First Flight

[theyoungphoenix]

Oh crap!! I think I know what it is!! I won't post it though so that I don't ruin it for everyone else.

[redtailedsaffa]

No duh, it's very obvious. And just to prove the point, here's the next chapter.

Chapter Fifteen

“Hork-Bajir in the forest?” Saffa spluttered.

It was dinner, rotis – the school’s signature bulletproof version – with two insipid curries (spinach and chicken), and Saffa, Rose and Austin were sitting aside at a table in the far back. Rose was invisible, having finished her dinner early, so as not to make the gathering look suspicious. And as for Saffa and Austin, a good proportion of the school had figured they were an ‘item’ now – which meant Saffa got even more dirty looks from the groupies. But hey, what could they do other than soak, wallow, and do the backstroke in jealousy?

“Oh, come on. You couldn’t miss it. Seven feet tall? Blades all over the place? Dinosaur head? You’d know immediately if you’ve read the books,” Austin argued.

 “Except you wouldn’t possibly expect to see one in the real world,” Saffa said. “But then, I live in the crazy one. What the devil were they doing in our woods anyway?”

“Sampling the bark?” Rose offered. Saffa stared at her. “Seriously speaking? I have no idea. Dunno why you’re asking me. But are these free Hork-Bajir or Controllers? You said you’ve found both on RAF.”

“We’ll know only if we get up close to them,” Saffa said. “But I think it’s been established that these guys are from RAF. Of course, there’s nowhere else they can come from,” she added as an afterthought.

“So then what? We go after them?” Austin asked.

“I’m not coming,” Rose said. “I have a Civics paper to do. Basically, pure fiction slathered with the right amount of bull.”

“Fine, then, don’t come, because we are going,” Saffa declared. She turned to Austin. “Are you sure you’re up for this? They can do real bad damage.”

“Hey, I’m an army man. If there’s a fight, I’m there,” Austin said, grinning. “I’ll get my shredder.”

Saffa went back to her dorm after dinner again and checked her PMs to find that Underseen had replied:
     Hey, just saw your PM. I hope you’re okay, don’t let those dreams bug you out too much. They must be trying to say something. BTW, Aquilai told me to tell you that he reported two unknown signatures leaving RAF somewhere in Asia, close to where your school is. Best be on the lookout for trouble.

Saffa quickly replied:
     That would be a couple of Hork-Bajir, we saw them in the woods today. Probably Price’s handiwork. I’m going after them, will catch up soon.

If I manage to make it back, that is, she thought.

Later, at around ten in the night, as agreed, she stole out of the girls’ block through the back staircase in her morphing outfit – a dark green leotard. Thank goodness for a camouflaging colour.

Austin was already waiting for her at the edge of the woods, shredder slung over his shoulder. “Nice outfit,” he said.

Saffa laughed. “It was the only thing I could find that blended in. Come on, let’s get this done with.”

They crossed over into the thick forest cover, squinting to try and see something – a flashlight would’ve attracted too much attention, including that of the nosy warden of the boys’ block, so they had decided not to bring one. The little light came from cracks made by gaps in the tree cover and from a weird kind of moss that grew on trees here and there and glowed in the dark.

Austin frowned. “I don’t see – “ He stopped. “Oh. Holy. Crap.”

They had reached the electric fence – which had been ripped up in an area, one of the poles lying on the ground and the fence torn, leaving a gaping hole safe enough for a grown man to pass over.

“Wonder how Price is gonna explain that?” Saffa wondered. “’Coz a student, even a teacher, cannot possibly do that much damage.”

“That’s his headache – anyway, it means they’ve gone this way.” Austin took a look beyond the broken fence and gulped. “Into the reserved forest.”

Saffa smirked. “Are you telling me you’re scared of going in there?”

That was not the face Austin wanted to put in front of a lady. “Of course not,” he said firmly. “Chalo. Let’s go.”

They gingerly stepped over the fence – thankful that nothing happened – and ventured deeper inside, into parts of the wood that they hadn’t seen before. Saffa went over towards the left of a huge teak and looked around. “I can’t find them, Austin,” she said.

No answer.

“Uh, Austin?” she called. “Where did you disappear?”

Still no answer.

She turned to her right to find no one behind her – that is, until she spotted Austin
crouching about ten metres away, behind a tree. He had a look of absolute horror on his face.

