Hi hi,
Holy shit! Is that how long since I updated? Crap, all that coursework I had was piling up. And it got worse, because I went on a school trip over Easter, so no updates then either. Oh well. It should get easier. All my course work's in, so it's just my exams left.
And before any idiots who are reading start chewing me out for my portrayal of the Zoni, remember: I thought this plot line up before I found out the Zoni were the good guys in A Crack In Time. They kidnapped Clank, so I'm thinking "Not good, SO not good." Then we see that they took a shine to an evil pirate dude, so I'm thinking, "These guys are bad guys." I didn't know I was wrong, and I've started so I'll finish. Don't like it? Bite me!
Also, for future reference, I only found out that female Lombaxes (apparently) don't have tails on a trawl around the Ratchet and Clank Wiki (which, FYI, I don't own), so that fact doesn't exist in any of my R&C stories. For all those picky bastards.
And a quick apology for my deteriorating language. I... Wow, I can't even remember why my language has deteriorated since my last post.
Enough drabbling! On with the show! I mean story.
The Story So Far...
(Only one chapter this time, so it should be shorter.)
Together, Kai, and Talwyn got Clank out, and met up with Ratchet in the main room. There, they engaged in combat with swarm upon swarm of Zoni, and met with Clank's tormentor, Zee. They eventually get out, blowing the building up in the process, and then went their separate ways.
Ratchet and Clank, whilst trying to make their own way off the planet, were hit by a mysterious blast, disabling the engines. We left them plummeting back towards the planet. What was that blast? Will they survive? If they do, what will they do? And who the hell is this mysterious Scree? Find out now, with Mage Tales 1: The Discovery, Chapter six.
Just as Ratchet became certain that they were about to die, they stopped a with a sudden jolt and a CLANG. Looking up, he saw that Kai and Tessa's ship, connected to the cable that supported the giant grappling hook that was cradling Aphelion. It had saved their lives.
Slowly releasing his death grip on Clank, Ratchet asked Aphelion to contact the twins. After a few moments, a panicky looking Tessa answered.
"Are you two alright? I mean I saw the beam hit you," she was breathing in little gasps, "and I just screamed! I didn't know what to do! I didn't know..." The poor girl was starting to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Kai came into the picture, rolling her eyes, and flopped down into the pilot's seat, which was separate from Tessa's seat. If you looked behind the seats, you would see dozens of radars, gadgets and maps, including the controls to the gadget that saved their lives.
"And while she was being terrified for you, I was back there," Kai jerked a thumb over her shoulder, "doing something USEFUL!" She looked at her twin meaningfully, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I get it, I get it! I'm useless!" Tessa looked down at her hands in her lap.
Kai snorted, causing Tessa to look up. "No, just more used to people are falling WITHOUT ships."
At this point, Talwyn joined in the conversation, let in by Clank, who was still a little shaky.
"What the hell happened..?" Talwyn wondered.
Tessa, now no longer crying, tugged a loose strand of hair behind her ear before talking. "Like I told Ratchet, those who follow the Zoni can be just as dangerous as they are."
"Could've given us a better warning..." Ratchet mumbled.
"Like what?" Kai glared at him. "Something like, 'Watch out, someone's gonna shoot you with something we don't have a clue about!' I dare you to deny that you would've thought she was nuts!"
"When you put it like that..." The Lombax gave them a lopsided grin. The small smile he got from Tessa, and the small chuckle from Kai, showed that he was forgiven. "What the hell was that thing?"
"We don't know," Tessa admitted. "We haven't had a ship survive it before."
"Metal pancake, I'd say." Kai said helpfully. "Too compact for even Scree to tell what the hell it was. And she's a good mechanic." She chuckled. "She'll have a field day when she gets a look see."
"If she's got enough time to look at it properly." Tessa said.
"She's got six months of sick leave," said Kai. "Doc says its stress. WAY too much active duty, not enough time to sit and think properly. Not without someone or other telling her about yet another Zoi plot." She shrugged, and her expression turned misty and reminiscent. "The Zoni've destroyed a lot of important things in her life. She's a real fighter, you have to be, but she throws herself into this crap SO hard, and it costs."
