Memoirs of a RAFian

[Gaz]

LOL! Love it.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Saffa Used Brave Bird!

The lizard Nazca Beast roared its discontent. Everyone within a three-mile-radius heard its roar.

Laserbeak squawked, causing Gaz to sigh, and say, with determined patience, "Yes, Beaky. It is mad."

"Well," Saffa said, taking a step away from the Beast, and doing her best not to stumble. She just had gone from one morph to another in a rather short period of time. This took a toll on anyone with the morphing ability, and she had expended a lot of energy while in morph as well. There was no way she would be ready to fight again for a few moments. Moments which she very well may not have had.

Gaz wasn't fairing much better. Being a vampire didn't mean that your were immune from exhaustion, and she was actually feeling quite a bit of it already. Laserbeak wasn't as susceptible to fatigue as the two RAF ladies, but even he was experiencing it. They both had expended a great amount of energy just distracting the thing, and keeping it in place.

And now the Beast was before them, still strong and now none too pleased with them. The scope of what they could do to it at this point, was effectively nil. This wasn't even a stalemate. They were at a distinct disadvantage, and in the path of an angry Nazca Beast. The thunderous, flapping footsteps were slow and deliberate.

"Should we say our prayers, or something?" Gaz said, as Laserbeak remained silent.

"I'm not much for prayers," Saffa answered sincerely. She stubbornly remained on her feet. "But, if today is my day to die, I know one thing."

She clasped Gaz's hand in solidarity, before continuing, "It will be on my feet."

"Agreed," Gaz said, bracing herself for what she expected to be a fatal blow.

That's when it happened. At the precise moment when it happened to the others. Their clothing were bleached white with black accents, and Laserbeak was predominately white with golden accents. Their exhaustion was erased, as if they had just downed a senzu bean each. They were back up to fighting strength and stamina.

And now they were not so willing to accept death. Not when they had a fighting chance again. Not when they could do something about this Beast again. They were not going to give up so easily when they could do something about it. The two women moved in sync, neither having to communicate a plan, seemingly having concocted it on the fly with nothing but glances and gestures.

Gaz immediately went for the Beast's glowing green eyes, firing her weapons (from the armor that Laserbeak became that she wore) with deadly accuracy. She went for the right one first, nimbly dodging every single swipe with minimal exertion. This infuriated the Beast further, which is why it roared in frustration constantly. Eventually the eye became black, and the green glow that came from it faded and vanished altogether. It was now blind in that eye. This made evading the swipes unsurprisingly easier.

Meanwhile, Saffa was morphing to red-tailled hawk -- and her more was bleached white and sparkled as if she were a shiny Pokemon. She was completing the morph as Gaz was starting to attack the Beast's other eye. She easily dodged each swipe, as the Beast's visual acuity and depth perception were halved, severely incapacitating its ability. But this was still a distraction from what had to be done.

It wasn't long before Gaz had blinded the Beast, and Saffa had completed her morph. Saffa took to the sky, and quickly built up speed. Gaz continued to pepper the lizard Beast's head, as Saffa continued to built up her speed. Granted, she would never be able to reach the speeds of a peregrine falcon. But that didn't matter as much, as the Remnant Power energy gathered and built up as she built up her speed. She utilized barrel rolls to evade the lizard Beast's swipes.

Then Saffa did a midair flip and then charged forward. Toward the Beast. Towards where the heart should be. She accumulated more and more Remnant Energy, so much that it appeared that she was unintentionally leeching it away from Gaz, This actually manage to increase her speed and durability. She lanced straight through the Beast, directly through its heart, shattering it. Its body collapsed into darkness and shadow before dissipating into nothingness.

Saffa spiraled downward, deliberately losing her speed, and the Remnant Power energy began to leave her, being as fickle as the Great Power. . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Monkey See, Monkey Duel

Cerulean and Noelle were dispatched to deal with the monkey Nazca Beast. They went to the meadow that Noelle once fed on and it was to her dismay that it was fundamentally destroyed. The soil was overturned, grass buried and ripped up. The trees were unmolested, though.

<And it was such a nice meadow, too,> she mourned slightly.

"There it goes," Cerulean said.

<Keep up with it,> Noelle said. <I'll catch up when I can.>

Cerulean sped toward the lumbering Beast who was stumping its way toward civilization. Once there, it would demolish buildings, squish the populace underfoot, crush cars, and cause untold destruction and death. That's what these Nazca Beasts lived off of, destruction and chaos. It was like mother's milk to them. Noelle and Cerulean understood this, understood what was at stake.

While Noelle galloped to catch up, Cerulean was already there, examining the Nazca Beast. It was had a thin, wiry body with a curly-cue tail and a simian, nonexpressive face. Cerulean couldn't see any overt weaknesses other than its slow moving gait, but that was probably due to its size more than anything else. Cerulean had to admit, he didn't know how they would manage to destroy such a behemoth. It seemed like such a monumental, ultimately futile task.

<Did you see any -->

"Weaknesses?" Cerulean interrupted. "No, Noelle, I haven't. I don't think this Beast has one. Not an overt one, anyway."

<Well, that's certainly disheartening,> Noelle replied, her tone clinical.

"Have any morph in your arsenal that could do something?" Cerulean said, his tone also clinical at this point.

<I don't believe so, no.> Noelle said, going over her litany of morphs. <I probably should have brought along a Shredder or two.>

"You think that this thing would even feel a Shredder?" Cerulean asked earnestly. "At that size?"

Noelle considered for a second, before replying, <Perhaps not. Perhaps a Dome Ship's weapons would -->

"That would be overkill, though," Cerulean said.

<Perhaps.> Noelle said. <But this brings us no closer to destroying this creature before it reaches human civilization. We don't have a lot of time.>

"We have plenty of time," Cerulean said, stubbornly. "A second can be an eternity for me."

<That's nice, impressive rhetoric, Cerulean,> Noelle said, <but how do we use that to destroy this Beast?>

Silence elapsed between the two for a while, as they noticed that the Beast would stop every now and then to look around, almost as if it was expecting something. Or lost. It was odd to see, but the two were still in the dark of what this creature could do, any special features that it possessed. The mystery surrounding it was something that could be quite a deal more dangerous than the two were currently expecting. The two were cognizant and aware of this, but didn't not see a point in approaching a subject so obvious.

