Rise of the Uniposers

In the midst of a battle between the joined forces of Vox, Otto Destruct, Tachyon, Nefarious and Drek, Ratchet and the Cazarean boy Tehctar search for help. Ratchet learns about Tehctar's history and they eventually find Arv's ship, however Arv has been deactivated. Clank, Talwyn and Qwark manage to gain the upper hand, but wake up to be held hostage by the villains. Clank, however, comes out with a devious plan…

Chapter 7: Fragments

The blazing guns of Clank's Devastator, Talwyn's Arbiter and Qwark's Heavy Lancer proved to be effective against the Elite troopers of many species. Only a few managed to attack with minor injuries to the trio.
Noticing that they were losing, the villains ran back into the cloning facility and tried to come up with a plan as they ran through corridors, locking the doors behind them and making their way towards the meeting room. Safely, they enter the meeting room with 9 locked doors behind them.

The meeting room was rectangular and contained a single long desk with computers at each of the five seats. A huge black emblem was on the back wall, shaped like a circle with two white silhouettes of swords crossing in diagonal directions, with the hilts at the bottom. Behind the two swords were the letters VA, standing for Villainous Alliance. They sat at their designated desks and each got their troopers to patrol each of the nine corridors, with each villain getting two corridors except for Nefarious. Once finished, they anxiously expected something, as if they were waiting for the trio to come.

Clank, Qwark and Talwyn finished the last of the troopers and noticed that the VA was gone. They realised that this was their chance to end it. They entered the facility and came to their first roadblock. Clank tried to crack the code on the steel door, but the security was too high for him.

Without thinking, Qwark fired a bullet from his Heavy Lancer, which rebounded off, hit the side of entrance, flying into the left room, over the group of Tyhrranoids still running around, rebounding into the room to the right of that hitting a tank of gas, punching a hole it. Qwark, Talwyn and Clank immediately turned and ran as fast as they could while gas was streaming out of the punctured tank.

Otto Destruct sniffed the air and asked the others if they smelled gas. Nefarious couldn't as he was no longer organic, but Tachyon, Drek (with his nose still in place), Otto and Vox could all smell gas. They all got out of their chairs and headed for the door, placing a code to open it. Once the door was opened, however, fire burst out of the ventilation system and they all stood in fear as a bang loud enough to punch the universe filled the air as Clank, Qwark and Talwyn were all pushed to the ground by the shockwave, but they had minor injuries.

Trapped in the explosion, Vox, Drek, Otto and Tachyon got some enjoyment from the Lance & Janice program that was playing on Nefarious's frequencies, and managed to smack him on the head once it finished, even though they were knee-deep in debris.

It was nearly nightfall again, and they were surprised that the three actually left them in the rubble. Many broken droids and dead troopers were smothered in debris, and the four couldn't bare to look at any that weren't completely covered. Luckily, a few troopers had survived, but they were waiting for help too.

Vox, shocked by all this failure, laid his head back and remembered how he came to join forces with these villains…

"It's over, Vox," said the voice of the approaching Lombax in his DreadZone armor as I was coughing and spluttering and Slugha was by my side, watching the Lombax.

"No!" I rasped. "But it will be soon!" as I picked up a remote by my side and pressed the biggest button.

"Destruct sequence initiated," announced a female computer voice. "60 seconds until battle dome detonation."

"The escape shuttles all left LONG ago," I told Ratchet as I laughed. "Now we'll both die together. On live Holo-Vision!"

Slugha looked at me like I was crazy as I chuckled again. "It will be the best ratings-cough-I've ever had!"

Ratchet looked sad and heroically stated, "Even if I don't make it out alive, at least a lot of other heroes escaped tonight."

I coughed and spluttered before saying, "Enjoy your pathetic idealism," as I coughed again. "For the last few seconds of your life!"

Suddenly a whirring came as an escape shuttle landed just before Ratchet and Clank opened the door for him. Ratchet told him to hold on and he picked up Slugha and ran in with Merc and Green.

