"So...I'd say let's arm up!"
The next morning, both lombaxes stood in front of a cabinet specially prepared for their weapons. The pair each took four of the blasters, and of course would tactically swap anytime the situation called for it. Ratchet packed the rocket launcher, his standard blaster, the Bouncer, and the Circle Blade Shooter. Rivet, on the other hand, also had her standard blaster, plus the bombs, the enforcer, and last but not least, the Negatron accelerator. Thanks to the built-in nanoparticles in the guns, the pair could effortlessly make their respective weapons disappear into their pockets and then pull them back out when it came time to a fight. "That should do it. Well then, on to the warehouse where James wants to meet us," the orange Lombax closed the closet, picked Clank up and strode towards the exit along with his girlfriend.
"Ratchet...despite the fact that we're helping him, I still keep an eye on him," Rivet placed Kit on her back as well, maintaining her distrust of the desperate gangster.
"I doubt your theory, but I'll still keep an eye on you," he quickly kissed the rebel's cheek, who blushed briefly and then grinned cheekily again, "More like I'll keep an eye on you, hehe."
It was not a long way to the warehouse, so the four heroes already saw each other at the entrance of the great hall. "I wonder if he has a special knock signal," Ratchet tried to find out, knocking in rhythm against the iron door until it opened
An annoyed tiger-alien opened the door,"A normal knock would have been enough, Lombax."
"Good morning to you too, James," entwined Rivet followed her boyfriend and the tiger alien inside to the camp, where seven figures were waiting for them in a moment. "So...this is the rest of the team," two of the seven had been robots, one round and short and the other tall and built with normal stature. Then in front of them was another green beetle-like alien with four arms and a black tank top on his chest, the fourth was a small pile of slime piloting a combat armor.
"Who are those two, James," a female voice came from the ranks. She resembled the lady on Rilga who was running the hoverboard competition, only in blue and wearing armor. The sixth was a fat red and especially furry alien that had only one eye and last was a ninja whose appearance seemed lizard-like.
"Ratchet, Rivet. These are my friends and the rest of the team," before one of the lombaxes asked a question, James sort of answered it himself, "Don't worry. We made sure there were no traitors. Everyone here is unhappy with the boss and wants to see her lose!"
"Ratchet and Clank? Guys, we've got some real heroes here," the gang warmly welcomed the four heroes and thanked them for joining their little organization. Everyone here, of course, had been given a nickname by the boss, for example, the two bots were named Si and Garf. The slime in the suit was called Hammerfall, the insect was known as Tom-Tom, the cyclops was called Flame and the ninja kept the simple title as his name. "My name is Rihan and I'm the stand-in when James isn't around," the blue one extended her hand to the Lombaxes, who accepted it, "Nice to meet you."
"Alright everyone, pay attention!"
All attention was given to tiger alien as he began his speech, "Ratchet, Clank, Kit and Rivet are our last members against the Boss. Treat them the same way as if they were one of us!"
"Don't worry. We do that," Hammerfall had a translator on the glass pane that bore his slimy form and stepped forward to the tiger alien, "Good, then show us the first target, buddy!" The mechanical hand opened a hologram showing a large payload that caught the eye of the lombaxes.
"Today a shipment of illegal weapons will arrive, which the boss wants to sell for double the price," James pointed at the convoy before finally coming out with the plan, "Our goal is to steal the weapons, take out all the henchmen and deliver the freighter to the police, who would immediately lock the things away. This way we create that buyers and members of the gang have less expectations from the boss and if we do this several times with other orders it comes to rebellion!"
"I know all about that," Rivet had to grin, to which the rest of the gang made astonished but humorous noises. "There's one more problem, though! And it's him," the hologram's image changed to show a strange plant creature.
"His name is Karlo Petals, known as Savage Garden. He will pick up the goods for the boss," the gangster on the hologram had three green roots stretched upwards on his head, which could have resembled a crown. Two completely red eyes were visible on his face, but no mouth, and his whole body was also made of green plants. Only a burst red armor was visible on Savage Garden, but nothing more. "So, Ratchet! You and Rivet are going to storm the place, finish off Savage Garden, and take the convoy to the police," the tiger-like one stated, however the rebel had anything to say against it, "Wait a minute! And you're standing on the sidelines twiddling your thumbs?
"Of course not. We'll take care of you guys. The thing is...the boss doesn't know you, she rarely leaves her office. If one of us took Karlo out, the spies would hear about it right away."
"That...sounds plausible," Ratchet merely commented, before James put his hand over his heart, "We'll be around if it escalates, I promise!" "Well," the two lovers stepped forward and looked determinedly at the leader of the organization, "Where is their meeting place?"
It was far away from the city center. It was a deserted public parking lot where the large black vehicle appeared. Some of the boss's bots were gathered and the delivery man, a humanoid alien in yellow, got out of the driver's seat, "Where is your leader?" Before the driver knew it his ankle was grabbed by a green root that carried the dwarf head above the ground. He then caught sight of the green face of the gangster, who had put on an annoyed look.
"I hope for your sake that nothing is missing," despite the missing mouth Savage Garden was capable of speaking and lowered the supplier back down, "Let me show you the goods then, sir, the boss is going to love these babies!"