"So what's the real reason?"
Kai chuckled at the Lombax again. "She's fed up with playing hero." She paused, then added, "For the moment."
Clank noticed that her fingers were pulling something from underneath her armour. It hung on a thin silver chain. She caught herself before she brought the actual item out.
"We'd better get moving. We could take you back to Ka Fyera. It's in the Dabih Galaxy, but it's probably in completely the wrong direction to where you want to end up."
(A.I: The Dabih Galaxy is mine, but the star name is actually a real star, in Capricorn. Please ask if you want to use the Galaxy. Ka Fyera is also mine,even if the planet might not be real, so ask if you want to use that, too.)
Ratchet couldn't suppress the grimace completely. Kai was right, the Dabih Galaxy was in the opposite direction to Solana. But... if Scree was a really WAS that good a mechanic... and she did seem interesting...
He turned to his robotic companion. "Clank?"
"Why not?" Clank seemed eager to go with them. "I have heard very much about Ka Fyera. I wish to learn more about it."
"Then it's settled!" The Lombax turned back to the twins. "Take us where you will."
"I'll follow you," Talwyn tagged on excitedly.
Kai and Talwyn switched off at the same time. Ratchet leaned back, stretching, and winced. Don't stretch when you have open bite wounds. He reached under his seat and broke open a case of nanotech. He sighed in relief as it healed his body from the inside outwards.
"What HAVE you heard about Ka Fyera, Clank?"
Clank thought for a moment, retrieving the information, before he spoke. "It is a tropical planet in the summer, but it often snows in the winter. The majority of the population are Markazian, but the range of species is wide. There is a holiday called 'Recuerdo de los Muertos' the day before Halloween."
"Sounds lively," Ratchet muttered under his breath.
Clank went on unperturbed, as he hadn't heard the Lombax. "It is said to be divided into three... territories, made up of neutral neighbourhoods, and the modern bases for two... well, religions, really, called the Scathes and the Zoi."
"Well, we know what the Zoi are all about." Ratchet snorted as he rubbed his still sore back. "How about the Scathes?"
"I do not know," the small robot admitted. "Not much is known about the Scathes, other than they almost always seem prepared."
"Prepared? Prepared for what?"
Ratchet's question went unanswered, as at that moment, Kai popped up on the comn. screen.
"Hold on to your bits, boys, we're jumping."
Ratchet nodded. Jumping was, of course, universal slang for hyper-speed travel.
Then Tessa's voice came from off screen, saying, "We've never jumped with someone in tow before. It could get pretty bumpy. You may want to hold on."
"Like your lives depend on it," Kai said, winking to make sure Clank got it was a joke. She then switched the comn. off, and the space just ahead of the twins' ship started going pink and purple.
Ratchet buckled himself in. Clank did the same, then smiled happily up at the Lombax, who grinned back. They were just happy to be back in each others' company as friends.
Tessa had been right. The jump had been bad. Really bad. Ratchet felt as if his his brain had swapped places with his heart, as well as his bladder (unfortunately upside-down) with his stomach. Clank felt like someone had stuck his battery pack in the wrong way up and replaced his eyes with mismatched bulbs.
"Well... That was..." Ratchet placed a hand to his forehead to stop the pounding, his other arm pressed against his stomach in an effort to stop himself from being sick. "...That was Hell!"
"It is... the fastest way..." Clank was having trouble with his voice box. His companion gave him a gentle whack on his back to sort the problem out. "Thank you. As I was saying, it is the fastest way to travel long distances, as you know."
"I know," Ratchet grumbled. "But I'll be buggered if I do that again on a tow line." He cleared his throat and asked, "Aphelion, where are we?"
Aphelion was silent. The Lombax pushed a few buttons. No lights, no sounds, no response.
