Author's Notes: "Well well, it's finally back up." I'll bet your thinking. Yes it has been a while since my last post for this site. I haven't found the time to write anything before now. I'm trying to graduate High School right now and move out simultaneously. So my life has been a bit hectic and writing just hasn't found it's way into my schedule, but you're not hear to listen to me wine and complain about my problems and excuses, your hear for Dreadzone: The Final Cut goodness. So hear we go:

Chapter 7:

Only on Pay-per-view!

It had been a good two days since Ratchet had left the surface of Sarthos, his armor covered in muck and Jak's blood. He hadn't been able to repair the helmet's retract function since he had gotten mud caked on the visor. Retracting the helmet had caused the mud to get jammed in the suit, sticking the helmet down and jamming it in place. He hadn't seen Jak in that time either. When they had teleported back onto the transport ship, Jak and Aquill hadn't been with Ratchet, Clank, and Daxter. The furry rodent was genuinely worried about his friend, constantly asking questions that Ratchet had no answer for.

Finally Jak showed up about 2:00 Am DZ time with his arm in a sling and his shoulder expertly wrapped and treated with Nano-tech. Daxter launched himself at the man yelling incoherent things about never doubting him. Jak explained that the Dreadzone physicians had taken care of his arm quickly and easily. "We've seen much worse." they said. Unfortunately he wouldn't be much use in battle for some time. He arm had nearly been blasted off by the powerful rifle. If it hadn't been for Ratchet's quick thinking with the Nano-pack in the field, Jak would likely have one less arm. Jak thanked him and wanted to thank Aquill as well but they had no idea ware she was or how to contact her. So they just sat and waited for their next drop, planning what to do with Jak in the next round.

He couldn't hold a gun, and his movement was fairly limited due to the pain. They ultimately just decided to keep Jak in the background for the time being. Jak wasn't very happy with this decision but didn't have much choice in the matter.

Three days after Jak returned, Clank was able to get the large monitor in the room to work. They were now able to watch the Holo-vid to pass the time. Unfortunately the only channel they could get was the Vox channel. The shows were fairly lame such as: Desperate Blarg Wives, Who Want's to be a Snaglebeast Trainer, Solana Idol and Find the R.Y.N.O. But with nothing better to do, they watched anyway. Then during a commercial break in All my Tyranoids, an advertisement came on for Dreadzone:

"Some call him the Lombax from Hell…" said the dramatic voice as a picture of a wrench flying into a DZ striker's head. Then a DZ striker with a plate on his head came on as if being interviewed. "It was terrible!" he confessed, "He came out of no ware. 884636 and I were just standing on the platform and BAM! He was down. BAM! I was down. It was over! I've never seen so much carnage." The camera fads out. "Some call him the Bucher from Bogon." Another DZ striker came on this one mostly made from repair parts. "There was nothing we could do!" he said. "I was just about to start firing at him and shit started blowing up. I don't know…" he faded out. "But this week you will call him paste." Said the voice and rock music started playing "The Lombax from Hell, the Bucher of Bogon, Ratchet the Annihilator will be going head to head with the mighty Shellshock!" Shellshock comes on the screen. "I vill crush the tiny creature." Said Shellshock with a robo-cigar in his mouth. "He vill never know vhat hit him. Eh he he." Shell shock faded out and an explosion filled the screen. "He broke the rules and now he's going to pay… On Dreadzone! Watch it only on Pay-per-view!"

"What!" said Ratchet after the commercial. "What did I do? I didn't break any rules. Did I?" Ratchet looked to Clank.

Clank cleared his throat. "Chapter 6, section 8, subsection gamma in the Dreadzone Rules of Conduct book states; 'No hero or heroin can interfere, aid, or otherwise come in contact with another hero, heroin or team that is not determined to be their partner under any circumstances during an official Dreadzone mission, unless otherwise instructed to do so under penalty of Extermination.'" Said Clank. "It seems by accepting aid from Aquill has qualified you for Extermination Ratchet."

"But, she helped me." Argued Ratchet.

"Yes, but we are not the ones who make the rules Ratchet. You know as well as I do that the people in charge of Dreadzone don't care about what is fair of just, they only want ratings. A one on one death match with Shellshock and the 'Lombax from Hell' would surly bring in a lot of ratings and a lot of bolts. Besides," Clank shrugged "Aquill will likely be punished as well, unfortunately."

Several hours later Ratchet received a message that he was to be ready for battle in two days. His team would not be aiding him in his mission against Shellshock but would be given free admission to the Pay-per-view, live show.

