Hey All! Chapter 3 here! :D

Again, thanks to these awesome peeps who did a review for the last chapter you guise are awesome! :3

Amberdiamondswords, Foenix Nightshade, evil Ratchet96, NHGamer360, LuigiWife1551

And to everone who even reads this you guys are awesome as too :3

(And because I'm mean I'm gonna tell you I've got a cool as mind boggling ending planned - which wont be happening for a while though, this isn't gonna be a short story…)

Also, the chapters will be swapping from Amel, to Ratchet each chapter. Chapter 2 was Amel, so this one is Ratchet :)

Now, here's the chapter!


After a quick 15 minute sprint, we saw a blue skinned man in the distance. He had a cowboy hat, wheat sticking out of his mouth, and a small sword in a sheath hanging of his belt. As we neared him, he got up out of his flax-woven chair, and slowly walked towards us. Clapping once as he stopped a meter away from us.

"Hello, Friend! I see you found the Captive." The blue skinned man greeted us and held out his hand, which I cautiously shook

"Wait, you knew about him?" I asked, a bit of anger building up inside me, but I pushed it back down once he stated his intentions.

"Oh yeah, 'course I did. I thought I could hit two birds with one stone, ya know? So we both get want we want" he said the last sentence in a sly voice, dragging out certain words like he does whenever he talks about a 'business' preposition.

"Right" I replied unconvinced, just wanting to get this ship and go. After a short moment of silence, the Smuggler spoke again, bringing up the real topic of our conversation.

"Did you get the experiment for me?" The Smuggler finally asked. I unhooked the obsidian gun from my belt, and held it out for him to see, but only so he could see it, not take it.

"Lets see that ship first." I stated my intentions clearly. He just nodded, like he was expecting it.

"Sure, Hos. Right over here, follow me." He turned around and waved at us to follow him which we did. We were led behind his ship to another small clearing with something that had been described to me before. A blue Lombax ship, split nose and orange stripes going down the body and a new looking glass hatch, stained orange to match the paint job.

"That's my ship!" Amel shouted from behind me. I almost expected a mystical voice to reply with 'Possession is an illusion. Do not all thangs belong to the cosmos?' but this was the smuggler, not the Mystic. He replied with the same voice as always, assertive, and passive at once.

"Well yes it was your ship. But after you crashed I bought it off some stupid Kerchu for a hundred bolts. So now, it's mine, unless you give me that gun."

"Here" I said, throwing the black gun to him. He caught it with ease and went over to the ship, hooking the weapon to his belt as he walked. He proceeded to open up the bonnet and re-connect some wires for us, which he probably disconnected earlier so we wouldn't scam him.

"You had a very lucky landing" The Smuggler spoke to Amel out of the blue, whilst connecting up the wires. "You landed on some featherlight trees, and a couple of bushes that were well placed. The only damage the ship took was in underbelly, which is heavily scratched. And the windshield which was completely broken. But, I took the liberty of replacing it. The plan was to sell this here space fighter for some big bolts, make a hefty profit out of the hundred I got if for. I knew a guy who could get me a matching glass hatch for it, but on our return flight we ran out of fuel, and found you on Cobalia" He gestured to me. "And that's where the idea came from. See, I'm a businessman, always looking where the big bolts are, and I reckon grummelnet will pay me a hefty buck for this here weapon." He tapped the gun on his belt before finishing up with the wiring. The bonnet closed with a small click, signalling it was locked again, and he opened the hatch for us.

"Oh, by the way. The Kerchu are probably looking for us, so it may be best if you leave now, like we are" I told the Smuggler, just as a fair warning since he kept his deal.

"Thanks friend. I was gonna leave this planet anyway, those Kerchu have dealt with me for the last time... Now take care Hos. Glad to do, business with ya. I guess I'll be seeing you sometime in the near future?"

"It's a possibility" I said, waving him off whilst Amel went over to the ship to activate the core CPU. The Smuggler had walked back to his ship before Perihelion had started up. The ship started hovering, just above my head level and I saw what the smuggle meant by 'scratched underbelly'.

"How long has it been this time?" she asked herself rhetorically before she saw us. "Oh, Amel. I thought you were dead like the last pilot I had..."

"No, I was captured for a couple of weeks, but I'm back now." Amel explained to his ship. "Any idea what hit us?"

"No, something electromagnetic. I'd guess pirates." The ship said, sounding sure of her estimate

"Okay, it doesn't matter much now anyway. But these two here are Ratchet, and Clank" He gestured over at us.

"Hey… Perihelion?" I waved at the ship. She responded in what could only be called shock.

