SCHOOL IS HERE! I don't really want it to come to this though but I may get back on a 1 chapter a week schedule again because of this. I will also say to that due to website problems and other things, this explains the one week delay for this chapter. And due to, not sickness but cold like symptoms (Headache, stuffy nose, and most importantly once it was writing time for me, I fell asleep for five hours) I decided I just wasn't in any shape to write this weekend, so this is the weekend chapter. But I am happy that the developers fixed the view trafficking so now I can see your support for this story. Which I will say once again that I thank you all for your support for this story, and this series.
Review Replies:
Light Seeker 001- Well the thing is there is no real solid evidence that Qwark being Fizzwidget yet in the story. Also that since the things you said in the review haven't exactly happened yet in the story, they can assume that its Qwark. But once I get to those parts, I will probably make Jordan be more suspicious about Fizzwidget.
I will be quiet now and let you guys read on.
If your enjoying the story so far, feel free to review, favorite, or follow, and please know that any feedback is much appreciated.
Disclaimer:
Ratchet and Clank, associated characters, weapons, locations, etc. belong to insomniac games. some real world companies and organizations belong to their respective owners, etc. I only own the right to some characters and some weapons and events introduced in the story.
Slim Cognito's Ship Shack
?
Surprise Of A Lifetime
Before meeting up with Fizzwidget, Ratchet decided to check out the ship upgrades he saw in the commercial for Slim Cognito's ship shack. As he approached the coordinates that came with the commercial, he saw that it was a lonely asteroid floating in the emptiness of space. The asteroid wasn't that large, though it wasn't that small either. There were a few antennae and satellite dishes attached to it's rocky surface, and the entrance to a small docking bay could be seen. Ratchet skillfully flew the ship to said docking bay, and once he landed inside, he decided to go solo and leave the small Lombax, tiny Robot and (still shivering) Human in the ship for now.
As Jordan sat in the ship in the fetal position, he felt the hypothermic temperatures run through his bloodstream and even inside a luxury ship like the Star Explorer, its automated heating system wasn't enough. Jordan, Sophia and Clank sat in the vehicle for five minutes, but felt like hours to Jordan. The Human was getting bored and decided to look out the window to see if the Lombax was returning, but couldn't help but turn his gaze towards Clank to see that the experiment was now biting on the poor Robot's metal skull.
"That t-thing must really l-like you." The shivering Human said.
"I do not understand why this creature likes to chew on people so much."
"M-maybe to show it's a-f-fection?"
"Maybe."
"M-maybe you can hand it over so I c-can f-feel how hard it bites."
"Are you sure? What if it bites hard enough to hurt you."
"D-dont worry. I'll be fine."
As Clank removed the experiment from his head and hand it to the Human, Jordan looked and saw Ratchet approaching the ship. Clank saw this as well and soon felt the experiment use the distraction to jump out of Clank's hands and onto the Robot's head, where it, once again, started to chew on the Robot's metal skull. "Did you get the p-parts?" Jordan asked while the Lombax got in the cockpit of the ship.
"No, it turns out we need Rareitanium to buy ship upgrades, and platinum bolts for weapon mods."
"P-platinum bolts. They have them here t-too?"
"According to the guy selling ship upgrades over there, they are more common in Bogon. He also said that it costs a lot of money to get these kinds of weapon modifications."
"Oh."
"Well, lets just get to Tabora and meet up with Fizzwidget."
As Ratchet flew the ship to their next destination, Jordan looked at his hands and saw that their usual color was returning ever so slightly. Jordan sat there and was having trouble breathing at a steady pace, and after a while he decided to feel his hands and he definitely felt that his body temperature wasn't improving either. All he had to rely on now was the Nanotech and he continued to sit there and wait for them to arrive on the hopefully warm planet. "How can you still be cold? I've had the heater on for quite a while now." the Lombax said, getting no response from the Human.