“What is with you?” she said impatiently. “You found the Hork-Bajir or what?”

“N-no,” Austin stammered. “S-something else found you.”

Saffa turned – and froze. She stared right back into cold, calculating yellow eyes. Right at the almost glowing orange fur with black stripes.

Large as life, right out of the newspaper article she had read just a few days ago (and happily chose to ignore), was a Royal Bengal tiger. It was clearly rather pissed at having its habitat breached. And having been woken up.

Okay, she thought. Stay calm. It can sense your fear. And no sudden movements.

Saffa slowly took a step backward. Her foot cracked a twig. And with a graceful, liquid leap into the air, the tiger charged.

[theyoungphoenix]

Oh crap!! And again, I'm left with a cliff hanger.... You and Cloak have a really bad habit of doing that....

[Underseen]

You know what they say about Cliff Hangers, cuz I don't.

[redtailedsaffa]

Why thank you, Abby.

No, I don't, Underseen, which is probably why I like writing them. Okay, Abby, you can pull yourself off that cliff now, because here's the next chapter.

 

Chapter Sixteen

Saffa ducked at the last second, purely out of instinct, and rolled over as the tiger arced over her and landed between her and Austin. It looked positively enraged now, and Saffa was lying in the dirt, scared s***less.

What could she do? She couldn’t kill the tiger (she didn’t want to anyway), or the Forest Department would be after her. Even wounding it would cause some suspicion. The fear was blocking her ability to think, and now the tiger was circling her, perhaps as a signal that this new, helpless prey was his…

“Saffa! MORPH!” Austin yelled from behind the tree. It caused a distraction: the tiger ****ed his head upwards, looking for the source of the disturbance. And now Austin was in trouble – the tiger might recognize him as another predator.

But it gave Saffa the time she needed. Feathers began to sprout from her skin.

The tiger approached the tree, slowly, cautiously. Austin decided to try something stupid – a well-known battle tactic in the face of fear. “OwwoooOOOOoo!” he howled.

<What the hell, man?!> Saffa said, fully hawk now. She rose up in the air, flapping hard to get altitude in the dead night air.

“Ggggggrrrrraaaawwwrrrr!” the tiger roared back. It was an unbelievable noise that made Austin nearly sink to the ground and drop his shredder and threw Saffa backwards in the air.

<Oh, brilliant, Bear Grylls. Now you’ve made him think you’re a threat!>

But Austin was just standing there behind the tree, completely paralyzed, as the tiger bared its teeth and strode towards him.

Saffa would’ve frowned if she had a forehead. Good Lord, she had to do something! And then an idea came to her. It was insane, reckless, and totally out of Rachel’s handbook. But it was the only thing she could think of.

She pulled into a dive and hurtled towards the tiger. “Tseeeeeer!” she screamed.

The tiger whipped its head around just as Saffa landed, talons outstretched, on the tiger’s back. The tiger let out a discontented roar – but began to quieten down and droop.

“What are you doing?!” Austin hollered.

<Acquiring the tiger. Now GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!> she ordered. Austin happily obliged. Saffa followed him into the forest once she was done, leaving the tiger to try and figure out what happened.

She went ahead to find Austin crouched behind another tree. <What now?>

“Like the tiger wasn’t enough,” Austin whispered and pointed into the thicket. He was right – you couldn’t miss it. Standing there were two tall, intimidating Hork-Bajir. Right out of the books. The trees next to them had a layer of bark missing.

<So they must’ve gotten hungry. Could these be normal Hork-Bajir, then?> Saffa wondered.

She got her answer, for, at that moment, Austin chose to sneeze.

The Hork-Bajir jerked at the sound of the noise. It was only then that Saffa noticed the Blue Bands on their forearms. “Who’s there?” one said, in perfect English and a raspy voice.

“Controllers, all right,” Austin said. “What do we do now – oh. Whoa. That is beyond weird.”

He was looking at the sight of a red-tailed hawk with its feathers melting into orange fur, growing larger all the time. The beak softened and flattened to form a snout. Talons grew outwards and turned to legs, and two more appeared just as the stripes drew themselves on the fur. The long tail came last.

“This is like Life of Pi,” Austin muttered. “Now all I need is a boat and some water.”

