Chapter 3
Unexpected Twists
"A true friendship is necessarily a single soul divided in two bodies"-Aristotle
Ratchet slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the ceiling. He laid in bed for a moment, then sat up. Today was the day 'the boss' was coming. They were going to escape. He turned and hopped out of bed, wincing when his left foot hit the ground. He had forgotten. Yesterday he had woken up and his leg had hurt then too. It had started swelling and had only gotten worse throughout the day. Today it was even worse. No one knew what was going one, not even Hertis. But he couldn't worry about it now. They had to focus on escaping, then they could worry about his leg. He limped over to the table and sat down. Clank had decided to let Hertis take the other bed. Ratchet had offered to let him sleep with him but he had declined, saying that he could sleep on the table. Clank could especially not be swayed when Ratchet's leg started to get bad. When Ratchet came over, Clank came out of his dormant state and asked, "How's your leg?"
p style="margin: 0in; margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;" Ratchet grimaced and that was all Clank needed. He asked, "That bad?"
Ratchet nodded. Clank looked at him worriedly.
"Will you be able to do your part in the escape?" he asked.
"Of course, I would never let you guys down. And my leg won't get better if we just sit here," Ratchet said fervently. Clank still had that worried look on his face but he said, "Alright, just be careful."
"Right," Ratchet said. Then the robot came with food and said in it's dull voice, "Morning!Time to eat!"
"Agh!" Hertis yelled as he jumped out of his bed and looked wildly all over the room. He looked at them for a moment, then calmed down and said, "You boys ready?" as if nothing had happened. They nodded. Hertis walked to the table and sat down as Clank jumped off of the table and got their food. He brought it back and Ratchet grabbed it and put it on the table. Clank jumped up and watched as Ratchet and Hertis tried choking down their food. When they couldn't eat anymore they set their plates to the side.
"You remember what to do, right?" Hertis asked them.
"Yes," Ratchet said.
"Of course," Clank replied.
"Good, because the boss comes around noon. That gives us a little time to prepare," Hertis said, thinking deeply.
"Do you know who the boss is?" Clank asked curiously.
Hertis shook his head. "Unfortunately no. They never let me have the 'honor' of meeting him. They didn't even tell me his name. But I do know that he's a bad guy," he said.
"Well, let's prepare," Ratchet said. They gathered their supplies, went over the plans again, looked at Ratchet's leg and tried to figure out how to heal it, checked their supplies, went over the plans once again, checked Clank to make sure he didn't need more repairs, check supplies again, then finally lunch came. Ratchet and Hertis gnawed on it, lunch being, as the robot said, "Lunchie Crunchies!" They were as hard as a rock and they could hardly eat any of it but it was still nourishment. They set down their food and Hertis said, "Alright Ratchet, you're up."
Ratchet nodded and got up, grabbing his wrench and heading for the grate. He walked slowly, trying not to bump his leg on anything and make noise to alert the robots. When he got to the grate he looked out. The robots were gone. Ratchet waited. Just in case. When he felt it was long enough he struck the grate as hard as he could in the weak spot. There was a loud tang! as Ratchet felt his arm tingle with the impact of metal on metal. The grate cracked a little. He looked out worriedly, hopping the robots hadn't heard. No one came. He sighed in relief, only then realizing that he had been holding his breath. He got ready again, then struck! This time there was the same tang! sound but there was also a crack! as the grate broke. Ratchet's arm tingled again but he didn't really notice it. He had broken through. They were going to escape! He reached his arm through and unbolted it. Then he swung it up and looked around. No one was there. This seemed too good to be true. But the hard part was to come. Ratchet waited for Hertis to come over then helped him out. Next he brought his pack out. Then he grabbed Clank and put him up there. Ratchet then climbed out and looked at Hertis.
"We just need to go straight, right?" he asked. Hertis nodded and picked up his pack. Ratchet helped him get it on, then Clank hopped on his back. Suddenly they heard footsteps. It sounded like metal on metal. It got louder and louder. And it was coming from the only exit. They looked out to see a group of robots! But how? They must have heard the grate being broken and it opening. Otherwise they were pretty quiet. Ratchet had no idea what to do. He had to protect Hertis and he was not in the right condition to be fighting this many robots anyways. They had already failed. Ratchet began to despair. They would never get out now, and 'the boss' would do whatever he wanted with them. The robots got closer. Ratchet pulled out his wrench. They got even closer. Ratchet went to the doorway and waited for them. They had almost reached Ratchet. He prepared to fight. Then there was a bang! behind him. He spun in time to see a vent covering on the ground and a figure jumping down out of the vent. Then Clank said, "Ratchet!"
