Here we are with chapter much to say today so I'll keep this short and sweet, no new reviews so we don't have to deal with that. I would've uploaded this earlier, but laziness got the best of me and that's why I am bringing this to you on a weekend, but other than that, I'll 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.
As Ratchet was flying the Star Explorer to Planet Grelbin, Jordan decided to use the moment to search for info on this Angela Cross. He found that she was a Lombax of unknown origins. She grew up on the icy planet Grelbin, and she began her Megacorp career as a janitor, but once she got a PhD in Genetics, she found work in the Genetics Division, working alongside Fizzwidget on Megacorp's latest project, which happened to be the protopets. Jordan could add the missing pieces of the puzzle himself: Angela had said that Fizzwidget had altered the release date, and to prevent the currently dangerous Protopets from being distributed and potentially harming many families, she took matters into her own hands and stole the protopet. And because of their interference, she had failed. But there were rumors online of a successful device she came up with that may just stop the protopet madness. But, according to Jordan's research, it was just baseless speculation, no facts whatsoever.
What caught Jordan's eye though was her species. Lombax, she couldn't be, she didn't have a tail and she had hair. Now, the Human didn't know a lot about Lombax males or females, but how come Sophia seemed to have male characteristics such as no hair and a tail, or breats? Jordan guessed it must be something family inherited or a maturity thing and thought that perhaps one day Sophia would develop some kind of hair or somehow lose her tail. It was all still a big mystery to him, but he'd get to the bottom of it later.
Jordan then decided to turn on the HoloVision rather than the holonet browser, and browsed through the channels in search of more news on either the protopets or their female ally. Jordan was lucky enough to stop on a news report on channel sixty-four.
The reporter seemed to be in a city that, frankly, slightly reminded Jordan of Metropolis. Unlike Metropolis, however, this city was built on an ocean, many sturdy pillars of steel rising up from the waters and supporting the city. The reporter was a familiar face, it was the same robot the group had seen in both the news reports on Rilgar and Oltanis, and here she was, standing there as if nothing had happened at all. What bothered Jordan more, however, is what was happening in the background: Protopets chasing robot tourists around, some of them actually being devoured by the little creatures on-screen. "This is Darla Gratch reporting to you live from Allgon City, where protopet mania is in full swing. For those who've spent the last week in Hyper-sleep, the protopet is Megacorps wildly popular bio-engineered pet. Adorable, non-allergenic and.." the camera pans down to show an protopet gnawing on the reporter's leg, but she quickly shook it off and continued with the report. "House broken. Fans of the creature dubbed it: "The Perfect Companion". Between the protopets surprisingly low price tag, and its lightning fast breeding cycle. There may soon be more than enough protpets for everyone. Darla Gratch, Channel 64 News."
"The entire population of that planet will be devoured." Clank said.
"Not if we do something about it." Jordan added.
"Let's just head to Grelbin and help Angela."
"No. let's head to that city and prevent those things from turning the whole planet into a Protopet happy meal."
"But Angela said-"
"She can wait. You gotta remember that's her home planet. I'm sure she can hide in her house long enough for us to save this planet, and then reach her."
"But-"
"What is so important to you that makes this a number one priority?!"
"..."
Jordan sighed. "Look, I know you care about this woman and I know she's in danger. But what do you think is more important, one life, or thousands?"
"Thousands."
"Than lets head to that planet. Don't worry about her, she has survived until now and that's all the confidence I need to know that she will be alright."
"Well..alright. Let's head to that city then." With a new destination in mind, Ratchet entered the coordinates of Planet Damosel and they flew off.
Allgon City
Planet Damosel
11:00am Local Time
The Fuzzy Madness
The group landed on an unoccupied landing pad in the outskirts of Allgon city. As soon as they got out, they hurried over to a nearby Megacorp vendor and restocked on ammunition. They then walked through a doorway into a small building where they saw three different paths. The one up ahead and to the right caught their attention. The way ahead led to a street that was being overrun by Protopets, the path to the right was a grind rail. "Maybe we should split, cover some more ground that way." Ratchet suggested.
