"Then you simply make a left turn and it's the big, mismatched metal doors. You can't miss it, Outsider."
Ratchet nodded to the Vullard, "Got it. Thanks a lot."
"No problem, Outsider," the hunched creature replied as they gave a wave and turned to go about their day.
The grateful Lombax raised his hand and returned the wave before turning in the opposite direction. There where he'd just been directed.
As he did so, he glanced in Vendra's direction and briefly made eye contact.
The space witch watched the friendly expression he'd been wearing fade from his face and it was replaced by a more somber one. He quickly looked away without saying a word.
Ratchet hadn't said anything to her since they'd left the crusher building, and while the young Nether would usually welcome such silence from the overly jovial hero, it was now starting to get on her nerves.
She was the one who was supposed to have a monopoly on being upset and brooding all the time. It was 'she' who was supposed to be the one ignoring 'him'! Not the other way around!
"You can't really still be mad?" she questioned with a scowl, the first words spoken between them since the incident.
Ratchet's fur bristled at the question, making it obvious that he'd heard them, but he otherwise acted as if he hadn't.
This only infuriated Vendra more.
"You just got lucky with your way," she pressed. "Maybe my way wasn't flawless, but going around expecting to just stumble upon someone offering exactly what you want in exchange for a favor or a few bolts is ridiculous!"
As she spoke Ratchet continued to ignore her, but he also began to pick up his pace.
Vendra was forced to grit her teeth and push her weak constitution even harder just to keep up with him. She barely had any breath to spare with words and she wondered if that was intentional.
The former villain couldn't understand it. One minute he's some pushover tuft of fur that tries to be friendly with a criminal, then the next he's angry and cold. She didn't even know holier-than-thou heroes were capable of anger. The whole thing just felt... wrong.
"They were just some back-alley street-Vullard!" she declared between strained breaths. "He was probably a criminal himself. I didn't even kill the shady junkmonger!"
"I'm not angry about that," Ratchet growled.
The voice that came from the Lombax was so uncharacteristically gruff that Vendra almost stopped following him out of surprise.
Ratchet slowed down a little and shook his head, but he didn't turn to look at Vendra as he continued, "Yeah, I am upset that you hurt an innocent civilian… but that was 'my' fault for thinking I could let you out of my sight for a second. Even with most of your power still restricted you still…" he shook his head again. "It won't happen again."
Vendra blinked as she eyed the back of Ratchet's furry head in confusion, 'If he wasn't pissy about attacking the Vullard, then what could possibly have the dumb Lombax's tail in a such a twist?' she wondered.
She pondered the question until they came into view of the mismatched metal doors that the last Vullard had spoken of.
It wasn't until then that she realized... Ratchet might have also been crushed and killed right alongside her, had he not recognized the building for what it really was.
A small sliver of guilt touched Vendra for a moment.
It wasn't that she particularly cared if the troublesome furball died out here, but she could understand his anger. It was her foolishness that nearly got him killed and Vendra didn't like the idea of being a hindrance… at least not unintentionally.
"It wasn't my fault you almost got squashed," she insisted as the two of them reached the doors. "I don't know how far this stupid collar's 'leash' is. Otherwise, I would have just gone by myself."
Ratchet's hand, who had been reaching for the entrance's handle, curled his hands into fists and slammed them into the steel door with so much force that the old sheets of scrap metal rang with the impact.
Vendra nearly jumped in surprise from the sudden and violent reaction. Her eyes moved from the slight indents where his fists sat to the back of his head.
Ratchet's fur was standing on end and his ears were pointed back like spikes.
Even without understanding Lombax body language, the young Nether knew anger when she saw it. And for someone who hadn't believed the awkward hero was even capable of anger, the sight of him like this left her speechless.
But Ratchet remained still after his initial outburst. He said nothing else as he simply stood there with his head bowed toward the now dented doorway.
After a long moment in which Vendra was sure anything could happen, Ratchet let out a long, calming breath and his tense body relaxed.
"Let's just get this over with," he said softly, before pushing the doors open and walking inside.
Ratchet came to a stop at the center of the facility, a relatively large room filled with jury-rigged monitoring stations. Control consoles and diagnostic screens of all shapes and sizes filled most of the space, each displaying various energy usage readings. A few were being watched by Vullard technicians while others were being adjusted.
As they entered, a few workers looked up at them curiously.
To Vendra all Vullards looked the same, but Ratchet quickly singled out the leader of the group. They were a Vullard with a bluish-painted junk tub and two metal antennas protruding from the top of their head. Intermittent flashes of electricity jumped from one to the other seemingly at random.
"Excuse me," Ratchet said in a firm, but non-threatening tone as he stepped up to the leader.
The bluish Vullard turned slowly, even by Vullard standards, and appeared to be older than most, "What do you want, Outsider?" they asked in a static-ladened voice. "This is no place for non-power plant personnel."
Ratchet nodded, "I'm sorry to intrude, but we're on a desperate mission. We need to track down a dangerous criminal by the name of Agron Snarg and we heard that you've recently done business with him?"
