Alright, still here!
...
I really have no inspiration for author's notes right now I'm afraid, add to that I'm writing this on a new computer I put together a few weeks ago. Intel i5 quad core, Nvidia 4GB GPU and 8GB worth of ram, it's a dream come true!
The keyboard is not, however. It's excellent for gaming, don't get me wrong, but it's a nightmare for typing, I make typo's all the time!
In facdt I am writing this sentence without correcting any mistake I make. So far only one typo? Dang, when Iwwant to - otthere we go. See? The space adn shift keys don't register that well, I'm afraid.
Back to correcting typo's again. Anyhow, let's just get this show on the road.
Reviews:
Max Chronicle: "Yoda, Clank is. Shiz really that is.
Okay enough of that, I suck at doing that. But what doesn't suck, this chapter. Also, what's up with the Bouncer appearing all of sudden? Legendary Bogonite Weapon available to pre-order and the next thing I know, everyone is using it. Not that I have any problems with that, of course. It's legendary for a reason.
Second, Hypernova was on fire today. Way to go, bro. Now, I can't wait for chapter seven. Going to be sick. Have fun and we'll talk later.
Max out."
Thanks! I put a lot of effort into that little detail for some comic relief, and I'm glad it worked! And that Hypernova has the Bouncer doesn't mean it's a common weapon...
Hypernova: "and you know it!" *Brofist*
rst64tlc: "Awww, I was hoping you have a delayed reaction on how you're going to answer my question. pity. anyways I wonder what Hypernova will do the Qwark when he finds out"
Sorry, I rarely spoil stuff in review replies. I'm afraid you'll have to wait and see, but trust me when I say that you'll find out soon enough. And what Hypernova will do to Qwark? Well... you'll be surprised. Again I won't be spoiling any of it, but you'll be surprised!
Before we begin, may I express my thanks for the fact that people are still here? If you're reading this, then thank you so much! And I hope you'll enjoy this next chapter!
Soon, Nebula G34 came into view. Landing in a docking bay in the back of the asteroid field, Ratchet tried to stay undetected, and succeeded. Climbing out of the ship, he radioed Captain Qwark. "Captain, come in! Clank and I are in position and ready to commence Operation: Falling Star!" Ratchet whispered through the communications.
"Roger, cadet, you're clear to move out." Qwark replied.
But then Clank's antenna flashed. "Ratchet I am detecting a Drek Industries gadget outside this airlock."
"Sweet, let's check it out!" Ratchet said as he stepped into the airlock. However, as the area started de-pressurizing, Ratchet noticed that his visor wasn't auto-deploying like it was supposed to. He wanted to warn Clank or Qwark, but it was too late, the other door opened and Ratchet was exposed directly to a vacuum.
Thankfully, Clank had noticed that something was off. He got off Ratchet's back immediately and slammed the emergency lockdown button. The airlock closed immediately, and air was pumped back in.
Running to his friend, Clank quickly gave Ratchet some Nanotech that he had taken with him from the hall of heroes. "Thanks, pal." Ratchet said as he got up. "Still, what the hell just happened?"
"It seems your suit is malfunctioning. Perhaps I should venture outside the airlock on my own." Clank suggested.
"That seems to be our only shot." Ratchet said as he walked back to the ship. "I'll wait here, pal. Good luck!"
As Clank stepped out into the vacuum of space, he noticed that he was actually standing in an elevator. Stepping onto the button in the center of the room, the elevator began to move.
Stepping out of the elevator, Clank found himself outside the station, in an area likely used for maintenance. Clank began his search in a nearby docked shuttle. He noticed the closed back door immediately, and a quick scan confirmed his suspicion that, if he could manage to get it open, it would provide him with an excellent way to explore further.
Clank managed to find a Gadgebot in the Spring-Bot configuration, and used it to boost himself up to the cockpit of the ship. As there was no air, his Heli-Pack was useless here.
