Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

I haven't read the manga, just seen the show.

[AniDragon]

I wasn't aware there was a manga. O_O

[Cloak]

I think it's were they show characters that weren't in the show, like Razorbeast and Torca and such.

[Underseen]

The manga is good so far, I was going to get some of the episodes on my phone after I finish the manga.

[Cloak]

Season Two and three are the better ones.  For the season one episodes . . . just go read Gaz's recaps of them.  Just a suggestion.  And a plug.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
You Shall Not Pass!

"What are they doing, exactly?" Blocky said, uncertain, as every demirevenant was going into a sort of circular dance around each other.

"Either the hokey poky or the Transyvanian twist." Rad said, dryly.

"I am starting to get a very bad feeling about this," Aquilai said, watching the "dance" with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"There's the kiss of death." Blaze muttered.

"My gut's tellin' me that they're gonna burst out in song any moment now," Sam said, blandly.

"They've no mouth to speak with," Aquilai said.

"Doesn't stop Andalites."

"Touche."

The RAFians waited for an attack . . . an attack that never came.

"C'mon, attack already!!" Blaze snarled impatiently, having his sword -- which was glowing bloodred -- at the ready.

"If they're not gonna attack, why don't we just ignore them and figure out how to lift this darkness," Aquilai said, practically.

"Guess we should," Dino said, shifting back to her compact form with ease and swiftness of an Animorph.  "Any ideas how, Doctor?"

"That's the other guy," Aquilai said quickly.

"I was making a joke." she said, turning around, as the other four followed suit.  Then the demirevenants swarmed around them, then wound up right in front of them again, doing that creepy dance again.

"That was odd." Rad commented.

"It's like they always have to be the center of our attention." Blaze said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"That can't be, though," Blocky contradicted, "because our attention was on Aquilai before."

"Then what could it be?" Sam asked.  He still had that subtle Green Lantern glow.

Aquilai's eye widened.  "They're trying to block us.  Impede our path.  Keep us here!"

"But why?" Dino asked, her shock causing her to balloon up to her true height.

"I . . . I . . . I can't say," Aquilai stuttered.

"You don't know." Rad offered sagely.  Aquilai gave her a dirty look, and if looks could kill . . .

"Or they are trying to delay us," Blaze postulated.  "Delay us from . . . something."

"The others!" Dino proclaimed.  "The others must be in dire circumstances, and these THINGS are preventing us from helping them!"

"We can't do an Unity Pulse, though!" Rad reminded them.  "The Marks aren't all glowy!"

"Besides, a Pulse wipes out the users energy, and in that time they could just re-multiply, and it would be all for naught!" Aquilai put in.

"So we sit here and do nothing?!" Blaze demanded.

"You have a better idea?" Sam asked.

"Yeah!" Blaze said, taking his sword and charging forward, "ATTACK!"

[Underseen]

I laughed more than I should have

[Cloak]

It was intended for some levity, Underseen.

(My blood is still boiling over that Action Replay business . . . maybe a chapter or two will cool it).

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Realm Walker Caged Match

Cloak folded his arms and glared at the two who seemed to enjoy making his life, as well as the lives of his friends, hell.  He spoke not a word, but held that icy-cold stare.

"So, what now?" Abomination asked.  "A throw-down, my lovely?"

Cloak hoped he was addressing Malice.

"Yes, I think so," Malice said, grinning a sinister smirk.  "He can't take the both of us."

"Please.  Abomination can't take on a prepubescent girl." Cloak snorted.  "He's not even a contender.  And you barely qualify yourself, Malice."

"Oh, please, boy," Malice said, waving his words away.  "You think such feeble words would ruffle my --"

"YOU KNOW THAT SHE WAS AN ELEMENTS MASTER!" Abomination exploded in uncontainable outrage.  "YOU KNOW THAT IF SHE HADN'T HAD SUCH POWERS SHE WOULD HAVE NEVER STOOD A CHANCE!!  I AM THE STRONGEST NON-MASTER THERE IS!!"

"Silence, love," Malice said, very firmly.  She knew that she was far stronger than Abomination, but not in Cloak's league, in terms of brute strength.  But she had more experience, and she had a certain irritating finesse.  "He's just trying to goad you into acting without thinking."

"He's . . . oh, right, right."

"By the Void, Abomination --"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"-- if you were any slower you'd have continental drift outpacing you."

"How dare you --"

"Yes, I dare.  You've brought us into this position, now just shut up and fight!" Cloak said, with uncharacteristicall y bloodthirsty tone.  Truth was, he was trying to hold back his emotions, to restrain them, but it was becoming more and more difficult just then.  He was barely preventing the energy from leaking out his eyes.  Malice seemed suspicious of this behavior, and eyed him wearily.

