Alright, everyone! Welcome to the start of my second, major story on this website!
I've announced this story several times already in the author's notes in my other story, Epilogue, and at last, it's finally here!
I can only hope it lives up to everybody's expectations...
Anyhow, I came up with the concept of this story while exploring the vast and open world of Skyrim. I thought: what if Ratchet and Clank would get stuck in Skyrim somehow? After that, I added Talwyn.
Because crossovers are rarely looked at and since many items from the Ratchet & Clank universe will be introduced, it is more a Ratchet & Clank parody of Skyrim than it is a true crossover so that's why I placed it in the Ratchet & Clank archive.
Disclaimer:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls series in general belongs to Bethesda Softworks
Ratchet & Clank and all associated characters, gadgets, weapons, etc and the entire Ratchet & Clank series in general belongs to Insomniac Games
I only own this story concept and some OC's and events that may be introduced as the story progresses.
Alright, now there is only one thing left for me to say: enjoy!
Clank slowly opened his eyes. He looked around, wondering where he was.
He was sitting in a wooden cart of some sorts along with a few other people. Sitting across from him was a man with pale skin, golden hair, round ears, friendly blue eyes and a short golden beard. Sitting next to Clank was Ratchet, his ears drooped. Sitting across from Ratchet was a man with pale skin, round ears, no beard, brown eyes and brown hair.
Clank couldn't see who was sitting to the right of Ratchet, but sitting across from that person was another man with pale skin, round ears, and golden hair. This man, however, was gagged. Clank then looked around, taking in the scenery.
Tall mountains dominated the land, with green valleys in between. Rivers and lakes flowed through this forested landscapes, creating a beautiful scene.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
Clank turned to where the sound came from. The man sitting across from him continued. "You guys were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us."
"And that thief over there." he added with a nod towards the man sitting next to him.
The thief looked up and gave the man sitting across from Clank a look of pure disgust. "Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was fine until you came along! The empire was nice and lazy... if they hadn't been looking for you, I could have stolen that horse and be halfway to Hammerfell!"
The thief then turned to Ratchet, Clank, and whoever was sitting to the right of Ratchet. "You guys, we shouldn't be here. It's these Stormcloaks the empire wants."
The man sitting across from Clank shook his head. "We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief."
"Shut up back there!" the man sitting on the front of the cart suddenly barked.
"And what's wrong with him, huh?" the horsethief said, looking at the gagged man next to him.
"Watch your tongue!'' the man sitting across from Clank barked. "You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true high king of Skyrim!"
The horsethief's eyes went wide. "Ulfric?! You're the leader of the rebellion! But if they captured you... oh gods! Where are they taking us?!"
The man sitting across from Clank shook his head. "I don't know where we're going, but Sovngarde awaits."
"No... this can't be happening... this isn't happening..."
Clank turned to his lifelong friend. "Ratchet, what happened?"
"When we crossed the border, all of a sudden a few dozen of men jumped out of the bushes. They quickly overwhelmed us. During the struggle hit you head against a rock pretty hard. I was afraid that you had..."
Ratchet just couldn't say that last word. "Hey..." the man sitting across from Clank said to the horsethief next to him. "What village are you from, horsethief?"
"Why do you care?"
"A Nord's last thoughts... should be of home."
"Rorikstead. I'm... I'm from Rorikstead."
They entered a small town through a stone gate. A soldier partolling on the gate yelled something at the man leading the convoy: "General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!"
The general, in his golden armor, took a right, while the carts went left, through the town. "Look at him. 'General Tullius'. And it seems like the Thalmor are with him... damn elves. I bet they had something to do with this." the man sitting across from Clank mumbled. He looked around. "This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here..."
Clank didn't hear the rest of the man's story, because something else had caught his interest. In front of a large stone tower, a large stone block was being placed. A basket was put next to it. Clank didn't know what it was for, but it gave him the creeps.
But then they started to slow down. "What?! Why are we stopping?!" the horsethief yelled.
"Why do you think? End of the line."
They were forced to stand up, and when they did Clank could finally see who had been sitting to the right of Ratchet.
Talwyn.
They were forced to stand in groups, and a man in brown, leather armor and a woman in metal armor approached them, the man holding a list.
"Walk towards the block when you hear your name." the man said. "Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm."
The gagged man walked towards the stone block, where a small group of prisoners had formed.
The man who had been sitting across from Clank spoke up as Ulfric walked by. "It has been an honour, Jarl Ulfric." He walked over to Ulfric when the male soldier in brown armor said "Ralof of Riverwood."