The tiger growled at him, baring its teeth. One of the Hork-Bajir registered the noise. “I know you’re in there, Andalite!”

Austin looked nervously at the tiger. “Saffa. Saffa, control the morph! We are in a situation here. Take control. It’s me. Austin.”

<What the – oh, man! Hate it when that happens.> Saffa shook her tiger head, a very human gesture. <Hey, these tiger eyes can see. I see the Hork-Bajir clearly now. Very cool. I’ve always wanted a battle morph.>

Saffa was indeed enjoying the morph. She could feel the strength running through every inch of her body, like liquid steel. Her muscles felt like springs that could lift her effortlessly any time she wanted. Right now, her focus was on the Hork-Bajir. She could feel the killing instinct – They’re invading my space. Kill. Remove.

She leapt for the nearest Hork-Bajir, who had clearly not seen it coming and was thrown to the ground at once. His Dracon beam clattered to the ground as she made an almighty slash across his flank. “RrrraaawwrrRR!” she roared in warning.

TSEEEWW!! The other Hork-Bajir fired. She dodged nimbly out of the way. Missed!

TSEEEWW!! Shredder fire this time! “Aaaargh!” the Hork-Bajir yelled. A stump was where his right hand should’ve been.

The second Hork-Bajir scrambled to his feet and slashed through the air. Austin hit the ground. His elbow was bleeding.

<Are you all right?>

“I’m fine!” Austin yelled and fired again. He fried a bunch of leaves.

The Hork-Bajir slashed again, this time making a gash dangerously close to Saffa’s neck. <Ahhh!!>

“Die, Andalite!” he yelled. The other Hork-Bajir looked at him. “You idiot! Don’t kill her. Kill the human if you want. But she is the visser’s responsibility.”

That made Saffa stop for a second. <Visser? What visser?>

“Visser Twenty-One. He is on Earth and he wishes to destroy you,” the Hork-Bajir replied calmly. “He offered us promotions in exchange for bringing him the Andalite bandit. Which is you.”

Saffa thought for a while. <Hey, Yeerk. Answer me. Is your visser’s host body a human by the name of Adrian Price?>

The Hork-Bajir stumbled backward in shock. “How do you know all this!”

Saffa took advantage of the distraction to leap at the Hork-Bajir, teeth bared, and ripped a chunk out of his flank. <You’ll believe anything for a promotion, won’t you?> she said as he dissolved.

“Saffa! Behind you! Duck!” Austin yelled suddenly. She ducked just as an arm blade swept within inches of her head. <Oh, crap! Thanks, Austin!>

“Watch it!” Austin yelled in reply. The Hork-Bajir came back for another swipe. He got her in the chest. <Oh, God!>

“No!” Austin yelled. Saffa’s head was spinning. All she could see was her own blood around her… Demorph! she urged herself. Come on! Slowly, but surely, she could see pink flesh appearing in place of the bloody fur.

The Hork-Bajir hovered over Austin, who fired – and missed. He was just about to say a final prayer when –

“AAUUGH!” the Hork-Bajir yelled suddenly. A hole appeared in his chest, and then, an iron rod materialized in the hole. Austin stood flabbergasted. “Huh?”

The Hork-Bajir staggered and swiped at thin air. “What is this!” he yelled hoarsely.

Saffa got up just as her tiger snout withered and reformed to form her human face. She watched the scene in equal amazement – then ducked as the Hork-Bajir swung his bladed tail towards her.

From somewhere behind her, a voice cackled, “You’re never gonna catch me! You’re never gonna catch me! I-killed-Sirius-Black! Ah-ha-ha-haa!”

Saffa turned round and stared at a tree in disbelief. “Rose?!”

“Aw, damn. I was hoping to go with Bellatrix Lestrange,” Rose said. “But yes, it is I, here in the flesh – not that you can see it – and here to save the day. Whoa!” she added as the Hork-Bajir swung at the tree she was standing next to. But its back faced Saffa – who, quick as a machine gun, swept a round of diamonds into its back. “Take that!” she crowed. The Hork-Bajir slid to the ground.

“Hey, don’t leave me out,” Austin said, coming up with shredder aimed. TSEEEWW!!

The Hork-Bajir dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind a couple of burned branches, a broken electric fence and three tired, battle-worn teenagers.

