Ch.6: Lethal Lockdown
"Where are the others?" asked Brax, once he and Cora managed to take off in their ships.
"Don't worry" Cora told her friend " They'll catch up with us. Right now, we need to stop Qwark!"
"Right," said Brax, agreeing over the com, knowing it was smart to take Cora's lead.
She was right. Ratchet and the others would be okay, and would catch up with them soon. What should worry them now was Qwark, and the chaos inside the jail.
Qwark needed to be stopped before anyone else got hurt. Pushing his throttle to the max, Brax blasted off, leaving all his worry about the others behind, following Cora in the danger zone up ahead.
Meanwhile, back inside of the ranger base, Ratchet, Clank, and Elaris were trying their best to get out of the danger zone, as the robotic, security defense systems chased them down.
With the whole base on lockdown, there was little choice for them to run, as lasers burned at their heels. Elaris quickly equipped herself and started blasting at some of the drones, while Ratchet managed to knock some silly with his Omni-wrench, but the ranger robots were tough, and clearly built for a fight. It would take a miracle in order for them to survive.
"How is Nefarious doing all of this?" Ratchet asked as they ran.
"He used to be a Galactic Ranger remember" said Elaris " so obviously he knows the defense system pretty well, even though I have tried hard to improve it since he went rouge."
"Ratchet!" said Clank "Make a left turn up ahead,"
Following Clank's advice, Ratchet quickly turned left, ducking into an open room, which Elaris was quick to seal the door once they were inside. The sound of robot guards passed by where the doors were closed, and the trio of heroes could breathe a sigh of relief that they were safe, for now.
"This is impossible!" said Ratchet, looking around as Clank hopped off his back " There's to many of them, and we're trapped in here. We need to find a way to stop Nefarious so that we can go help Cora and Brax."
"The control room might be able to shut the defenses down" said Elaris " but there's no way you and I can make it to there."
"But perhaps I might," said Clank, looking up to a ventilation shaft.
Ratchet immediately realized Clank's plan and was quick to refuse.
"No Clank, it's to dangerous" said Ratchet " What if something happens and you get hurt?"
"My systems can be repaired" said Clank " but you and Elaris are in danger the longer we stay in this room. Eventually, the robot guards will find us. I must do this Ratchet, you know this."
"I know" said Ratchet " but I don't have to like it,"
"Here, I'll give you a boost," said Elaris, lifting Clank up to the open ventilation shaft.
Soon the robot crawled inside, while Elaris and Ratchet both shared twin grins of worry.
"Be careful Clank," said Ratchet to his friend.
"I will," said Clank, and continued on his own.
Meanwhile, at the prison, Brax and Cora finally arrived to help the all the prison guards quiet down the riot. Several of the fine officers had already been injured, and Brax and Cora were amazed by the number of prisoners that ran amok.
A few of the smarter criminals quickly recognized who the rangers were the moment they arrived, and turned to flee back to their cells where they would be safe. The dumber ones however, thought they could stand up to Brax and Cora in a fight. They were quickly proven wrong.
One…two….a dozen criminals went down! Soon, Brax and Cora could see the infamous mug who had started all this madness, Captain Qwark.
Quickly stopping him from punching another guard, Brax and Cora lunged, dragging their former boss to the ground. Qwark struggled with all his might, straining Cora and Brax's strength to their threads.
Nonsense was flying out of the deluded Captain's mouth. Stuff about monsters, and fire, and how innocent people needed to be saved.
"What happened to you Qwark?" thought Brax.
The Captain's crazy laugh was his only reply.
Back at Galactic Ranger Headquarters, Clank let out a sigh of relief as he finally made his way out of the ventilation ducts and into the control center for the ranger base.
He had to work fast, who knows how much time Elaris and Ratchet still had to endure. Running up to the computer, Clank instantly jumped up and started tapping away at the keys, hacking into the defense network to hopefully shut the whole system down.
Dr. Nefarious's work didn't make the job easy, but eventually Clank was able to forge ahead, and breathed a sigh a relief when the green light came on, indicating that everything was now okay.
"Success" said Clank, then used the com-signal to inform Elaris and Ratchet " Defense systems disabled. All security droids are now offline. You should have clear sailing to the hangar where we can meet Brax and Cora. I'll join you as soon as I can."
"Thanks Clank!" said Ratchet over the line " We'll see you there!"
With that said, Clank turned the com off, and then went to exit the room through the front door since he no longer needed to fear about the security bots roaming outside. However, as soon as the little robot opened the door, horror came to greet his eyes as an unfamiliar robotic villain stood in way.
"Ha!" laughed Nefarious reaching out his metal "Thanks for deactivating the defenses for me. Now Clank, you'll come with me."