"Well," Cerulean said, "I'm open to suggestions."

Noelle waited, as she thought as fast as she could.. <There is a way. There has to be a way.>

"Hmmmm . . ." Cerulean said, after a brief moment of silence between the two. "I think I may have an idea."

[Cloak]

****. I wrote the next chapter and accidentally deleted it. ****.  Now I have to re-write it. So chances are that it will be shorter and more to the point than it was before. I apologize for this mistake on my part.



New chapter.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Shirking the Attack

The two worked in tandem, following the plan. Cerulean wailed on the left wrist of the Beast, while Noelle had morphed Aerophibian and fired neuroshock blasts at the precisely same spot that Cerulean was wailing at. This amplified the damage dealt. Eventually, it lifted its hurt wrist up, and the two RAFians just shifted focus upon the Beast's other wrist.

Eventually, the Beast lifted up that wrist again, rearing up to its hindlegs, using its tail for balance, and Noelle had to demorph and remorph to proceed with their plan. They did not relent, and just shifted their attack to its right ankle and heel. Granted, this would probably be much more effective if Cerulean wore tekko-kagi or something similar, like Shredder from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". But all he had was his bare fists and Noelle's neuroshock blasts from her Aerophibian morph. He heard that they really sting.

Within moments, the Beast collapsed forward, roughly one o'clock. This left its short neck vulnerable. The two RAFians knew an opportunity when it presents itself. They immediately rushed to capitalize upon it. But when Cerulean's fist made contact and Noelle's neuroshock blast first connected, the first vertebrae segment vanished and the two were blasted away with a powerful lime green light.

This was enough to force Noelle out of her Aerophibian morph and back into her natural Andalite form, and was enough to sap roughly half of both RAFians' energy. Both struggled to their feet after this, and noticed that this Beast had a rather long tail, which was in a stiff, spiral. Only the tip was now gone. Both RAFians swayed on their feet, that they determinedly stood on.

<Now,> Noelle said, addressing Cerulean, in between gasps of fatigue, <at what point exactly . . . did we lose control here?>

"Maybe someone should tell him that we're the good guys," Cerulean said, irreverently.

<Any thoughts?> Noelle said. She was clearly implying what they would do next.

"I haven't a clue," Cerulean said, as the Beast seemed to be watching them, almost as if the two amused it in someway. "Everything we try to do to kill it will just result in it pulling what it just did. It has a lot of vertebrae in that tail, and it will take an eternity to run it out."

<And, with each time, half our energy goes away,> Noelle agreed..

"I would say that we're an impasse, but that's not true," Cerulean said. "We're at a clear and undeniable disadvantage."

<Indeed,> Noelle said, all four eyes taken up by the massive monster. <Only a miraculously-timed power-up can help now.>

[Cloak]

Probably gonna be the last chapter today.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Upgrade Available

And, of course, that's when it happened, as it happened with all the others, which was happening concurrently to this. This is when the Remnant Power energy decided to show up. It really was as fickle as its Great Power predecessor.

Noelle's fur was bleached white, though her hooves, eyes, and tail-blade remained the same color, essentially making her look somewhat like an albino Andalite. Cerulean's clothes were paler, though not white. Upon his hands were two sickle-like claws -- similar to that of a pair of tekko-kagi, only with steak-knife-like blades of glowing Remnant Power energy. Cerulean found that perhaps he should invest in getting some of these for himself when he didn't have Remnant Power energy.

The two looked at each other and smiled (for Noelle, being an Andalite, that was all in the eyes). All their exhaustion had vanished, and they realized the crux of this Beast's weakness. They formulated a plan without even needing to say a single word -- as the Beast just looked at them quizzically, ****ing its head to the left, though its face remained expressionless, as if it was a mask.

Noelle immediately morphed into a huge, white (due to the Remnant Power) feline creature with sharp claws, a thin, feline tail with a sharp hook at the end of it, fangs like a Smilodon, a black mane like a dire wolf, and a small horn on the top of its nose. She had became a Panuncian, a morph she never really used due to the danger of its cloning ability, which could cause her to be split up*. Its one reason why she had every intention to never acquire a Splixson, the Panuncian's prey. That was not something that she wanted to worry about, and she had a litany of other morphs able to do the job. But this Remnant Power had another trick, one that she took a gamble on.

It allowed her morph to "evolve" further. For the most part, it resembled normal Panuncians, save for the fur being white, with their head now having plating with a larger horn where their original horn was. It possessed two smaller horns behind snout horn and on the sides, and it had larger fangs. Spikes grew from its shoulders and back. The spikes and head plating heavily resemble to Crabdozer's armor. She was in a hyperevolved Panunican morph, with higher strength, size, and stature. Whether she would be access this morph without the Remnant Power still remained to be seen.

But pure brute strength wasn't the reason that she morphed into this, presumably still with the morphing time limit in effect. She would just serve as a distraction while Cerulean did what he needed to do. One would have to wonder how the Remnant Power would effect his superhuman speed, as he was already faster than a Kinecleran and a Citrakayah. Perhaps the tekko-kagi was all he got from the Remnant Power, and his speed was not affected at all.

Noelle commenced her attack, despite only being the size of a housecat to this Beast, at best. She could hurt it, but not kill it. There was no way that she could reach its neck in order to kill it. Despite the shortness of the neck, she would never be able to open her hyperevolved Panuncian jaws enough to be able to close around it. And even if she could, the Beast's ability would probably sap the Remnant Power from her, leech it from them both. She was just the distraction -- Cerulean would be the one doing that actual hard stuff, though distracting this Beast wasn't exactly what you would call "easy".

Cerulean waited only a moment after Noelle completed her hyperevolved morph and began to garner the Beast's attention. He sped toward the Beast's tail, the world standing still as he ran. He was there before he knew it, at the base of the Beast's tail. This was it's vulnerability. It could not use it's ability without its tail. If it was tailless, it wouldn't be able to save itself again.

