Eeeeehhh. So late. 2:14am, the past 3 hours spend writing. It's fairly mentally exhausting stuff, but I do it anyway.
So yea, I'm get some dearly needed rest, and I hope you all enjoy the chapter :)
I was in a dark room. The blackness seemed to stretch on forever, but somehow I knew the space was tight fitting. I tried to get up and move around, but my head hit the ceiling before I had even moved an inch. My hands instinctively reached out to the sides relieving more walls trapping me in some sort of box. I was trapped in here.
The claustrophobia that I didn't normally have kicked in quickly and I started panicking. My shouts echoed, bouncing off the walls, creating some sort of delay effect. Except they never fully went away, always faintly there if you listened for them.
Seconds later a light flicked on in front of me and as quick as I started panicking, I calmed down. Momentarily.
Two men came into view underneath the fluorescent light, standing across from each other like two cowboys getting ready for a duel and the panic slowly crept back when I recognised a cloaked figure was holding a pistol to Ratchets head.
They stood like that for a while, frozen as if I needed some time to think on the situation. The cloaked figure was just that - Cloaked. I couldn't tell anything at all about his appearance except for the fact that he was taller than Ratchet, though not by much. Ratchet on the other hand was expressionless. It was as if the animator hadn't quite gotten up to his face yet. If anything it made it look like Ratchet had accepted death.
Boom! The cloaked figure pulled the trigger and Ratchet slowly faded away from the scene as he laughed maniacally at the dead, evaporating Lombax.
"Not so tough now, huh?" He shouted before the scene went dark.
I woke with a start, heart pumping at the scene I helplessly watched seconds ago. It was slowly fading away, the dream, and I was thankful for that. I didn't want another nightmare to add to my list of fears. Another Ratchet related nightmare… I found myself wondering when the last good sleep I had was.
"Good evening, Miss Apogee!" I heard Clanks voice from somewhere.
Finally I opened my eyes long enough to actually process where I was; In Ratchets bed. Clank was at the doorway holding a tray with water, a sandwich, and some pills on it. The next thing I noticed was my legs.
Bloodied and bandaged, they were laid out on the bed, redness seeping through to the duvet cover. I couldn't move them, it hurt so much to and for a split second I worried if I was ever going to be able to walk again.
"Do not worry. You are in good hands." Clank said upon seeing the expression on my face. He was close enough now more me to grab him and pull him into a hug, which I did and the little robot just smiled.
"Incase you are wondering, Ratchet has gone to the hospital to get an ambulance. The phone never worked at this place."
"Oh, okay." He's gone to the hospital? For me obviously. But…"What happened?" I finally asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
"I do not know. It look like you were standing on top of a bomb when it went off." The small robot tried to help, his optical receivers looking just as curious as my eyes were.
Suddenly a sharp pain rose up my legs and I yet out a yelp. I must've tried changing position or something, I dunno. But what I did know is that it hurt like hell.
When the pain subsided enough for me to stop clenching my fists, I asked Clank if there were any painkiller, and luckily for me he had some right here. I downed the 2 white pills with a glass of water, which trickled down my dry throat. Then came the hunger pang. But Clank was prepared for it as well, with a beefy looking sandwich sitting on the tray he had brang wit him. Unsurprisingly I scoffed the burger-like sandwich within the minute. It did almost nothing to fill the hole in my stomach but it was something.
"How are you feeling?" Clank rebroke the silence after I had swallowed my last bite.
"Like I've been run over by a train and somehow lived." Clank chuckled his signature laugh, which made me smile a bit. Over the last few days so much had happened, I just needed to smile… Geez even the word seemed slightly foreign.
"Well you get some rest. I am going to keep watch for the ambulance, and do some cleaning. It should be here soon, don't worry." He smiled and eventually walked out of the room leaving me alone.
I looked down at my legs again, try to think of what happened. The last thing I remember was a red light from a grounded ventilation shaft. Maybe they do something out when I was trying to see where the fading light had gone off to… The truth is I can't exactly remember. Not that it really matters anyway. I was going to be healed soon, and back on my feet in a week or two. Hopefully after all this our visit would turn into a nice, relaxing holiday…
-Meanwhile-
I looked passed the barrel of the gun and saw the ugly scum who had me up against the wall. His purple face almost black in the dim light, but I knew who it was. An old enemy of mine. The guy who made me able to stand up for myself all the way back in kindergarten.
"Varl.." I scowled. Why had he chosen now to try and kill me, I had no idea, but I knew it was not going to work.
"I didn't know you were coming back, Lombax." He spat out. It sounded like he was lying, like he had set the whole thing up some how. But I doubt it, since this whole situation was out of the blue, unexpected.