"Another Lombax? I wasn't sure if there were any more… Are there others?"

"Sadly no." Amel said, in a defeated tone, ears drooping slightly at the thought.

"Oh, okay" reacting like Amel had, dipping down her nose a bit. After a small silence, I spoke again reminding everyone what had just happened.

"Well, I think we should go now since theres probably a whole Kerchu gang looking for us right now" I added to their conversation. Amels ears lifted back up as he readjusted his thoughts to the situation we were in.

"Oh yeah. Quick, get in."

As we hopped in the ship and the hatch closed, we saw the Smuggler just ahead of us, leaving. It took a minute to exit the planets atmosphere, but Perihelion did it with ease and left me thinking 'I want a ship like this'. As soon as we entered space, Amel flicked the switch for the warp drive and we sped away from Jasindu, and from danger.

"So, what now..?" Amel thought aloud, trying to ponder up a plan.

"Well, we don't have any leads... except for one..." I replied cautiously. I knew he wouldn't like what I was about to say.

"What?" He asked, C'mon, spill the beans!" I braced myself for his reaction at was he was going to say...

"I think we should go back to your old campsite, maybe get some things you left there, and ask around the community where would be a good spot to learn about some history..." I was expecting a small outburst from the guy, but I got quite the opposite.

"Peri, could you go on autopilot to home please?" He asked the ship as an answer to my question.

"Inputting Coordinates now" Peri responded "You are free to let go of the wheel. It is a 54 minute drive at an average flight speed, or would you like to warp there.

"Nah, it's fine. Gives us some time for a chat" Amel responded. He turned his chair around to face Clank and I in the back seat. He spoke first, voice hardened, in a 'down to business' type way.

"We'll need supplies," He began, "I can get those pretty easily. We hid all of our bolts near our campsite so moneys no problem"
"Great. Do you have anyone that you trust?" Amel formed a pained expression and he rubbed his face as he spoke in a strained voice.

"Yes, but it's been three weeks, who knows what Tachyons done?" I nodded at this, thinking the same thing as he was. But we couldn't just do nothing.

"Great. Well, before we go to land, we'll scan the area for imperial troops, as well as the city"

"Then it's a deal. What next though? We've got absolutely no leads" His question rung in the air for a while before I thought up a response, and my answer came out slowly

"Umm... We'll see after we leave Tlekelimn. Right now, I think its just important that we get out alive, if Tachyon is there."

"It'll be fine" He waved my comment off "Now you're worrying"


We landed on Tlekelimn within the hour, going top speed for the last 10 minutes to halve the time to get there. Perihelion landed in the clearing, and moved slightly underneath the trees automatically, like she had since she had been rebuilt. There we're no Imperial Patrols surrounding the area at all, but since they had been scouting the city ever since the last time Amel was here, we decided to be quick. As soon as the glass hatch opened, Amel sprung out of the ship and ran over to his old campsite. The place was still intact, as well as everything in it. Tachyon must've left the area after Amel took off, trying to get into pursuit with him before he warped off, but to no avail as Amel escaped him. He took out a spade from the small handmade house ahead of us and walked straight towards an old tree that resembled an oak. He proceeded to take 10 steps to the left of the tree before sticking his spade into the ground, taking out piles of dirt with each movement. Within a couple of minutes, he uncovered the hidden booty of bolts. We put 300 into a safe at the back of the ship, and the rest got teleported into my bank account via my wrench. Amel told us to stay outside for a second as he went through the front door. My suspicion aroused for the minute and a half that he was gone for, but when he stepped out of the front door, I understood why he didn't want us to follow him. He had replaced the white rags he had been wearing earlier with a dark green shit, black down the sides to match his black pants. He wore some leather gloves that showed his fingers and unlike mine, only went up to his wrists. Overall he looked taller, and much more humane which gave me a slightly different perspective on him, rather than what the white rags did for him, though the shirt hung loose a bit since Amel himself was now a stick. We needed to just sit down, and have a feast for dinner since we were both hungry. Before i could say anything, Amel told me to search the house for anything I thought was useful and he walked off to the jungle.

"Where do you think he's going?" I asked Clank, whilst walking into the house.

"I am unsure, but it may have something to do with the day Tachyon came. Looking for clues to his friends whereabouts, possibly" Clank answered my question, a hopeful expression on his face.

"Well, I think I better go after him, ya know? Just incase." I stopped in my tracks, as did Clank.

"I will perform a scan of the house, to reveal any hidden items" The small robot said, extending his antenna as he prepared for the scan.