[theyoungphoenix]

Uh oh.  A visser?

[redtailedsaffa]

Nope, no visser. That was just a false identity to lure those guys over, as it slipped out. Well, I'm posting now, but there's a match on, very important one... I'll see if I can squeeze a chapter into the 2-minute "strategic timeout" (which is really just another window to get a load of annoying commercials in).

EDIT: Got caught during the timeout chatting with this annoying classmate of mine, but here's the chapter anyway.

Chapter Seventeen

   
“Hey, listen to this,” Jason said as he read the newspaper at the breakfast table. A few days had gone by since their skirmish in the woods with the Hork-Bajir, but Saffa, Rose and Austin hadn’t encountered anything out of the ordinary in that time. Now, on a breezy Sunday morning, with the Board Practical Exams a few days off, they were sure they could afford to take some time off from looking, at least for that day.

Jason continued reading the article he was looking at out loud to his little audience. “A portion of the electric fence, you know, the one that cuts off the reserved forest from the school grounds? Well, they found it damaged. Like, really damaged. A freakin’ pole was ripped clean out of the ground!”

Abhay gave a low whistle. Austin stuffed his mouth with idli – which had made a grand comeback – so as not to give his voice away as he said, “Wonder who could’ve done that?”

“They could’ve used a machine,” Peter suggested.

“Bull, man. How do you get a JCB or something into that forest without knocking half of it down?”

“Maybe it’s killer aliens who’ve taken over Godzilla,” Abhay said with a grin. Saffa and Austin, sitting next to each other, gave each other the slightest wink.

“Just tell me they’re putting the fence back up,” Saffa said. “I mean, there’s supposed to be a tiger in there.” She said this with considerable ease, having practiced lying on a much more regular basis than Austin.

“Oh, they’re putting it back up, all right,” Jason said. “Although they’ll have a much harder time figuring out who or what did it.”

“Knowing how Indian systems work, they’ll put it back up within a month. I mean, they took this long to notice the pole’s actually been ripped up,” Saffa told Austin as they left the dining hall together. “So what are you up to today?”

Austin groaned. “Don’t remind me. I have to sit the whole morning with Mrs. Andrews for extra revision because of that 20 percent on the last pre-board exam.” He groaned again. “A whole damn day of math!”

“Wow, I pity you,” Saffa said soothingly. “I have absolutely nothing to do. Guess I’ll roam around a bit. If you know what I mean.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Austin said, winking, as he left her to head to the classroom for his Math drill.

Saffa went to her dorm, locked it from the inside, and plugged in her dongle. Her Chemistry study partner, Sonal, was supposed to have sent her a bunch of sample question papers to her by email, so she logged into Yahoo! and opened her email account.

The question papers were there all right, but also, amid the advertisements and mail notifications from Facebook, Twitter and RAF, was a mail from a certain Adrian Price.

Saffa froze. She didn’t know if she should open the mail – what if it had a Trojan or something embedded that had flummoxed Norton and gotten through? The title of the mail, though, was ‘This is not spam’. It looked like the guy had a twisted sense of humour. Saffa decided to risk it and clicked on the mail anyway.

The mail was rather long. It read:

        Didn’t take me very long to find your email ID – creating a website of my own and glitching to Yahoo! certainly helped. If you’re reading this, it means you outsmarted my Controller friends. Very good indeed. Oh, but it’s not over yet; I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. Perhaps on my website – but for that, you’ll have to find out what it is. And I don’t give details that easily.
       That was Lewis’s problem, which is clearly why he wants me to do his work. After all, we’re both after the technology. You RAFians don’t realize the things you can do with it. Lewis wants you to know that he still hates you and England deserves to be number one no matter what the sport. Maybe he can meet you at CSA again. That would be too good to be true.

Saffa stared at the screen for a few seconds and then closed the tab showing the mail. It did give away three things: a) he had his own site, and therefore had to be stopped from accessing teleporting technology at all costs; b) he was right when he said ‘not giving details easily’; and c) the man did not know how to write a proper email, even working in a computer firm.

“So, he thinks this is funny,” Saffa muttered to herself as she shut down the laptop.

“Oh, it’s not funny. It’s hilarious, at least when you look at it right,” a shrill voice said suddenly.

Saffa stiffened. She recognized the voice from her dream – one which was a regular occurrence these days.