"It seems as though the blast bay have damaged the ship's main power supply." Clank mused. "Our communication with our travelling companions, as well as Kai's warning, must have drained our reserve."
"But why didn't she tell us?"
"Scanning a ship takes more power than you imagine." The small robot looked out of the cockpit to ascertain their location. "She would not have run a diagnostic if the reserve was down below 65 percent."
"So, we're gonna run out of air soon, right?" Ratchet wasn't panicking. If Clank was organic, and he didn't have this damn headache, he might have been. But he wasn't, and he did, so panic didn't really have a chance.
"Not before we arrive," said Clank, gesturing out the cockpit to their right.
Ratchet looked. "Whoa..."
Talwyn jolted against the seat harness with a small 'oof' as her ship completed the jump. She flicked a stray strand of hair out of her face, then tried contacting Ratchet. No response. Instantly,panic fluttered in her stomach, but she forced it away.
Looking back, she saw them, still attached to the twin's ship. There were no lights on, but she could see them moving inside. "Whew..." She turned to her Warbots. "Cronk, Zephyr, are you guys OK." She knew they were, but it was tradition.
"Fine, Miss Talwyn!" Said Zephyr called.
"My head came off again!" Cronk complained. "Other than that, I'm fine."
Talwyn chuckled. Just then, the twins opened a comn. link.
"Check those two are alive for us, will you?" Kai asked. "They're not responding to comn. hails."
"They're alive," Talwyn replied. "I can see them moving in there. I guess they lost power when they got hit."
"I haven't seen a blast like that since the Great War," Zephyr reminisced, "when the Cragmites brought out the Electronic Pulse Beam. Destroyed half the fleet before we worked out what was happening!"
Kai raised her eyebrow at Talwyn, who shook her head. Both knew it was utter drivel, but they didn't really want to hurt the old Warbot's feelings. Tessa went as far as saying, "We'd all be a lot wiser if we listened to you more often."
"Don't," Kai said in a world-weary kind of voice. "You'll make his head swell so much it'll explode!" The girls all chuckled as Zephyr sulked. Then Tessa started bouncing excitedly.
"What?" Talwyn asked, continuing to chuckle at her friend's actions.
Kai burst out into proper, but not too intense to talk, laughter, as she went round behind her twin and placed her hands on the bouncing girl's shoulders to stop her. "She's just weird. She's excited we finally get to keep our promise to you."
The brunette blinked. "Promise? What promise?"
"Remember when we were fifteen and you were eight?" Tessa asked, starting bounce again and making Kai increase the pressure to pin her butt back down to her seat.
"Nine," Talwyn corrected. "My birthday's before yours." Her brow wrinkled and her nose scrunched up as she tried to remember the time they were talking about. "You... I..." Her eyes closed and she made a quiet sound of frustration.
"If I remember rightly," Cronk mused, "you were nine years old when we first met the twins, here."
"Of course!" Talwyn exclaimed. "When you first came to the Apogee Space Station! I showed you all sorts of stuff there, and you said, 'one day, we'll have to...'"
"Show you OUR home!" Tessa finished,too excited to wait. "And that's basically where we're going."
"What...?" The brunette wondered if they were being cryptic, or if she was just being dense.
Kai sighed. "Look outside your cockpit. Just to your left slightly. You'll see what we're talking about." She rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I swear you're naturally blond."
Talwyn grinned at the casual insult before doing what she was told. And then her jaw dropped slightly. And her eyes widened. And Cronk and Zephyr whispered, in unison, "Whoa..."
The planet Ka Fyera was beautiful. Gorgeous. Around 40 percent was beautiful cerulean blue ocean, with another 9 percent being rivers and lakes, and the rest being a mix of forests, mountains, beaches, and bustling metropolis, often intertwined with each other. At the centre of the system, two suns orbited each other closely, one red the other an almost golden yellow, which would sometimes produce a double sunrise or sunset on the surface. From space, there where only a few wisps of cloud over the entire planet.
It was a stunning sight. Even for two girls who'd lived there all their lives.
