't."

"We do."

"We don't."

"Queen, we do." Aloth said, getting tired of this circular argument. "Time to face facts, Queen, we cannot do this on our own. We don't know this place as well as that man does. It is his lab. He would know what and where the dissolvent is."

Queen hesitated, having trouble finding a way to argue this, to try to refute it. She couldn't. She huffed and turned her head away. She didn't like accepting help, especially when she was in such a . . . vulnerable state. She also didn't like things not going her way, as she was accustomed to getting her way in the Bannedlands. The trolls never offered any resistance to her orders, being too stupid to really understand complex concepts like rebellion and recalcitrance. Whereas she saw Aloth as being unruly, stubborn, argumentative, and disobedient, even in their current predicament.

"Fine," Queen spat, "it won't do us any good in the long run. He's dead."

"He's breathing," Aloth said, biting back a pejorative jibe about Queen vastly overestimating her own strength. He placed his working hand on the man's chest. "And his heart is beating."

"Fine, whatever," Queen said, finding herself really not liking this circumstance anymore. "Just how do we wake him up, then?"

This Aloth didn't have any answer to. Kluge was out like a light. He wasn't a fighter. He wasn't expecting nor prepared for the twin punches straight to the face, which his bulbous nose did not absorb much of. He didn't even have so much as a black eye -- Queen tried very hard not to take this as a personal insult. Her punch was full-force, and she couldn't even get a black eye. It was a blow to her ego. It was a small blow, to be honest, but a blow nonetheless.

"How do we do this?" Queen said, more to herself than Aloth.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Rise and Shine, Kluge

"Wake up!" Queen said, slapping him across the face. It didn't leave a mark, but she hadn't any time or patience to be annoyed by it. "You fat, stupid lump! Wake up!"

"Well," Aloth said, dryly, bearing witness at this elder abuse, "shockingly, this doesn't seem to be working."

"Well." Queen said, with a snap to her voice. "If you're not going to do anything to help, Aloth, you can stop criticizing those of us who are trying!"

"Says the person who didn't even want to do this in the first place," Aloth pointed out, not backing down from her anymore.

"Be useful, you worthless lout," Queen snarled. She was making it clear with this attitude that she's only working with him as an equal for no other reason that she had to. "If you have so many ideas, Aloth."

"There's no need to be snippy," Aloth muttered.

"WHAT was that?!" Queen demanded. Aloth promptly ignored these demands, as he promptly tapped Kluge's cheek with the back of his palm. He knelt as much as Queen would allow him to.

Yeah, they've managed to coordinate well enough to move about with relative ease, but that didn't change the fact that Queen was quite stuck-up and bossy and Aloth was dishonest and disingenuous. They only made it this far because they were forced to work together towards a common goal. And both were quite eager to reach that goal and be free of the other. But it didn't change the fact that their clashing personalities and feuding ideals were hindering them a great deal from accomplishing this singular goal.

"I said WHAT did you JUST --"

"FOCUS, Queen!" Aloth said, deftly dodging the subject.

"Don't you take that tone with --"

Kluge groaned, cutting Queen off. She quickly forgot her irritation with Aloth, and transferred it towards Kluge. Granted, she and Aloth were guilty of knocking him out in the first place, but she chose not to acknowledge that one little detail. Of course, not acknowledging something does not make it untrue -- a little something that tends to elude a lot of political pundits.

"Finally," Queen scoffed. "The old man awakens. Now maybe he can fix your mistake, Aloth,"

Aloth turned his head away from Queen as he rolled his eyes.

[Cloak]

Yes, I'm humanizing Queen in this chapter. So sue me.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
The Dissolvent Demand

"Wha . . . what hit me?" Kluge said, groggily.

Queen took silent pride in this reaction, choosing to disregard that Aloth had also hit him. And that both of their blows together, while knocking him out, weren't strong enough to leave so much as a black eye on him. She actively chose to ignore this fact.

Kluge sluggishly got to his feet, his left hand on his throbbing noggin. He had a massive migraine. I didn't help that he hit the back wall when the two punched him. He was completely disoriented, not yet able to recall what had landed him on the floor, unconscious. He took a moment to gather his wits, but this seemed to take far too long for Queen's liking.

"Give up the dissolvent, old man," Queen said, aggressively.

"So much for subtlety," Aloth said.