Vendra noted that, despite still being angry at her, Ratchet was using the term 'we' when he spoke about his mission, though she didn't know why the particular word choice stood out to her.
The old Vullard cocked their head to one side and regarded Ratchet for a moment, "Who I do business with is 'my' business. Not some outsider's."
While the Vullard's tone did not inspire confidence in Vendra, she noticed that Ratchet's ears perked up at the clear indication that this creature 'had' done business with Snarg.
"Please," Ratchet pressed. "We think Snarg plans to use the equipment that you sold him to hurt a lot of innocent people. We 'need' to stop him before that happens!"
The bluish Vullard rounded on Ratchet, catching the Lombax by surprise with their sudden speed, "Hurt someone?" they scoffed bitterly. "You think I care what he does with his rightfully purchased goods? If you want to stop the sale of deadly weapons, go fill the ears of any blasted GrummelNet vendor and tell them to stop selling their death wands or some such."
Ratchet opened his mouth to argue, but as an avid customer of GrummelNet's plethora of death-dealing offerings, he found himself hesitating.
Vendra rolled her eyes at the sight of the hero tripping on the minor moral speed bump and stepped forward, "Listen here you glorified rust bucket!" she barked. "The power we're talking about is on a scale far larger than anything you can buy from some fat clone stuffed in a vending machine! We're talking galactic-level destruction on the scale of the Helios project."
Several bright sparks jumped between the old Vullards antennas and a few other technicians abruptly stopped what they were doing to listen in. Artemis Zogg had kidnapped entire solar systems across two galaxies to enslave them and there were very few in Polaris that didn't grasp that level of danger.
But despite the clear pause her words had given them, the head electrician eventually shook their head, "That may be, but I'm an old-fashioned Vullard. Unlike most outsiders who balk at our refurbished wares, Snarg showed our efforts the respect they deserved... and paid handsomely for them. It's more than either of you two have shown since barging into my control room, at least."
Vendra narrowed her eyes, "That's not the only thing old about you," she hissed as her eyes glowed purple, but Ratchet swiftly stepped in before she could continue.
"We mean no disrespect," he said quickly. "We're just desperate to save lives. We're very sorry if we've been rude."
Vendra again noted Ratchet's use of the word 'we', but this time she found the word choice offensive.
"Let's try a different approach," the experienced hero continued, in a much more placating tone. "You're a savvy business Vullard and I can respect your loyalty to a paying customer, so let's make this a business transaction. How much is the information on Snarg worth to you?"
The head electrician looked Ratchet up and down before rubbing their metallic chin, "Hmm, now that sounds more like it… but I'm afraid I'll have to decline."
Ratchet looked confused at this, "I can pay you a 'lot' of bolts," he pressed.
"I'm sure you could, Outsider," the old Vullard agreed, "but I have other things to consider. Snarg paid a great deal for his unique equipment and if he ever needed more, I expect him to come back to me. A good regular customer has much more to offer than a one-time payout. Plus, there's my reputation to consider. I know that many outsiders do business with us because we appreciate privacy. How will that look for my business if I sold you that information, hmm?"
The desperate Lombax scratched his ears in thought, "Is there anything we can offer you? I'm a pretty handy mechanic. Maybe you have something that needs fixing or some rare material you need collecting?"
The ocular lenses on the head Vullard blinked in what appeared to be confusion, "I'm sorry, Outsider, but there is nothing you could offer me." And with that, the old master electrician turned away, ending any further discussion.
Ratchet blinked in confusion at the creatures turned back, "An 'A' bug?" he muttered under his breath.
With a defeated look, the Lombax turned around, only to find Vendra smiling wickedly at him, "All out of options, hero?" she asked in a smug, sarcastic voice.
Ratchet scowled at her, but did not retort.
Vendra shrugged, "I guess we do it my way then," she said before taking a step towards the old Vullard.
Immediately Ratchet stepped in front of her, "No!" he growled. "That's not how 'we' do things."
Vendra glared back at him, "Then what do you suggest 'we' do?" she demanded. "He doesn't want your bolts and has no need of your 'services'. What other way is there?"
Ratchet just shook his head and looked away in thought, "I don't know. I don't usually get stuck like this. Maybe there's someone else who has info?"
"I knew you were full of it," Vendra scoffed. "Life isn't so kind as to just give you what you want, hero. Sometimes you have to take it, like a villain."
Ratchet opened his mouth to argue, but he was cut off by a sudden alarm that sounded inside the power control room.
Panicked Vullards waddled from console to console as the klaxon wailed, checking readings and arguing with one another.
Vendra looked around, curious as to what the emergency was.
"What's happe-" but she trailed off when she caught Ratchet's look.
The Lombax eyed her with a wide grin of self-satisfaction and Vendra returned the look with one of open-mouthed disbelief as she fought to comprehend what was happening.
