I hate long update times! It really is beginning to bug me! They just seem to keep getting longer. I promise you the next one won't be so long! : ) I think people are still reading this! XD Regardless, I'll continue writing, no matter how long my update times are! (Maybe five weeks is normal? XP) Ok, well, it's time to move onto the next chapter! Enjoy!


The armor was stuffy, it always was. Even in the cool air conditioned interior of the ship it felt like he was roasting. Ratchet looked up at the ceiling fan in his room, wishing the damn thing would turn a little faster. It may be air conditioned but that didn't mean that it got circulated properly! He tugged at the gel-like interior of the armor. It was itching his fur something fierce today.

Sasha had ordered him to get some rest, because he would be deploying once the primary lights on the ship were out. He would have to be under cover of darkness because they had received orders from the president not to have any of the Rangers harmed during the mission. Harmed, the way Ratchet saw it, was a relative term. A few heads twisted the wrong way shouldn't damage any wires in there. Noise shouldn't be a problem either, he had handguns. Not his weapons of choice, but he couldn't very well take a RYNO in there, he would be given away instantly! So he would have to rely on something that wasn't so loud. A pistol.

He sighed, then picked up the one up that was lying on the bed next to him. He turned it over in his hands. It didn't feel right. But that was what he had to deal with, so that was what he would do…

He began to load it, slowly and methodically. There was something about this particular mission. He didn't like it. Everything felt wrong, like it was staged. Like something bigger was going to happen.

Something bigger was going to happen though, and soon. He hoped. He was ready and if all went well it would be fine. He decided to worry about the task in front of him instead for now. It would be his biggest stealth mission yet. He had no idea the number of enemies, nor their locations, nor their level of sanity. In essence, he was deploying blind.

He didn't like that.

There was always something, even on the toughest of missions. Something that would help, some intel that would be invaluable. The only thing he really had as of now was the art of stealth and the element of surprise. Plus that, Clank wouldn't be there… Apparently he had been out all day, starting production on another Secret Agent Clank film. Ratchet sighed, it seemed like it really dominated the little robot's life nowadays…

Then the lights went out.

His ear mike keyed up. It was Sasha, up on the bridge. He picked up his helmet and slid it over his head. Then he depressed the button on his neck and whispered into the mike, "I'm ready. Any more news?" There was a clatter of fingers on a keyboard before Sasha answered, "Not much, there's a lot of movement down there but it's still impossible to tell what exactly is going on. Are you sure you want to do this?" Ratchet thought about that for a split second, but he already knew what he was going to say. "Its what I have to do. Don't worry, I'll be fine." "I do worry, and always will. Be careful!" She whispered back. He smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

He slid his pistol into the newly outfitted thigh holster on his leg. It was an attachment to the Infernox Armor, one he had consequently never used. He dimmed the pulsing red lights on his armor as a precaution for every stealth mission. (He had always questioned the tactical relevance of the things…) Then walked over to the door. It hissed open and he stood in the doorway for a moment, then continued along the walls in the hall. He soon reached the archway at the end. The hanger was just ahead, something that would be difficult to conquer. There had to be a way across to the inter-ship transport. Thing was, he would have to set it on its way, then get into the section underneath, a normally restricted area.

Seeing no other options, he sprinted to the dual staircases, his feet making little noise against the polished floor. Crouched low to the floor with his back near the wall, he slowly ascended the left staircase, suddenly thankful that it was solid and not creaky. Then he posed the question to himself: 'Why all this sneaking around before I even get near the objective.' Then another thought occurred to him, an obvious one, 'Because stupid, there are Rangers everywhere, for all you know they could be on the fritz too!'

His curiosity self satisfied, he stepped onto the platform of the transport, then slipped off while the door was closing. And with that, the device was on its way, leaving the section below it completely open. He dropped down to the lower level and took a long look around.

It was obvious that his quarry had been here already. The computer screens were smashed and the keyboards were a mess. This was a minor control room, but all the same, not something to be destroyed. He proceeded to the door, palming the panel beside it with his hand, to show that he had clearance. Technically, he had clearance to go anywhere in the ship, but he never really had to use it.

There was a metallic click and the door slid open by itself. He stepped inside and the first thing he noticed was the sickly sweet smell of motor oil. He knew it by heart. All those years on Veldin were well wasted. But why here? Then he saw them, piles of oil drums, stacked against the far door in a barricade, as if meant to keep something in, or out. There was no way he had the patience, time, or really will to shift those, plus it would just make a lot of noise. So he would have to search for another way past them.

Undoubtedly there would be at least one guard stationed behind that door, and there were no other doors in this hallway. He looked up. A ventilation shaft jutted out from the ceiling. He rolled his eyes. Wall jumping up, he caught the grate on the first kick off, his weight pulled it off its hinges but his hand slipped by the time it fell. He hit the ground first and deftly caught it before it could hit too. He lay it by the wall and jumped again, this time catching the inside edge of the shaft. He pulled himself up and he was inside.