He began to use these energy tekko-kagi constructs to their full potential, hacking with them at top speed, as speed that not even the most top-of-the-line blender could achieve. It wasn't too long before Cerulean rendered the monkey Beast an ape, and the tail flopped to the ground with a monstrous thud before collapsing and dissipating into darkness.

"There!" Cerulean cried out. "It's ability is useless, Noelle! You don't have to hold back any more!"

With the both of them, this beast didn't last very long. After they were done with it, it looked like a plastic figurine put into a garbage disposal. It was not pretty, but it was a necessary thing to do. The Beast soon thereafter collapsed into darkness and shadow, then summarily dissipated into nothingness, as the Remnant Power left the two RAFians. . . .


* Akin to Rachel, when she morphed starfish.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Does It Know the Words?

Broken and Faerie were dispatched to face the hummingbird Nazca Beast. Faerie flew naturally (as she had wings, after all), and Broken was wearing a Cloak of Levitation, a fairly new acquisition, which, obviously, allowed him to fly unsupported. It was good to send two fliers after a Beast modeled after a hummingbird. As one of the largest things in the sky, second to only the condor Nazca Beast that had attacked Cloak, who could only just make out the two and their Beast quarry.

Unfortunately, the Beast was far faster than it size would indicate. And, being a flier, it could cover far more ground than those tethered to the ground. It's wings did not beat once, which kind of was counterintuitive to it being a hummingbird. Though, granted, it was a heavily stylized hummingbird whose feathers were like slabs of obsidian, whose beak looked perfectly capable of splitting stone with relative ease, and whose legs were reminiscent to that of Zapdos.

The two RAFians actually struggled to catch up, Broken's Impediment Jinx or Slowga spell had no effect on the Beast whatsoever. He couldn't slow the Beast whatsoever, and neither could Faerie, despite her rather different type of magic. She was far more skilled with martial magic, anyway. She carried with her a new battleaxe -- which she wasn't particularly fond of. It felt far too heavy and unwieldy in her hands, and nothing like her other one. And it would never stack up to her Tempest Blade. Screw Garrotik for taking that away from her.

Meanwhile, Broken was carrying an aspen and an ebony wand, both with unicorn hair. The aspen one was slightly unyielding and eleven inches, while the ebony one was shorter and inflexible. Wandmaking had become a real hobby for Broken in his off-hours. He had a high affinity for both these wands, and they performed perfectly for him. Unfortunately, the target of his spells was being rather unobliging and unhelpful at the moment, by not being affected by them. It was annoying.

Broken found himself actually considering using Crucio, Imperio, or even Avada Kedavra on the Beast, despite that that was rather taboo in the magical community. He might even lose his status as the Sorcerer Supreme if he just used curses such as those that were considered to be unforgivable. He just hoped that it wouldn't come down to having to resort to those spells -- even though he was mostly sure that they wouldn't work.

"We gotta catch up to it," Faerie said, brusquely and clinically. As if this was just your standard, average RAFian mission.

"Let's go, then," Broken said, turning on the speed.

The two managed to match the Beast's flight speed, and landed, apparently unnoticed, upon its back. It was like sharing an overly large, opulent flying carpet (the size of a 747 passenger plane) with a high-pitched trilling sound. The Beast seemed to be lost, not really understanding where it wanted to go, which part of civilization it wanted to destroy first. This indecision could prove to be a boon to the RAFians.

IF they could figure out how to capitalize on it.

"It's either highly immune to magic, if not straight out immune to magic," Broken said.

Faerie fingered her battleaxe, "Perhaps, but how about melee attacks?"

"Be my guest, Faerie," Broken said, gesturing to the floor, which was the back of this massive hummingbird Beast.

In a swift movement -- almost as if she was showing off -- she unholstered her unwieldy axe and promptly . . . dropped it. Her grand, cinematic moment ruined, she picked up the axe with mild resentment and bitterness, and lifted it high. If both were unable to fly, this would be a rather stupid idea. Then she brought it down, much faster than she intended -- she really needed get a weapon more weighted to her liking - and it only cracked a couple of obsidian feathers. Faerie pulled that axe out of the obsidian "ground".

"Well," she said, "that didn't work."

"Yes," Broken agreed, attempting to keep his footing. "We should have misjudged this Beast. Fortunately, it wasn't too detrimental to our objectives."

"You make it sound so cut and dry," Faerie said. Then she bent her knees, declaring, "It's ascending? Why?"

"Trying to give us hypoxia?" Broken suggested, bracing himself as well.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Well . . . That Would've Hurt

"You think that this thing is really that intelligent?" Faerie said, grasping the obsidian feathers, which were hard and sharp. It was a miracle that neither weren't lacerated into ribbons. "I doesn't even speak!"

"You don't need to speak in order to be intelligent," Broken said, "look at many Dark objects and relics, like Horcruxes."

Faerie suppressed a shutter at the mention of those ungodly things, "I'd rather not think about Horcruxes."

"Just using them to illustrate a point," Broken said, almost in apology as the Beast flew higher and higher. "Speech isn't a sign of intelligence. Just look at Knights and their heinous rhetoric."

"Fair point," Faerie said. "What's our next move?"

"It has to level out at some point," Broken reasoned.

"And if it doesn't?" Faerie asked, sounding very much like a contrarian.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Broken said. His Cloak of Levitation flapping wildly in the wind. Faerie was afraid to use her wings in this wind shear. The Beast seemed to be accelerating its ascent. "It's magic-proof like Realm Walkers. It has some resistance to melee strikes. I don't know what else to use."

"Well, doesn't that beat all," Faerie said, as if this nonsense would make sense. "We need to find a way to deal with this thing and fast. And stop it from making that annoying trilling noise."

"The Ribbons of Raggadorr? The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak? The Baleful Bolts of Balthakk? The Rain of Raggadorr? The Vipers of Valtorr? The Images of Ikonn? The Chains of Krakkan? The Roving Rings of Raggadorr? The Vapors of Valtorr? The Winds of Watoomb?" Broken suggested. "Although, I'd rather not use any of those spells. I'm . . . I'm not fond of where and who they come from."