Still staring at her, Ratchet took a step backward with an arrogant rock of his head to prolong the moment of vindication as much as possible, before turning on his heel and walking up to the head Vullard again.
In an instant the look of unmitigated glee vanished from his face and he spoke with a deep expression of worry, "What seems to be the problem?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
Only Vendra could see through the facade and it both infuriated and impressed her.
The blueish Vullard turned away from the report another Vullard had just handed them and looked at Ratchet, "Sorry, Outsider," came their dismissive response. "I don't have any more time to entertain you at the moment. We've got a code 11-13 on our hands, that's a-"
"It's a battery bot uprising," Ratchet finished for him.
This gave the old Vullard pause. They were surprised to hear an outsider that knew their codes, "Indeed it is. A bad one too. We recently installed defense systems to protect the hollow from invaders and lurking thrashers, but the remote turret platforms are too far from the Hollow to be easily wired into our new gelatonium reactor."
"So you used battery bots and they revolted, because… well because they're battery bots," Ratchet again finished for him.
The Vullard let out a sigh, "Correct, Outsider. I had hoped that if they were stationed far enough away from each other they wouldn't be able to organize, but they've managed to revolt all at once! One or two turrets going down is expected, but now we're completely defenseless. We have scrapper teams out in the junk fields right now that could be attacked at any moment. Someone needs to go out to each station ASAP, but it will take ages for us to track down and recapture the energetic little bots. We Vullards just aren't built for that kind of thing..." the head electrician then trailed off as they began looking Ratchet up and down.
Ratchet didn't react because he knew what was coming next.
"Say, you look pretty nimble," the head Vullard noted in perfect cliche. "Do you think you could go out there and secure our battery bots? We'd be extremely grateful!"
The savvy Lombax feigned consideration for the question, "I'm sorry," he said, twisting his features until he look absolutely apologetic. "We'd love to help you out, but, as I've said, we're on a desperate mission and we need to see if anyone else in the city is willing to share information about Snarg."
The old electrician considered the words for a moment and let out a static-riddled sigh, "Very well, Outsider. Get our guns back online and then we can talk."
Ratched nodded appreciatively, "We're on it!" he declared, grinning with determination and eagerness to assist.
As the Lombax turned around, however, he spotted Vendra and gave her an exceedingly conceited look of triumph.
The expression set the former villain's skin ablaze with crackling electricity as she barely held back her irritation. She wanted nothing more than to zap the smug look off his stupid furry face.
Either unaware of her anger, or simply enjoying it, Ratchet walked past her and called back, "Come along Vendra. A 'hero's' work is never done."
Vendra ground her teeth in frustration, but begrudgingly she turned and followed.
Ratchet and Vendra made their way to the first defense turret. Ratchet led the way with his holo-map, the coordinates of the weapon batteries having been sent over by the head electrician after they left.
The first site was located near the top of a steep pile of junk-embedded dirt that formed something like a tall hill. Perfect for a gun emplacement... not so great for tourists.
Like everywhere in Monolith Fields, the journey was rough, but Vendra was taking it especially hard.
"H-how… how much further?" she wheezed as she came to a halt, gripping her aching side with one hand and holding onto an ancient robotic arm jutting from the ground for support with the other.
She was reaching her limit and could no longer even try to hide the strain from her voice.
Ratchet, upon hearing her distant voice, realized how far back she'd fallen, "Are you alright?" he asked as he backtracked to her position, a mix of concern and amusement in his voice.
Vendra wasn't sure which part annoyed her more, "I'm fine!" she spat proudly, but as her lungs burned, her voice quickly lowered, "I just… I'm just not used to walking everywhere."
They hadn't been traveling long, so with a confused expression Ratchet studied Vendra's small, hunched frame and really noticed it for the first time.
Up until this point, he still had an image in his head every time he thought of Vendra. He still thought of her as a mad space witch brimming with arcane power. So it was with some astonishment that he took notice of just how small and frail she appeared. He suddenly recalled the Warden's words to him in Vartax, about how Vendra was no threat without her powers. Only now did he fully understand what that meant.
Inwardly Ratchet chided himself for not taking that into account before dragging her on a trek through the junk fields. They would have to wait here until she caught her breath and it would probably be a while.
Since they were in no hurry now, he took a moment to study Vendra closely in a new light. He paid special attention to the way her breath sounded ragged and how she could barely stand, even with the help of the robot arm. He once again reprimanded himself for not noticing.
As he continued to look her up and down, however, he eventually spotted the young Nether's wings and studied them. Not just with a worried eye either, but with a good amount of fascination. Wings on sentient creatures weren't exactly rare, but they weren't common either. He stared at them for a long while as they shimmered with purple light.
"Like what you see, Lombax?" Vendra questioned in a voice that sounded outwardly playful, but dripping with subtle venom.
Ratchet looked up from Vendra's body and into the space witch's cold, judgemental expression. His eyes widened as he realized he'd suddenly started staring at her body without explanation and had cleared stared a little too long. He quickly looked away in embarrassment.
