Here we are with chapter 18. I (sort of) should've mentioned this in the last chapter, you know, with mentioning the new Ratchet and Clank movie trailer and all, but I'm actually considering to write an OC insert on that movie. Its basically just going to be a remake, or a redux of One For All, but there will be noticeable changes. Especially with Jordan's personality and trust towards Ratchet and the group. I'm almost done with the drawing I promised and hope to be able to upload it by Wednesday. Now before we continue, I do want thank The Loyal Baphodevi for favoriting Worlds United, your support is much appreciated. Now, without further ado, Lets begin chapter 18.

If you're 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.

Megacorp Weapons facility
Planet Todano
11:00am Local Time

I Told You So

"Another Earth-like Planet, another Dollar..." Jordan thought as they approached planet Todano. However, this planet was the closest resemblance to Earth Jordan had seen so far: it looked just like a smaller version of Earth with more water.

Ratchet landed on a landing pad near the facility and as the group got out, they took a moment to appreciate the scenery.

Tall, pointy mountains dominated the area, and the trees on the hills were orange in color, indicating that it was early autumn on this planet.
However, all of them realized that there was work to do, so they walked over to a Megacorp vendor placed quite close to the landing pad their ship was currently occupying. Having 36000 bolts, Jordan decided to follow Ratchet's example and spend 500 bolts on ammunition. As they were about to cross a bridge, they saw that on the other side was a ship that looked similar to some kind of tour bus, and ten robots that looked like the robots shown in the commercial came out of the bus. Judging by their clothing, they were tourists.

The group then saw a robot that was clearly built to resemble Fizzwidget come walking (or rolling, since it had a glowing blue ball instead of legs) out of the forest.

"Welcome to the Megacorp Armory. I'm here to give you a guided tour of Megacorp's magnificent achievements in missile technology.", the robot said.
The group of tourists followed the Fizzwidget-bot into the forest. The four heroes immediately decided to follow this robo-Fizzwidget since it was their only lead.

As they were walking down the concrete path, they noticed a group of four animals to their right. The anmals looked like gigantic squirrels, with red skin and a yellow and brown striped tail. Ratchet and Jordan were not taking any chances and equipped their Bomb Glove and MiniNuke. As they kept walking, it was only a matter of time until the squirrels noticed them. When they did, the squirrels suddenly charged at the group with an evil look in the eyes.

"Nature is just out of balance in these galaxies." Jordan quietly said to himself.

They also noticed that one of the robots following the tour had stopped, probably to hold the small critters up or something. Ratchet aimed the MiniNuke and fired one bomb at the, squirrels, injuring them all though only killing one. But Jordan was able to toss a bomb at the rest of the squirrels and finish them off. The duo then quickly ran up a bridge and caught up with the robotic tourists and continued walking towards the main facility. They walked past a few rockets that must've been there for cosmetic and walked across another bridge and saw an elevator that led into the facility, but it was locked by another one of those Electrolyzer locks. Ratchet equipped the required gadget and got to work on it, while Jordan and Sophia leaned against the wall of the building and waited. However, breaking the lock turned out to take longer than expected as five minutes passed. "Uuuh, how's it going over there?" Jordan asked.

"Just..about...done!" Ratchet said.

Ratchet and the group walked onto the elevator and took it up. Once they reached the top, they saw that it didn't take them into the facility, but put them one step closer to it as they saw the facility in the distance, built in the middle of a lake of some sorts. The duo walked across the dam and when on the other side, they found themselves on a small platform on which a teleporter was built, as well as a conveniently placed Megacorp vendor. They decided to ignore the teleporter until they were done with the facility, or failed on finding a way inside. They walked down a small hillside and saw that at the bottom was some kind of laser fence, and another one of those large, hovering worker bots from the video. They ignored this bot too as they saw another small bridge that led into the main facility.

They quickly ran across it and saw two large cameras at the entrance, who immediately focused their lenses on them. They slowly walked through the main door and saw a very strange laser fence to their left, and to their right was a strange pod container a green liquid with a Tractor Beam target on it. Ratchet equipped the gadget and caught the container in an orange tractor beam. He then moved it towards the laser fence. When the container got in the laser fence, they saw that it blocked the lasers, creating a small gap, though it was big enough for the group to walk through. They walked through the opening and down the stairs. They looked and saw two laser fences to their right this time, and two containers, one small, one large. They also saw an Inspector bot to their left working on something, but decided to ignore it while they worked on the lasers.