"You just namedropped a lot of people," Faerie noted. "Are you trying to get on their dinner list or something?"

"They're actual spells!" Broken protested hotly. "They're all mystical beings who belong to the O--"

Suddenly, they were falling, and yet they felt as if they were being squeezed by unseen hands that enclosed them from their clavicles to their knees. They couldn't fly, and they were plummeting to their presumable deaths. But they weren't about to just give up like that. Faerie was, to put it bluntly, a warrior and she wasn't about to die in such a way, as utterly powerless against a foe with questionable sentience. Broken felt just the same way, and he struggled to free himself.

Before he realized that he should do something else. Take the distance of the fall out of the equation. He just had to have sufficient determination and deliberation to accomplish what he was planning . . .

He twisted midair, and he felt even more compression around him, only to find him on his feet. Stumbling upon the ground with the invisible hand around him released its grasp. He immediately reached for his aspen wand -- ebony one had been broken by the clutch of the invisible hand, snapping it in two. He looked up and found Faerie, still fighting to free herself from this invisible hand.

"ARRESTO MOMENTUM!!" the Sorcerer Supreme roared, point the wand at Faerie. He put all his strength into the charm. The power of the charm actually cracked the wand -- something that had never happened before to Broken. But the Sorcerer Supreme did not care so much as saving the life of his friend's life.

The charm worked swimmingly and Faerie did not slam into the ground, like the hummingbird Beast clearly intended as it wheeled around to see, clearly, what it anticipated.to be two blood-soaked spots on the ground. It would be deeply disappointed. Broken looked at his wand, and managed to repair it with "Reparo".

"That was . . . less than ideal," Faerie said, after thanking him. "But the question still remains, Broken."

"Yes," Broken concurred. "How do we kill this Beast. It will be a tall order to accomplish."

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Stopping the Humming

The trill of the Beast became shrill, threatening, and sinister. A shriek of rage and indignation.

"I think we made it mad," Broken said, calmer than he felt.

"Ya think?" Faerie said, in her usual verbose way.

It charged forward, diving down at them. It clearly intended to impale them, to skewer them upon its long, sharp beak like a shish kabob. But they were tiny targets -- that would be like trying to use a needle to skewer pygmy fleas. However, that didn't mean that it couldn't cause untold collateral damage and causalities -- they weren't too far from a densely populated area. Those lives could potentially be forfeit.

"We have to stop it!" Broken declared.

"Great idea!" Faerie said, with full sarcasm. "Any idea how?!"

"I . . ." Broken said, unable to finish the thought. He had his wand in hand, but that seemed insufficient to a hummingbird the size of a passenger plane. Just a strip of wood against a mammoth Beast. "I don't . . ."

That's when it happened. That's when the Remnant Power came to them as it did to the others at this precise moment. The primary colors of their outfits were bleached white while the secondary colors just grew paler. Even Broken's wand took some of its power, becoming stronger, spouting white sparks from it's tip. The Beast's dive was much too close now.

Broken just reacted, and shouted, "DEPULSO!!"

This caused a powerful white pulse to leave his wand and the Beast was forced away, crashing into the forest. Faerie hefted her battleaxe easily -- it was suddenly weighted just right for her hands, and it's blade was now sharper. Faerie powered her wings, pulling her axe back. Broken swore that the axe made contact with a very audible crack. It had enough force to throw the Beast's head back. And Broken was given an idea.

Broken went over his litany of spells to act as a support to Faerie's brutal melee attack. Healing her when needed, boosting her attack power and shoring up her defenses. This went over swimmingly well, and Faerie, despite her bravado, appreciated the help. The hummingbird Beast started to realize that it may be way over its depth here at this moment, so it tried to escape to the sky.

But Faerie wasn't going to allow it to escape so easily. She was already hacking away at its right wing, as if she was a lumberjack. It couldn't fly away. It was at Faerie's mercy. Faerie only stopped to give it a glower.

"You tried to kill us," Faerie said. "You are made of chaos and darkness."

"Faerie, you're starting to monologue," Broken said.

"Then I'll cut to the chase," Faerie said. "Beast, we cannot allow you cause damage or permit you to slaughter innocents. Good-bye."

She stabbed through the Beast's neck, which caused it to collapse into darkness and shadow, but soon started to reconstitute itself. But Faerie had noticed it's stone heart. She heaves the axe at it, not unlike Kratos with the Leviathan Axe. The axe didn't cleave the stone heart, but shattered it as if it was made of glass. The Beast stopped reconstituting itself at once, and the darkness that made it up dissipated into nothingness.

"It's done," Faerie said, picking up her axe, realizing immediately that the Remnant Power was ebbing away with astonishing rapidity. "This was as fickle as the Great Power."

[Cloak]

Releasing tomorrow's chapter a wee bit early.

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY:
A Nazca Leviathan

Horse and Oceanspray were dispatched to deal with the orca Beast. It was at the ocean, which Horse was, naturally, at home in. Oceanspray, being an android, wasn't going to be too negatively affected by it -- he had amphibious capability and didn't need to breathe. His circuitry was completely safe and self-contained as Parker's armor. He wasn't too concerned to being in the salt water, although he readily acknowledged that he wasn't nearly as suited as Horse was. But he went along anyway to watch her back.

Despite her overt excitement to be in what was her element, albeit a tad warmer than she would liked, she appreciated Oceanspray's presence to watch her back. He tended to have a bit more of an analytical eye than her, and she had power in her hydrokinesis (not as powerful as Cloak, granted), and cryokinesis. She was prepared for most anything, and her colleague was as well.

Then they saw it. It was far larger than any orca. It made fully-grown orcas look like mice. Kyogre itself would be just a housecat compared to this beasts monumental size. It was roughly the size of a blue whale, if not slightly larger. It had the terrifying presence like that of a Liopleurodon or Megalodon to an unarmed diver. The sense of its power was undeniable and palpable.