"You sure?"
"C'mon, how dangerous can these things be?"
"Well you got me there. Okay then. But I think we should take more precautions if we're going to split up."
"What do you mean?" Jordan walked over to the Megacorp Vendor and a few seconds later, Ratchet saw him walking over to him with two walkie talkies.
"Here, we should use these to communicate, in case we have to make some kind of rendezvous point."
"What about our E-phones."
"...You know what, that's kind of a good point. Here, Sophia, you can have this." Jordan handed the first walkie talkie to her.
"Why? Are we gonna split up?"
"Well we'll have to cover as much ground as possible if we're going to save this city. So I do think that to stop the Protopets, at some point we'll have to split up. Don't worry though, we won't be far away from each other."
"But-"
"Don't worry, we're gonna be together for most of the time, we'll just split up at some point"
"Well, uuuhh... Okay Jordan."
"It's settled then. Clank and I will take this grind rail, and you two go that way and try to clear some of those Protopets."
"Alright, so I take it our rendezvous is here?"
"Yep."
"Alright then. Let's get to it." Ratchet was about to step on the grind rail, but turned to Jordan, wanting to tell him something. "Be careful out there you two."
"Don't worry." Jordan replied.
Ratchet nodded and jumped on the grind rail, leaving the Human and Lombax to look at the hopping Protopets in the distance. Jordan took a deep breath. "Well. Here we go."
Ratchet jumped on the grind rail and sped off. He didn't really have to do much until he saw the rail branch off to the right followed by a gap that was too big to jump. As if on cue, a train appeared and on it's roof was the same kind of rail that Ratchet was riding right now. The Lombax jumped on the rail attached to the train's roof, then jumped to the left back onto the grind rail and jumped to another rail on the right as his current one was ending. He then jumped to the right, then to the left again and saw that up ahead, on the rail he was on, sat a Protopet that didn't quite look happy. But before it could bite, Ratchet whacked the creature out of the way with his wrench and sent it falling into the water below. He then jumped to his right and slowly rode the ascending, spiraling grind rail, but saw more Protopets that needed killing. As he whacked single Protopets and some that were grouped in two's, he was reaching the top and saw that he would need to jump to his right onto a set of four rails. Ratchet did so and suddenly, wave after wave of trains appeared on all four of the rails that Ratchet was on. Ratchet knew he would have to be quick to avoid becoming roadkill. As the trains got closer, Ratchet jumped to his left, then left again, then right, left, left, then jumped to his left one last time, landing on another rail that took him away from the previous rails, and guided him to a spiral-shaped rail circling a building. "Why they always make such crazy designs is beyond me. And thank goodness we split up, Jordan would've hated this." Ratchet thought. However, soon enough Ratchet saw more Protopets sitting on the rail, but this time in groups of two and three. Once Ratchet got close enough, he swung his wrench and sent the first three creatures off the rail and into the water below. He then did the same thing with the other groups of Protopets until he had reached the top and suddenly the rail lead downwards with a rather large inclination. Ratchet continued to ride the rail down until it had another gap in it. Luckily, a train teleported in just in time, and Ratchet, once again, used the rail on the train's roof to his advantage. However, the train was not long enough to bridge the gap, and it was about to teleport away. Once again Ratchet was lucky, a train teleporting in next to him just in time.
He jumped to the left, landing on the train. Trains started to teleport in, and Ratchet used it to his advantage. He jumped to the right, left, then right again until he could jump onto a square platform. Ratchet jumped on it.
He didn't only notice a teleporter, but also a strange device locked in a display case. Ratchet broke the glass and picked up the device. Ratchet looked at it. It seemed to have been a part of some kind of weapon or tool. Ratchet decided to inform his friend on his discovery and decided to call him.
"Hello?"
"Jordan, I found something."
"Is it triangular in shape?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I found something too. According to an engraving on the side, it's a part of something called a... Hyp-no-mat-ic."
