Chapter 12. Museum Heist
The group that entered the window landed safely thanks to MTM's parachute and clank's helipack mode.
"Well we managed to get on the ground now what?" Clank asked.
"We should probably go this way." Calvin said remembering bits of the museum trip.
They quietly walked in the direction Calvin was going.
Calvin peeked a corner and suddenly peeked back away.
"Camera" Calvin whispered to the others.
They stopped where Calvin was.
"We'll just wait here until Hobbes and Ratchet disable the Alarm and Camera's"
"Good idea" Sonic said "Do we have anyway of Communicating with Hobbes or Ratchet?"
Calvin dug through his hypercube and pulled out a walkie talkie "I gave the other one to Hobbes before he went with Ratchet."
He then pressed the button and said "Hobbes are you and Ratchet at the security room yet?"
"No we are not in the Security room yet just give us a few minutes to find it and disable the Cameras and Alarm" Hobbes said on the other side.
Ratchet and Hobbes were currently going though the vent which was wide and tall enough for them to stand up and walk.
As they followed the map to the security room Ratchet asked a question that is probably on your minds.
"Why would a museum put a powerful and potently dangerous gem in the wrong hands in a exhibit?"
"We'll you know museum's if they find something rare they put it in without question." Hobbes said.
Finally they stopped at the grate that led to the room they were looking for.
They peeked out to see that there was one guard sitting in a chair, apparently asleep.
"Ok that guard may be asleep but we need to be careful not to make any noise" Ratchet said.
"Got it" Hobbes replied.
They tried to push the grate out but it wouldn't budge.
"Whats going on why won't it budge?" Ratchet whispered.
Hobbes peeked through the grate and noticed the problem. "Ah now I see why it won't budge."
"Why's that" Ratchet asked.
"The screws are on the grate" Hobbes said.
"Oh, well I guess were not going that way" Ratchet said.
"Don't give up just yet Ratchet" Hobbes said. "I think I can get the screws off from here."
It took awhile for Hobbes to get his arm in the grate but he eventually got it, he used his fingernail that help's him unlock doors, to get the screws off, with him catching one when it was loosened enough to fall.
After that they moved the grate quietly and landed.
"We'd better take care of the guard first." Hobbes said motioning at the guard.
"Good point" Ratchet said.
Hobbes managed to find a closet that was big enough to fit the guard in along with the chair he was sitting in and with some difficulty get the guard in the closet.
With that out of the way they went into the room where the monitors from the security cameras were.
"Strange" Hobbes said looking around. "There should be at least one guard in here" He then observed the Monitors
"In fact there should be other guard's in the museum instead there are none."
"Maybe they're on break" Ratchet suggested.
"Yeah your probably right" Hobbes said. "But I just have this feeling that this all seams a bit to easy."
"Let's just disable the alarm." Ratchet said. "I mean with no guards that mean's we can just observe and alert the group getting the emerald in case one of Eggman's robot's get's in.
Then Ratchet got his hacking tool out and began disabling the alarm.
While he was doing that he decided to talk to Hobbes about Calvin.
"You know that friend of your's Calvin" Ratchet said as he hacked the group.
"Yeah what about him" Hobbes asked curious on why he was bringing up the subject.
"What's is with him and those inventions he makes?" Ratchet asked. "He just seams to have a lot of them.
"Well he just likes making inventions that from his prespective can change the world, and to mine end it." Hobbes said. "I've almost never told Calvin this but, sometimes his inventions aren't as dangerous to me as he thinks."
"So let me get this straight" Ratchet said. "You tell Calvin that his inventions could end the world, but in reality you like those inventions."
"I think that pretty much sums it up" Hobbes replied.
Suddenly there was a beep, and Ratchet removed the hacking tool.
"Alarm's disabled." he said.
"Good" Hobbes said. "I just hope the rest of us are ok."
Meanwhile our heroes have been hiding from a security camera for 10 minutes.
10 MINUTES!
"Whats taking them so long?" Amy asked.
"I don't really know but they're taking longer then they should" Jak said.
"I'm going to call Hobbes on my walkie talkie to see if everything is going ok" Calvin said pulling out his walkie talkie.
He then pressed the call button "Hobbes what is taking you so long?
