Ratchet and Clank:
The Chosen One
I DO NOT OWN RATCHET AND CLANK, INSOMNIAC GAMES DOES! I OWN ANYTHING ELSE!
Chapter 15: Different Types and Sneaky Missions
The town centre was a busy place to be in the afternoon as it was market day. Many stools were spread around the area, where people would buy various things, such as jewellery, fruit & vegetables, clothing, house hold objects and many more. Numerous amounts of Lombaxes were walking around, stopping to look or buy something, and then moving on again.
A certain golden Lombax was wondering around the area, going to meet Jasmine in the centre. He stopped. In the middle of the area was a large fountain. One Planet Fastoon it was a huge statue of some sort. It was different, but it looked pleasant.
He sat on the edge of the fountain, leaning against a hand where the arm was placed on the knee. He sighed. It was a few minutes until 2pm. She was either going to be late or just on time.
2pm came up quicker than Ratchet thought. He sighed. Seemed like she's a late person. He lowered his head when people started to recognised who he was. She better hurry up.
A few minutes later his ears picked up someone yelling out his name. Looking in the direction it came from, he saw Jasmine waving at him. He also saw Max, James and Victoria trailing not far behind. Ratchet stood up and strolled over to the small group. "Hey, what took you so long?" He crossed his arms.
"Hey, don't moan at me. James is the one who lost the documents." She glared at her older brother. He was so forgetful; just like their father. A fist was placed on her hip.
James raised his hands in defence. "Whoa, calm down, sis. We found them in the end. Sheesh!" He was quite annoyed that, not only did he get the blame, but the fact that Jasmine was the younger out of both of them yet she was still the bossy, smart one.
Ratchet ignored the two's bickering. When the female Lombax mentioned about some documents, his eyebrow raised. "Documents? What documents?" He asked to the group, confused.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Jasmine turned to face Ratchet. "I'll explain everything soon." She started to walk down the street. "Come on, I know a place where we can discuss every little detail you need to know."
Everyone else followed her down the road. They passed many small shops and stalls, where people would try to encourage them to look at their stall or enter their shop. The group ignored them, and carried on walking.
In five minutes time, a small cafe was seen right at the end of the long street. The name of the shop was called 'Skylar's Sweet Cafe'. The logo was a cartoon picture of a female Cazar winking holding an iced cupcake.
Huh, she looks awfully familiar. Ratchet thought as everyone entered the cafe. When the door opened, a bell was heard but quietened down after a few seconds. The inside looked nice and cosy. There were comfortable looking chairs that sat at circular oak tables. There wasn't too much furniture, so it looked like there was more room to move around.
Photo frames were handing along each pale yellow wall. Most of the pictures were paintings or pictures of Planet Volzar. Cream coloured lights were hanging from the ceiling but were switched off due to it being daytime.
To the right side of the cafe, was a door that properly lead into the kitchen where delicious lunches were being prepared. There was also a till on top of a display case filled with attractive looking cakes, scones, biscuits, flapjack and many more.
The kitchen door opened, and a female Cazar appeared into the main area. It was the same person from the logo outside. She had chocolate coloured fur with black tips on her ears and tail. Her long chestnut brown hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She had crystal blue eyes and long black eyelashes. She looked the same age as Jasmine - early twenty's.
She wore a purple shirt underneath a white apron. White skinny jeans were held up by a black belt. She had black and purple boots that came up to her knees and had a slight heel to made her look taller. A silver necklace was worn too.
The Cazar grinned as she looked at Jasmine. "Jazz, been a while, hasn't it?" She gave her friend a hug. "Nice to see you again."
"Too long, Sky." She smiled in the embrace. "Likewise." They pulled away and turned back to the group.
The cream furred female Lombax turned to Ratchet. "Oh, Ratchet. I forgot you haven't met Skylar before." She chuckled slightly. "Ratchet, this is Skylar Banner. Sky for short." She faced the Cazar. "And Skylar, this is Ratchet." She nudges her brown furred friend and whispers in her ear, "He's the one that everyone's been talking about."
Skylar smiled. "Oh, he is, is he?" She extended a hand out to the golden Lombax. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ratchet."
Ratchet was curious when Jasmine went to lead over to the other's ears to whisper something. It washed away when a hand was pointed in his direction. "Oh, yeah, you too." He shook her hand, and then it went back to his side a few seconds later. A question popped up in his head from earlier. "Say, you look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Skylar was some what surprised at the question, but she was happy to answer. "Well, I've never met you." A giggle. "You've properly just met my Dad. He works for your father in the Praetorian Guard."