"Alright, well we're done here, so instead of us meeting at the ship, I'll try to catch up with you."
"Well that was quick. Okay, see you soon."
"Alright, bye Jordan."
"Bye." With that said, Ratchet stepped on the teleporter and warped back to their ship. He then looked down the street Jordan took, and immediately noticed a few dozen sheep walking around.
"Well. Here we go." Jordan said as he and Sophia walked down the street, approaching the Protopets. Jordan was about to equip his Heavy Lancer, but decided to test the effects of the Sheepinator on a Protopet. The creatures saw him and Jordan immediately noticed their sharp teeth. He wasted no time in firing the weapon and immediately two angry Protopets were turned into calm sheep. The rest of the Protopets followed the same fate, each of the blue murderous balls of fluff being turned into a sheep.
He and the small Lombax then walked down the street but, once they had reached the end, a ship swooped down from the sky. It's side opened up and two large robots armed with what seemed to be taser guns on steroids jumped out. The moment their feet had touched the ground, they ran towards Jordan. "Get behind me." Jordan said to Sophia, and she obeyed immediately. "I think it's time we use this new weapon." Jordan mumbled as he equipped the Flux Rifle.
Jordan zoomed in using the weapon's scope and took aim. He fired, but he missed. He tried again, and once again he missed. Jordan was getting irritated and needed to focus. It was then that he remembered something from what felt like ages ago.
He slowly inhaled, then exhaled and fired the weapon, hitting the robot in the center of it's chest and drilling a hole right through it, destroying it's circuitry. He then focused on the other robot, and using the same trick, he landed a hit once again, but this time he hit his opponent in the neck, blowing it's head off.
With the robots destroyed, they finally reached the other side of the street. They climbed onto a small ledge, and Jordan began to climb up a ladder that would lead them to a higher part of the city. Once Jordan reached the top, he glanced over his shoulder to check how Sophia was doing. Sophia had started to climb, but suddenly she stopped. Her eyes widened. "BEHIND YOU!" she yelled.
Jordan turned around instantly and nearly had a heart attack when he saw the spiky teeth of a Protopet coming at him. He reacted instantly by grabbing the creature's feet.
Denied.
The Protopet bit at Jordan and growled, but the Human was able to keep it at a safe distance. Suddenly, Jordan was forced to let go as the creature turned into a sheep.
Jordan glanced over his shoulder to see Sophia standing there with her Sheepinator. "Thank you Sophia."
"Your welcome."
"Maybe it's best if you're up here." Jordan said as he grabbed Sophia and let her climb back onto his shoulders.
Jordan then noticed that there were two support columns that were more than wide enough for an enemy to hide behind. Indeed, two robots had been hiding behind the columns. Jordan quickly equipped his Bomb Glove and threw four bombs at the two robots, blowing them to bits.
He then walked across a long bridge and saw that it lead him to a platform. On the platform were four mailboxes built against the wall, two on each side. Suddenly, Protopets came shooting out of the mailboxes.
Jordan got ready to use his Sheepinator. Just like he did before, as the protopets approached him, he used the Sheepinator and, with a sweeping motion, he turned all fifty Protopets into sheep.
And soon enough the platform was filled with sheep. However, the platform was a dead end. Jordan was not going to give up however, and used his Heavy Lancer to shatter a glass window.
Once inside, the Human and Lombax found themselves in a miniature indoor garden as there were trees scattered around, and flowers everywhere. In the center of the room was a display case that had some kind of device inside of it.
Jordan walked over to the display case, broke it with his Lancer and picked up the device. Jordan inspected whatever it was and noticed an engraving on the side reading "Hypnomatic". As he was about to look up what in the world a Hypnomatic was, he got a call on his E-phone. He noticed that it was Ratchet and decided to pick it up. "Hello?... Is it triangular in shape?... I found something too. According to an engraving on the side, it's a part of something called a... Hyp-no-mat-ic... Well that was quick... Okay see you soon... Bye." Jordan hung up and was about to continue, but heard Sophia ask "Who was that?"
