Rise of the Uniposers
Tehctar made it to the semi-finals of the Jungalian Melee Competition along with Tyuio and Yuni, who all made it to the survival round with him. After getting lost, Tehctar found the place where Tyuio wanted Tehctar to pretend to knock him out, so the crowd doesn't get angry and stampede him like many contestants before him and he gains his 5,000 bolts for his family in poverty. However, Yuni and Fautso get knocked first and they face each other in the grand final, where Tehctar deliberately rolls off the edge, and Tyuio wins the cloaking device. Once they began to leave, they find out that Tyuio had placed the cloaking device in the Unipose, so Tehctar could continue on his journey.
Chapter 14: Reunite, Repair, Receive
The Unipose just exited the atmosphere, and Tehctar began to find out where they can find out where the Scarzare is. He pushed a bunch of buttons on the console and eventually a person with grey skin, blue lips and eyes covered by a hood appeared on the screen.
"What did you find?" asked Clank, who was reading the latest Readers Digested magazine.
"Apparently, there is a mage on Gyuliane, an ocean world inhabited by people living with caves," said Tehctar. "It says here that she can create a tracker for any being you want to follow, however, you need a piece of their DNA."
"But we've never run into the Scarzare yet, and we don't know where he is," said Clank, proving the point useless.
"Yes…but it also says she can heal bruises and broken bones, meaning that Talwyn will better again," said Tehctar, lifting his head from the console. "Plus, it will only take a few hours and we need Talwyn for this fight."
He left the room and walked into the dining room, where Talwyn was laying on the bed and Qwark was reading another comic book about Captain Starshield he found dropped on Jungalia.
"Talwyn," said Tehctar, making her sit upright and look at him. "There is a mage on Gyuliane who will be able to heal your leg."
"Really?" exclaimed Talwyn, raising her fists into the air. Tehctar smiled, and then noticed the Mimbian vendor in the corner of his eye, and then walked up to it and purchased the Saw Blaster, in case Ratchet came back. He then walked back into the cockpit and grabbed the cloaking device, and looked at it, and found an instruction manual for installation on ships stuck on the back.
Open a spare rectangular upgrade port on your ship's console.
Slide the cloaking device in with the button facing upwards.
Connect the red wires on your ship to the holes in the lowest tube, then connect the single yellow wire in the upgrade port to the holes in the second highest tube. Lastly, connect all the blue wires into the remaining holes in the tubes.
Close the upgrade port, and a green neon square button should pop out.
Tehctar followed the instructions to the letter, and then close the port, and surely enough, a green neon square button popped out.
"Everyone get ready!" yelled Tehctar. "We are about to cloak ourselves!" Tehctar pressed the neon button, and a screeching sound washed all over the ship, before a female computer voice announced, "Ship now cloaked." Tehctar nodded in approval, and decided to see the ship (or lack there-of) from the outside, so he halted the Unipose to a stop.
He put on his spacesuit, and walked up the ladder, and then floated into space, and saw that his spacesuit was attached to nothing, as there was no ship where he exited. He lowered himself down, and landed on what looked like nothing, but was actually the Unipose with the cloaking device in action. He floated to where the oxygen tube disappeared and then found himself inside the ship, and able to see everything.
He took the usual two door precautions so no oxygen inside leaks out, and then jumped back down and re-boosted the engines. Even the exhaust from the engines couldn't be seen as they kept travelling westwards to Gyuliane, and Tehctar and Qwark took some spare wood from down in the engine room and began making crutches, so Talwyn could walk. While the banging sounds of hammers rang throughout the entire ship, Clank managed to contact Cronk in the Polaris Galaxy.
"Hello again, Cronk," said Clank. "I am currently travelling in a ship and I was wondering if you would like to play Galactic Battleship against me with a pencil and paper?"