In the cockpit, however, he found something that would prove invaluable. "How fortuitous. It is a Gadgebot upgrade chip." Clank said to himself as he opened up his chest compartment and manually added the chip to his wiring.
He glitched a bit for a few seconds, but then he was good to go. After dropping down from the cockpit, Clank picked up the Spring-Bot again, but with his newly installed hardware, he could force the Gadgebot to take on a different form.
Clank made it transform into a Power-Bot, and placed it next to a power module that was, sadly out of power.
The Power-Bot took over the power module's functions, providing enough electricity for Clank to be able to open the doors.
Upon picking the bot up again, however, the doors slammed shut, indicating that they required a constant power surge.
"What an inefficient, yet remarkable system." Clank said to himself, although he made no sound without air.
"How's it going over there, pal?" Clank heard. It was Ratchet, on a secure radio channel.
"Very well. I just picked up a new gadget." Clank transmitted back with the antenna on his head.
"Ooh, man, what did you find?! You know you have to share whatever you found!"
Clank giggled at the thought of giving Ratchet the chip, saying something among the lines of 'have fun'. "I think I will keep these for me, thank you. However, there is another gadget nearby. I will collect it for you." he transmitted back. True to his word, the Gadgebot upgrade chip wasn't the gadget that he had noticed earlier.
"Oh, fine!" Ratchet transmitted as Clank stepped out of the shuttle onto a maintenance platform. Finding a Gadgebot that had not yet been assigned a function, Clank turned it into a Bridge-Bot, the third kind of Gadgebot configurations. Bridge-Bot were able to stretch their torso to incredible lengths while deploying platforms to create a bridge.
Clank threw the Bridge-Bot, and the robot's upper half shot forward, grabbing the edge of the next platform, while the Bridge-Bot's feet stayed behind as an anchoring point for the bridge it was about to deploy.
After the Bridge-Bot had been deployed, Clank walked across to a maintenance area, where he managed to find another Gadgebot, which brought him closer to a docked starship.
Upon entering the starship, the door closed behind Clank. The robot looked around. To his right was an uncharged power module, one that controlled the door. A scan of the system revealed that this one, too, would close if the power ran out, likely a safety precaution.
There were two neutral Gadgebots in the room, one up ahead, and one to Clank's left, on top of a ledge. "Quite the puzzle." the robot mumbled, again making no sound.
Clank grabbed the only Gadgebot that he could reach and transformed it into a Spring-Bot, and used it to grab the other Gadgebot. Now that he could reach both Gadgebots, Clank transformed them both into Power-Bots, and threw one of them at the power module. Latching on, the little robot opened the door. Clank placed a Power-Bot next to another power module that he found on the other side of the door, and with two Gadgebots providing power to the door, Clank was able to retrieve the first Gadgebot.
Then he used both to power up the two power modules necessary for opening the door to the cockpit.
Walking into the cockpit, the signal became overwhelming, there was no doubt that what the little robot was looking for was in this room, and after a while the robot's patience was rewarded.
A few minutes later, Ratchet got up as the airlock hissed, and Clank came walking out with a pair of silver boots. Clank gave them to Ratchet, but as soon as the Lombax took them to take a good look at them, Clank jumped at him.
"Hey! You giving me these or not?" Ratchet asked to the robot, who was sticking to the boots like glue.
"They are magnetic. I appear to be stuck to them." Clank explained.
"Oh. Oops!" Ratchet said as he pulled the boots away from each other, releasing Clank.
The robot shot backwards and slammed into the wall with a loud "Oof!"
"You okay, pal?" Ratchet asked.
Clank giggled. "I have been through worse."
Ratchet nodded. "What are these anyway?" he asked, staring at the shoes.
"They are Magne-Boots. Wearing them should allow you to walk on magnetized or electrically charged metal surfaces, including walls and ceilings. If the magnetic attraction is sufficient, that is."