"!" I yelled as the shuttle blasted off and the last 5 seconds came. Desperately, I thought that if I ever made it out alive that I would chop off my robotic hand so people would think I died. I pulled a knife out of my jacket and pushed it down on my robotic wrist. There was no pain as I threw the hand up, and then realised that there was an abort button on the remote that one of the test robots must have added. I pressed the tiny button, obviously placed so small that I wouldn't notice and destroy him, and the female computer voice spoke once again.

"Destruct sequence on hold," announced the voice as I relaxed. I ordered two Executioners to help me and take me back to my office. Once I was placed on my desk chair, I pressed a blue button and programmed a transport shuttle waiting on another planet to fly to the station and take me off.

The wait was impatient and boring but eventually the transport arrived and I stepped on it with as many droids I could gather. I programmed it once more to take us to any planet in any galaxy and continued the DreadZone destruction sequence as we warped to another galaxy while I watched a collar from another shuttle get thrown out a window and simultaneously blew up with the station. I almost cried as I saw billions of bolts go to waste and an asteroid floating towards it nearby. All I could see after that was flashing lights as we were already going to another galaxy.

"Entering the Woldgon Galaxy," said the female computer voice on the shuttle. I had never ever heard of this galaxy, so it must have been far away. Soon the flashing lights on the windows swept into a black sky with white dots blinking. The shuttle made it's way to the nearest planet, a sandy looking desert planet with no clouds in the sky.

I exited the shuttle with my 20 or so troopers and looked around. It was nighttime and usually there'd be a cold chill in air, but instead I felt like I was burning to a crisp. In the darkness, I could only see rocks and began to see crazy-looking monsters of all shapes and sizes and advancing on him. I looked forward and saw a building in the distance. I ordered my troops to follow me and get rid of any creatures that tried to stop us.

I ran through the starry sky making my way to the shadow in the distance. I occasionally stopped when a beast blocked my path but my troopers dealed with them. I finally reached the entrance, panting and spluttering, only to find that the last of my troopers were torn apart, and the creatures were slowly walking up to me. Just as a monster pounced at me, the entrance opened and I was pulled in, before the creature landed headfirst into the strong door. I turned around and met the eyes of a creature I had never seen before.

The unidentified creature spoke with an extremely gruff background to it, and told me that he would not harm me. I was still petrified, however, as the monster changed its form into a bunny. He explained that he could speak telepathically and wanted to recruit me. Less terrified, I managed to utter a question to him, wondering what benefits I'll get. He responded by saying that one of the greatest villains in the universe had survived a battle, although he was forced into a robot and perfected a cloning device, allowing him to create troopers from a single unit. This is where I got excited, thinking that I'd be able to create an entire army of DreadZone troopers, before I realised that all of the remaining droids had been torn apart by scavenger creatures.

The bunny previewed to me that I would get my own quarters, a laboratory, an arsenal of weapons, a seat in the main meeting room and my own chance to be part of the Villainous Alliance, an organisation aiming for universal domination. The bunny transformed into a packet of a certain food named "chips" with a pink glow as he shape-shifted and he offered to show me around me around the facility, and then realised that he hadn't introduced himself properly.

He uttered a long phrase in an alien language that I had never heard before, surprising me like the time Ace Hardlight had defeated the previous champion of DreadZone, Hot Gas Killer. He realised that I didn't understand what he was saying, so he just told me to call him "Master", giving him a menacing title, before he trudged down a corridor.

Confused and seemingly taken aback, I reluctantly had no choice but to follow him.

A white light appeared in front of my eyes as I opened them and the snowiness cleared to the image of a Novalian bodybuilder pulling me out of the metal junk that had been torn apart from the climatic blast. He unexpectedly let go of my arms and crumpled on the junkyard as a purple glow formed around him and his shape turned into a crowbar.

After realising who my savior was, another blast was thrown up from beneath, pushing me into the air as fiery smoke surrounded me and in a blitz, I saw a purple glow reveal a blue hedgehog, which spun like a wheel and leaped into the air grabbing my chest and back with both of it's hand and landing away from the shockwave, as metal showered from the sky and buried the other villains.

