"P-please don't hurt me!" the hapless Vullard cried. "I don't have any bolts!"
"Stuff it! Or I'll smash out your other eye!" barked the irritated Agorian who carried them.
The Vullard promptly silenced their voice emitter and said nothing more.
Confident that their captive wouldn't speak again, the Agorian captor turned their angry gaze on the other Agorian that walked in front of them.
"Why did we have to take this junk-rat alive, anyway?" they demanded. "It's heavier than it looks!"
The second Agorian growled their frustration at the first. This was the third time they'd asked this question, "It's boss Magora's orders. We capture as many junk-backs as we can and use them as hostages to lure our enemies out of hiding. Then the whole gang will ambush 'em all at once when they come to their rescue!"
"Bah," spat the first Agorian, "Sitting around waiting for prey is pathetic! What if they never show? I'd much rather take my blade and go hunt them down myself!"
The second Agorian shook their head, annoyed at having to hear this again, but at the same time agreeing with the sentiment, "The enemy is too strong. The Lombax and the Witch have already taken out over half our forces. We need to regroup."
The first Agorian grinned at this, "Those fools were probably too caught up in their looting and were taken by surprise. I ain't afraid of some space-rat and his pet witch!"
"Oh?" came a new voice, one so sickly sweet that it sent a chill down all three of their spines. "Well, you should be."
The group spun around in search of whoever had spoken, but when they scanned the area behind them, they found nothing.
"Oi!" barked the first Agorian, shaking the captive Vullard. "This place ain't haunted… is it?"
"Up here, fools," came the voice again, this time from above.
As one, they all looked up to see Vendra Prog hovering high in the air. She was wreathed in glowing purple light and was scowling down at them with a mix of pity and disgust.
Before either could react, the floating space witch threw her hand forward and blasted the unburdened Agorian into the ground with a powerful wave of telekinetic force.
The Agorian carrying the captive blinked in surprise when their companion was flattened against the ground.
Their hesitation was brief, however, and soon their warrior's instincts kicked in and they rounded to face their assailant.
To their surprise, however, Vendra did not attack from above again. Instead, she landed back down just a few feet away, purposefully putting herself in sword-charging range.
The surviving Agorian didn't hesitate this time. They threw the hapless and confused Vullard aside without a second thought before rushing the space witch with both swords poised.
But this was what Vendra had wanted.
Reaching out with both hands, the crafty Nether pointed one at her oncoming assailant and the other at the shrieking Vullard who was still in the air.
Vendra caught the flailing former-captive just before they hit the ground.
Having not realized they'd stopped falling, the Vullard continued to scream while suspended a foot in the air, but they were unharmed.
Now without their hostage, there was no reason for Vendra to hold back against the Agorian that was charging headlong toward her.
With her palm aimed at her enemy's chest, the space witch's hand glowed purple and the raging Agorian suddenly found themselves wrapped in a bubble of psychic energy that lifted them off the ground.
The confused warrior swung their swords wildly, desperate to slash the bubble, or anything at all, but the psychic sphere was intangible and the ground was slowly getting further away.
Finally, realization dawned on the Agorian that they were helpless. The now terrified warrior looked down into the wickedly grinning face of the space witch and swallowed with a dry throat.
With a simple flick of her wrist, Vendra sent the Agorian jetting up into the air. She let her trapped plaything pick up speed for a few seconds, before finally relaxing her hand and releasing her powers.
She didn't even watch as her opponent fell screaming to their death. Instead, she made her way to the other screaming creature caught in her psychic grasp.
Vendra looked over the Vullard that she held aloft. They had still not opened their eyes yet.
She intended to check them for injuries, of which she found nothing serious, but as she watched them continue to flail and scream, she scowled with disgust and anger.
Fighting the urge to slam the vile alley slug into the ground, she instead simply relaxed her other hand. The Vullard was released from her hold and hit the ground with a light smack that finally put an end to their shrieking.
Blinking their single working electronic eye in confusion, they searched for their rescuer, but she was already walking away.
Vendra breathed out a sigh. This was the fifth Vullard she'd rescued since the Agorians began to retreat. From what she could tell, however, this was also the last group outside of the Raider's impromptu base of operations in the Hollow.