"I wasn't-" he began, unsure of how to explain himself.
Vendra glared at him as he did, daring him to find an excuse... but inside she was on the verge of laughter.
This time young Nether studied 'him', noting with amusement the bashful way his ears folded down as if trying to cover his face.
Vendra didn't really care what the Lombax did with his eyes. On the contrary, if she'd thought he actually had the stones to leer at her, she might have been able to use it to her advantage. But she knew better. This was the closest thing to a passing glance the boy scouted had given her and he'd likely only done it to see if she was hurt.
Still, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy watching the way her 'noble-hearted' hero squirmed at being called out.
"Your wings," the embarrassed Lombax finally got out. "Can't you use them to fly?"
Happy to have any excuse to not walk further, Vendra shrugged, "They're not wings," she explained, flapping them weakly for emphasis. "At least not in how they function. They act as another conduit for my powers, like an extra pair of hands. The control isn't as precise, but they let me direct my powers during flight. This leaves my hands free to direct my powers more freely."
Vendra's expression then became strained and her wings began to glow purple. They flapped a few times and she began to lift off the ground an inch or so, but then she let out a gasp and fell back down.
Shaking her head and looking irritated, she continued, "Just like everything else, my ability to fly is restricted by this blasted collar."
Then she got a mischievous look in her eye.
She turned this look on Ratchet, along with what must have been an attempt at a disarming smile, "If you'd just release the settings a little bit more, I'd have more than enough power to top this junk pile in a second! We could finish this bot-hunt in no time and be back on Snarg's trail by sundown. Didn't you say we were in a 'desperate' hurry?"
Ratchet considered the proposition, noting again how hard the walk was on Vendra's small body. Though, he made sure 'not' to verify this with his eyes again.
Subtly, he put a hand on the cylindrical bulge of a comm. relay in his pocket and immediately noticed the hungry look that Vendra gave it as she assumed it was the controller for her collar.
Ratchet let out a disappointed sigh. He had his answer.
"Bah, you look fine," he declared with a dismissive wave and a cheerful grin. "Just needed a break, that's all. Come on, if walking is so hard then we just need to put some muscle on you!"
Vendra's attempt at a friendly expression immediately darkened into a scowl, but Ratchet kept his cheerful smile as he turned and marched his way back up the junk pile, whistling a jovial tune as he felt Vendra's glare on his back.
The space witch fumed as she watched him go. She debated arguing her point further, but she realized she'd only be wasting energy that she didn't have.
Resigned to her fate she put one protesting foot in front of the other and followed.
The rest of the journey was grueling for Vendra. Her legs cramped more than once, her chest burned constantly, and her feet throbbed without relent.
She cursed the tyrannical Lombax with each painful step he forced her to take, especially when he could simply let her fly with the push of a button. But that wasn't all she was angry about.
Despite how harrowing the march was for her, it seemed to have virtually no effect on him. Every time she looked up, the irritatingly fit Lombax looked as if he'd barely even started. He couldn't have looked more comfortable if he'd been sitting in a hover chair and floating ahead of her this whole time.
What's worse, immediately after he'd refused to release her powers, Ratchet had begun to match his pace to hers, never putting more than a few meters between the two of them and even having the audacity to make it look like he wasn't doing it on purpose.
Vendra had at first thought that this was just to keep an eye on her, or to mock her by making her feel like she was holding him back, but at the same time, he never forced an unreasonable pace or complained about how she clearly 'was' holding him back.
It really pissed her off. She felt like a child next to him and she cursed him all the more for it.
He'd even started offering her a hand up some of the steeper climbs. The jerk!
Sure, she'd admitted to her frailty to try and get him to release her inhibitor, but she still had her pride. She refused his help getting up to hard-to-reach places and even tried again to hide how much of a toll the trip was taking on her body.
But now that he was paying attention, Ratchet seemed to have an infuriatingly supernatural ability to tell when she was at her limit and always made sure to take a break just as her legs were about to give out.
He would make up some excuse like he needed to check their bearings, or even that 'he' was the one tired. Each time she'd wanted to refuse and argue that she could keep going, but she knew her body couldn't.
Despite all the damage to her pride, however, the moment they crested the final plateau to their destination, the trembling Nether let out a huge sigh of relief and fell to her knees in visible exasperation.
The mountain continued to climb a ways, but on the far side of this particular plateau was the Vullards' defensive turret.
As Vendra gasped for air, Ratchet smiled and gave her an approving nod, "See, I knew you could do it. It might be exhausting now, but you'll build up stamina quickly. Heck, you might even start to enjoy a nice hike."
Vendra glared cold and hate-filled eyes at the painfully optimistic Lombax, "Is it… too late… to swear... undying... revenge on you?" she wheezed.
Ratchet shrugged, "I mean, not really… but it'd be in poor form."
The exhausted space witch continued to glare for a moment, before deciding she didn't have the energy for it and instead focused on the task of not vomiting.
