Hello everyone! this is my second fanfic, a massive step up from my last one 'The Markazian and the Lombax'. Completely different storyline, and these two fics are not related to one another, only minor cameos may appear in this fic. There's a bit of an explanation of the game so that if you know nothing about the Ratchet and Clank universe, you can still read this!
About the story itself, it's gonna be long, so prepare for weekly chapters like this one! And the title may change, but it's unlikely since it's growing on me although it has almost nothing to do with the story... so far ;)
I obviously don't own Ratchet and Clank - Insomniac Games/Sony do but I felt like I should add that anyway.
Now, I'm putting a TONNE of effort into this so it'd be really nice to have some reviews and stuff :3 I'm always up for a chat too if you want to PM me :3
Now, without further rambling here it is!
"Please don't strip my mind... Leave something behind... Please don't strip my mind" - Red Hot Chili Peppers, 'Strip My Mind'
I spat on the ground as they asked me the same question. Over and over, everyday, I almost couldn't stand it. They punched me in the gut when I didn't answer. Same place as yesterday, where a massive bruise lay. One that wouldn't heal for a while I guessed. I cringed slightly at the pain, but ignored the interrogators in front of me. They hammered me again and I tasted blood in my mouth where I bit my tongue. A metallic coppery taste, the only thing I'd tasted in days. I had got used to it eventually, but my tastebuds had grown old of it too. They shouted at me again, telling me to wake up, and proceeded to forcibly open my eyelids. My eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light and my first sight of the afternoon were my interrogators. The most filthiest scum in this dimension. The Kerchu. A Kerchu gang to be precise, a Rival gang to the one they think I'm part of. They punched me again, this time in the jaw. A heavy hit that could easily dislocate some species neck, but not mine. I had been through this before.
"OI! I'm talking you filthy piece of shit! Why did they send you!?" The boss of the two shouted at me. He stepped forward, coming face to face with me. His saliva splatted all over my face as he spoke with the same disgruntled voice I'd heard since I got here. "If Mr Ghregshuir wasn't so intent on getting this answer, I would've dropped you down the Slop-Hole long ago! Now tell me, WHO SENT YOU!"
"I've told you before. 'They' didn't send me, my ship crashed onto this planet" I replied calmly, hiding the small amount of fear, and the larger amount of anger that was building up inside of me.
"Is that really the truth?" He sneered through his buck teeth, walking back to his friend slowly.
"Yes."
"Well then I'm afraid we got a little liar cat…" He said, walking over to a firehose that was hanging off the nearest wall. A fat, long red one that was looped up for miles on end. This particular hose was loaded with a clear, acidic liquid that would not corrode, but irritate the skin. A low level torture device, and he shot it right at me.
I was dripping by the end of it, skin red under my brown fur. I struggled against the chains to try and itch my burning red skin, but to no avail. He saw the irritation on my face and laughed. A cruel snicker of a laugh, evil and dark. He slowly stepped towards me again.
"Now, I'm going to ask you one more time. WHO SENT YOU AND WHY!"
"I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU, YOU DENSE BASTARD. YOU'VE GOT IT WRONG." I screamed. There was silence as the two goons stared at me in shock. They had never seen me shout before, and were not expecting it. He quickly regained his composure, as did his co-worker, erasing the fear off their faces.
"Well, well, well. The brown kitties got a bit of' bite" He smirked "You haven't been this loud before. What else are you holding in…" He kicked me in the hip, missing his intended target as I swayed to the left a bit.
"Hah! Want kids do ya?" They both sniggered like children who were bullying the weaker kid. "Now now, we don't need more of you scum in this galaxy" He took aim with his fist and thrusted it towards me. I dodged again, and he hit my thigh.
"Not a very good shot, are you?" I smirked. One of the very few times I ever enjoy life nowadays.
"Shut it!" He yelled. "Take out the new… Experiment" He said to his friend, who walked off into the back room to get it. This had me worried. Every week or so they'd bring out a new torture device. The first were limb clamps which were worn around, yep, you guessed it: The limbs. They would squeeze tight, and stay there, and they kept them on me for a week. My arms had felt shrivelled and weak since then, and for my own sake I had decided to try regain muscle but pulling on the chains as a substitute for weights, and to my surprise, was working a bit, until they brought out the second experiment. It was an advanced drug they injected into my arm. I had various hallucinations in my dreams, very realistic ones too, then to wake me up, it raised the temperature of my blood, boiling me from the inside. I feared the next item of torture they were going to use me as a guinea pig for.