"Thanks Pal." I said just before running out of the house. When I caught up to Amel, I found him on the ground, sobbing. His feelings had exploded out of him all at once, leaving him on the ground in a state of trauma. I walked up to him, sat beside the brown Lombax and gave him a couple of minutes to calm down before saying anything. I saw a piece of fabric in his hands, dried blood all around it and I knew that the chances of his friends survival were dim.

"This was where I last saw them" Amel spoke, tears still coming out slowly from his puffy eyes. "They were all I had… I should've stayed to protect them..." I was at a loss for words. I knew the severity of this situation for him, and I knew I had to say something to comfort him, but what? After thinking of what to say for what seemed like a minute, I took a different approach of conversation instead of trying to reword a sentence that would be of no help.

"What were they like?" I asked, still unsure of how he would react, but there was a purpose to my question.

"Kaile and Keise? They were brilliant…

They were twins, with red/orange fur, and crimson stripes. They looked almost exactly the same, except that Kaile had longer ears, a more masculine body, and he was slightly taller. He had brown eyes that were filled with knowledge and wisdom. He was into his books, but you could always count on him for a fight. Keise on the other hand was more into adventure, like me. She was shorter than her twin, just taller that you, and her eyes were a beautiful deep brown, that held another galaxy full of adventure…" He drifted off slightly, a pained look coming over his face but he soon composed himself just enough to continue talking.

"They were my best, and only friends. Like family. I could always count on them, and they could always count on me, but now… It feels like I'm living another life, just in the same place…" He drifted off, ending his small spiel with a sob.

"When i was about 12, my best friend died on Veldin, before Clank, I was told this by Jewel, my caregiver;

'Remember them as they were, not as they are now. Remember all the good times, and never the bad. Remember them heroes, of your life and others. Remember them for good, because friends never let you suffer'"

He looked up at he and smiled slightly at what I had said, and wiped the tears out of his eyes, and fur. We slowly got up and continued walking away from the campsite. He was looking for something. I wasn't sure what, and I decided not to ask, just out of politeness. He broke the silence after a minute with an unexpected comment.

"I loved her you know" He said, looking up to the sky. "I loved her since I made those wrenches and saw that smile on her face. It was a rarity back then since we werent living as well as the last few years, but It gave me hope. She was the only one who could make me do something, anything. When it came to that day, and Kaile told me to leave, I said no. I wouldn't have left unless she ordered it, and she did..." He drifted off again and his gaze turned back to the ground.

"So we're looking for the wrenches then?" I asked slowly, again unsure of how to respond

"Yeah" was all he said, moving his head up, scouring the jungle of any sign of anything really. We decided to split up momentarily on our quest for the wrenches, and it wasn't long before they were found.

"Amel!" I shouted through the jungle. "I found something!" there was a few quick footsteps before he was right by my side. I held my arm out towards the two wrenches, placed in a straight line. He knelt down and studied them for a second before picking one up.

"Why positioned like this?" He asked, more to himself than to me. I racked my brains to try and answer his, and found myself walking forward in the direction of the wrench. I guessed it could've been a clue, and the head of the wrenches were pointing to something. Amel picked up both the wrenches, and and followed me.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his tone curious towards what I was doing. I ignored him, and continued forth till I came across a tree. There was one word hastily scratched into the side.

'Inside'

"What does it mean?" I asked him, as he quickly walked up to the tree. It looked like he knew what he was doing because he started looked around the tree.

"These tree's are hollow" he said after a while, answering my question. I was about to respond before his hand went missing inside the entrance, and he pulled out an envelope. On it, there were two names written, but more precisely than the writing on the tree, which raised more questions. The two names that were on the envelope were none other than Kaile, and Keises'. Amel used all his effort not to break down again, I could see it in his face that he was holding some tears back as he read it out.

'Dear Amel

We are writing this as you are hiding Peri, and hope you never find this, but if you have, it means that today didn't go like we wanted it to, but we want you to know anything we do in the next hour, we did for you.

If Kaile and I are gone from your life, please don't break down. Stay strong, do what you have to do to live and don't do anything too outrageous. We all had a great life together, the 10 years in Tlekelimn are how I always wanted to spend my life. It was great to wake up without a problem, and to sleep under the stars together, but I fear it may end soon…

You're just about to get back now, so I need to stop writing. I love you Amel, stay strong for me.

Keise'

Amel looked at the letter for a long time before closed and pocketed it. I don't think he had any emotion left at this point. We started walking back to the house slowly but he was walking through a hurricane of emotion, and he was losing the battle. I needed to do something.