All excitement drained out of the RAFian seal nearly immediately when she bore witness to the Beast. She was the favorite snack of the RAFian's "backup generator", and she really didn't want to be eaten again. She had spent months -- it was at least a year at this point -- blissfully NOT being eaten. She didn't care to start up that running gag again.

Even Oceanspray was intimidated by this mammoth beast. It was a massive submersible, its body a massive torpedo that slid evilly through the water. All manner of sea life recoiled from the Beast. By casual observation, you could say this would be natural, as the majority of this sea life would be afraid of predation. But even consummate predators that seemingly lacked anything akin to fear, like sharks, veered away from this massive thing. Almost as if they could sense the darkness within it, the evil that summed up its whole being.

Being underwater, Horse couldn't speak -- she was a mammal still, and not a fish. She breathed air and not water, so that made speaking rather difficult. Oceanspray didn't have any such restrictions, but the water would still muffle his voice to Horse. So they would have to communicate with gestures and gesticulations.

Then the Beast surged forward, and upward. It was clear what was going to happen, what its intentions were. Both swam upward, with Oceanspray possessing a bit more difficulty in doing so. The Beast would breach the surface, like any ordinary whale. But if one the size of this Beast did . . . that would lead to a massive tsunami of unprecedented levels. If that hit the coast, any of the coastal cities and denizens of those cities . . .

Horse realized this and understood that she was the only present to be able to stop it, as Oceanspray was not a hydrokinetic. His weapons would be helpful, sure. But she knew what she had to do. She wouldn't get there in time to stop it from penetrating the surface of the ocean, but she could stop the tsunami. She would, because she would have to. She couldn't allow such causalities. Not on her watch.

She strained herself, and while she did this, Oceanspray silently and secretly scanned the Beast. Looking for a weak spot. Every creature, every species, had one. Granted, he hadn't found one for Realm Walkers, but they seemed to be rather OP by design, so he didn't think much on that account. Their only weakness appeared to be outfoxed and out-thought, but that was notoriously difficult. But this Beast -- he discovered something he found odd, something he couldn't immediately convey to Horse.

The massive beast they saw was just what appeared to be some sort of tangible, corporeal umbrakinetic construct. Not unlike the bodies of those Gems, sentient gemstones with humanoid corporeal constructs. But on a more massive scale. Its projection source -- located where the heart of an ordinary orca would be. Judging from the scan, the "heart" of this Beast seemed to made of some sort of stone that would shatter when hit just right with sufficient force.

But how to exploit this weakness?

Meanwhile, Horse was darting toward the surface, unaware of Oceeanspray's findings, with a plan to stop this tsunami. But she had to be quick, she had to rush, she had to push herself . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
Horse Used Surf!

The creature's nose had breached the surface. Horse's effort to harden the surface to prevent this had failed. It was like trying to prevent an out-of-control car by putting up a drywall barrier. She would never have been able to prevent this. Perhaps not even Cloak could . . .

The creature's head had left the surface of the ocean water. Then its chest and flippers exited the water. Then the most of its body had left the water. How odd that something that BIG could just hang in the air for that long. Then it arched its back and dived back into the water, diving deep. It's splash, just as Horse predicted, was a tsunami that spanned outward. A tsunami of such magnitude that it would completely bury the nearby coastal cities unless she did something. Oceanspray would help, she was sure, but he wasn't a hydrokinetic. Or a cryokinetic.

There was no way that Horse could hold back this wave, even with her hydrokinesis, especially from this vantage point. But she had an idea. It was potentially stupid and naturally reckless, but it could work. And that was enough for the little seal. She darted into the tsunami wave, surfing it. And as she did so she froze the tsunami solid as she surfed in it.

Meanwhile, Oceanspray was analyzing the possibilities to exploit this weakness of the Beast and how they could use them to their advantage when he realized what Horse's plan was. And the Beast noticed, too. Noticed that it's little destructive plan wasn't working, that Horse was somehow managing to slow and even stop the momentum of the tsunami by solidifying it into ice. Then melting it back into water when a sufficient amount of momentum was lost to make the tsunami lethal and dangerous.

This was a tremendous undertaking, one that Oceanspray could easily see and understand. But the Beast, it wanted those waves of destruction. That's all the Nazca Beasts were, and all they wanted. Destruction, chaos, death, and calamity. Almost as if they were agents of Apophis or something. The Beast wheeled around, appearing deceptively slow. Horse was a small target, to be true, but that did not mean that she was safe due to her small size -- she was equivalent to the size of a flea in comparison to the Beast, if not smaller.

Horse had a higher chance of survival than he did if the Beast charged him, and Oceanspray knew this very well. But, despite these cold calculations, they didn't override his humanity. He retracted his fingers into his arm and changed his arm into his cannon. He fired a small energy pellet at Beast. He wasn't trying to kill the it, just divide its attention. He imagined that he would be considered a far easier target than Horse, who had finished averting the tsunami.

The Beast made a haunting, sinister growl and powered its flukes toward Oceanspray, who waited until the last possible moment, before leaping. For some odd reason he could jump higher in water than he could on land, despite his heavy body. Maybe it was the ceramic titanium he had incorporated into his body, who knows? Anyway, he landed on the Beast's back, and ran as fast as he could, given the watery environment, before jumping off the confused Beast's tail.

When he landed, he immediately pivoted on his feet to look back at the Beast who was slowly wheeling around. It's body shape made it so it wasn't the type of creature that could turn on a dime, which slowed its momentum whenever it had to turn around. Perhaps they could somehow use that to their advantage? Oceanspray just didn't know how they could utilize it as such.

Horse returned to his side, but the communication issue still persisted. Then the Beast unleashed a strange shockwave which hit them both. Horse twisted from the pain, but it was a manageable pain. Oceanspray completed an immediate self-diagnosis, and found all systems were functioning at eighty-five percent efficiency. That was sufficient for their needs, Oceanspray determined.

Horse looked at him, and he nodded. That attack wasn't that bad. They could endure it -- and the Beast seemed unable to attack them after using that shockwave. And it seemed that that shockwave had a rather significant cool-down time, as it didn't just continually spam it. The two RAFians seemed to be counting, seeing when it would use that attack, if you could call it an attack, again. Yes, they would endure it again, but only to know its cool-down time.