"Sure thing, Clank," said Cronk. "Zephyr is asleep, and I'm glad because he was boring me to death. I'll go and get myself a pen and paper, and then draw up a grid." Cronk left the screen as Clank ran into the dining room and took a pencil and paper off the table, and ran back to the screen where Cronk was waiting for him. The pieces that Clank and Cronk drew on their papers were a Mothership, a Battleship, a Fighter, a Bomber and a Scouter.
Tehctar and Qwark finally finished making Talwyn's underarm crutches and she put them on, and was able to walk around the dining room by herself and then walked out into the cockpit, where she saw Clank talking to Cronk.
"Cronk!" yelled Talwyn, walking over to the screen.
"Talwyn, is that you?" asked Cronk, trying to see Talwyn's face in the screen. "What happened to your leg?"
"I broke it," said Talwyn, biting her lip and moving Clank over to be main focus on the screen. "Apparently there is a mage on Gyuliane who can heal it. So what are you doing with Clank?"
"We're playing a game of Galactic Battleship, because Zephyr is a bore and fell asleep from his own story!"
"Okay," said Talwyn, laughing. "You two enjoy your game," she said before walking off.
"D7!" yelled Cronk to Clank, who check his paper and got angry.
"You sunk my Bomber!"
Tehctar walked over to Qwark who was reading the comic book, and looked at what he was reading, before the BING! BING! BING! blared through the ship again. He ran over to the cockpit and slowed the engines to a stop, before realising that they didn't have the Aphelion anymore, and that they'd have to go down with the Unipose, but he decided to wait a while in case he came back.
"Sorry, Cronk, but we've reached our destination, how about we continue later?" asked Clank, and Cronk nodded before Clank shut off the transmission, only to be greeted by a another one, except the screen was snowy all over and couldn't tell who it was. Tehctar was curious, and switched off the cloaking device, making the Unipose seemingly appear out of nowhere.
"Lock on to the transmission coming through!" yelled Tehctar, as Clank and Qwark fiddled around with the console. The message that was coming through was very hazy and they still couldn't a proper reception. Tehctar looked through the windows, to see if any ships or satellites were around, and guessed that the transmission must have been coming from the planet below them.
"The transmission coming a bit clearer," said Clank. "We might be able to make out the audio, just no visual contact. The all listened for anything coming through, and heard nothing until a muffled voice came through. Clank turned a few dials and could hear the sender perfectly.
"I'm back…" said a familiar Lombax's voice.
"RATCHET?" yelled Tehctar. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"
"Just to the Bogon Galaxy for some last minute upgrades," said Ratchet, now appearing on the screen. "Let's find the Scarzare!"
Aphelion suddenly went around a yellow planet and into the Unipose's sight, obviously now equipped with lasers and rockets, and Sasha was sitting in the seat next to Ratchet. Aphelion landed in the claws on top of the Unipose, and was grabbed by them, and they together boarded the ship. Tehctar, Qwark, Talwyn and Clank all lined up in a straight line and watched as Ratchet and Sasha rejoined their team.
"Reports?" asked Ratchet, helping Sasha down the ladder. "We successfully escaped the Battle of Aluyia (and saw you taking off with Sasha), and won the cloaking device on Jungalia, and now we are heading to Gyuliane to find a mage to help Talwyn's leg and possibly find out where the Scarzare is. We have 25 hours remaining."
"Okay," said Ratchet. "Firstly, I'm sorry for running off. I was confused and needed some time out. Secondly, what on Veldin do you have on your head, Tehctar?" Everyone turned to Tehctar and saw that he had placed a fez on his head.
"It's a fez, I wear a fez now," said Tehctar, a little embarrassed at everyone staring at him. Sasha winked at Talwyn and she grabbed the fez off of Tehctar's head and threw it into the air, while Sasha whipped out Lancer and blasted it to pieces.
"Damn," said Tehctar, before realising he had the Saw Blaster behind his back and threw it to Ratchet, who caught it confused and then realising that Tehctar had bought the Saw Blaster.
