Hey! j-Drive here, reporting from the deep cesspool of her polluted mind.
Seriously, one of my favorite characters is Ratchet (right after Iggy, of course), and I can't believe there are so few fanfictions surrounding him!
I mean, he's so f'ing awesome!
So, I'm creating this fanfic purely for the sake of my beloved Ratchet.
It's everything from his kidnapping to when he met Fang.
Read (hopefully), Enjoy (hopefully), and Review (hopefully), PLEASE! :)
DISCLAIMER: I am nowhere near awesome enough to own this awesome series
Chapter One
11-year old Ratchet woke up feeling like hell. He tried to reach for his throbbing forehead and realized his wrists were tied together behind his back. As awareness began to creep back in, he also realized he was gagged and in a large, dark container that was constantly bumping up and down. He was probably in a truck or something. His naturally sensitive ears picked up heavy breathing. One other person was with him, maybe two. He tried to sit up, but just the small movement brought daggers of pain down on his head. How the heck did I even get here? he thought, groaning behind the gag. He closed his eyes (though that made little difference) and tried to think back…
He'd gotten into another fight with mom. About his dad. He stormed outside, furious, hands jammed inside of his jacket pockets to keep out the pre-winter chill. Ratchet caught the sound of crackling foliage to his right and saw a guy in a white lab coat, walking around in the small forest next to their house. The bumbling scientist had looked so out of place in the sea of red, orange, and yellow. Ratchet held back a laugh, wiped his eyes of any remaining tears, and walked towards the seemingly lost man. Old leaves crunched underfoot as he made his way towards him. "Hey. Are you lost?" The scientist whirled around, nearly dislodging his round glasses. Ratchet snickered and shook his empty hands in front of him as a sign of peace. "No, really, I just want to help! I live around here. My name is... Ratchet." The false name had just popped up in his mind; he decided to use the name of a character from a cartoon he'd used to watch as a kid. No sense to give a complete stranger his real name.
"No, it's fine," the scientist said, a little flustered. "Really, all I came here for was a specimen."
"A specimen? Cool! Is it for like an experiment or something?"
"Yes, actually. And I think you'll do."
"What?" Ratchet hadn't understood what he'd said until another man from behind snuck up on him and locked his arms to his side with a steel one-handed bear hug. The man clapped his hand over Ratchet's mouth before Ratchet could think to scream.
"Yes, I think you'll do just fine." the scientist smiled as he pulled out a syringe full of cloudy liquid out of his coat. Ratchet's eyes widened and he struggled uselessly. The scientist jabbed it into the soft flesh of Ratchet's arm and plunged the contents into his bloodstream. Ratchet's limbs seemed to die on him when a fog crept into his mind, blocking out all rational thought as he fell unconscious…
Ratchet opened his eyes slowly. He tried to force the prickly oncoming tears to stay back, but they one managed to fall out, sliding down his cold cheeks and sinking into the rough cloth of the gag. Once the first one squeezed out, a dam seemed to break, and he couldn't stop crying, his sobs quiet and muffled.
"Are… are you okay?" The unexpected sound of another person's voice broke into his grief, making him look up and squint through the darkness. With his innately clear vision he could make out the face of a young girl as old as him. He tried to answer but his reply was incoherent. "Here, Reina here has a knife- she'll cut off your restraints." A taller girl who looked 17 or so walked in next to him and took out a small penknife. At first, he tried to shy away, but it became evident the older girl knew what she was doing and didn't have any intention to gut him. She carefully sawed away at the gag, then at the cloth bounding his hands and ankles together. When she was done, she rubbed away the tears on his cheeks with an expressionless face, peering into his eyes. Ratchet looked away, not wanting to meet her intense, dark gaze.
"It's going to be okay," she said finally, her voice gentle and low, smoothing his dark-red brown hair down. The gesture was so kind and comforting Ratchet couldn't help but break down again, sobbing into Reina's thin shirt.
"Who is that?" Ratchet stopped crying to look up at a tall boy around Reina's age, emerging into Ratchet's line of vision.
"It's just another boy," Reina said, pocketing her knife. "They took him, too." The boy nodded, as if he understood everything that was happening.
"Is that it?" the younger girl who'd first found Ratchet asked.
"It's just us four," the boy replied, ruffling his sleek jet-black hair. His brows were furrowed in concentration and worry. "Guys, listen close," he murmured, making all of them lean in closer. His charismatic aura of control and natural leadership immediately made him the person in charge. "They can't leave us in here forever. When they open the truck, don't care about anything, just run away as fast as you can. Don't stop for anything, don't look out for anyone else. Just worry about yourself and your main objective is to get the hell away from these creeps. Okay?"
Ratchet nodded, absorbing what the older boy said. He spent the next half-hour or so planning his getaway, reviewing what would happen and playing out different scenarios. He had to be quick. He had to be careful. He had to escape.
He must have dozed off or something, because he was awakened by the little girl. She put her finger to her lips, and Ratchet noticed the distinct sensation of the truck slowing down.
"Get ready," the boy whispered, crouching like a sprinter at the starting line. Reina took out her knife, and the little girl pushed herself against the side of the truck right in front of the opening. Ratchet got ready to run, bending down low. The truck stopped, and the driver got off, making the truck lift up a considerable two inches.
Something creaked, and Ratchet was only temporarily blinded by the bright light that came in when the driver opened the back.
"GO!" the boy screamed, leaping forward. Ratchet was close behind, instinctively shielding his eyes from the outside light.
"Hey!" There were about 15 white-clad scientist people surrounding the back of the truck, but the older boy had just them aside to make room, aggressively shoving them away. They had parked in a desert-like area, maybe in Arizona or Nevada. There was nowhere to hide, nothing but empty land. He heard the older boy swear, but they all continued running. Ratchet could hear Reina and the other girl panting behind him. The scientists were yelling, shouting orders.
Then, a shot rang out.
The older boy fell, clutching his left side underneath his ribs. He cried out, and the momentum of his sprint sent him rolling several feet before he skidded to a stop, half-conscious. Ratchet almost slowed down.
Almost.
Reina gasped, screaming, "Ben!" She stopped and ran back to the older boy, kneeling by him, pressing her hands to his wound. Another shot rang out and Ratchet cried out as a bullet painfully grazed his thigh, burning like hell. A motorcycle drove up to where he was and the driver leveled a shotgun at his forehead.
"Take another step and die where you stand."
Consumed by fear, he froze, tears streaking down his dirty face. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Reina and Ben were handcuffed and tied, and the little girl was in the same situation as him.
He let the man swing him up painfully onto the motorcycle and drive him back. Bitter anger and frustration welled up inside of him.
"You thought you could run away?" the man yelled laughing cruelly. "There isn't any other civilization in the next 10 miles!" They all met up behind the barbed wire fence surrounding the large, sand-colored building.
An imposing woman with her long blonde hair tied up in a high pony-tail strode up to face them from across the fence, tapping in a code to make a section of it to slide away. The "scientists" pushed Ratchet off the motorcycle and dumped him on the other side, along with the little girl, Reina, and Ben.
"Welcome," the blonde woman said, adjusting her red horn-rimmed glasses, "to the School."