The remaining Magora's Raiders had all reorganized themselves inside the industrial section of the Hollow, which was at the center of the Volcano, just beyond the bazaar.
Vendra tried to control her breathing as she came down from the high of battle. As she did so, she realized where she was.
It had only been a few hours since the Agorians first began their attack on the hollow, but it was amazing how that time had changed the look of the tiny, ramshackle bazaar that she stood in now. She almost hadn't recognized it.
The stalls were now empty and the sounds of shopping and haggling were all gone. The place looked and felt dead.
'Appropriate,' Vendra thought, as she recalled the destruction she seen to the Vullard settlement.
Vendra took another step forward and then vision blurred and her legs suddenly felt weak. She was forced to grab a nearby stall to keep herself from falling and she had to fight to catch her breath. Her body felt cold, as if her veins were running with ice water in them. She began to shiver and a wave of nausea washed over her.
She didn't panic, though. She wasn't even surprised. She knew that this was just a bit of backlash from overtaxing her powers.
In the months since her incarceration, Vendra had gone from channeling none of her psychic energy to suddenly pushing her mind and body to their absolute limits and now she was paying the price for it.
The drained space witch wanted to blame the collar on her neck, but as hateful and nauseating as its effects were, she knew it wasn't the cause this time. Its inhibitor function restricted the flow of her power and limited how much energy she could channel at once, but it did not increase the strain of using her abilities below that level.
In fact, as much as she was loath to admit it, its effect had forced her to pace herself and only use as much power as was absolutely necessary. Otherwise, she'd likely have already hit empty by now.
Just as Vendra managed to get her heart rate and breathing back under control, she caught the faint screech of jets on the wind.
She cursed under her breath, "Ugh, why now?"
Seconds later, Ratchet came hoverbooting up to her.
"Took you long enough," she grumbled, the moment he cut his ion coils.
She forced herself to stand straighter and she hid the strain on her face by not even turning to look at him as she spoke.
"Maybe if you didn't run ahead," Ratchet countered with a look of annoyance, but the look quickly turned to one of concern. "Are you OK?"
Vendra cursed the Lombax's newfound attention to her well being, "I'm fine!" she said dismissively, "I just… I just need a minute."
Ratchet shook his head, "You're using your powers too much, aren't you? You need to slow it down."
Vendra spun on him, "What I 'need', is to get this collar off of me!" she snapped, sticking her neck out for emphasis. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for the Agorians to kill you and take my controller off your corpse, so you can either release me now or stop fussing and help me finish this!"
The Lombax hero eyed the restrictive accessory and grimaced, clearly torn by some internal thought.
The conniving space witch hid the smile from her face.
Vendra knew that even without the collar she likely couldn't muster up much more energy than she could now. Her body was simply too exhausted to handle it. Still, that didn't diminish her desire to get the thing off her neck, and from the way her words made her 'hero' handler look uncomfortable, she held out hope that guilt-tripping him might actually achieve that goal.
But where Vendra had hoped for a soft-hearted capitulation, Ratchet's expression instead hardened, "Or... I can trigger 'sleepy-time' mode, leave you somewhere safe, and come get you when it's over," he pointed out with a surprising amount of sternness.
Vendra was taken aback for a moment before her features darkened, "You wouldn't dare," she hissed, fixing the Lombax with a threatening glower.
But his gaze was unwavering, "I'm serious, Vendra. You're being too reckless. You don't listen to what I tell you, you charge straight into battle, and you keep taking off without warning!"
Ratchet folded his arms, becoming more set in his decision, "The next battle will probably be the toughest. They're desperate, they know we're coming, and at this rate... I can't trust you to have my tail."
Despite herself, Vendra was stunned by Ratchet's words. After all the times she could have turned on this Lombax who held her leash, after she'd trusted 'him' to cover 'her' back…
She tried to keep her reaction off her face, but she didn't have the strength.
Ratchet had expected the former villain to retort with a snide remark about why she shouldn't be helping him in the first place, but instead, she just stood there looking indignant and maybe even… hurt?
The look gave him pause.