"Say hello to the Frexectic-12" He said, as the second guy handed him a black pistol. "You wanna know what it does?"
"Not if it means killing me" I answered his rhetorical question calmly
"I'll show you anyway!" He grunted, annoyed at my witty response
He aimed at my neck and shot. I only caught sight of it for a split second. a blurry, deep blue blob shape It hit hard, then wrapped itself around me. Slimy and cold, it felt disgusting
"It's what we call 'Live Ice'. It wraps around the… 'users' neck, and slowly strangles them! Although, for you, we've set it to 'Strangle, but let live' And I'll leave it on repeat for a special 10 minutes. So, lets start that part of the demonstration…" He flicked a switch on the gun and I felt intense pressure around my neck. I struggled for air as the blue slime tightened. My heart was beating. I was feeling drowsy. Everything went bright, and I was struggling against the chains. I tried to keep calm but failed to do so. It was now, I was versing death, and this time, I thought I couldn't escape. I was on what I thought would be my last breath we I heard a small click and the slimeball stopped, returning to it's relaxed position. I breathed heavily for a moment, sucking in as much oxygen as my lungs could take to get my mind working again. Half a minute later I heard his voice taunting me.
"How did you like that huh? Well, you seemed to be enjoying yourself, lets go through it again…"
My eyes widened for a second as he smiled and moved his hand over the switch.
Click.
My throat closed, but I remained calm, at least, for the first 20 seconds. I started struggling against the chains again. My heart racing to keep me alive. It seemed quicker this time, which I was pleased about. The pressure faded and I chugged in a lung full of oxygen again.
"Well well well, you haven't blacked out, nor died… impressive, so guess what…"
Click.
The same symptoms struck again, but with less intensity as I was slowly getting used to it. I hatched a plan to fake the struggle to see if it would end it earlier. With at least half a lung full of air,l started struggling on purpose, hoping his reaction would be the same. I kept control of my actions this time, not wanting too actually struggle. I hated facing death like this. Dying by lack of air was the way of death I feared most, not that i was going to let them know that. The pressure once again stopped as a peculiar motif played throughout the building. The one signalling tonight's dinner and not for the first time I wondered if I'd get anything tonight.
"Well, you've survived Lombax! But now, as you may have just heard, it's time for dinner!"
My stomach grumbled at the thought of food. It had been long since I'd had a proper meal, only once had the thug brought down a thin slice of pork, which I gobbled up.
He clicked the trigger and the gelatinous goop flung off me back into the sleek piece of black metal he was holding in his left hand.
"Now, I'm sure there will be at least 13 people who will be happy with today's outcome, Mr Ghregshuir included. We had tested this on small animals already, but theres nothing like testing it for real…" he snickered and handed the gun to his friend. Before he left, he came up to me, resting his small hand on my shoulder.
"We'll see you tomorrow, Lombax. hang tight" He spoke, fluent with sarcasm before breaking into a laugh.
"Will do" I replied, trying to match his tone through my worn throat. "Have a nice day, and don't be late tomorrow!"
"Hah, like I would be" He growled, walking away. I'd tried to annoy him but had failed, only just.I couldn't wait to pound those two in the near future, it was something I had thought about often lately: What I was going to do to them when I got out of here.
If, I got out of here.
The co-worker flicked two switches by the back door. One, moved me to the same position it did every night; over the Slop-Hole, and the second, the lightswitch, so the only thing I could see, was the toxic green sludge below me. I started doing what had become a kind of ritual after they left. A spoken journal of sorts, which consisted of me quietly speaking to myself.
'Day 17, Interrogation 29. The goons punched me in the same spots already searing with pain, and soaked me with irritating acid, which is really pissing me off right now. Then proceed to strangle me multiple times with their new fiend of living ice. How fun. Oh, and it was the first time I yelled! 17 days and 29 interrogations, I think I did pretty well holding out for that long. but overall, it was just another night at the lowest level in the Gelatonium Refinery on planet Jasindu.'
