Ratchet and Clank:
The Chosen One
I DO NOT OWN RATCHET AND CLANK, INSOMNIAC GAMES DOES! I OWN ANYTHING ELSE!
Chapter 17: No Time For Running!
After leaving Murlania, Ratchet punched in the coordinates to Axiom City in the Vela Sector. He'd rather not waste time to go all the way back to Planet Volzar when he could go straight to Terachnos to get the job done quicker. It would make his and everyone else's lives much easier.
The journey would only take about thirty minutes, so he wouldn't need to rest on the way there. His thoughts kept circling around what his father would think if he found out about this mission. Eyebrows knitted together. If that was to ever happen, then he'd try to take the blame for going along with the objective. He just hoped that Kaden would never find out.
He could already think of the disappointed tone his father would use if he did found out.
The golden Lombax was snapped out of his thoughts when his holo-communicator started to ring. He slowed down the ship before answering the call. A familiar face of Jasmine popped up with a concerned look upon her face. "Ratchet? Where are you? You've been gone for a while now."
Ratchet grinned. "Don't worry, I have everything sorted out. I found out where Mikey could be hiding, and I'm on my way there now." His eyes kept flickering outside so he could see where he was going and not crash into anything.
"You what?!" She harshly whispered; she didn't want to be too loud or other people might listen to their conversation. "Wouldn't you need any help? I mean, from what I've heard of Mikey, he can be a dangerous man."
He waved his free hand about carelessly. "Oh please, I've dealt with worse people. Trust me. Besides, it'll be easier if only I go. One, because you'd still have to worry about my father not knowing any of you going. And two, the job will get done quicker with less people. Ya see where I'm going with this?"
A moment of silence filled the atmosphere. Ratchet was about to call Jasmine's name until she spoke up. "No, you're right, I guess." She shook her head. "Sorry, I just worry a lot. You go on ahead and get this mission done, but if anything happens to you, promise you'll give some sort of message to let me know." If something was to happen to him, she swore the enemy would pay with their own lives.
The younger was slightly surprised from what the other had said, but still he smiled. "I promise you'd be the first to know."
"Good." She replied. Her ears picked up the sound of her name. "I've gotta go. But before I do, I need to ask: where are you going?"
"Axiom City. Why?"
"All right, thanks. It's just so I know where to find you if something does happen." Her name was getting yelled even louder that even Ratchet could hear it clearly. She cringed. "Okay, I've seriously got to go. Just... Stay safe." With that, she ended the call. The screen went static and then black; leaving Ratchet's reflection in it.
He stared at the screen for a while, before pulling himself out of the trance. She seemed to care about him quite a bit, and yet they hadn't known each other for too long; two - three weeks at most. Saying that, they were closer than anyone, and themselves, thought they were. He did enjoy it though. It was nice to have something to look forward to when he got back from this mission.
"Aphelion?"
"Yes, Ratchet?"
"Engage the hyper-drive engine and enter hyper-space. We need to get to the Breegus System as soon as possible." Ratchet tapped in the coordinates to Axiom City, Planet Terachnos.
"Affirmative. We'll arrive in the Breegus System in exactly five minutes and thirty-two point two seconds." Aphelion replied, happy with her calculations.
He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah." With that, Aphelion went into hyper-space. Different colours danced around the ship as they flew down the tunnel. Ratchet was use to it by now, so it didn't excite him as much when he first started driving a ship. This went on for about five minutes, until Aphelion exited hyper-space right where Terachnos was in sight.
Ratchet pressed a button to turn off the hyper-drive engine, he then gripped the stirring wheel again as he flew into the planet's atmosphere. The last time he came here was when...Azimuth was still alive. A sigh and a shake of a head. No. No time for sad memories at a time like this. He tried to push the memory back before his eyes start to water.
He landed just on the outskirts of the city and jumped out of his ship. He turned to Aphelion. "If anything happens to me, I want you to go back to Volzar and tell Jasmine." He said as his Ectoflux Armour was onlined.
"But, Ratchet-"
"Aphelion, that's an order." Ratchet interrupted with a serious tone.
"Yes, Ratchet. I understand." She replied, slightly worried and disappointed.