"Shut up, you stupid little man," Queen snapped, before returning her attention back to Kluge. "Where is it, you dumpy old fart."

"Oh, now I remember," Kluge said, standing up straighter and lifting his nose in a dignified manner. "I remember what happened."

"Who cares?" Queen cut across Aloth, who couldn't stop her domineering personality from behaving rashly. "Give the dissolvent to me now, old man!"

"How unbelievably rude," Kluge said, simply. Despite having been knocked unconscious by the two Banned, he felt no fear towards the two before him, with their strong personalities clashing like skillfully made and skillfully wielded swords. "If I were a more crude, crass man, I would question your upbringing."

"Oh, shut up, you old fart," Queen said. Aloth was now wondering if she was trying intentionally to be as rude and disrespectful. Trying to create a veneer of toughness, of boastfulness, of intimidation that she didn't really feel, as if she were hiding an insecurity. Or maybe a few insecurities. "And hand over the dissolvent."

"Whoever said there even was a dissolvent?" Kluge said. "Wasn't me."

Queen basically dragged Aloth over to where Kluge stood, and put her tightly clenched fist under his chin. The old neuroscientist didn't look remotely frightened or intimidated. If anything, he looked almost pityingly at Queen. Almost as if he saw through her bluster and façade down to every insecurity that she tried desperately to hide. He said nothing about it, of course. That would be remarkably impolite and just as rude as the coarse farce Queen was putting on, as if he had superior x-ray vision.

"You best rethink that answer," she threatened.

Kluge easily nudged Queen's fist away from his chin. Gently, as if he were dealing with an overemotional toddler. Her fist was shaking with anger, but Kluge could see through the farce and he saw that she, despite having deep flaws, was not an evil person. Misguided? Sure. Malevolent? Perhaps at times. Pure evil? Hardly. She was nothing like Malice -- and being hard to get along with doesn't make you a psychopathic monster. Malice killed her own parents, something that Queen would never do. And, though she would never admit it, she actually cared about Aloth and even Yorick. That's why she took their departure so personally.

"Miss," Kluge said, "threats of violence are rarely the way to get what you desire."

Queen unclenched her fist, but her expression soured. But Kluge could see that, though petulant, she never really wanted to hurt anybody. She was just lashing out, due to her feeling betrayed by everybody. Her constant attempts to take over the forum was but an extension of this. True, it was taken to an extreme, but a lot of things tended to snowball out of control, if allowed.

"And just taking that which does not belong to you won't make you feel any better," Kluge said. "While I don't know what led either one of you to break into my lab, my domicile, it is not proper to just take property that is not yours without permission."

"When did this become an after-school special?" Aloth said, acidly.

"But I have been working on a dissolvent," Kluge said.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Separated, At Last

"How far did you get?" Queen asked. She dropped the disrespect and rudeness rather abruptly. Aloth never thought he would ever lived to have seen it. Queen was far more concerned with getting out of this predicament, than maintaining the façade anymore. "What needs to be done?"

Kluge smiled inwardly. He knew that Queen, while abrasive and overbearing, was not an inherently bad person. She may try to foster such an image for intimidation and prestige reasons, but she wasn't. She submerged a potentially affable personality underneath these layers.

"Over here, miss," Kluge said, amiably, as if the two before him had not attacked him at all. He had gone to treating them as invited guests in his home. Kluge really was a strange little man. There was a reason why he worked alone, apparently. Then he realized he may have been impolite to Aloth, and he quickly amended, "and sir."

Aloth frowned but said nothing. He was far too used to being overlooked like this, but never when he wanted to be overlooked. It just seemed so unfair. But he followed Kluge -- Queen gave him very little choice about it, to be honest. She would have dragged him over to where Kluge was working hours before. He stood before a tub, just like the one which held the Kluge Glue. Only this one held a different substance, subtly brewing over a rather odd-looking Bunsen burner. It was as white as Elmer glue, but with little flecks that looked like minute yellow diamonds within it. Not to mention that their were streaks of yellow all over the substance.

"That's the dissolvent? It looks more like glue," Aloth said. His word could have been taken as disrespectful, but that was not how they were exactly intended.

"A little skepticism is always a healthy thing to have, dear boy," Kluge said, in a way very reminiscent of a teacher who happened to be very passionate about the subject in which he taught. "But, yes, despite appearances, this is supposed to be the dissolvent."