"That was Ratchet. You see this thing"
Jordan showed Sophia the Hypnomatic part.
"Ratchet found a piece of this too. We should keep our eyes open for these things."
"Oh, okay."
Suddenly a door to the right of them exploded, and two robots came walking out of the smoke. This time, they were armed with grenade launchers. Jordan and Sophia made sure to keep their distance and Jordan equipped the Flux Rifle once more.
Jordan knew that this time he had some more time, since these robots' technique was attacking from afar rather than up-close and personal.
He slowly inhaled and exhaled and was able to shoot one guy directly in the chest, and the other one in the head and kill both of them. He then approached the door and saw that he had to cross a medium sized gap and got ready to jump
Jordan took a few steps back and ran as fast as he could. He jumped at the very last second, barely managing to grab the edge of the next platform. As he pulled himself up, he found himself standing in another street, once again flooded with protopets.
There were even a few robots running for their lives, trying to get away from the vicious creatures. Jordan decided to save the day and he grabbed his Sheepinator once again. One at a time, he transformed every Protopet into a harmless sheep as he walked down the street, saving both the robotic inhabitants and the city, one step at a time. With the threat gone, Jordan and Sophia walked into a small building and saw shelves full of colorful cardboard boxes that apparently had Protopets packed into them. Jordan carefully grabbed one of the boxes, but saw that they were all empty.
But the packaging of another box caught Jordan's eye. Inside one of the boxes was a prize, and the prize looked exactly like a Hypnomatic part. "Sophia?"
"Yeah?"
"Search these boxes. A part we need is inside one of them."
"Okay." Sophia hopped off of Jordan's back and started searching. One box at a time, the duo searching for the Hypnomatic part, Jordan checking the boxes on the higher shelves that Sophia couldn't reach, while Sophia checked everything she could grab. Jordan was starting to get really agitated as the amount of boxes they hadn't checked yet became very, very low. When all hope seemed lost. Sophia found two more boxes on a shelf, one of them beyond her reach while the other was at eye level. Of course, she grabbed the one that she could reach and once she opened the box, she found another triangle shaped object inside of it, and knew that this was the piece they had been looking for.
However, as she turned around to show Jordan what she found, the other unopened box, the one that she hadn't been able to reach, flew off the shelf, landing in front of Sophia. A Protopet teared it's way out of the box
The creature spotted her immediately and showed its teeth. The creature jumped towards her, and she dodged and screamed. Jordan heard her, and immediately he charged at where the sound came from as fast as his legs could carry him. Sophia had ran as far away as she could, but unfortunately, the furthest place from the Protopet that she could reach was a corner, which meant that she was trapped, and the creature was coming closer.
Luckily, Jordan arrived just in time. "Chew on this!" he yelled as he kicked the creature, sending it flying into the wall. One second later it turned into a sheep. Sophia slowly opened her eyes, saw her Human companion and smiled. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Just as he said that the Sheepinator started to shake in his hands and Jordan dropped the device. As it hovered into the air, Sophia and Jordan watched as it started to change.
The Sheepinator became bigger and more powerful than before. Once its transformation was complete, Jordan grabbed the weapon and read the engraving on the side. "Black Sheepinator". You didn't need to be a genius to know what the upgrade did.
But as they were about to get on an airtaxi, giving up on the Hypnomatic scavenger hunt. Jordan heard footsteps behind him and immediately turned towards the sound, only to see his male Lombax companion running towards them. "There you are." Jordan said.
"Good to see you two too. You guys had any trouble?"
"Nope. You?"
"Nah. I'm just glad were back together."
"I guess I could say the same."
Ratchet looked behind them and saw all of the dented boxes. "What happened here?"
"Apparently one of them was supposed to contain a prize in the form of a Hypnomatic part as a prize, but we weren't able to find it."
"You mean this?" Sophia said as she showed what she found to Jordan.
"Hey. You found it! Good job!" Jordan took the piece and Sophia smiled knowing she did a good thing in helping her friend out.