When she finally did respond, Vendra's voice wasn't cold or angry like it usually was, it was hushed and hard to read, "You want to know why I flew off?" she said, looking accusingly into Ratchet's eyes, "Because, while you were taking your sweet time treating that one Vullard's boo-boos, I meditated on my powers and reached out to sense the life energy of everything between us and the industrial district."
Now it was Ratchet's turn to be taken aback and he blinked in surprise. He didn't know Vendra's powers could be used to sense energies besides the shard.
Vendra continued, "You heard the order to bring captured Vullards to the volcano just like I did, and yet you took your sweet time dealing with it. There were more captured Vullards being taken than we could have stopped together, especially with you having to coddle each one. Our only option was to split up. And even then I 'barely' managed to stop this last one before they made it past the bazaar."
At this, Ratchet looked over Vendra's shoulder to see the still confused Vullard she'd just rescued cautiously picking themselves up and waddling past the two Agorian bodies that lay on and in the ground around them.
Still not fully believing what he was seeing, Ratchet turned back to Vendra and gave her a questioning look, "So you took off to go save captured Vullards? But why didn't you just tell me the situation?"
The knowing space witch smirked and folded her arms, "Because you would have just gone on about it being 'too dangerous' to split up and we'd never have reached them all in time."
Ratchet was speechless. He'd been tracking Vendra with the collar's remote but had run into several Agorian squads carrying prisoners as he'd chased after her. She must have specifically taken a route that would allow her to rescue hostages while also leading him into others.
The realization of it all left the Lombax dumbfounded. He wasn't just surprised by what she'd done… he was impressed.
'I bet you feel stupid now,' Vendra thought smugly as she saw realization dawn on the Lombax's stunned face.
While she was still annoyed by Ratchet's insinuation, she found herself very pleased with herself at that moment.
But as she relished in her victory, she noticed a smile begin to spread across Ratchet's lips.
Vendra's expression, conversely, turned to one of suspicion and concern, "What are you smiling about, Lombax?" she demanded. For her, that smile was 'never' a good sign.
Ratchet shrugged, "Oh nothing, nothing," he assured her. "Uh, but… just to be sure, though: you're telling me that you ran off on your own, put yourself in unnecessary danger, and even pushed yourself to exhaustion just to save some Vullard captives?"
Vendra studied the grinning Lombax, suspicion and concern flaring even stronger as she pondered the question.
Then her eyes went wide as she realized what he was getting at, "Oh, no. No, no, no! It is 'not' what you're thinking!"
Ratchet turned away, clearly taking her reaction as more evidence that it 'was' what he was thinking, "You know for someone who claims to still be 'evil', you certainly seem to have a knack for this 'hero' thing. How many Vullarads 'did' you rescue, anyway?"
"I didn't keep count!" Vendra shot back as her face reddened. "And I don't care about saving some stupid junk-slugs, either! I only did it because the more prisoners they have, the more useless you'll be in the final battle!"
This point made Ratchet pause, as it actually made sense.
Seeing the hesitation, Vendra pressed harder, "The only reason I even had to rush off like that at all is because of how painfully softhearted you are! How much time did you waste working your hero complex on those hostages? If you'd just focused on rescuing them instead of 'saving them', we wouldn't have had to split up in the first place!"
Ratchet's smile faded as she spoke and he nodded sullenly, "I see," he said, seeming to realize his mistake.
Vendra relaxed a little, relieved she'd managed to keep her bad name sullied.
Ratchet let out a depressed sigh, "Well, I managed to save three Vullards on the way here, so I think I got most of them. We shouldn't have to worry about too many hostages now."
Now Vendra smirked, "Ha, see what I mean! Your 'hero' way is too inefficient. That wasn't even half of them! Meanwhile, 'I' saved five of the helpless creatures before you even got here!"
Despite her brutal admonishment, however, Ratchet's smile returned, even wider than before.
With horror, the former-villain realized what she'd just admitted to.
"Didn't keep count, huh?" Ratchet repeated with a look of vindication.
Vendra scowled and put a finger to Ratchet's chest, "Get this through your thick head, Lombax," she declared firmly. "I am 'not' a hero, I'm a villain with a collar on my neck. I do not 'want' to be a hero and I will never 'be' a hero. I'm only here to stretch my wings and get some perks for my jail cell. Nothing else. Got it?"