There! It did it again, but it built upon the last shockwave, taking a bit more from them. Horse was fine, despite feeling as if she was chewing on a power cord. Oceanspray ran another diagnostic and found that all systems were operating at seventy percent peak efficiency. That was a drawback that neither foresaw, and both felt aggrieved as they both felt that they should have saw this coming.

But they found themselves in the cool-down window. Now was the time to act, but thirty percent of their energy had been drained from them. They actually needed a moment to recover . . . a moment that they may not have, despite the Beast being unable to attack during this cool-down phase.

[Cloak]

Slightly brief new chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Beached

Horse and Oceanspray managed to recover within the window, but they hadn't a plan. They were basically improvising at this point, and they tried to circle around behind the Beast. But it wouldn't allow that. Even though it couldn't attack during this cool-down time, that didn't mean that it as immobile and unaware of its surroundings.

Horse waved her right flipper and ice spikes formed in front of her. Then she swiped right with her left flipper, and they shot forward as if they were torpedoes. And Oceanspray fired his blaster arm at an entirely different angle from Horse. And the Beast tanked both attacks, much to the surprise of the two RAFians. They shared a glance, still unable to communicate well underwater. They understood that they couldn't afford to hold back anymore.

Then the third shockwave came.

Horse had to form an air bubble to get more air -- she couldn't breathe under water, even with her hydrokinesis. Oceanspray checked and found that all his systems were operating at fifty-five percent efficiency. He estimated and surmised he would only be able to take about five more of those before going offline. His system percentages were not increasing, at all. Horse was feeling the same way, she wasn't recouping any of the energy she lost, that was drained out of her.

Horse and Oceanspray reorientated their locations, and then they attacked. Oceanspray blasted everything he had at the beast, and Horse used both her cryokinesis and hydrokinesis simultaneously at the Beast. It looked as it Horse was simultaneously using Sub-Zero Slammer and Hydro Vortex, and it looked as if Oceanspray was using an Omni-Beam from his arm cannon. Neither held back, triangulating their shots.

And, through the agitated ocean water, they saw that . . . their attacks didn't faze the Beast at all. The Beast looked as if it was smiling at the two's display of their maximum power, as if it was saying to them, Is this the limit to your power? Horse, personally, found this far more insulting.while Oceanspray was calculating another possible solution. He was having difficulty finding one, barring a circumstance or happenstance that he did not foresee, or could not foresee. All scenarios that he analyzed made their situation seem futile. Horse didn't care how futile it seemed, she wouldn't give up until she drew her last breath. She may have been a tiny seal, but she was a determined little seal.

That's when it happened.

The Remnant Power halfheartedly surged into them, making Oceanspray's appearance pale, with the primary color being turned white, while horse's white fur sparkled as if she were a shiny Pokemon. Their powers had been pushed past their usual zeniths. Oceanspray and Horse shared a glance, while the orca Nazca Beast looked rather unimpressed by this. Then again, orca faces aren't exactly the most expressive anyway.

Oceanspray pointed to his eye, then he pointed to his heart. His message was received clear, despite how vague it could have been perceived. Aim for the heart. The Nazca Beast's heart was its obvious weakness . . . okay, maybe not obvious, but it was rather stereotypical. In any case, Horse gave a brief nod, which looked rather odd with her pinniped body.

They re-triangulated their positions, so that their Remnant Power-augmented attacks would strike the Beast's heart from different angles. The Beast tried the shockwave again, only the Remnant Power prevented it from affecting the two. At least for the moment. They didn't know how long that this Remnant Power would last, so they had to be fast and act now. If it was as fickle as the Great Power . . .

The two acted, and attacked. Oceanspray fired his arm cannon with enough power that the water boiled around the beam. Horse fired shards of kunai-like or shuriken-like ice projectiles, and she used her hydrokinesis to reduce, if not outright eliminate, water resistance of the projectiles. In fact, she seemed to be exponentially increasing the projectiles' velocity. To lethal velocity. This, coupled with Oceanspray's attack, the Beast's heart was easily shattered by this. The Beast didn't have a chance when Remnant Power decided to show up.

About seven seconds after they shattered this Beast's heart, Remnant Power decided the time was ripe to leave them. And all that was left was clean-up. Hopefully, the coastal cities were none the wiser to the near-destruction that they nearly faced.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
The Part of Kratos Tonight Will Be Played By Cloak

Cloak had somehow made it to center of the back of the condor Nazca Beast. He was embracing his inner Kratos and had two chains of energy connected to both wings. However, there was a problem with this. While he had strength above the peak strength of the average human, he did not possess superhuman strength in strictest sense. But he managed to swerve this condor Beast away from any sort of civilization, and that took an immense amount of his strength. His will wouldn't allow him to give in to any exhaustion or fatigue. Not until he succeeded, or worse.

"Need some help?"

Cloak almost tumbled off the Beast -- the grounding energy chains had dissipated in his surprise. He was just a little too focused on what he was doing that he had inadvertently turned his mind off towards his surroundings. It was an elementary mistake, and a humiliating one, he felt.

"Don't do that, Estelore!" Cloak snarled.

"I just asked if you needed help," Estelore said, nonchalantly hiding a smile at Cloak's surprised antics. "I didn't tell you to tumble into oblivion."

"Hilarious," Cloak glowered, sourly.

"Do you want you my help, or not, Cloaky?" Estelore said, suddenly all-business.

"Fine," Cloak said. He was still rather prideful, but no so much so for help. "We have to destroy this Beast before it could cause any harm or collateral damage."

"Do you know what its capable of?" Estelore said, floating next to him in an irresistible parody of Rose Quartz. "What powers other than winged flight and looking very, very grumpy?"

"Since when is being very, very grumpy a power?" Cloak asked.

"It was a joke, Realm Walker," Estelore said, with an exasperated sigh.

