Chapter 7: Slim and Svim
"Hey!" Angela Cross heard a voice yell out while she slept. She merely brushed it off and turned on her side to get herself more comforting. Angela found herself hugging Guy, as she heard the voice once again.
"Angela! Guy!" the voice yelled, and this time she stirred from her sleep. The first thing she realised was that she was hugging Guy, and let go of him, a little disgusted. Angela opened her eyes and looked up, seeing the bright yellow morning sky.
"Hey!" Angela forgot about the voice, and this time heard it coming from her right. She looked over Guy and gazed upon her Lombax friend, Ratchet, sitting on top of Luci Ganley's casket, floating towards them.
"Ratchet!" she yelled, shaking Guy to wake up him. As Angela jumped off the courtyard, onto the shore, the casket jammed it self into the sand. Ratchet was everything but smiling as Angela hugged him.
"I lost her," Ratchet stated, staring into empty space.
"We can still save her," Guy calmly said. "But we'll have to get off Boldan first." Ratchet shook his head slowly.
"I have to get her back," Ratchet stated, still in shock of Corrina's capture. At that moment, a baby on the courtyard started crying. Angela turned to help Corrina's daughter, Kyra, but Ratchet her back.
"I will," he boldly stated, stepping upwards onto the courtyard. Ratchet picked up the crying Markazian baby with a tuft of red hair. Kyra immediately quieted down, giggling when Ratchet brushed his fur over her.
"I will save you, Corrina," he declared.
Earlier that morning, Corrina Tars walked forcibly out of Champio's helicopter, her hands tied behind her back. Two of Champio's human elite guards met him and Corrina just inside the docking bay.
"Take this woman to the training program," said Champio, touching Corrina's bottom. Immediately, she spun around, performing a roundhouse kick, and clipped Champio in the face. "As you can see…"
The two guards walked behind Corrina and pushed her forwards with their brown staves. The elite guards were dressed the exact same as Champio, but people could tell the difference because of their smaller build.
Corrina could tell from the short journey that they had docked on the flat ship that covered the atmosphere the day before. She had already checked the clock in the spaceship, which said 2:04am. She felt a needle press into her arm, and she yelled out trying to punch on of the guards, but felt her brain lose control of her arm.
She realised she had been drugged and was stripped of most of her energy, unable to make out much of the scenery. When she could, she slowly forgot about what she saw. All Corrina knew was that she was being led through a series of rooms, some large, and some corridor size.
"We're here," one of the elite guards said while the other tapping some numbers on a keypad. The small door opened, and Corrina was shoved into the room by the tip of the staff and she crashed to the floor. She felt her handcuffs being taken off and a metal collar being wrapped her leg.
"Try to leave and you'll feel the most excruciating pain you've ever felt," the second guard said as Corrina laid her arms out, feeling relieved that the cuffs were off. She couldn't feel much of anything, and didn't even know that there were about ten other people in the room with her.
"Hey, ya awake?" asked a voice that sounded perfect for an annoying sidekick. Corrina opened her eyes, but only saw black. "Ya musta tried to beat up the big guy. They drug ya when ya do that."
About five of the creatures in the rectangular room were sitting at a long desk that took up most of it. The other five were standing, apart from the one who just spoke, who was kneeling over Corrina. They all too had collars around their legs. "Ya think ya can stand up?"
The man pulled Corrina up and got her to stand slightly, before dragging her over to the nearest bench. At this moment, Corrina was staring at the man long enough to him to come into focus. He was a plump person, his body shaped like a bell.
"What's ya name?" he asked, being friendly. His head was a little flat, and he had thick, spiky auburn hair, the same colour as Corrina's. He wore thick-rimmed glasses and stared at Corrina with his big hazel eyes. He wore an orange robe with a gold trim over a blue shirt, and his brown pants were hidden by it.
"Affrnnaa Frrs," mumbled Corrina, still trying to fight the drug that was already wearing off. "Corr…ina…Tars," she repeated slowly.
"Corrina Tars?" he asked, and the woman nodded. "Well my name's Svim Cognito," the man replied. Corrina nodded, not caring much, but then felt like she had heard the name before.
"Did you say Slim Cognito?" Corrina asked with slur. Svim immediately shook his head.
"Svim Cognito," he said again. "Slim's my older brother. I suppose ya bought one of his illegal weapon upgrades. Figures, since ya've been chosen for the Pillblin Fighting League."