Ratchet used the Tractor Beam again and used the smallest pod to make an opening, then use the larger one. The group then walked through the openings and saw that on the other side was a door that was locked by another one of those footprint scanners. They knew what this was for and decided not to step on them. Ratchet ran towards the inspector bot and grabbed him with a tractor beam (the robot letting out angry bleeps in response), then ran back and placed him on the scanner. "Clearance granted." a female, robotic voice spoke. The group walked through a small hallway and onto an elevator. Jordan pressed the button and they instantly felt the elevator take them down to a lower level of the facility. Once they reached the bottom, they saw that in a small room were four of those chicken bots, but they were red. The duo expected them to be tough and Ratchet equipped his MiniNuke, while Jordan equipped his Blitz Cannon. Ratchet quickly ran into the room and launched one bomb from the gun, killing only two of them while injuring the others. Jordan then ran in and used his weapon to deliver two shotgun blasts to the robots faces and finish them off.

They then noticed that there was no door, only a small path in the ground for... yet another container, though this one had a rocket in it. Ratchet equipped the Tractor Beam once again and guided the rocket pod to the other end of the 'guidance path', placing it under a metal plate of some sorts. The rocket suddenly started to beep, and everyone knew what this meant. They all ran back into the elevator and took cover. After they heard a loud explosion, they walked back into the room. The rocket pod had exploded, and took a part of the wall with it.

They walked through the now destroyed wall and stepped into a large room, with two robotic guards protecting another container, and another laser fence to their left. Ratchet and Jordan both equipped their Heavy Lancers and ran up to the guards, who immediately saw them and began to open fire on them. They quickly took cover behind a metal Megacorp crate and waited for the robots to stop firing. They then ran out of cover and both heroes fired three round bursts at only one bot. after six shots from each of them, the robot was filled with bullet holes. The robot collapsed, and exploded shortly after. It's friend now began firing back at them, and the duo dodged the attacks this time instead of taking cover and at the same time aimed at the metallic guard. Jordan was able to hit it twice in it's chest, and one final blow to the head, destroying it instantly. "Why do they keep this place so protected if tourists visit here anyways?" Jordan asked.

"Probably because we're on a level we aren't supposed to be on."

"Oh."

Ratchet equipped the Tractor Beam once again and slowly moved the container over to the laser fence, making another opening. They looked through it and saw another scanner. Hearing a small beep behind them, Sophia tapped Jordan on the shoulder. "I heard something."

"What did you hear?"

"A small beep."

"Where did you hear it?"

Sophia pointed at a crate in the corner. Ratchet walked over to it. "There's nothing here."

"I'm sure I heard something."

Clank hummed in thought. "Ratchet, there's a small gap between the crate and the wall."

Ratchet saw what Clank meant. Hiding behind the crate was another Inspector bot, the robot probably hid behind this crate to avoid being damaged in the gunfight. Ratchet grabbed the frightened bot with his Tractor Beam and moved the poor helpless thing over to the scanner to let them through. The door opened up and they went up an elevator. Once they reached the top, they saw two different sized rocket, and two 'metal plates', though the plates were at different altitudes. They also saw that the rocket were on opposing sides. With the larger rocket being in front of the lowest metal plate, and vice versa with the smaller rocket. Now seeing that they had a puzzle to solve. Ratchet moved the large rocket to the corner of the enclosed path it was confined to, and moved the smaller rocket all the way over to the metal plate it was apparently supposed to be under, because it was a perfect fit. They then quickly stepped back to avoid the explosion, but saw that it didn't explode at all. As they thought something was wrong, they decided to move the other rocket all the way over to the other plate that was positioned higher above the ground. The rockets now started beeping and detonated in less than five seconds, blasting the whole wall away.

They walked through and noticed another container to their left and a long laser floor to their right, with two chicken bots on the other side. Ratchet picked up the container with his Tractor Beam and put it down on a conveyor belt next to the laser shooting out of the wall that created the laser floor, and to their surprise, they saw the container go back and forth on the conveyor belt while blocking the lasers, creating a gap behind it. "So how are we gonna do this?" Ratchet asked.