Ratchet spun and hit a robot hard, which had a kind of domino effect. The robots fell over, but he knew they would get up quickly. He turned to see what had come out of the vent, ready to attack it. But he stopped and stared when he saw it instead. It was a girl lombax. She had dark orange fur with white stripes. The top of her right ear was missing so she only had two stripes on the ear instead of three. She also had a scar going across her right eye. She looked at him with amber eyes that glowed golden in the lighting. Her gaze flicked over his head and she said in a soft but strong voice, "Pay attention."
He turned and saw a robot grab for him. He jumped out of the way and threw his wrench at it. It hit the robot and came back to him. The robot fell into the wall and broke. More robots came at him and he was forced to step back, not wanting to be trampled. The female lombax suddenly was standing next to him.
"Focus," she said to him. He heard her but kept his eyes on the robots. He whacked the robots with his wrench, missing his weapons that would have done massive damage. This would have been easier with them. He saw something flash past him and wrap around a robot's arm. It was a whip. The robot got pulled forwards and a gloved fist punched it. It cracked there but was punched again and this time it broke. Ratchet saw that the gloved hand belonged to the girl lombax. He turned away from her and concentrated on the battle. He began to grow tired and his leg started to hurt more. He cast a quick glance at it and saw it was swollen even more. He started stumbling and knew he couldn't go on much longer. They had to get out. But how? Someone tapped his shoulder and he spun to see the female lombax pointing to the vent opening and saying, "Time to go."
She grabbed Hertis and snapped her whip up to the vent. It grabbed onto something and she climbed up, Hertis clinging for dear life onto her back. Ratchet fought his was to the whip and held the robots off. When he felt he had enough time he grabbed onto the whip, noticing it was a vine for the first time, and pulled himself up. His leg hurt as he scrambled to get higher before the robots got him. He reached the top of the whip as he heard Jorgmet shout, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! THEY'RE ESCAPING!"
He looked down to see Jorgmet coming into the room and glaring at him. He got further in quickly. Just in time too, because Blaster shots suddenly came through the vent opening where he had just been.
"Follow me," he heard and turned to see the girl lombax grab her whip and start crawling through the vent shaft with Hertis crawling behind her, his pack barely fitting in the small space. Clank hopped off of his back and followed Ratchet as he crawled after Hertis. Every time his leg hit the vent he clenched his teeth, trying not to yell in pain. Eventually he hit his leg on the vent harder than before and gave a little yelp. He stopped and sat down, looking at his now really swollen leg and grimacing. Everyone else stopped and looked at him. Clank asked, "Are you alright?"
"Ya, fine, just hit my leg on the vent too hard," Ratchet replied tightly.
The female lombax looked back and him and said, "Why did you yelp?"
"For some reason his leg is swelling and is hurting him," Hertis told her, "We haven't been able to figure out what it is to treat it yet."
She looked closely at his leg and gasped, saying, "I know what that is. We have to move fast, can you do that?"
Ratchet nodded and said, "I think I'll be fine, just can't put too much weight on it."
She gave a quick nod and headed down the vent, crawling even faster now. The others hurried to keep up. Ratchet now wincing quietly whenever his leg hit the vent. It seemed to have already gotten worse. They kept going when Ratchet suddenly noticed that it was quieter. He looked down to see that they were no longer crawling through a vent, but through a tunnel of plants! He also noticed that it was lighter. They climbed farther and farther and it got lighter and lighter until finally the girl lombax stopped and pushed the plants above her. They swung open like a trapdoor and she stood up. She climbed out and helped Hertis out. Ratchet stood up and stretched, loving the feeling of freedom. He tried to get out and winced when he used his left leg. His leg hurt when he put any weight on it now, as well as making his head spin. As he climbed out his leg suddenly felt like it was on fire and he cried out in agony. Everything tilted and he felt the ground hit his side. His vision grew foggy and the last thing he heard was Clank crying, "Ratchet!"
Alright hope you liked this chapter. Whoever 'destiny' is I did the girl lombax because of you! I was stuck and this one suggestion really helped me out! Please read and review!
I just edited this because I noticed that it looked weird. It was the code! For some reason it appeared! Fixed it now. So sorry.