"Oh, thanks, Tehctar," said Ratchet before walking over to the Mimbian vendor. "And I have got something for you." He scrolled over to the Standard Mimbian Armor and bought two of them with the 2,000 bolts he collected on Lavarti and Aluyia, and gave one to Tehctar while he put on his. The SMA was a dark blue metal costumes with silver "swishes" painted around it, and the helmet was dark blue with a silver mouthpiece.
"So," said Ratchet. "Are we back to normal?" Everyone nodded and laughed and then walked off to do their own thing, while Ratchet turned to Sasha and winked at her, before walking to the cockpit with Tehctar, who was still angry at Sasha and Talwyn for destroying his fez.
"So, Tehctar," said Ratchet, before realising he didn't have anything to say.
"Yeah?" asked Tehctar who was checking if all the buttons were working.
"So, how long until we Gyuliane?" asked Ratchet, twiddling his thumbs.
"We're already in orbit, we just got to use the Aphelion to go down," said Tehctar, who noticed the cloaking device button. "Hey, Ratchet, do you want see what happens when I press the button for the cloaking device?"
"Okay." Tehctar slammed his hand on the green square neon button and a screeching pierced throughout the ship and then stopped, and Ratchet realised that no-one could see them now.
"Cool! So, should I get ready to go down to Gyuliane?"
"No! You need to take a break after all your hard work on Mernasia and Lavarti! We'll assemble a party now inside the dining room," said Tehctar before walking into the dining room with Ratchet.
"Okay, people," said Tehctar with a raised voice which caught everyone's attention. "We need to assemble a party to go down to Gyuliane. I've already decided that Ratchet isn't going. How about you, Sasha?"
"No, thanks," said Sasha, scrubbing her boots with a towel. "Last time I went to a planet with you guys, I got kidnapped by a maniac." She gave a vicious smile to Ratchet, which was returned with a jokey sneer.
"Talwyn is obviously going to get her leg healed. Clank, what about you?"
"Well…I might as well, because the mage's words might be too confusing for you," he said, before performing his trademark laugh.
"Okay, that's Talwyn and Clank, which leaves Qwark. Qwark, do you want to go?"
"Not really, I've already been with Talwyn on Mernasia, so how about you go, because you haven't been with Talwyn yet?"
"Good idea," said Tehctar, before gathering Talwyn and Clank. "Get ready, guys. We are leaving in 10 minutes."
Tehctar sat in the pilot's seat of Aphelion and watched as Clank attached a pulley system to Talwyn's belt and pulled her up with his own strength. Tehctar checked that the Communication Crystal was on, and then saw Talwyn being lifted up by rope and laughed. Once she was fitted into her seat next to him, she slapped him because angrily crossing her arms.
Clank sat in the back and waited as Tehctar checked all of the vital systems on Aphelion, and then fired up the engines. Ratchet pressed a button on at the cockpit of the Unipose and the claws let Aphelion go and rocket off down into the atmosphere of Gyuliane. Aphelion burned through the ozone layer and then busted through clouds and eventually a gigantic ocean filled with above ground caves covered Aphelion's view.
"Ratchet?" asked Tehctar as he piloted Aphelion over the caves. "Which one of these caves do we need to go in?"
"Hold on a sec," said Ratchet as he fiddled around with the console. "Okay, I've pinpointed your location. From where you are, turn left and keep going straight until you see a purple cave instead of the usual brown ones. Once you pass there, start angling a little to the left until a brown cave with a white-grey "patio", and land there."
Tehctar followed his instructions, and came across a huge brown cave with a white-grey landing pad of sorts. Aphelion landed there, and Tehctar helped Talwyn out and gave her the crutches and she walked along in front of Aphelion and waited for Clank to get out. Tehctar and Clank walked past Talwyn and she followed them into the cave.
The cave was bluish-green and bended to the right, where a hooded girl sat on a tree trunk, covered in darkness. She noticed that they were looking at her from a distance, and rose her head, revealing her grey skin and blue lips, while the rest of her face was hooded.
"You wished to see me?" she asked, tilting her head to the left.