Ratchet watched her for a long moment to make sure she was ok.
When he was sure that he hadn't actually pushed her too hard, he then turned to inspect the distant Vullard defense cannon.
It was a simple charged-ion disruptor, clearly having been salvaged from an old starship, it had been jury-rigged to a targeting platform that aimed and fired the device automatically.
Just as he'd suspected, the attached bowl-like cradle where a battery bot was supposed to sit lay empty. What he hadn't expected, though, was to find the runaway bot jumping up and down on a small ledge nearby.
Battery bots weren't very intelligent, so in an enclosed space they often didn't wander very far, but Ratchet would have thought the little rebellious automaton would have been long gone in this open area.
The cautious Lombax eyed the dancing sentient power source and carefully drew his Omniwrench. Knowing that these bots can be a little jumpy, his best chance to capture it was to sneak up and secure it with his wrench before it could run away.
"Is that the cannon?" Vendra questioned loudly as she regained her footing and caught up to him.
Ratchet flinched at the sudden noise right in his ear and put a finger to his lips, "Shhh," he hissed, before pointing to the distant battery bot. "Do you see that over there? That's the battery bot we're after."
Vendra squinted, not at the battery bot on the other side of the plateau, but at Ratchet, "I know what a battery bot is," she countered scornfully. "They powered my prison cell on the Nebulox, remember? I mean, what do we do about it?"
Ratchet rolled his eyes at her prickly response, but ignored it, "It's simple, we catch it and shove it back in its cradle. Then we do the same to the rest of the defense cannons."
A shudder ran through Vendra as she remembered that this was just the first of several cannons that they'd have to visit. She glared at the jovial little battery bot, recalling the painful trek up the junk mountain and knowing that this creature was responsible for it.
Purple light flared angrily in her eyes and, momentarily forgetting the pain in her limbs, she stood up and began walking towards it.
Ratchet was caught off guard by Vedra's sudden eagerness, "Vendra, wait."
But she refused, "You wait!" she snapped back. "I'm going grab that stupid tin can and shove it back into its hole!"
The path to the dancing battery bot continued up the junk mountain, serving only to make the irritated space witch even angrier.
It wasn't too far up, though. If she could just get close enough then she was sure that even her powers as they were would be enough to lift the tiny bot and carry it back to the turret.
As she approached, the battery bot spotted her easily. Obviously. She'd made no attempt to hide as she stormed her way forward.
Immediately the sparking bot tried to run, but Vendra's hand shot out and the air around the little machine flashed with purple light.
Squealing in its little robot voice, the battery bot was easily lifted off the ground and carried on invisible hands back toward Vendra.
The victorious space witch grinned, "You're not getting away that easy!"
The feeling of triumph didn't last long, though. Just as her prize was about to reach her, the ground beneath her feet began to shake.
The metal parts slipped from beneath her feet, causing the distracted space witch to lose her footing and fall onto her back, before sliding painfully down the dusty junk incline.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself looking up into the glowing eyes of some hideous machine with two long blades for arms. The pile of junk she'd stepped in had somehow come to life and reassembled itself into this 'thing'.
But Vendra didn't have time to worry about what it was or how it got there. Her eyes grew wide as the junk bot raised one of its long scythe-blades above its head, clearly poised to bring it down on her.
Before she could even cry out, a hot ball of plasma zipped over her head, striking the junk monster in the face. Parts flew from the machine as it was knocked back.
Despite the sudden damage it suffered, the bloodthirsty machine still tried to bring its blade down, but missed her by a hair.
Vendra watched the long weapon bury itself in the ground beside her before a second ball of plasma roared overhead and struck the living junk pile, this time causing it to explode back into a dozen pieces of scrap.
The stunned Nether shakily tried to drag herself back away from the flaming pile of dead junk-monster, sure that if the thing could reanimate once then it could do it again.
She didn't get very far before her back struck something, though.
Vendra held her breath and fearfully looked up, only to let it out once more when she saw Ratchet standing over her.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, not looking at her, but instead sweeping the area with a careful gaze.
"I-I'm fine," Vendra began, still processing how close she'd come to being a split witch.
Ratchet nodded, still not looking at her, "Good, because we're not out of the junk yet."
Vendra was confused, but then followed his gaze to see several more piles of junk reassembling themselves nearby.
As she stared in disbelief, a strong grip caught her under the arm and she was powerfully, but gently brought to her feet.
"Stay behind me," Ratchet ordered and for once Vendra didn't argue.
With the former villain safely behind him, the experienced Lombax adventurer fired round after round of plasma from his blaster at the now charging duo of junk bots, cutting them down before they could reach either of them.
"What are those things?" Vendra demanded once she found her voice.
"Thrashers," Ratchet answered off-handedly. "They pretend to be old piles of junk to lure unsuspecting junk-miners into an ambush and then surround them."
Vendra looked questioningly at the back of Ratchet's head, "Surround?" she repeated.
As she spoke the words, she turned to see even more piles of junk coming to life in every direction.