"Good. Now stay safe." He said before walking down the dark streets.
The area was run-down. Litter flew in the light wind. Glass windows in buildings were smashed and broken. Bins were knocked down. Not many lamp posts were switched on. There were people dressed in ripped, dirty clothing sitting outside on the steps of buildings as they lit fires to keep themselves warm.
Night clubs were blaring out extremely loud music and women even danced outside the buildings trying to invite men over for attention. Luckily for Ratchet, he was walking on the other side of the street, so he didn't get swarmed by the dancing females.
Emerald eyes kept a sharp eye out for his target. He already knew what the guy looked like, and his race was endangered, so it would make it easier to spot him, surely? 'Their race are master of stealth' came the voice of Victoria in his head. Ratchet frowned. Okay so, maybe it was going to be harder than he thought. A groan. Just wonderful.
Maybe Mikey was hiding in the shadows of the alleyways. That was properly his only lead. One came up on the left, so he turned in that direction, and thankfully it wasn't a dead end, so he carried on walking.
The alleyway wasn't too thin but then it wasn't too wide. It was properly big enough for four of himself to walk in a straight line down it. The alleyway was quite long too.
Ratchet stepped down the passageway. His eyes kept flickering around the area, checking for movement in the shadows. None were made - though he still kept a sharp eye out. It was about a minute until he was in the middle of the alleyway, and when he got the feeling of being watched.
Golden ears twitched, trying to listen for unknown sounds. He looked up slightly to see two dark figures at the end of the alley. He stopped. They were blocking the exit so Ratchet couldn't get out.
They had the same body structure - large but strong and tall. He couldn't tell what species they were, but he knew they were male. It also looked like they held something in one of their hands, something long and thin - possibly a knife?
He turned his body to the side to see two other dark figures cutting off the entrance. Those two had different body structures - one thin and muscular, and the other tall-ish and chubby. Yet again, they had to be male. They also seemed familiar, like he'd seen them from somewhere before, but he couldn't quite put his tongue on it.
Emerald eyes glared from underneath the helmet at his unwanted company. His tail swished back and forth to show his temper. He balled up his hands, readying for a fight to come.
No one moved. They just stared at each other like a predator did before pouncing on its prey.
A feeling then built up in Ratchet, as if someone else was watching him close by. He scanned the area with his eyes, the only problem was that he couldn't see behind him without making a sudden move. The tips of his ears then twitched lightly at a very quiet sound, like when someone landed on the ground, right behind him. Ratchet pivoted on his left foot, taking a step to the side, just missing the butt of a knife that would have hit his head. He then jumped back a couple of steps, as well as pulling out his wrench, to keep a good enough distance between him and his enemy as much as he could.
Glancing up slightly, Ratchet immediately recognised the person opposite him. Orange skin. Spikes. Weird shaped head. It was definitely Spiky Mikey, the Encaracolado Xpedia. He certainly was a sneaky person.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Came a mysterious, typical American accent from Mikey. He smirked a bit, still not noticing who the Lombax in front of him really was. "I must admit, I was surprised when you dodged my attack, no one has ever done that before. But, that does not mean you'll escape without... reason." He raised his knife, which was about 1 foot long, at Ratchet. "You can come with us the easy way or the hard way, Lombax."
The younger bared his canines. "What do you want with me?" He spat out a little harshly. He raised his wrench a bit to get into a defensive position fast if anything was to happen, still kept an eye on the other four at both ends of the alley way. He secretly charged up his kinetic tether on his wrench as the other spoke.
The Xpedia chuckled. "You don't know? Any pathetic Lombax wondering about is to be taken, whether they like it or not, to the boss. Now. Have you made up your mind?"
Ratchet grinned. "Of course." Releasing the button, the head of his omniwrench flew off the handle and slammed into Spiky Mikey's stomach, sending him crashing into a pile of boxes which broke from the force. Ratchet then enlightened his hoverboots, and headed down to the exit. He bent his knees and jumped to get over the two strong-built males who were blocking the way. As he somersaulted over them, he noticed that they were Blargs, and followed the same description Annie gave him about those twins. Once he landed on the ground, he shot off down the thin path with his hoverboots still on.