"Whoa..." whispered Tessa, who had stopped bouncing.
"Yeah," said Kai, sitting back down. "Whoa."
The two looked at each other and smiled. They'd made it back from yet another life threatening mission, and where going to set foot back on their home planet once more. An amazing achievement, seeing how many Scathe warriors didn't.
A young, bored looking Markazian soldier popped up on their comn. screen and gave them a lazy salute. "Welcome to Ka Fyera. As you are approaching in a military grade ship, and the ship you are towing won't respond to hails, I must ask you to state your name and business."
"Returning locals, Kai and Tessa Swordsmith," Kai said, then smirked as the soldier fell off his chair. "We're towing a ship that was hit by the Mystery Beam, but survived. Their power is probably out, so they can't respond. The ship to our left is also with us."
The soldier was on his feet again, saluting them properly and quivering with fear. "O-of course, miss Swordsmith! Anything else?"
Kai scratched the back of her neck. "You know this shit better than me, Tess." Then she went to the back of the ship.
Tessa sat up strait and started talking. "We need two docking spaces in segment E-J-01 for immediate use, and one reserved. We also need transport to get the one being towed to TJ's Experts in Gear Grotto, and directions to a shower booth."
"I think we can manage that," the soldier replied.
"Oh, and Private Laxir?"
"Yes, miss?"
"No need to tell Private Whelps about our arrival."
"Of course not, miss."
"We don't want another welcoming party."
"I know, miss."
"Because I don't know if I can persuade Kai not to carry out her threat."
"I'm not stupid, miss. I like my balls where they are. No-one will be there to welcome you in that cheesy, overbearing manner EVER again."
"Is Commander Dixie out of the hospital yet?"
"No, miss."
"Any better?"
"Yes miss. Every time he hears the name 'Kai', he starts strutting around the room like a chicken, making barnyard noises."
"You're right, that is better."
"Yes miss. The nurses don't have to wear hard hats and earplugs any more."
Ratchet jumped out of Aphelion, bag of clothes on his back, onto a metal transport vehicle, with Clank not far behind.
The Lombax turned to the driver. "Hey! Where is this thing going with my ship?"
"TJ's Experts," replied the driver. "Mechanics in Gear Grotto. Not far from here." With that, the transport started moving, forcing Ratchet and Clank to jump off.
"That was not very polite," said the little robot.
"Where's he taking Aphelion?" The boys turned around to see a confused looking Talwyn approaching, Kai and Tessa not far behind.
Ratchet shrugged. "Some mechanics somewhere."
"TJ's. Got some of the best damn mechanics around," said Kai as she and Tessa caught up. "And the only place that has an expert on Lombax ships."
"Let me guess," said Talwyn. "The mysterious Scree?"
"Yup."Tessa linked one arm with the Markazian's, the other with the Lombax's, while her twin grabbed Talwyn's other arm and scooping up Clank. "C'mon, there's a shower block this way."
"You seriously want to wash this gunk," Kai let go of Talwyn's arm to indicate the Zoni blood in her hair, "out before it dries. You have to cut it out then. Literally."
And so off they went, laughing, joking and generally getting along well. When they got to the shower block, the girls went through the door marked, 'Females', Ratchet went in the door marked 'Males', while Clank opted to wait by a snack machine with Cronk and Zephyr.
Inside, Ratchet found a small changing room with wooden benches and coat hooks all around the walls, more benches in the middle, and a gap in the wall, just enough room for two people to pass each other comfortably, leading to the showers. Near the gap was a shelf with white towels, and a plastic bin for them after they'd been used. There was no-one else there.
The Lombax quickly removed his armour and boxers, grabbed a towel and headed for the showers.
They had dividers to show the boundaries to each shower, and each had an opaque white shower curtain. They also varied in size quite a bit, so Ratchet chose a smaller one. He went in, closed the curtain, dumped the towel in a corner he thought would stay dry, and turned on the water. It started off so cold that he was instantly frozen, but quickly warmed up as he fiddled with the temperature controls.