Ratchet's wide grin compressed itself into a knowing smirk, "Whatever you say, space witch," he chuckled as he turned and started walking toward the final Agorian position.
Vendra clenched her jaw at the infuriatingly pleased way the Lombax's tail swung as he walked away, "You're just a fool!" she shouted after him desperately. "Only a complete idiot would look at the things I've done and think I could be anything other than a villain."
Ratchet glanced back at the irritated Nether and spoke in a more serious tone, "Everyone can change their stripes, Vendra. Even you."
Then he turned and continued walking.
But his words only frustrated the former-villain even further. She didn't want to hear some fortune cookie platitude about redemption, especially not from some high-standing do-gooder. What did he know about being a hated criminal, or worse… deserving that hatred?
But then a thought occurred to Vendra and a slight smile of her own split her lips.
With a plan forming in her twisted mind, the young Nether chased after the Lombax, "You know, you really must be blind to think I'm doing this for any reason besides selfish ones," she pressed as she caught up.
Ratchet just let out a sigh and didn't respond this time, knowing further argument would get them nowhere.
Vendra grinned, "Sure, maybe I am pushing myself a bit, but hey, I've been locked up in a jail cell for months. I'm just getting my blood flowing by killing some dumb Agorians. This will probably be my last chance to ever use my powers again, after all."
Ratchet tensed slightly but didn't break his stride.
As Vendra had hoped, the reminder that she was going to spend the rest of her life locked away and under an inhibitor field poked at his soft heart, but she didn't want to just poke it. She wanted to stab it.
"Or maybe you're even more blind than I thought?" she began to wonder aloud, as if only now coming to this realization. "Maybe you think 'I', of all people, could be a hero because your definition of 'hero' is so skewed."
Vendra saw Ratchet's fur bristle as he shook his head in confusion, "What are you going on about, Vendra?" he asked, taking the bait at last.
Vendra shrugged, "Oh, it's nothing, nothing. I just thought, maybe it's not that 'I'm' as heroic as 'you' think, but rather it's 'you' who's much more villainous than 'I' thought. I mean, all we're really doing here is killing off a bunch of Agorians that got in the way of us killing a bunch of Thugs-4-Less because they have the crystal mcguffin you want, correct? I mean, if we didn't still need that old Vullard to tell us where they are, we'd already be gone by now and this whole place would be destroyed! That sounds much more like the kind of thing a villain would do than a hero."
Ratchet's ears stiffened as he glanced over his shoulder at her, "We're saving lives," he stated flatly, but with just a hint of irritation, before turning back around and picking up his pace.
This reaction made Vendra bite her lower lip in excitement. She must have struck a nerve.
"Sure, we're saving lives, but which ones?" she asked innocently as she hurried to keep up. "I mean, we kill the Agorians to save the Vullards, but that still leaves one group dead, doesn't it? You're basically just choosing 'who' gets to live from your own preference."
Once more Ratchet's body tensed and his pace quickened. Even his tail was starting to go rigid.
However, he didn't argue this time and Vendra began to wonder if maybe she had more of a point than she'd thought.
She eagerly pressed deeper, "You know, I've studied your exploits, Hero. For a holier-than-thou savior of the innocent, you certainly have an impressive body count. How come when you slaughter an entire legion of sentient life you're called a 'hero', but when I kick a few idiots who believe in ghosts off their planet, I'm considered a 'villain'? What's the difference?"
Suddenly, Ratchet stopped walking and stood very still.
For a moment, Vendra thought she might have finally won, but in a flash the Lombax had spun on his heel and brought his Plasma Slayer up to firing position, pointing it directly at her.
Vendra froze, 'Did I push him too far?' she wondered frantically, afraid to even breathe as she looked into the cold eyes that had, until recently, been filled with warmth.
She couldn't believe what was happening. She couldn't believe that she couldn't believe what was happening. She knew that Ratchet could kill her in an instant... before she could even get her hands to glow. How could she have let her guard down?
"Ratch-" she began but was immediately cut off by the sharp 'snap' of a plasma bolt.