I opened my mouth, from which the blue figure told me he took this appearance from a Vid-Comic about a speedy hedgehog. I sat down on a large piece of silver blown away by the wind and contemplated my plan. I had to somehow make my way through the rubble to find the probably already dead members of Villainous Alliance, buried deep in the metal and I had no idea where to start. But because I needed universal domination so badly, I started digging.

Away from all the commotion of Vox desperately scrambling to find his friends, Otto Destruct laid at the bottom of the mountain high junkyard, breathing through a jagged, bendy line of oxygen, seeping through the metal.

He suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, gasping, before shutting his eyelids and falling back into the rubble, attracting Vox's attention. Otto's eyelids fluttered as the world around him faded into white…

The fading rocket-shaped ship containing my worst enemies blasted away from Florana, leaving me, in the body of a monkey, and the chimp of the Q-Force, Skrunch, standing next to me in my body.

It was extremely hard to figure out who was who, meaning I didn't know whether Skrunch was me or I was Skrunch or…GAH! The 30% of my brain used couldn't take it anymore. Suddenly, Skrunch's sickly violet hand grasped onto my furry brown hand and pulled me only through the jungle.

In the distance, I could hear the drums of the tribesmen banging amongst the calls of Floranian Blood Flies in their nests. Skrunch and I passed through to a fairy ring of trees, where we sat for while. Soon I realised, that due to our minds being switched, were could telepathically speak to each other in the common language of most species.

Skrunch told me that he was taking me to his tribe, where they would take care of me and live there forever. Surprised, I told him that I didn't want to live in a tribe of space monkeys and eat bananas for the rest of my life, but Skrunch retorted by saying that every monkey has to return to their tribe as soon as possible, whether they switched brains or not.

As I pondered over the fact that I had to be a furry little creature till the day I died almost made me cry, but I was stopped by the swarms of Floranian Blood Flies forming out of the trees and surrounding us. We couldn't fight them because we were still adjusting to our new, hateful bodies, and we could barely walk in them. How was I supposed to fight with a bunch of weak red insects. A Blood Fly with a crown-like shape formed on it's head lunged at us and was whacked away into the swarm by a stick.

The Blood Flies followed their leader and stayed away from us, leaving me the fairy ring, Skrunch and the mysterious savior of ours. We turned to face the warrior, who turned out to be another monkey, and after explaining from Skrunch, the chief of the tribe.

He looked just like Skrunch, except he had small bamboo columns sticking out of his head band, made from the red hairs of a Mernasian orangutan, and spotted with Floranian nut crusts. He wore a necklace made from blue and purple pebbles washed up on the shores of nearby beaches, with a semi-circle shaped symbol hanging from it, with rectangles shooting out on the top and sides, like a rising sun with only three light beams.

My observing was interrupted by Skrunch's thoughts rushing into my head again, telling me to follow the chief and to not make a sound until we arrived at their village, where we would explain our problem.

We once again twisted our way through the dark-leaved trees, with more drums in the distance, combined with the calls of Blood Flies and other dangerous creatures, except this time we had a monkey wielding a skinny yellow bamboo stick, used for multiple purposes such as to help with walking over tough ground, guiding us to their "safe haven."

Many prickles stuck into our feet as we walked through dangerous forest, running into Blood Flies occasionally and defeating them with ease with the bamboo stick. We curved through a never-ending slew of trees and branches, before finally coming out into the open revealing the peaceful and bright village, containing 7 houses, a shop, a mill and an altar for praying to the monkey gods. Many monkeys were collecting wood to expand onto their village, and once they all noticed the chief emerging from the shadowy forest, they ran on all fours to greet him and his guests.

They all crowded around the chief who spoke in a strange monkey language to them, announcing that he had found the might Skrunch, who was apparently a hero and hope to the monkey religion and that he had found himself a sidekick. I was able understand this through Skrunch who translated it telepathically.

This statement filled me with rage. Skrunch didn't gain the trust of a tiny race and didn't put them in battle armor to gain domination over Ratchet and Clank. Skrunch didn't become an emperor or create an army. Why was he the heroic and successful figure and I wasn't?

