I do not own Ratchet and Clank (I wish I did) that honor belongs to the brilliant minds of insomniac games
On with the story
Ratchet was not expecting to be given a place within the ranks of the hand of shadows. He did not have many skills as a thief. But it didn't sound like Brynjolf was asking.
"Why do you want me in your crew, I don't have many skills as a thief" Ratchet asked
"Because I am pretty sure that the Praetorian Guard knows that you were with me, and they will be after you now as well" Brynjolf replied
Ratchet sat down on the fountain next to Brynjolf and pinched the bridge of his nose. He let out a sigh and spoke "ok, I will join up with you guys but if you expect me to be useful I'm going to need some training". Brynjolf nodded his head and extended his hand to Ratchet. Ratchet took his hand and Brynjolf pulled him up. "If training is what you need then we'll get you some training". With that the motley crew of thieves made their way to their next safe house.
They were walking down the street in the shadow district when a man stepped out from an alleyway. "Brynjolf, it's been a while hasn't it?" Brynjolfs hand moved a little bit closer to his dagger. "Yeah, it has Luka". Luka unsheathed his short sword "you took their lives and now I am going to take yours" Luka charged at Brynjolf. "Breach give me your sword, Shooter if he starts winning this fight take the shot, non-lethal". Shooter nodded, Breach did as he was told and he unsheathed his sword and tossed it to Brynjolf who caught it just in time to block a strike aimed straight for his head. Brynjolf swung his sword at Luka but it just bounced off of Lukas steel armor. "Is that all you got Bryn, I thought you were better than that" Luka taunted. Luka swung at Brynjolf again only this time they locked swords into a stalemate. Luka gave a toothy grin before punching Brynjolf in the face with his free hand, knocking out one of his teeth in the process. Brynjolf tried to keep his balance but he failed, he fell to the ground because he was dazed by the blow. He normally would have just shrugged off the hit but it hurt twice as much because of the steel gauntlets on Lukas hands. Luka put his blade to Brynjolfs neck "any last words old friend" Brynjolf wiped the blood from his face with his forearm "yeah, just one, shoot". Luka was too busy fighting Brynjolf to notice shooter loading his crossbow. Shooters bolt pierced Lukas kneecap locking his knee in place, this gave Brynjolf the time to leg sweep Luka onto the ground. "There is no honor in killing an injured opponent, next time it'll be you and me, no interference from anyone else, whoever wins, wins I'll be ready".
The group of thieves continued their journey towards their secondary safe-house in silence. Ratchet broke the silence first "who was that guy, I've never seen moves like that before". Brynjolf looked over his shoulder to Ratchet "he used to be our enforcer, one of the best swordsmen on Fastoon. His parents were both Praetorian guards, they had me cornered with intention to kill me. I had no choice but to fight for my life, now he wants revenge for their deaths".
They made it to the hideout that was in the deepest darkest part of the shadow sector. It was a large square building with a courtyard in the center. The building was approximately the size of a large warehouse building in diameter. The walls stood one hundred feet high and they had gargoyles on the roof all the way around the building positioned fifty feet apart. There were archers' positions along the roof as well, to fend off attacks. The group walked to large Iron Gate
"Welcome to fort crimson Ratchet. It used to be a Praetorian Guard fort, but they abandoned it five years ago. This is going to be our new home, just as soon as breach cracks the lock on the gate"
Ratchet had seen this building during his brief trip to fastoon when he fixed aphelion. It was one of the very few buildings on fastoon that was left completely unscathed from Tachyons attack.
"So, why did the guard abandon it" Ratchet asked
Brynjolf gave a grin "no tactical advantage, kind of ironic huh"
Ratchet raised a brow "what is?"
"They abandoned it because it held no tactical advantage for them, now we are taking residence inside of it and it's going to give us the very advantage that we need".
Breach cracked the lock and it took the whole crew to lift the gate up. Each member would go under the gate one at a time while the rest held it up. They would then hold the gate up from the other side. Once they were all inside, they began to explore.
The group found the sleeping courters of the fort. There were four rooms with ten beds each. At the foot of each bed was a footlocker. The crew rummaged through the containers to find anything of use. Shooter found plans for an upgraded crossbow, and he was ecstatic about it.
"Hey guys check out what I found!" Shooter yelled
Everyone ran over to Shooter and he was holding a piece of paper with plans on how to build a multi shot crossbow.
"In all my days, I've never seen anything like this before "Shooter said
"Looks pretty simple to build, if I had the tools I could put that together for ya shooter" Ratchet offered
"You might not be as useless as you think you are Ratchet, we could use someone with smiting experience" Brynjolf stated. Ratchet nodded and took the paper from shooter to examine it.
"Yeah, if I had the materials I could knock this out in a few hours"
The group gave each other a knowing look, "Well, I guess it's settled, were going to find a forge so Ratchet can get started". Everyone gave a nod,
"Since we don't know who or what else has taken a residence here, we are going to search the fort in groups of two. Ratchet you are with me, Snake you go with Slick and Breach you go with shooter"
"Do I have to go with that self-riotous fool" Snake said without a care in the world
Brynjolf rose a brow "Yeah, you do, and watch it we are a team and a team must work together as one, so put your petty differences aside and do as you are told"
Snake cannot stand Slick because he fights with his words and his mind; Snake sees it as a cowardly way to go about things. Snake gave an audible sigh and grumbled a few choice words before agreeing to go with Slick.
The three teams went on their way to find a forge for Ratchet to work. Ratchet and Brynjolf were walking down a corridor together. Brynjolf figured that was the best time to get to know Ratchet a bit more. "So Ratchet, what's with the cat" Brynjolf motioned towards Clank who was sitting on Ratchets shoulder.
"Oh, this is Clank, he has been by my side for years, and he was honestly the only friend I had for a long time"
Brynjolf nodded in understanding "where did you grow up?"
Ratchet thought about a back story so that he did not have to get into explaining time travel in a place where he would probably get branded as a nut job if he did.
"Well honestly, I don't remember, I have a bit of amnesia. The last thing I remember before I lost my memory was getting knocked down and by someone running by, I hit my head and it was lights out and I could only remember bits of my past".
"Well that's messed up-argh"
A desert wolf, also known as a dagger toothed wolf. Jumped out of a side room and pinned Brynjolf to the floor. Brynjolf struggled as he tried to keep the vicious animal from ripping his throat out.
CLIFF HANGER. I hope you all liked the chapter. I updated late because I still have a lot on my plate with my dysfunctional family and what not, also I have been suffering from a chest cold for the past week.
Please leave a review; it is what feeds my writing, so the more reviews I get the more chapters I pump out. Also if anyone has any suggestions for future chapters please leave them in the reviews as well. I love reader input.
And a response to (Destiny); Great chapter, good idea having Ratchet run in to one of his ancestor, very creative. Can't wait for the next chapter of this story and your other story "The demon of Polaris."
(Thank you very much I am glad you like it. As for the demon of Polaris, I am pretty sure you will love the next update (taps fingers with grin on face)
I love you guys ~Evil Ratchet Out! ~