"Well, three down and who knows how many more to go."
"Let's just keep moving."
The group hopped onto the taxi that would take them to a downtown bank and once they stopped, Jordan and Ratchet saw a Megacorp vendor and restocked on ammo, but Jordan's heart skipped a beat upon noticing the prize tag of the Flux Rifle Ammo. 1000 bolts per bullet. Jordan decided to pay the price, but from now on they would have to use the Flux Rifle only in case of emergency. They then looked ahead of them and saw that they had to climb a small ledge. Ratchet and Jordan did just that, and once they got back onto their feet, they saw that running around the bank were more robots, and more Protopets. Ratchet was about to equip his Lancer, but Jordan told him not to as he had a better plan. Jordan equipped the newly upgraded Black Sheepinator and pulled the trigger. Jordan noticed that the beams were now blue and yellow, and they made a different sound.
He also noticed that it took far less time to mutate a Protopet. However, the sheep the weapon left in it's wake weren't white, but black. The weapon's new bonus became clear when, after five seconds, all Protopets that had been turned into sheep would explode, completely disintegrating the sheep and anything within a five yard radius of it.
Not only did Jordan need less time to turn his opponents into sheep, the explosive effect of the sheep did more damage than expected, destroying most Protopets with ease. Soon all Protopets in the bank had been dealt with, and the robots were saved. As they were about to walk up to the next level of the bank however, two robots armed with more of those taser-like weapons came running in. Ratchet and Jordan responded by equipping their Heavy Lancers.
As they walked up the stairs, they fired three round bursts at the first robot, literally shredding the machine. Then they focused on the second one and started to fire at him as well, but one lucky bullet blew its head off and finished the job. With the bank safe, they exited the building through an exit in the back. Outside was a gigantic monument with the Megacorp logo rotating on top of it. The group walked around it, climbed up a small ledge, and saw a large door that was being attacked by more Protopets. However, another dropship suddenly came flying down from the heavens to dispatch two robots armed with grenades on top of a building up ahead, and two robots with electrical guns in the plaza in front of said building, where the Protopets were. What the robots were thinking or where they came from in the first place nobody knew, but apparently they assumed the Protopets to be allies or something.
Fatal mistake it seemed, for the two robots on the ground were devoured almost immeidately. That left only two robots: the ones on the building. However, the storm of Protopets was more threatening, so Jordan equipped the Black Sheepinator and started sweeping the area. He was interrupted however, as one of the robots fired a bomb at them. But instead of exploding, it opened up an a toxic green gas came out with a loud hiss, and immediately the group started to cough (save for Clank, Clank didn't exactly need to breathe).
They quickly got out of there and came up with a plan. "What are we gonna do now?" Ratchet asked.
"Well, I still have this sniper rifle, so I'll shoot those guys down, then we'll deal with the Protopets."
"Alright."
Jordan slowly took aim at the robot on the left and decided to go for a headshot this time. Jordan slowly inhaled and exhaled and once he was holding the gun completely still, he fired.
The sheer force didn't just punch a hole through the robot's head, it ripped the metal dome off the rest of the robot's body, and unsurprisingly what was left of him collapsed like a ragdoll. He then focused on the other one and shot it in the chest, but didn't kill it, only managing to take off its armor and reveal its exoskeleton. Jordan tried again and this time, he hit the robot's reactor core, putting it out of business for good. They then focused on the Protopets and Jordan equipped the Sheepinator once again. With some monsters turning into sheep that exploded spectacularly a few seconds later, the area was soon clear. The group walked on and into another building, noticing row after row of more Protopet boxes. Jordan really felt like facepalming at that moment point, not even wanting to know how long it was going to take to search all those boxes for another Hypnomatic part. "Alright, let's get to work!" Jordan said.
The group split up and everyone searched one row. Five minutes later there were only a few boxes left.