Skrunch announced in secret to the chief about the mind switch which confused the chief, as he tried to tackle this conundrum, but eventually got used to fact that Skrunch was me and I was Skrunch. He then seemed skeptical at whether I should be trusted, due to the fact that it was my fault we ended up this way. The houses of the village were the simple hut layout. A cylindrical bamboo wall, with a cone-shaped ceiling, and a pavilion sticking out from it all around.

Skrunch and I were taken to the middle of the village, containing a well with a bucket tied to it with rope and a ring of stones in front of it, with wood already lit inside it. They sat us down around it with glee and followed the usual survival cooking procedures they had learned from a pilot that had crashed nearby.

By the time the sun had fallen, they finished their special dinner for the entire village and handed us plates carved from shells on the nearby beaches. They gave us cup-like shells as well and poured soup made from edible insects and nearby native fruits. I was reluctant to try some at first, but Skrunch eventually convinced and the soup actually didn't taste bad. For a small village, they sure knew how to cook.

Next they came out with the dinner, containing a large piece of meat from a huge creature that attacked a few days ago that they killed and took its meat from, then a infestation of small spheres that looked like beads, but were crunchy on the inside and tasted really good. But unfortunately, I didn't like the soft fish guts shaped like pillows which tasted like an overnight party inside my mouth.

Skrunch, however, enjoyed the fish guts and I gracefully spoiled him with my share of them. After a drink from the well, I felt quite warm and fuzzy and the chief took us to Skrunch's home before he left, which was still vacant after a few years.

The chief and the other monkeys kept the house sparkly, waiting for the heroic monkey to return to the village with many tales to tell. Skrunch hopped in his bamboo bed, and the chief talked to one monkey who was glad to give up his bed to me so I could rest well. I felt a little gracious at the kind offering, but shook it off, realising that a villain shouldn't be grateful.

It was a little uncomfortable at first, sleeping on a bed made entirely out of bamboo, but I got used to the feeling and eventually had a restful sleep, along with Skrunch. I dreamt of many memories, including the time I was betrayed by my girlfriend, Myxia. I first met Myxia in a combat academy on Tyruger in the Solana Galaxy, where I saved her life after a shielding device malfunctioned and an oncoming attack with a Cyber-Scythe would have killed her, but I managed to grab a second and block the attack. Cyber-Scythes were computer generated scythes with amazing strength and defence, also allowing the wielder to move in incredible ways and speeds. If the scythe was managed to be penetrated, then the cut wires would cause a failure in it's strength.

After the accident was over, she decided to repay me with an expensive Cyber-Scythe 3.7, the latest edition that contained a cloaking device inside it for sneaky attacks. We then became friends and tackled many problems together until when we finally graduated on my birthday and she gave me a kiss that lead to a romantic relationship between us. We were a little confused on what we were going to do after our graduation, but we then decided that we would form a duo to steal the most valuable objects in the galaxy.

Myxia and I were unstoppable, stealing from museums, caves and shrines, until the day we visited the planet Barotica. Before we left to steal the Yusi Ring, Myxia had decided that she didn't need me and only got into a relationship with me because of the usefulness she could get until she was strong enough. So, the day we left our ship to enter the factory, she swapped my Cyber-Scythe with a plain old broken one that would not be useful at all.

Confident, we entered from the air duct and jumped down into the room with the pedestal. However, as soon as we landed, we tripped the alarm and what looked like spheres with a huge red eye and green antenna on top spawning from every possible opening. The fired bolts out of their eye and Myxia jumped all over the place, slashing at the intruding robots. When I tried to move, I only moved like a normal old person and was soon shot down by the robots.

I was only stunned and managed to crawl back into the air duct and they ignored me, due to the strength of Myxia who was still fighting. I crawled into our ship and upon investigation, realised that Myxia had sabotaged my Cyber-Scythe and took it, replacing it with a faulty one that had completely broken.

Heartbroken, I took off without her, back to the academy to sort out my relationship, and found out a few days later that she had died when she touched the Yusi Ring, sending an electrical shock through her body more powerful than 1000 lightning bolts combined.

I woke up with a tear rolling down my eye and realised I was strapped to a chair beside one with Skrunch in it and I was stuck inside a spaceship ready for launch.

Skrunch was still asleep as we was too strapped on a chair by double seatbelts. I looked ahead and saw the chief separated by a pink barrier that provided as the door to the ship. I woke up Skrunch and told him to translate whatever the chief said.