However, Abomination was painfully oblivous to this, and he charged forward, his dangerous hippo maw flashing.  But Cloak easily sidestepped the charge, and placed his hand on Abomination's back, and began to mirror his every change in direction.  Cloak found that this movement and action was lessening the pressure of his emotions.  It was because he was doing something to burn off that emotional energy -- or something.

"Where are you?" Abomination roared.  "Come here and fight like a man!"

"How 'bout you stop fighting like a mindless drone first?" Cloak said, deliberately giving away his position.

"Get over here!" Abomination snarled, when found that he couldn't reach Cloak.

"Nope, don't thinks so."

Malice was watching all this, but her face was blank and emotionless.  It was unclear whether she was amused or annoyed.  But in a few seconds it became clear when she irritatedly threw a blast of energy at Cloak, which missed.

"Enough of this," Malice said.

"Oh, you're gonna sully your own hands?"

"Oh, perish the thought." Malice said, seizing Abomination and Walking out of the universe.  Cloak realized what she was upto only mere seconds before she succeeded in escape.  Cloak's roar of anger and hatred reverberated throughout the very forum itself.

[Blazing Angel]

Fight scene, fight scene, really awesome fight scenes.

[Cloak]

. . . I can't tell if you're commenting or requesting, Blaze. . . .

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Phantoms of Darkness

"It's inexplicable," Ash was saying, touching the darkness.  "Some of these shadows seem to be intangible, like normal, while others . . ."

"Are as hard as a rock." Broken said, punching the shadow walls in anger, and immediately regretting such an action.

"The others could need us," Dameg said, concernedly.

<Well, looks like they'll have to make do without,> Russell said roughly.

"This doesn't make sense, though," Goom splurted.  "Shadows aren't supposed to be hard like that."

"So says the living, walking fungus," Empress Goose muttered.

"Goomba," Goom corrected, absently.  "But what's the purpose of dividing us like this?"

"Ever heard the phrase, 'divide and conquer'?" Broken posed rhetorically.  "That's what that kid did."

"He's not a kid," Ash reminded.  "There was something said about something possessing him.

"Never mind that now, guys." Empress Goose said, looking at their rear.  "We've got guests."

They all looked to were he indicated and saw a buttload of tenebrarevenants stare at them with their disproportionately large glowing red eyes.  The tenebrarevenants were eyeing them in a most discomforting way.

<I really don't like that look they're giving us,> Russell commented.

"Gives me the heebie jeebies," Empress Goose agreed.

Then six of the tenebrarevenants broke off from the others and began to circle a RAFian each, with movements rather akin to that of sharks finding prey.  The RAFians found themselves feeling quite ill.  But then a blinding blue flash illuminated the area briefly as the tenebrarevenants were flung a good distance away, starting to disintegrate.

"Oooh," Ash shivered.  "I just feel colder than the vacuum of space for a second there."

"What happened?" Broken asked.

"The Mark," Goom said, shivering himself.  "It sent them away."

"But why?" Dameg insisted.

"Can only think of one thing . . ." Goom said, now his shivering had nothing to do with cold.  "They tried to possess us."

<But . . .> Russell stuttered, <but . . . why would they want to possess us?  What purpose would it serve them?  We cannot escape from this shadow-lined cage.>

"I dunno, I don't have all the answers." Goom said, Mark glowing quite prominently on his head.  "But we best prepare ourselves, I doubt that this'll be the last attempt."

[Cloak]

'Nother chapter, methinks?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
AniDragon's Power

"Why are we still running?" Yunyun asked.

"I don't even know why we ran in the first place." Horse commented.

"It's because of that . . . that thing," Skymorpher said, "and you perfectly well know it."

Kelly pondered, "Is there any way to defeat him -- her, whatever?"

"I supposed if his, her, powers were stripped," AniDragon though aloud.

<But none of us have that power.> Noelle said.  <Andalites don't possess that kind of technology.  Nor do any species that I'm aware of.>

"It doesn't have to be tech," AniDragon replied quietly.  This lead to a small silence.

"AniDragon, what are you not telling us?" Kelly asked.

AniDragon said nothing, looking rather mollified.

"Stop holding out on us!" Horse said irritably.  "Talk, AniDragon.  Please."

AniDragon acted as if she was afraid to answer, but Noelle caught the gist of it.

<You have the power, don't you?  The power to take away Phaetos's influence?"

AniDragon sighed.

<That's it, isn't it?  I know that you've the power to boost pre-existing powers or jumpstart latent powers.  It's only natural that you'd also possess the ability to take them away.>

"It's not an ability I like using." AniDragon said, in a wary tone.  "And it doesn't always work, just like my boosting powers never work on Estelore or Cloak."

"They wouldn't want a boost," Horse commented.  "They both feel that they're sufficiently powerful as is."