Vendra's whole body shook as she flinched. The bright line of energy zipped by so close to her shoulder that she could feel the heat as it passed.
Still in shock, the stunned Nether faintly heard a grunt of pain and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind her.
Slowly, she turned to find the Agorian she'd hit with her initial psychic blast. The large warrior was now bleeding out on the ground with two skewering swords stretched out towards her.
Clearly, the dying Agorian had survived her attack. Vendra must have underestimated how weakened she was, or how much punishment they could take, and had only managed to knock them out instead.
Vendra spun back around to look at Ratchet, who had by now already lowered his smoking Plasma Slayer. His eyes were still cold and serious, but she could now see that they were directed at the dead Agorian by her feet.
"Maybe you're right, Vendra," Ratchet began in a deep, hard tone. "I'm not the kind of hero that can save the day without letting anyone get hurt, bad guys included. But the galaxy isn't that nice of a place."
His expression darkened slightly, but he still kept his gaze off of Vendra.
"The 'difference', Vendra," he continued, gesturing to the motionless Agorian that had nearly taken Vendra's head off, "is whether the people you kill are running 'at' you, or 'away' from you."
Vendra turned and eyed the dead Agorian, remembering the way the unarmed Vullards were helpless against them. She also recalled the way the citizens of the Zarkov sector fled in terror as her Nether beasts swarmed their homes, how the Terachnoids had cowered as she tore through their defenses, and how she'd detonated a prison ship whose crew were all restrained and no longer a threat.
When she turned back to face Ratchet, he was looking her straight in the eye. She held his gaze, unable to look away.
His eyes weren't cold, or angry anymore. If anything they were a little sad, but behind that, they were filled with resolve.
He then turned around once more and began walking as if nothing had happened, leaving Vendra open-mouthed and speechless.
"Grrrr, stop your fidgeting!" growled the annoyed Agorian. "We're supposed to be keeping an eye out for the Lombax and the witch!"
"Uuuuugh, I can't help it," moaned the other Agorian. "It's just so… boring! My blades itch for flesh to carve!"
"If you two don't shut your traps, I'll quench 'my' blades with 'your' flesh!" barked a third Agorian who was clearly in charge.
The two underlings begrudgingly held their silence.
At least until the second Agorian muttered under their breath to the first, "At least it'd be a more honorable death than boredom."
An instant later a hard metal object hit the second Agorian's head.
"Ow! OK, I get it! No need to throw things!"
The Agorian leader looked confused, "I didn't throw anything."
"Yeah? Then what just bonked me noggin, eh?"
"It was this thing," said the first Agorian, holding the blinking grenade for the other two to see.
All three opened their eyes in shock, then the leader turned to the second and smirked, "Told ya, 'I' didn't throw nothin."
The explosion ripped apart the roof of the fabrication shop.
Ratchet watched the fireball rise as Vendra scowled, "If you had just waited a moment I could have told you they were there."
Ratchet shrugged, "They were making enough noise that I could tell," he countered with a flick of his ear.
Across the street on another building roof, an Agorian's head popped up to investigate the explosion.
They immediately spotted Vendra and Ratchet in the fiery glow, "They're here!" the lookout shouted. "All Raiders, attack!"
Both Ratchet and Vendra could sense, in different ways, the oncoming rush of dozens of Agorian troops pouring out of the hiding spots throughout the industrial district and rushing towards the alarm.
Ratchet rolled his shoulders, "Well, we've triggered their 'trap'. You ready?"
Vendra rolled her eyes, "That's something you're supposed to ask 'before' you throw the grenade."
Ratchet grinned, "Yeah, but you're too stubborn to ever admit it if you weren't, so I just saved us some time."
Vendra opened her mouth to argue, but before she could, Ratchet ignited his hoverboots and tore off in the direction of the oncoming Agorians.
The annoyed Nether grit her teeth and was forced to bite back her retort. She buried her frustration for another time. She had more important things to deal with for the moment.
Ratchet hit the wall of Agorian bodies like a tidal wave. Explosions ripped through their ranks as grenades fell like rain and the Lombax himself became a spinning whirlwind of wrench swings and blaster shots.