The shaft was small, that was the first thing that struck his mind. 'Who's dumb idea was it to use the ventilation shaft…' He asked himself. 'Oh yeah, mine.' He sighed and began to pull himself along, sliding on his hands and knees towards a column of light coming from the floor ten feet in front of him. Reaching it, he realized that it was another grate in the ceiling. Just as expected, there was a guard below it.

The reports were right, it was a Ranger.

There seemed nothing special about it, until he noticed it's eye. It was red, blood red. Normal Ranger eyes were orange. But then again, this was no ordinary Ranger. Looking around the shaft, he saw that it came to a dead end a little while further. That taken into account he decided that there was no choice but to drop down onto the Ranger's head, maybe extract some info out of him… With a little force.

Reaching his long fingers through the grate, he found the bolts protruding from the edges and began to twist them off. They turned easily, without a sound, as a result of the well oiled atmosphere of the ship. It wasn't until the fourth and final bolt that he had trouble. As he twisted it off its screw, it came off earlier than expected and he dropped it, right onto the Rangers head.

Before it had time to react, he busted through the grating and landed on its back, one arm around his neck, the other holding his pistol. He done it all in one fluid motion, dove through the grate, drawn the gun, and grabbed the robot's neck. He jammed the barrel into its green head and growled into its voice receptor, "Surprise asshole. Move and I pull the trigger, talk and I pull the trigger, if you so much as twitch without me telling you, I'll pull the trigger. And we don't want that now do we?" He took the Robot's silence as a no. "I'm going inside to meet some of your friends, anything I need to worry about?" He jammed the gun farther into it's skull. "They have guns!" "I'm shocked and amazed, what else?" Ratchet queried further. "We were sent to capture- Uh, to destroy the ship!" The robot stuttered back. "Capture who?" He asked. "Nobody! I made a mistake!" "Capture who?" Ratchet began to twist the robot's neck. "Ahhhh! I don't know who he is! A high ranking official! Someone important!" "Someone… important?" "Yes, go ahead, pull the trigger. I don't know anything else!" Ratchet considered this. Then said, "No, I still have use for you! Walk over to that door over there," He indicated it with a wave of the gun. "And ask your friends to open it. You know what happens if you don't do exactly what I say." The robot silently complied, going to the door and talking to the guards on the other side. "I need to go to the engine room. Open the door!" It then hissed open to reveal two Rangers standing beyond it.

Ratchet moved the pistol and shot them both in the head. Then dropped it and returned to the final Ranger. He flipped opened the hatch on the back of it's neck and yanked one of the wires out. It slumped to the floor. The whole thing had taken only seconds.

He rolled off it's back and muttered to himself, "Sometimes I really hate this job." Picking himself up, he edged around the bodies. Then he slid through the open door and down the hall. Consulting the map on his HUD he saw that the engine room was due east about one hundred feet. There was a corridor that would take him directly to it a few hallways down.

Upon reaching the door leading to the hall, he saw that it too was blocked by barrels. He looked up again. No vent. He would have to move the barrels… Quietly, very quietly, he began to shift them. It took over fifteen minutes to get the door clear enough to palm it and move to the corridor.

As the door slid open, he knew he was in trouble. There were guards everywhere in the hall. He would have to make a distraction. Consulting the map again, he saw that there was a lights control room branching off from that hall. It would be perfect. He slipped past the few guards that he could and almost bumped into another. When he finally reached the door to the control room he was surprised that none of them had seen him. Opening it, he saw that the room was filled with computers. They were just camera monitors and he quickly found the one for this hall.

There was a switch next the keyboard that said, "Lights" He rolled his eyes, thinking about how obvious it was that this was the correct switch (it was big and red too…), and flicked it. As expected, the lights flashed off and he heard footsteps running towards the room. He quickly slipped out and flattened himself against the wall in the dark. It seemed like every Ranger in the ship was running to the room. As they all stupidly filed in, he crept past the door and ran into the hall again. There was one Ranger left on watch, who he decided to slip by instead of shoot.

The door at the end of the hall would lead to the engine room. All he would have to do was open it, sneak in and disable the charges, theoretically. He opened the door and slipped inside.

They were everywhere, red eyes flashing, must have been twenty of them, all in the same room. He might disable the charge but he wasn't getting out after they noticed that! But then he thought for a minute, 'What if I don't have to disable the charge, more likely than not, they only made it enough to destroy the engines. If I can get it off the engine, run for my life straight through them and drop it on the way, it might just blow them up and not the engines, giving me time to escape. I'll have to knick the detonator off of one of them though. And that'll be kept close to the bomb…'

His plan decided more or less, he began to edge around the room. Sticking close to the walls, he was able to slip past every robot in the room. It was just luck. 'These Rangers aren't cowardly anymore, they're just… Stupid.' He mused as he made his way to the engine.

