Hi hi,

I'm on a Sims high here! I've got The Sims 3 collectors edition! WOOP WOOP! Who's with me?

Now, back to the fanfic.

Talwyn and Kai were on their hands and knees, crawling through the ventilation shafts in an eastward direction. Talwyn was following her friend blindly, who seemed to have a vague idea of where she was going.

"It's too bloody cramped in here..." Kai sat up and took out a canteen of water from her belt, taking several gulps before offering it to Talwyn, who took it graciously.

"Thank you." Talwyn took a swig, then handed it back and wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "Not that I doubt you, Kai, but where the HELL are we going?"

"As far as we can," Kai clipped the canteen back in it's original place. "When we hit a dead end, we go back, find a vent, and get out of here so we can start the distraction."

Talwyn just nodded, then followed as Kai as she continued slide her way along.

"So, how old were you when you first became a hero?"

Ratchet stopped moving and looked back at Tessa. They'd abandoned the ventilation system when the Markazian fell through the second grate. Since then, she'd been asking him all sorts of things about his past. He'd managed to ignore her.

For all of about 5 minutes.

"Why are you so interested?!?" he snapped.

Tessa was so shocked and surprised, she stepped back and clasped her hands to her chest. "I... I just," she looked so dejected. "I want to know you... a little better... if we're gonna work with you."

Ratchet felt like his guilt had just grown legs and kicked him in the stomach. His ears drooped and his expression softened considerably. "Listen, I'm sorry. It's just... I'm stressed. I haven't stopped fighting for almost six months now, I'm..." he sighed and placed a hand on her arm. "I was seventeen when I first dubbed 'Galactic Hero'." He turned around and restarted his search for Clank.

Tessa smiled and caught up with him. "I stated fighting when I was five, but I wasn't called a hero until I was about nineteen. Not big time, not like you. Me and my sis just saved our town from a bunch of "Death of Creation" supporters. Otherwise known as the Zoi."

"What the hell are the Zoi?"

"A bunch of bastards who support the Zoni." Tessa stopped and poked her head around a door. "Anyway, what's Clank like on a daily basis?"

Ratchet flinched mentally, but didn't let his body falter. "He's smart, naive, which can be funny sometimes, kind and trusting. He's..." There was suddenly a large lump in the young Lombax's throat. He swallowed it, then wiped away the drops of water that had 'mysteriously' formed on his face. "He's my best friend."

Tessa placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We'll get him back. I can see that not even the Zoni can destroy the friendship between you two, and all they DO is destroy and kill."

"You know, that isn't all that comforting."

"Oh yeah, they're the ones who HAVE Clank. Sorry."

Clank had just finished rebooting. AGAIN! "I do not know how much more of this I can take..." he muttered.

"RATCHET!!!" A female voice yelled, startling Clank into opening his eyes.

It was Vanessa. True, she was taller, and true, she had started to develop... physically, but it was the same girl. She was rushing over the sand dunes of Veldin, obviously searching for Ratchet.

"Where is he," she mumbled. Her voice was more violin-like now. "He KNOWS there's something out here. The bodies are piling up, not a mark on 'em."

The disembodied voice of the Zoni floated to them from thin air. "Do you know why?"

Vanessa turned around, spooked. "Wh-who's there?!?"

The Zoni floated out from behind the surrounding dunes, looking sinister. But that wasn't what worried Clank the most. It was the fact that Vanessa was still frantically looking for them.

Suddenly, they shimmered and the poor girl jumped backwards and the sand under her feet gave way, dumping her on her backside. "Wh-what the h-HELL are YOU?!?"

"Your new masters..." Two Zoni secured her hands with electricity, another two secured her ankles, while four more huddled together an arms reach away.

Vanessa was writhing and moaning in pain under the Zoni's grip. The bonded areas were starting to smoulder, and Clank could see little wisps of smoke coming from her wrists.

A large, spectral blue hand shot from the group of four, and delved strait into the brunette's chest. She screamed as they started to pull something from her.

It was a glowing brown sphere of something. As it was pulled from her, Vanessa almost seemed to wilt, and the colour in her eyes started to fade.

Clank rushed forward to try and stop them...

...and was back in the glass case. No-one was there.

The little robot was afraid now. First the Zoni let Zee electrocute him into rebooting as much as she wanted, and now he'd just found out that they'd ripped out Ratchet's childhood friend's... What was it? Clank wondered to himself. It could not have been her heart, hearts do not look like that. No organ does. But it seemed like it was necessary for living.

A sound from above him roused him from his thoughts. "Kai, are you sure we're not lost?"

That's Talwyn's voice! Clank said nothing and continued to listen.

"We're going EAST, Tow. You can't get lost when your going in a DIRECTION," Another voice, probably this Kai person (A.N: We already know that it is.), insisted.

Talwyn sighed. "Well, at least it's wider along here..."

"Tow, make sure you don't put any weight on that loose-"

Kai's warning was interrupted by Talwyn falling with a yell and landing with an 'oof' a few feet away from Clank's prison. A vent cover hung from the ceiling by only two catches.