"let's hope so." Ratchet said. "I bet they'll come in handy. Awesome work, pal! But what upgrade did you find that you'll keep to yourself?"
Clank let out his trademark giggle. "I doubt that it would be of much use to you. It is an upgrade chip for robotic life forms, this one allows me to reprogram Gadgebots, as long as I am holding them."
Ratchet chuckled. "Nope, I can't use those."
"Ratchet, come in!" Qwark suddenly spoke through the communications. "What's our status on Operation: Falling Star?"
"Erm, we got a little distracted. We're on it!"
"Copy that. I'm counting on you, Ratchet. Qwark out."
"Come on, pal. Let's get going." Ratchet said.
Walking to the other side of the hangar, the duo was presented with two options, either explore the rest of the station, or take a shuttle to a decommissioned Blargian warship.
"A Blarg warship?" Ratchet asked.
"Correct." Clank said, reading the data on the monitors of the shuttle. "This one seems to have been created to store or transport Drek's high-value experiments."
"Sounds like what we're looking for. Alright, let's go." Ratchet said, sitting down in what he thought was the pilot's seat. "So, where's the steering wheel in this thing?"
Clank giggled. "Ratchet, that seat is embedded in the wall for a reason. I believe that you are sitting on the shuttle's sanitary provisions."
"Eugh!" Ratchet said, getting up immediately. "But it's the only seat in this thing!"
"Correct. This ship has auto-piloting. I am currently hacking the computer so that it can take us to the warship without alerting anyone on-board of our presence."
A few minutes later the doors closed behind them, and they were off.
Docking the shuttle in the back of the warship, the duo silently got out. Ratchet tip-toed over to a corner and glanced around it. He noticed a Blargian soldier, the Blarg was sitting against the wall, typing on his mobile phone.
Ratchet grabbed his Combustor and fired, but forgetting about his lack of training when it came to dealing with the Protosuit, he only hit the Blarg's phone, sending it flying out of the surprised Blarg's hands.
"Sonuva-" the Blarg yelled, getting up. He froze when he saw the Lombax with the robot on his back. "Hey! You shouldn't be in he-"
Ratchet quickly knocked the Blarg out cold with his wrench. He was then presented with two choices, go either left or right. "Both hallways lead to the same room." Clank informed, having downloaded a map of the warship from the shuttle's computer.
"Alright then." Ratchet whispered, going right.
He entered a larger, rectangular room with four large machines built against the left and right walls. Two Blarg were also present, arguing.
Ratchet decided to try his luck with his Combustor again, and this time, he managed to score a hit in the face. The other Blarg, however, was alerted immediately, reaching for his Blaster. Ratchet quickly jumped out of the way of the laser fire sent his way, and after five shots, the Blarg reloaded his weapon, leaving Ratchet with an opportunity to strike.
Ratchet shot forward, but the Blarg had already reloaded his weapon, and fired. Out of instinct, Ratchet raised his wrench defensively, and luckily for him, it blocked the shot.
After striking down the other Blarg, Ratchet walked on, to the ship's cockpit.
The cockpit was round, with a walkway shaped like a crescent moon leading up to the level Ratchet was on. Up ahead, on the other side of the room, Ratchet could see two Blarg staring at something. After sneaking closer, Ratchet saw that it was an experimental weapon on a pedestal.
"Ain't she a beaut?" one of the Blarg said.
Before the other Blarg could respond, Ratchet threw a bomb in between the two, sending the two Blarg flying into the walls.
With the two Blarg out cold, Ratchet smashed the casing protecting the weapon and picked it up.
He inspected the weapon, and learned that it was called the 'Predator Launcher'.
Suddenly, the alarms went off. "Alert! Unauthorized experimental weapon removal! Self-Destruct sequence initiated!" the computer blared, and a monitor on the wall showed a thirty-second countdown.
The whole ship shook as it began to explode. "Oh, shit!" Ratchet yelled, making a run for it.
Meanwhile on Kerwan...