"Simple, we keep up with it and once we reach the other side, I'll blast the robots in the face with the Blitz Cannon."

Jordan equipped said shotgun and they both stood beside each other and waited for the container to come back to them. Once it did, the duo ran full speed across the floor, seeing once laser disappear in front of them, but see a laser reappear again behind them. Once they reached the other side, Jordan fired his shotgun, then reloaded it with lightning speed while the duo dodged the chickenbots' attacks. Soon enough the two metallic enemies were destroyed and they continued down a small hallway. They walked into a small room and this time there were three rocket pods and three metal plates built at different altitudes. Knowing exactly what to do, Ratchet equipped the Tractor Beam and put the rocket pods where they were supposed to go in less than a minute. They then took cover, and soon a giant explosion could be heard.

"Gah!", Sophia yelped on Jordan's back. "That hurt my ears!"

"Tell me 'bout it.", Ratchet mumbled.

But what they saw on the other side was another laser infested floor, with a conveyor belt running through the center of it. They immediatly noticed the pod they had to use and Ratchet dragged it over to the belt and watched it go across. "How are we gonna get across this time?" Ratchet asked.

"I think I have an idea."

Jordan waited for the capsule to return to them and once it did, he quickly climbed on top of it and rode it all the way over to the other side. He then jumped off the pod and waited for Ratchet to arrive. When the pod reached Ratchet, the Lombax followed his Human friend's example.

They then walked into the next room. They immediately noticed a small ledge they had to climb up to their right, but on top of it was another robotic guard. The enemy saw them, and two seconds later rounds and rounds of concentrated plasma were shot at the group. Ratchet and Jordan immediately hid behind another container. It was then that Jordan got another idea.

He equipped his Blitz Cannon and once the guard stopped bombarding them with bullets, Jordan immediately ran out of cover, towards the bot, and blasted him with eight bullets. Even though it only did minor damage to the robot's Armour, it disorientated the robotic guard, giving Jordan enough time to climb up the ledge, reload his shotgun and blow the guard's head to bits at point blank range.
Jordan signaled Ratchet, and moments later the Lombax had climbed up the ledge. They walked through a small hallway, and into a room where there was a display case. And inside the display case was a strange weapon. Ratchet broke the glass with his wrench and Jordan picked up the weapon, and while inspecting the strange device he noticed an engraving on the side that read "Sheepinator".

"What is it?" Ratchet asked.

"It's called the Sheepinator."

"What does it do?"

"I don't know for sure, but the name of this thing gives a pretty good indication."

Jordan stored the weapon in his Quick Select. The group saw a teleporter to the right side of the room, but before leaving they smashed the twenty bolt crates surrounding the room. Ratchet and Jordan shared the money, resulting in a nice 39000 in Jordan's account. The group now got onto the teleporter and they were quickly brought back to the teleporter they saw earlier. Jordan and Ratchet decided to stock up on ammo and Jordan saw he was now back to 36000 bolts. The group then decided to take the second path they saw earlier before they went into the facility.

They walked down the hillside and saw the Worker bot once again. Jordan equipped his Heavy Lancer, while Ratchet equipped his Seeker Gun. The robot noticed them and used its left hand to charge it's weapon and launch a fireball at the group. They quickly dodged this and got to work. Jordan used six round bursts this time and after a few bursts, Ratchet used one Seeker drone on the bot. They quickly took cover behind a large rock when the robot was about to fire another shot. They got out of cover and unleashed their fury on it. After three drones and 36 bullets, the robot fell to the ground and exploded.

They then walked up to the fence and saw that the Electrolyzer didn't fit the lock. Seeing that they needed a new tool now, the duo walked back up the hillside and towards the Megacorp Vendor to see if they had any tools for sale that would work on this. Jordan searched for it and saw that on sale was some kind of tool called the Infiltrator. Jordan looked at it's description and saw a picture of what locks it works on. He saw that the lock on the picture looked just like the one on the gate they had to bypass and quickly bought the 5000 bolt tool, now only having 31000 bolts left. Knowing nothing at all of lockpicking or code cracking, Jordan gave the tool to Ratchet.