"I'm sorry. The villagers put it up to a vote and decided that we couldn't trust your sidekick and we had to blast you off to space unknown. A year ago, a spaceship crashed and had no lifeforms inside. It was in good condition so we decided to make minor repairs and use to trap anyone we didn't trust inside and then make leave. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to break it to Skrunch so we strapped him too, so he will provide use in space because of his knowledge. Goodbye."

The chief began a countdown from 20 and in those few seconds I desperately tried to find away to get out of the seatbelts. But then I remembered, that just incase, I placed a Cyber-Scythe in the back of my shirt if I ever needed it. I stretched my hand towards my body and just managed to grab the shirt and rip it, pulling the Cyber-Scythe out and chopping my seatbelt. I ran to the pink barrier and slowly pushed my way through. The chief, in a panic, grabbed the Cyber-Scythe and whacked against the side, causing bolts to fire out and touch me and Skrunch.

I opened my eyes and saw the body of Skrunch leave the pink barrier as I was back in my original body. The electrical shock must have worked just like my machine and switched our brains. I was glad at first to no longer feel the itchy fur on my skin, but then realised that I was stuck in the seat, because the switch caused Skrunch to take my Cyber-Scythe, and by the time we realised what was going on, the spaceship had already taken flight.

Skrunch gazed up with a dull look on his face as my image faded upward, with a roar so loud that the tribesman all squabbled in fear and the villagers gathered even more wood from the trees that were knocked down by the sound of the spaceship taking off.

Floranian Blood Flies hid in their nests until the spaceship's engines were far away, disturbing their peace no more.

Immediately, once the ship passed through the atmosphere of the worldwide jungle of Florana, the ship passed moons of all colours and minerals and even spotted an aurora in space, purple and swirly. I recognised many planets passing by, including Kerwan, Daxx and Mylon. The beautiful view was suddenly disrupted by all the green and red lights violently flashing on the dashboard as we passed the green toxic clump of rock known as Orxon.

I wiggled in my seat, trying to break free of the choking seatbelts. I grabbed the seat, trying to push upward and then fell, with one of my hands touching a button on the side of the seat. The belts flung back to their compartments, and a lifted out of the chair with ease, and crawled my way to the dashboard. I couldn't understand any of the buttons and they just kept flashing and flashing, and I almost had a seizure. I looked away and noticed that to the side of the ship was a pink, yellow and white wavy line shooting across space, and started to suck the ship into it. The buttons were probably trying to warn me of the nearby rip and I grabbed what looked like a steering wheel, and veered it to the left, trying to break the hold of the line trying to eat us.

Although the ship faced away, with all engines blasting, we where slowly pulled back and eventually lost all control and fell into the strange hole in space. The gravity control on the ship went AWOL and I floated around the ship as it spun wildly inside the purple and black coloured hole. Eventually, after many bruises, I was pushed into a chair and I quickly pushed the seatbelts back into place, keeping me safe as we continued the trek through the what seemed to be a wormhole.

I was joyful when the ride started to smooth as stars began to twinkle in the distance, and the loud roar of the wormhole quieted. I undid my seatbelt once again and ran to the dashboard, trying to figure out what happened. After a few simple calculations, I managed to figure out that we were in the "Woldgonn" Galaxy. We continued to pass many planets, even the one that still gives me nightmares, Barotica, home of the Yusi Ring.

I felt tired and nauseated, and decided that I needed a rest. In case any more accidents happened, I strapped myself in the chair and tried to fall asleep in this uncomfortable position. My sleepy eyes opened and closed, until they finally stopped opening.

"Otto!" called a familiar girl's voice. I turned around and met the eyes of Myxia. "Come with me," she laughed as she ran off.

I reluctantly followed her inside a dark cave. I managed to catch up with her and stop in front.

"Did you forget?" she asked. "It's our graduation today." Her breasts seemed to wiggle as she said this with glee. I stared at them and she blushed when she noticed what I was doing. She grabbed my face with both of her hands and leaned in. I closed my eyes and leaned in to meet her lips.