Sophia looked over to see Jordan and she could tell he didn't look good. She wanted revenge after what he did to her, but she felt like this was a bit over the top. It almost made her feel like she was no different from the bullies back at the orphanage. Sophia decided to help the poor Human as she slowly moved across the interior of the ship to sit next to Jordan. Then she slowly climbed onto Jordan and wrapped her arms around the neck of the poor Human. But, to make matters worse, Jordan was getting claustrophobic. He lowered his legs to the floor of the cockpit and wrapped his arms around Sophia's torso.
"W-what are you d-doing?" Jordan asked.
"I heard, if someone snuggles up next to another person, they'll warm them up faster."
"Aww that's sweet." Ratchet commented, causing Sophia and Jordan to look at him. "Sorry." Ratchet said.
"W-well you do feel w-warm." Jordan said as he looked back to Sophia.
The duo continued to hug and It was at that moment that Jordan felt that the heater, the Nanotech, and the furry Lombax might be enough. Jordan looked at his hand and slowly saw its color tone get brighter, and brighter until it was almost normal again, just slightly pale. Jordan also felt the cold body temperature dissipate as he felt a warm, toasty feeling inside of him that caused him to stop his fit of shaking and shivering.
"Better?" Sophia asked.
"Better." Jordan replied.
Suddenly a voice echoed through the speakers of the cockpit "Arriving at...Planet...Tabora." the female voice of the computer informed them.
Jordan kept hugging Sophia as he looked out the cockpit. Jordan saw that the planet definitely had similarities to Veldin, but he saw that there were no bodies of water at all on this desert planet. Jordan saw various tones of desert yellow, with the lighter tones indicating that there was probably some sort of water source, at least before Megacorp's "March of Progress".
Mining Facility
Planet Tabora
12:00pm GST
As the ship entered the atmosphere, they flew past some clouds and Jordan noticed that their color seemed normal. As Ratchet landed the ship, Sophia and Jordan stopped hugging each other and get ready to leave the ship. As Jordan hopped out of the ship, he saw that just like the video Fizzwidget showed them had said, the place was nothing but a desert wasteland. Strangely, the planet's temperature wasn't over-the-top hot. It was quite mild actually. Probably made sense because the planet didn't look like this in the past. "Look at this place." Sophia said as she climbed up onto Jordan's back.
"Feels just like a Mad Max movie." Jordan quietly said to himself.
"What?" Sophia asked.
"Nothing."
Sophia looked around, staring at the sandy wasteland. "So. This all used to be a forest?"
"Yep. All of it."
"But what about the trees and the rabbits and birds?"
"Personally, I don't know."
"Are you saying they are... dead?"
"No, no, no. I don't know, Sophia. Maybe, maybe not."
Sophia sighed and looked around some more. "What kind of person would do such a thing?"
"Well that's rich people for ya."
"Even if I was rich I wouldn't do this."
"It's more complicated than that."
"What do you mean?"
"...Well-" before Jordan could start explaining, he heard a roaring sound above him that caught his attention. What he saw above him was a enormous ship gently coming down directly above their much smaller Star Explorer.
"Hey, there's Mr. Fizzwidget." Ratchet said, pointing to the ship. The group slowly saw the ship come closer to the ground, but noticed that the ship wasn't planning on parking anywhere else as it hovered down closer and closer to the ship. Ratchet cupped his hands next to his mouth and yelled to the CEO "UH, FIZZWIDGET?! WOULD YOU MIND MOVING YOUR SHIP A LITTLE TO THE-AAH."
As Ratchet was about to finish, Fizzwidget's ship suddenly disabled the vertical engines, which resulted in the large Megacorp vessel suddenly landing with great force, crushing the poor Star Explorer. The shockwave knocked our heroes off their feet, and as the group got up, they saw the back of the ship open up and what stepped out was Fizzwidget himself.
"What happened?" Ratchet asked the group.
"That son of a bitch destroyed our ship, that's what happened!" Jordan said with anger.
"Everything's fine." Fizzwidget said, approaching the group "There was just a bit of debris on the landing pad."
"That was our ship!" Sophia said with rage.
