Ratchet and Alister
Good vs Evil
I DO NOT OWN RATCHET AND CLANK, INSOMNIAC GAMES DOES! I OWN ANYTHING ELSE!
Chapter 11: Space Pirates
After a couple days, Ratchet was discharged out of Axiom Hospital but would still need to go for regular check ups from what Dr. Jackson said. The gang returned to their routines: Ratchet, Clank and Alister headed back for Torren IV as Talwyn, Cronk, Zephyr and Qwark headed back for the Apogee Space Station.
Two weeks past and everything was normal with Ratchet so far, not turning into his 'monster' form, but Alister still kept a watchful eye on him. At the time, Azimuth was in the kitchen making some lunch for Ratchet and himself; Clank was a robot so he didn't need to eat. His amber eyes kept flickering from the food he was preparing, to Ratchet who was relaxing on the sofa watching Holo-TV in the living room. Clank was sitting in the armchair reading a book about science. Alister sighed. Who was he kidding? Keeping an eye on the younger almost 24?7. He seemed more like himself as time passed, but the other had his moments.
One time Ratchet was sitting at the kitchen table fixing a gadget of some sort; he would do that to keep his mind off certain things. However, that was not always the case. That day, Ratchet flipped out as he couldn't get the gadget to work anymore. The elder Lombax had to get him to put the object down before breaking it or anything else, and take him outside to take deep breaths to calm right down. That was the last time he got angered.
Azimuth put down the knife he was using and stared at the chopped fruit. They still hadn't got the test results from Dr. Jackson who was back in Axiom City. They went to the hospital a few days ago to give another blood test but now they were just waiting for the final results.
Alister sighed again. What if they never found a cure for Ratchet? What if he was like that for the rest of his life? Time will tell.
Suddenly, Clank got a call from one of the natives on Kerwan in Metropolis City. "Help, help! We're calling for Ratchet and Clank to help us! We're being under attack! If you get this message, please find-" The video cut off there and went static. The screen flew back into Clank's storage.
"This message was recorded two hours ago." Clank said with a woried expression. "Do you think the invasion is still taking place? He asked.
"Positive." Ratchet replied as he jumped off the sofa and rushed to his room to grab his armour from his last adventure and some weapons and gadgets. He walked back into the main room to pick up his hoverboots and slip his feet in them. "Come on, let's get going." He yelled to the other two as he took hold of the door handle.
The elder cleared his throat which made Ratchet's fingers slip from the handle and turn to face him. Alister crossed his arms. "You're not going." He simply stated.
"But why not? People will or are dying in the attack!" Ratchet argued.
"You know what Dr. Jackson said." Amber eyes narrowed to slits.
The younger huffed. "I know what he said. 'Stay outta troble' he said." He copied the other's actions: crossed arms and narrowed eyes. "I have friends there who are in trouble, and if I don't save them, no-one will." He grabbed the door handle again, but swung the door open with force that it smashed against the wall. The Lombax then ran to his ship.
"It seems we have no choice." Clank spoke up. He put his book down and headed for Aphelion too.
The General sighed heavily and let his arms fall to his sides. "No, it doesn't." He said to himself, walking outside to his own ship after closing and locking the door behind him.
The two ships raced to Kerwan and reached the planet in less than an hour. They flew down on a landing pad and everyone jumped out of their ships. They could finally see who was attacking the city. Space Pirates.
The city wasn't destroyed much but there were many flames of fire in buildings and stores. The three grouped up. "Alright, I think our best choice is to split up." Ratchet said, keeping an eye on the action ahead.
Alister, however, did not like the sound of the plan. A worried expression hushed across his face. "Ratchet, I don't think that's such a good idea."
The younger grinned. "Don't worry, I'll have Clank to watch my back." He turned to his robotic friend. "Let's go pal." Clank jumped onto his back and the Lombax ran off into one direction. Seeing as the elder couldn't do anything to stop the other, he ran off into another direction with his wrench out ready.
Ratchet and Clank ended up running to the main part of the city and there were about a dozen or so pirates in the area. The Lombax got out his trusty Omniwrench for battle, and ran towards the invaders. He hit one across the head, which sent the pirate flying into other ones, this bought Ratchet some time. He got out his Constructo Bomb and threw some disks on the floor. The exploded when the pirates came in range of them. "Ha ha, score one for the Lombaxes!" Ratchet yelled.
The area was clear, but then everything went silent. Ratchet looked around his surroundings with narrowed eyes. "I don't like it. It's too quiet." He whispered to Clank. Suddenly, the ground started to shake, which made the younger loose his balence and fall to the floor.
"My scanners detect a pirate ship coming our way." Clank spoke in a worried tone. That tone would always put Ratchet off. He had learnt over the years that when his robot friend spoke like that, it meant something bad was going to happen.
A few seconds later, a huge pirate ship appeared in the duo's sight. "Aye, aye maties. Look what we have here!" A voice screeched through the speakers. Ratchet guessed it was the captain. "A wee little Lombax with a wrench, and his robotic mate. How sweet." The captain mocked. He jumped off his ship and landed on the ground, about 10 feet away from the heroes, with a THUD.
