I present you, Chapter 2!

Not quite sure how this is going to end yet, but I'll work it out.

Anyways, enjoy the carnage!

Chapter 2, Fiery Crows

The quartet of forced allies fought their way through a bunch of policemen sent by a man named Comstock. Due to plenty of posters and propaganda, they learned he was both a prophet and the leader of Columbia.

Along the way, Ratchet had bought an upgrade for the Possession Vigor he sampled. It allowed him to possess one person or machine and make them an ally for a short time. Once the time was up, if it was a person, they would commit suicide. Needless to say, that ability came in great help. That is, until…

"Bring out the Fireman!" A cop yelled before Booker sent a bullet into his head.

Rykk had finished off a cop with his hook; he was the last one in the area.

Rykk picked up a fallen cop's pistol. The feel of the pistol was odd but he shrugged, it was all that was available at the time.

Ratchet approached a big set of double doors. He began to push one open, "Man it's getting hot, what's going on?"

The quartet's eyes went big as they saw an armored figure that was on fire. He yelled as he stood on a makeshift pedestal and a fiery explosion left his armor, "BURN IN THE NAME OF THE PROPHET!" It chucked a flaming grenade towards them.

"Scatter!" Booker shouted and they all avoided being seriously burned.

The three, armed with pistols, fired at the fireman. It yelled many threats and threw many firebombs.

Ratchet shot a green ghost at the fireman and it turned friendly for a brief time. Come on, kill yourself! He thought impatiently.

Nothing doing, the green glow vanished from the fireman, "THE WORLD SHALL BURN!"

"Aw crap!" Ratchet exclaimed and evaded another explosion of flame. As he dodged, he fired his pistol repeatedly.

After a short time, the fireman's flames flashed in intensity and it let out a loud whirring sound that quickly dropped in tone. It then charged at Ratchet with alarming speed.

Ratchet quickly caught onto what he was doing and sprinted frantically away from it. He was able to avoid beginning blasted and burned from the fireman's suicidal explosion.

The blast knocked the lombax onto his face and he covered his head with his hands. He looked up and saw Rykk standing above him. "That nearly burned the fur off my tail!" He exclaimed as he was pulled to his feet by Rykk.

"Look, it dropped something," Booker observed and pointed.

Booker pointed to a shiny, red bottle with a female devil carved into its top. Rykk was the closest to the bottle and picked it up. "Devil's Kiss, must be another Vigor." He said as he took the top off the bottle and took a swallow. An explosion of pain made him drop the bottle and he saw that his hands were on fire. The fire began to burn away his flesh, the pain was horrific. He yelled as he saw the bones of his fingers. As quickly as the burning torment came, it receded. Rykk looked at his hands and they were fine. He gasped and chuckled lightly, "Holy crap that was intense!"

Both Booker and Ratchet had stepped back out of reflex when they saw Rykk yell. They couldn't see his hands burning, but figured he was hallucinating like they did when they took Possession.

"So, I'm guessing you can throw fire now?" Ratchet asked.

Rykk looked at his left hand. It was glowing orange and looked charred. Rykk then threw a firebomb, similar to the fireman's, at a barrel. It exploded in red hot flame.

"That'll come in handy," Booker commented. "Let's go, we don't have time to waste!"

Finding a map on a wall, the gang found an alternate route to Memorial Island. First, they had to go through a restaurant called The Blue Ribbon. Before that, they had to fight through a squad of soldiers and an automaton, machine-gun turret. However, it was now much easier with Rykk's new power.

Though the restaurant was mostly empty, there were two people inside it that made the entire gang pause.

At the bar, cleaning the countertop was the man. Standing, in front of what was the doorway out of the place, was the woman. The woman held a tray with a bottle on it. The bottle contained a glowing, yellow liquid in it.

Booker spoke first and asked, "Why are you following me?"

The man responded without looking, "Better question is, why are you following us?"

Booker was confused by his response. "What? Ugh, never mind,"

Rykk, Ratchet, and Clank were just as confused and didn't know how to respond.

"Aperitif?" The woman asked/offered the group the bottle.