"Ah, don't worry about it little fella, it's insured." Fizzwidget walked closer to the group. "So, do you have the, uh, delivery?" the group looked at Clank to see that the experiment was not attached to his skull anymore. Then Jordan heard a strange noise behind him. The two Lombaxes, having sensitive hearing, heard it as well. Everyone turned around to see the experiment, it's head buried in the sand. Jordan decided to free the squirming little ball of fur, though he made sure to keep a safe distance from it. The last thing he needed is a blue ball of fluff digging into his skin with it's teeth. Once it was free, Jordan kept a grip on it's legs and held it out as far as he could. He then turned around and showed it to Mr Fizzwidget. "Terrifulous. Come, gentlemen. There is precious little time." Fizzwidget said as he walked up to Jordan and took the experiment from him. The CEO and the group entered the large Megacorp vessel through the back. The group stepped in the large cockpit and sat down in the back seats of the ship, with Ratchet being on the right, and Jordan on the left, with Clank and Sophia in their laps respectively. "Just sit back and relax boys." Fizzwidget said.
"No." Jordan said "Were at the facility, so start spilling the beans on how I'll possibly get back to Earth."
"Don't worry cadet. Once we reach our destination, I'll tell you all I know at the moment."
"Fine...wait, did you just call me cadet?"
"Uuuh... How about some flying music?" Fizzwidget quickly said. Jordan looked and saw him press a large button and expected to hear something from some kind of radio network, but instead a female robotic voice spoke through the speakers: "Ejector seats activated."
Before Jordan could even say "What?!", the group was launched tens of meters into the air. Due to the sudden G-forces, the Human and Lombax accidentally let go of their Robotic and younger Lombax friend. Jordan looked down, and quickly realized that this was the end: they were falling into a cave through a hole in the ceiling, and even though there was a pile of sand underneath them, everyone knew it wouldn't be enough. Or so they thought. When they finally reached the pile of sand, everyone was surprised to find out that pile felt like some sort of pillow. Jordan reached the ground first, and the Human quickly made way for Ratchet and Clank. Once they got up, Jordan looked up expecting to see Sophia falling towards them, though to his surprise, she was nowhere to be seen. Panicking, Jordan ran around the pile of sand... and found Sophia, trying to pull her head out of the sand. Jordan walked over to her and pulled the little one out of the sand. "You alright?" Jordan asked the Lombax.
"Yeah." Sophia replied.
"He did that on purpose." Clank said with anger, approaching Ratchet.
"Nah, he's just easily distracted. Right Jordan?" Ratchet said to Clank, but then turned to Jordan to hear his answer. Jordan however walked over to Clank and stood beside him, with almost as much anger as the robot had.
"I agree with Clank on this one, Ratchet." Ratchet then looked over to Sophia, only to watch her walk over to Jordan and Clank.
Ratchet sighed in frustration "Fine, fine! Lets see if we can find a way out of here." Ratchet proceeded to walk down a tunnel in the cave and as he slid down the sand pile. Suddenly, Jordan thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned to where he'd have sworn he saw movement, only to see a muscular Blarg trooper aiming a rocket launcher(one that was quite similar to the Devastator) at Ratchet, who wasn't suspecting a thing.
Jordan saw an evil grin form on the Blarg's face, indicating that he'd locked on, and as the Blarg pulled the trigger, Jordan went into panic mode. He ran towards Ratchet and tackled the Lombax as the missile got closer. Jordan quickly got up, equipped his heavy lancer and turned to face the Blarg trooper... though said trooper apparently had vanished without a trace.
"What did you do that for?" Ratchet said as he got up. The Lombax looked at the Human and followed his gaze to the cave wall.
"I...thought..." Jordan said as he turned to the Lombax "Nevermind." the Human finished.
Jordan looked over and saw a Vendor on the opposite side of the room and started to walk over to it. "Are you okay?" Ratchet asked.
"I'm fine. Just a little tired, it's been a long day."
"Don't worry. It will be over soon."
"Hopefully."