"Ubbbb," stuttered Tehctar before pulling himself together. "We didn't inform you we were going to see you, how did you know that we were coming?"
"I see everything," said the mage, standing up, revealing her short skinny grey legs, and wore tattered grey robes going down to her knees. "I see the past, I see future, and like everyone else, I see the present. I saw the end of the universe. I saw the beginning. I have lived for million of years and never aged. What is it you wish to see me about?"
"We'd like you to heal our friend," said Tehctar. "She has a broken leg."
"Bring her to me," she said, pulling the hood back, revealing aqua eyes, with no white at all in them, and no hair at all, with wrinkles down her face. Talwyn began to walk with the crutches towards as she spoke. "I have healed many people before, and even saved many from death. However, death cannot be reversed, as it is the end of one's journey, while I was fortunate enough to have no end to my journey. The last person who ever saw me was a lost adventurer, who saw my cave floating in space, after Gyuliane was destroyed. My cave, much like my body, can never be destroyed."
Talwyn had reached the mage and was standing there, waiting for the mage to do something. The mage sat back down and Talwyn followed her as well, as she could, and only managed to have her broken leg sticking out.
"Perfect," said the mage, before staring at her leg, which started vibrating mildly, but gradually turned violent until she heard a crack, but felt no pain, and saw that her leg was sticking up in the air, and then she stood up.
"Was that crack meant to hu-" Talwyn realised that she stood without the help of her crutches, which were laying on the ground unused. The edge's of the mage's mouth shifted upwards into a smile. Talwyn looked at her leg, and then to Tehctar and Clank, then back to her leg and then to the mage, followed by her dancing wildly with her legs moving in every possible direction.
Tehctar and Clank ran over to Talwyn and grabbed her to keep her from doing anything stupid. The mage just sat there without paying any attention to her surroundings, and Tehctar noticed her and remembered that they were going to ask her about the tracking device.
"Ummmm, so, what's your name?" asked Tehctar, so he could ask her about the tracker.
"MY NAME IS NOT IMPORTANT," said the mage firmly. "But if you insist, just call me Fryg."
"So, Fryg. I hear you make tracking devices?" asked Tehctar, scratching his head a little at what he called her.
"Yes. Do you wish to find someone who is lost?"
"Ummm, sure. If that's what you want to call it."
"Then I need a piece of that someone's DNA."
"Darn! I don't have any DNA of that person. No hair, no fingerprint, no blood, no skin. Crap!"
"Do not fret, young boy. All you have to do is find someone who has the DNA."
"And where will I find that someone."
"Like I said, I can see the future. That someone is landing in their ship, just outside my cave in five seconds."
"Five seconds?" 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and suddenly a whirring sound, followed by a metal clunk echoed through the cave from the outside. Tehctar, Talwyn and Clank started running an began to see a small white ship, and then stopped when they saw a clone of Sasha, with the distinct purplish skin colour and scar on the right cheek…
"What?" exclaimed Tehctar as the clone of Sasha walked up to him, and placed her fingers on Tehctar's mouth.
"Now, please, let me explain," said the clone, before walking away from them and stopping. "The Scarzare was cloned from the Galactic President, and the cloning mutated and created me out of him. I thought I'd be fine with my father, but he turned out to be…well…a bastard. I wanted to have the peacefulness that my counterpart has, so, I helped Tachyon and Nefarious escape from the Scarzare so that they'd let me run off on my own. So I began looking, and then arrived at the Battle of Aluyia, where I saw Sasha with you, going into battle, so I waited and then followed your ship to the Jungalian Melee Contest. I was in the crowd, looking for Sasha, but couldn't find her, and then I noticed that one of her friends was participating in battle. I watched him and his ship, from the time that bear dude sabotaged the doors and windows to the time that little yellow alien planted some device in the ship. I then followed you here, and noticed that sometimes you'd disappear and reappear because of that thing the alien put in your ship. Then I followed the other ship that came to here and then found you."