"I find that hard to believe," Aloth said. He felt but a slight chill, but ignored it. It was the tail end of August, such things were to be expected in a drafty laboratory such as this. He didn't want to complain aloud, but the arm stuck to Queen was starting to ache. He didn't want to complain because Queen wasn't, and he want to seem whiny, especially when he felt that Queen would capitalize on it. Capitalize on it and make him feel stupid and childish. That always got old. Very. Old.

"I can understand that," Kluge said, turning off the Bunsen burner and took the tub in hand. It surprised both of the Banned, who expected it to be boiling hot. But it was, strangely only warm. It wasn't scalding hot. It was clearly unusual, because Kluge did not look any different from a normal human. He didn't appear to be a metahuman by any stroke of the imagination. "It is actually a paste. If my theories are correct, it should dissolve the Kluge Glue."

"Kluge Glue?" Aloth asked. He didn't snort or anything -- though he wouldn't admit it, he liked the name.

"Yes, that's the name of the adhesive that binds you two together," Kluge said. "Here, let's see if this can free you."

It did. It took what felt to be hours, but it freed them. The two thanked Kluge and actually apologized, then went their separate ways.

[Cloak]

Sorry for the delay, the weather and work took a lot out of me over the weekend.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Peers, Not Peasants

While Queen and Aloth were getting involuntarily close to each other, the RAFians were dealing with another matter altogether. It was a bit mundane for them, but it did lead to the lost of one life. One life they were too late to save.

Perhaps it would be best to back up a bit.

Four teenagers were driving in a car -- eighteen-year-old Benjamin "Benji" Stone, nineteen-year-old Richard "Stretch" Waters, eighteen-year-old Arianna Aires, and her sixteen-year-old brother Heath Aires -- when they were collided into whilst trying to complete a left turn. The other car was an expensive custom car, much in the style of a Royals Royce, only sleaker and more modernized. The driver was completely trashed, and smelled of alcohol from a distance. He couldn't even stand outside the car without toppling. It was a wonder how he was still even breathing, with the amount of alcohol he consumed.

The driver was Donald Couch. And he did not slow down. He did not stop. He kept driving away, apparently unaware that he hit anyone. But his expensive toy was broken and leaking fluids, so it was no difficult feat to track him down.

Kelly and Abby were the first responders, able to get there and stabilize the three with Kelly's healing abilities. But the driver, Benji, Kelly found that she could not heal. Not totally. She could heal his body, but she described it as his soul had vacated his body. She hadn't the power to return it, or call it back to his body. It might have even gone . . . on. But there was no way for her to tell.

But thanks to Kelly's ministrations, and Abby's aid, the other three survived.

And what of Couch? He had the misfortunate of being tracked down by Cloak, and arrested by the police. The whole scene was, despite Cloak's refusal to describing as such, it was very Batman-esque. Even with Cloak leaving before the police commissioner could turn around.

Surprisingly, despite being an overly rich brat with unscrupulous lawyers who would sell their own mothers for a nickel, he was convicted. He was scheduled for a trial date, and he was not happy with this circumstance. He seemed to be under the impression that he was entitled to get off. He killed one man, and seriously injured three others. And, yet, he still had expected that he should get off with nothing more serious than a slap on the wrist. He openly expressed this, revealing just how spoiled he was.

He was arraigned rather quickly. Surprisingly so, as it only took a matter of several days.. And he was present at the courthouse when he saw the twelve people chosen to his jury. Two housekeepers, a factory worker, a hospital dishwasher, a stock boy, a college student, a ski resort employee, a roadhouse server, a dog walker, a stewardess, a police officer, and a cashier. Instead of taking this like a rational adult, Couch lashed out like a impudent, petulant child.

"What idiot assembled this jury?!" he demanded, quite loud enough for the entire courtroom to hear him. But, being as brashly arrogant as he was, he didn't care. He always had difficulty seeing the bigger picture and understanding the larger ramifications of things he did on a whim. He just did things as he saw fit without any comprehension of any future consequence, ignoring any failures that came his way, scapegoating and rationalizing these failures to anyone who would dare scrutinize him.

"Mr. Couch, it is inadvisable to say such --" one of his army of lawyers (the only thing that his father was willing to do for him at this point, tired of defending his antics to the world at large) had said, but Donald Couch was too full of himself to entertain their advice. He thought he was a god among men (neither of his parents had really done anything to dissuade this outlook of his), and he was convinced that he was always right. Anyone that disagreed with him were clearly in the wrong and idiots. He had very little, if any, redeemable potential.