It didn't take long to get a response. "We disabled the alarm but not the security cameras, because strangely,aside from the one that we hid in the closet, there isn't a guard in the building." Hobbes voice replied.
"Are you sure? Did you check the Cameras." Calvin asked
There was a pause as Hobbes checked the security cameras. "Absolutely positive, there are no guards."
"Shouldn't we a bit suspicious" Jak asked "a bunch of guard's don't just vanish all at once."
"Your probably right Jak" Clank said "Something or someone must have caused all of the guards to disappear."
"Were going to use the Camera's for monitoring now." Hobbes said. "Just continue with the plan, and let us know when you get to the emerald so ratchet can open it."
"Ok Hobbes" Calvin said, and then he put the walkie talkie away for now.
After that Calvin said that Hobbes and Ratchet will now be watching them through the camera's.
"Well that sounds good." Amy said. "Less guard's mean it's easier."
"Don't get your hopes up to far Amy" Sonic said "Even without the guards we could get attacked by Eggman while this is going on."
"Can we cut the chatter and get the emerald already" Calvin said. "The more time we stand here the more time Eggman has to mobilize forces and attack us."
"You have a point there Calvin" Sonic said. "Let's get moving."
They came out of the hiding spot and quietly ran to the rare gems exhibit.
Meanwhile Earl watched their current progress from a shuttle.
"Yes" Earl said "The pieces are falling into place, they didn't know the guards vanishing are my doing."
He looked back at a group of clothes that looked like they were from the missing guards.
He then pressed a button and a microphone came out. "Crew, send Lenny and Biff to the museum, and soldier's wait for their order."
Lenny and Biff went to the teleporter. "Beam us down Scotty" Lenny said.
Even though they were completely serious now thanks to the chip in their brain, they still had time for the occasional joke.
Scotty, yes that is the aliens actual name punched in the coordinates, and pressed the teleport button.
A beam of green light went over them and then it receded they were gone.
Meanwhile our heroes were stopped by a gate that led to the exhibit.
"Hobbes can you have Ratchet open the gate." Calvin asked though the walkie talkie.
A few moments after he said that the gate opened up.
They then stepped into the rare gem exhibit.
"So do you know which case the emerald is in" Daxter asked, as they looked around.
"If I recall it was probably around there" Calvin said pointing somewhere along the left of the exhibit.
As they searched around something started making noise.
Calvin paused and slowly looked around. "Uh guys do you ever have that felling that your not alone in a room that is seamlingly empty?"
"Why do you ask that?" Sonic said.
"Because I think were not alone in here." Calvin said nervously
Suddenly something tumbled and rolled down revealing an empty can of soda.
Jak got his weapon out, Clank got in his best fighting stance, Sonic got ready for whatever came out, Calvin aimed the MTM, and Daxter well...
He just hid behind one of the stands.
All of them faced the darkness where the can came out of.
"Are you sure whatever's there is coming out?" Clank asked.
"Maybe, Maybe not" Calvin replied.
Then two figures emerged.
It was Lenny and Biff.
Calvin then lowered the MTM "Oh, it's just those guys."
"Wait you know them?" Sonic asked confused.
"Just let me handle them, they'll be gone in no time" Calvin said not hearing them.
Then he went out of the room to handle them.
"So what are the odd's of him getting out and the aliens attacking" Amy asked.
"About 95 percent" Clank said.
"Ok I'll get my blaster ready" Jak said.
Meanwhile Hobbes and Ratchet watched Calvin walk away with the aliens.
"Let's hope Calvin get's away ok with those alien's." Hobbes said. "But knowing these alien's he's going to get out fine."
"Wait hold on, How do you know these aliens?" Ratchet asked.
Hobbes looked at Ratchet as if he wanted to tell him something, until he finally decided to tell him.
"Thses are alien's from Zok, we met them a few years ago Calvin and I were dared to go to a summer camp by his bully Moe" Hobbes began.
"Nice person." Ratcet muttered.
"He beat's up Calvin every day while he's at school." Hobbes said.
"Hey I was just commenting" Ratcet said. "And what kind of person would name their planet Zok anyway?"
"Look do you want to hear the story or not?" Hobbes asked sternly.