Once again Ratchet put himself between her and the machines as best he could and continued shooting, taking out several of Thrashers before they'd even fully reassembled.
His efforts were valiant, but the junk bots' primary mode of mobility appeared to be a hoverpad of some kind. Once fully reanimated, they were terrifyingly quick.
Purple electricity snapped and crackled between Vendra's fingers as she kept her powers charged and ready to strike.
Unfortunately, her inhibitor collar prevented her from unleashing pure energy at any sort of distance and the Thrashers were too heavy to lift. The only way she could damage one was to touch it directly, but the wild thrashing movements of their massive scythe blades, for which they surely got their name, made her think that if she ever got close enough to do it, there wouldn't be a second time.
Ratchet did his best to hold the attackers off, tactically shooting down a few to open up some breathing room while simultaneously backstepping from the rest to put himself between as many opponents and Vendra as he could... but there were too many.
A group of three finally managed to get in close, forcing him to engage with his Omniwrench. His skill was masterful and he struck down two with frightening speed, but a third managed to get a slash in with its blades.
The cut went across Ratchet's shoulder, mostly catching on his shoulder guard, before opening a red gash down his arm.
The Thrasher reached back for another strike, but Vendra quickly reached out and sent a zap of purple lightning up its arm.
The energy was too weak to damage it, but the bot was stunned long enough for Ratchet to cut it down.
The injured Lombax gave her an appreciative nod. Blood darkened the fur of his arm before his Nanotech sealed the wound and he brought his blaster back up.
Vendra was startled when she saw the blood. It wasn't that she was afraid of the sight or anything, it was that it didn't make sense.
Ratchet was a galaxy-wide hero who was considered nigh unstoppable among villainous circles, something she knew from personal experience. As dangerous as these Thrashers were, how was he not wiping the floor with them?
Vendra watched as Ratchet continued to shoot and take small, strategic steps that she was careful to follow along with. That was when she realized that Ratchet wasn't fighting like he normally did. He wasn't using his best asset… his agility.
Another Thrasher managed to get past Ratchet's defense, but this one was instead charging at Vendra!
The surprised Nether took a step back and raised her hands reflexively as it swung its scythe down at her, only to have the blade caught in the prongs of Ratchet's wrench.
The Lombax warrior grit his teeth as he pulled hard, ripping the Thrasher's blade from its arm before bringing the wrench back upward and smashing the machine to bits.
Horrified, Vendra realized that Ratchet 'couldn't' move because he was protecting 'her' from the Thrashers.
This realization... made her angry.
Despite all the chaos that encircled the two of them, Vendra still had enough sense to feel ashamed of needing protection.
Looking around the battlefield, she saw even more Thrashers come to life, some charging in from farther away, already fully formed. The sound of Ratchet's heavy breathing reached her ears and she knew the situation was bad.
While she didn't particularly care if the Lombax bit the dust out here, she hated the idea that he might die doing her any kind of a favor. So, without a second thought, she turned and started scrambling up the junk mountain as fast as she could.
Bits of discarded machinery and robot parts flew in every direction as she ran. Even more so as the incline forced her to use her hands as well.
"Vendra!" came Ratchet's voice from behind her, but she didn't slow.
She knew that their best chance of winning was giving Ratchet the space he needed to fight. And, judging by the increased sounds of gunfire with the newly added boom of explosions that she heard next, it was working.
Just as she was feeling satisfied with her decision, however, another Thrasher came to life right in front of her. It had been lying in wait just like the first one had been.
Unlike the first one, however, Vendra was ready. Using her powers, she pushed down the half-assembled parts just enough to stall the machine's reassembly, buying her time to turn and run further up the incline and reach the next plateau.
Climbing further up the junk mountain from here was out of the question. It was simply too steep to climb at any sort of reasonable pace and the junk bots' ability to hover meant they could traverse the rough terrain with ease, regardless of angle. She would be a sitting duck.
Her only option was to run out onto the slim plateau ledge.
Unfortunately, this flat area was littered with many more Thrashers that came to life as she ran by.
Vendra began to wonder if the whole blasted junkyard wasn't just an infinite number of these things waiting to kill her!
Each time one of them tried to pop up, though, she delayed them with her powers and pushed herself onwards.
While that action alone did almost nothing except buy her a few seconds, she could now hear the sound of fighting behind her that made it clear Ratchet was on her tail and making short work of their enemies.
Her plan then was simple: give Ratchet enough room to move while hoping he could make the number of junk bots go down faster than they were going up.
Searching the ground for any sign of movement as she ran, Vendra heard her name called from behind her again.
It sounded close and that gave Vendra hope, but she immediately realized just what Ratchet was yelling about when she heard the hum of the Thrasher's hover pad sounding even closer.
Vendra glanced back over her shoulder and, to her dismay, found that her situation was even worse than she feared. Ratchet was indeed catching up to her, a trail of smoking and ruined Thrashers left in his path, but between him and her were three more of the blood-thirsty junk bots, all of which were charging after her with single-minded focus.