Ratchet followed his Human friend to the vendor. Jordan only restocked on ammo, spending 400 bolts. As Jordan left the Vendor, he saw that behind it were six bolt crates neatly stacked on top of each other. Jordan was going to share the money with Ratchet this time, but seeing that said Lombax was too occupied with buying ammo to even notice him, Jordan decided to take the money for himself one more time. He walked over to the crates, equipped his machete, and after swinging the weapon a few times, he could pick up the bolts inside, exactly 400 bolts. Jordan looked over to Ratchet and saw that he was done, also noticing that he didn't buy any strange new weaponry. With both Human and Lombax maxed out on ammo, Jordan helped Sophia climb on his back while Clank jumped and attached himself to Ratchet's armor.
Once the duo was ready, they walked down the long tunnel until they stumbled upon a group of five red creatures that walked on four legs, and had long necks and bright yellow eyes. Jordan also saw they had mouths similar to that of a caterpillars. Jordan didn't worry about this too much as he equipped his Bomb Glove, and quickly got rid of 'em with a few well-aimed bombs. Ratchet and Jordan continued to walk down the cave until they saw a small area that was divided by a small gap. On the other side they saw five creatures, (the same species as the red creatures Jordan blew up earlier), with some kind of plant next to them. Ratchet equipped his Mini Nuke and he aimed the weapon slightly above them, then fired, taking out all of them. Just as they were about to jump across the gap, they saw the plant open up to let out another of those red creatures. Seeing that this was some kind of spawner, Ratchet equipped his Chopper and threw three blades at the creature, causing one to slice across its armored shell and remove it, another one to slice across its stomach. and finally one that slices it across the neck, sending blood gushing out of the wound and killing it.
Jordan made sure not to watch this horror show and as he heard Ratchet equip his Heavy Lancer, Jordan did the same and they both let out a three round burst at the spawner. Six plasma bullets later, the planet exploded into a pile of goo and the area was now clear. Ratchet went first and jumped across the gap with ease, and the Human did the same, with no problems at all this time. The duo looked to their left and saw a small ledge and as they climbed up the ledge, they saw that above it were two large flies of some kind. Ratchet knew these things wouldn't be much of a problem and equipped his wrench. Strangely enough, Jordan was thinking what the Lombax was thinking and equipped his machete. The mutant flies saw the duo and flew after them. Ratchet approached the first one and whacked his wrench right at it's face, sending it across the room and hitting the walls of the cave, killing it instantly. It was Jordan's turn and as the fly homed in on him, the Human swung at the creature and sliced it across the stomach, causing the fly to drop to the ground and never get up again.
The duo continued and as they walked down another tunnel, they saw another area with two spawners this time, with four red creatures, and three mutant flies guarding them. Ratchet equipped his wrench and saw the three flies closing in with the intention to swarm him. But Jordan saw that the Lombax had no problem at all with swatting them out of the sky. The Human looked over to see the spawner open and send another fly out, but the spawner was shortly after slammed into the ground by Ratchet's OmniWrench. Jordan saw the fly approach Ratchet, so he ran up to the creature with his machete and sliced it across the back, killing it. They now stepped into the room and saw that it was divided into three sections, with the center of it being a fiery pit of lava. They also saw an exit to their left, though the section in front of it was guarded by more spawn plants, murderous flies and red creatures.
They decided not to worry about the enemies on the other section and just focus on the main exit. Ratchet equipped his Mini Nuke, aimed at the creatures and fired, not only taking the armor off the creatures (though it wasn't enough to kill them), but destroying the spawner as well. Now seeing defenseless mutants, Jordan equipped his Blitz Gun, walked up to the edge of the section and fired five times at the creatures, sending an array of bullets to produce holes in the creatures heads, necks, and torso's, killing them all. Jordan jumped to the other side of the small gap first, then Ratchet. Once they walked up to the exit, they saw that it led into another long tunnel, but this time, the floor was lava, the only way across being provided by multiple platforms made out of plants that lead to a more elevated part of the tunnel. Ratchet decided to go first on this one and Jordan saw him jump on the first platform, then turn to his right and jump onto the next one. Jordan followed his Lombax friend's example. As the Human saw the Lombax jump on a platform in front of him and climb up on another one, he could feel sweat starting to form on his forehead due to the blistering heat that the lava produced.