"Pillblin League?" asked Corrina almost intelligibly.
"Yeah, didn't ya know that?" Svim asked. "Ya've been chosen to fight in a series of battles for the entertainment of ugly, rich people. It's one of these secret things that Champio uses to make money so he can hire his guards and that."
"Ohh," mumbled Corrina. "Plus, I know Slim Cognito because of my friend who has bought products of his. Although, I wish we were more than friends."
"Ah, yes, the cute guy," said Svim. "Soon enough, ya'll find out that he's not like he looks."
"No, that's already happened," replied Corrina, her words eligible now. "KYRA!" Suddenly, everyone in the room was staring at her as she remembered about her daughter. "I hope she's okay. No, Ratchet will take care of her as much as he takes care of me. But he…"
"Oh, so he's the one who would kill himself in an attempt to save the woman he loves," Svim realised.
"And he did…" Corrina wailed. Soon, Svim was left with a crying woman and eight pairs of eyes staring at him.
"I didn't do it…" he pleaded, deciding to leave the woman alone. The other people in the room tried to ignore the crying of Corrina, but all felt guilty about not doing anything. Eventually, someone stepped in to help.
"Hey, it's okay…" said a short, flexible woman, sitting down next to Corrina. She had dark brown hair, tied in a ponytail, and had a tanned body, mostly hidden by a thin, constricting green suit that covered her entire body, except for her head. "We all have terrible things happening to our friends and family, and sometimes we can't be there to help."
"But my daughter…" moaned Corrina, trying to get a good look of the woman.
"Hey, I'm sure the rest of your friends are taking care of everything," the lady reassured. "If they are truly your friends, they will do the right thing." Corrina's tears halted almost immediately after these soothing words.
"Yeah," she agreed, thinking about Guy and Angela with Kyra. "They will."
"And anyway," the woman interrupted. "You'll be out of this place soon anyway. The audience doesn't like having a fighter for too long, otherwise they get bored and start complaining. You'll be out in a week or so. I know my time is nearly up."
"Oh, that's okay," Corrina replied. "I hope Guy and Angela can take care of the lockdown without me. I mean-"
"Woah, woah, woah, woah," jabbered the lady. "You mean the Boldan lockdown? That's some serious stuff if they're trying to fight Champio. No wonder he picked you for this fighting tournament."
"What's your name?" asked Corrina finally.
"Mandy," she responded, holding out a hand to be shook. "I'm actually kind of glad you're here. This other woman, Bertha, got killed a few days ago, and without ten competitors, the show can't go on. Now with you here, I'll be out in no time."
Corrina laughed nervously, finding that Mandy wasn't very selfless.
"Anyhow, you should get some rest," stated Mandy. "Champio likes putting in new contestants immediately so that the audience will be happy and give out some moo-lah!" Corrina nodded, and Mandy led her to the almost hidden door at the other side of the room. A single buff alien man stood blocking the doorway.
"Hey, Mandy," the gruff-voiced man said. "If you want to get to a bed, you have to get into one with me as well."
"Let me handle this jerk," Mandy whispered. She raised her tone immediately and spoke to the bodybuilder. "Sure, I'll get into a bed with you. Just as long it's a flower bed." Corrina was confused as to whether it was a retort or an agreement.
"Yeah, right," laughed the bodybuilder, obviously not swayed by Mandy's remark. He then noticed Corrina standing beside the short woman. "Well, what do we have here?" He immediately looked at Corrina's bottom.
"Hey there, big boy," said Corrina sexually. She strutted over to the gigantic man with a dirty smile. The giant chuckled as Corrina felt his chest, and then moved her hand downwards. She smiled at him one last time, before curling her hand into a fist and charging it into his crotch.
"Oh my god!" yelled Mandy, as the bodybuilder choked, immediately bringing his hands to his private area. He coughed and fell to the ground, as Corrina casually walked over his squirming body. She could hear the claps and cheers of the others in the room, including Svim, as she dived into one of the beds and immediately dozed off.
Ratchet breathed in deeply as he stood just in front of the same grind rail he had rode six months ago, leading to a room that contained a motherload of bolts and one of Slim Cognito's depots. He guessed that Slim wouldn't be there because of the lockdown, but the shady salesman did have his ways.
Ratchet's face was red with anger as he looked down at his grind boots, the same colour as his face. He felt bad that he had lashed out at Guy and Angela, but he was sure that they knew it wasn't personal.