"Vendra, stop!" Ratchet ordered from behind the trio.
Vendra's face scrunched in annoyance, 'How could he expect me to stop with these things waiting to kill me the second I do?' she asked herself, miraculously still capable of feeling indignant despite her desperation.
But then she turned back around, only to find that the junk mountain had suddenly disappeared. Or, more accurately, that she'd simply run out of plateau.
This was the real reason Ratchet had been shouting after her and Vendra came skidding to a halt. She barely managed to keep her footing and stop herself from going over the sheer cliff face. She looked down at the straight dead-drop to the previous plateau and gulped at how close she'd come to taking the express way back down.
But her shock was soon forgotten as the metallic clank of her attackers sounded right behind her.
Vendra spun, turning to look right into the eyes of the lead Thrasher as it held its scythe-blade in the air, already poised and ready to strike.
Time slowed. Vendra heard a scream. At first, she'd thought it was her own, but in that dilated window of time she realized that the sound was too high-pitched to be organic, let alone hers.
Still, she didn't have time to figure out what it was.
Vendra watched the Thrasher's blade fall towards her inch by inch. She tried to raise her hands to zap her attacker, or to at least guard herself, but her arms were also moving in slow-motion. They wouldn't make it in time.
Suddenly, her vision was filled with sand-colored fur. She wondered if this was what her mind chose to remember in her final moments.
Then she felt an impact knock the air from her lungs and time began to flow normally again.
Still in a daze, Vendra felt herself being carried off of her feet as if she'd suddenly been tackled in a hoverball game. Her eyes caught the glint of the Thrasher's scythe as it came down through the space where she'd been standing a moment ago, but instead of finding her there, the blade bit into Ratchet's back and dug a bloody gash through his suit and flesh.
That was the last Vendra saw of the Thrasher as an instant later the whole world was spun around.
Ratchet had twisted in the air, Vendra still in his arms, so that he was now beneath her and she on top.
Over Vendra's slim shoulder the skilled Lombax eyed his three targets where they floated in confusion as their tiny A.I.s were unable to process what had just happened.
In their moment of hesitation, Ratchet flicked his wrist and tossed the fusion grenade he'd been holding with expert precision, landing it directly into the center of the trio.
From Vendra's point of view, all she could see was the hard ground far below that was now coming up fast toward her. A moment later an explosion ripped through the air at her back, sending shockwaves into her body and forcing her eyes shut as it stifled all sound with its roar.
When she opened her eyes again, she was still falling, but miraculously not as fast.
Her ears still rang with the force of the explosion, but when the sound eventually cut back in, she could make out the muffled sound of that jet-like scream again.
Ratchet held on tight to Vendra as he desperately tried to slow their descent with his hoverboots. He had to fight hard to keep the two of them balanced while pushing his ion coils to their limits.
Little by little their velocity slowed, but it still wasn't enough. His boots simply weren't made for two people of his size.
Both he and Vendra landed with a crash.
...
There was silence for several moments.
Then, as the dust settled and the shock wore off, Vendra began to cough.
The dizzy Nether's mind raced to catch up with what had just happened and when it finally did, she found herself splayed over Ratchet's body where he'd broken her fall.
The flattened Lombax had his eyes shut, but he groaned with sounds of life.
Vendra let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Ugh… you alright?" Ratchet asked with his eyes still shut.
Vendra hesitated a moment, not sure how to respond, but then she got a hold of herself, shook the deluded thoughts of a near-death experience from her mind, and narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah, no thanks to you!" she spat scornfully.
Ratchet blinked through his throbbing head and aching back and looked up into her annoyed expression, "What are you talking about? I just saved your life!" he shot back.
"As if," Vendra sneered, smacking him dismissively in the arm for emphasis.
Ratchet winced as she struck the shoulder that had gotten slashed at the start of the fight.
Vendra froze, having forgotten about that injury.
She quickly got off of him, careful to avoid putting any more pressure on his body, but her expression hardened again, "If you had just released enough of my power to let me fly, I could have avoided those Thrashers easily!"
With creaking limbs and sore... everything, Ratchet picked himself up off the ground and began to slap the dust off his armor, "Yeah, well if you hadn't gone running after that battery bot without any awareness of the situation, you wouldn't have triggered the Thrasher ambush in the first place."
Vendra scowled, though this time it was because she knew he was right. She felt stupid for how careless she'd been, but she'd also never admit it.
Instead, the combative Nether folded her arms and gave a smirk, "Oh please, we both know you're just upset that the big galaxy-saving hero couldn't even hold off a handful of reanimated junk piles. You even had a damsel to work your complex on."
Ratchet huffed humorously at the idea of Vendra as a 'damsel', before knocking the last of the dust from his body and feeling his wounds to make sure they'd resealed properly.