Booker took the bottle and took a drink, Rykk and Ratchet then also took a drink and they all shuddered. Yellow cracks formed across their vision and faded away.

"What the heck was that?" Rykk asked.

"Surprising," the woman responded as she stepped aside.

"Surprising that it worked?" The man asked.

"Surprising that it didn't kill them," The woman responded and the group was alarmed.

"But a magnetic repulsor field around one's body could come in handy…"

"…If it doesn't kill you." The woman reminded.

"A fair point,"

Everyone, including Clank, gave the two strangers odd looks as they made their way out of the restaurant.

Outside, the group found themselves on a ledge, it looked like a dead-end.

"Well this is nice," Ratchet stated; his words dripped with sarcasm.

Rykk looked around, if only I could fly. Why was my Alter taken from me?

"We all have Skyhooks right?" Booker asked.

Both Rykk and Ratchet nodded.

Booker pointed to a crane-like, freight hook hanging off a building. "Wonder if our hooks will grab that like the coppers did on the rails." With that, he leaped forward.

Both Ratchet and Rykk were terrified until they saw Booker shoot up to the hook. His Skyhook seemed to pull him towards, and latched onto, the freight hook. Booker yelled, "WHOA! The dang hook must be magnetized!" He then saw another one and leapt onto it.

Rykk looked at the hook, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He too than leapt and yelled as his Skyhook was pulled onto the freight hook. The pull was intensely powerful and Rykk's stomach was made a bit queasy.

Ratchet sighed before speaking to Clank. "Well pal, hold on." He aimed his Skyhook and repeated what Booker and Rykk had done. The lombax yelled as he was pulled through the air. Clank also yelled as he saw the platform they were on, fall away.

The trio (and Clank, who was doing his best not to look down) leapt from hook to hook till they came to another building. Booker leapt and, using his momentum, he hit a soldier on the head with his Skyhook.

The shield must make him able to jump from such a height. Rykk observed as he joined Booker.

Ratchet and Clank soon joined them, and the lombax found some machine guns. There were two, he took one and Booker took the other. Rykk was content with his pistol and Devil's Kiss.

They fought their way through some more soldiers and cops, till they came to a dark, ominous-looking gate. On top of the double-doors was a carved, symbolic, and eerie eye. Above the eye was a banner that read, "Audemus Patria Nostra Defendere".

Ratchet looked at the text before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know what it means."

Booker glanced up but didn't seem interested in its meaning. "It's Latin, don't know what it means and I don't care." He said as he pushed one of the doors open.

Rykk looked at it briefly before joining Booker. "It says something along the lines of, "We proudly defend our homeland" or something like it."

Ratchet nodded as he joined them. He then wished he didn't have to.

Through the doors was a dim, misty, and dreary courtyard. In the center was a statue, it was an image of Comstock fighting a dragon/serpent-like creature. The serpent had three heads; each head grotesquely represented some race. One head was a lombax with no stripes.

Everyone in the group stared at the statue, their faces showed repulsion and disgust.

"How can people hate others because of a stupid detail?" Ratchet asked.

Booker picked up a bottle of Salts that was lying near the statue. "It's just the way things are," His tone was cold and distant.

Rykk didn't say anything. He knew what it felt like to be put down because of the way one looked.

"Let's get going," Booker barked and they moved into the main structure.

The place was a wreck; it was very dimly lit, lights flickered on and off, there was debris everywhere, crows were in abundance, as was their crap, and the smell of rotten fruit and food was heavy on the air.

"Ugh," Ratchet exclaims quietly. "This place reeks,"

Booker and Rykk stare at a statue.

The statue is a man holding a Dillinger pistol and Ratchet looks at the statue and reads the name at its base. "John Wilkes Booth? Who is that?"

Booker looked at Ratchet and said quietly, "He assassinated our president."

Ratchet nodded and everyone froze as they heard footsteps coming from a room to their right.

Rykk looked around, his pupils did glow yellow. He pointed three fingers to his right and two to his left.

Booker looked confused for a second but then nodded as he and Ratchet took the room on the right, and Rykk moved for the one on the left.

The two men saw Rykk and drew pistols. Rykk threw a firebomb with his left hand and fired his pistol with his right. One of the men yelled as he burst into flames and was disintegrated. The other got two rounds off as Rykk's bullet tore through his head.