"First it was too cold, now it's just too frieking hot." Jordan quietly said to himself.
Jordan jumped onto the next platform in front of him and climbed up to the next one, then saw Ratchet reaching the final one, climb on top of the ledge and enter another tunnel. Jordan quickly jumped onto another platform in front of him, then jumped to the final one. The Human then ran up to the ledge, pulled himself up, then ran and met up with the Lombax. They walked into the cave and saw that inside it was a Megacorp Vendor, but in the center of the room were two glass display cases. One small one that displayed a rock, and another taller one that contained a futuristic looking white and dark blue colored wrench. Jordan saw the Lombax run up to the glass and equip his wrench. Jordan walked up to the Lombax while Clank jumped off of Ratchets back and looked at what the labels on the displays said. Jordan looked and saw that it must've been in some kind of robotic writing, seeing that it was just symbols and gibberish he couldn't understand.
"What does it say?" Jordan asked the robot.
"It says, "in case of emergency, break glass with wrench"." the robot answered. Ratchet readied his wrench to break the glass, but was stopped by Clank. "Hold on, this one says 'Use rock to break glass to get wrench to break glass to get rock.' Oooooh! I love logic puzzles. Lets see, if you break the glass with..." as the robot was about to solve the riddle, he was interrupted as Ratchet broke the glass with his old wrench and grabbed the new one.
"Solved it." Ratchet said as he threw the old wrench over his shoulder and inspected the new one.
"Yeah, because apparently destroying stuff is second nature to you." Jordan said to the Lombax.
"What, it instructed to break the glass with the wrench."
"Could you've at least let him finish the riddle?"
"Ah cmon, we gotta get outta here."
Ratchet helped Clank attach himself to his back and once they were ready, the duo walked over to the Vendor and Ratchet decided to buy ammo. Jordan however didn't waste as much rounds as the Lombax did and decided to save his money. Once Ratchet was done buying his ammo, they continued to walk down the tunnel. They climbed up a small ledge and at the top, were two more red creatures. Ratchet decided to use his new wrench. He ran towards one of the creatures and swung at it with his new gadget and to his surprise, the blow did enough damage to strip his enemy of it's body armor in one hit. He then readied the wrench and swung at it's head, caving it's skull in and killing it.. The last beast saw the Lombax and as it approached, the mutant opened its mouth and let out a red gas, in which Ratchet started to go into a coughing fit. Jordan knew this must be it's offense attack and Jordan quickly ran up to the mutant, grabbed it by its neck, and brought his blade up and sliced it across the mutants neck, causing a stream of green liquid to spew onto Ratchet. And just to make sure of its demise, Jordan stepped back and rammed his machete into the side of the creature's head, skewering its brain and killing it. While Ratchet finished coughing out the gas, Jordan slowly pulled the blade out of the mutants head and saw it covered in the green liquid, thinking that this must be the creature's blood. "You alright?" Jordan asked the Lombax.
"I'm..fine." Ratchet said as he got up.
"Uh..you got a little..." is all Jordan said as he looked at the blood covered Lombax.
Ratchet looked down and saw the liquid in question all over his body, and even on his helmet visors "Oh." he said as he wiped the blood from the visors.
"Eh, we'll clean you up later."
Ratchet and Jordan saw the cave end and instead saw a ledge too high to climb up, but looked to their left and saw that there was a incline that lead all the way up. Ratchet and Jordan walked up the small hill and saw that at the end was another spawner, that immediately shot out two more of the red mutants. Ratchet quickly got his Mini Nuke out, while Jordan equipped his Bomb Glove. Right as Ratchet fired a bomb and destroyed the two creatures, Jordan quickly aimed and threw a bomb at the spawner, destroying it. Right as Jordan was about to continue, he looked over to Ratchet to see veins in his arms glow brighter, and brighter, until he soon saw a bright orb appear on his chest. The orb and the veins continued to get brighter and brighter until nobody could see anymore. When the light dimmed, Jordan saw that Ratchet's veins were brighter than they used to be. Jordan knew that this was a Nanotech upgrade, but the Lombax was definitely confused by this phenomenon.