"Nice, said Daxter, "We can't help but we can watch and wish we could." He sat down in a huff. "I hate this stupid place, and if I ever meet the guy in charge of this insanity I'm gona put my foot right up his…"

"Cool it Daxter." Said Jak. "Ratchet can take care of himself."

"Yea, I've been up against worse." Said Ratchet. He wasn't really sure if this was true. For all he knew Shellshock could be stuffed with nuclear missiles, but it seemed to calm Daxter down a bit. Clank didn't seem disturbed by any of this. When Ratchet asked him about it he said: "You have done crazier things without me on your back. I have complete confidence in you Ratchet." That made the Lombax feel better. He knew Clank didn't rely much on "hope" or "wishes". He was all about the cold-hard facts, and if Clank said it could be done, Ratchet believed him.

Ratchet spent the next few days with the Holo-vid, watching Shellshock's old battles. It seemed that he had guns and such but didn't use them as a major part of his arsenal. From watching the Holo-vids it was apparent that Shellshock liked to herd the hero or heroin between him and a wall or a cliff or anything else he could back them up against. Then he would start to smash them with his bare hands. Close combat was his forte it seemed. So Ratchet made a mental note not to get close to him, keep on the move, and don't get stuck between the battle-bot and a hard place.

The transport ship lurched and shuttered as it came into Kronos's atmosphere, the place ware he was to fight Shellshock. He prepped his armor and had Jak and Clank check it out. Daxter was even able to help. With his tiny nimble fingers he was able to remove the bits of dried mud from the collar of the armor's helmet space, allowing him to use his helmet again. He thanked them all for their help and started his mental prepping.

Back in the Tyrinoid Wars this was the hardest time; the calm before the storm. In the drop ships the Lombax sergeant and his Galaxy Ranger troops would sit and think about the importance of their mission and prepare their minds for battle. It was a tense few moments just before a drop, with your comrades at your side, the door of the drop ship hanging open before you and the missiles flying every ware. You knew that soon you would have to leap into that maelstrom of fire and shrapnel and may not even make it to the battle below, but you did, you always jumped and then your fate was in God's hands. Ratchet did this now. Prepared his mind for his battle and the coming challenge.

"Attention Ratchet," said the robotic voice over the intercom. "Prepare for teleportation in t-minus 20 seconds."

"Well guys hear I go." Said Ratchet. "Wish me luck."

"No worries man." Said Jak with a thumbs up that Daxter mimicked. "Yea, no worries"

"Good luck Ratchet, take care to watch your back." Said Clank. Ratchet nodded in reply and felt the tingle of teleportation spread over his body.

Within seconds he rematerialized on a platform. Quickly taking in his surroundings he saw that this place was much like the Gagitron headquarters. The platform sat above water on pillars, and the buildings rose up and out of the water. Everything was, in short, suspended above what appeared to be an endless ocean. It was raining hard and the dark clouds blocked out what little light came to the night side of the planet.. Ratchet flicked the button to activate his helmet. With a small groan as it broke away from the last of the dried mud, it snapped up over his head. He was blinded only for a moment just before the screen clicked on and ran through a self-diagnostic in seconds. Then he switched to the night-vision mode.

"Welcome Ratchet." Said a voice over his COM link. He recognized it as Shellshock's. "This is vare zey have chosen for me to exterminate you, but I decided to spice sings up a bit. I personally don't sink you are vorthy to fight me, so I have set up some tests to see if you are. I've locked myself in the center building; you have to get the keys from my men zat I've placed all over ze zity. Good luck Lombax, I'll be waiting for you." Then the link clicked off.

"Great," said Ratchet sarcastically. He checked his mission menu it said:

□Defeat Shellshock

"Well that's a given." Said Ratchet. Then he noticed that all of his and Jak's weapons were in his quick select. "Good," he said "That will be very helpful." He brought out his trusty Duel Vipers and started walking down the path that the platform made. He made his way to a vacant plasma turret. He stood by it a moment to see if anything would happen but nothing did so he moved on quickly. The path veered left at a 90-degree angle strait towards the center building. On the left of the path was a smaller structure. As he got closer, Ratchet noticed heat signatures in the building on his mini map. He saw that if they attacked it would likely be a more close quarters battle. So he switched to the Magma Cannon.