As the water reached the point where it was almost perfect, he let out a hum of content. For a moment, he just stood there, head back, eyes closed, ears flickering, relaxing in the spray. Then he pressed a button on (he hoped) the soap dispenser, got a handful of liquid soap (Phew.) and started working on getting rid of the greenish tinge of his fur.
It was hell to get out. Ratchet often had to use his fingernails to loosen it before it started coming off. Kai had been right. If this stuff had dried, he'd have had to shave it off. He shuddered, not just at the thought, but at the memory that reared it's ugly head at the word. Out of habit, he looked over his shoulder. Only the curtain. That done, he turned over his right hand and looked at his wrist.
He'd already cleaned it, so he could see the scar on the heal of his hand where he'd struggled in his foster mother's arms as she'd shaved off the small patch of fur on his wrist.
It was like a birth mark, but it didn't show up on the skin underneath. It was the exact same colour as his stripes. Looked kinda like a small wrench. Ratchet ran his thumb over it as he thought, What's so wrong with this mark she tried to get rid of it? Is it that it's evil? Or does it prove I'm not hers? Then again, species should prove that...
He shook his head and finished scrubbing the Zoni blood out of his fur. Then he shut off the water, wrapped the towel around himself, and went to get dressed. Screw that bitch. I'm fine the way I am.
Talwyn emerged from the girl's showers, dressed in a shoulder-less, short-sleeved green top, brown jeans and brown trainers. She'd had to scrap her armour, which was a shame, but the stuff was beyond hope. The Zoni blood stank, and it had already dried into the heavy-duty, bullet-proof fabric, which only made the stench worse. Oh well, she thought to herself. I'll just have to buy some new, fashionable armour. Such a hardship. Oh no, I'm starting to sound like Tess.
She shook the line of thought from her head and made her way over to join the robots at the snack machine. She stopped a few steps away to watch the unfamiliar, yet oh-so-typical, scene before her.
Kai (now clad in a white crop top with a black outline of a pouting angel, black denim shorts and black, thigh-high boots) was yelling in a language Talwyn didn't understand at the machine, and looked like she was about to start kicking the crap out of it at any moment, while Cronk, Zephyr and Clank watched, too confused to stop her. Her younger friend ran over to try and talk her out of it.
"No Kai. No attacking the snack machine."
"But the bastard thing stole my bolts!"
"I know Kai, but no attacking the thieving bastard machine."
That line of conversation was terminated by Kai utterly ignoring Talwyn (as she always did at times like these) and thumping the machine. Hard. A chocolate bar fell down, along with a fizzy drink.
"Cool," muttered Kai, grabbing her prizes.
Clank watched this, and felt he had to speak up. "Will you not get into trouble for taking them?"
"No, probably not," Talwyn replied. "Doubtless she's got something on whoever owns this thing."
"That, my good friend," said Kai, winking, "would be telling."
Before anyone could ask any prying questions, Tessa and Ratchet turned up, from opposite directions.
Tessa was wearing a white short-sleeve blouse, a grey skirt, a grey waistcoat, and sensible black shoes, a grey handbag slung over one shoulder. Her hair had been let loose from it's tight braid, and now hung like wriggling silk snakes, with a small amount in a loose French braid, held in place by a silver hair clip.
Ratchet wore a green tartan shirt, blue jeans and grey converses. He didn't do anything to his hair, other than towel dry it and come it back down.
"Ready to head off?" asked Tessa. "Oh, Kai! You know you really shouldn't eat that much sugar. You know what you're like on the comedown from a sugar high."
Kai rolled her eyes and sighed. "If you really don't feel safe with these in my possession," she handed her spoils over to her twin. "Ratchet here probably wants to check on his ship, and us girls'll probably visit Kane." As if on cue, Cronk's head fell off. Again. Luckily, Tessa caught it. "For obvious reasons.
"He's a robotics engineer," Tessa explained helpfully to Ratchet. "Didn't Kai say something about getting you checked out, Clank?"