Then he was there, right next to the bomb. A light blinked red and green on it every few seconds. 'There!' Right next to him, not a foot away, on the waist of a ranger was a small cylinder; the detonator. The robot had its back turned, another stupid move, but how would it know. He reached out towards it and gently gripped the detonator between his forefinger and thumb. He slowly lifted it until it unclipped, then whisked it away. The robot seemed to take no notice at all.

Now to lift the charge off of the engine. It was stuck there with adhesive so he drew a small knife from his belt and began to pry it off. Thank goodness the lights were off, or he would have been spotted immediately.

As soon as he finally cut through the bonds, a shout rang out, "Hey who's that!" A patrolling Ranger had spotted him, probably by his shadow, and pointed him out. Ratchet lifted the bomb off of the coil and ran for it, right through the big room and right through the mass of robots in the center of it. He dropped the charge when he thought he was midway through the maw and continued to sprint for the door.

Arms and hands reached for him, but none of them could grab his armor, for it was made to have as few handholds as possible. Then he was out through the door. He shut it and whipped out the detonator for the bomb. He clicked the button on the top and started running again. There was a muffled thump from behind the door and he didn't know if he got them all but it would hold them for long enough.

He drew his pistol as the lights finally came back on. There was a flood of the Rangers that were in the long corridor earlier. He didn't even stop, just fired into the mob and kept going. He saw several of them drop but didn't have time to check how many. Then he busted through the door and ran back to the one with the three destroyed Guards in it. He jumped over the bodies and made his way to the hatch on the opposite end of the room. 'Damn!' He thought, he'd have to use the vent again, as the other side was blocked.

He jumped up and clung from it, then pulled himself in. When he got to the other shaft, he slid down into it and into the room below. Then he walked over to the door and opened it.

Sasha was standing outside. A small army of Rangers waited behind her. These didn't have red eyes. "Ratchet," She started. "Thank god your ok! This group of Rangers has been screened by Al, they should be fine. They're gonna clean up in there." She smiled, "You saved my ship again. Thank." Then Ratchet removed his helmet and returned her smile. Then, turning to the waiting Rangers he said, "You heard her! Get in there and clean up whatever Guards I missed!" He nodded towards the door and the Rangers began to file in and began to work on clearing the barrels at the end of the hall.

Ratchet closed the door behind them and was quickly blown over by Sasha! She hugged him tightly to her and whispered in his ear, "I always hate it when you do things like that…" "What do you mean?" He mumbled back, face pressed into her fur. "Just when you go and fight! I always worry that you'll come back horribly wounded, or you'll die, or you'll get captured-" He cut her off, "I know, but you don't need to worry so much, I'll be fine! I'm more than a match for a few Rangers." "I know, but I still worry." She whispered back. "So I've noticed, but I'll always come back, no matter what."

(A while later.) The Ranger lay on a table, arms at its sides, head back, light out. Al stood next to it, a pair of pliers in his hands. As the bridge crew looked on, he began his explanation. "The folly we were experiencing with this group of Rangers was nothing more than a few misplaced wires and chip. Assuming the chips are programmed correctly, reassigning this chip here," He began to reach into the robot's head, working around with the pliers. "and these two wires here, and lastly this memory pod here… Aha! Done! Now just to power it up." He opened a hatch within the head and pushed a button inside. The Ranger's eye glowed red for a split second then quickly switched back to the normal orange. "See!" Al said triumphantly. "Its just fine. Now, soldier," He addressed the robot, "Execute patrol route four." The Ranger saluted, then began to walk off to perform its commanded duties.

"All there was to it! I think…" Al said, smiling. Sasha stood up and said "Great! Now, could you do that to all the others that weren't destroyed, they could still be of use to us!" "Of course." Al said matter of factly. Then he strode off to retrieve the other disabled Robots.

Almost as soon as he left, the view screen on the bridge lit up red with a big "ALERT" right in the middle. Sasha ran over to the Command Chair and punched some keys. "Oh my god! There are Tyhrranoid ships attacking Metropolis! That whole ordeal with the Rangers was just a diversion! Ratchet, I hate to say this but, I need you down there! Stop them!" Sasha said, whipping around to face him. Ratchet nodded angrily, "I'll get clank!"


Alright, another chap complete! (And yes, that was a Splinter Cell 2 reference in there, I thought it would be funny!) Again I say, I promise the next update time will be shorter! For those of you who are actually reading this consistently (If you're out there!) stick with me! This is my longest chapter yet… (I guess is was trying to make up for the update time! XD) Hope you liked it and I'll be back real soon!