"And I didn't know you were going to try and do this again, Varl."
"Wise words from the famed Lombax facing certain death. Where's ya little robot? Off playing in the sandpit?" I could only scowl. What was even the point of that? I quickly asked myself.
"Too bad it doesn't matter, as you're all about to die soon anyway." What did he mean by 'All' I wondered. But I didn't have much time to think on it as a second later the man had taken the gun away from my forehead, and shoved it into my mouth.
My teeth almost shattered from the recoil as he shot through my left cheek. The pain was unbearable and I collapsed on my right shoulder, spitting the gun out of my mouth that my enemy had left.
A deja-vu moment overcame me as the medical staff had picked me up and placed me on a stretcher for what seemed like the second time. As they were rushing me towards the operating rooms the last thing that went through my head before I blacked out for the third time since the Great Clock was;
'I'm glad I'm already in a hospital.'
-Back at the Garage-
I left Talwyn in the main bedroom and shut the door behind me before walking over to our messy kitchen. Piled to the ceiling with junk, it was amazing none of it had fallen over of the time in Polaris.
I walked over to the small section I had cleared earlier. A steaming hot mug of oil was there waiting for me, I almost couldn't wait. I had been feeling a bit stiff since I woke up, 'wormholes mustn't agree with me' I giggled at my thought,
After managing to get the oil from the bench, I walked over to the sofa that looked like it had been cleared. It certainly had less junk on it than the rest of the place. I was halfway there when I slipped on an old slop of lubricant on the floor. I let go of the mug in mid air and fell to the ground. Expecting to be covered in steamy hot oil, nothing happened for a while. I finally looked up at where I last held the mug which was still there, in mid air. The room had turned a familiar blue colour and it seemed like the world had stopped in it's tracks.
"Time anomaly on planet Veldin." I said aloud before giggling. Time worked in such mysterious ways, and I was just lucky to have a certain software upgrade from sigmund that let me work through time anomalies like this. Taking advantage of the situation, I grabbed the mid-air mug and waited for time to fix itself, which it did eventually. And after the vague blue tint faded away, I was glad to still have a nice hot mug of oil still in the mug, rather than on the floor.
Not two minutes after the Time Anomaly, the Ambulance arrived, sirens blasting right up until someone banged on the front door.
I ran through the mess to the front door, and quickly opened it. The man on the other side was standing in front of a black vehicle with flames on it, as well as the hospitals logo.
"Evening, Mister. We are here about an unconscious woman with fatal leg wounds?" The man - Derrick, his name card read - spoke quickly.
"Yes, right. She's awake now, lying on the bed in the back room." I pointed towards the door at the back. Derrick nodded and went to the car, fetching another person and a stretch to carry Talwyn.
The two hospital staff had quickly taken the Markazian woman from the garage into the back of the van and I was offered to ride back to the hospital with them.
We were soon off, speeding towards the city. A two minute ride I calculated quickly. I also noted that Ratchet wasn't here like he said he would be, though it was possible they just didn't let him in on the ride
"Oh, you're Clank, right? Ratchets best friend?"
"Yes." I responded, feeling the the driver had just read my mind.
"Well I just think I better tell you that he was ambushed, just before we left…"
"What?" I asked, shocked. What a conversation started…
"Yeah. This small time criminal you may know, Varl, come out of nowhere and throws him to the ground. Ratchet told us to go and get the girl so I didn't see the outcome. Just thought I'd let you know."
I wondered how the man could be so casual about this. Ratchet was ambushed! I was sure that he was fine, he had done conquered many foes, Dr Nefarious and Emperor Tachyon just to name a few, so I doubted an ambush from Varl faze him. He was Ratchet after all.
But out of curiosity I still found myself looking through the data I had on Varl for the remainder of the trip. He was an ugly looking fellow, with a couple of mugshots from his first and second time in jail. He had already tried to attack Ratchet once before I was even created. The only time I had ever met him was when he cornered me out on the street once after Dreks defeat. But when Ratchet came round the corner with his recently polished wrench, Varl was off like a shot.
But it was his picture than bothered me the most. I could've sworn that I recognised his species from somewhere, though on his bio it said 'Unknown.' I looked further into it.
The facial scanner did it's job quickly, speeding through the long list of species from throughout time, that I knew of. But I did not expect this outcome...
When the Cragmites were originally vanquished, maybe Tachyons egg wasn't the only one left lying around, because Varl definitely wasn't any other nicer species.
He was a Cragmite.
Yup. Wow! I think. Anyone guessing at what's gonna happen next? Unless you read the story last year of course :P