"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world, remains and is immortal."
-Albert Pine
(Criminal Minds: Season 1, Episode 14 'Riding the Lightning' ending quote)
Chapter 2
[Just one of those days]
-:-
The Garage
Kyzil Plateau, Planet Veldin
Solana Galaxy
-:-
Let's just say...the next time I fall asleep while working, I'll have to do it somewhere where I won't get myself hurt.
...and where Clank couldn't find me.
"Haaaaauuu -gh!"
I awoke with a jump as I felt something wet and cold dumped square-on my forehead and trickle down to my eyes, stinging like crazy. That ended up triggering a chain reaction: since I was temporarily blinded midway on opening my eyes, my body automatically went into "fight mode"- my foot instinctively jerked up in preparation to kick whoever was there, but halfway up my knee ending up making contact with something solid and hard. I screamed a blood curling scream and withheld a curse as I bent over to try to soothe the pain away.
It was only during my attempt to reach my knee that my head made impact with something metal, and realised that I was actually lying under something.
A speeder, in this case. A very painful lesson.
"Ratchet, are you okay?" I heard Clank say alarmingly as he ditched a small empty pail in his hands to the side -a small hollow noise was made as it hit the floor and rolled away- and bent over to assess my situation.
"No...tch..ow...not fine, leg..." I winced as I slowly inched myself out from underneath the mechanical ride.
Clank scurried to the side and came back with a towel as I shifted into a sitting position, rubbing my throbbing knee and rocking slowly. "I am sorry," he kept apologizing, "I did not mean to make you hurt yourself like that."
I took the towel from him and began to wipe away the liquid on my fur. Water. "That was unexpected...tch...and I was sleeping... couldn't you have just shaken me up?..."
He frowned slightly. "I did, Ratchet. You did not respond to my efforts to wake you."
Frown. "No you didn't, or this wouldn't have happened."
I watched as Clank pulled a box over to the side and I hobbled over, sitting down and resting my knee in a semi vertical position. "Yes, I did. But you must have been completely exhausted to appear unresponsive. I had tried to shake you awake but you did not move, and I became worried so I threw water at your face to see if that would work before I believed the unbelievable."
Oh...
I chuckled and softly rubbed my head. I could sense a minor headache beginning to form from the blow. "So... you thought I've keeled over, huh? Yep, that definitely sounds like me in deep sleep."
"Yes...I suppose it does. Hehehe."
I flicked the tip of his antenna; We both shared a hearty laugh before there was silence between us, both of us lost in thoughts on what was otherwise an uneventful day. Slowly, my attention turned to the open garage view outside and at the orange, cloudless midday sky. I closed my eyes; there was a cool wind coming in and blowing gently throughout the garage, which made this day tolerable due to the hot weather Veldin had been receiving these past few days. It felt good to feel the breeze on my fur and I was happy, and I would like to think that Clank was happy too -even if in this case he can't really feel wind.
It was funny, I realized. It's already been months since anything eventful happened- minus the funny stuff that was on the news. In these rare moments of peace and tranquility, I'd be good for a week or two -before I ended up becoming jittery, anxious and very, very bored with how everything ended up for us and would be instantly wishing for something to come knocking hard.
Nowadays, I'm just wishing things would stay like this. I'm quite satisfied with a life of normalcy, especially after all my pal and I had been through these last years and months. At least I'm not getting shot at by hundreds of killer robots or other sentient life, right?
We deserved this, to be honest...
"I had actually believed something terrible had happened to you, Ratchet."
I snapped out of the peaceful thinking stage and turned to Clank.
"Still hanging on what happened a few months ago, pal?"
There was a small pause, and a sigh. I looked back at the sky while rubbing my knee a little. There was no pain, just like there wasn't a response to my question. But he didn't need to answer. I already kinda figured he was still worried for me. So I decided to avoid bringing anything up anymore.
"So I guess that was a lesson learned, huh?" I laughed and cracked a smile. "One that would probably be forgotten soon. I'm still tired." I emphasized this with a yawn.
Clank looked at me and smiled back. "I will be there to pour water on your face."
"Oh no, just don't do it when I'm under something...it hurt banging my knee on the speeder."
"No promises."