Booker and Ratchet burst from cover and sprayed the men down with bullets. Ratchet covered his nose as he located the main source of the rotten smell. It was a large, banquet-style table filled with rotten food and half-dozen crows were on it.

Rykk found himself standing in a bar. He saw something akin to a record player. He picked it up and observed it before pushing what looked like the play button.

And when the Angel Columbia gave unto the Founders the tools to build the new Eden, they did so without hesitation. For 85 years, they prepared the way of the Lord. But when the Great Apostate came, he brought war with him, and the fields of Eden were soaked with the blood of brothers. The only emancipation he had to offer was death.

Rykk shook his head. "The God I believe in is nothing like the one this lunatic describes." He tossed the device aside and rejoined Booker and Ratchet.

Booker found a vial of Salts and took some before tossing the rest to Ratchet.

The three made their way up a flight of stairs and down a hall. They came to what looked like a meeting room. Inside were seven men, standing around another man. They all wore robs and pointed, cloth masks that concealed their faces. The man in the center, his clothes was black, rather than the dark blue of those around him. There was also a flock of crows flying around him.

The man in the black robe and hood was giving some hate-filled sermon. It was interrupted as Rykk threw a firebomb in their midst. The man in black vanished as those that survived the fire attacked. They were easily killed by the determined group.

They looked around and found a stairway that led to a hall that ended in double-doors. They could hear pleading coming from behind them and Rykk used his vision.

"There's stripe-less lombax chained to a board!" He exclaimed and forced open the door. The door was caught on a chain and he saw the poor lombax get swarmed by crows. They pecked him to death and Rykk broke the chain.

They all jumped as they saw the black-robed man vanish into a flock of crows.

The trio stood back-to-back and all had their weapons aimed. They found themselves standing in what looked to be a small, indoors marsh. There were cages on the ceiling; each one was big enough for a man. In fact, a few had corpses in them. The sight sent a chill down each of the heroes' spines.

"What the heck is this?!" Booker asked/exclaimed.

Ratchet gave a puzzled/scared look, "Like we have any idea?!"

Rykk growled and looked around.

Booker saw the flock of crows land to his right and fired his reciprocator at it.

The Crow yelled as it slashed its sword at Booker.

Rykk spun and threw a firebomb; he made sure Booker was out of its range.

The Crow yelled as he was lit on fire and turned back into a flock and prepared to ambush them again. This time, it tried to attack Ratchet.

Ratchet spun and caught the Crow's neck in one of his Skyhook's hooks. Using the hooks' spinning motion, he decapitated the Crow. He also noticed that the Crow had dropped a bottle. It looked like a new vigor and had a crow's head carved into the bottle's lid.

"Murder of Crows, hmmm," Ratchet read and tossed the vigor to Booker. "This one's yours,"

Booker looked at it with a curious glance. "That's a heck of a thing," He said as he took a swing. He got tunnel vision and a crow with a bloody beak landed on his forearm. It had strands of flesh hanging off its beak and it looked around for a moment before flying away. Once the crow left, Booker's vision returned to normal.

"Well? How do you feel?" Rykk asked.

Booker looked at his hand, "Odd, but Possession's vision was worse."

Ratchet watched the little ghost fly around his hand. "Oh, so you took that too huh? Cool,"

Booker nodded and pointed towards a doorway. "We need to go, that looks promising."

They all approach the door, but a platoon of Comstock's men arrived and open fire.

Rykk and Ratchet fired till their shield began to crack and they ducked for cover.

"Now would be a good time to try out the new Vigor!" Rykk shouted.

Booker nodded and stood up. He pointed at the soldiers and his hand morphed. It gained some black feathers and black claws on his fingertips. From out of nowhere, a swarm/murder of crows dove at the soldiers. They began to attack and harass the men. They pecked and gouged them and forced the poor men to flail about.

The flock served as a great distraction and the gang finished off the men and collected ammo from their corpses.

Well, this fic has made me go and play Infinite again and I take some enjoyment from the Crows Vigor

Anyways, stay tuned for more!