"I have the right to a panel of my peers!" he whined, peevishly. He clearly thought that he would be able to talk his way out this. His ego knew no boundaries, and seemed to keep growing more and more bloated each year. "I have a constitutional right! A right to a panel of my peers!"

"Yes, young Couch," said another lawyer, in a desperate effort to get him to lower his voice. But Couch was too convinced of his phantasmic orating prowess. "They are a panel of your peers."

Couch scoffed audibly, and did not bother to lower his voice as he spoke, "Them?! My peers?"

"Yes, Mr. Couch, now if you can please --"

"Those peasants are NOT any peers of mine!" Couch said, hotly. Apparently, he was also unaware that this entire outburst was being recorded. But, still, he was confident that he'd somehow wriggle out of this one. Somehow.

Needless to say, this trial didn't go well for him. Even when his team of lawyers tried to get him off on the by reasons of insanity, which Couch loudly took offense to.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Agua Man

Estelore had gone to a river basin, where the next fiend had appeared. Estelore glanced around and found that she appreciated the view and the lush vegetation. The vegetation even seemed drawn to her, in a bizarre form of phototropism, but this was more of an optical illusion, if anything. Estelore proceeded rather sedately toward the coordinates that the fiend was reported at. She wasn't really too concerned about it. She was only second to Richard in terms of raw power, and was a sentient star. What fiend could possibly stand up to her?

Then she came to a bridge, where she only paused a moment to decide which way to take, when the bridge collapse beneath her. Not because of her weight, but because of some octopus hydrokinetic construct. Estelore was perfectly able to float like a certain Rose Quartz or even Princess Peach (although she won't appreciate the latter comparison). She floated downward, almost lazily sedate. Then the hydrokinetic construct of the octopus attacked Estelore, who didn't appreciate it.

"Hmmm, so the fiend must be an aquakinetic," Estelore said, knowing full well that she was speaking the obvious. But after a few missed attacks hydrokinetic construct, Estelore got annoyed, and used her stellar power to destroy it. "I must be getting close."

She went into a large cavern, which the river had flowed into. Estelore went in without any hesitation, perhaps too confident in her power and combat prowess. She proceeded along, but refusing to dive into the water. She wasn't afraid of the water, of course, but if she did, she ran the risk of boiling the water away if she used her stellar abilities.

She continued to make her way to the coordinates. And the fiend was there, half the height of Estelore's avatar, soaking up water from the river. She took on her Kevlar bodysuit form with her hair drawn up into a tight bun. The fiend had a water tank that looked like a top hat, which was transparent on top with a black brim, and it's head was sunken in to its body. It's watery, human-like eyes had yellow sclera and orange irises, which looked like it was just about to burst out bawling. Its spherical body was primarily hollow, to hold water, with the bottom being transparent with the upper part being dark purple and a green ring separating the two. It had cylindrical shoulders with green valve wheels on the ends. It had dark purple upper and lower arms, gold elbows, a black left hand, a black nozzle instead of a right hand with a light orange ring on what would be its wrist. It's crotch was light orange, light brown thighs, light orange growths on its green knees, purple lower legs, and pontoon-like feet, which was black on top with light orange soles.

It attacked preemptively, by shooting a spread of water balloons at her, which she blocked with a shield made of stellar energy. These heavy hydrokinetic balls of water evaporated immediately. But the fiend was not deterred. From its nozzle "hand", it shot a stream of water that Estelore could slide underneath or jump over, but she didn't do anything. She was well out of its range, and Estelore wasn't really impressed by this pathetic attempt to attack her. Then it leaped up and stomped the ground. This caused a column of water to erupt under Estelore, which she evaporated around her using her stellar energy shield.

Estelore deduced that this was the extent to the range of its abilities. She narrowed her eyes, deciding that the time for inaction was over. She used a seldom used ability, a selective form of gravikinesis (hence why her gravity hasn't destroyed the Earth every time she visited -- she could control her own gravity) to call down a bunch of flaming meteors which at first just broke its tank -- as she deliberately just summoned several small meteors -- it's fairly obvious why she didn't summon larger ones. Aside from it being overkill, that is. But it eventually killed the fiend, with surprisingly very little collateral damage.