"Okay," said Tehctar. "Understood, but I thought Tachyon and Nefarious died in the explosion!"
"So you we're the awesome little rascals who tried to finish them. Well done. Unfortunately, they all survived. Drek, Vox and Otto were rescued from the rubble by their leader, Master, while my dad had enough time to teleport Tachyon and Nefarious to the base before they were found in the rubble. Do you know who Master is?"
Everyone shook their head and so the clone continued.
"Master is a shape-shifting lifeform who decided to gather the most heinous villains and then take over the universe. You can call me Sasha2 and now, you are probably wondering if I could lead to the base. Unfortunately, I can't. I tried to pay attention to where I was going from the base, but it got too confusing with all the similar planets and gave up."
"Well that doesn't matter," said Talwyn. "The mage inside this cave can make tracking devices using only that persons DNA."
"It could work," said Sasha2, thinking about the implications. "However, my DNA spawned from my father's DNA which spawned from the Galactic President's. So, in actually, you would be finding me or the Scarzare, you would be finding the Galactic President. But my father said that he stole his counterpart and locked him up in the base's dungeon."
"So, do you want to join us?" asked Tehctar.
"Sure thing, just until I manage to KILL MY FATHER!" Tehctar, Clank and Talwyn all stared at her blankly because of her viciousness.
"We should really get a name for our little group," said Tehctar, getting out of the shock. "We'll think about on the ship. But right now, we need to get ourselves a tracker!"
They all ran back into the cave, where Fryg was sitting there with the hood over her eyes again.
"Fryg, we have the DNA you need to make a tracker," said Tehctar walking up to the mage with Sasha2 in hand. They stopped in front of her, and Tehctar brought out some scissors, and cut a bit of hair from her furry skin off, and gave it to Fryg, who placed it in a cylindrical container with a blue liquid inside and a dispenser at the bottom, and placed it on the ground, pulled back her hood and stared at it with her cold aqua eyes.
The liquid inside the vial started to bubble, and eventually bubbled so much that no-one could see the hair inside. It got sucked into the bottom of the container and suddenly, smoke poured out of the dispenser and a small silver chip with a green screen on the front popped out. Tehctar grabbed and tried fiddling around with it, but it wouldn't register anything. No matter what he tried, nothing showed up on the screen.
"The DNA was cloned, therefore you need an extra component to find the original source of DNA," said Fryg, pulling the hood back over her eyes.
"Where should we get this component?" asked Tehctar, looking around on the small chip.
"Warta," said the mage. "Warta is where you will find the extra component. I now await my next visitor, who will come in 6 hours."
Tehctar, Talwyn, Clank and Sasha2 left the mage to rest for the next six hours, and enter Aphelion once more, while Sasha2 decided to leave her ship on Gyuliane and return to it once her quest was finished. Tehctar checked the Communication Crystal and saw that Ratchet was waiting for any Tehctar had to say.
"Ratchet, we have healed Talwyn, and managed to get a tracker from someone who has the DNA. They decided to join us, so get everyone lined up in the dining room, waiting for us to come on. Set a course to Warta, because we need to find an extra component for reasons I'll explain later," said Tehctar.
"Roger that," said Ratchet, before turning off the Crystal. Aphelion exited the atmosphere of Gyuliane and flew up to the Unipose, before landing inside the claws, and waiting for them to shut, but they didn't.
"Ratchet…" said Tehctar, with an unpatient face.
"Oh, sorry," said Ratchet, shutting the claws and allowing the group to go down.
Ratchet joined the line of Sasha and Qwark and watched as the hatch opened and a ladder fell out, following by Tehctar who slid down and Talwyn who jumped down and hugged Ratchet tightly. Sasha looked at him and he looked at her, guilty that he hasn't told Talwyn about them.
Once Talwyn finally let go of Ratchet and stood beside him, Clank came down the ladder and moved over to Tehctar, and they all watched as Sasha2 climbed down, and Sasha fell to the ground in a heap. Tehctar and Ratchet managed to throw a bucket of water over Sasha's head and wake her up, and then begin to explain to her who Sasha2 is.
