A NEW BEGINNING

Chapter Four

"The Thief"

02:23 - Planet Jakata, Megacorp Transportation Manufacturer (MTM), Bogon Galaxy

By the time the Manhunters' drop ship entered the air space, swooping in low of the futuristic and verdant city of Jakata, it was early in the morning, and not too many air cars flew across the aerial streets. Skyscrapers sometimes reached as high as into the clouds themselves and, on top of these towering buildings were satellite dishes, small radio towers that emitted red lights and consumer billboards advertising the latest trend. The morning sky had a navy tinge, which reflected off the glass of the buildings, providing the city with an overall sea effect that looked amazing at night just as it did in the early morning.

En route to one of Megacorp's distribution centers, one in particular that manufactured various kinds of military and consumer transits in abundance, the drop ship swerved every now and again to avoid power cables that sometimes connected between buildings. On board, Stravek checked over his Thrasher Cannon while Dark Angel stood and held on to the railing of one side of the ship. She appeared to be gazing out through the drop ship's side window.

"This place is...gorgeous."

The elite henchman looked up for a moment from where he was sitting at the back of the ship, with his clawed hands still fine tuning his powerful weapon, and mentioned the first thing that came to his mind.

"Say what?" said Stravek.

Angel turned her head slightly to repeat what she had said before. "I said this place is beautiful."

"I thought thatz what you said. Haven't youz been here before?"

She shook her head. "No, I haven't."

The lizard thug then pulled on his protective helmet, cradled his weapon in his hands, and walked over to her. He stood beside her, adjusting his footing to keep balance as the drop ship rocked back and forth, veering to avoid the buildings.

"I've been here before. Too shiny for a guy like me."

She looked at him. "What's your reason before for coming here?"

"About six yearz ago, I was a regular thug who aspired to be something more. As my first test, something to initiate myself into the Thugs-4-Less gang, I hadz to frag my first. It wuzn't the easiest thing to do. I couldn't killz another living thing then, so I turned a robot into scrap metal instead."--he scratched the tip of his nose with the butt of his weapon--"It wuz my first time doing something cool."

"Is that your 'real' reason or was it something else?"

"I just took a likingz to blowin' stuffs up!" He laughed.

Angel said in a sardonic voice, "How original."

"So what have youz done to be so cool before?"

"Me?" she thought. "I dressed up like a thief, stole Megacorp's original Protopet, and inevitably got caught. That's when I met that lombax from Solana. He was the one who took the experiment from me."

The lizard's eyes grew large. Suddenly, the drop ship rocked hard, so he placed his weapon in one hand and used the other to grip the railing above as she did.

"Y'know, I heard about him. Rat-chet's his name. I even had the pleasurez of meeting him once on Snivelak."

Angel seemed quite interested and turned her body toward him. "Oh, yeah? What happened afterward?"

"He broke my jaw." At the memory of Ratchet, for a moment, he seemed to grimace. "And that wuz that."

The voice of Vukar, the pilot, came over the loud speakers in the back of the drop ship. A second later, a green light lit up in the back and the ship's motion came to a still. The ride had ended.

"We are here. Get out. Call when you have the thief. Vukar will be flying around."

Dark pointed behind her, toward the pilot's seat; "Is he always this friendly?"

Sravek checked the small com link attached to his forearm, making sure it was operational, and then shrugged with a hint of indifference. "Yar, Vukar is being Vukar."

The door of the drop ship slid open and revealed the concrete street of the transportation facility. Together, both teammates leapt off and took off in strides toward the massive complex. A few moments later, the drop ship lifted off and disappeared beyond the drop zone.

The complex of the transportation manufacturer was enormous: with a large, square area that stretched on for a mile, and intersected perpendicularly by two smaller roads, these roads were what separated four individual warehouses; and on each roof, there were gigantic satellite dish relay stations, and a light tower accompanied those like most roofs in the city. Oddly, there were no signs of guards in the vicinity. Something was amiss.

"It's too quiet," Angel remarked. Stravek simply nodded in agreement, moving along with his weapon held low in his hands. He was ready for some excitement.