The captain was a tall thin robot; his hat made him took taller. His body was similar to Darkwater's but had some differences ; his armour was red and black, and he had a luminous green stone in the middle of his chest plate. He also had an eye patch over his left eye. The captain held a silver sword almost as long as Ratchet. The robot glared at the Lombax and taunted him. "What's an orphan goin' to do to me and me crew? Nothin'. Ye should of left with the rest of ye kind. Oo, wait, maybe they didn't want ye." The captain chuckled.
This got under Ratchet's skin, and he engaged the robotic captain into battle. The Lombax pulled out his Constructo Pistol and got a few shot but they bounced right off the pirate. Ratchet growled. Damn. Need to think of a plan.
"Ratchet!" Clank yelled to snap his friend out of his thoughts. The younger barely had any time to roll out of the way of a sharp sword that missed him by an inch.
The golden Lombax dropped his gun during the roll. It was too dangerous to grab, as it was closer to the captain than himself. He had to get something else out. Taking out the Buzz Blades, he started shooting at his enemy as he ran in circles around him. This proved useless as the blades kept bouncing off of the captain, just like the Constructo Pistol bullets did. Ratchet cringed. He hadn't brought many weapons with him. Why? Even he did not know. Looking at his surroundings again, he tried to thin of a plan, however he was too slow to dodge the hand coming his way.
The Lombax went flying across the battle field; Clank, who came off of Ratchet's back, flew a few feet extra. Ratchet pushed himself off the ground and shook his head clear from what happened moments ago. He was too distracted by a headache to notice the captain pull a trick: he shot a Mag-net bullet out of his cannon shaped arm and ensnared the poor Lombax. The net held him against a near by building wall.
Clank got up moments later to see Ratchet defenceless and trapped. He ran up to his friend to try and break the restrains, but the captain suddenly grabbed hold of him and picked up Ratchet's Constructo Pistol off the floor. He held the gun to Clank's head.
Horrified, Ratchet pleaded the captain. " Please, let him go! You can do what you like with me, but please, just don't do anything to him!" The pirate ignored him, and simply spat in his face. He threatened the Lombax as he charged the barrel of the gun to blow Clank's head off.
That proved too much for Ratchet to handle. His heart raced so much, it felt as if it would rip out of his chest. His breathing grew extremely heavy and fast. The Lombax clamped his eyes shut. He started to hear a voice through the darkness of his mind. "Come on. Snap at him. Tear him apart." It wasn't Clank's or the captain's voice. "Just burst out. Come on, you can do it. You know you wanna." Ratchet didn't know who or what it was, but he couldn't hold back the anger. He broke under pressure, making him turn into his 'monster' form.
The magnetic bonds wore off and the younger fell to the floor with his head hanging low. His breathing was still heavy. A second later, his head snapped up to look at the robotic pirate. His emerald eyes were replaced with bright red eyes, and his mouth dripped with venom. His face expression was beyond angry. "Put... Him... Down." Ratchet spoke darkly, gritting his now sharp grey teeth together.
Even though the pirate was terrified in the inside, he wouldn't show it on the outside. He chuckled to hide his nervousness. "Make me."
The younger smirked. "Wrong answer." He pounced on the captain, making him drop Clank in the process, as they tumbled several yards away. The corrupted Lombax landed on top of the other: one of his feet was on the robot's chest as the other was smashed on the robot's face. His hands took a firm grip on the captain's arms. Ratchet used all his new strength to tear the pirate limb from limb starting with his arms, then legs and finally head, he took at sadistic pleasure in doing so, but even that wasn't enough. After his hands became sore from the rough metal, he used his sharp teeth to take a chunk out of the metal. The material cut the inside of Ratchet's mouth, resulting him spiting it out along with some blood too. He scrunched his face up from the disgusting taste.
The dark Lombax growled, as he started to become weak. He felt so light headed that he rolled off of the now-torn-apart-captain. His eyes faded back into their normal colour before closing off to the city. The other space pirates retreated after hearing that their captain was dead.
Alister and Clank came running to the scene to see Ratchet lying unconscious next to a damaged robotic body of the space pirate captain. "Ratchet!" Azimuth yelled in concern. He rushed to the younger's side and checked him over. He took note of the wet blood stains around the other's slightly open mouth. "Clank, do a scan on Ratchet to check for any damages." He ordered the small robot.
Clank did as he was told, and made a scan on the golden Lombax. Luckily, there were no broken bones or bruises detected. The robot explained the details to the older Lombax and that he could pick him up without causing any harm. Alister carried Ratchet back to the ships. Clank was about to follow but picked up a high frequency coming from the green gem on the captain's armour. The robot took the stone with him, to give to Dr. Jackson to do some test on it, before heading back to the ships as well. Azimuth carefully laid him in the back seat of Aphelion. "We'll take him to Axiom Hospital again to tell Dr. Jackson what happened." He said to Clank before climbing in his own ship and waiting for Aphelion to leave first before following.
Finally I've done the next chapter for this story. At last! I'm so glad but I couldn't do it without my dear friend. She gave me a base idea and I wrote it up and added a few extra things. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.