"How can I rest and continue with this while Corrina is with that Champio creep, who is probably-" yelled Ratchet to them, but he discontinued the sentence and screamed in rage. Now here he was, on the other side of the barren and unusually quiet Silver City.
It was easy to avoid the lockdown guards, as their weekly rounds were over and they were all in different groups, waiting for turn at recharging. The Clock Tower courtyard was no longer safe as forces arrived before the fight to repair the generator vehicles. Ratchet currently didn't know the location of Guy and Angela, but his brain was too tensed to think about them.
On impulse, Ratchet leaped onto the grind rail, and almost fell off due to six months of not using the Grind Boots. He managed to balance himself out, however, and immediately noticed changes in the rail. The power lines that the rails were used for now went around the apartment building, as Ratchet had used steel beams to replace the missing power lines that were being redirected.
However, this was six months later, and the workers had finishing their power line rerouting job, and built the apartment building, which was a big success. Ratchet easily managed to jump over the power generators, and could even vault over them as they were no longer activated due to the lockdown.
As Ratchet rode along, he thought about his fight with Guy and Angela, and didn't tell them that his anger wasn't just over Champio taking Corrina. It was also over Champio's robots killing Luci. Although Guy and Angela had both tried to block Luci's death out of their minds, Ratchet was letting himself grieve.
"Why Luci?" he cried as he jumped over another power generator, tears streaming behind him. Most people would be feeling the adrenaline of grinding a rail, but Ratchet was experienced, it wasn't exciting for him at all.
Ratchet saw that he was nearing the tunnel with the spinning gears inside, and for once was about to get excited, but then realised that the lockdown had caused the gears to stop. He rode unexcitedly, and almost fell asleep. However, the end came sooner than he thought, and almost tripped when quickly securing the landing.
Ratchet felt the familiar touch of the soft grass around his feet. He looked out into the yellow sky, and spotted the sun rising up. Maybe I shouldn't have shunned them. I mean, Corrina can probably handle herself, and Luci…well, you can't change things that have already happened.
Ratchet slowly trudged into the small room that he had faced last time he was in Silver City. Like before, it was deserted and noticed no difference, although he was unfamiliar with a half-cylinder poking out of the wall. He bent down and took the Grind Boots off, followed by taking his backpack and shoving them in there.
"I wonder…" Ratchet said to himself, pulling out his wrench from his belt. He knew that he still had the Box Breaker attached, and decided to test something. He leaped up high in the air, and slammed the wrench downwards, feeling the force through his hands as the wrench collided with the ground.
A shower of bolts came from all directions in the room, with debris crashing down on the floor. All of the bolts were immediately sucked into Ratchet's belt, bringing the total up to 3,000 bolts. "Hey, watch it," said a calm, shadowy voice from behind Ratchet. The Lombax darted around immediately, his wrench ready to attack.
"Why ya bein' so hostile?" asked a pair of black eyes through a tiny slot in the half-cylinder bump in the wall.
"Slim Cognito?" asked Ratchet loudly. "How did you escape the lockdown?"
"I have a few clients in the political robot business that let me keep my store open during the lockdown," said Slim, rolling his eyes. "But they won't let me use my vehicle or let me leave the planet, so here I am."
Ratchet paused for a moment. "Cool," he smiled.
"You have any weapons you want upgraded?" Slim asked. "I haven't had much business lately, and I know I won't get much in the future."
"Well, I don't have any weapons on me…" began Ratchet. "But, I do have this electric gun." He pulled out the tiny metallic gun that looked somewhat like a cigarette lighter.
"Hey, why have you been through the trash?" asked Slim. Ratchet was confused at how Slim knew that he had found the gun in the garbage. "My little brother, Svim, threw it out before he left this planet due to the lockdown. I had received early word about it, you see."
Ratchet nodded impatiently. "So can I upgrade it?"
"Of course," answered Slim. "I have two upgrades: one that recharges it immediately, and one that increases range. Both 3,000 bolts, of course."
"3,000 bolts?" exclaimed Ratchet.
"Hey, hey, hey, cool it," assured Slim. "Business will be awful during the lockdown, so I need to raise prices."
"I suppose," surrendered Ratchet. "It's all I have, though." A slot opened at the bottom of the bump, and Ratchet placed the gun inside. A minute later, the gun spat out of the slot, falling into Ratchet's gloved hands, and he fired it into the air twice, finding it needed no recharge.