Then to take them by surprise he ran and rolled sideways, facing the opening that lead into the structure. The beasts were taken by complete surprise and Ratchet blew them away in two shots with no problem. They haven't been DZ Strikers like he had thought they would be. For a moment of horror he thought perhaps locals inhabited this place and he had shot innocent bystanders, but then he realized they had blades on their four arms, kind of like a reverse praying mantis.

His fears released he switched back to the Duel Vipers and started to move into the building, but glanced down the trail he was on and saw movement close to the door of the main complex ware Shellshock was supposedly waiting. He switched to the weapon Jak had acquired during the last mission. He had learned from Clank that is was called the Fusion Rifle. Using the scope and his HUD's zoom quality, he took a closer look.

He saw about 20 DZ strikers and 4 of the larger Executioner robots guarding the door. He sighed. "This Shellshock guy seems scared of me." He said. "Good." He smiled under his Helmet. That might give him an advantage. He put the rifle away. He could have easily shot the DZ strikers and the Executioners, but he didn't have enough ammo to kill them all and he figured he would need it. "I'll deal with them later." He said with a wave of his clawed hand.

He headed into the small structure ware the beasts had been and found it was more like a terrace, to keep out of the rain. The path ran strait through it and out the other side. He shrugged and passed through it. Then something caught his eye. A drop ship was dropping DZ strikers into a round, walled area and then sped off. Ratchet contemplated shooting the ship for a moment, but decided on stealth for now. Firing at the ship would likely invite its wrath upon him and give away his position. He noticed another plasma turret guarding what appeared to be the entrance to the walled area, only this one was manned. He switched to the rifle again and took aim. A loud crack filled the air and reverberated off the large main complex. The Striker never knew what his him. Ratchet passed the turret casually and kicked the Striker's headless body as he walked by.

Then the gray part of the arena wall slid open with a snap and several of the bladed beasts ran out at him in ranking formation. Ratchet started and flipped backwards into the turret. It activated at his touch and he pulled the triggers, hurling plasma balls as the enemy as they approached. They fell before his barrage of plasma like grass to a weed-whacker. Ratchet left the turret and cautiously moved into the walled area. It was apparent now that it was an arena. That suited Ratchet. He had been in arenas more times than he could count. As he entered the arena and passed over the grey gate he noticed a closed gate on the other side of the circle. The one behind him snapped shut. "Shit." Said Ratchet lifting the Magma Cannon into position. DZ Strikers poured out of hidden compartments in the walls and floor. Several trap doors opened around Ratchet. He filled holes around him with molten metal shots form the Cannon and decided this place was as good as any to defend from the on coming attack. With the wall to his back he could see all his opponents at once. He switched to the Duel Vipers and started to unload on the wave of opponents. They scrambled to get out of the way and some even returned fire. Ratchet easily dodged their hastily place projectiles. Soon nothing but robot parts littered the arena.

Then he detected another wave of drop ships inbound on his heat sensor. He took out the Arbiter and got down on one knee. The first one flew over the wall and found a rocket waiting for it. The carbonox-armor-piercing projectile slammed into the cockpit's frail glass and exploded, sending a column of fire out of the front, blasting the front end off in the process. The ship crashed, pilot less, in the ring exploding again as the fuel caught fire. The other ship strafed past him firing rockets in his direction. The rockets weren't near as fast or powerful as the Arbiter's and lazily hit nothing but metal platform as they sailed past Ratchet. He loaded another rocket and fired. The powerful projectile blasted into the side panel of the ship, (that also happened to be on of the exit doors for the robots to get out.) and made a major dent into it. It wasn't enough to take the ship down but the pilot obviously decided it was much safer to be away from the rocked-wielding Lombax and flew off, smoke trailing from its left panel.

The door at the back of the arena opened reviling a stalker turret swiveling around trying to find it's pray. It spotted Ratchet after a moment and the gantlet guns began to spin signaling it was going to fire. Ratchet side stepped the deadly plasma barrage and hid behind the safety of the arena walls. Confident he was out of mortar range; Ratchet took his time reloading the Arbiter and stood for a moment to catch his breath. He could hear the turret swiveling around trying to get an angle on him. Just then he saw a floating device flying around the arena. Ratchet cocked an eyebrow under his helmet and used his HUD's zoom feature to get a closer look. Upon closer inspection he found that it was an armored camera. It had its lens squarely pointed at him, and in the moment Ratchet had seen it, it dipped behind the arena wall.

"Weird," he said "I wonder how long that has been fallowing me, and why I didn't notice it before now." Thinking back, Ratchet realized he had been on camera every time he had been on a mission. He had never noticed before now but the strange movement he was always seeing that made him jump was the cameras. He had thought he was just seeing things and was just jumpy so he never told the others of what he had seen.