"What just happened?" the Lombax said in confusion.
"Your Nanotech upgraded." the Human replied.
"But we didn't find any of those gene things."
"Fizzwidget said it happens when you deal damage to your enemies. Once you reach a certain total of dealt damage, you upgrade. And that gene thing was called a Nanotech boost. It just speeds up the process."
"Oh."
With another question answered and a Lombax upgraded, the duo continued as they made a left turn and were now on the upper level. They walked along the narrow edge and walked around a right corner. They now themselves standing at the edge of a gap, nothing but lava below, though hovering in front of them was a stationary green Versa target. Ratchet equipped the Swingshot and once Jordan grabbed onto the Lombax, he shot the hook at the target and slowly swung over to the other side. They hit the ground and looked to their right to see another long gap with another versa target, but this one was longer and they could see light at the end, as well as sand, indicating that it was the end of the cave. Once the Human grabbed onto the Lombax, he shot at the second target and swung as high as he can. Once he was at a desirable height, the Lombax released the hook and felt it shoot back into the gun. Clank then activated his Heli-pack and Ratchet guided himself and the group around a right corner and slowly hovered out of the exit and onto a... 'beach' of some sorts, though with lava instead of water. The group looked in front of them and saw an elevator that lead all the way up, but as they walked towards it, they heard a roaring sound above them and saw that it was a ship, but it didn't look like Fizzwidget's...
It was the thief. He landed in front of the group and immediately pointed a laser gun at the group.
"Hand over the experiment. Now!", The thief demanded.
"We cant do that." Ratchet said.
The thief now climbed out of his ship through the roof, but as he did so Jordan didn't notice that Sophia got off his back. "You have three seconds." The thief said "One, two, thre..ahhh!" as the man counted to the final second, they saw a rock get thrown at him, causing him to take a few steps back in defense... and fall off his ship. The group looked over their shoulder to see Sophia standing there with a rock in her hand. Jordan saw the thief crawl over towards his gun and he quickly ran over to the thief and kicked him in the gut. He then rolled him over and pinned him to the ground with his foot. The Human pulled out his machete, brought the blade up to the thief's chin and got ready to pull the mask off.
"Now lets see who you really are." Jordan said as he reached for the mask.
"Jordan, there's something you have to know!" Sophia said as he ran over to Jordan.
"Not now Sophia." The Human replied.
As Jordan reached down and pulled the thief's mask off he was met with a huge surprise, one of the biggest he'd seen on this trip. The man was a Lombax with a fur color similar to Ratchet's. Oddly enough, he had no tail, and long, striped hair that he wore in a ponytail. The group saw his cyan eyes looking into the Human's. And most importantly, saw that the male, looked more of the opposite gender.
Female.
'All this time we've been chasing a woman!' Jordan thought out loud.
"Whoa, he's... a she!" Ratchet said in shock. "Uh, Jordan. You might want to get off her." Ratchet asked the Human. Jordan obeyed him and stepped off the girl.
The thief slowly stood up."This changes nothing!" she said with a much lighter voice now that the mask and it's voice morpher were off. "Where is the experiment?"
"We have returned it to Mr Fizzwidget."
"Ugh." the thief face-palmed. "You've just put the whole galaxy in imminent danger."
"B-b-but."
"I don't have time to stand around explaining it to you." the girl walked over to her ship, opened the cockpit and pulled out a television and placed it in front of the group ."If you have any intentions of fixing the mess you've made, watch this."
The thief pressed a button on a remote she was holding. The TV immediately turned on and started to play a video that showed a robot about to press a button on what looked like a toaster, though as soon as the robot pressed the button the toaster exploded, destroying the robot's head in the process. The robot wobbled and then fell backwards, off-screen. "Oh no." A narrator said in the background "Good thing that wasn't little Susie." the video now showed the Megacorp logo "Here at the Megacorp Testing Facility, we make sure the products you buy are safe for you and your family. These are just a few of the products we rejected to help keep you safe." the video now showed various objects that looked too dangerous to even sell anyways. "The Tiny-Tot Slingshot, the Nuclear Mousetrap, Self-Wedgifying Underwear, and the Lawn Ninjas." The video now showed a robot similar to the first one (if it was the same one they couldn't tell) using the same toaster again. It pressed the button and immediately raised it's arms in defense, expecting the toaster to explode again, though instead of exploding, harmless toast popped out of the device. "So the next time your toaster doesn't explode in your face, say a little thank you to the Megacorp Testing Facility." as the video ended, they heard a ship near them activate. Everyone looked to where the sound came from, only to see the girl take off and fly her ship out of the atmosphere, leaving the group on the sandy dunes of Tabora.