Normally, he would have begun the battle by attacking from long-range, using his Plasma Slayer and blasters to whittle down the oncoming horde, even planting some mines and defensive devices to put off direct engagement as long as possible.
Close-combat was the most dangerous kind and the more enemies he faced at once, the greater the risk.
This time, however, he had more to consider than just the battle. The Agorians likely still had some hostages held somewhere in the industrial district and if he prolonged the fight too much, they would use them against him.
Luckily, he had an ace up his sleeve.
Or perhaps he should say he had a 'queen'.
Ratchet had brought all eyes on him with his 'explosive' entrance, which meant no one was watching their backs.
"It's the Lombax!" shouted a large Agorian. "Come on! Let's get him!"
A moment later an even larger Agorian smacked them across the back of the head, "Not yet, you fool!" they chided, waving a hand toward the cage of imprisoned Vullards behind them. "Go grab a junk-back like we planned. Heroes are all the same. Show them we've got a hostage and they'll leave themselves wide open for the rest of the raiders to finish off."
The first Agorian grumbled, once again cursing the luck of being chosen for the hostage detail.
But, fearing the wrath of Magora if they failed to accomplish their task, they begrudgingly turned away from the sound of glorious fighting outside and took a step toward the cages instead.
Still grumbling and looking down as they walked, it was only when they looked up to select a Vullard, preferably one that would scream and make a lot of noise, that the Agorian instead found a small purple female standing in their way.
Vendra, having used her powers to locate the captives just before the attack, had taken advantage of Ratchet's distraction to slip in undetected.
While she'd cursed being given rescue detail once again, she now licked her lips as purple energy danced excitedly around her body, "Hello, boys…"
Ratchet's attack had devastated the front ranks of the Agorian mob, but as with all Agorian armies there were plenty more to fill their ranks.
Even more pressing, though, the embattled Lombax was reminded of exactly 'why' he never charged headlong into groups of close-combat loving enemy warriors.
Once they'd recovered from the initial shock, the Agorians had worked with single-minded determination to surround and cut him down.
Skewering swords longer than his body slashed at him from all directions. Some even found their marks and managed to cut small lines out of his armor and fur.
Even as the Nanotech in his blood healed the wounds, Ratchet knew the cuts would get deeper and more frequent the longer he remained in this vulnerable position.
It was then that he spotted a purple light, flashing from rooftop to rooftop and killing distracted Agorian lookouts in stride.
Knowing that Vendra must have completed her task successfully, the besieged Lombax let out a sigh of relief and ignited his hoverboots.
Vendra launched the last Agorian over the roof edge, not even bothering to look as they fell to their death. Instead, she turned her attention to Ratchet and the scene below, curious to see how the hero was doing.
By the looks of things... it wasn't good.
Ratchet had been driven into a corner, or more precisely, a dead-end street with nowhere to go. At the entrance of the narrow corridor, Agorians pressed against one another to try and get at him. Only a no man's land of Tesla Spikes and mines held them at bay, but it was clear that they wouldn't last much longer.
'What is that fool doing?!' Vendra questioned indignantly.
Even if the plan was for him to charge in headfirst, she couldn't believe he had been so incompetent as to get himself trapped with no way out. With solid metal walls behind him and an army of enemies closing in from the front, he was likely to be killed at any moment.
Cursing the Lombax's lack of foresight, Vendra mustered as much power into her wings and legs as she could. Her only hope now was to slam into the horde below with enough force to disorient them and 'maybe' buy enough time for her and Ratchet to escape.
But did she have enough power left?
Just before she launched herself into the air, however, Vendra caught the Lombax's eye.
Ratchet was looking right at her, which in and of itself was unsettling, but it was the 'way' he eyed her that made her pause.
The Lombax hero didn't wear a look of desperation. His eyes didn't plead for help like she would have expected from someone clearly about to meet their demise.
Instead, his eyes looked at her with simple expectation, as if he was sure that 'she' would do something about the situation.
Vendra was stunned. Sure she could continue with her original plan and jump on the Agorians with everything she had, but she couldn't believe that the same Ratchet who was constantly worrying over her condition would count on her to do that.
Even as she'd been preparing to do it, she'd known her plan was stupid and dangerous. The idea that he was expecting her to do it was insulting and hurtful and… not like him at all.