She turned round slowly to regard the thing standing in front of her closed door. It had a vaguely humanoid shape; two legs and a stubby tail, with dark, wrinkled flesh, a narrow lower jaw and wide, laughing eyes, all rimmed green.

Saffa’s expression darkened as she recognized the owner of the voice. “Get out of my room,” she told the Drode in a low, threatening tone.

“Oh, no, that won’t be necessary. And neither will that,” it said, gesturing at the large, sharp diamond in Saffa’s hand.

“Oh, you think? I’ll tell you what I – " Saffa stopped. She watched the Drode, who was still looking at the diamond. Then it began to laugh – a cackle, almost. Saffa could only wish that her doors were soundproof.

“Oh, it’s truly hilarious!” the Drode gasped in between laughs. “You plan to hit me with that? The very product of the work of a meddling fool!”

“It hurts, you know. And you are pissing me off,” Saffa said coldly.

“Oh, I know it hurts. In ways you will come to know. That should never have happened,” the Drode said. It looked at Saffa, eyes wide. “Poor birdie. Don’t you remember anything?”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” Saffa said. “But that’s not the point. What do you want?”

“Ask Lewis Miller,” the Drode said. “He knew what he wanted. And I offered it to him. He’s such a good boy, you know. Unlike you.”

“You told him to go after RAF?!” Saffa spluttered.

“Well, he wanted it. So I told him to go get it,” the Drode said simply. “It would’ve worked out. He had a brainwave. But you came along and spoilt it all. Bad little hawk,” it taunted, wagging a finger at Saffa. “Some things should never be erased.”

She smiled smugly. “I’m going to spoil it this time, too. Wait and watch.”

“How do you know? As far as I’m concerned one of you is going to end up dead if you take that route,” the Drode said warningly.

“You can’t predict anything.”

The Drode grinned a half-evil-half-mischievous grin at Saffa. “Can’t I?”

“No, you can’t,” Saffa said firmly. She gripped her diamond harder.

“I can help you avoid that, though,” it said. “Just do my good master Crayak a favour. He’s not really amused with the rise of RAF. It poses a threat.”

“So what, you want me to kill Richard or something?” Saffa’s eyes blazed.

“Any of the most powerful members would be enough. Come on, you know how big they’ve become. They are the new Big Jakes. And you’re an unimportant little newbie,” it said ****ily. It looked at Saffa with expectation in its big eyes. “That’s all you need, to stay alive. Miller is a greater adversary than you think.”

“One life for nearly hundreds?” Saffa spat. “Over my dead body.”

“It’s even more hilarious that you should say that,” the Drode cackled, before vanishing into thin air.

[Underseen]

India seems so fun according to this story.

[theyoungphoenix]

yep^^

Stupid Drode.... Making everything difficult.....

[redtailedsaffa]

India seems so fun according to this story.

Everyone does what they like, the law is thrown out the window, the politicians are so incompetent it drives you crackers and my state gets its revenue from alcohol stores - but if you look beyond all that and take life with your mates, you can have some real fun in this country. (It's only when you grow up and become an independent adult that all those factors come into play - but hey. I'm still young. It's all good. )

[redtailedsaffa]

Okay, we've had too long a break. New chapter - and things are getting serious.

 

Chapter Eighteen

It was a few days after Saffa’s untimely visit from the Drode, the only unwanted event in an increasingly normal time, as January turned into February and the twelfth-graders soon found themselves preparing in a frenzy for their practical exam part of their finals. While Austin pored and fretted over his lab records, Saffa, who had a much quicker brain, mostly helped him out learning and prayed she wouldn’t break anything on the day.

It was right in the middle of the Chemistry practical that the call came. The class was busy staring at their burettes filled with potassium permanganate as it drip-drip-dropped into the stuff in the conical flask below, impatiently waiting for the stuff to turn pink, when Mr. Patil interrupted them by barging into the lab unannounced.

“Austin, could you come down to the principal’s office, please,” he said.

Austin froze. What on earth had he done now? But Mr. Patil’s face didn’t really betray any sign that he was in trouble; rather, it looked somewhat worried. He walked to the doorway, feet suddenly feeling like they were made of lead. Mr. Patil whispered something to the Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Agarwal, and left with Austin. “Good luck, son,” he whispered to the boy as he left. That made Austin feel even more terrified.