I finished talking to myself with a sigh, closed my eyes, and entered my thoughts.
My mind drifted off towards my two best friends. People whom I had known my whole life, except for about 47 seconds mum had always said with a laugh. I smiled at the good things and promised myself like I did every night that I would get out of here. I relaxed my muscles as much as I could and swung around on the chains a bit. The soft chink of the metal braces colliding with each other was rather peaceful after hearing that guys horrible voice for 20 minutes. I leaned my head back and tried for sleep, something that was pretty precious for me at this place, since I never usually got any of it because of this uncomfortable position I was in. My thoughts drifted off into my mind after a short time of trying to get to sleep, 3 hours been short under the circumstances.
I saw my best mates, one reading on her bed, whilst the other had fallen asleep on his hammock. I picked up a pillow and threw it at him, unbalancing the hammock, causing it to twist and drop it's user.
"Oi that's it, this time, you're getting it" he said chucking the pillow, square at my forehead. My reflexes were quick to react I caught the pillow mid flight, only to see another one coming this way. Unprepared, I was hit by the feathery case and spun about, faking a death. The man in front of me laughed, whilst the woman reading just rolled her eyes and muttered 'boys...' We both laughed at that, and he held out his hand to help me up. I took it, and instantly felt my arm being pulled off as he jolted me upwards.
"Thanks" I smiled at him.
"You're welcome" He said, returning the friendly smile and we made our way over to the-
I woke up as I heard shots fired from above me, screams and shouts from the Kerchu above me.
"Don't let him get to the other one!" and "Kill the Lombax!" Was all I heard from all the carnage above.
Lombax? That meant me. They were going to kill me right here and right now because of some unexpected 'visitor'.
"Shit" I muttered as I started struggling against my chains. My last hours were upon me.
I had my Combustor in my right hand, and my Fusion Grenade in my left for extra firepower as I stormed through the building. Ammo was everywhere, probably for this exact situation, only, not for me, but I took it anyway. The Smuggler had said something about a weapon that used stolen technology he had found. For it, he offered me a ship, one that had landed here 17 days ago. It wasn't just any ship though, he said it was a Lombax ship. I asked to see before I got it but all he did was say no and assure me I'd get the ship, and some bolts. Upon accepting the offer, Clank said I shouldn't take this deal since the Smuggler wasn't trustworthy. But, with nothing better to do, I ran into this building, poorly armed and facing the toughest Kerchu on the planet. The bigger part of the Kerchu population were small humanoid creatures, with beaver like faces and short legs. They were very smart, but very territorial. From what I heard they liked no one, except of course, some few who had good connections, and apparently, the Smuggler fitted into that group.
I charged the first gang member I saw, shoved him to the ground, and put my hands around his neck.
"Tell me" I growled, sounding intimidating. "Where is the F-12?"
"I-I. I don't know what you mean…" He played dumb. I saw right through it and tightened my grasp, cutting off his windpipe that ran through his small neck.
"Tell me." I finalised. Wanting to get this over and done with quick.
"Le- le- level 12 Minus!" he yelled to get the message out. I smiled, a genuine smile. and let go of his neck.
"Thanks!" I spoke, hand sliding down to grab my wrench. In one swift movement, I banged him over the head, and knocked him cold. Looking around, I saw some stairs at the far end of the corridor. I ran towards them, trying to speed through this mission, and fly away with a new ship. I nearly lost balance when the first step came because the were so thin, forcing me to walk down. Reaching the next level, I looked around and saw about 40 Kerchu, gathered around tables, laughing, shouting, and now looking at me in silence. They all stood up, looking at me with menacing eyes, and pulling their guns out. Thanks to quick thinking, I pulled out a grenade, and threw it into the crowd to grab a few extra seconds, and continued to flee down the stairs. The stairs themselves had widened up a bit, and now had a rail, most likely to stop people falling off to the side since the bottom of this facility was now visible. I decided to use the rail to my advantage, and jumped onto it.
My Grindboots automatically became active as they sensed a grindable terrain and sent me speeding down the stairway. The corners were sharp and I braced myself for the sudden change in direction. Leaning to the left. It made the switch of momentum flow easier and I thanked my lucky stars I had been practising this extreme sport since it first came out.
