Chapter five: Damosel

(Space)

Eventually, Ratchet had flown into the Bolgon Galaxy. Because he had been there in the past, he knew exactly where to go to get to Damosel. He made a beeline straight at the planet, even though he knew it would still take him a while to get there. Ratchet didn't care though. He knew what he had to do.

Now that the lombax knew that it was Thugs-4-Less behind this, Ratchet had promised himself that he would take down the entire base to find the leader.

Ratchet's gaze softened as he grabbed his Visibomb Gun and sighed. He had firepower, but maybe Clank was right in saying that he would need help. But, of course, Ratchet had to be his usual stubborn self and refuse help. Tossing the gun into the backseat of his ship, he was starting to wish that he had asked someone to help him.

CONK!

"OW!"

Ratchet's eyes widened, recognizing the voice. Setting the ship on auto-pilot, Ratchet looked over his shoulder and saw, of all people, Sasha in the backseat. She held the Visibomb in one hand and rubbed her head with the other.

Sasha placed the gun beside her and chuckled. "Took you long enough to look back here, Ratchet. And here I was thinking this wouldn't work."

The lombax's eyes snapped open. "SASHA!" He asked. "What the heck are you doing here!"

Sasha climbed into the front seat and sat down beside Ratchet. "I'm going to help you."

"Oh, no you're not!" Ratchet replied, shaking his head. "You're the LAST person I want to see get hurt! The Thugs-4-Less are ruthless!"

"Ratchet, I want to help you take them down." Sasha said. "I feel that it's just as much my fault as it is yours about Skidd. Helping to take these guys down is the very least I could do, and it would make me feel a lot better at the same time."

"…But, I didn't bring enough weapons for-"

"Way ahead of you, Ratchet." Sasha cut Ratchet off, pulling out a Tesla Claw.

Ratchet sighed, realizing that there wasn't any way out of this. "Okay. But just be careful. I don't want to lose you, too."

"You won't lose me, Ratchet." Sasha replied. "In fact, maybe I'LL be the one to save YOUR neck out there."

Ratchet chuckled. "We'll just have to see about that, huh?"

And so, the ship continued on to Damosel. However, neither of the lovers knew who had already made it there.

(Damosel)

The hatch to Angela's ship opened as Skidd jumped out. The Rilgarian looked around for a few seconds. He had lost the Thug leader's ship long ago, so Skidd had no idea where he had taken Angela.

"Well, I guess I'd better get started, man." Skidd sighed as he started walking. "But I need to hurry. Angela's like, counting on me."

Skidd again looked around. "But how could I like, find out where to go? No one would know where the base is, man."

Skidd sighed. From the looks of things, this was going to take him a long time.

Figuring he could have a better chance if he searched from a higher point, Skidd walked over to a taxi pickup and stood still. A floating taxi suddenly floated onto the scene and stopped in front of Skidd. The Rilgar native quickly stepped onto the taxi, which started moving as soon as he was on.

During the ride, Skidd looked out around the city. He remembered overhearing the Thug leader saying that the base had been disguised as a normal business, thus making the search that much more difficult.

"Maybe I can spot it if there are Thugs standing outside, man." Skidd pondered as he grabbed his visor and pulled it over his eyes. Pressing a button on the side of his visor, Skidd zoomed his sight closer to the buildings.

Unfortunately, this search proved just as fruitless as the first. Skidd sighed as he pulled his visor back up above his eyes.

"Man. This'll take me to the end of next week if this keeps up." Skidd complained as the taxi pulled up to a park somewhere else on the planet. The Rilgarian jumped off the taxi and waked away, trying to come up with an easier way to do this.

Skidd sat down on a bench and looked ahead, staring blankly into space, going over his chances. The planet was big, most of it was made of city, and he had no idea where he was going.

"Let's face it, man." Skidd said to himself. "I don't know the first thing I need to do. The way things're going, I'll never find the Thugs-4-Less HQ."

"Excuse us?"

Skidd nearly jumped from the unknown voice. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a black-haired alien walking over, a sock puppet on his left hand.

"We couldn't help but overhear that you're looking for the Thugs-4-Less HQ." The alien pointed out.

"…'We', dude?" Skidd asked.

"Man. You'd think more people would notice me." The sock puppet complained.

"Hey, dude." The ventriloquist looked at his puppet. "It's not my fault I asked you to be a little more quiet when around tourists."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"Wait. Are you telling me that you know where the HQ is?" Skidd asked, getting up from the bench and walking over with interest.

The ventriloquist nodded. "We have a couple of friends there, and they told us where the HQ is."

"That's great, man!" Skidd exclaimed.

"Yep. It sure is."

"…"

"…"

"…So?"

"So what?"

"So where is it, man! My lady friend's counting on me!"

"Oh, well the base is-"

"Wait a second!" The sock puppet interrupted. "We'll tell you the location, but it'll cost you for the info."

"I don't believe you, bro!" The ventriloquist snapped at the puppet. "First you con that lombax and his robot out of ten thousand bolts, but now you're trying to get money out of this guy!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to make us some bolts!" The puppet countered. "If it weren't for me getting those bolts from that lombax, we would have starved!"

"That's not the point, man! This is wrong!"

"Your honesty will be our downfall one day, I swear."

Skidd sighed, realizing that unless he did something, a brawl would break up between the ventriloquist and his puppet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of bolts. "Here's three hundred bolts, man. Now cough up the info."

The ventriloquist sighed and looked at his puppet. "You happy?"

"Very. Go ahead." The puppet replied.