"Ok ok" Ratchet said.
"Anyway" Hobbes said continuing his story "When we arrived we found that the camp was run by a guy called John Howard Chill, and for the few days we where there we noticed odd things about the camp, like the fact there were security cameras's there."
"Hmm well it makes sense that the security camera's are here" Ratchet said thinking about it. "But it doesn't make sense for the camera's there"
"Exactly" Hobbes said before continuing on with his story. "Sometime I noticed a few things that Calvin didn't like an outline of one of the aliens. We ran away from the camp when one of the alien's attacked us."
"After Calvin got us lost in the wild we found this room with oxygen adaptation tablet's, and heat increaser tablets"
"Wait what are those" Ratchet asked interrupting again.
"Those are what the alien's used to adapt to our planet." Hobbes explained before going back to his story. "We also found various tools which Calvin took and I think reversed engineered those tool's into his inventions you see today."
"After we escaped from the chamber, John and his right hand man Earl found us, it was then we realized that those two were aliens." as soon as he said that last word a dramatic chord went off.
Hobbes looked and saw that the MTM had teleported there.
"What are you doing here MTM?" Hobbes asked. "Aren't you supposed to be with Calvin?"
"Oh sorry I just heard you telling the story, and I thought I would make a dramatic chord when something revealing happened." The MTM explained.
"Yes that really nice but can you go back to Calvin now before he realizes your missing." Hobbes asked the CD player.
"You sure." The MTM asked "I could make this story more interesting."
"Just get back to Calvin" Hobbes said rolling his eyes.
And so the MTM went back to Calvin.
"Anyway" Hobbes said going back to his story "Not only did he reveal that they were alien's but that John Howard Chill's real name was Rupert Chill" And as soon as he said that name another dramatic chord went off.
Hobbes looked and saw that Ratchet had a recorder that played that dramatic chord.
"Look do you want to hear this story or not" Hobbes said starring sternly at Ratchet.
"Sorry" Ratchet said putting the tape recorder away.
"The alien's intentions were that they wanted to capture the earth potentate.."
"An Earth what?" Ratchet asked.
"It's someone who rule's the planet." Hobbes explained.
"Oh" Ratchet said.
"to take over earth and they Believed that Calvin was the Earth Potentate" Hobbes said continuing his story. "But we were rescued by a couple of old friends."
"Who were they?" Ratchet asked.
"We're not spoiling who they are now." Hobbes said before continuing on with his story. "We managed to stop then and ever since then they have been after us, and they have tried many times to get us, if not for one problem with their crew."
"What was that problem?" Ratchet asked.
"To put it simply they were a bunch of idiot's." Hobbes said.
"Ah" Ratchet said.
"During our last meeting Calvin disguised himself as one of them, and made Rupert and Earl take us in so he can carry out a plan he had, and that plan involved Rupert being forced into his human counterpart's disguise" Hobbes said.
"Did the plan work?" Ratchet asked.
"Yep police took Rupert in and we haven't heard from the aliens since until now." Hobbes said ending the story.
"So I'd take it you and these alien's have a bit of history" Ratchet said after thinking about the story for a moment.
"Yeah pretty much" Hobbes said going back to looking at the monitor's the one with the two aliens to be more specific. "But why would they reappear after month's of inactivity?"
Just then the alien's paused and Checked something, Hobbes quickly paused it and what he saw made his blood run cold.
It was a laser pistol.
"What's wrong Hobbes" Ratchet asked.
"We need to warn Calvin" Hobbes said quickly pulling out his walkie talkie.
"Why do we need to warn him if those are the crew members he doesn't have to worry about it" Ratchet pointed out.
"I don't think these are the same crew members as we saw last time" Hobbes said.
Then he pressed the call button "CALVIN IF YOU ARE READING THIS YOU ARE WALKING INTO A TRAP, GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"
Calvin of course didn't hear it.
After they got a good enough distance, Calvin began to talk.
"So how's trying to save Rupert going?" Calvin asked "Still trying to break him out of prison."
The alien's stared blankly at him.
"I' guessing your still trying to break him out judging by the look your giving me" Calvin said looking at the alien's.
The aliens continued starring blankly.