As the fence of Tesla Spikes holding back the horde evaporated in a poof of blue light, the Agorians surged forward like a wave of death.
Vendra was out of time. She bent down to make her jump… and that was when she saw it.
It was hard to tell because of how slapped together all of the Vullard buildings looked, but one of the towering dwellings was still in the middle of being constructed. Standing tall in the building's half-built husk was a large crane with a full bundle of steel beams held on a pallet in the air.
Vendra felt her body moving before the plan had even fully formed in her mind.
Her telekinetically enhanced jump, which she'd been charging to launch at the Agorians, was redirected to the crane and the energized space witch propelled herself from the building roof. She became little more than a purple streak across the sky as she cleared the huge distance in a single leap.
The Agorians below were too fixated on their quarry to notice what was happening above. They were oblivious as Vendra landed with a loud thud on the crane's roof that nearly caved in the control box.
Not that it mattered. She didn't need the controls to make the crane do what she wanted.
Placing her palm against the bent crane roof, Vendra sent her powers into the heavy piece of construction equipment and in an instant her mind merged with its simple control system.
The massive clamps that held the metal pallet groaned as their mouths opened, suddenly freeing the heavy array of building materials from the only resistance they had against the planet's gravitational pull.
The bundle released with a sharp 'twang'.
Down below, A few Agorians heard the strange noises over the sound of their own blood-lust and looked up.
They had only enough time to shout at their companions before several tons of metal beams crashed into them in a horrifying cacophony of clangs and cries of terror.
Grinning with self-satisfaction, Vendra turned to look for Ratchet, expecting to find his desperately grateful expression at having his tail saved.
But instead, she found the Lombax giving her a nod of approval and a thumbs up.
Vendra realized then that he had planned this, using the narrow street to force the Agorians into a tight group and that he had 'expected' her to see the crane and take advantage of this.
The young Nether glared down at the cocky Lombax.
She felt conflicted. She knew she should be annoyed that she'd been used, but she felt something else as well.
Before she could figure it out, however, a flaming spiked ball whistled past her head.
Ratchet carefully climbed over the unstable pile of metal beams and dead Agorians.
A few had survived, but not for much longer.
He could hear the sound of Agorian war cries ringing in the distance, but to his surprise, they weren't coming for him.
Concern gripped the experienced Lombax's mind and he ran as fast as he could, fighting the urge to use his loud and position-revealing hoverboots to get there faster.
As he turned the corner, he was greeted with a desperate scene. A horde of angry Agorian warriors were facing the entrance to a fabrication workshop, inside of which Ratchet could see the small form of Vendra Prog, outlined clearly by the flickering glow of her psychic energy.
The situation had looked bad at first, but the reality was even worse. To the Ratchet's astonishment, the Agorians were playing it smart.
Agorian riders circled the building, keeping their distance while remaining ready to hurl their flails at a moment's notice. They were clearly waiting for the cornered space witch to take flight so they could knock her out of the sky.
Agorian Grenadiers were there in numbers, but they were refraining from lobbing their explosives at Vendra. They seemed to have learned that such tactics only endowed the telekinetically powered Nether with free ammunition.
Instead, the Agorian foot-soldiers formed a phalanx of yellow energy shields and were slowly closing in with dozens of their screaming, sword-wielding comrades huddled at their backs.
Trapped and with no way to escape, Vendra was hurling everything she could lift with her abilities at them. Loose tools rained down over the Agorian's heads, but they shrugged them off like water droplets. A few large metal barrels were hurled high above the shield-wielders, but the skilled warriors in the back cut the cylinder clean in two as they fell, dividing the weight of them and their oily contents into a mere annoyance that splashed harmlessly between their ranks.
Ratchet grit his teeth.
There were too many Agorians standing between him and Vendra. At the rate they were moving, the blood-thirsty warriors were going to reach her before he could cut through them all.
Seemingly all out of things to throw, Vendra began firing bolts of purple electricity at the oncoming mass, but her shots were wild and all over the place. The few that didn't strike the ground fizzled into nothing against the glowing light of the Agorians' shields. All she managed to do was make them laugh with the futility of her attack.