I laughed before I stretched a little and resumed work on the speeder in question, trying to fix up its preliminary ignition drive that my customer: an Agorian who had a habit of wrecking his ride in a bunch of minor drag races on the outback canyons of Veldin, would be expecting to not have been broken while Clank went off to fetch me something cold to drink.
I say "not have been" very, very much in emphasis. Let's begin with the whole story...
When I was assigned to fix this speeder, the dude told me his thruster upgrade wouldn't work. So I'm guessing it'd be just a small part that was causing the problem and would only take me an hour or so, TOPS. I take one good look at it, and this speeder... it came in with its back end thruster upgrade completely busted -and it wasn't only due to faulty do-it-yourself installation that this big guy attempted! It was completely, utterly destroyed -down to the outer shell of where it connected to the speeder's under coil battery box. It was basically like he had been riding through hell and back with this thing faced down. I'm still surprised he hadn't been blown up by either the overheated box or the thrusters in general. THE THING WAS LIKE A TIME BOMB, for heaven's sake!
But then again, I'm pretty sure Agorians mess shit up everyday and still have all the luck.
I flat out told him his vehicle was just basically trashed. It wasn't going to work anymore if he was going to continue using it for racing purposes.
He ended up telling me a sob story about how he wanted his "baby" fixed because he can't part with it and all his friends referred him to me.
I ended up finding myself promising my best in saving his piece of junk ride. He beamed and gave me a smelly hug before promising me a generous amount of bolts for my time.
So I began work on it after I was done tinkering around with my hoverboard, which at this time I decided to dismantle and reconstruct everything out of random (or what Clank told me when he first stepped into the garage, boredom). I rolled up my metaphorical sleeves and decided to first go for taking apart the box. When it was out of the way and not connected, I opened it up and had to find some spare compressor coils to replace the burnt out ones that were leaking its creepy green goo all over the place -and that in itself wasn't so easy, or cheap in this case, to find. I had to leave Veldin with Clank for a couple hours, just scouring the nearby planets for said coils and nearly getting hit by another ship before happening upon and shelling out 56,000 bolts with Slim Cognito in Metropolis, Planet Kerwan (who I was surprised to find out he'd been released from Zordoom, which was cool.)
I think I died inside when I realised the piece costed so much more than my holo-flix yearly account. But at least this time he didn't want Raritanium for spare parts.
Once the box was sorted out and reinstalled back in its place at the bottom of the speeder, I then had to go through the tedious, tiresome task of forcing the thruster pack upgrade out of its place in the back, then afterwards slowly drag it to one side of the room and finally taking that whole big piece of junk apart to try to find the source of the problem by trial and error.
If there was any trial and error to do. Like I said, this piece of junk was trash already.
I think I sat there for a good 2-3 hours just staring and scratching my head before I realized that I had one of these upgrades. Like, for real... I actually had the same make and model as this guy! My mind went back a few years, to when I bought one from Slim at one point; when Clank and I had recently spent a month bored out of our minds after the whole "heroes being kidnapped" fiasco (which, to be honest, was kinda cool).
At the time, Clank suggested maybe going out to some museum thing in Meridian City and see some wackjob talk about shiny crystals, but that wasn't for me.
I was dead set on making my own hoverbike (after I saw a commercial about it) than to hear some guy talk about things like that.
So, after a few more weeks of being lazy to do stuff plus some film stuff with Clank, I started work on my bike: purchasing some parts here and there, plus making the occasional trip to Slim for other things - one in example being a H3400 thruster pack upgrade. When I was finishing up on checking everything off a list Clank had created to make sure everything was working, we received a message from Quark about needing help. That's when the whole Tachyon thing happened, and somewhere in the beginning my hoverbike failed and went bust.
I did managed to scavenge out the upgrade for later use, but I just tossed it somewhere at our place in Luminopolis after meeting Talwyn, who gifted me a newer version to cheer me up when Alister died and that's where it stayed until now.
Knowing that, I made the 12 minute trip to Luminopolis, dragged my heavy upgrade aboard Aphelion (which took about 6 minutes) and took 30 minutes to come back to Veldin after stopping by Metropolis for a second time and purchasing some new comic books and a few packs of sour apple candies. I then spent another 30-32 minutes installing my upgrade to the speeder -made a mental and physical note to remind myself to charge a little more for that- and then headed upstairs for a 1 hour dinner with a very upset Clank, who later forgave me for avoiding lunch.