"Wow, she's got a few bolts loose." Ratchet said to the group.
"Well I believe her, there is something not right about that..that thing."
"You always think things are not right. But what does a testing facility have to do with galactic danger anyway?"
"Maybe it's got something to do with the experiment. It's a testing facility after all, perhaps that 'experiment' was tested there as well."
"Well, we have to investigate the facility if we want to know for sure."
"Well we need a ship first."
With a scavenging mission at hand, Sophia got on Jordan's back and the group stepped on the elevator and felt it take them up. "Uh, Jordan." Sophia said while shaking his shoulder.
"Is that what you were trying to tell me?" Jordan asked to Sophia, getting a nod in reply.
Once they reached the top, they saw their destroyed ship in the distance, and standing beside it was an older looking man with ragged clothes on, and it looked like he was meditating.
"How did our ship get over there?" Jordan asked in confusion.
"I don't know, lets just see what this guy is doing with it."
Ratchet and Jordan walked up to the group and the Lombax and Human heard that he was indeed meditating. "Ohmmmmm, ohmmm..." The man kept repeating over and over again with his eyes closed. The group stood there for five seconds, not knowing what to say. But the Robot hopped off of Ratchets back and approached the man. "Hello, sir."
"Hey! that's my ship!" Ratchet added.
The man opened his eyes and looked at the group "Possession is an illusion. Don't all things belong to the cosmos." The man said in an older sounding voice.
"Ah, no. That's definitely mine."
"This vehicle suffers from wounded chi. Only the power of the crystals can hope to heal it."
"Crystals sir?" Clank asked.
"Crystals! Like those found in the desert beyond." the man closed his eyes and continued to meditate. "Ohmmm, ohmmm."
"Well, we don't have any better ideas. Lets go grab a few crystals then.", Jordan concluded.
To their left, the group saw a giant fissure with lava at the bottom, though there was a bridge leading to the other side. When crossing the bridge, Jordan felt Sophia moving. "That guy was weird.", She whispered into his ear. "Trust me, I've seen worse.", Jordan whispered back.
Once they were on the other side, they saw that only a few feet in front of them was a strange pink crystal sticking out of the ground. The group figured these must be the crystals the man was talking about. Ratchet equipped his wrench and approached the crystal. Ratchet whacked the crystal with his wrench and immediately a few rocks around the crystal shot loose. He kept whacking it until it shattered into a million pieces. Jordan saw a beautiful pink gem lying on the ground next to the rocks and crystal shards. Ratchet picked it up and handed it to Clank, who stored it in his endless compartment. One gem found, only a few more to go. They looked to their left and saw another one. Ratchet and Jordan ran over to it and Ratchet once again shattered the crystal with his wrench, but when he touched the gem, but five more of those red creatures suddenly popped out of the ground and surrounded the group. Ratchet and Jordan quickly ran, pushing a few of the slow creatures aside, and once they got to safer grounds, equipped the Mini Nuke and Bomb Glove respectively. Ratchet aimed the weapon and fired one bomb at the group, taking off their armor. Jordan then threw a few bombs at the now defenseless group and blew them to smithereens.