Ratchet knew Vendra's only hope was if he could create a distraction, maybe even take out the riders, and give her a chance of escaping, but doing so would likely leave him out in the open and the only remaining target for the cheated horde.
He didn't hesitate and immediately lined up his body with the nearest rider.
Before he ignited his boots, however, he sniffed the air and froze. His sensitive Lombax nose picked up an odd, pungent odor that wafted toward him on the wind.
It took the experienced starship mechanic all of 3 milliseconds to recognize the smell of refined gelatonium and almost as quickly, he figured out the source. The barrels Vendra had been hurling at the advancing line of Agorians had been filled with it and now they were absolutely coated in flammable fuel.
Ratchet's body reacted instantly and he had a blaster in each hand before he'd even picked his targets. He eyed the tallest Agorians, starting with the ones on the far side of the group, before sending a burning bolt of plasma to each of them, two at a time.
The shots were so precise and struck in such quick succession that it had appeared almost as if they'd all struck at once. The moment the superheated ions touched the highly volatile starship fuel on their skin, the unlucky Agorians ignited with a whoosh!
They didn't even have time to scream before the fire jumped to their companions and in seconds the whole host was alight. Their war cries and howls of combat quickly turned into screams of pain as the huddled horde was engulfed in flame and burned alive.
Having no time, nor desire to watch his enemies broil, Ratchet turned his weapon on the remaining Agorian riders.
Distracted by the brightly lit and loudly screaming sight of their brethren burning, the riders were sitting ducks.
But before he could take even a single shot, however, a volley of long metal poles flew from the workshop's interior, skewering the riders and sending their beasts into a directionless rage.
The dumbfounded Lombax watched as Vendra Prog rose up into the air and out of her impromptu fortification, before gliding over to him. She landed by his side with a casual grace, before nonchalantly brushing dust off her shoulder.
Ratchet scratched his ears in confusion as he stared at her, "If you could eliminate the riders that easily, why didn't you take them out and fly away?"
Vendra wore a smug look, "Because then I wouldn't have been able to take out all those raving buffoons in one 'shot' like that."
Ratchet glanced back over at the charred remains of the Agorian mob, "You mean you planned that?" he asked in disbelief.
"I did," the self-satisfied space witch answered. "I was worried for a minute that your tiny hero brain wouldn't have figured it out, but I suppose you deserve a cookie for playing your part properly."
"You used me," Ratchet pointed out, but the way he said it was not what Vendra had expected. Instead of being annoyed by what she'd done, he gave her a wry smile.
"And what about you?" she shot back combatively, having already been expecting a lecture or an indignant response. "You led all those Agorians into a trap and left me to operate the crane."
Ratchet's smile widened and he looked away with feigned ignorance, "I don't remember discussing any plan like that. Oh, was that 'you' on the crane… saving my life 'again'? How 'heroic' of you."
Vendra's mouth opened as if she were about to say something, but clenched it shut instead. She glared at the smug Lombax while angry purple sparks jumped along her skin.
"You know what?" she began.
But before she could continue, a bright fireball came whooshing through the air towards them.
Ratchet's reflexes were faster. He grabbed the still scowling space witch and pulled her out the way just in time.
Vendra felt the scorching heat of the fireball as it passed.
Together the two of them ducked behind a building as several more burning orbs streaked their way towards them.
"What is that?!" the exasperated Nether demanded.
Around the corner sat a three-headed metal dragon on tank treads. All three heads reared up and roared into the sky, before continuing to spit fireballs from their mouths at them.
"That's a Hydra Tank," Ratchet answered casually.
Vendra watched as the three hulking Hydra heads bit into the ground and its treads began to spin, kicking up road and debris as it prepared to charge.
"Great. That's just what I needed," she grumbled in sarcastic annoyance. "A literal fire-breathing dragon to slay. My bad reputation will never recover from this."
Ratchet let out a small snort of laughter at the unexpected irony.
Vendra tried to give him a chastising look, but she couldn't keep from smirking herself.
With a grin still plastered to his face, Ratchet stepped out of cover and prepared to face down the Hydra Tank.
He then turned back and gave Vendra a confident smile and a nod, "Come on. 'We' got this."