The Lombax tilted his head. Then it clicked. "Whoa, you mean...Scar?"
She rubbed the back of her head in a sheepish manner while grinning. "That's him. Well, that's his nickname anyway. His real name is David Banner. But everyone knows him as 'Scar'."
Ratchet was slightly shocked. He never knew Scar had a kid as he never mentioned about daughter, or a wife/girlfriend. Surely Skylar would have some sort of Lombax traits in her, but she looked like a full Cazar. Properly caught more of her mother's traits.
Max crossed his arms over his chest. "Shouldn't we be talking about what we actually came here for?" His eyes narrowed a bit. He hated girl 'chit-chat'. He'd rather have the main conversation done quickly. Partly because of one certain person.
A guilty expression fell upon Skylar's face immediately. "Sorry, sorry, I'm blabbering on. I'll leave you alone to do your business." She stepped back into the kitchen quickly after.
Fists were placed on hips. A glare was given. "Max, did you really have to do that!" Jasmine said with frustration. "We were having a simple chat. We have the whole day to discuss everything."
"Well, if I didn't say anything sooner then we'll get nothing done today as you would have still been standing there talking to her."
"No, I wouldn't have! I was just introducing people, but no, I can't do that now. Can I?"
Victoria's ears fell at the Lombax's argument. "Guys, seriously. This is not going to get us any where. Let's just sit down and calm down." She walked over to the largest table in the corner, out of the way of other customers that would fill the small cafe soon.
"You got that right, girl!" James happily marched behind the black furred Lombax with a grin on his face. "Come on you three." He mentioned to the three Lombaxes still standing by the till.
Ratchet shrugged his shoulders, and followed the others to the table. Jasmine gave a hateful glare to Max before stepping after Ratchet.
The white male frowned as the female strolled to the other's. He turned his nose up as the golden Lombax was walking close with Jasmine. He hated the new guy. The way he acted around Jasmine was as if he had a 'thing' for her. If the boy did, then he'd personally set an example. For permanent.
Not taking his thoughts any further, he sat down on the end chair at the table.
"All right. Now that we're all here. We can get Ratchet up-to-date." She faced her brother. "James, mind getting out the documents rather staring at the other females in the room."
The black striped Lombax snapped out of his trance. "W-What?! No I wasn't!"
"Right. Right."
A defeated sigh. "Fine!" James grabbed out a brown folder from his inside coat pocket before passing it to his younger sister. "There. Happy?"
"Very much." She grinned. Getting on with the subject, she turned to Ratchet. "Right, first of all. Has Kaden talked to you about Rage?" It'll be best to know who they're all up against. If they didn't, then it will be like running into a battle blind.
The younger nodded his head.
"Good." She took out a piece of paper that had plenty of information written on it. The paper was placed in front of the golden Lombax. "Okay, what we need to do, is find out where this guy is."
Ratchet scanned over the document. It had a picture of a male of a species he didn't know. He had crayola orange skin, with cream coloured spikes on his shoulders, head and cheeks. He had yellow and blue eyes. No hair. His head was an odd shape, as it had a long curl like it was replacing the hair. Two long teeth were pointing out of his mouth. He wore: a white vest top; a brown belt with various grey gadgets attached to it; shamrock green trousers with large pockets at the sides; and brown and black boots.
He started to read the information on who the person was.
'Name: Spikey Mikey
Gender: Male
Age: 35 years
Species: Encaracolado Xpedia
Home planet: Murlania
Occupation: Works in a thief group for Rage (One of Rage's top three men)
Background: Stole a swingshot from a farm three years ago on Planet Murlania. Stole a shock gun from a prank shop two years ago on Planet Kerwan. Stole thick wire string from a appliance shop two years ago on Planet Torren IV.'
"I've never heard of a Xpedia. Not to mention any thief crime on Kerwan two years ago; that was around the time when Tachyon was attacking the city to get to me... Unless he did it before." Ratchet rubbed his chin in thought.
"That's because Xpedia's like him are rare." Victoria replied. "Their race are master of stealth, so it's really hard to catch people like Mikey."
"Wait, you said 'Xpedia's like him are rare'. What do you mean by that? Like his race is endangered or something?"
She placed her elbows on the table. "What I mean is, that there are two different types of Xpedia's. There's the Orgulhoso Xpedia and the Encaracolado Xpedia, the one Mikey is. Orgulhoso means proud in Latin. Encaracolado means curly in Latin." She leant her head against one of her fists. "The Orgulhoso Xpedia are more of the common ones, while the Encaracolado Xpedia are the more of the rare ones."