"Hey, Amel?" He looked up at me as I spoke and I saw his red, puffy eyes, and the tear matted hair underneath his eyes.

"Look, we're gonna stop Tachyon - Whatever it takes. You, Clank and I will stop him." He smiled a bit at the thought, but it didn't last long because we soon heard the sounds of jet fighters coming up from behind his.

"Shit" we both muttered under our breaths before looking at eachother, laughing for a second and dashing off into a sprint. Clank was already in Perihelion as we emerged into the small clearing that Amel used to call home. But it was almost too late, the Jet fighters had turned around and slowed down to land

"Peri! Start up the cloaking device!"

"I've already done that. Hop in" The ship said in the only way she could. Amel and I jumped into the ship and the hatch closed and Peri turned us invisible from the outside. He then reversed the Lombax ship back underneath some thicker trees so that we definitely wouldn't be squashed by the jet fighters. Then, we waited.

It was only a minute before the two Imperial aircraft landed down beside us, less than a meter away. We kept quiet as 6 Drophyd Soldiers hopped out, 3 from each jet, and started scouting the immediate area. They weren't Elite guards, they only had Class 1 suits and a plan hatched in my head. I looked over at Amel who was still rubbing his eyes. But he had a look of determination on his face. Determination for revenge.

"Lets get 'em" I whispered enthusiastically, breaking the silence. "Theres only six, and they are wearing low level suits - We could win the battle easily. We could then grab some info of their ships computers" I added, to try and convince the others. In reality, we did have enough weapons, as well as our own wrenches. Amel quickly agreed

"Is there a plan?" The chocolate Lombax asked "Or is it just-"

"Shoot, Kill, Hack, Leave." I cut him off, grinning a bit. He smiled at me and counted down before opening the glass hatch that was concealing us from our opposition.

"Three… Two… One… GO!" He shouted the last word as the hatch popped up. Jumping out of the ship, and with Clank on my back I got started. I took out the Heavy Lancer I found at the Kerchu Hideout and aimed for the first guards head pod. As soon as the bullets got through the glass, the suits shut down.

"Shoot the glass pods that the Drophyds are in!" I shouted the advice to my friend who was in heavy arm to arm combat, swinging his wrench at the metal suits. "As soon as they're out, the suits are off!" He nodded at my words and used a hyper strike on the guard he was battling to smash the glass pod concealing the Drophyd operating the small mech. As soon as we found out that technique, killing them was just walking up to them and throwing our wrenches. The last guard actually tried to run away from us, but sealed its fate but tripping over a tree root.

"Well that was simple" Amel told me, a smile on his face. The first small step to avenging his friends had been done, and he was happy about it.

"Yeah, but sooner or later Tachyon will want to send the elite troops after us, probably when he thinks we have a chance at getting through, and I doubt those suits will have glass as easily breakable as these guys" I noted, gesturing to the small mechs surrounding us.

"Yeah. So, now what?"

"Hack the ship. Shouldnt be too hard" I turned to face the nearest Imperial jet. As we neared the enemy ship, I turned around to let Clank jump in and take control of the system. It turns out that there was no security on the ship, everything was easily accessible. But we knew that time was limited, so we copied it all over to Perihelion and took off towards the city, still invisible as we didn't want to be spotted by backup.

"So that went well, do we still need to go to the city?" Amel asked, probably fearing the response of the public, people asking where he's been for that past 3 weeks since he just disappeared.

"I think I have a lead on here" Clank said, scrolling down a list on the ships touch screen monitor.

"Stratus City, on Planet Kortog has a building called the Hall of Knowledge" Clank continued. "It is not accessible to the public, but also not heavily guarded it seems" He pointed over to some schematics of the building. The guard stations were minimal, so we shouldn't have much problem getting into the Hall, and finding out what our next plan of action could be.

"Okay, thats settled then. Peri, set a course to the nearest spaceport. We need to fill you up before we leave for Kortog" The ship replied as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Done, we should be there in 12.6 minutes. Hold on while we exit the planet atmosphere"

We did as Peri said, and found ourselves in space seconds later. We were going at a low, but steady pace to conserve fuel, and it was still only a 10 minute ride from now on till we reach the spaceport.

We got strange looks from the public as we walked through the port. Peri was getting filled up on Gelatonium, and Clank was continuing to look through the copied files, so that left Amel and I to pay for the fuel.