"Now for your fee," said Slim Cognito calmly. Three thousand bolts spontaneously streamed out of the gadget on Ratchet's belt and disappeared from sight inside the slot.
"Thanks so much, Slim," said Ratchet happily. That's when he realised that he had no idea what to do. "Slim, you're probably wondering why I am free from the lockdown."
"Out there saving the world?" guessed Slim.
"Yes," answered Ratchet firmly. "We're trying to get every citizen to escape Boldan, and help overthrow Champio in parliament. But we don't know what do now."
"If I was in your shoes, I'd go the underground highways and restore power to the city, allowing cars, taxis and electrical outputs to function. However, that wouldn't solve the case of escaping on ships, or the political robots, because of some high tech field Champio has put around this place."
"Well, that makes sense," responded Ratchet.
"What were you actually doing in the first place?" asked Slim.
"Well, me and a bunch of friends headed to the Clock Tower where Champio was, to try and convince him to stop this. But we failed, causing the loss of life for one of us, and the capture of another. I suppose I should go find Guy and Angela."
"Good luck to you," said Slim. "If you succeed, business will be great!" Ratchet nodded, smiling, and walked out of the room. He noticed that a bridge had been built to the right of him, connecting the room to the rest of the city without use of a teleporter.
"Here we go, then," breathed Ratchet to himself, slowly taking the bridge.
Guy Milligan stood over a hot barbecue, cooking three patties to put in their burgers. He was preparing a third burger for Ratchet when he came back. Angela had spotted the propane barbecue in a closed down shop, and "borrowed" it.
Angela had prepared food and ingredients in one of the backpacks, in case they were able to cook it, and she was thankful that she did. She was wearing a baby carrier with Kyra sleeping inside that replaced the backpack, and was still wondering she was going to carry them scooped up two patties with his spatula, and placed them inside the two sliced bread rolls.
"Ready!" Guy announced, and Angela came over to collect her burger. Guy gave his to Angela as well for safe keeping while he put the last patty inside Ratchet's. As Angela turned to sit up against the wall inside the alleyway they were situated in, she spotted Ratchet walking in.
"Hey, Ratchet!" she yelled happily, trying to ignore the fight they had earlier. The Lombax looked up, having not noticed them, and smiled quickly. He was glad that nothing had stopped their friendship, and was even happier when he spotted Guy turning around with an extra burger.
"No hard feelings?" asked Ratchet, walking all the way up to Angela, who proceeded to give him one of the burgers. Guy bit into burger he had while turning off the barbecue. Ratchet walked over to the barbecue and placed a slice of cheese inside his burger, making it a cheeseburger.
"So where did you guys find this?" asked Ratchet, who walked over to the wall with Guy and Angela, sitting in between them.
"Oh, I borrowed it from a closed shop," said Angela sheepishly. "Along with this watch that I can use to tell the time." At that instant, she looked at the watch and found it said 9:53am. Ratchet nodded as Guy spoke to him for the first time.
"So, what are we going to do now to help the citizens of Boldan escape?" asked the deeply voiced man.
"Actually, while I was away," began Ratchet, and he noticed that Angela was looking at him with content. "I found Slim Cognito. He upgraded a weapon for me and said that we should head to the underground highways to restore a power generator there, allowing the citizens free access across the planet."
"But won't the robots shoot them?" asked Guy, grabbing a box of cigarettes out of his coat.
"Yes, but it will restore electrical power and YOU SMOKE?" asked Ratchet, noticing him light one up.
"Hey, it's my lungs that are hurting, not yours," responded Guy. Angela realised that Ratchet couldn't argue with that.
"I think that we should power up that generator first, and then take on the lockdown guards," stated Angela. "Will it power ships though?"
"No," answered Ratchet. "Champio has put up a field around the planet that only allows ships to fly inside the atmosphere, preventing escape. But I reckon that if we had a ship big enough and strong enough, it could break through the field."
"But the ship would have to be the size of the entire city," replied Guy. "Personally, I think it will be easier for us to split up. Having only one person on the generators would be ideal, without the hassle of someone falling behind. Plus, there may be some tricky platforming to do."
"Well, I think that you should go and power up the generators," said Angela. "I haven't spent much time with Ratchet lately."
"Yeah, I suppose I'm the only one fit for the job," bragged Guy. Ratchet and Angela began to jeer at his bragging, but had a good laugh at the end. Ratchet was the last to finish his burger, and threw the scraps in the nearby bin.
"So, shall we go?"