When the second crystal was safely stored inside Clank, The duo turned around and walked up a small hill and saw another crystal in the distance. They quickly ran over to the crystal and Ratchet smashed the shell of the crystal again. But instead of the armored mutants, this time five mutant flies popped out of the ground when they attempted to pick up the crystal. Ratchet and Jordan ran to a good distance and the Human decided to equip his Blitz Gun for this. As the flies approached, Jordan aimed at the cluster and pulled the trigger, causing up to eight rounds to kill three flies immediately while two were still alive. Jordan reloaded his weapon with the intention of finishing the last ones, but six rounds from Ratchet's heavy lancer made quick work of the lucky survivors. With three crystals in their pockets, or, well, Clank's storage compartment, they turned right and found another crystal. They ran over to it and smashed the shell of the crystal. Once the robot stored the crystal in his compartment, they saw another one in the distance and quickly sprinted over to it. Ratchet destroyed the shell and when Clank stored the crystal in his compartment, the whole group felt the ground vibrate and soon they saw a large beast rise from the sand.
Jordan and Ratchets eyes widened as they saw the beast fly with its small wings, four legs, and one bright pink eye. As they were about to run away, they saw its eye get brighter and brighter.
Suddenly, a bright pink beam shot out of it's eye. The duo rolled out of the way to dodge it and got behind a large rock. Luckily, the beam didnt't melt through the rock, so the group had time to prepare their counterattack. Ratchet equipped his Seeker Gun, while Jordan equipped his Heavy Lancer and once the beam disappeared (apparently the creature had to recharge), the duo ran from behind the rock and opened fire. Jordan fired a three round burst at the creature while Ratchet launched five missiles at it. One of the missiles stripped away the beast's armor, three other missiles impacted it at random places. The last one, however, hit the creature in the eye, and the creature roared. Jordan slowly aimed at the creatures eye and fired three rounds, with all of them hitting it in its eye, and the creature roared once again. The group saw it back flip in mid air and fall to the ground. As the group walked up to the mutant to make sure it wasn't coming up again, they saw its mouth suddenly drop open and saw that inside it was another crystal. Jordan volunteered to remove the gem and once he reached into its mouth, he pulled out the gem and felt that it was covered in saliva.
"Eugh. Gross!", Sophia commented.
"I know, I know." Jordan said with a disgusted look on his face.
Jordan gave the crystal to Clank, and the robot stored it in his seemingly endless storage compartment. Hoping that they collected enough, they returned to the strange man that was still standing next to their ship. Clank hopped off of Ratchets back and gave his larger friends the crystals they had collected. "Yes, the crystals are spayking to me with a single voice." the man said.
He started to meditate once again. Suddenly, what was once their ship started to hover. It flew a feet into the air, and started to spin. The crystals flew out of Ratchet and Jordan's hands, and once the crystals got near the ship, they suddenly turned into dust. "Ooooohhhm. Ooooohhhm. Ooooohhhm." the group saw the dust suddenly start to mend the pieces of the ship like glue and soon they saw the ship was good as new. The man opened his eyes and the ship slowly hovered down to the ground.
"That was pretty impressive." Ratchet said.
"Indeed." Jordan added.
"Bring me more crystals, and I'll pay you cold hard bolts." The man quickly said
"Huh?"
"Ooohhhhm."
With their ship now repaired, the group hopped in and Ratchet set the coordinates to the Megacorp Testing Facility and flew up into the planets atmosphere.
"I still do not understand that logic puzzle." Clank said.
"I think it meant that you pick up a rock from the ground to break the glass with the wrench in it. Then you use the wrench to break the glass to get the rock." Jordan answered.
"But why would you break the glass to get a useless rock?" Sophia asked.
"Beats me Sophia. Beats me." the Human replied.
There is chapter 13 of Worlds United. Now you have seen the hallucinating effects that also make up Jordan's condition and I hope to add more of this into this story. I also plan too to add more bolt crates like I did in the last game. Knowing I really want Jordan and the group to be introduced to most of the weapons in this game, and I know how expensive they are, so I'm planning on making it so that they get a few bolts in each chapter. I also want to say to that I know you need 10 crystals in the game to fix the ship, but I think due to story limits I had to cut this down. Also, I prefer to introduce enemies once. Smaller ones maybe multiple times, but the bigger ones not more than two times. Well, there's chapter 13 and stay tuned for chapter 14 when the group explores the testing facility.
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Thank you for reading.