"I know that," Cloak said. digging his claws into the creature's back, ignoring the obsidian feathers. "And, no, I don't know any of its special abilities or powers. These creatures must be from a more manufactured and artificial origin -- I don't think that 'Nazca Beast' is technically a species."

"'Nazca Beast'?"

"It's the name I've given to them," Cloak said. "This one and its six fellows. I presume the other RAFians are dealing with them."

"I don't rightly know -- I came back from a stellar journey and saw you struggling with the Beast." Estelore informed.

Cloak decided not to take umbrage at the "struggling" choice of words. There were higher priorities to worry about. This Beast, for example.

"How do we destroy it?" Estelore asked, clinically. This was basically their profession as RAFians, so they both would be matter of fact about it. "The straightforward, direct way by brute force? Or hit the weak spot for massive damage? Or some other way?"

"I would say either the first or second option would probably be the stratagem to use," Cloak diagnosed. "Between the two of us, we certainly have enough power to put this thing down. Just one little thing -- we probably should make sure this Beast is far enough away from civilization to prevent undue causalities and collateral damage."

"We're getting away from civilization now," Estelore observed. "Is this far enough?"

Cloak assessed. "I think so. You know what we need to do."

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
Duel Final Smashes

Cloak managed to flip off the Beast's back, landing on an energy disc next to Estelore.

"Are you trying to be anime protagonist or something?" Estelore teased.

"Never mind that now," Cloak said, sidestepping the sentient star's question."You know what we must do now."

Estelore nodded, ignoring the sidestepped question, and said, "Tandem attack."

"Tandem attack," Cloak agreed.

"We must be in sync for that to happen effectively," Estelore said.

"You make it sound like a Gem fusion," Cloak bantered.

"We're friends, Cloak, but we're not that close," Estelore teased back.

"That's not what I meant, Estelore, and you know it," Cloak replied.

"Friends not allowed to tease each other?" Estelore said with a devilishly mischievous grin. Cloak didn't like that grin -- it reminded him of Freddie, the obnoxious adopted "nephew" of Estelore's. He was also a sentient star, only a blue dwarf to Estelore's normal-sized yellow star self. The little brat who liked to get people's hopes up by pretending to be a wishing star. Yes, you could just say that was a harmless prank -- but would be harmless if he did that to a dying man who wanted to live? Desperate parents with a terminally ill child? A forgotten child who wanted to escape their misery? Would this "prank" be considered so harmless then? Not all wishes were made out of anger, avarice, fear, cowardice, loneliness, insincerity, ignorance, hatefulness, unreliability, or hopelessness, after all. Some of them could be truly altruistic.

"I didn't say that." Cloak said.

Then the condor squawked, almost angrily. As if it was angry that they were daring to ignore it, and the potential danger it posed. It actually wheeled around to face them, reminded Cloak irresistibly of a rather large, rather angry Yveltal.

Both extended their hands, Cloak's left and Estelore's avatar's right, and fired a powerful tendrils of stellar energy on Estelore's side and all six elements and golden-scarlet energy fired in a double helix formation. Neither noticed the presence of the Remnant Power, creeping into their attack like a lurching layabout attempting to take credit for something they had no part in.

This odd mishmash attack struck the condor Beast in the heart. It only met mild resistance before blasting through, goring the beast completely. There was the sound of glass shattering as the Beast's stone heart broke into pieces. Its body collapsed into shadow, and then summarily dissipated.

The two RAFians still held there hands extended. The Remnant Power had receded without either noticing. They glanced at each other, and held their positions a moment more. Cloak was the first to break the all-consuming silence that followed the Beast's death. "That . . . that was too easy."

"Do you think it was some sort of deception?" Estelore said, clearly suspecting the same thing that Cloak himself was.

"I do," Cloak said, looking around. He couldn't Airsight like he could Earthsight or Metalsight. He quickly deliberated with himself if he should look into do that. "But I don't see or sense it anywhere nearby."

"Nor do I," Estelore corroborated. She, likewise, looked around.

"There has to be something at play here," Cloak said, suspiciously. "It's never this easy."

But, after a few moments, they had to assume that this condor Beast just went down, as the Abridged Frieza would say, "like a ****". They returned to the forum, as a nagging feeling burdened Cloak. . . .

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:
YOU'RE DEAD!! YOU STAY DEAD!!

Everyone was back at the forum a few minutes later, and yet Cloak still felt uneasy. Estelore felt the same way, while everyone else felt a sense of accomplishment. The others were recounting their fights with the six other Beasts. They were all outside, enjoying the brisk weather. It was late September, early October. So the autumn weather was beginning once again. Estelore and Cloak recounted their story, and they were teased for having one of the easiest battles.

"Hey," Estelore said, "between the two of us, we're the most powerful RAFians."

"In terms of brute power, anyway," Cloak said. But he sounded distracted, distant.

"It didn't stand any chance, to be honest," Ash said, fairly. "As you've said, you two alone are the most powerful RAFians. Together? You must've been a force to behold."

"It was too easy," Cloak said. He was still only barely, tangentially paying attention. Something was happening. He was sure of it now. "Something else must have been at play."

"Maybe you're just underestimating your abilities, Cloak," Kelly said, noticing how distracted Cloak was. Like a cat who had spotted some movement that could been prey far off. Kelly ****ed her head to the right, and asked, "Cloak, you seem really distracted. Is . . . is everything okay?"

"You don't sense that?" Cloak said. "It feels almost familiar . . ."

"What are you talking about, Cloaky?" GH said, who had taken his work of rewiring guitars outside so he could be part of the audience of the great storytelling of the RAFian defeat of the Nazca Beasts.

"To the south," Cloak said, pointing. "'Bout six o'clock."

The others looked around to the point where Cloak indicated. The slowly setting sun made it difficult to see, but then the flying pieces of what appeared to be shrapnel flying towards the forum. Cloak recognized some bits of it, as did Estelore, Horse, Oceanspray, Broken, Faerie, Noelle, Cerulean, Saffa, Gaz, Parker, Helen, Underseen, and Dino.

"There's no way!" Dino said.

<How are they flying?!> Noelle demanded.