"Sasha?" asked Tehctar, whose voice was muffled in Sasha's hearing, before coming clear quickly. "We need to explain something to you. You know how the Scarzare was cloned from your father? Well, the girl who looks like you over there, her name is Sasha2 and she was a mutation of the DNA inside the Scarzare, producing a daughter. She hates the Scarzare and wanted you to help her kill her father, which is basically what we are trying to do, so she joined us!"
Sasha spat some water out of her mouth and nodded before taking a towel from Qwark, and drying her head, and she got up and walked over to Sasha2 who was sitting on the right couch.
"Ummmmm, hi….me?" stuttered Sasha, who didn't know what to do say to herself.
"It's awkward, isn't it?" asked Sasha2, twiddling her thumbs unexcitedly.
"Well, it is. So, are you the exact same as me? I mean, do you have the same interests as me?"
"Well, no. I have the same interests as your father, because my father was a clone who was cloned from the evil inside my dad, hence the purple colour and scar. But I was a mutation, and I came out of all the goodness that had to be cloned into my father, but just not used. So, basically, I'm the good part of your dad."
"That's so weird. Do you want to talk privately?"
"Yeah, okay."
Everyone noticed them looking at them and they all left for the cockpit, with Ratchet being last, who Sasha winked to. Sasha2 noticed Sasha doing this and thought of a question to ask her.
"So did you and Ratchet ever…" Sasha2 didn't feel like finishing the question, but Sasha knew what she meant.
"Well, once…in the Bogon Galaxy. Ratchet saved me from the Tyhrranoids on Aluyia and we went to Megapolis, and things turned crazy from there. However, when we woke up, Mr. Fizzwidget, owner of Megacorp, called up and asked if he could do Ratchet anything, and Ratchet asked him if he could repair Aphelion and upgrade her, and he agreed immediately. I love Ratchet, very much."
Sasha2 smiled, and then frowned because she realised that no-one loved her.
"No-one has ever loved me. My father didn't, Tachyon and Nefarious didn't and nobody at all that I have met has loved me."
"Hey, hey, don't be sad. I love you, because…you're me, and I'm sure that someone will love you even more soon."
Ratchet knocked on the door to the dining room, and Sasha2 opened it, crying and then crawled into one of the beds nearby. He decided it would be best if he didn't talk about it, and sat down next to Sasha.
"So, how are you doing?" asked Ratchet sweetly.
"I'm doing fine, I'm just a little shocked at me having a clone."
"It must be weird. It reminds me of the time my DNA was extracted by Emperor Otto Destruct. I had versions of me tiny and agile or huge and fat!" Sasha started laughing when she imagined the clones of Ratchet.
"I just hope that my father is okay. At least I have someone I love by my side," said Sasha, who stared at Ratchet. They both started to lean in and join their lips romantically.
"Hey, Ratchet, I found-" said Talwyn entering the room with a vid-comic in her hand, before realising that he and Sasha were kissing. "Ratchet…"
"Talwyn, wait!" yelled Ratchet as tears started rushing out of Talwyn's eyes and she climbed down to the engine room, slamming and locking the trapdoor above her.
Chapter 15 Preview
"So what should we name ourselves?" asked Tehctar to the whole group.
"How about 'The Betrayers'," said Talwyn, sitting in the corner and staring at Ratchet angrily.
"Lets be more serious," said Tehctar. "I think that naming ourselves 'The Resistance' or the 'The Defenders' is too cheesy. We need a name that describes us all uniquely. Everyone started thinking, but could not think up of a name that described them uniquely and wasn't cheesy. BING! BING! BING! The Unipose had made it into orbit of Warta, and the group waited for Tehctar's orders.
"Well, looks like the Unipose has-" began Tehctar before he realised that he had just thought of a name that wasn't chessy at all and described them uniquely.
"How about 'The Uniposers'?"