Ratchet fell to the ground as a large metal object collided with the back of his head. He thought fast and grabbed the wrench off the table and lashed back at the person behind him. His head was spinning so he could barely see the attacker but he knew he hit his mark when he heard a cry. The lombax jumped to his feet and landed another successful blow before getting hit straight in the gut and falling into a pile of scrap metal. He heard a loud squawk as the intruder grabbed his by the scruff of the neck and held him against a wall. He knew that bird call, it couldn't be. Ratchet looked up and came face to face with who he thought; the smuggler.

"You," Ratchet said angrily "what do you want."

"Well I was just stopping by," he said lazily looking around the room. "Thought I'd check in on my number one customer."

"And that involves sneaking up on me and smacking me in the back god damn of the head?!" He practically yelled trying to get the man's hands off his neck.

"Brawk, skin the lombax." The parrot on his shoulder cried.

"You got me," He said ignoring the parrot's outburst. "There's a little something I wanted to talk to you about. You remember when I gave you the RYNO V..."

Ratchet did. He spent forever finding the blueprints to make the weapon. What did the bootlegger want, bolts? He never said it would cost him anything.

"What, you want me to pay you for it? Look pal, you said it was free if I got you the blueprints."

"You did, but somehow galactic authority found out that the great "hero" Ratchet got his hands on the illegal weapon, and they thought, just how did he get it?" He said coolly.

Ratchet gulped, now he saw where this was going.

"Well, they tracked me down and found out I'd sold you that, and other outlawed weapons. They confiscated my ship and I nearly went to prison, but old feather brains over here helped me escape," He motioned to the bird. "Now, what I want is compensation."

"It's your own fault for getting caught," Ratchet cried to the blue figure "You knew the weapon could get you in trouble, but you gave me it anyway."

"Brawk! Kill the lombax, hide his body!" The bird squawked again. Ratchet winced slightly at the graphic image the bird made.

"Whoa, whoa," The alien said keeping his cool even as anger built inside of him. He adjusted his large brimmed hat with his free shoulder and continued. "I just want a small fee, you know to replace my ship and for "emotional damages"."

Ratchet sighed. "How much?"

"I think a good number would be about... five hundred million bolts."

"Are you crazy?!" The lombax exclaimed "Who has that type of money?!"

"If you don't have the bolts, there are other ways to pay." A glint appeared in the smuggler's uncovered eye.

Ratchet's face paled. Oh God, what did he want from him?

I have a few chapters done but I don't want to post them all at once. Leave a review if you're enjoying the story so far