Chapter three: The Spark

(Phoenix)

Ratchet took a deep breath before he knocked on the door to Sasha's room. After hearing from Clank that Sasha felt just as guilty as he did, Ratchet had decided to go see if he could cheer her up. After a few seconds, Ratchet heard a reply.

"Who is it?" A quiet voice asked from the other side of the door.

"It's Ratchet, Sasha." Ratchet replied. "Can I come in?"

A few seconds more and the door swooshed open, granting the lombax access to the room. Inside, he quickly saw Sasha sitting on her bed, looking depressed. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were still puffy and red, showing that she had stopped not long ago.

"You feeling okay, Sasha?" Ratchet asked, walking over.

His girlfriend sighed. "No. I feel like this whole thing has been my fault. I was the one that said Skidd could go with you."

"No way, Sasha. You didn't know this would happen. And let's face it. If Skidd DIDN'T go with me, I'd be dead by now." Ratchet said.

"Yeah. I suppose you're right." Sasha said. "I just can't help but feel guilty that Skidd's gone."

"Hey, you're not the only one, Sasha." Ratchet stated. "I was out there with him when he went down."

Sasha nodded. "I know, Ratchet. I can't even imagine what you must be going through."

"And believe me, you don't want to know."

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed before Sasha broke the ice again. "Well, the upside is that Al thinks he can figure out who was responsible for this."

Ratchet's ears perked up. "Really?"

Sasha nodded. "It may take a little while, but yes. Your helmet had a camera built into it, and when you looked at the leader's ship in space, we got a direct shot of whoever he was. A little work on it and Al says he can analyze the picture to find the leader's identity."

Ratchet, for the first time since Skidd's death, smiled. "Great. That means we can avenge Skidd earlier that I thought we could."

Sasha sighed. "His loss is tough to bear, but because of him, you're still here. And that means that we have the ability to take down the scum responsible."

(Grelbin)

During the tour Angela was giving him, Skidd had gotten to know her more. The two had talked together during the tour, each of them finding out more and more about the other as time went on.

As Angela led him through the power plant near her house, Skidd looked around in awe. "Man! This plant is like, huge!" He looked at his guide. "And you say that the place is abandoned now, Angela?"

Angela nodded. "It's been abandoned ever since I started living on this planet, so I'm not too sure as to what the plant was used for. Nowadays, I use the place as my own personal gym."

"Yeah, man. I guess you DO have the place to yourself." Skidd said.

"And look at this." Angela said as she walked over to the edge of the hallway the two were walking down.

Skidd looked over the edge and saw that there was still a part of the plant that they hadn't gone yet. However, the entire area up to where they were standing had been filled with water.

"Wow, man! The place is like, totally flooded!" Skidd said.

Again, Angela nodded. "Yep. The last time Ratchet was here, he had to make a run through the plant to get to my place, and to do that, he had to flood the lower floor. However, this turned that corridor into the perfect swimming course for me. I've mastered that hallway several times now."

Skidd, hearing this, smirked. "You up for a challenge, then?"

Angela looked at him and smirked back. "You can swim?"

"For sure, man. I'm like, the frogman of the team." Skidd said confidently. He dare not tell Angela that, during his last water-based mission with Ratchet, he was too afraid to get in the water.

Angela chuckled. "Okay. We'll make it a race. Let's see who can get to the other side of the course over there." She said, pointing over a half-wall, where the other side was clearly flooded to the same height. This also gave Skidd an idea of how the course went.

As Angela jumped into the water, Skidd stared off into space. "Dude. Even her chuckle is cute." He thought. "She's so awesome. I don't get why Ratchet didn't hook up with her."

"Hey, Skidd! You coming?" Angela called out from the pool.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, man." Skidd jumped into the water. "Ready, Angela?"

"Whenever you are, Skidd." Angela said.

"Okay…Ready…Set…" Skidd said. "Go!"

With that, both Skidd and Angela dove under the surface of the water and started swimming through the course.

It took a little bit to get used to swimming again, but when he did, Skidd was able to do so with ease. Skidd torpedoed through the course with Angela right beside him.