I looked behind me, and saw that the Kerchu had their own way of getting down. Half of them had curled up into metal balls and were zooming down the stairs like it was a game of pinball. The fewer heavy types turned to the elevator. They were shouting through their armour whilst rolling down after me.
"Stop"
"Don't let him get to the other one!"
"Kill the Lombax!"
"Kill him before the 12th level!"
Other one? That confused me for a second. I pushed the thought away for now as a looked back again and saw they were hot on my tail.
"Ratchet! They are close!" Clank shouted above all the commotion "Lean forward to increase your speed!"
"Will do. Thanks Pal" I shouted back, and did at he said, whilst turning my head around to check what was ahead of me. I looked just a moment too late as the heavies that hopped into the elevator, had already made it down in front of me. I smashed into the outstretched arm of the one closest to me, and fell backward off the rail, and onto a couch. A soft landing I was grateful for. Somewhat dazed, I stood up off the couch and picked up my Combustor which I had dropped on the landing, and aimed it as the heavy closest to me.
He charged, fists covering his face to avoid getting shot badly. I dived out of the way, and shot him up the arse which caused him to trip, and crack his head on the brick wall. I focused my attention on the other three, which had now cornered me into this little cove of an office. They slowly walked like they knew I couldn't get out, but I had other ideas.
I threw a grenade at the ground, causing it to explode on impact. It stunned them and fazed their sight. I took this distraction and ran towards the middle one. By the time he saw me it was too late. I had already leapt at him. The tackle threw him backwards, and I quickly got up off him, and ran for the stairs, making sure to step on his face as I left the brick cove.
I jumped up back onto the rail and continued racing onwards, this time without pursuers. It was only a few more seconds before I reached level minus 12. The bottom point, 120 feet below ground level. I looked up to find myself surrounded, guns pointing at me from all directions.
"No need for any killing Lombax. put your weapons down, and come quietly. I'm sure Mr Ghregshuir will want to see you as well as your friend." The one who spoke had a gun unlike the others, sleek and black, much like the description the smuggler had given me. I'd take him out first, but before that, I knew how the situation would play out. Taunting, then fighting - so I ravished my brain for a witty response.
"Sure, I'll put my weapons down your throat, not sure if it will be quiet tho, but-" I was cut off mid sentence but something grabbing my throat. My hands went towards it to force it off, but they were soon held back by the other two heavies I escaped from before. Just before I blacked, I had one last thought.
'Bloody gangsters. Never playing by the rules'.
I stared in shock at the being chained up next to me. Sandy yellow fur, with three light brown stripes on each of his massive cat like ears ears. He wore a peach leather shirt, that had dark blue stripes down the sides. A harness was around his with what seemed to be a lock on the back which puzzled me. Why would he need that? He had two green lights planted on him; one on the harness, and the other on his belt, both now broken by the thugs that had captured him. He wore dark blue cargo pants, which tucked into his leather boots. He also wore leather gloves that went past his elbow. Everything about him screamed 'Adventure' but the thing that most intrigued me was his race.
He was a lombax.
There's another? Was my first thought after studying him. As far as I knew, Tachyon had gone round the universe, erasing us from existence. Everywhere my friends and I went, the people around us were always in shock, hence why we decided to settle down on the more uncharted area of Tlekelimn. Tachyon hated the Lombaxes for a reason that was unbeknown to my friends and I, but we avoided him anyway. I wondered how this Lombax had escaped him all these years. He looked about my age, strong build, athletic like he could run around for hours. I couldn't wait till he woke up, but at the same time I was dreading it. I hadn't spoken to another Lombax for 3 weeks, since I saw my best friends get captured by the prince himself.
I shook the thought off and composed myself. I didn't want to break down on this guy. I didn't want to make a bad first impression. I waited nervously, not wanting to wake him up. But at the same time I was getting all the more eager to meet this new Lombax.
Half an hour passed before his head rose slowly, coming out of the deep sleep the thugs put him in. He yawned first before speaking like someone would if they had just gotten out of bed.
"Clank? You got that fluextranser ready?"