"It's like our race." Jasmine added in. "There are Lombaxes with stripes and Lombaxes with no stripes. Lombaxes with stripes are a heck of a lot more common than Lombaxes with no stripes. Same with tails; not many females have tails, it's a rare sight to see a female who has a tail."
Ratchet had not been aware of Lombaxes having different types. He did admit he was curious when he first met Jasmine as she had a tail. He thought female Lombaxes didn't have tails from the news announcement he heard about Angela Cross before going to defeat Dr. Nefarious. That had explained it a little bit - he'd properly ask his father for more detail later. "Whoa, I didn't think of that." He sheepishly grinned.
"Anyway." Max cut in, trying to get back to the conversation. "As you read in the 'Occupation' description - Spikey Mikey works for Rage. If we can find where Mikey is and get information out of him, we'll find where Rage is and take him out; get this mission done quicker." He crossed his arms. "However, the only downside is that we have no idea where Mikey is now."
"But! There is a upside as well." James interrupted, ignoring the white male's glare. "We know a rough idea of a person that knows Spike. The person that Spike stole the swingshot from. She owns a farm in the countryside of Murlania. She might have a idea on where he is hiding at the moment."
There was a lot of information to take in but Ratchet seemed to remember it. "So, I'm guessing we need to speak to this person about Spikey Mikey as soon as possible then, right?"
Everyone nodded. "We certainly do." Jasmine said. She got out another piece of paper and passed it to the golden Lombax opposite her. "Here's the details on the person."
Ratchet looked through the document like last time.
'Name: Annie Webb
Gender: Female
Age: 27 years
Species: Encaracolado Xpedia
Home planet: Murlania
Occupation: Runs her own business on her farm
Background: Had a swingshot stolen from her three years ago on Planet Murlania in her home from Spikey Mikey.'
A hum escaped Ratchet's throat. "She's the same race as Mikey; why would he steal from her? And a swingshot of all things. He could have just bought it from a gadget shop." He thought aloud.
"It's not like you see a thief walk into a shop and buy something everyday now, do you?" Max replied slightly harsh, sitting back while closed eyes as if he didn't want to be where he was.
"Just ignore him, Ratchet. He's just acting like this because he's jealous." Jasmine smirked with amusement.
Max slammed his hands on the table while standing up. "I am not jealous!" He barked out in anger.
Everyone, apart from Ratchet and Max, laughed their heads off. Ratchet titled his head in confusion, as Max's right eye twitched in annoyance. Why must people jump to conclusions?
"Sure you are, Max." The cream furred female chuckled as her laughter died down. "Or you wouldn't have acted like that. You're only jealous because you're not the one doing the task." She wiped tears from her eyes of laughing too much.
"That is true." James smirked, holding his side.
The white male sat back down as he couldn't think of anything to say back to the group. He stayed quiet as he crossed his arms again to show his mood: angry.
"Let's just get back to the subject." Victoria giggle.
Ratchet raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm confused. What task are we on about here?"
"Oh right, we haven't got that far yet." Jasmine said. She faced the golden Lombax. "We need someone to go and speak with Annie to try and find the where about's of Mikey."
"Lemme guess, that someone is me, right?" An unamused expression hushed across his face.
"Erm...Well, yeah." She noticed the face. "Hey, it's only because we'll have duties to do in the Praetorian Guard so Kaden will realize that we're not there if it was one of us."
"Wait, my Dad doesn't know about this mission?! Are you crazy?!" Ratchet was shocked as it was something going to be done behind his father's back. Even if he didn't find out, he would be curious where they got the information from.
Jasmine scratched the back of her neck and grinned in a sheepish way again. "Don't worry, we have this all planned out. So all you'll have to worry about is collecting useful details. Besides, if Kaden does ask where you are, we'll cover up for you; say that you're training or looking around town. He'll never know."
Ratchet's ears fell against his head to show that he wasn't sure about the whole idea.
"Come on, dude!" James pleaded. "No one outside this circle is gonna find out."
"We'll keep Kaden busy so he wouldn't have time to ask where you are." Victoria added in a desperate tone. "We're counting on you."
"Please, Ratchet." Sadness filled Jasmine's blue eyes. "For us. The Lombaxes." And me.
Emerald eyes closed. A defeated sigh was exhaled out of his nose. "Fine... I'll do it." He glanced at Jasmine. For you.
This. Took. Forever! D: But I'm glad it's done. Not an exciting chapter (yet again), but it was needed because of the important information that is needed later on in the story...I think ^^; Anyway, not idea when the next chapter is going to be up but it's not going to be too, too long away. See you 'till then! :P