"Yes, I believe she did."
"Then it's settled," said Kai. "Talwyn, Tessa, Cronk, Zephyr, Clank and I will head over to Kane's. Ratchet'll go check on his ship over at TJ's. Then we'll meet up at Cog Fountain. Easy."
"But..." Ratchet looked down at Clank. He didn't think he was ready to leave the small robot yet. "What if-"
"Ratchet," Kai said, putting a friendly arm around his shoulder. "You can trust us. If any Zoi turn up and try anything, us girls'll kick their asses into the next millennium." She winked at him, then pushed him forward, in the direction that everyone else was moving. "Don't stress. Count yourself lucky. You get to meet Scree before Talwyn does, and we've been promising her an introduction for years."
Gear Grotto was an enclosed courtyard surrounded on all five sides by commercial workshops, with only two pedestrian entrances: one underpass leading to the docks, another leading further into the city. In the centre of the cobbled grotto was a fountain that seemed to be made of three giant cogs, piled up at forty-five degree angles, with a pump spurting water over them as they rotated. Around the fountain was a ring of grass with spokes on the outside like gear teeth, sprinkled with forget-me-nots and daisies.
Most of the workshops had plain billboards, but a couple had simple neon signs. TJ's Experts was one of them, simple green, plain script, one line. And outside the large, glass double doors that were the only entrance at the front, Ratchet stood, nerves eating at his stomach.
I have to go in, he thought. But there was a nagging sense of... weirdness? He couldn't place it exactly, but he felt that before he left that building, something was going to happen. He didn't know whether it was good, bad or indifferent, but he knew it was going to be life altering. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. But certainly altering.
"Go on in, Lombie!" Ratchet turned to glare at Kai, who was stood on the other side of the fountain, cheeky smile on her lips. "Before TJ sends someone out to move you along, preferably."
The comment riled the Lombax, and he turned and yanked the door open. He walked inside and glanced around. About a dozen ships were in various states of repair or dismantlement, with several other empty bays waiting for broken or dead ships. In a bay on the opposite side of the workshop, sat on a fork lift stand, was Aphelion.
Aside from a few minor dents from all the crap she'd been through, the lack of power, and three grooves in the paintwork where the grappling hook had grabbed her, she looked like she was in good shape. Someone had already connected her to a power pack, so Ratchet wandered over.
"Hey, Aphelion," he said. "How ya feeling? They been treating you well here?"
"Ratchet!" Aphelion sounded as though someone had turned the volume down on her voice box. "You will not believe who-"
"Heya!"Ratchet turned around to see a Markazian woman, between late 20s and mid 30s, with shockingly red spiky hair, and eyes that were the exact same colour. "I need to plug in a different power pack. It sounds like that one needs some tinkering with."
For a moment, Ratchet could only stare. She was very pale, had delicate a delicate nose (with a red nose stud), and lips that super models get plastic surgery to try and achieve. Her left ear had about a dozen or so piercings, while her right ear only had four: two cartilage, two lobes. When he managed to tare his gaze from her face, he noticed a black t-shirt with an orange motif, black skinny jeans, and black-and-red guitar hi Converses. A plaid turquoise shirt, with 'TJ's Experts' embroidered on the left breast pocket, hung open over the top.
Suddenly Ratchet recognised the design on the shirt. "Iron Fist, right?"
The girl raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Phoenix design. How'd you know?"
Ratchet shrugged and grinned. "I always wanted one as a kid. My foster mother thought it was too morbid."
"And? That's the point of them," the girl laughed. "The name's Quasar. Nicola Quasar. But you can call me Nicco."
"Everybody calls her Nicco." A Markazian with blond, wavy hair that reached her elbows, tied up with a green ribbon, olive skin, and ocean blue eyes walked out of what was obviously a locker room. The pallid turquoise shirt was present here too, so it obviously passed as uniform at this place. Underneath was a pink polo shirt, mauve shorts, flowery pink knee-length socks and, weirdly, brown work boots. But the odd footwear wasn't what held Ratchet's attention the most.