In the lab, everyone was discussing in hushed tones what Austin could have possibly done, when Mrs. Agarwal called out in her clear tone, “Quiet, please. This is an exam hall.” Her face looked grave. Everyone shut up.

“Would you please turn off your burettes for a while,” she continued, “and take a minute’s silence to pray for Austin. His father passed away yesterday.”

*                  *                    *

Austin didn’t return for the exam, or lunch, or even past revision hour, so Abhay went to the principal to obtain the necessary details, which he did soon enough, and related to the grim bunch of Saffa, Jason and Peter after dinner in the common-room.

Austin’s dad had been going about his usual patrol duty along the Line of Actual Control (LOC) in Kashmir when a stray bullet brought him down, he said. All it took was that one bullet right in the chest. No one knew who fired it – militant or soldier, Indian or Pakistani; but all that didn’t matter to his wife, posted further inland as a radio officer with the same unit. She’d got an Army-sponsored airlift all the way down south so she could inform her only son.

The funeral was to be tomorrow, he said, and Austin would be at his hometown – the same as Saffa’s – for the next two days. He’d take the Chemistry practical after he returned, and would finish everything just in time for the first Board exam, English, on March 1st.

The four of them listened to all this in solemn silence. They had all known how much Austin had idolized his dad, who was the reason behind Austin’s own ambition to serve in the Army someday. His life would never be the same.

They soon got over it through the next two days, going about their exam preparations albeit with a still, hanging air – partly due to the tension of the finals and partly due to Austin’s plight.

Saffa found herself facing a new problem – that of having nothing to do. Sure, she had to study, but the first exam was English and that was a joke. Rose was busy with her own exams, and if Austin were here, she could at least discuss the issue and plot further moves – no one else knew her secret. But he wasn’t. And it was annoying.

She decided to take her mind off it, and knew just the way to do so. After she locked her dorm door, she looked up, down, in all directions to make sure she wasn’t being watched, then logged into RAF. A PM from Seal greeted her:

        Hope you’re doing all right, Saffa. Say, that monster you described to Aquilai? I think I’ve seen a similar sort somewhere in the Bannedlands. And we reported a signature missing from there today, so you better be ready for anything. I really wish we could help, but there’s no way yet for us to get over there. Take care!

The Bannedlands? Jeez, where else could this guy get to? And HOW was he getting new horrors to get out of there? Saffa decided to find out for herself. She hit Alt+L.

Once she was in RAF, and could see the familiar blue-and-white buildings looming in the distance, she spotted Nate and Underseen playing cards under a tree, in the shade from Estelore’s bright-as-ever sun. They looked up to see who had arrived, and grinned.

“Well, if it isn’t Saffa the Hork-Bajir Slayer,” Nate said. “Sheesh, you’ve been doing a lot and we’ve just been sitting around useless!”

“You won’t be anymore, that’s for sure,” Saffa said as she approached them. “Because Sir Price already has his own site.”

The two of them stood up and dropped their cards. “How come you didn’t tell us this before?” Underseen asked.

“Because I heard about it only like two days ago. The man sent me an email. And then, you’ll never guess who decided to visit me,” Saffa said, all in one breath.

“He sent you an email?” Underseen said.

“Who visited you?” Nate said at about the same time.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. One at a time,” Saffa said. Then she thought for a while. “How about we call a meeting of whoever’s here right now? They can tell everyone who’s offline later. At best, they need to be aware of the situation. Because it’s not really a good one.”

[Underseen]

I can't wait to see more action from Austin.

[theyoungphoenix]

Poor Austin... *sits in corner to wait while Saffa posts next chapter*

[redtailedsaffa]

Wait no longer, for I have the next. Needed to consult Rose a bit on this one, since I am essentially criticizing myself.

Chapter Nineteen

Everyone who was around – a bare fraction, really, of RAF’s total population – brought a chair and gathered in the central grassy area. Saffa looked around. Apart from Nate and Underseen, the usual crowd was around – Phoenix, Aquilai, Steph, Seal, Cloaky, Goom, Blaze, Estelore, Dino, Gaz, Blue, Parker, Tony, and a few others Saffa knew from here and there, all in their usual RAFian forms.

“The more the merrier,” Saffa said to herself. She hesitated a little, before finally speaking.