I heard a roar and I opened my eyes. A dragon had emerged from inside the cave and grabbed Myxia. It was too late to save her. She had already been chucked inside his mouth, chewed... and swallowed.

"MYXI-"

"A!" I yelled as I stared in front of me and only saw the dashboard. I sighed in relief as it was only a nightmare, although I was sweating all over. I released myself from the seatbelt and placed my hands on the dashboard as I was breathing heavily. I took off my coat and got some restored cool oxygen come closer to my body.

My long red wristbands now felt like their were choking my wrists and I immediately pulled them off. The peacefulness of the cool air blowing on my skin was disrupted by a sudden shake that made me fall to the ground. I placed my arm on the dashboard and pulled myself back up.

I looked around through the 7 windows and saw that to my left, was a desert planet with a green beam launched from a tiny dot on the surface, and ended where our ship was. It was soon before I realised that the dot was getting bigger and a tractor beam was pulling us to the planet surface.

I quickly took the safety procedure I had been for the past day and strapped myself to the chair once again, getting the feeling of boredom from it. "Here we go again," I said to myself, before "skrunch"ing my eyes.

!

I unscrunched my eyes and found that the ship had actually been landed instead of crashed. I once again got out of the hugging seatbelts and managed to disable the pink barrier that stood between me and the wasteland. I took my coat and ran out of the ship, feeling good to be free again. I looked back at the landed vessel and wondered who pulled us and down why did they want me.
BANG!

I ran straight into a wall, and fell back to the sand. I climbed back once my vision became unblurry and saw that the wall was the barrier of a factory.

"Otttttttto!" I looked up and saw two figures with gauntlets on their wrists, lowering their way down with a rope attached to them. My neck felt painful as they slowly climbed down and landed behind me. I turned around to meet and old friend.

"Gleeman…" I snarled.

"Otto…" he replied. "I haven't seen you since when you graduated and took off with that girl that I almost accidentally killed."

I gave him an angry look that he replied with the same, and I approached him until our noses almost touched. Suddenly, I gave a hug to the Slademan I hadn't seen for over 20 years, who was now a cyborg and had a distinct metal hand that seemed to cover a yellow one before it. I turned to the person beside who had disappeared. I heard a croak and looked down to see a frog at my feet that turned into a businessman from Mernasia, where the red hairs on the monkey village chief's necklace originated.

After 20 years, Vox had a lot to explain to me.

The sound of metal woke Otto up and he felt the hard grip of Vox's metallic hand pull him into an upright position. He heard his gruff voice speak to him, but he was still delirious and couldn't make out what Vox was saying.

Master, in the form of a little girl, held Otto upright and told him that they were only able to find him by the metal he knocked around earlier somehow. Otto told him that he gasped for air and felt almost possessed, and Master turned away like he was keeping a secret.

Otto placed his hand on Master's shoulder and she transformed into a shovel. Vox picked him up and started digging out the rubble more efficiently. Otto held his forehead that ached like it was repeatedly smashed into a wall a thousand times, and then realised he had to do his duty and help the excavation. He looked around the pile of rubbish surrounding him and spotted a funnel-shaped object that he stuck into a pole and started helping his old friend.

Meanwhile, Drek managed to lift a huge steel girder off him and was swarmed by more falling metal. He shook his head and spat a bottle cap that fell in his mouth. He managed to get to his stubby little feet, only to fall frontwards. He began crawl and dig through the metal parts, like the sand at the bottom of a sandpit, searching for that little shovel, like Drek was searching for the only thing that could make his way out of the junkyard. The pad that could transform him like the time he joined the VA.

I opened my eyes and could just only breathe through the last of the oxygen supply left in this mecha, as my new planet did not have an atmosphere yet. I picked up the oxygen tank nearby with all my strength and placed the hose in my mouth.

I kicked the glass at the front of the mecha and crawled out, with the oxygen tank repeated hitting the ground. I took the hose out and coughed, before placing back in again. I gazed at the dull orange sky, which would usually be beautiful, but not tonight. Tonight, this could be my end, kneeling on this grassy plain, waiting for my life to end.