Unexpectedly, the sound of hard rock music could be heard picking up in crescendos as if it were coming toward them from somewhere. The music was a bit muffled, or at least the words of the music, but it definitely grew in intensity, for the ground beneath the Manhunters had already begun to tremble. Something big was making its way to them.

By the time they reached the intersection of the main road, one of the walls of a hangar off to their side fell forward suddenly in a dramatic fashion, and then a tank emerged--something newly conceived by Megacorp--crumbled the wall with its treads. The sound of the former hangar wall crunching beneath metal treads put a little fear into the duo, but they readied themselves for something spectacular that was about to happen.

While the tank made its way to the center of the intersection, the two Manhunters decided to split up, to each his or her own shelter behind neighboring buildings. The blaring music originating from the side-mounted speakers grew louder than before and the heaviness of the ground vehicle made their world shake as it made its approach; the tank suddenly came to a halt, the mechanic sound of its long nozzle slowly turning to aim at something.

"Welcome, friends! It was nice of you to drop by. Hahaha!" came a robotic voice which droned from within the tank over the music.

From Dark Angel's perspective, as she looked over to where Stravek hid behind a building, she noticed that he made an attempt to run away, but a huge explosion engulfed his cover, sending him and his weapon several feet into the air. Some several seconds later, he landed on the hard, grassy surface not too far way, writhing in agony. He gathered himself sluggishly, propping himself up pitifully with an elbow, as he made a gesture for her to run as fast as she possibly could away from her cover. The enemy already knew where she was.

She did as he suggested and managed to get several feet feet away before her cover, too, exploded in epic proportions: bits of wood, steel and other materials, not to mention soil, became a downpour. Turning around, she faced the tank that made its approach. In response, she equipped her Star Blade and aimed for the treads of the vehicle before sending them on their way.

The blade flew across the scene like a bullet, breaking into stars as it came into contact with its target. They ignited sparks along the wheels and treads of the tank, causing a slight explosion. It seemed she managed to cripple the drive on one side, but the massive thing continued to wheel forward, although slower than before.

From her side, a long and thick, green energy blast shot forth. The blast had originated from Stravek's Thrasher Cannon; and when the blast struck the tank's side, an impulsion of green severely damaged the tank. Dark suddenly knew the elite lizard hadn't joked when it said he loved blowing things up.

The tank wobbled a bit. Its regular speed had deteriorated. From the top of the tank, its occupant pushed open the lid, and climbed out. Standing in the top hatch of the determinedly forward-moving tank was a tall robot, with arm-mounted weaponry ready. His eyes glowed a bright orange incandescence. The robot looked in Stravek's general direction while the lizard positioned his body--lying on his stomach--to get another lock on the tank.

The lizard fired again from his powerful weapon.

Before the energy blast struck the tank again, the robotic villain leapt high into the air, and narrowly escaped the fiery explosion that completely leveled the tank. The music from before became inaudible. And when the robot came down, it broke the surface below it, showing that it was heavier than it appeared to be. In a fluid motion, it rushed over to Stravek in a pace so fast that it created an afterimage of itself. This caught the manhunter off guard, and he lowered his weapon in surprise.

The robot magically stood in front of him, reached down with an arm, and collared him painfully. Not knowing what to do in time, Angel ran over as quickly as possible. While running over to the two, the gigantic shadow of a ship materialized from overhead. Seeing this, she stopped, looked up, and saw that it was the unknown lombax thief, who wore no mask. The thief studied the scene below his stolen aircraft, narrowed his gold eyes, and shouted an order through the plane's speaker.

"Let him go, XL-17. It's time to go," said the thief.

The robot looked up at its master, and then back at the thug. The robot stood there as if lost in a moment of indecision. Stravek took advantage of the delay to position his weapon against the robot's chest and fire. The new blast threw them both back several feet apart, badly damaging the robot by the close range blast. Shravek's chest armor, however, suffered from incendiary burns, and it gave off plumes of smoke where it had been charred black.

This new predicament put the thief in a dilemma. Should he choose to stay and fight to retrieve his robot, or should he just leave to prevent his capture? By the flaring of the stolen ship's propulsion, the bounty hunters knew he had chosen the latter, and they watched as he flew off, disappearing into no more than a sparkle in the morning sky. It was already too late to signal Vukar for the chase.