The first thing Skidd noticed was that the course was mainly one long hallway with a few open doorways to swim through. The course was pretty simple and would probably take someone about half a minute to get through.

The two were neck-in-neck for most of the course before Angela started to pull ahead. During the final leg of the course, Angela showed her skill in swimming and arrived at the other end of the course just ahead of Skidd. After the race, the two poked their heads above the surface of the water.

"Man, Angela! You're a serious swimmer!" Were Skidd's first words when he came out of the water.

"Thanks, Skidd." Angela said. "I've had a lot of practice."

The two paddled over to the edge of the water and quickly climbed out, laughing at the race they had just done.

"You know what?" Angela said as she wiped her face off, drying it as best as she could. "You're a great swimmer yourself. With all of the practice I've had, I never would have expected someone to STILL manage to keep up with me."

"Hey. I'm not just a champion hoverboarder on Rilgar, Angela." Skidd replied. "I also like, swim every chance I get to keep my maneuverability up."

"Well, let's see what else we can find in the plant here." Angela said. "I'm sure there's something else you haven't seen."

The tour eventually ended when Skidd and Angela arrived back at her place. The two entered the small house and sat down on a couch.

"Hey, Angela?" Skidd said. "Like, thanks for showing me around."

"No problem, Skidd." Angela replied. "I really enjoy your company."

"Why's that, man?" Skidd asked curiously.

"Well, to be honest, Ratchet and I never really hung out with each other during or even after the Protopet adventure. And when we did, I never really realized how different we were." Angela explained. "Sure, that didn't mask the fact that I still had a crush on him, but the point was given to me. Despite the fact that we're the same species, we were two completely different beings."

"Man. That's gotta be rough."

"But that's not all. The first half of that whole adventure, Ratchet and I fought against each other as enemies. It wasn't until I revealed myself that we worked together." Angela sighed. "And when we worked together, I was hardly given time to show my skills due to the fact that we were almost never together."

"I know how you feel, Angela." Skidd said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "This past adventure, I like, spent the majority of it as a complete coward. I had only like, just begun to show my piloting skills when I was brought down."

"Thanks, Skidd."

"No prob."

"Well, to bring it all up to date, you crash-land here. And after getting to know you, I realize that we're actually a lot alike."

"Hey, yeah. I never thought about that, man."

"That's why I enjoy your company, Skidd. And I must admit that even though I haven't know you for very long, you're a lot more fun to hang around with."

Skidd did a double-take. "Huh! No way, man! There's no way I could be better at something than Ratchet!"

Angela let out another chuckle. "You'd be surprised. Ratchet was always so determined to finish the mission. After the adventure was over, sure, he got to kick back and have some fun, but it didn't last long. He had to go back to his home galaxy before too long, and I never really got the chance to get to know him." She looked Skidd square in the eye and smiled. "You, on the other hand, have shown me more about yourself during the past day than Ratchet did in the whole adventure."

Skidd blushed. "Hey, if I was annoying you…"

"No, no, no. That's not it at all." Angela insisted. "You also got to know me a lot more than Ratchet did. I never thought I'd say this to anyone, but I feel a lot more secure when I'm in your company, Skidd. It was almost as if we were destined to meet."

"Heh. Maybe so, man."

The two talked for a couple more hours, and during that time, Skidd felt more and more attracted to the female lombax sitting with him. As the time went on, Skidd felt more and more confused as to why Ratchet left this girl behind, yet more and more confident that he was growing feelings for Angela.

Skidd hadn't known Angela for very long, but he now knew more about her that Ratchet ever did. He stared into Angela's eyes, almost as if he was in a trance. Angela noticed this.

"What is it, Skidd?" Angela asked.

"I'm…Not sure, Angela." Skidd said, not really wanting to tell her just yet. "It's nothing, I guess."

Angela shrugged. "Okay." She looked at the clock on her wall. "It's getting pretty late, Skidd. I think we should get to sleep."

Neither of the two knew this, but not too far away, standing in the snow-covered wasteland, was a lone figure. His eyes gazed upon Angela's house as he smirked. He loaded a Plasma Cannon and smirked.

At the same time, his two bright, red eyes gazed through the falling snow.