"Anyway, If you two could just leave us be, I think we can get another few month's of peace, what do you think?"
The alien's continued staring blankly.
"Ok is this all your going to give me a blank stare." Calvin said annoyed by the lack of response.
Then the aliens pulled out their laser pistol's and aimed at him.
Calvin stared at them for a bit.
"I should probably start running now." He said.
Then he threw his hands up and started running away screaming as he went.
Then Lenny got out his radio and said. "Send the troops in."
"Roger that" The Alien said over the line. "Prepare your weapons soldiers."
The alien troops were different then the crew, instead of a red uniform they were a dark uniform, had communicators and they all had blasters.
Right now they were in a shuttle that was going for the musuem.
"We are approaching the museum get ready to drop"
The aliens went over to the side of the ship and waited.
The ship then arrived at the museum and the pilot pressed a button.
One by one the aliens went down, and they fell towards the museum.
Meanwhile the rest of our heroes were searching for the emerald while they were waiting for Calvin to get back, from the aliens when they heard a noise that sounded like screaming.
They looked at the doorway where the screaming was coming from, and saw that it was Calvin running back to them.
As soon as he entered the room the glass on the roof broke, and aliens came down, and began to surround them.
"I'd take it negotiations didn't go well." Jak said.
"What tipped you off, me running back screaming or the fact that were getting surrounded by aliens?" Calvin asked.
"Probably both" Jak replied.
"We need to find the emerald quickly." Sonic said. "Something tells me that they aren't going to stop until we're dead."
"Good idea" Calvin said. "The faster we get it the better."
Then they split up to find the emerald.
Despite the fact that these were elite alien soldiers they couldn't even hit the target even if they were standing still.
The reason? They only had 30 minutes of firearm training.
Jak was holding them off with his blaster, which was accurately hitting the aliens.
When one aliens went down the alien next to him looked up and saw a laser pointer on his chest.
"I knew we should have installed laser pointers on our weapon's." The alien soldier said.
Then he got shot.
Meanwhile Calvin was frantically dodging laser blasts trying to find the emerald.
Then he found the emerald, and brought the walkie talkie.
"Hobbes Ratchet I found the emerald" Calvin said over the laser blasts. "Open the case up."
"Right" Hobbes said on the other end. "We'll try to open the case."
Just then an alien came up and grabbed Calvin. "Your mine now earth potentate"
"Really" Calvin said. "I didn't have you on schedule today."
The alien paused confused at the statement and gave Calvin enough time to free it's grasp and then stomped on a tentacle causing the alien to cry out in pain.
"Ok Calvin were going to open it now" Hobbes said over the walkie talkie.
Calvin waited for the case to open, but it didn't instead the one next to him opened up.
"Hobbes that's the wrong case" Calvin yelled.
"Sorry" Hobbes said on the other end. "Ratchet is trying to find the right one now."
Meanwhile Sonic was attempting to hold them off along with Jak, but it seamed that if one alien went down another took it's place.
"We can't hold them off forever" Jak said as more alien's went though the roof. "We need to get the emerald soon."
"Calvin is trying to get the case open right now." Sonic said kicking an alien.
"We'll it look's like so far it's not having any luck" Jak said looking at Calvin, who was yelling at Hobbes on the walkie talkie on opening the wrong door again.
"CAN'T YOU TELL THAT YOUR OPENING THE WRONG DOOR!." Calvin was yelling.
"I'm going to help Calvin out with the case" Jak said. "Try and hold them off, Sonic."
"Ok." Sonic said as Jak went over to Calvin.
Calvin meanwhile was waiting for Ratchet and Hobbes to open the case hoping it was going to be the right one.
"Alright Calvin this should be the right one this time." Hobbes said.
"It better be" Calvin said.
Then there was a sound of a case opened, Calvin looked up and saw that it was the one next to him.
"DARN IT HOBBES" Calvin yelled.
Just then Jak came over. "Still haven't got the case opened?"
"Nope Hobbes still hasn't got the right one." Calvin said.
"We're going to have to break the glass" Jak said.
"What?" Calvin yelled. "We're going to leave evidence behind."
"Well didn't you mention that the alarm hasn't been installed there, and the fact that the alarm is disabled right now." Jak said. "So we should probably break the glass to get the emerald."