Spiky growled as he got up, clenching his knife handle in anger. "Don't just stand there! Get him!" He snapped at the other four as they ran after the golden Lombax, while he climbed up a building to get to the roof and chase Ratchet from above.
Hearing heavy footsteps a distance away from him, the younger turned his head slightly to notice they weren't near to where he was. He was lucky to have his hoverboots on him or he would have been dead meat. Glancing back on the street ahead of him, he dodged a group of dancing, drunk people just in time, almost tripping over his own feet while doing so.
Ratchet connected his communicator in his helmet with his starship. "Aphelion! I need you to go back to Volzar and give a message to Jasmine!" He huffed out, trying to keep his speed up. "Tell her that I found Spiky Mikey, I'm just having a hard time dealing with him right now!"
"Are you sure you don't want me to help you?" Came Aphelion's worried voice through the communicator.
"Aphelion, I told you before, I can handle this. This would be the only way to get a message to Jasmine, besides, I don't want anything to happen to you either. So, get out of here while you can and get the message back to the other's. Trust me."
"Okay, Ratchet, I trust you one hundred percent. I will leave now, but do not do anything reckless that will get you into more trouble." She replied, starting to leave the planet's atmosphere.
Ratchet had to smirk at what she said. "I'll be fine and stay safe yourself. Ratchet out." He ended the call, and concentrated on the path once more. He really hoped Jasmine would get the message in time before anything bad happened to himself.
The four men ran as fast as they could, catching up to Ratchet bit by bit even with his hoverboots on. They all seemed to be Blargs. Now the younger knew who they were, he did indeed recognised two of them, Goil and Ashley from the intrusion on planet Volzar about a week back. The other two were definitely the twins that Annie Webb described.
The shorter Blarg began to get frustrated that the Lombax was getting away. An idea then popped into his head which he grinned evilly at. Whipping out a modified blaster to lock onto a specific target, he aimed the gun and pulled the trigger.
The blaster-shot sliced threw the air, heading towards Ratchet within a second. The shot crashed into Ratchet's left shoulder, sending him spinning and tumbling to the ground. His hoverboots disabled completely, much like the time when he first received them with Azimuth. It all happened so sudden that he was still dazed as he pushed himself off of the cold, hard floor. He shook his head a few times to knock the stars out of his vision. The sound of heavy footsteps brought him back into reality. Ratchet stumbled to his feet and ran, ignoring the pain and blood dripping down his arm from his shoulder.
Taking a quick glance at the road, and making sure no hovercars were in the way, he sprinted across the street to the other side, and headed down another alleyway; all just to try and get away from his 'friends'. He ran and ran and ran. All his ears picked up were his loud, uneven pants escaping from his mouth and his pounding heart that could rip right out of his rib cage at any point. His ears didn't pay attention to anything else.
Normally he wouldn't run, but during the time he had spent with Clank, fighting wasn't always the better option; sometimes you had to run. Over the time that he spent looking for his robotic pal, he had to push himself out of fighting; if it was too dangerous he couldn't risk his life to 'have fun' by shooting the bad guys. Ratchet was known for not taking things seriously sometimes, so it was about time he started to.
The younger turned to the right within the passageway, but froze dead on the spot. A dead end. No, no, no, NO! Ratchet snapped his head to look over his shoulder as the sounds of footsteps and angry voices came closer. Crap, crap, crap. He couldn't turn back now, he'll most likely run into the Blargs.
It was time to stop running. He had to face them. Take them down one-by-one if he had to. Determination flickered in the emerald eyes. He could do this! There was no need to be scared; no hesitation; no fear. They were going down!
So, so sorry for the long LONG wait! I've been finding it really hard to write this story - I've been loosing interest, but I'm slowly starting to try and get back into it (it's hard, really hard). But FINALLY! Another chapter out of the way and crossed off the list. I know what's going on in the next chapter, so it shouldn't take me long to write. The only problem: time. I haven't got a lot of it lately which sucks, I know, but school work is more important now-a-days so it needs doing first.
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, if not, hopefully the next chapter will be better as it's got the 'interesting' action in it :D See you then!