"Elaris, have you seen Ratchet or Clank?" Hypernova asked.
"Nope, sorry." Elaris said, glancing over her shoulder. "Weren't they supposed to be with you?"
"Ratchet was, I was supposed to teach him some combat tricks. He's not helpless in combat, but he's mostly acting on luck and instinct rather than skill, which is very dangerous."
Elaris shrugged. "Well, I haven't seen 'em. Let me know when you do, I've got something that I need Clank's opinion on."
"You got it." Hypernova said, walking off. He began to think, where could they be?
After a while, he heard something. It was Ratchet. "Oh, shit!" he heard the Lombax yell from afar.
"Oh, no." Hypernova muttered, activating his hoverboots and racing to where the sound had come from.
Kicking down the door to Qwark's quarters, he scanned the area.
"Aah!"
Turning to where the sound came from, he saw Qwark. In bed. Watching TV. "What's wrong with you?! Don't you know the word 'knocking'?"
"I heard a scream coming from this room."
"Maybe because I'm watching an action movie?"
"It was Ratchet's voice."
Qwark shrugged. "You probably heard it wrong."
Hypernova walked closer to see the video for himself, but Qwark quickly turned off the monitor, and the sounds of explosions and yells vanished.
Hypernova tilted his head slightly. "Mind to explain the reason behind this childish move?"
"I don't have to explain anything! Now get out of my room!"
There was something fishy going on, Hypernova could feel it. "Okay then." he said, walking out of the room. However, he let his hand rest on the monitor for a second, and he managed to retrieve some of the footage that Qwark had been watching.
He gasped when he saw what it was. Apparently taken from Ratchet's perspective, it was footage of a self-destruct sequence of a ship. He could be sure that it was Ratchet when he heard the Lombax yell in response to the ship starting to self-destruct.
Hypernova quickly pulled every single bit of data that he could, including the source of the signal. Finding it in Nebula G34, he stormed out of Qwark's room. Racing out of the Hall of Heroes, he shot up into the sky as fast as he could, heading to Nebula G34, praying that he'd make it there in time.
Meanwhile Ratchet was running for his life. However, because the ship was shaking so heavily, he stumbled several times. "Come on!" he yelled when he charged into one of the two hallways, only to see the door slam shut in front of him. Turning back, he charged through the other hallway. Diving into the shuttle, he threw Clank off his back. "Get us out of here!"
"I am trying! This will take time, Ratchet! Or do you want the entire station to know of our presence?"
"There's a bloody warship blowing up next to the station! I think our cover's as good as blown, and if you don't hurry, we'll be blown as well! Into tiny bits!"
Clank nodded, and fried the system. "Critical failure! Deploying manual steering apparatus!" a robotic voice blared as a steering wheel deployed.
Ratchet wasted no time in getting out of there. He didn't turn to the station, he just flew off as far and as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Clank watched the ship through the windows in the back. The ship exploded violently, sending a shock wave in all directions, including theirs.
"Ratchet, fly behind the station!" Clank yelled, and luckily, Ratchet reacted immediately, flying behind an asteroid just in time.
The asteroid took the blow, and when they flew back to the station a few minutes later, there were several new impact craters on the asteroid, made by debris shot out by the explosion.
After docking at the station again, Ratchet collapsed, panting. "That was too close."
"Agreed, but we should get going, we need to destroy Drek's project before they can move it elsewhere."
Ratchet got back up after a minute and, after Clank had attached himself to Ratchet's back, the Lombax walked over to the only tunnel they hadn't entered yet. However, it was now closed off by a forcefield. "Huh." Ratchet said. "Why deploy a forcefield here? Do they know we're here or something?"
"No." Clank said, having hacked into the system. "This forcefield is not meant to keep us out, it is meant to keep something inside. Judging by how it is set to vaporize anything passing through it, I have a rising suspicion that something is very wrong up ahead. I also cannot disable the forcefield, it has to be done manually. Look for a Trespasser terminal."