I was slightly afraid to talk. Who was Clank? It definitely wasn't me…
"Clank?" He said louder, opening his eyes slowly. As his vision locked on to the sights around him, the look of shock on his face was prominent.
"Clank!?" He shouted, voice full of worry now, he strained against the chains, but he still hadn't seen me. I thought now was the right time to say hi. But I couldn't think of what to say. Just 'hi'? Or something about Lombaxes. I ended up speaking out the question that was ringing through my head.
"Who's Clank?" I blurted before I could stop myself.
He jumped at the sounds of my voice, and looked around. He then went into another phase of shock as he saw me. After looking up and down, grabbing every detail from me, he spoke.
"You're a Lombax."
"Yes, and so are you." I remarked
"How did you get here?"
"Crash landed. I'll tell you the details later, we've got plenty of time for a chat, but first. Whats your name?"
"Ratchet." A look of confusion covered my face. "What's wrong?" He asked. A genuine question.
"You're name isn't anything like I've heard before - for Lombaxes at least. Normally that would be a nickname, since it's a tool..."
"Well, that's my name, as far as I know... What's yours?"
"Amel Mecktose" I said with pride, although not knowing anything to be proud of about my family heritage since I never knew them that well. But I heard some stories…
"Well, to me that sounds like a funny name."
"Well, I guess every name is different." Was all I said, not wanting to get into a fight within minutes just over something as stupid as our names.
"So, whats your story?" I asked, eager to learn more about this new person. "I'll tell you what I know afterwards" I smiled at the thought. Talking! Something that's been a rarity for 3 weeks.
"Well... How much do you want to know?" He asked. I had to contain my joy. I've never met another Lombax before, aside from my friends, but I knew everything about them. But this guy had a new story for me to listen to. I couldn't wait to find out more.
"Just give me your life story, I'll give you mine. As you can tell, there's no way out of here, so we've got plenty of time."
"Haha, true. So... I'll tell you what I know.
When I was very young, I landed on planet Veldin in an escape pod. A woman there, Jewel, adopted me on the spot, and took care of me throughout my childhood. She always said 'When I opened your pod up and found you in it. You were holding two things; Mr. Plushy and a wrench that was bigger than you! You wouldn't let me take either of those from your grasp, so I named you after the Ratchet' So that's where my name came from… Even though it was a wrench, not a ratchet. She want much of a mechanic..."
I nodded, understanding now about why he seemed so foreign. It left me eager to find out more about him. He continued his story
"From what I remember, my childhood was all mechanics. I loved it, as I do now. No one on Veldin knew anything about Lombaxes, much less what my species name actually was. I only found that out when I was 10, and some guy came around offering to buy me. Over the years, I grew slightly rebellious, but popular against everyone in school. There was one enemy I had though. Varl. Ugly looking guy. Anyway, by the time I was 15 I had built my own ship, and I was eager to get off the planet. But I was missing a crucial component of the ship, the Robotic Ignition System. And that's when Clank, my best friend, crash landed on Veldin. I went to investigate after seeing the crash from a distance. I found him in the wreckage. He was in a shutdown mode, so I picked him up and took him home to tweak my ship a bit. When he woke up, he made me fall off a crate when he first spoke and it turned out he knew this guy called Drek, was ruining the solar system. Clank had a Robotic Ignition System installed on him so we came to an agreement. I help him find Captain Qwark, this 'superhero' and he helps me get my ship working. We found Qwark after a short while of investigating, but then found out that he was working with Drek, because he tried to kill us. Fuelled on my new hatred for Qwark, I stayed with clank only so I could use the ships we found. Eventually, we found Qwark again, and took him down in a ship battle, but afterwards I learnt fully of Drek's true intentions - Destroy every planet in the solar system for his kind, and he was going to use Veldin orbit for it. We quickly got to Drek, just as he was about to blow up Veldin, destroyed him and his mech and used his machine to destroy the planet he had made."
"So you're like a hero!?" I exclaimed, even more excited than I was before.
"Yeah, pretty much. But that's not the half of it.