"Between us...those weapons do look cool," away from the parking lot on top of an old building, Rivet looked through binoculars at the illegal firearms. They were forbidden, but nevertheless curiosity spread in her to shoot once with it at targets. Her partner seemed to feel the same, "Oh, yeah."
"We're not here to look at guns, remember," Clank finally spoke up, which brought the couple back into focus on the mission, "Ratchet, time for the rockets!"
"All right," the orange Lombax pulled out the heavy projectile and aimed the missiles at the bodyguard bots. A loud bang followed and some of the units were already scattered everywhere, sending the plant creature into a state of panic. "YOU TRICKED US," before the dwarf could say anything, his neck was effortlessly snapped by Savage Garden, however, the ones being responsible land to the ground with their feet. "Karlo Petals, or should we say Savage Garden," Ratchet and Rivet now pointed their normal blasters at the gangster, who glared angrily at them, "Who are you? Who are you working for?"
"Well, I'm for calling him crab grass," grinned the sassy white lombax, but she heard iron footsteps approaching the four from behind.
"Ratchet, I'll get the bots! You take care of that gangster there," what no one saw was Savage Garden pull out a gun and shoot a massive laser at the two, but they were able to dodge it in time. "SHOOT THEM," the plant creature fired in at the orange one, who skillfully escaped the laser while his girlfriend fought the bodyguard units. It wasn't much of a challenge for Rivet, as the countless battles against trained soldiers paid off for these pieces of junk. Ratchet meanwhile finally came on the attack himself, firing his blaster at the green one who was pacing a bit behind.
"Is that all," Savage Garden closed the open wounds on his plant body and savagely attacked the lombax. The hero almost still escaped this colossus and set to strike with his omniwrench.
But his action was foreseen.
As a plant, Karlo possessed better interrogation and blocked the wrench right before the impact, knocked the lombax to the ground and stepped away. "That wasn't all," suddenly the gangster's arm extended, made of vines now, and wrapped around Ratchets body. "RATCHET," Clank was also in a tight grip and saw how they were beaten in the direction of the car. The loud thud finally drew Rivet's attention, who directly wanted to save her boyfriend, but another robot grabbed her prosthetic arm wildly before the white female lombax could give him the last punch. In the meantime Savage Garden had the smaller one under his three root foot, and let from the earth other roots again entwine the body of the hero, who resisted wildly.
"Hahaha, say hello to the radishes for me," laughed the gangster menacing. Ratchet slowly felt the earth against his furry skin, already expecting to be truly surrounded by dirt soon.
Before the enforcer did his work.
"Keep your hands off him," Rivet strode to her boyfriend and immediately helped Ratchet up, who first knocked the dirt out of his clothes. The weapon had shown its work, as half of the plant alien's upper body was destroyed, but new tendrils formed around the spot, making the body whole again. "No one interferes with the boss's business," Karlo fired his blaster at both heroes, who together dodged and slammed the gangster against a street lamp with full force.
"Hm...Rivet, find a grenade in that car quick," She knew what her partner was up to and ran to the illegal weapons before Savage Garden could react, "OH NO, NOT SO!" The tendrils shot out again, but Ratchet slammed into the green one's arm in time and stopped him. The rebel had grabbed the first one she could see and was preparing to throw.
"Rivet...shouldn't we get closer," Kit suggested, but the white one grinned determinedly, "It'll work!" The throw followed and landed right in the wound of the plant gangster who was trying to heal himself.
Now Savage Garden realised, what came inside, where his red eyes opened wide, "Oh shit!"
He couldn't say more. The grenade exploded and immediately burned Savage Garden, leaving only a plant seed and some wriggling vines on the ground. "Good throw," Ratchet praised his girlfriend, who quickly joined him and wrapped her mechanical arm around his neck, "I told you I'd save you."
"I would have definitely beat him," they both laughed before sharing a kiss and then striding to the car, "So let's take these to the police then, huh?"
"Correctly explained," Clank and Kit jumped off the backs of the two lombaxes to land in the back seats. The ride passed quickly and they both noticed the security cameras that had been cut or destroyed: "Wow...these guys are good."
They didn't saw, that one of the bodyguard robots was still conscious and a small blurry footage to headquarters.
"HEY! The first mission was successful," after the two lovers handed in their weapons, they made their way back to the warehouse on foot, where they were immediately given a big reception. The gang had seen it all thanks to Hammerfall's hacking skills and were impressed with the heroes of the galaxy, "James, you made a good catch!"
"Now calm down, that was just the beginning," the tiger alien strode up to the four heroes before bending over to you, "That was good work by you two! But for now, you're going to go underground before the next move. The boss won't be making any new orders anytime soon if you hear about it."
"Roger that, James. Let us know if anything new comes up or if there are any dangers," Ratchet accepted the large paw and then strode with his friends to the exit, saying goodbye.
"No matter what comes now...there's no turning back now" Rivet realized just as she was walking home and once again snuggled up to her partner who now put his right arm around her shoulder, "Then we'll go through it together and come out safe." At that, Ratchet gave the white Lombax a kiss on the forehead before he showed his grin spread, "Do you think we're getting to be good gangsters too, haha."
"Oh dear, he's getting a flight of fancy," the silver robot friend from the lombax hero held his hand in front of his forehead, causing his yellow counterpart to chuckle. Now the heroes had to wait for the next step.