"He got away..." said Angel, making her way over to the damaged and inoperable robot left behind.

Stravek trudged over, appearing a bit injured from battle with one hand over his chest and the other with his weapon trained on the enemy bot.

"We can getz some information of the whereabouts of the thief with this thing."--he reassured while bringing the com link on his forearm to his lips--"Vukar, we need transport."

Dark Angel placed a firm boot on the robot's chassis, glaring at it behind her mask. "It would make great scrap metal, don't you think, Stravek?"

Stravek chuckled for the first time. "Or a can opener."

07:34 - Planet Veldin, Kyzil Plateau, Solana Galaxy

Back in the Solana galaxy, on the planet Veldin, Ratchet was putting the finishing touches to the new engine that would go in his star fighter. The sound of his wrench turning bolt after bolt filled the air, coupled by the natural sounds of the sea churning and lapping against the side of the plateau of his home. Beside him, sitting on top of an empty oil drum, was a pocket-sized communicator--a small screen that acted very much like a video radio. It was on the last time he checked, so he could receive news from the Galactic Rangers. For a little while, the small screen showed only static, and then an image, followed by a robotic voice, appeared without warning. Ratchet motioned his ears first toward the new sound before completely turning his head.

"Sarge! Are you there?" came the desperate voice of a ranger.

Ratchet turned with wrench in his gloved hand and gave a quick salute. "What's the word? Did you troopers manage to arrest the guy?"

In a frightful voice full of uncertainty, "Er...not exactly, sir. The stranger has already destroyed several cars, building sides, and other property. Our weapons can't even faze him because of his Infernox armor. He's too powerful for us to deal with. Even in our great numbers, the weapon he wields...is scary, Sarge!"

Ratchet gave a slight grin at the first part of the report. "Something tells me you guys are the ones who are destroying most of the scenery there. Even I know you troopers can't hit too much. You guys lack precision. Still, someone has to deal with this impersonator. I find it strange, though, that he's gotten a hold of the strongest body armor on the market. Not even ordinary citizens can afford a thing like that."

"Uh no! He's heading this way. Ahh!" the trooper dropped the vid-cam on the street, which projected everything upside down, including the rangers running backwards and some frantically firing their weapons in retreat, until the impersonator's heel stood at the front of the visual. The walking of the impersonator in the Infernox armor finally desisted, if only for a moment to pick up the vid-camera and say a few words into it. From the front of his armor there were all sorts of sparks and plasma burns caused by the galactic rangers.

"I...challenge...you, Ratchet." The voice was cold, robotic, and psychopathic in nature.

From what clues Ratchet could gather about the machine bot padded with carbonox armor was that, whatever it was, seemed to be similar in height and breadth; its ears were definitely constructed to resemble a lombax's, and every inch of it, it seemed it was covered in metal. Whoever created the machine was obviously talented, and not to mention demented.

The visual provided by the vid-cam abruptly truncated by the tightening grasp of the bot. Enraged, Ratchet slammed the panel to his ship's engine. He had finished it rather abruptly. He wiped his gloves clean of grease with a small rag, and then threw it off to the side. At his feet there was a big, metallic case, which he lifted in one hand, and motioned with it toward the front of his ship. He bent low, pulled down a hidden hatch below the nose of the ship, and pushed the case inside an extensive compartment.

He closed the hatch, stood up, and looked over his ship. His face shone great satisfaction that he had everything he needed for battle. He reached over to his right to turn off the communicator. Leaving it behind, he climbed the foot stool next to the long, right wing of his ship, into the cockpit, and pressed a button to seal the canopy. Entering a few commands, the ship's ignition system started with a low rumble and, with a flick of another switch, the lombax could hear the roar as well as feel of the engine warming up. With a pull of a lever, the ship's wheels retracted, the ship hovered, and he gripped the flight stick in his hands.

"Let's take it to him, Ratchet," he grinned most wickedly. "Woohoo!" His body pressed back in his pilot's seat with great force as the ship burst off at great speed.

The lombax performed a swirl, creating a trail of white smoke in his wake. In his rear view mirror he could see his home world getting smaller and smaller, and soon it disappeared and became just another bright jewel in the vacuum of space.

The galaxy's greatest hero was making his reappearance once again.