"Lokir of Rorikstead." the man then said. The horsethief ran forward. "No! I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!"
Lokir then ran past the soldiers. "Halt!" the woman in metal armor yelled.
"You're not gonna kill me!" Lokir yelled over his shoulder.
"Archers!" the female soldier barked. Immediatly a few men in brown armor aimed and fired an arrow at the horsethief, who died with a loud "Argh!"
She then turned to Ratchet, Clank and Talwyn. "Anyone else feel like running?!"
"Wait..." the male soldier holding the list of prisoners mumbled. He then looked at Ratchet, Talwyn and Clank. "Who, are you guys?"
"My name is Clank, and these are my friends Ratchet (Clank nodded his head towards said Lombax) and Talwyn (he nodded his head towards said Markazian). Sir, you must know that we are not with the rebels. The only thing we are guilty of is having terrible timing."
The male soldier nodded. He then turned towards the female soldier in metal armor. "Captain, what should we do? They're not on the list. What are they anyway?"
"Forget the list. They go to the block. And judging by their appearance, I'd say a deformed High Elf, Khajiit and... whatever the hell that talking, walking machine is." the woman barked back.
"Alright."
The male soldier then turned to Clank, Ratchet and Talwyn. "I am sorry, prisoners. I'll make sure your remains are returned to... wherever you came from. Follow the captain, prisoners."
The three heroes were forced to follow the armored woman. "That is it? They are just going to kill us because they are too afraid to admit that they made a mistake?!" Clank thought, his blood beginning to boil.
They joined the small group of prisoners waiting in front of the block. Clank half-listened to the general teasing Ulfric, the anger about this whole situation was on his mind. But then a loud roar in the distance snapped him out of his thoughts. "What was that?" a few soldiers wondered out loud. "It was nothing. Carry on." Tullius said.
"Yes, general Tullius!" the imperial captain yelled. She then turned to a female priest standing behind her. "Give them their last rites."
The priest stepped forward. "As we commend your souls to Atherius, blessings of the eight divines upon you-"
She was interrupted by a stormcloak soldier walking forward, saying "For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with."
"As you wish." the priest replied, sounding more than a little annoyed.
The imperial captain pinned the Stormcloak soldier agaist the block by placing her foot on his back. "Come on, I haven't got all morning!" the Stormcloak soldier yelled.
Then a man appeared with a leather mask. He was holding a ridiculously large axe. As the man readied the weapon, the Stormcloak soldier yelled "My ancestors are smiling at me, imperials. Can you say the same?!"
Then the man brought down the axe on the Stormcloak soldier's neck. "Oh god!" Talwyn yelled and looked away. Clank closed his eyes when the axe was about to hit the soldier's neck, and Ratchet turned around.
A horrifying smack was heard, and then the sound of something falling into a wooden basket. Needless to say, Clank was disgusted.
"Now, the small... machine!" the Imperial captain (the woman in metal armor) barked.
Again, a loud roar. "There it is again." a soldier commented.
"I said. Next. Prisoner."
"Alright, alright! To the block, prisoner. Nice and easy."
"Oh, you're not going to kill him!" Ratchet yelled.
"And what were you going to do about it?" the captain yelled.
"If you harm Clank, I'll swear on every vibre of my being that I will rip you into pieces with my damn bare hands!"
The imperial captain laughed. "Pathetic."
Clank was getting angrier by the second, up to the point that his blood was litterally starting to boil.
That's when he got an idea. He closed his eyes and focused. He raised his body temparature as much as he could without damaging himself, and within seconds his metal skin was hot enough to boil water. Unsurprisingly, when the captain laid her hand on Clank's back to force him to kneel down, she withdrew her and with a loud yell. "Damn, that thing is hot!"
Unfortunately, she then used her lower arm to pin Clank against the block, and since the captain's lower arm was covered with metal plating, it seemed Clank's luck had ran out.
But then something appeared in the distance as the man with the axe raised the weapon to end the robot's life. It was huge, black, and appeared to be flying.
When it landed on a tower litterally five meters away from the block with enough force to knock everyone off their feet, Clank could see what it was.
It was a dragon.
"Dragon!" the captain yelled, sending everyone into a frenzy. The dragon watched the chaos with great interest, like he was enjoying it. Then, the dragon let out an ear-deafening roar.