In the corner of my left eye, I spotted a twinkle of red. I slowly turned my head towards it and saw a bright red jewel, shaped like one you would find on a ring. Except this ruby was 10 times bigger, worth probably a billion bolts, and it was sitting here on this planet. My planet.

This ruby could provide for an entire civilisation with ease, and I imagined all the Blarg sitting around a long dining table, with me sitting on a throne at the front. We were all laughing and having a good time, without the stench of pollution intoxicating our noses. But then I almost forgot about polluting this planet as well for more money than the ruby 60 times.

I gave an evil look and chuckled, looking up at the sky, and noticing the Deplanetizor, being tilted towards this planet. It looked like I wasn't going to have a civilisation to ruin and get money for it through my anonymous provider, as I was about to be blown to bits by the Deplanetizor, my own weapon, used against me by that furry little rat and his metal lunch box.

Desperately, I ran to the ruby that was still shining as a bolt from the Deplanetizor charged up. I dived for it and clutched it as the bolt was released from its hold and fired straight into the core of my planet. I heard a rip and suddenly my whole body was pushed out. I opened my eyes and witnessed the shell of my planet breaking away from the molten core, including the piece of land my mecha was on. I was immediately surprised at the fact that the mecha, a suit much stronger than myself, was falling apart when I was clutching onto the ruby and had no protection on me what-so-ever.

This anomaly baffled me as the clump of land I was situated on eventually floated out of the destroyed planet's sight. Unfortunately, I was never going to know how, because the oxygen supply had almost ran out, and I could feel myself weakening, and imagined what my skin looked like at the moment. Was it turning blue, green, yellow, GREY? I shook off the thought of my skin being ruined and I looked at my surroundings.

My gaze was only met by stars sparkling like they always do, joined by a few planets in the distance. To pass my dying minutes, I tried to figure out what these planets were. I noticed the planet Metropolis to the left of me, the size of a golf ball. I thought I saw Daxx as well, containing a robotic facility founded by a Batalian hunter who won big at Annihilation Nation, and always dreamed of having a robotic family.

As I gazed at the Zeldrin Starport, still in construction, Metalis and Shaar, my oxygen supply finally ran out. I heavily breathed out the last of the oxygen situated in my lungs, then laid down, holding the ruby against my chest, and finally closed my eyes for the last time of my life.

…

….

…..

..

…..

I gasped for air, but soon realised that I didn't need air. Somehow, my body did not oxygen anymore. But, how was I alive? I remember that the oxygen supply ran out, and I looked at the empty bottle next to me and it had ran out a few minutes ago. I looked down at the ruby on my….metal chest. My whole body was made of metal, including one of my eyes. The only organic piece of my body was my head.

After my moment of shock at what had happened to my body, I looked down and saw that the ruby was glowing.

I made you this way. I saved your life twice. You life belongs to me now.

I shook the strange voice out of my head and threw the ruby away. Standing up, I began to walk off and find a place where it was most comfortable. I found a large patch of grass near the edge of the land and laid down on it.

I am your master now. You must owe me your life. You are in debt and you will become my servant.

"NO!" I thought. I didn't want to be a servant of anyone, yet this ruby seemed to be alive and telepathically communicating with me, ordering me to give up everything I had. But did I have anything to give up?

I didn't have anything to give up. My work was destroyed, like my body and then I realised that life had already belonged to the ruby, because my body was created by it, minus the head, which was like a base part that it graffified around.

I shouldn't have been thinking like this. It was the ruby that was manipulating my mind to think like this. But I didn't have anything to give up…The ruby wasn't stopping. I had to get rid of it. Without caring that it was valuable, I stood up and was about to walk over to where I left it, before noticing it was right beside me. I picked it up in anger threw it off the clump of rock I was on, and watched it as it floated away, only blinking when it had finally went out of sight.

I laid back down in relief and closed my eyes to rest. Suddenly, I was jolted to the left. I looked up and saw that a beam had hit the right side of the land and tilted it to the left. A single snake slithered from the impact site and charged towards me. I only stared at it as it began to glow magenta and shift into a pink blob.