It was about 10 pm when we watched the news. Satisfied that no one anywhere was planning to blow up anything, Clank headed upstairs and I walked back to the garage to finish up on calibrating and some final checking...and that's when the ignition drive thing happened.
Something I always tell myself when fixing other people's stuff: just leave it be and go away. Now if I ONLY followed my own rules...
Yes, I know I should have just cleaned myself up and head upstairs, especially since it was just about 1am in the morning when I finished bringing the speeder back to life. But as I was putting things away, my "Lombax curiosity" got the best of me, and I just had to dismantle the speeder's only way of even turning on for personal reasons even I don't know. I just know it was personal enough for me to act on it.
For all that trouble, I ended up losing a part I needed -a small lever...and had to make trips around the galaxy because either a location was closed or they had just run out from a fresh supply, and hell knows I didn't have any at our place and on Veldin it was just history.
To make a long story short: I came back home after finding a place in the Bogon Galaxy where they sold what I needed, and during the middle of connecting the drive to a small component under the vehicle, I flatlined horribly (mind you, this was during the wee hours of 4am) and ended up being thrown water on by a very much alarmed Clank at about 11am,, close to 12. So I guess that's the last time I'll ever let myself tamper with things that weren't even broken in the first place just because.
But then again, Clank still insists that I was bored when I did it...
"I'm being serious, pal. I wasn't bored," I said flatly. "There's no way I'd make more work for myself if I'm bored...that's not me."
"I would find that hard to believe, Ratchet. There were those other times..."
Groan. "No.. please don't list. I'm going to have a headache."
I gave the speeder one last startup test before stepping back and yawning. I normally don't tend to flatter myself when I'm done with things, but I guess I could let this slide. The speeder looked like brand new -if I do say so myself. All done with an all nighter, along with sweat and a bunch of furious tears.
As I stretched my back, the small robot once again pulled up a box for me to sit on and we both looked at the vehicle in awe.
"Impressive work," Clank complemented as he handed me a drink. "It still surprises me how good of a mechanic you are, though you have never been taught the trade."
I smiled proudly and took a sip of the cup. It was lemonade, for right now.
"Aw, thanks pal...don't have to say that, I've had a lifetime of experience -and plus, I'm a Lombax! hehehe..."
"I do not think there is much of a difference in races and capabilities."
"Well, you did tell me once that Lombaxes are known to be quite the inventors, no? Hell, with the whole 'dimensionalizer' and other stuff." I pointed out.
"True," he smiled back, "there is still that. It amazes me anyways."
I shyly scratched my head and downed the rest of the liquid. "I guess if you say so...though going through all that trouble to save this thing, I think I'll need a few days of rest." I placed the empty grease imprinted cup on a nearby workbench. "I'm completely tired as hell."
Clank nodded. "A few hours would do you good, but after your customer comes over to pick up the vehicle."
My voice deadpanned. "Oh yea....him. I actually forgot whose speeder I just fixed..."
"Oh?"
"Yea..." I sighed. "I was just having mild fantasies of me riding this lovely ride in this week's speeder races happening on Veldin...was gonna call it my own! But I'm probably betting I'll be seeing this Agorian's big red arse-"
"A-hem."
I paused as whoever cleared their throat began to approach me. I kept my back to whoever it was, but Clank motioned for me to turn around with his eyes. He's here, they read, and I sighed as I slowly made the turn.
"um...hello there...hehe..."
I really hate surprises.
[Just one of those days-END]
Author's Note:
Hello! I did say I was writing another story, and here it is! This just the first chapter though (adding the prologue, this is actually chapter 2, but who cares!) This story might start out a little slow and will be longer (to add more detail and stuff like that) but I hope it will be enjoyable to read!
Just a little warning: this story will have elements and snippets of things that happened in Obsidian Mind, so if you did not read that Fanfic I wrote, then do so now. You can find it by going to my profile ^^
And by snippets, I mean as in references and shit like that.
Yes I did add an OC to this, but only because I needed a bad guy.
the stories will be churned out slowly, maybe in 1-2 days (I have college, you know) but it will be finished, that I promise!
Now, as usual, please Read and Review! It means a lot to me, and will get me motivated to do my best! And of course, Ratchet and Clank and other characters (minus Talos) are not mine- Insomniac
-AUselessMircoFluff
