"Oooh. My head," Ratchet moaned.

"Hey, Ratchet. You feeling okay?"

Ratchet opened his eyes and saw Sasha leaning over him.

"Sasha? What are you doing here? What happened?" He saw the Bind laying unconscious throughout the hallway. "Did- did you do that?"

Suddenly, from outside, an alarm went off and a female computerized voice chimed in, "Citizen, you are charged with evasion of civil protection unit number 132."

"Uh oh," said Sasha. "We'd better get you outta here."

She helped Ratchet to his feet and stepped into the lift which was now waiting for its passengers. After Ratchet stepped in the enclosed elevator, she pressed the down button. The doors slammed shut, coming inwards from the sides and the elevator lurched downward.

Upon reaching its destination, the doors opened again, releasing them out into a musty, devoid concrete room.

Sasha stepped up to a metal power box and felt around on the bottom. After finding what she was looking for, a switch, the whole wall rumbled to the left, opening a small hallway.

"We just finished testing a teleporter we built from scratch. It's designed to get us from here to the lab my dad is heading up. The only route we have right now is through the old canals. It's getting too dangerous to go through that way, so we had to come up with an alternate method."

After they reached the end of the hallway, the entered a room similar to the previous. There were two water vending machines to the left.

"This is a resistance, right? When do we get to fight the Bind?" asked Ratchet.

"Well, we don't want to go out in the street and start shooting the cops. The Bind have control over everything. We're just waiting for the right time."

"Oh. Okay."

Sasha approached the vending machine on the right and pressed the buttons in some sort of combination. The front panel swung outward, turning the machine into a doorway.

"After you," Sasha gestured to the door.

Ratchet stepped through into the laboratory. A desk jutted out from the middle of the south wall, containing a few computer monitors and a seismograph. Beyond this desk sat three large vats arranged in a triangle. Inside each vat bubbled an orange liquid.

Against the far side of the left wall, security monitors displayed the perimeter of the lab. Against the rest of the left wall, blank computer monitors and other scientific equipment rested on a long desk.

Al was digging through a crate in the center of the room.

"Well, is everything ready, Al?" asked Sasha.

"Yes. Good to see you again, Ratchet. We'll be sending you through after Sasha. She did explain the situation, right?"

"Yea. You built it from scratch; you sure it'll work?"

"Ratchet, please remember that I," Sasha glared at him, "oh, I mean we built it."

"Right," Ratchet said with a look of uncertainty. "Where's Clank?"

"He's at the other lab."

The same door that Ratchet and Sasha came through opened and in stepped the lombax in the Bind uniform minus the mask.

"Well, is he here?" he asked, then looked at Ratchet, "Ah, good." Then to Al he said, "Look, we'd better get him outta here before he attracts the damned civil protection."

"I suppose so. Okay, Ratchet. We have a Mark 5 HEV suit for you. Nick over here will retrieve it for you."

"Well," said the lombax, "I have to get back to my shift, but okay."

He walked to a tin garage door on the far wall next to the security monitors and typed a code into the pad next to it. The door slid up and inside was an orange suite that looked to be made of rubber. The suit was fully enclosed except for a lack of helmet or any headgear and a hole in the back for Ratchet's tail.

It was encased in a glass tube-like container. Nick typed in a code into another pad next to the container and the glass was lifted into the ceiling.

"There ya go. Just put it on over your civies," said Nick.

After a moment or two and some assistance in getting into the suit, Ratchet was ready to go.

"Al, we don't have time to mess around," said Nick, who was examining the security screens. "A group of civil protection just passed here." He pointed to a monitor.

"Oh dear. Yes, let's get going then."

Al walked to the east wall and straitened out a picture of the crew on the Phoenix before Ratchet became captain, so it included Sasha.

A panel on the support beam next to him opened and a retinal scanner popped out. Al put his face up to it and it read his retina. It concluded that this was Al and allowed him to pass. A door-sized piece of the wall slid left silently.

Inside, Al climbed a ladder on the left up to a platform on which a computer and other control devices where at his disposal. A window behind him filled the small room with light. Overhead hung a car-sized, egg-shaped metal contraption. And, on the right, a lift that only rose about five feet.

Sasha stepped onto the lift and said, "Ready."

Al's hands flew across the keyboard and a gate rose up in front of the lift. The lift itself started its ascent and halted abruptly at the top. Three metal bars held up by seemingly nothing started spinning around Sasha with alarming speed.

Suddenly a monitor flicked on and the president, or at least the former president, said, "We're all ready on this end."

"Good. We'll send Sasha through, then. Ratchet, flip that switch down there, would you?"

Ratchet did as he was instructed; flipping a switch next to the door they entered through. A beam of light shot from the egg structure into a receiver above the lift. There was a flash of light and Sasha was gone.

"Did it work?" Nick asked the president.

"See for yourself," he replied.

Sasha walked into view on the monitor and said cheerfully, "It works!" She gave her dad a quick kiss on the cheek and walked off.

"Alright Ratchet, you turn."

Ratchet took his place on the platform as it ascended and the three bars started their high speed flight.

"Nick, if you would."

Nick flipped the switch that Ratchet had for Sasha. Suddenly and alarm went off and the egg started rumbling and vibrating.

"What's going on?" Ratchet asked in an alarmed tone.

"I don't know," replied Al. "It must be overheated."

"Well get me down from here!"

"I can't! It won't shut down."

Ratchet suddenly found himself in an open field. Then, just as suddenly, he was at his intended destination. Sasha, Clank, the president, and another person Ratchet didn't recognize all had their eyes on him.

"Something is drawing him away," said Clank.

Ratchet was now submerged under water. He couldn't move. Something was still holding onto him. He heard a growl. Then, from the murky water a creature closely resembling a shark was swimming full speed at him with its mouth wide open. Just when he thought he was fish food, he was drawn away again, this time just outside the window behind Al.

"Where did he go?" Al asked the GP.

"Behind you," Nick replied for him.

Al turned and yelped. "Ratchet, get out of here! Run!" He closed the blinds, leaving Ratchet by himself.

"Hey! What's going on?"

He turned around and saw a small, round flying robot hovering overhead. It let of a blinding flash of light. Ratchet rubbed his eyes and looked back up. The robot was now flying off.

"Oh no!" he thought. "That thing just took my picture!"

He ran to a chain-link gate and threw it open. On the other side his only exit was boarded shut.

"Up here!"

Ratchet looked up at Nick on a platform. "Look, your going to have to get to the lab on foot. It's dangerous, but there's a whole network of refugees and they'll help you out. This is the only weapon I have to offer." He dropped a wrench down and it clattered to the ground in front of Ratchet. "Good luck." And with that he walked through a door and out of sight.

Ratchet picked up the wrench.

"Great," he sighed.