"Why did they come to the forum?" Horse queried.

"What are they doing?" Underseen asked.

"Daddy?" Leatherhead asked, scared.

"Go back to the thread, Leatherhead." GH said at once, abandoning his guitar rewiring. He had other concerns right now. "Don't argue with me. GO!"

Leatherhead didn't hesitate to comply. He knew that tone of GH's. GH wasn't playing around -- and Leatherhead didn't want to be punished for being bad.

"They're forming up!" Oceanspray said. "The shards of the Beasts' hearts."

"But why?" Gaz said, as Laserbeak hissed at the shards.

"And why does it feel . . . familiar . . ." Cloak asked. Then an idea occurred to him. He roared, "NO! YOU'RE DEAD!!"

"Wait, who?" Broken asked.

But Saffa understood. She recognized the shadowy form trying to form together. "NO WAY . . ."

"GARROTIK!!" Cloak roared. "NO ONE WANTS YOU!! YOU STAY DEAD!!"

Apparently, this monstrosity heard, and the shadow dissipated and the shards collapsed to the ground as finely-granulated dusty sand. Of course, they did not realize that not all of the shards came to try (and fail) to reform Garrotik. But that's a story for another year. . . .

But, suffice it to say, this certainly put a damper on the celebration.

[Cloak]

New chapter.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
Pick A Card, Any Card

Cloak was dispatched to the abandoned carnival to deal with a new fiend threat. This was just routine, at this point. Cloak hated being here -- not because it was creepy and abandoned, but because he wasn't fond of carnivals. Too loud and crowded oftentimes, for his liking. Perhaps it was just his feline inclinations, perhaps it was because of an isolationist nature, who knew?

Anyway, Cloak continued onward, walking. He was going to take his own sweet time, and he had no intention on rushing through this, just because he found it unpleasant and distasteful. Forgotten toys, stuffed animals, deflated balloon animals, and child-sized trains littered the ground everywhere. Almost as if a manchild or unusually large child came along and played with all of them, then threw them aside once they grew bored with them and wandered off elsewhere.

Then he saw a pair of train tracks spanning a considerable sinkhole. Rather than trying to transverse this terrain (or, really, lack of it), Cloak just formed an energy disc and flew over it. It was far better than deal with that headache. Then he landed on a platform that lead into a moldering building that still had flecks of colorful paint desperately clinging to the surfaces within. The effect was gloomy and sad, rather than bright and cheerful, like most carnivals strive for. Unless it was one of those less common goth carnivals -- assuming those exist in this Realm.

Once inside, he saw that there was a dropoff. He jumped off, and landed with a "superhuman landing". He found himself wondering why so many superheros landed in this fashion. It seemed like a good way to break bones to him. But no matter, no matter. That wasn't a concern for him, and he discovered that he had to burrow his way through blocks that appeared to come from a Segmentasapien of a single color. It was easy enough, and Cloak moved onward, through rusted door shutters.

Clearly, based on what laid before him, this area of the carnival was a failed "funhouse". Honestly, Cloak failed to see what was so "fun" about it. There were spikes everywhere, and vertically moving platforms. Cloak moved this room, trying not to find it rage-inducing at all. Cloak was trying very hard. Finally, he made into another room, with ladders leading upward. Cloak deftly climbed them all, leading to a room with a massive house of cards that stood very firmly. As if they were glued in place.

After this room was exterior exit, which Cloak took, and found himself high up. Cloak found this a rather poor design, but only grunted in annoyance about it. He dove down to the bottom, using his Mastery over the Air element to slow his descent. Then he proceeded forward, wondering how all these fiends could nestle themselves so deep into areas. Then  he emerged into a large room, passing by another, yet smaller, house of cards and into another, smaller room, that was slanted upwards. He was at the bottom of a sheer drop, but one side of the walls was stone, so he used his Mastery of Earth to climb straight up that, realizing he was in some sort of castle turret, as he emerged inside it.

To his right there was a continuous wall that was a heavy, red curtain, like the one behind the apron of a stage. Then he passed by two rusted door shutters before making it to the fiend's nest. He saw the fiend appear into the room, as if he were a stage magician. The creature was roughly the size of a man with human-like eyes, with light gray sclera and brown irises, behind a structure like a magician's mask. The top of its head resembled a white top hat with a silver band, and the rest of its head was a dark orange. It had no mouth, just a metallic faceplate and golden ears. It had an inordinate bowtie-like growth around it's clavicle. Its chest was orange with two green switches on its back. It had a deck of inordinately large cards at it shoulders, black upper arms, white cuff-like lower arms with silver trim, and black hands with gold studs at the knuckles. It had sapphire blue orbs inset in its hands. It's abdomen was deep orange with four silver buttons, its thighs were black until the white-and-silver long-necked boot structures on its legs with silver knees and a small, spherical dark orange gem for a kneecap. It's feet were pointed and black. It carried a dark brown staff with silver trim and a dark orange orb atop it.

Upon seeing Cloak, the fiend dashed to the far side of the room. Cloak narrowed his eyes at this. The fiends weren't even smart enough for cowardice, usually. Cloak was standing in the center of the room, waiting to see whatever attack pattern this fiend had. It fired a magic card at Cloak, who sidestepped it easily. A card is an obvious and noticeable projectile -- especially when it was the size of a small poster board. Cloak wondered if this was the extent of this fiend's powers, just dashing around the room throwing magical constructs of cards.

Then it threw three magical orbs, one after the other, from its cane. Cloak just backhanded all three away, undeterred by them. Did it have anymore tricks up its sleeve? Short answer, apparently, was no. Time to end this.

Cloak sent wave after wave of aerokinetic slashes at the fiend. He essentially stun-locked the fiend, preventing the thing from counterattacking. It wasn't long before he . . . he took care of the fiend. With a swish of his Cloak, the Realm Walker left the abandoned carnival. He didn't even look back.

***

Demos called it a "majikkuman". Demos had created it for entertainment purposes, prestidigitation primarily, or so he claimed.

***

Malice was still reviewing the footage that she got of the Nazca Beasts, with this fight on in the background.