They then walked down the hillside once again and Ratchet quickly got to work on the lock. Jordan and Sophia sat down once again, though this time they only had to wait for a minute until the fence suddenly deactivated. Ratchet dequipped the tool and the group walked through the fence, only to see strange devices sticking out of the ground, and a worker bot sixty feet away from them. Ratchet equipped his Seeker Gun and as they started walking closer to the bot, they walked close to one of the strange devices in the ground. The device they were approaching suddenly started to hover and spin, and after a second it exploded, sending an electric shockwave the duo's way. The duo jumped over the shockwave, now knowing that these things were some sort of mines. They now knew to avoid them, but saw the robot in the distance notice them and began to charge up a fireball. Ratchet and Jordan quickly ran towards the bot and dodged the fireball it launched at them. Knowing they had to deal with the minefield, Ratchet decided to make quick work of this guy and launched seven seeker drones at the robot, who was completely obliterated by the drones mere seconds later.

They looked to their right and saw a building in the distance, but there was another minefield in front of it with four of those red squirrels sneaking around between the mines. They ran up to the field, but stopped twenty feet away so they wouldn't alarm the squirrels. But then Ratchet got an idea, and equipped his Heavy Lancer. Ratchet took aim and shot at a mine, causing it to detonate, and since the mines were close to each other, this caused a chain reaction that flooded the area with electricity. With all squirrels electrified and the minefield gone, they ran up to the building and saw there was an elevator inside that would take them down to a lower level. Stepping out of the elevator after having reached their destination, the group found themselves on the building site of a giant rocket. They figured this rocket was for planetary defense. They looked behind the rocket and saw that there was a door that lead into another room. But then two robotic guards ran out of the door and took aim at the group.

Jordan equipped his Bomb Glove, while Ratchet equipped his MiniNuke. The two robots fired their guns, but the duo was able to dodge the attack. They then ran up to the bots, and Ratchet fired a miniature nuke at the robots, severely damaging them. Jordan then threw one bomb at the robots and finished them off. They then walked into the next room and saw two concrete barricades on the far side of the room. As they were walking to another door, two more robotic guards teleported in behind the barricades and fired their blasters at the group, though they crouched behind the barricades after shooting.
The duo dodged the attack and Ratchet equipped his Seeker Gun this time, while Jordan still used his Bomb Glove. Ratchet focused on the robot to the left, while Jordan focused on the one to the right. Ratchet quickly launched four drones from his gun and watched as they flew over the barricade, opened up, and destroyed the robot. Meanwhile, Jordan threw three bombs over the other barricade, destroying the other robot.

As the duo was about to walk on, Ratchet felt his gun vibrate. Ratchet knew what was about to happen and dropped the gun, the metal 'clank' that followed when the gun hit the ground catching Jordan's attention. Ratchet couldn't wait for his gun to finish upgrading, the Lombax being a big fan of weapons of mass destruction and since the Seeker Gun was already strong, the upgraded version of the Seeker Gun must be overkill. When the gun finished transforming, it hovered down to the Lombax. Ratchet inspected his new weapon and almost immediately found the engraving on the side that now read 'HX22 Gun'. With another gun upgraded, they walked through a small hallway, made a right turn and saw they had to cross a small gap.
The gap wasn't the problem though. The problem were three more concrete barricades with three robots behind them. They quickly took cover behind a wall and Ratchet decided to use his new weapon. Once the robots stopped firing, Ratchet quickly ran out of cover and fired his new toy. Instead of one drone, three drones flew out of the gun, each of them targeting one enemy. They then slammed into them with huge force. When the smoke cleared, the group saw that all robots had been completely obliterated. "Whoa." Ratchet said.

"Now that, my friend, is a weapon of mass destruction." Jordan added.

Seeing that they had something useful for once. Ratchet went first and used Clanks Heli-Pack to glide over the gap and onto the other side. It was now Jordan's turn. Jordan took a few steps back, then ran and jumped at full speed. Jordan could feel Sophia's grip on him tighten, no doubt she was afraid of the idea of falling into the abyss. Luckily, Jordan was able to grab the ledge and pull himself up. The duo now made a right turn, walked a few feet, then made another right turn and encountered another lock that needed the Infiltrator. Ratchet equipped the tool and he got to work on the lock. Two minutes later, Jordan and Sophia saw the door open and saw that on the other side was an elevator. The group walked into it and took it up to a higher level. They then made a left turn and walked into a small room, where a Holovision screen was mounted on the wall.
Suddenly, the screen activated, showing a familiar face. "Angela Cross, calling Ratchet, and uh... you." the Thief -who was apparently named Angela Cross- said, pointing at Jordan.