"- great." Kai slid through the vent after her fallen friend, landing quite gracefully on her feet, and helped Talwyn up. "Congrats! You've just done a Tessa!" Both girls giggled, then Kai cocked her head. "Or did you pull your tail. That would make it a Scree."

Talwyn raised an eyebrow. "Who's Scree?"

"Doesn't matter right now," Kai turned towards Clank, still looking at the younger Markazian. "It's not like you'd believe me. She's kept out of the public eye for so long, no-one who knows about her would DARE tell about her, for fear of being a laughing stock! But I'll introduce you to her." Then added, under her breath, "If I can find her before you go disappearin' on us again."

The brunette turned to look at her dark haired friend. "You know, you'd be amazed what I believe in, thanks to Ratchet-"

"As much as I would like to know what Ratchet has done this time," Clank said, "would you mind getting me out of here first?"

"Clank!" Talwyn dashed over to the glass. "Are you all right?"

"I am now," Clank replied.

Kai laughed a very cynical laugh. "We sent Ratchet and Tessa the wrong way! They were supposed to be searching for him, we were supposed the distraction."

"Oh well," said Talwyn. "At least he's been found." She scratched the back of her ear. "Now all we have to do is get him out..."

"Leave that to me." Holding the scabbard with one hand and placing the other on the hilt, Kai drew her sword. It was a black hilted, platinum bladed katana, and a sharp one at that. Without so much as a word, she stabbed through the case.

Instead of shattering, the glass started to spider web. The cracks went everywhere, eventually making their way to the top and bottom, connecting in billions of places.

The sword wielder froze. The merest vibration would set it falling, which would set off the alarm that was bound to be connected to the case.

She spoke slowly and calmly to Talwyn. "I need you, to take my radio, tell Tessa we need Ratchet in the main room, pronto, and tell her to go set the charges..."

"I'm not stupid, Kai. And I have my own radio." Talwyn turned away and got in contact with Tessa and Ratchet.

Nothing. Ratchet was silently fuming. We've searched the WHOLE east half, and what've we found? NOTHING! He punched a nearby wall, causing Tessa to squeak in surprise.

"Sorry," Ratchet said, cringing a little. "I'm just worried."

"Don't be," said Tessa. "It might just be that he's in the west half. Or we just missed the room. We make one more sweep of this half, then, if we don't find him, we contact Kai her-"

"- change of plans, guys." Talwyn's voice interrupted over the radio. "We've found Clank, but we need Ratchet back by the entrance. And Tessa needs to plant the charges. NOW!"

"See? He was in the west half," said Tessa. Ironic or what? She thought to herself. Then she dashed over to the nearest vent and started undoing the catches.

"Is he OK?" Ratchet asked, rushing over to give the young Markazian a lift to the right height.

"He says he is," Talwyn replied. "But he does look a bit shaken. You may want to take a look at his central processor when you next get a chance."

"All right, it's open." With some help from the Lombax holding her up, Tessa scrambled through the vent. She then turned and helped Ratchet up, then pressed a pair of safety glasses.

Well, they LOOKED like safety glasses. Only they dark green glass, the exact same colour as Tessa's lenses.

"Put these on. They'll help you see the Zoni," Tessa said. "The little bastards like to sneak up on their enemies in Spirit Form. The glasses will give you the sight of a Seer."

Ratchet's brow furrowed. "Spirit Form? Seer?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to get moving." The Markazian set off in one direction, while the Lombax went in the other, towards the first room. "Oh, and good luck!" She called over her shoulder.

"Thanks," Ratchet called back. Lord knows I'll need it.

AUTHOR'S INPUT: Hi hi,

18kb. That's how much room this file takes up. Not much, is it?

ONTO THE REVIEWS!!!

Tina Tissue:

It's a pretty interesting story and I'm interested to where it will go but could you stop whining about not getting any reviews? Most people don't look at M rated fics so don't know if they existed.

I'm glad you think the story is interesting. And I'm sorry for pestering for reviews. I just want to know what people like you think, that's all.

Shakespeare's Entourage:

Short but good.
Two points though:
1. Had a PS2. Sold it to buy a 360. Best decision I've ever made.
2. Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time!

I bite my thumb at you!
Shakespeare's entourage.

I upload in smaller chunks because it's faster. And as for the generation three console argument, we've all ready settled the issue. All I'm gonna say about that is that I prefer the PS3 for two reasons:

1. I think Microsoft should stick to making computers, as they need to get better at doing that before diversifying, and,

2. From what I've seen, the PS3 has better graphics than the 360. Then again, I play it on a HD, wide-screen TV, while the only time I saw the 360 graphics was on a slightly crappy, old TV with a screen smaller screen than my monitor.

The one thing we can safely agree on is that the Wii isn't the best. But I prefer it to the 360.

Oh, and this is just in answer to your review, so please don't start that argument up again.

That's about it. Oh, wait!

I've turned of the profanity filter, so if someone could say something that usually gets censored out in their review to test it out, that would be real helpful. Honest.

Now THAT is it. Thanks for reading what's been posted so far, I hope you haven't lost interest yet.

Bye byes,

Timid Vulpine.