Clank was on just over halfway with his row and as he reached into a box to pull something metallic out, a large mouth came out of the box and chomped down on his hand. It then latched on and Clank quickly pulled his hand out of the box to reveal that the mouth indeed belonged to yet another Protopet. He then started shaking his hand violently to try to get it off and started to punch it in the eyes. Jordan and Ratchet heard the noise and quickly ran over. Ratchet managed to force the creature's jaw open with his wrench, and Jordan morphed it into a sheep. "You okay buddy?" Ratchet asked.
"I am fine... for now." Clank said, staring at his hand that had been severely damaged by the Protopet.
"Don't worry. We'll fix it later." Jordan said.
But then they heard a sound as if someone was choking on something. They all turned to where the sound came from, and saw that the sheep was the source of the noise, trying to cough something up.
A few seconds later a metal object covered in saliva shot out of the sheep's muth and Jordan saw that it was another Hypnomatic part. Jordan nervously grabbed the object, looking completely disgusted by the drool. With four pieces acquired, they exited the building in the back, using a small elevator that led them up to another level. Once they reached the top, they saw that they were in another indoor garden, one that was chuck-full of Protopets. Jordan, who was still holding the Sheepinator, immediately ran forward and cleaned up the mess, turning some of the Protopets into suicidal sheep that completely vaporized the whole population in just fifteen seconds.
They then saw that in order to reach a ledge on the other side of the garden, they would have to cross a six foot deep pond and Ratchet immediately had an idea. He equipped the Thermanator and froze all of the water in just five seconds. He and Jordan then slowly skidded across the ice and climbed up the ledge. They walked down a small hallway, and saw that it ended in a small room, and in the center of it was an airtaxi. Standing to the left of said taxi stood a guy that had a very weird looking sock puppet on his left hand. "You are getting sleepy, very sleepy." The puppet said to its master.
"Huh. Ah, you are getting sleepy." the guy talked back.
"Excuse me." Jordan interrupted.
"Ah, customers. Looks like people who could use a Hypnomatic!"
"Indeed."
"Just bring us the parts and well make it for free." the puppet master added. But he slowly drifted off to sleep and the strange sock puppet took over. "For a fee, a very small fee."
"How small is this fee?" Jordan heard the puppet say ten thousand bolts and Jordan knew that that small. And he sure as hell didn't just cleave his way through Protopet hell to pay ten thousand bolts to a greedy sock for crying out loud.
"How about a counter offer?" he suggested with a spark in his eyes.
"Like?" the puppet asked. The Human then pulled out a lighter from his right pocket and struck the flint, causing a small flame to appear. He slowly brought it closer to the sock. "You wouldn't dare." the sock said.
Jordan then touched the sock with the flame and the sock immediately lit up. But the only thing that burned was the fuzz around the sock, and not the sock itself. "AAAAAH AAAAH!" the sock yelled but calmed down after noticing the fire had died. "OKAY, OKAY! I will make it for free!"
"Deal." Jordan handed the sock the four parts that they collected and the group watched as the sock somehow put the pieces of the gadget together and built the Hypnomatic itself in just ten seconds. The sock then threw the gadget to Jordan and told him something. "Use it wisely." it said, and then ran off, the still sleeping puppet master being dragged after him. With their new gadget and having saved the city, they got on the airtaxi and immediately Ratchet commanded it to take them back to their ship. Once they got into the ship, Ratchet entered the coordinated for planet Grelbin, and they flew off.
There's chapter 24. And I wanna ask you guys something. Have any of you ever done that with a sock? You know, put a light up to it and burn the fuzz off the sock and watch the flame go around the sock and you get that strange feeling if you have the sock on your foot. I've done that a couple times and it actually feels weird. If I can remember, its just feels cold to the touch whenever I did it. I know sounds like a stupid Idea but I just wanted to get that out. And by the time this is posted, there's just three more days until FAR CRY PRIMAL. I cant wait for the game and I will definitely be playing it. So that's about it for me, and think about it. To my knowledge theres only two or three more chapters after this until this story is over, were nearly there guys, and I'm prepared for it.
If your 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.