"Thank you." The ventriloquist said as he accepted the money. "Come with me, man."

Skidd followed the strange alien over to the edge of the park, to a railing overlooking the city. "Look out there, man. You see those three big buildings close to each other way out there?"

Skidd had to look around a little, but quickly spotted what the ventriloquist was pointing at. "Yeah?"

"The one in the middle is the Thugs-4-Less base." The alien pointed out. "The quickest way to get there is by grindrail. You'll find it about two blocks to the east."

Skidd nodded. "Thanks, man. That's all I need to know." He turned around and ran off. "Catch ya later, dude!"

Skidd quickly found the grindrail the ventriloquist was talking about. His eyes followed the long rail, which he found indeed headed in the direction of the base. Skidd climbed up onto the ledge and looked out over the city.

"Here's where my hoverboard skills come in handy, man." Skidd said to himself. "I just hoe I haven't like, gotten rusty."

With that, Skidd leapt onto the end of the grindrail and started his trek towards the base.

During the grind, Skidd had realized that he had indeed gotten a little rusty due to the fact that he hadn't stepped on a hoverboard in months. He wobbled in place for a few seconds, but quickly got the hang of it again and continued on.

Skidd continued grinding on the grindrail for about two more minutes and he was beginning to close in on the Thugs-4-Less base. The Rilgarian smirked, seeing that his goal was in sight.

Suddenly, Skidd saw a few birds sitting on the rail just ahead of him, realizing that he had no way to slow down, he did the only thing he could think of.

He plowed right through them.

"Outta the way, dudes!" Skidd shouted, sending birds flying into the air as he hit them. "Crazed Rilgarian coming through!"

On a different part of the city, Ratchet had just landed his ship. Opening the hatch, he and Sasha jumped out and landed on the ground together. They walked over to a nearby railing and looked out among the city. Sasha pulled out a handheld device and pressed a few buttons on it.

"So, you say that thing will help us locate the Thugs-4-Less base?" Ratchet asked.

Sasha nodded. "It'll scan the city for any traces of the thug leader's species." She explained. "And once we find him, we'll find the base."

Ratchet nodded back. "Okay. Let's give it a shot." Suddenly hearing a loud squawk coming from the distance, the lombax pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked in the direction of the noise.

The only thing Ratchet saw was a few birds flying in the air as a strange figure was grinding away. The lombax shrugged as he put the binoculars away. "Someone just plowed into a group of birds on a grindrail." He said.

Sasha didn't hear him. She was mainly focused on the device in her hand. "Ratchet, I think I've picked up something."

"Really? What is it?"

Sasha showed him the device as it displayed a picture of a very familiar figure. "Is that him?"

Ratchet didn't need to look hard. That figure was one he knew all too well. "That's the leader, Sasha. Where is he?" He replied.

Sasha pointed off in the direction of the base. "That way. In the middle building out of those three big ones over there."

Ratchet nodded. "Okay. I think I see it."

"We just need to find some way to get there." Sasha said. "If we take the ship, they'll see us."

"Let's hitch a ride on a taxi, then." Ratchet replied. "Come on, Sasha. There's a pickup point over there."

(Meanwhile)

Skidd reached the end of the long grindrail and saw that he had to jump to clear the gap to make it onto the ground again. Skidd crouched low and prepared to jump.

However, he had misjudged the distance he had left. Skidd's feet slammed into the end of the grindrail, launching the Rilgarian across the gap. Skidd landed on his stomach, and quickly jumped to his feet again.

Looking around, Skidd saw that he was amazingly close to the Thugs-4-Less base. Skidd continued on, running the rest of the way. "This is it, man! I can save Angela!" He thought as he rounded a corner that led straight into the base.

However, the instant he turned the corner, Skidd froze. He found himself staring at two dog-like aliens, each of them dressed like bikers. Skidd could bet that the two worked for Thugs-4-Less, so he put up his hands.

"Okay, dudes! You're gonna let me through!" Skidd said determinedly. "I have a totally huge score to settle for your boss!"

The shorter, portlier alien scratched his head. "Do we know you?"

"You may not know me, but you probably know my pal, Ratchet!"

The taller alien's eyes widened as he smiled. "Hey! You know Ratchet?" He asked.

Skidd raised an eyebrow as he lowered his fists. "Uh…Yeah. Why?"

"Ratchet's our buddy." The shorter one replied. "We're the only two Desert Riders he really befriended."

"Oh! You dudes are the ones Ratchet told us about!" Skidd exhaled in relief. "Thank goodness. I was thinking I would like, have to fight you dudes."

The taller one shrugged. "We probably would have refused to fight anyway. Hey, what can we do to help you?"

"Well, your boss is holding my lady friend somewhere in your base and I kinda need to know where she is." Skidd replied.

"Oh, the female lombax he returned with a while ago?" The shorter biker asked. "The boss has her on the top floor of the HQ. He's getting ready to send a little message to Ratchet."

"Then I should find her before he sends it." Skidd nodded. "Hey, thanks a bunch, dudes! You've totally helped me out here!"

"Think nothing of it." The taller biker replied. "Anything to help out a buddy of Ratchet."

"I'll be sure to put in a good word for you, dudes!" Skidd said as he ran towards the base. "Catch ya later!"

The two bikers waved as Skidd vanished into the base. The shorter one then looked at his friend. "I wonder what he meant when he said he'd put in a good word for us."

The taller one shrugged. "Maybe he meant he'd try to get us bigger roles in the next game."

"Heh. That'd be sweet."