For a start, the girl's tail, instead of being long and flowing with a delicate tip like most Markazian tails, was a stump. It was about five or six inches long, which ended in a lumpy, rounded end. Knowing it was rude to stare at people's deformities, he turned his attention to the girl's other fascinating oddity.
There were soft, green, wispy marks all over her body. They curled along the line of her brow, ran down the sides of her face, branching off to swirl over her cheek bones (stopping a good few centimetres before they reached the bridge of her nose), continuing down to meet below her jaw, crossing over and sweeping along her shoulders, before trailing along her collar bone. Ratchet saw that she had more wisps flowing down the back of her leg and crawling along the centre of her wrists, ending in a dainty swirl on each palm.
The blond let him stare for a moment before twirling slowly, causing the Lombax to blush and look away. "It's okay," she said good naturedly. "Everyone stares when they first see me. The name's Claire Sutton. Thanks for not focusing on the tail."
Nicco leant on a spare fork lift. "You still miss it don't you?"
"Uh, hello," Claire waved at the stub, which flicked in her annoyance. "It was a part of me! I miss it like you miss your leg!"
At Ratchet's curious glance, the other girl rolled up the right leg of her jeans, revealing that the limb from the knee down, was fully robotic. "I'm an albino too. I use contacts and hair dye because..." she paused, thinking. "well, it's just who I am."
"And you two are both cool with being so open with me," said the Lombax. "Why, exactly?"
"Two reasons," the secret albino answered. "One: you survived the mystery beam, so you've earned the right to know a few secrets. And two: you brought in a Lombax ship, which means your either a good mechanic, or you have really good taste."
"And three," Claire said, "you've been friendly, and you haven't asked probing questions. But I would like to know your name."
"My name's Ratchet." He stuck his hand out for Claire to shake, and after she did, he offered it to Nicco.
"Nah," she said, and held her fist out. Ratchet immediately got it, smirked, and bumped his fist against her's. "That's better."
"What's this about a Lombax ship?" Someone stepped through the same door Ratchet had come in by. A female someone. "No-one's touched it, right?"
"Not a finger," said Claire.
"I connected up a power pack," said Nicco.
"Well, I know who to blame if the engine falls out."
"WHAT?" Aphelion sounded worried, even afraid.
Ratchet walked up and stroked her wing. "It's OK, Aphelion. It's OK."
"Sorry. Aphelion, is it." The mystery voice was getting closer. "It's an inside joke. Don't worry, I won't let it happen to you." She tapped Ratchet on the shoulder. "You the owner?"
"Yeah, I-" Ratchet's voice died as he turned as he saw who he was talking to. There, right in front of him, clear as day, real as Aphelion...
... was a Lombax...
AUTHOR'S INPUT: Hi hi,
Thank Gods! Finally! Finished!
I know that a Lombax isn't much of a surprise for those of you who read my inputs, but look at it from Ratchet's point of view. Tachyon tells him he's the last of his kind (in this dimension), he has no other point of reference, so what's he gonna believe?
Anyway, review time. These are reviews for chapter five.
Shakespeare's Entourage
This was a very good chapter especially the cliffhanger, really I thought the Medulla Oblongata had something to do with anger, but yeah I checked wikipedia and that is why you can't breath when being hung by the neck until dead.
You guys are an online couple you are virtual dating, tell me what does Shadow look like, hmm.
Anyway keep going!
Thanks, Shakey. I liked the cliffhanger too. Nice comment about hanging.
Also, due to the fact we've had the whole 'online couple' argument, the fact that being reminded of it pisses me off royally, and the fact that you didn't use a capital letter 's' in Shadow's name (which you should with people's names), I will not allow you to use my fic as an advertising media! Bloody cheek!
Acuraaquatoslegend
This story is just better and better. :D
Thanks, Acuraaquatoslegend.
Bye byes,
Timid Vulpine.