Kelly spoke in a soften tone, "AniDragon, it's either use that ability on Phaetos, or be his, her, playthings for . . . well, I don't know exactly, but a long time, I'm sure."

AniDragon heaved a deep sigh, resigned to doing what she must, and steeling herself against what she knew must be a powerful will.  She didn't have to like it though.  "Okay, I'll give it my best shot."

In order for this to be successful, AniDragon's will, her mind and heart, must be unbendable and unbreakable.  So she continued to steel herself, when Phaetos came.

"What?  You don't run?" he, she, taunted.  "Where's the fun of that?"

<Fun?> Noelle taunted back on a sudden inspiration.  <I didn't think spirits knew of fun. . . . Perhaps your host-body is influencing your behavior more than you might like to think.>

With that, all levity faded quickly away from Harry's face.  "Mock me, will you?  You will pay for that, centauroid."

He, she, held out Harry's hand, and shadows began to swirl into the center of his palm, forming a basketball-sized ball of shadow.  But AniDragon took advantage of this momentary shift of attention, and pressed her right hand to his forehead, and her left to his chest.  Phaetos, oblivious to the nature of AniDragon's powers, looked amused.

"This body isn't old enough for that kind of behavior, girl," he, she, sneered.

But AniDragon ignored this, took a deep breath to steel herself some more.  Then her eyes glowed white, and white light appeared around both her palms.  There was a surge of energy, and Harry collapsed, unconscious to the ground.  But AniDragon didn't release her grip, as she no longer was touching Harry but Phaetos herself.

[AniDragon]

Oh hey, you made it like spirit-bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender! XD Awesome!

[Cloak]

Yep, AniDragon, that was my intent.  Oh, and apparently, the official term is "energy-bending".

Book's nearly done.  Just two more chapters to go.  Might be a long one, Chapter Nineteen.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Unity Prevails

AniDragon held fast to Phaetos who finally realized that AniDragon's powers were somehow sapping her strength.  She was able to leave the incarceration that was Harry's flesh, but she was not getting stronger, she knew.  She was getting weaker.

"Hold on, AniDragon!" Kelly encouraged.

<You can do this,> Noelle intoned.  <You MUST do this!>

"Go, AniDragon!" Horse cheered with Skymorpher and Yunyun.

***

Meanwhile, the demirevenants that were diverting Aquilai, Blaze, Blocky, Dino, Sam, and Rad simply vanished to the six's bewilderment.

"Wha . . ." Blaze said, mouth ajar.

"That was improbable," Aquilai said, equally aghast.

"Thanks for that, Spock," Sam replied, "but what just happened here?"

"Don't look at me," Dino replied.  "I'm in the dark, if you excuse the pun, as much as you all are."

Rad looked contemplative.  "Perhaps something happened to that spirit. . . . Perhaps, just perhaps, he, she, whatever, is losing her powers or her strength."

"Or both," Blaze interjected.

Then the six looked and saw that the shadow "walls" were weakening, liquefying.

"Well, I think that just supports your hypothesis, Rad," Aquilai commented benignly.

***

Cloak felt furious.

Yes, he felt anger and hatred towards Malice and Abomination, it's true.  But this fury was turned inward, towards himself.  He berated himself mentally for not seeing, not conceiving that they would Walk out of this trap.  Simply Walk out!!  He could follow them, sure.  But unlike the Fractured Realms, there are millions if not trillions of universes out there.  It would take a Dweller millennium just to check 'em all!  Another millennium just to be thorough!

But his self-loathing would not get him out of this bind.  He could not just leave his friends trapped in these tangible shadows.  However, he had no idea how to soften them, how to remove them.  He --

What's this?  The entire structure seemed to be melting into a molten, shadowy goo?  No, it was . . . vaporizing.  Somehow it was vaporizing!  But that could only mean that Phaetos was getting weaker, and Cloak could not imagine how that was occuring.  Unless . . .

"AniDragon . . . you can take away powers too." he muttered aloud.

He felt foolish for not realizing that.  He knew of her power-boosting abilities, naturally the reverse should be true.

***

The tenebrarevenants were still trying to possess Ash, Broken, Dameg, Russell, Goom, and Empress Goose, and failing due to the Mark's everlasting protection.  The six were actually kind of bored of the tenebrarevenants attempts now.

"You'd think they'd give up after the sixty-seventh time." Broken said, sitting, hand supporting his head.

<Sixty-seventh?> Russell said.  <I counted thirty-six.  I must have miscounted.>

"You know, at first, it was creepy.  After a while, it just got . . . pathetic." Empress Goose commented, airly.

"More irritating than pathetic, from my viewpoint," Ash muttered.

"Wish they'd just go away," Dameg said.

