Ratchet bounced on the balls of his feet, shifting his weight around while he rolled his joints. He looked down from his raised platform and saw the reason he was currently staring down the barrel of Helga's newest obstacle course.

Mallet was propped up on Rivet's shoulders and gleefully cheering her daddy on. She barely knew how to talk, but she knew enough to beg him to participate when Helga had approached them about it.

"You can do it daddy!" She screamed, egging him on while Rivet gave him a thumbs up and a wave. He sighed heavily and looked ahead, peering through the moving platforms, swingshot targets, enemy robots, and spinning blades at the finish line far ahead. Putting on a brave smile for his little girl, he charged forward.

He leapt to the first set of platforms, all of them swirling around a central platform. They stop and change directions at random times and intervals, jarring him back and forth unexpectedly. Managing to find steady footing, he starts jumping from platform to platform and makes it about halfway to the center when Helga's voice booms over a loudspeaker.

"YOU DON'T THINK IT WILL BE THAT EASY DO YOU?" After she spoke, lights rose from the center platform, a sign of teleporters activating as sniper-bots were placed. He groaned but had little time to bemoan himself before the first shot was fired, forcing him to dodge as he rushed forward. He made a few pot shots back, but because he was being forced to move around as he did none of them met their mark.

After a few too many close calls and missteps he finally made it to the steady platform in the center, giving him ample opportunity to bash the robots to pieces with his wrench. With those dealt with, his next obstacle was a set of swingshot targets that took him through swinging blades towards the end. With a deep breath he jumped forward off the platform, attaching himself to the first target and started his swing.

As he released and shot for the next one though, one of the robots from earlier dragged itself to the edge of the platform and fired at him. The shot went nowhere near him, but it did hit the target he was now attached to, making it go haywire.

The target started to dart and zip into every direction, one of its stabilizers now damaged. Its speed was so high that Ratchet didn't even move from his pot in the air, instead it played and danced within range of his slack. It dipped and darted, swooping under him. Dangling in midair there was nothing he could do as it took his swingshot's energy cable and wrapped him in it.

By the time the target's emergency routine kicked in he was wrapped around his center in a thick band, holding him upside down like bait on a lure.

"GREAT, NOW COURSE IS BROKEN!" Helga called out again. "I WILL SEND YOU BILL AND CALL WHEN FIXED!"

The target began to lower him down to where his wife and daughter were waiting, though because of the way his hands were bound he couldn't deactivate his own gadget. It paused with him at eye level with Mallet, still atop Rivet's shoulders. If she was at all concerned for her daddy, she didn't show it. Instead her face was a giant toothy smile and goofy giggle at his predicament.

She was laughing so hard that she couldn't even say anything. Instead he looked down (or rather 'up' for him) at Rivet, who had an equally large grin.

"A little help honey?" He asked.

She paused in thought for a moment before getting that look on her face that told him she had an idea that would be fun for her, but most certainly not for him. She looked up at Mallet.

"Wanna play with Daddy a bit?" Her eyes lit up like the new year's sky on Megalopolis as she nodded readily. "Ok! Put your hands on his face aaand…"

Mallet did just that, with Rivet laying her prosthetic across the back of her much smaller hands.

"Push!"

Both heaved, shoving Ratchet into a spinning tumble away, the angle making him orbit the broken target like a moon around a planet. He screamed as he flew, much to Mallet's delight as she cheered.

"Girls!" He shouted as he passed them in his orbit "Please!"

Whoosh

"Help!"

He caught sight of Rivet shrugging and asking Mallet something before pulling out a blaster and nailing the target with a shot of her own. It sparked before the swingshot was disengaged from the other end, releasing Ratchet and freeing him to fly off into the distance.

Rivet watched as her husband took off, making a hasty beeline for the horizon. For a half second she thought it might have been bad reasoning to say that they were already paying to fix the target, so why not break it further, but then Mallet's raucous laughter from overhead cleared that up.

"Daddy's fun to play with!" She declared, making Rivet giggle.

"Indeed he is, now let's go find him so we can play another game!"

With another joyous shout they chased after the poor orange lombax.

Bonus!

Ratchet and Rivet stared each other down, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Their standoff at the beginning of the obstacle course had been going on for minutes now, though an outside observer could mistake it for silent flirting. To break the stalemate, an idea sparked to life in Rivet's eye.

"How about I give you a present for good luck hotshot? You'll need it."

Before he could respond, she removed her scarf and held onto both ends as she draped it around his shoulders, hooking it behind his head. She started to pull on it, drawing him closer to her for an embrace. Their faces met, the sudden kiss stunning Ratchet in place.

Is what Ratchet expected to happen.

Instead she whipped him down to the ground, using the scarf as leverage. As he rolled in the dirt she took off running, dashing into the obstacle course.

"Beat me and you'll get that kiss!" She shouted over her shoulder.

His face told her that was a damn good motivator.