"How come she knows Ratchet's name but not mine? Ah well, it's probably best to keep it that way." Jordan thought.

"Ratchet here. Uh, Angela? is that your name?"

"Didn't you just hear her say it?", Jordan asked with a raised brow.

"Ratchet was calling you something quite different." Clank added, making Ratchet glare at his small, robotic friend.

"Oh, was he now? Anyway I'm just calling to warn you that the thugs have taken over my flying lab."

"But weren't they working for you?" Jordan asked.

"Not anymore. Apparently someone made them a better offer." Angela sighed. "I tell ya, between the Thugs and the Protopet this whole galaxy's heading for..."

"Wait, say again, 'Protopet'?" Ratchet said.

"You mean the experiment?" Jordan added.

"Yep. That's what they're calling it now. Here, watch this."

Angela Cross pressed a few buttons and a video started to play, showing an alien kid who was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap. It was holding a baseball while crying. "Why is Billy sad?" a commentator said. "Is he cold? Hungry? Or maybe just..."

The experiment, or 'Protopet' appeared on the screen. Apparantly the child was frightened by it: "Oh no. No no take it away!" the child screamed. "Lonely." the commentator finished.

"Noooooo." the child screamed as the Protopet hopped closer to it. "Introducing the Megacorp Protopet. Your child will shriek with joy when he meets our adorable friend."

The closer the Protopet got to the child, the further the child ran away. Out of ideas and completely frightened, the kid threw the ball he had been holding at the creature, who caught it in his mouth and spit it back out, with enough force to launch the child out of the screen.

"Wanna play ball? So does the Protopet." The camera now turned back to show the child again, and showed the Protopet growling at the child and chasing him off the screen again. "Need a partner for tag? Go find the Protopet." the child now appeared on the screen again, running away from the Protopet.

Unfortunately, the child tripped over the roots of a tree. The Protopet then leaped on the child and tackled him. "Up for some Cops and Robbers?", the commentator said.

"Help, Police!" the child yelled. "So is you-know-who.", the commentator said.

The Protopet then grabbed the child by his legs, spun him around and threw him off the screen "Just ask Billy. The Megacorp Protopet." a picture of Fizzwidget then appeared on the screen, holding a Protopet in his hand. "Stop by Planet Boldan and get yours free from Abercrombie Fizzwidget himself." The video ended and Angela appeared on the screen again.

"You mean that thing is going to be a pet?" Ratchet asked.

"Megacorp intends to market a killer. That is simply unconscionable." Clank said.

"Which is exactly what I've been trying to tell you. There will be disastrous consequences for the entire galaxy if that monster is distributed."

"We must get through to Mr. Fizzwidget." Clank said.

Angela sighed "If you think he'll listen, you should try to catch him on the planet Boldan. I'll upload the coordinates."

"This could be our last chance." Ratchet said.

Angela Cross disappeared from the screen and the group saw a teleporter to their left. As the group stepped on the teleporter, Jordan tapped Ratchet on the shoulder three times, causing the Lombax to look at the Human "What's up?" Ratchet asked, though Jordan simply smiled at him.
Even someone as stupid as a Thug would realize what Jordan was smiling about practically immediatly. "Alright, yes. You were right and I was wrong. I should've listened to ya. Are you happy now?"

"Yes, I am."

The group was then teleported back to their ship and once they had fastened their seat belts, Ratchet set the coordinates to Planet Boldan and the group flew off.

Now I do know that Stuart Zurgo was on this planet, but I haven't been able to find a cutscene online with him in it, so perhaps you'll see him appear later, once I found the cutscene. I also do realize that 5000 bolts doesn't seem like much for the Infiltrator, but as I said I do want to show off a few weapons from this game in this story. So it will probably be the next chapter that Jordan does buy a new weapon. But there is chapter 18, and stay tuned for chapter 19, when the group now has a mission to stop this Protopet madness.

If you're enjoying the story so far, feel free to review, favorite, or follow, and please know that any feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you for reading.