After that whole adventure, we settled down back on Veldin for a year. Nothing was happening and I was bored, but it was when a popular holo-vision show 'Behind the Hero' decided to interview me was when I got my next job. Abercrombie Fizzwidget, the CEO of a company called Megacorp in the Bogon galaxy asked me to recapture 'The Experiment' which was stolen from the company a week before. I found the Thief, and got the experiment back, but ran into him again shortly after I had given the experiment back to Fizzwidget. Turned out the thief was a woman who was a Lombax. She told me that the experiment was meant to be a galaxy wide pet, but it was pretty much a killer machine. In the end, we got to the Megacorp facility, and tried to fix it since the 'pet' had been released, but Fizzwidget stopped us. It turned out that Qwark was in a suit, acting as the CEO, and putting the galaxy in danger on purpose, then he'd save it and regain his hero status. His plan backfired, and Clank and I ended up saving the galaxy."
"Intergalactic hero now is it?" I smirked, now slightly jealous.
"Haha, Yeah, although it still doesn't stop there...
Clank and I then settled down on Endako, in the Bogon Galaxy since Megacorp had given it to us at the start of the mission. After a year, we had settled into a more domestic life. Clank and I were watching some HV after a game of chess, when a news report came on saying Veldin was under attack. I had been building a warp drive out of Blargian scrap metal and decided to use it. It was untested but I had to get home, to save Veldin. We got back to Solana within seconds, it had worked perfectly even though Clank said it was unlikely. After saving Veldin, I had an offer to stay at the Starship Phoenix to help put a stop to a new menace. Dr. Nefarious. A robotic supervillain who had only been defeated by one man. That man was rumoured to be on Florana, but when we got to him, we found out that it was no other, than Captain Qwark. He had totally lost his mind, so we brought him back to the Phoenix. Eventually he regained his memory, but he then 'took control' of the Nefarious situation. Later, he wimped out and faked his death, and Clank and I found out what had really happened in Qwarks past. He was pretty much a fraud. So, we continued on without him. Nefarious had a plan to turn all organic life into robots, so we found out where his Bio-Blitorator was and took it out, but he had a second. When we went off to the final showdown, Qwark came out of nowhere and aided us in the fight, which didn't help that much, but was good for him in the end. Nefarious teleported out of the mech just in time, but ended up on a small asteroid which is now out of range. I then stayed at the Starship Phoenix for a year, which in that year I got promoted to the commander of the ship. Nearing the end of the year I got a transmission from the previous Commander who is the mayor of Metropolis, saying that there was an illegal combat sport show called Dreadzone, and just as she mentioned the show, they were at my heels and took me captive. I fought my way through the show, taking down all four exterminators until I was at the top. I was offered a proposition to be the top gladiator of the entire show by Gleeman Vox, the madman running the whole thing. He got angry when I turned him down and sent me off to an 'unbeatable' course. I beat it and blew it up. When I got back to the main station, I planned with my team to shut down The whole thing. We almost succeeded until Vox tried to kill me and put a timer on the show, which if it reached zero, the entire station would blow up. After I just about killed him, he blew the station up anyway but Clank got me out in a escape shuttle seconds before it exploded, I was very lucky. From then, I've just been chilling. Two years of cruising around Kerwan, living a more domestic life, and inventing things. And that's when some guy called 'Emperor Percival Tachyon' attack-"
"Tachyon!?"
"Yeah... He tried to kill me. But I escaped onto one of his ships. Do you know him?"
"Apparently he's the bane of the Lombaxes… But finish your story, we'll , uh... talk about him later."
"Okay… Well, Clank and I got onto one of his ships, but cryosleep got the better of me, and we crash landed on planet Cobalia where I met this guy who I only know as The Smuggler. He said he'd give me a ride to Jacindu where he had a ship for me, if I could complete one more task. I said yes, eager to be able to travel on my own, and because I needed a ship. We landed he and he said I needed to infiltrate a Kerchu hideout and steal a black gun called the 'F-12' or something, so I stormed this place. I got to the bottom floor, where I was told it was, and found myself surrounded, then I got shot with the F-12 and it strangled me still I blacked out. I woke up afterwards, saw you and fell into shock."
"Well. That's quite the story! Intergalactic hero… I wonder how I've never heard of you!"
"Yeah… I always wondered why I never met any other Lombaxes… Anyway, that my life story. So what's yours?"
So that the first chapter! What did you all think? Please leave a review!