"A Trespasser terminal?"
Clank pulled a reddish gadget out of his chest compartment. "This is something that Elaris has supplied me with, if there is anything that cannot be hacked, this should provide a way in."
"And you didn't give it to me earlier?"
"I had forgotten about it."
"Oh. Well, I found a terminal over here, hand it over and we'll see what it can do."
Clank gave Ratchet the trespasser. Ratchet took a good look at the device. It had three plates at the front, somewhat resembling a key. At the back was a screen.
Pushing the trespasser into the slot, the screen at the back of the gadget flashed to life. Ratchet saw three rings, containing lasers and mirrors, and red blocks outside the rings.
Clank gave him instructions. "Ratchet, you need to turn these three rings in such a way that every red block gets hit directly by one of those laser beams. All laser beams do not have to be used. Thus the problem is rotating the rings in such a way that they do not block lasers in other rings."
"Got it." Ratchet said. This lock was quite easy, he had it open in under a minute.
Walking into the gloomy hallways, Ratchet couldn't help but grow more nervous by the minute. It was too quiet.
"Ratchet, I am detecting movement above you." Clank said, only making the Lombax even more nervous. A shiver went through Ratchet's spine as he heard a slimy sound above him. Instinctively he jumped back, and just in time too. Hundreds of slimy, four-legged creatures with unnervingly sharp teeth came crawling out of the vents above him.
The closest ones attempted to bite Ratchet, but Ratchet quickly hit them with his OmniWrench. To his surprise, the ugly and hostile creatures were also very fragile, a single hit proved to be enough.
Equipping the Pyrocitor, Ratchet quite literally burned his way through the enemies. Though the hallway was filled with a foul smell, the flames proved to be very effective, and soon enough, the path was clear.
Ratchet came to a crossing. Up ahead was a closed door, though he could unlock it with a trespasser, and to his left was a door leading into some kind of launch bay.
Ratchet decided to hack the door open first, and soon enough, he stepped inside.
"Alright, Ratchet, I'll be with you every step of the way, and – oh, come on, he was out of bounds! Open your eyes, ref!" Qwark said through the communications, making Ratchet raise a brow. He decided to worry about it later.
The room up ahead was filled with stacks of crates, as well as a holocard with a strange symbol on it. Ratchet picked up the holocard and handed it to Clank, who stored it in the compartment in his torso.
Then, however, Ratchet heard an unnerving growl. With uppermost caution, Ratchet broke open one of the crates.
Two orange eyes glared at him from within the crate, and half a second later one of those slimy creatures jumped at him. Luckily for Ratchet's face, he blocked the attack with his OmniWrench, and the creature chomped down on metal instead, which broke it's teeth.
It let out a pained cry, and immediately a majority of the crates burst open. Soon enough, a small army had formed.
Ratchet had a plan, however. He began to run back, only to turn around all of a sudden, Pyrocitor already spewing fire.
The attack was devastating, and shortly after, it was quiet again, save for soft mechanical whirring coming from Clank.
After collecting the bolts in the crates that had not been full of enemies, the duo walked into the launch bay. However, Ratchet immediately noticed that it was being pumped full of a most foul smelling gas, it was making his lungs burn. Ratchet took a few steps out of the room, took a deep breath, and ran into the launch bay.
He quickly climbed up a few stairs, followed by swinging past a half-finished rocket.
Landing into another hallway, Ratchet noticed a Blarg hazmat trooper up ahead. He ran on, lungs burning, and threw a bomb at the unsuspecting enemy.
Ratchet couldn't hold his breath much longer, and gasped for air. Fortunately for him, the air was clean here.
After taking a few more deep breaths, Ratchet walked on, into a small, circular room.
He saw another door locked down by a forcefield, as well as two glass canisters.