"I am Qyffnisikdjaur, but you may call me Master," the pink blob spoke. I asked if he was the ruby that was overtaking my mind, but he told me he was attracted to it and needed to get here as quickly as possible. I asked him how he got here, because I threw it away a few minutes ago. He responded by asking me what that object beside me was.

I looked down to my right and saw the ruby, waiting for me. Now I was extremely frustrated and not caring what Master wanted, I threw it away with all my strength. Master transformed into a net and caught the ruby, before shifting back to his original form. He told me to come with him and he once again transformed, but this time into a rocket. With nothing to lose, I jumped on his back and held tightly as we blasted off into space.

I could barely see anything due to the speed of the rocket, and all I could see were different coloured spheres and flickering lights zooming past me. We were lurched to the right as a giant rock passed where we were before we moved. I almost slipped off once, but I manage to climb my way back on.

We finally slowed down once we entered the atmosphere of a desert planet and I was thrown back and fell towards the ground. I opened my eyes and I only saw sand in my eyes. I got up and brushed the sand off my body and looked around. My headache did not hinder my view of the area, and I could see were sand dunes and facility over yonder.

A yellow space limo hovered over from the facility to my side, and the door opened automatically. I guessed this was Master under another form, so I sat in the limo and waited as it took me to the facility.

On the way, I was treated to a tour by the computer, telling me about the cloning project and an alliance created by Master, who was searching for villains to dominate the universe. I immediately wanted to join, because this would be a chance to defeat Ratchet and Clank, but then I realised that we would have to wait many years to search for villains who were currently working on their own.

The limousine finally stopped, and I hopped out and immediately ran inside, checking out all of the progress made by Master. I was suddenly pulled back by a giant claw, and taken outside, before being dropped on a pad. The giant creature that pulled me out was Master and I asked him what was going on. He told me that I made the ruby angry and is now attacking both of us. The ruby was floating in the sky and started spinning before hovering above Master and drilling downwards. Master rolled out of the way as the ruby plowed into the ground, and he told me to think about using the pad below, before the ruby resurfaced and carried Master up and dropped him on the ground.

I squinted my eyes while thinking as hard as I could about using the pad, and then gave up and opened my eyes, realising that my body had turned into a giant robot, just like the Ultra-Mech Unlimiteds my employees created.

I looked back up to the blinding sun and gazed at the ruby drilling diagonally towards my head. With my new mecha powers, I grabbed the tiny ruby with my hand and threw it over towards a volcano, where it accidentally drilled inside and caused lava to start spilling out of the top, slowly sliding it's way down to the sandy ground.

Master and I thought it was all over, until a huge explosion sounded in the air and fiery rocks began to rain down on us. I shielded Master from the debris and the rocks damaged my back greatly, but not enough to shut me down. Once, the debris stopped hitting, I faced the volcano again and saw the ruby fall out the hole it drilled.

Master followed me to the location it landed and saw it growing pale, then back to red, growing pale, then back to red. Master examined it and found out that it went brain-dead from the eruption, but it's powers are unharmed. He gave it to me for me to use, so I attached it to a staff that Master had created for any magical foes that we could use, and then I finally officially entered the cloning facility and headquarters…

My body turned huge and metal shrapnel slipped off my growing head, as Master, Otto and Vox were alarmed by the sound and were staring at my hugeness. All was silent for a while until Vox said, "Well, that's one way to get out of this junkyard."

Master, Vox and Otto all climbed onto Drek's back like lunch in a school bag and watched as Drek put his plan into action, by walking to the centre of the scrap metal, and used a blast from his ruby staff to clear the foundation of steel beams and crushed robots.

But to everyone's surprise, Tachyon and Nefarious had disappeared…

Chapter 8 Preview

Tehctar, with his prodigy-like skills, landed the Unipose with no guidance, and not to mention, no fuel. Ratchet walked out of the ship and was unfortunately still on the desert planet of Dethrona, a planet of dehydration and similarity, a planet of wild creatures trying to survive on meat and dangerous volcano that could crush an anvil.

Ratchet started walking to his right and saw scrap metal spread out across the field, and he stepped over them and looked around to see if there was anyone. He soon realised that he was standing near the cloning facility that had exploded and that his friends were lying unconscious on the ground.