He made a note of it and shouldered the Arbiter. He ran out back into the open, strafing the turret and unloaded two rockets into the deadly machine. It exploded beautifully and sent the operators' lifeless shells flying.

Satisfied with his work he headed in the direction of the flaming stump that was the remains of the turret. He stepped over it and made his way onto the slightly raised platform behind him. There, he found a blue key-card. Ratchet picked it up and examined it a moment. It was the same blue as the main complex that stood behind him. He likely would have missed it had his HUD not pointed it out to him since the path was also a similar color. On the card, in white, it said 1 of 2. Ratchet sighed, "Theirs never just one key is there?" he grumbled.

He saw that the platform had a power cable connected to it that ran some ware else. He had ground on power cables before so he knew that his boots were insulated against it. He was about to jump onto the cable when something caught his eye down the line. He squinted to see, then zoomed in. There was a platform next to the cable, floating in midair, (likely from hover pads on the bottom.) and on the platform was a DZ Striker, with a Fusion Rifle. He seemed to be trying to take aim at Ratchet, so he dropped to his belly with a metallic clank as the metal of his armor met that of the platform he was on.

He got his Fusion Rifle out from the quick select and took aim swiftly. He squeezed the trigger slowly, keeping his aim true. The thin column of energy shot strait through the Striker's power core in the center of its chest . (Clank had educated him on the autonomy of the Strikers earlier that day.) The striker clutched its chest for a moment as if it had been shot in the heart (which it technically had been as far as robots are concerned.) Then locked up stiff as board and fell over into the water. He fallowed the rail with his scope and found two more strikers along the way. He quickly send beams of energy through their chests as well, then got to his feet, put the rifle away in favor of his Duel Vipers and leaped on to the rail.

The ride went well until Ratchet herd the sound of teleporting behind him. He looked back and saw two DZ strikers fly past him on either side. They flew in front of him and opened fire. Ratchet leaned and jumped to dodge the fiery bolts but against his best efforts he still took some hits. His armor absorbed most of the damage but he could feel painful burns on his skin just before the Nano-tech healed it. With a yell of frustration he unleashed a furry of his own from the Vipers. His targets were extremely hard to hit due to their ability to move as they pleased, and the rail's constant swerving and dipping beneath him, but eventually they fell from the sky, torn apart from the Vipers' powerful rain of death.

The rail came to an end on another platform. This one was long almost like a landing strip, and lead strait into another arena. Ratchet could see the turret guard from ware he stood. He used the Fusion Rifle to kill it easily, blasting its head clean off with a single shot just like the last one. Then he herd the roar of drop ships around him. He shouldered the Arbiter quickly but it was too late. The ships dropped their load of DZ strikers on the path and flew off at full speed. There were twelve of them and they all charged Ratchet at once. He was just about to pull the trigger of the Arbiter so they might see whatever hell robots went to, when a black ball about the size of a soccer ball flew out from the crowd.

Ratchet started, he recognized it as a grenade-launcher-style projectile. Once it hit the ground it would erupt in a fiery holocaust. If the explosion didn't kill him, the fall off the platform from the blast would. The Lombax looked around for ware to dodge but the platform was just too small to evade such a wide reaching weapon. Acting on impulse, Ratchet pulled his wrench from his belt and swung hard at the ball of tightly packed explosives. He hit it with great force and it arced back to the oncoming slew of robots. They all looked up at the ball that was descending on the quickly, glowing eyes wide. Frozen by their surprise, none was able to come out of their stupor in time to evade the explosion that rocked the very foundation of the platform.

Shrapnel from the remains of the battle-bots and the black ball rained down on Ratchet and bounced off his armor harmlessly. Then something orange caught his eye. He realized it was the source of the explosive soccer ball and reached out his right hand to extend a hyper-shot energy cable to it. Even as he realized nothing would happen, since his hyper-shot had been taken from his when he was captured, the green beam of energy shot out and grabbed the gun just as it began its descent. The gun flew into the surprised hands of Ratchet and knocked him over. He looked at his arm just in time to see the hyper-shot coil retract into the armor.