Suddenly, they were gone.  The six blinked in shock and surprise.  Then Broken, in one fluid motion, flew to his knees and clasped his hands together and said, very quickly, "I wish I had a million bucks.  I wish I had a million bucks.  I wish I had a million bucks."

Nothing happened.

"Well, it was worth a try!" Broken told the others defensively, as the walls began to congeal and vaporize.

***

The other RAFians found that their idyllic realities were beginning to become frail and collapse around them.  They started to remember what was true and what was fiction, and some of the weaker-willed just cried, missing their illusions.

***

Then the shadows that walled them in, collapsed into black, sooty smoke.  Then it was gone altogether, without leaving a single trace.  Only Cloak seemed to be undazed by the showy effect.  He saw AniDragon draining Phaetos, sealing her powers.  He knew this had to be putting a terrible strain on AniDragons heart, mind, and soul.

"Guys!  Focus!  AniDragon needs our support!  Our unity!" Cloak announced without taking his eyes of Phaetos, much like a skilled tiger would not take his eyes off of prey.  At Cloak's call, all the RAFians stood up in near unison, and stared at the two with an intensity matching Cloak's.  Their Marks started to glow . . . the Unity Beam was functional.

AniDragon finally released Phaetos, and stumbled away.  Her Mark too was glowing.  She could join in the Unity Beam, and by the determined, focused look she wore upon her face, she fully intended to.

Phaetos saw Harry's inert, unconscious form laying nearby, and she slowly, stumblingly, made her way to the flesh, hoping that it would rejuvenate her.  But Cloak, wordlessly, denied her this by projecting a golden-scarlet barrier that she could not pass through.

"Enough of this, Phaetos." Cloak said.  "We're gonna do what my ancestors, Guardian and Noble, should have done milennia ago."

"What?  You're their . . . of course . . . you're an Elements Master. . . ."

"Everyone," Cloak addressed the others, "together!"

And all the RAFians fired a massive Unity Beam at Phaetos, with a corkscrewing motion.  Then she shattered into nothingness, and the RAFians only NEARLY collapsed.

[Cloak]

Last chapter!  And probably the last chapter of the day.  Probably gonna be a short chapter.

Next book's gonna be Book XVI: Who's Who.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Back to the Normal Grind

After Phaetos was shattered, RAF returned to the normal insanity of which its inhabitants had became accustomed.  The post count rose in the threads, naturally.
The bored were playing games in the Bored Board.  RAFians were being greeted or being bid farewell in the Introductions & Departures thread.  Wild discussions and speculations and debates were going on all over the board.  This was how it should be, Cloak felt.

He had found a home here, whereas he didn't feel at home in the Nexus.  He felt isolated there, a freak of nature, shunned for what he was.  He never knew how his grandfather dealt with such things, but his grandfather was always a stronger Elements Master than he . . . and a much stronger person.  Cloak knew he could never measure up to the long shadow that Sage cast.

So he ran away.  Ran away from his problems, from his emotions, from his family.  He had always desired freedom . . . freedom from pain, from judgement, from neglect.  Then he found this forum, where he found good, supportive friends.  One could make the argument that they were every last bit as freakish as he was, but Cloak did not care.  For the first time since the Hatching of his neice, Shadow, impetuous little monkey that she is, he found happiness at RAF.  Contentment.  This is why he works so strenously to prevent it from being overrun from the likes of Malice, Abomination and the Banned.

He does not tell the others this, though.  He thought it might sound a little pathetic, although some do wonder why he almost never visits the Nexus, but for some, they suspect the truth, however.

Done with his musing, Cloak strode over to the Bored Board, to the word chain thread, seeing if he can come up with a word to stump Aquilai, who always uses element names in his posts.  Perhaps "maw", Cloak thought. I can't think of any element known to Realm Dwellers that starts with a "W".

***

Meanwhile, Malice and Abomination were striding about in a dimly lit room.  Abomination apparently was bring Malice information about Phaetos.

"She's gone," he was saying, "they fire that strange beam of light and killed her."

"Too bad," Malice said, without any sympathy.  "She was an entertaining one."

"What now, Malice?"

"We, ah, invent a . . ." she leaned and whispered into his small hippo ear, which Abomination had to bend over to do."

"Really?  How do we do that?"

"Oh, let me worry about writing it, dear." Malice said, with a dismissing wave of her hand.

"But how will it affect --"

"Oh, it'll be a very entertaining treat to watch, I should say," Malice said, not quite answering his question.  "Fanatics, especially this brand of fanatics, are so easily manipulated.  Once you've the right materials . . ."

Malice smirked and begun writing in a strange language. . . .

[Aquilai]

That's not a secret to others who have played There aren't any ... yet. Just keeping in line with the contemporary elements discovered by humans at this stage of their development ^^

[Blazing Angel]

First Last person to post, then word chain. Aquilai, are you planning on doing this with all of the games in the bored board?