"You're not from around here, aren't you?" a stranger called out to us. We turned to look at the man, and found a Blargian, staring right back at us. He looked about 45, light blue eyes without a pupil. He had yellow teeth, and we could smell him far before we were close to him. I decided he was homeless, but he still may have some information for us. I looked over at Amel, who in turn looked back at me and gave me a small nod. We walked towards the red skinned man, and I was the first to speak.

"What's it to ya?" I asked, keeping my ground, being aware of the man since I have had a bad run in this his species before.

"What brings you here, Lombax? I thought Tachyon killed you all…" The man drifted off, a smile played on his face, but it was Amel's turn to respond

"Well, we're looking to return the favour, have you got anything important for us, or shall we leave"

"Take him out. Not just for your own agenda, for the Galaxy. It's in ruins and its all that bloody Cragmites fault. The only thing I could tell you is that he's looking for your secret, so you better keep it hidden."

"Secret?" Amel and I asked at the same time, but the man had already walked off, and we decided to let it go, he was probably just some street crazy anyway.

We grabbed some tinned food for our journey, and went up to the counter to pay for it, as well as the fuel. After seeing our approach, the store clerk kept his head down, never making eye contact, much less any proper conversation. We left the store with a small thanks, and a decent sized sack of canned food for our upcoming adventure.

"So what's that all about?" I asked Amel, since he obviously knew more about this galaxy.
"My guess throughout the years is that they're scared of us, but more scared of Tachyon, so they just try to avoid any sort of communication, unless its their job to" he explained, the best he could.

"Well, that does makes sense, but we're still as-"

'Congratulations! You have received an Interstellar Holo-vite from…

Walter Qwarkowski' My nav unit interrupted me. Amel was the first to react.

"Who the hell is Walter Qwarkowski?" He asked, stifling a laugh at the idiotic name.

"Sounds like Qwark who's a… 'friend' of mine."

"The guy who tried to kill you twice, then take all your glory?" He asked grinning from ear to ear at my past.

"Yep. Thats him." I said, with a hint of irritation as we walked back to our ship. The hatch opened as we neared it and we sat down on the two front seats.

"Peri, could you play this holo-vite for us please?" Amel asked, but the screen was already flickering, and before we knew it the imperial logo popped up on the screen...

"Mad for mayhem? Crave carnage? Adore destruction? Well today is your lucky day! You have been invited to participate-...oops. I mean witness- the greatest, bloodiest, goriest battle in the universe! The Imperial Fight Festival! (rated "M" for mature) Come on down to planet Mukow and enjoy a night of entertainment without any ulterior motives or deception. (Offer only valid for fuzzy, long-eared orphans and their tiny robotic companions.)"

There was an ounce of silence after the holo-vite played. We were probably all thinking the same thing 'It's a trap' but we knew we couldn't just leave it.

"That sounds like Qwark" Clank commented on hearing the Holo-vite.

"Which means its a trap" I finished for him, saying our thoughts out loud. "But its our only other lead. Plus, I guess we should just make sure he's ok…I mean, we can't just leave him"

"So does that mean we're going there first?" Amel asked, scratching his left ear lightly.

"Well, he's probably got something for us, that or he's begging for his life" I answered his question, not sure what to do myself. Qwark could be really annoying at the worst of times, better to get it over and done with now rather than him stuffing up something important in the future, although if I think about it, thats bound to happen anyway.

"Well, we need to know a bit more about what we're facing if we're going straight into the Emperor's clutches. I reckon we should go to the Hall of knowledge first, Qwark can survive another hour or two, right?" I thought about it for a short while before answering him. But I knew he was right, we can't just go in blindly to Qwarks trap.

"Yeah. We'll go to Kortog first. Information first, destruction later. Plus, there may be a couple more weapons for sale, and we'll need ammo before we go to an arena"

"True that. Peri, enter the coordinates for Stratus City, Planet Kortog please, and we'll be warping there this time." He ordered the ship. But Peri had already done it.

"Coordinates inputed. Take off now?" she asked. Amel put his hand to his chin, thinking about it before just going straight ahead into it.

"Yes, uhh… Yeah, we will. How long do you estimate the journey will take?"

"Approximately 15.7 minutes at warp speed, including time for entering the atmosphere and landing"

"Great, Thanks Peri"

"You're welcome" I looked back over the seats to Clank, who was still looking through the files on a small touch screen monitor.

"So, Clank, did you find anything else worth taking a look at?"

"Not really, just some... personnel... files of those Drophyds, which I happily deleted." We all laughed at that as we took off, heading for Kortog to hopefully learn something about our ancestors. I was sure that the same question was ringing through our heads. 'What happened to them?'


So what did you think of that? Leave your thoughts in a review! :3