Once he was sure everything was in working order, he turned to glare at the ungrateful space witch, "Oh yeah? Well maybe next time I should just-" but he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Ratchet's expression was serious now, but not angry. It was held frozen as he stared blankly at Vendra with eyes that seemed to look through her. The only part of him that moved were his large ears, which flicked and turned as if having a life of their own.
Vendra was caught off-guard by the reaction. Nervously, she began to ask, "Ratch-"
But before she could even get the word out, he suddenly charged at her, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into the shadow of the junk cliff they'd just fallen from.
Vendra felt herself being pushed up against the hard, junk-rock wall, as Ratchet's body pressed up against hers.
She didn't understand what was happening, Ratchet wasn't acting like himself and a hint of fear touched her thoughts. Had the fall broken his brain? Was this a reaction to her taunting?
Vendra slowly turned her head until she was face to face with Ratchet, but the crazed-looking Lombax was still staring blankly ahead as his ears twitched and jerked wildly, seemingly of their own free will.
Vendra could feel her heart, still filled with adrenaline from the fight, pounding against her chest. She wondered if Ratchet could feel it too, as the only thing she could hear was the sound of his breathing, just inches from her ears.
She swallowed, afraid of what might happen next... but then she heard it too. It was the sound of thruster engines. Multiple thruster engines, high above them.
Vendra strained her ears to listen better, but the sound quickly grew loud enough that she didn't need to. In moments it sounded like the noise was just above her, but only for an instant.
A moment later the sound had flown past overhead and that's when she saw them, a full squadron of Agorian Talon-class starfighters screeching towards the Hollow in the distance.
Vendra could feel Ratchet's body relax and the pressure on her disappear as he pulled away. He was staring after the Talons with a look of deep concern, but not of panic.
"We have to go," Ratchet declared, a note of urgency in his voice.
Vendra suddenly realized what was happening, "You seriously want to fight them?!" she asked incredulously. "Those are 'starfighters'! They're flying weapons platforms and there's half a dozen of them! Plus, those are Agorians! There must be a ground force to raid the Hollow as well!"
Ratchet turned to look at her, "They'll be killed!" he barked back. "The Vullards are completely defenseless without their turrets and unless I do something they won't stand a chance!"
Vendra shook her, "No blasted information on Snarg is worth getting killed over!"
Ratchet let out a sigh and turned his back to her, inadvertently showing the large, rapidly healing gash on his back, "It's not about the info. I can't just let them die. It's not right."
The former villain looked confused for a moment, before comprehension dawned on her, "Oh, so this is just some bleeding-heart hero garbage?!" she demanded angrily "I'm not going to throw my life away for some stinking scrap farmers!"
Ratchet shook his head, "No, 'I'm' going to fight them." Then he glanced back over his shoulder at her and gave her a cheeky smile, "Looks like you get your wish."
Vendra looked at him in confusion again, "What are you talking about?"
Ratchet then pulled out the remote controller to her inhibitor collar. Notably, 'not' from the pocket she'd been eyeing this whole time.
With his back still turned, he secretly turned down the inhibitor level of Vendra's collar and suddenly the confused space witch felt a surge of power run through her body, almost dropping her to her knees.
It was like getting hit by a gust of wind that almost lifted her clean off her feat.
Vendra felt new life pulsing through her wings and immediately she knew her powers had been released more than enough for her to fly again. They had been released enough that she could fight!
Vendra was still panting from the exhilarating rush she'd just been hit with when Ratchet walked up to her, "Unfortunately, the safe tether distance on the remote isn't enough to keep you completely out of harm's way," he explained, "so you're going to have to come along and keep your head down."
Vendra registered the almost apologetic look in the Lombax's eyes and for some reason, it irritated her. She could feel power coursing through her now and it bolstered her confidence to dangerous levels.
Vendra suddenly stood up and with a wicked smirk, she flicked her wrist and sent out a wave of purple energy straight into Ratchet's chest.
She wasn't at full strength and she hadn't even put all of what she had into it, but it was still enough to knock him back a foot or two.
To her disappointment, the nimble Lombax never lost his footing and he looked up at her with a horrified expression while his hand reached for his blaster.
But Vendra simply gave him a coy smile as she rose off the ground, purple lightning flashing from her fingertips, "I didn't come on this stupid shard chase to sit around and do nothing!" she declared with almost maniacal glee. "I'm Vendra Prog! I'm not going to hide while you get your tail handed to you, as amusing as that would be. No, now that I have my powers back, if these meathead Agorians want to stand in my way, then I'm just going to have to 'move' them. You just try to keep up, Hero."
And with that, she took off in a haze of purple that sent scrap metal flying.
Ratchet rubbed the place on his chest where he'd been hit as he stared after her shrinking form with a dumbfounded look.
Try as he might, however, he couldn't help a slight grin from curling the corners of his lips.
AN: The inhibitor collar on Vendra's neck can have its range increased to any level Ratchet wants. However, the further away the collar and controller are from each other, the more likely the constant signal between them will be lost. If that signal is interrupted for even a millisecond, the failsafe triggers.