Immediatly giant, burning boulders came falling from the sky. Using the chaos to his advantage, Ratchet ran over to Clank. "Clank, run! We might not get another chance!"
Clank followed his two friends into a nearby tower. When they were inside, they saw that the surviving Stormcloak soldiers apparantly had the same idea, Ralof locking the door behind them.
"Jarl Ulfric, what is that thing?! Could the legends be true?!" Ralof asked his leader.
"Legends don't burn down villages..." Ulfric replied. But then they heard a loud noise coming from upstairs. Ratchet ran up the stairs, though when he saw what had happened he yelped and ran back down. "That black thing has broken a part of the tower wall."
He shuddered. "And I was right in time to see him burn someone to ashes with his breath. Anyhow, Clank, Talwyn, come with me. We need to get away from here."
Talwyn nodded. She grabbed Clank's hand and pulled Clank up, allowing the small Robot to wrap his arms around her neck. "Ready?" she asked. "I have got quite a lot of grip, so I do not think I will fall off. I am more worried about you."
"He's right, Tal. One unfortunate landing and he might accidentally snap that neck of yours."
He walked over to Talwyn and let Clank attach himself to his back. After that, they ran up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, Ratchet turned around. "Aren't you guys coming?" he asked the Stormcloaks.
Ralof smiled. "Nah, we need to treat some wounds first, so until that's done we prefer to have strong walls around us. You go ahead."
Ratchet nodded. "Alright."
Together with Talwyn they walked to the hole in the wall. "Tal, with a bit of luck we should be able to jump onto that house." Ratchet said, nodding towards a burning house.
Talwyn bit her lip. "You sure? It's a bit risky."
"What other option to we have?"
"Mmm... true."
"Alright, ready? One... two... three!"
Together they jumped and landed in the middle of the burning house. Immediatly they jumped down the stairs and ran through a hole in the wall. As they walked out of the alley into the main street, Ratchet stopped and pulled Talwyn back. "Wait! That darn dragon is landing there!"
Ratchet peeked around cover to see the dragon landing. Lying in front of him was a wounded man, the man's son standing nearby. "My boy... run!" the man yelled.
The boy ran, crying. Ratchet and Talwyn watched helplessly as the dragon breathed fire on the wounded man. When the smoke cleared, the dragon was already taking off. The man was burning, and didn't have long. The child ran to his father. "Daddy, no!"
Ratchet and Talwyn immediatly ran to the dying father to help in any way they could. Clank hopped down from Ratchet's back.
Ratchet shook his head. "He's too wounded, there's nothing we can do."
Clank lowered his head in sadness. He wanted to help the man so badly.
But then he felt some sort of strange energy at his fingertips. He brought up his hands, and to his surprise there was a small, glowing, semi-transparent gold orb in his hands.
"Restoration magic." his mind told him, though he had no idea how he knew that. But, he was wasting time. He ran past Ratchet and pressed his hands against the dying father's skin.
Everyone watched in disbelief as the man's wounds slowly vanished, though the healing was asking a lot of Clank's power. When the man was fully healed,
Clank fell to his knees. "Oh my... that was a lot more exausting than I thought."
Ratchet ran over to his friend. "What the hell was that?!"
"A weak restoration spell... heals all..."
Ratchet laid a hand on his friend's shoulder (or, well, both hands, since his hands were bound). "Clank, whatever you did, you saved a child's father."
"Yes." said father mumbled as he got up. He kneeled down, bringing himself down to Clank's eye level. "You have no idea how much I appreciate what you just did for me."
"It was... nothing.. sir." Clank replied. Ratchet helped Clank attach himself to Ratchet's back, and the Lombax and Markazian started to run once again. They ran through a few back alleys until they reached the keep. Outside of the keep, the male imperial soldier that asked their names earlier was bickering with
Ralof. "We're escaping Helgen, Hadvar! You're not stopping us this time!" Ralof yelled.
"Fine! I hope that damned dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!"
Then Hadvar noticed Ratchet and Talwyn. "Still alive, prisoners? Get into the keep if you want to stay that way."
"Into the keep! Follow me!" Ralof yelled over his shoulder.
"With me, prisoners!" Hadvar yelled over his shoulder has he ran to another entrance.
Ratchet and Talwyn decided to follow Hadvar into the keep. Once they were inside, Hadvar turned around. "A dragon... I assumed dragons were just legends, but now... anyhow, come here, let me see if I can get those bindings off.
