Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank or any of its characters. Rivet Appreciation Week 2021 prompt list by weeksofrac of Twitter.

Another drabble for today for two reasons. One, I think that tomorrow's will be longer than a thousand and a half words, so I want to save some energy for that story. And two, HHHH holy heck this collection's already over 10,000 words I'm out of breath.

Standing in the Eye of the Hurricane

Day 6: The Mallet

Chapter Summary: Day 6 – The Mallet. She made it herself, and if she had nothing else, her mallet would always be with her.

When she had been a young kitten, Rivet had acquired a special interest in tools.

The Morts had to keep her from breaking into their workshops when they weren't looking. Child safety locks had hung from every door, and complaints from upset Morts every time they forgot the key to their locks had reached Rivet's ears more than a few times. Even then, it was never enough. Rivet learned how to pick locks at a young age, and more often than not, Morts would catch her trying to lift wrenches as big as her toddler-sized body.

It was a miracle she lived past age five with how often she got herself into dangerous situations, much less age seven with all the power tools she tried to play with.

By the time she reached age ten, the Morts gave up completely. For her birthday, they gave her a beginner's toolbox and some materials to start tinkering with. It wasn't the safest option to give to a kid, but if it kept her out of the place where all the power saws and open power sockets were…

Rivet had made a toaster that afternoon. It blew up ten minutes after she finished it, but it was something, and it had satisfied some part of her mind that had been so eager to tinker over the years.

It fueled her to keep going with her mechanical studies.

As she went through her teens, Rivet had gone through tools at a breakneck pace. Every tool was overused nearly a month after she had gotten them. Dozens of melted, broken, and fractured tools littered the young Lombax's workshop. The Morts tried to keep up with the Lombax, but there was only so much they could do.

So, Rivet decided to build a tool that could withstand anything she threw at it.

It took so many experiments. Near five hundred tries, if she counted all the mallet and tool prototypes she threw into the trash while crafting her signature tool.

At first, she had no idea what she wanted in a tool. A giant screwdriver was an instant no; the laser saw was fun, but was practically useless everywhere else; and a wrench felt alright… but it hadn't felt like her. Finally settling on a mallet design had been a breath of relief.

Of course, then there was the "finding out which material could withstand everything" phase, and the "what did she want this mallet to accomplish" phase.

By the time she had finally gotten to a FissionMallet that did everything she wanted and held up over every kind of damage, Rivet had thrown herself into Zurkie's battle arena and put it to good use.

After she got the mallet, everything changed.

New parts of worlds were finally open to her. New ways to protect the people she cared about and bash the people she fought against were no longer unachievable. New ways to tinker and master her craft kept her up late into the night with possibilities she had never been able to do before.

The mallet she made became a tool she could never live without.

"Rivet, are you ready to head out? I believe the Fight Night event at Zurkie's will be starting soon, and I am aware that you prefer to be one of the first fighters in the ring as a warm-up."

The Lombax turned her head, looking away from the FissionMallet on her workbench.

Kit stood just off to the side; hands clasped in front of her lower body. A tiny smile graced the robot's mouthpiece.

The rest of their Sargasso hideout clicked back into Rivet's mind.

"Oh! Yeah!" Rivet gave the side of her head a light smack. "I completely lost track of time, so thanks for the reminder."

Kit giggled. "Of course, but erm…" she craned her body to try and look at the mallet on the workbench "-what… have you been working on this entire time. Has your FissionMallet been acting difficult or is currently experiencing complications with its duties?"

A little chuckle left Rivet. She closed the panel on the side of the mallet and lifted it from the bench, twirling it in her hand. "Oh… just making it move faster when I throw it. That, and giving it some bling."

"'Some… bling?'"

Rivet wiggled her eyebrows at her partner, then whipped around and launched her mallet at one of the targets along the far wall of the hideout. Metal slammed into metal, and the titanium target fell back against the floor before its stand eased it back upright.

The entire time—from the moment it hit the target to the moment it landed back into Rivet's robotic hand—the mallet's head flickered with multicolored lights.

Rivet gestured to her tool. "I tricked out the mallet to flash in different colors when it hits an enemy. Like those light-up shoes? I never had them when I was a kid, so when I got the memory this morning, I figured that I'd work them into my mallet."

Kit's mouthpiece stayed dropped open. "Erm…"

The Lombax waved the mallet in the air, wiggling her eyebrows again. "Come on, Sunshine, you gotta admit this is cool!"

"I refuse to state any comment on this new addition."

"See, I know you think it's not practical, but just wait until we're in the arena. Then you'll see what I mean…"

Kit shook her head, turning to the door of the hideout. "As you wish, Rivet. I shall get the ship started for our night out."

"Hey, Kit?"

The little robot turned to see the Lombax studying the sides of her mallet.

"You think this baby could handle thruster rockets along the sides so that it does double the damage?"

Kit only shook her head. "I shall be in the ship."

"Wait! Hold up! I'm comin'! But just think about it- Rockets!"

Song Inspo: "Therefore I Am" by Billie Eilish.

This prompt fill is not the best, but I'm starting to run out of steam for the days, so I'm going to focus on getting this one done and putting my energy into the last prompt. I hope this one was enjoyable at least, and I plan to write more of Rivet and Kit fooling around later in the future.

Thank you all so very much for reading and supporting!