“Ahem. As you all are probably aware of by new, Lewis Miller is back on the scene with plans to take over the forum, and he’s doing this through his colleague, Adrian Price, since he can’t come to India. And pretty much the only reason he’s taking me out first, is because I’m just a bit isolated. Oh, and there’s also the very trivial matter of him wanting to kill me,” she added sarcastically.

<Why, exactly?> Dino asked.

“Because I busted him out when he first came here, so it seems. But we’ll get to that part later. Right now, what you need to know is that Price has his own site and is already using it to go places. That’s how he found out my email ID, but was gracious enough not to hack into it. He couldn’t have even if he wanted to, though,” she added as an afterthought.

“So how do we know which site he’s operating from if he won’t tell us himself?” Parker this time.

“Very good question. Unfortunately we don’t have an answer to that as yet,” Saffa replied glumly. “I guess we’ll just have to intercept him on our own. Aquilai is tracking his online movements, though.”

“Once he gets online I’ll know the site he’s on and hopefully be able to take it down,” Aquilai said, taking Saffa’s cue. “Goom, you’re with me on this, right?”

The goomba ****ed his head at the Time Lord. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Moving along, now,” Phoenix called out.

“Yeah. Okay. So I’ll tell you the Lewis Miller story now. Two days ago I had a little surprise gatecrashing in my dorm courtesy the Drode – “

There was an outbreak of excited murmuring at this, until Phoenix rapped on the back of his chair and called for order. “Go on, Saf.”

“Yeah. So, according to the Drode, he was the one who prompted Miller to get back to RAF, steal the Dracon beams… and you know the rest.”

“Why on earth…?” Steph began.

“Simple. Because he wanted RAF. And that’s what Crayak wants, too. We’re not exactly his favourite bunch of people, that’s rather obvious. So he finds a tool for the job, perfectly suited for his intentions, he’ll use it, all right.”

“Oh, great!” Blue complained. “Like we didn’t have enough crap to deal with. Now Crayak, too?”

“Actually, you should’ve seen that coming,” Cloaky said matter-of-factly.

“And as far as I’m concerned, he’s not the real problem. You know he works in the background unless really necessary. It’s the foreground things he does, like Lewis Miller, you’ve got to worry about,” Saffa supplied.

“Saffa has a point,” Underseen said, speaking up for the first time. “Now we need to hear why he’s after you.”

“Ah. That.” Saffa hesitated, uncertain. “Why don’t you take it from there? I’m gonna
sound like I’m bragging.”

“Sure,” Underseen said, then went on to explain what really happened when a bunch of the mods chased Miller to Google. No one said anything as he spoke, just listened intently.

Saffa stood silently behind Underseen. She had dreaded this moment. It was her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look like a complete idiot, a total noob, and here it was. Ta-daa. Drumroll, please.

After he was done, the same awkward silence persisted, making Saffa feel seriously uncomfortable. She noticed a feather tattoo start drawing itself on her left hand. Then Seal waddled up to her.

“Good going, girl,” she said. “You know it’s actually useful to have a brain around?”

“Hey, don’t diss my superior intelligence,” Blaze protested. Everyone laughed, Saffa included. She felt infinitely relieved.

“Uh, no one’s mad at me, right? If you are, come on out. I can take it,” Saffa said, smiling in spite of herself.

“No one is mad at you,” Phoenix said, putting his arm on Saffa’s shoulder and making her recoil from the heat. “In fact, what you did was pretty brave, going after him yourself when none on us was around.”

“Really?”

<Really. Though, next time, it would be nice to drop us a hint,> Dino said with a slight grin in her thought-speak voice.

Saffa laughed. “Oh, I definitely will. Seeing as next time is probably gonna be very soon,” she added darkly.

Everyone got up and milled around, letting the laughter ease the tension. Which was probably the best thing to do.

“Okay, everyone, to the GESB. Drinks are on me!” Tony yelled.

Yes, there was an encounter with a dangerous, demented enemy up ahead, but it wasn’t anytime now; now, being all together, was just a time to regroup not just as RAFians, but as friends. It was this bond, Saffa noticed, that always brought them together in the face of fire, and made them formidable. And no one, not even Lewis Miller, could try and break that apart.

[Underseen]

I smell character defilement coming up.