Estelore smiled at this as she returned to her sundress form. She knew when to have a certain amount of restraint.

***

Demos called it an "aguasapien". Demos wouldn't elaborate on a reason for it, though.

***

"Well," Malice said, watching this, "that was rather pathetic. These fiends aren't really all that good. But, unfortunately, necessary."

Malice would never say it aloud, but she was having a scheme drought. She had a scheme-themed writer's block, so to speak. But she had to struggle to remain . . . relevant.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

BOOK CLXVI:
THE LEGION OF RAFIANS
CHAPTER ONE:
Live By The Sword

Cloak was dispatched to find and slay the next fiend. He arrived at a ruin that was evidently built in an active volcano, and the ruin seemed to be Cambodian in design, but Cloak was nowhere near an architecture expert. He entered the ruin as a flurry of bats exited, as if desperately to get out and away. Presumably from the fiend within.

One step inside told Cloak all he needed to know. His Earthsight informed him of the layout of the entire ruin. Or what he assumed to be the entire ruin. The first room had his way forward blocked by a series of four stone doors. There were four rooms to the northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest. The way he wanted to go to proceed onward was directly in front of him, north. His Earthsight told him that the rooms were full of traps and each contained a single switch to open one of these doors, but it didn't matter which order he did it.

The southwest one would take him to a room that a falling, spiked ceiling and a rising spiked floor that he would have to speed through in order to get to the switch. Presumably making use of concussive energy blasts or whips.

The southeast one, he could tell just by looking from the center of the room in which he stood, was just dark. It would be the easiest for him to complete considering his feline eyes could easily penetrate the gloom and see whatever was inscribed on the walls.

The northeast one had series after series of lava geysers that had to be navigated. Cloak surmised that they could have been frozen over to prevent this, but he was not a cryokinetic. Although he might be able to manipulate the lava itself -- because, after all, what is lava and magma but liquid earth?

The northwest one would involve him having to match and sandwich two mechanisms together to proceed. Most of them he could not "see" because they hovered in the air, but he knew that they were there. So he would have to make liberal use of his aerokinesis.

But Cloak eschewed from even crossing their thresholds, deeming it as unnecessary. Instead he just terrakinetically forced open all the doors, which he was surprised initially at the heft and strength of the doors, considering their age, which was very likely even older than he was. Then he walked into the room beyond, as the doors shuddered shut again, as if they were stubbornly going back to do their job. The room in which he stood was very plain with a single drop off pit in the center of the room. Cloak shrugged, unable to Earthsight to what was below, despite being able to tell that it wasn't a very long fall. He jumped.

He landed on a very brittle platform with three poles beneath it, floating in a sea of lava. Above him, what appeared to be a pyrokinetic construct of a hammer appeared. Cloak was not amused. With a glare, the pyrokinetic construct vanished, Cloak's will and mastery over fire, despite being pyrophobic still, was greater to whatever this fiend was. Then he came to the point where he had to surf on a piece of stone over a river of lava, complete with gushing geysers of lava as well.

Cloak had never surfed a day in his life, and he was over two and a half centuries in Realm Dweller terms. He was not looking forward to this, but found that he could influence the lava enough that he could get to his destination. The coordinates where the fiend was located, and all he saw was a statue falling down in front of him. There were rather anime-esque sounds of slashing, and then the fiend freed itself from the statue.

The fiend had a greenish-purple cylindrical head, rather like a plant pot, with silver antennae-like ears. It had stern, humanlike eyes with yellow sclera or blue irises along with a humanlike face. Its spherical shoulders were blue with light orange epaulet-like growths. It had white upper arms, blue lower arms, orange wrists with black studs, a huge honking sword instead of a right hand, a black left hand, and an orange waist with black studs. It's lower body was actually a pyrokinetic construct. A solid-looking pyrokinetic construct.

Upon seeing Cloak, the fiend charged forward to slash at him with his sword, which the Realm Walker deftly dodged. Seeing the rather lopsided body plan of the fiend, Cloak surmised that the blade hand would be very heavy. He was not wrong.