"But we don't know how resistant the glass is." Calvin said.
"Is anyone forgetting about me?" The MTM asked. "I could scan the glass to see if it's breakable or not."
They though about it for a moment.
"Well it's not like we have a ton of options left anyway." Calvin said.
And Calvin started scanning the glass.
While all this was going all and our characters in the exhibit were fighting Daxter was hiding under a bench trying not to be detected by the aliens.
"I have no idea how I got into this." Daxter whispered fearfuly.
Just then he felt something around his leg, and when he turned around, he saw that one of the aliens had him.
He screamed as he got dragged out of his hiding place, soon coming face to face with the face of the alien that grabbed him.
"Well, well, well look what we have here" The alien said.
"Please don't eat me, Please don't eat me, PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!" Daxter frantacly screamed.
"Oh, I'm not going to eat you" the alien said "I'm just going to use you as some leverage to get the emerald from your friends."
Just then the alien's head got hit from behind causing him to let go of Daxter, and fall to the ground.
Daxter got up to reveal Amy had saved him.
"Thanks for saving me." Daxter said
"No problem" Amy said. "So how's the emerald going."
"The last I checked Calvin was scanning the case with the cd player" Daxter said. "And right now Sonic is holding them on his own"
"We better help him." Amy said. "He's not going to last long on his own."
Amy began to ran off then she paused. "This does not something I am doing just because I love him!" She said before continuing.
Daxter thought about it for a moment, then deciding that there was nothing better to do he followed Amy.
Amy was right about Sonic he was slowly getting overwhelmed by the alien's while Calvin was scanning the case to decide if the glass was breakable or not.
Though Jak often helped him, it was only when an alien got though, so pretty much Sonic was slowly losing.
Then an alien got hammered in the back, revealing Amy had did it.
"Thanks Amy" Sonic said. "I could have used some help."
"No problem." Amy said. "How's Calvin with the case."
"Still scanning it" Sonic said.
Meanwhile the MTM had finally finished scanning.
"So how can the glass on the case be broken?" Calvin said.
"We'll shooting it isn't an option, and..." The MTM began.
Just the they heard the glass case shattered. Calvin turned and saw that Jak had shattered the case with the stock of his weapon.
"What?" he asked. "You didn't say anything about being immune to blunt objects."
"Just grab the emerald." Calvin said.
Jak then grabbed the emerald "Now let's get out of here."
Calvin then got his walkie talkie out. "Hobbes once were out of here enable the alarms"
"WHAT?!" Hobbes yelled "We're going to get caught if we do that!"
"Trust me" Calvin said. "First everyone get around me so we can teleport me out of here."
Everyone got around Calvin, and he pressed a few buttons on the MTM and with a field of electricity they we're on the roof.
In the security room, Ratchet was starting the alarm's again along with another thing.
"Is it done?" Hobbes asked.
"Yes but we only have 1 minute to get out of here before the alarm starts." Ratchet said as he quickly unpluged his hacking device.
The duo quickly exited the room, and went into the vent.
Hobbes then quickly got the grate closed and put the screw's back on, they managed to get out of there before the alarm went off.
The resulting sound caused all the aliens to teleport out of there, it also woke the guard Hobbes and Ratchet found earlier, as he struggled to get out and when he finally got out he saw that everything was normal, he then checked the camera room, and saw that everything was normal, all except that the case containing the chaos emerald was shattered. He decided to call tomorrow morning to investigate the break in and went back to sleep.
Meanwhile on the roof everyone met up.
"We'll we did a good job." Ratchet said. "But it could have gone better if it weren't for the aliens."
Everyone murmured in agreement
"But what about the security camera's?" Sonic asked. "Their going to see what happened in there."
"Actually we did hack the cameras." Hobbes said. "We just disabled the recording though."
"Also i found out why Hobbes kept opening the wrong case door's." The MTM said.
"Why's that?" Calvin asked.
"The alarm also doubled as a case opener" The MTM explained simply.
"WHAT!" Calvin yelled. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"
"And ruin a dramatic heist?" The MTM asked
"Ok now that we have all those out of the way." Jak said. "Let's find that next emerald."
With that they exited the roof.