Hadvar grabbed a steel knive and cut through Ratchet's, Talwyn's and Clank's bindings with ease. Hadvar opened a chest and gave them both some spare armor. Ratchet grabbed a sword, while Talwyn grabbed a bow and arrows. "Follow me." Hadvar yelled as he started to run down the hallway.
Ratchet and Talwyn did as they were told. They ran into a circular room, where two Stormcloak soldiers were waiting for them. "Imperials!" they yelled, and raised their swords.
"Please, calm down!" Clank yelled. "There are more important things! This building will come down on top of us if we don't leave!"
"It's no use." Hadvar mumbled. Their hatred for imperials is too big.
When a Stormcloak soldier attemted to cut Ratchet, an arrow drilled into the soldier's knee, courtesy of Talwyn's bow. When the other soldier attempted to hit Talwyn, Ratchet jumped in front of her and blocked the attack with his sword. He quickly countered, defeating his opponent.
They ran down a tunnel and into a large, rectangular room, where two stormcloaks were battling two imperials. Two well-aimed arrows from Talwyn's bow shot the swords of of the Stormcloak soldiers' hands. "Run! Out of my sight!" she yelled.
When the Stormcloak soldiers were gone, Hadvar walked over to a cage with a dead man in it. The man was wearing golden-blue robes, and there was a book next to him, as well as a few gold coins and a health potion. "If there's anything in there you guys can use, feel free to grab it." he said, giving Talwyn five lockpicks. Talwyn raised a brow, but gave it a try nevertheless. To her surprise she was quite good at picking locks. Once the door was open, they walked into the cage. Ratchet grabbed the coins while Talwyn took the potion.
Clank hopped down from Ratchet's back. "Wait!"
"What is it?"
"These robes... this hood... this book... they're enchanted."
Clank grabbed the book and started to read. "Clank, now is not the time for that!"
Clank, however, found himself unable to close the book. He was forced to keep reading the weird symbols until, all of a sudden, the book disintegrated. If that wasn't creepy enough, there were two orbs of concentrated electricity in Clank's hands.
"Wha... wha... what did you just do?!" Ratchet asked.
"It was a spell tome. It taught me how to use the 'Sparks' spell." Clank said.
Ratchet stared at the dead mage's hood. "Didn't you say it was enchanted?" he asked.
"Yes."
Ratchet grabbed the hood and ripped it off. "Ratchet, what are you doing?!" Clank yelled. Ratchet didn't respond. Instead, he tied the hood around Clank's neck like some sort of cape. "There you go."
Clank could feel the magical power of the enchantment. He realized it was a fortify magicka enchantment. "Ratchet, this enchantment strengthens my magical powers."
"Wait, it does what?!"
Clank facepalmed. "I will explain later. We should get out of here."
"Hey, snail!" Talwyn yelled at Ratchet. "Keep up!"
Ratchet chuckled. "You're on!"
Ratchet and Talwyn were running through a cave system. After running through a storage room where they found a few potions, some extra arrows for Talwyn and a steel shield for Ratchet, they found a hole in the wall leading into a cave. A lot of running through caves later, they ran into a cave filled with cobwebs.
Unsurprisingly, a few giant spiders came down from the ceiling. Everyone was disgusted, but Talwyn managed to shoot them down before they could get too close. "Eugh, disgusting!" Ratchet commented.
"Tell me about it." Hadvar mumbled.
They then found themselves in a larger cave. Picking up the sound of heavy breathing, Ratchet stopped Talwyn. "Ssh... there's something up ahead."
When they walked further, they saw a giant bear. The bear was sleeping, so they sneaked past.
After one more minute of running through caves, they finally found themselves outside.
Hadvar quickly pulled them behind a rock. "Hide, quick!"
They ducked. Seconds later the black dragon flew past above their heads.
Hadvar got up. "Looks like it's gone for good this time. It's best if we split up for now. Talk to my cousin, Alvor, at the forge in Riverwood."
Hadvar then ran off.
Ratchet watched him go. "Well, that was awkward..."
"Yep." Talwyn commented. "Shall we?"
"I don't have any better ideas, so..."
And the thee friends took off.
Was it a bit good? I hope it was...
Anyhow, there is one last thing I have to say. This story is special because... everyone, and I mean everyone, can submit up to three OC's who will make an appearance in the story. So, if you have any ideas, be sure to submit them!
Of course, at the end of every chapter everyone will recieve proper credit.
Again, I am running out of things to say, so... hope to see y'all in the next chapter!