Then it tried to attack Cloak by spinning its upper torso, separating it, and having it return like a perverse boomerang. Cloak did not attack it when it was doing that, but he did sidestep it. Then it ignited its sword hand and slashed at Cloak, who was in close range. Cloak quickly back flipped away, using his feline agility and speed to dodge it. Then it jumped upward, out of sight, and a statue dropped over Cloak. He could have dodged it, but it was made of stone. And stone was earth. Cloak just waited until the right moment before uppercutting the statue into pebbles. Had he been in his Apex Tier the statue would have became sand. Then the fiend jumped, its upper torso gravitated into the air while its lower body, the pyrokinetic construct, tried to ram into Cloak on the ground. Cloak could have jumped carefully and fast to avoid it. But he didn't. He just destroyed the construct. But it was pointless, as the fiend just generated another construct.

But Cloaky just smiled. The fiend had just showed all its capabilities. The fiends were never very intelligent or resourceful. Cloak had often wondered if, after Maul, this was a deliberate move on Demos's part. It would have been smarter to have not made them at all, but he did.

It was then that Cloak took the offensive. Cloak formed several heavy balls of water, almost as if they were water balloons, and he formed them one after another and threw them at the fiend. This was almost a calculated insult. An insult that Cloak wasn't taking the fiend as a legitimate threat. It wasn't long before the fiend was slain.

Cloak didn't look back as he left.

***

Demos called it a "sodosapien". Demos just shrugged when asked why he created it.

***

Malice was watching this, stewing in her incapability to come up with a brand new scheme. She felt that her relevance was quickly being forgotten.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWO:
Puttering Around the TARDIS

Aquilai was inside his TARDIS. He was whistling a nice tune, reminiscent of the tune of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", as he went about with his daily upkeep of his precious TARDIS, his prized possession and first home. He didn't even have a thread of his own -- he didn't need one, really. Just a place to park his TARDIS, and preferably keep it away from treacherous weathering.

He looked at the Chameleon Chip again, and sighed heavily. It was still irreparable and irreplaceable. Pity. It was the only flaw to his beloved time machine, but he rather look at all the positive things about it instead of this one minor flaw. Then he looked at the size alteration circuits -- the Chameleon Chip may have been faulty, but he could at least shrink it into pendant form, so he could always be with it. He loved this thing so much, which is why he always took it extremely personally when it was broken by someone.

He translated from whistling to humming the same, Christmassy tune -- despite it being late August, early September. He didn't care if the tune appropriately timed for the season. He was alone in his TARDIS, and he was free to belt out a Shakespearean sonnet or two if he so had the inclination. The TARDIS was sufficiently soundproofed to not bother anyone outside.

Aquilai was very pleased to see that his TARDIS needed very little upkeep today. It was per usual, as he usually kept the place immaculate and always in good working order. Granted, he hadn't really used the real capability of his TARDIS to travel through time. Seems almost like over a year since had actually tried. He was too busy doing other things for the forum. Having a hand in creating the wishbone, disabling that gravitational rotation slowing device, etcetera, etcetera. Don't get him wrong, though. He thoroughly enjoyed being one of the "sciencey boys" with Yarin, Goom, and Xeno, the four that the RAFians turn to when a device is desperately in need of development.

Aquilai went to the controls of his TARDIS, the device that allowed his TARDIS to travel through time itself. He diligently inspected the hardware, finding nothing broken or in need of replacing. Then he examined the software and programming. This was an ordinarily a long, tedious process, like S.O.S. chaining for a Shiny Pokémon. But Aquilai committed to it dutifully. After all, they didn't have a mission or a situation that demanded his immediate attention.

Then Aquilai thought he heard something. His expression immediately soured. It had better not be that red gremlin thing again. Aquilai would not hesitate to strangle the thing, dismissing any sentience. He took anyone who would break his TARDIS that seriously. Serious enough to murder for it. Perhaps it would change slightly if he Regenerated.

Then something hit him in the back of the head, where his skull and spine met. Aquilai collapsed on the ground. He wasn't hit severely enough to Regenerate, but enough to knock him out completely.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Aquilai of the Past

"Meet a man named Aquilai, and his family,
On vacation to the 21^st century.
Got in his TARDIS and they're on their way,
To a time way, way, way forward to the day.
Now he's Aquilai of the Past.
Keepin' it together just as best as he can.
Aquilai of the Future.
He's a 21^st century man.
(A 21^st century man.)
On mishap through history,
But the final destination was a mystery.
Something on the TARDIS had blown,
And they ended up here in their time zone!
Now he's Aquilai of the Past.
Never knew where in history where he would land.
Aquilai of the Future.
He's a 21^st century man.
(A 21^st century man.)
He's a 21^st century man.
(A 21^st century man.)"