He examined the new weapon. His HUD began displaying data on it:

B-6 Obliterator:

Ammo Capacity: 6

Damage: 5/10

Firing Rate: 1 per 4 seconds

Weapon Style: Grenade Launcher

Ratchet nodded in satisfaction and added the weapon to his quick select. He walked towards the arena and the grey door slid open just like the last one. Several of the bladed beasts swarmed out and Ratchet tested his new weapon on them. It blew them clean off the platform, or clean apart. He looked around at the arena. He really wasn't looking forward to another episode of "Arena Brawl" with the DZ strikers. He happened to glance down at his gloves and noticed the claws on them. "I wonder…" he said to himself and put his gun away.

He approached the wall of the arena and jammed his fingers into the metal. His fingers slid into the metal easily. Ratchet smiled under his helmet and jammed his other hand into the wall above the first. In this manner he climbed up the wall of the arena and soon stood on the top overlooking the interior. He carefully walked along the narrow wall and soon found his way to the opposite end of the ring. He jumped off onto the platform behind it and startled two very strange looking battle bots.

They were a dark blue, almost grey, they had no legs but rocket like engines ware the legs should be. One single slit of an eye dominated their faces much like the visor on Ratchet's helmet. The Dreadzone symbol decorated the center of their chests.

Ratchet raised the Magma Cannon to blow them away, when one spoke up; "NO! PLEASE DON'T SHOOT I GIVE UP!" he shouted.

The other one wailed at him in a very militaristic voice. "Suck it up Green! This is war! He's the enemy! We can't surrender! That's cowardice!"

"Oh yes we can." Replied the one called Green. "So I'm a coward, so what? I'll be a living coward."

"Like hell you will!" shouted the other. "If you surrender, I'll kill you myself!"

"Hay, hay wow." Said Ratchet lowering his helmet. "What's going on hear? Who are you guys?"

"I'm Merk and this is Green." Said the gruff one slapping Green in the chest with the back of his hand. "We're Dreadzone battle-bots version 4.0."

"We're outdated." Said Green sadly. "We were sent out hear to kill you with the rest of Shellshock's troops, but they just expect us to die against you."

"That's how they dispose of outdated model Strikers," said Merk. "Just have the heroes blow 'um up. It's amazing we survived this long."

"Why? What version are the Strikers now?" asked Ratchet with a shrug.

"30.4" replied Green grudgingly. "So are you gona shoot us now Mr. Lombax or what?"

"Not yet, and it's Ratchet." Replied the Lombax. "How about we make a deal instead?"

"What kind of deal?" said Merk suspiciously.

"You tell me ware the last key to the complex is, and I let you live." Said Ratchet simply

"I like it," said Green quickly "especially the letting us live part."

"No way Green, we'd be traitors. You'd have to torture me first!" said Merk

"Ok." Replied Ratchet. He hefted the Magma Cannon and fired a grazing round at Merk's arm, blowing it clean off. "There, you've been tortured, now tell me ware the key is." Merk looked at the hole in his torso ware his arm would be.

"Just give him the key Merk, I don't wana die, or have my limbs blown off." Begged Green

"What? You two have the key!" said Ratchet

"Yea, we do." Replied Merk. "You can have it too. That was my shotn' arm you blew off so I can't fight ya now. Hear." Merk handed Ratchet a key identical to the one he already had except, in white, it said 2 of 2. "Now get outa hear, before I change my mind." Said Merk threateningly.

"That rail will take you back to the main entrance of the complex." Green pointed to another power cable leading form this platform. "Be careful tough. Shellshock posted a lot of guards out there. Ratchet was just about to jump onto the rail "He's scared of ya you know." Added Green after as an after thought.

Ratchet stopped and turned. "Why?" he said confused.

"Why!" said Green in surprise. "Your Ratchet, THE Ratchet. The Bucher of Bogon! The Lombax from Hell! The Missile Tornado! The Furry Holocaust! The…"

"Ok ok I get it. Why do they call me all that?" said Ratchet.

"Have you seen your battle clips?" Said Merk "It's amazing what you've lived though! They say you're unstoppable. Your merchandise is flying off the shelves."

"Merchandise?" said Ratchet

"Yea, Dreadzone is a holo-vid show, they don't make a lot of profit from just the shows. Most of it comes from the action figures, colas, lunch boxes and other stuff like that. Especially stuff with the Exterminators on it, but word is; your stuff is even out selling their leader, Ace Hardlight's merchandise" replied Green

"Wow," said Ratchet. He never thought about himself as a celebrity. "Well nice talken' with you guys, see ya around." Ratchet jumped onto the rail.

"Yea! Next time we won't go so easy on you fuzzy wad!" yelled Merk

"Oh shut up Merk." Said Green