This what was ringing in Aquilai's ears as he regained consciousness. He felt the throbbing knot in the back of his head, and surveyed the scene. He hadn't Regenerated. He hadn't done so for a while. He was still a waterbender, right? He thought so. He looked at his instruments and uttered a quiet curse.

He hadn't intended to do it. He really hadn't. But his TARDIS had taken him a century or so into the future. He made a few checks, but to his disappointment found that he couldn't yet jump back into the century he had made his home in. He wouldn't be ready to do so for . . . too long for his liking.

He sighed deeply. Well, if he could any solace from this, this wasn't the first time he had been in this century. He should be fine to intermingle with the populace of this time. Unless time had changed due to his actions in the past. He shook his head, actively choosing to dismiss that. He had to see what the world was like in this time period. He had to admit, part of him feared a dystopian world like the premise of many sci-fi movies, a world akin to that in H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine", or other potentially ruinous timeline probabilities. The possibilities are literally endless, although he was sure his TARDIS was on solid ground and not floating off in space. That ruled out a few possibilities that said the Earth would have been destroyed.

Granted, this didn't mean that the Earth would be livable outside the doors of his TARDIS. He consulted his instruments once more, which indicated that the atmosphere would not be uncomfortable on his physiology. So, he made his decision, as his curiosity got the better of him.

He would go outside, in this roughly 31^st century world. . . .


SOURCE SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30TDr3wgHs

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Here Comes the Exposition Dump

It's interesting just how much information one can come by after a few moments. Especially in this specific future. And Aquilai wasn't sure just how much he liked it. A lot could change over the span of a thousand years, of course, and this was to be expected.

As it turns out, RAF still existed, but it was now in a more galactic form, basically having merged with the Plumbers as a law enforcement agency. It's leader was someone that was just generally called the Old One or the Ancient One, which, Aquilai admits, he would have just assumed was one of the mods, or even Richard himself. The term "RAFian" and "Legionnaire" were basically used interchangeably now, with the former being the more informal one to use. The latter is usually used when criminals are angry with the organization.

Aquilai wasn't too surprised that many of the RAFians that he knew and cared about were long dead. Not many species can live over a thousand years. He expected to see Cloak, Empress Goose, Gaz, Shanker, Richard, Estelore, and others like that still surviving. But it's not like the friends from his time left no legacies. There was Vector and Argyle Sirois, descendants of Leatherhead and some girl from Reptilon; Jamie no-last-name-given, descendant of Parker and Helen's daughter; Gwendolyn, descendant of Melissa Spellman and some guy who's name Aquilai did not recognize. There were plenty more of the Legionnaires -- Aquilai decided right then and there to stick with the term "RAFians" -- too numerous to count, milling around either on leisure time or training or doing specialized tasks.

At one point or another, he saw Gaz, a heavily modified Oceanspray (he looked more like Delta from that Star Trek show), Rocklobster (naked, without a hologram), Sakki, Phoenix (with his phoenix traits more pronounced now), a tired Underseen, a weary Ash, Abby in a seemingly permanent insubstantial form, a moody SuperNate, a more-solemn Yunyun, and Shock, who confirmed who he was to the others. But they both seemed more subdued that they were ordinarily. Aquilai tried to hide his shock. He knew that a lot must have happened in the bevy of intervening years, things that they clearly did not wish to revisit. And Aquilai did not press them for answers.

But the one RAFian he did not see hide nor hair of was Cloak, although he also saw representation from other species that weren't RAFians during his time -- a Skrull, a Pyronite, an Atlanteen, a Methanian, a Wookie, a Geochelone Aerio, a Vulcan, a Segmentasapien, an Andalite, and more that he wasn't familiar with. The entire facility was alive with activity. Amazing how they managed to convert the international space station into this impressive facility. However, future technology in conjunction with alien tech must have quickened the development.

"Time Lord," Vector said, irreverently, "the Witness wants to see ya."

"Call him by his proper title," Argyle sniffed. "The Old One wants an audience with you, Mr. -- Aquilai, correct?"

"Yes, and the Old One?" Aquilai asked. "And why would he want to see me?"

"Because you may know him by another name," Ash said, walking by. Aquilai didn't like how tired she seemed to be. She seemed to be overworked.