What was inside the canisters made him take a step back. Inside the canisters were some kind of alien creatures. Both creatures stood on four small, insect-like legs. One of them was brown and had a scaled armor. It had a long neck and a maw full of sharp teeth.
The other alien was greenish-blue, with one eye. Instead of sharp teeth, however, it was exhaling green, sizzling smoke.
"Ratchet, I am afraid that the only way to get past this forcefield is cutting the power to this room by pressing the two green buttons on those canisters. However, this will also allow the creatures to break free."
"Damned if we do, damned if we don't." Ratchet said with a sigh. "I'm really going to regret this." he mumbled as he pressed the two buttons.
As Clank predicted, the creatures broke free, though Ratchet was waiting with a Pyrocitor.
However, unlike the smaller creatures, these larger aliens proved to be much more resilient, the flames did next to nothing. "Ratchet, the armor of that brown creature is very strong, there is not enough time to bring it down before it pushes us back into the poisonous area we just ran from. I suggest throwing a bomb at the right time, if what I am reading is correct, the creatures are very eager to eat, if you are close enough they may not be able to tell the difference between a bomb and food in time."
"Good thinking, pal." Ratchet said, equipping his Fusion Grenade. When the brown alien got closer, it attempted to bite Ratchet. However, following Clank's plan, Ratchet threw a bomb at the creature's maw.
Clank's prediction came true, and the creature exploded. "Dis-gusting." Ratchet said, jumping aside to avoid getting covered in what was left of the creature. The green alien, however, was much less armored, and thus a few good hits of the OmniWrench was enough to bring it down.
"We better hurry." Ratchet said over his shoulder, at the robot on his back. "If these guys are bio-engineering creatures, who knows what kind of messed-up life form they'll cook up next."
"Agreed, we must hurry before the Blarg can use this knowledge to it's full potential. However, there is something that bothers me. Have you noticed that the Blarg in this facility seem to be wearing special equipment designed for toxic environments? Do you remember how we were ambushed by those strange creatures earlier, or do you remember the forcefields and the toxic room? Everything we have seen so far is hinting at the possibility that the test subjects have escaped."
"So you're saying that whatever messed up stuff they made is likely running around free?"
"That is my theory. Either way, we should be very cautious."
"Gotcha, pal." Ratchet said, walking out of the room, though a small tunnel, and into a hollowed-out asteroid. "Captain, come in." Ratchet said as he climbed up to a higher level of the facility. "It looks like Drek's been experimenting on creatures."
"Heh! It takes more than a few little bugs to defeat-wait, are there spiders? Oh, now I'll never get comfortable in this bed-erm, mission control room, where I'm monitoring you from. Either way, you've got this, Ratchet. I'm counting on you!"
"Copy that, Captain." Ratchet replied.
Suddenly, the door up ahead slammed open and a Blarg in protective gear came running out. "The test subjects have escaped! Every Blarg for him or herself!"
Then he noticed Ratchet. "A Galactic Ranger! Let's kill him!"
"I really don't have time for this." Ratchet mumbled, jumping over the energy pulses the Blarg's weapon sent his way. When he got closer, the Blarg swung his weapon in an attempt to hit Ratchet. Ratchet was just a tiny bit too slow, and ended up taking a hit to the side of his face. He retaliated immediately however, and his wrench did way more damage, knocking the Blarg out in just a single hit.
Upon approaching the door on the far side of the room, it slid open automatically, revealing a large, circular room. Two rows of cages were built into the walls, with the bottom row built into a walkway that gave access to the top row. The room was also swarming with four-legged creatures, with two of the larger, green creatures standing on the second floor.
Ratchet got to work before they could overwhelm him, grabbing the Pyrocitor and burning a way through the enemies. Sweeping the flames across the ground, he managed to get rid of the weaker creatures swarming the floor pretty quickly.
"Look out!" Clank suddenly said, noticing one of the green creatures on the upper tier open it's maw and spit a blast of green stuff. Ratchet jumped back just in time, the Lombax' eyes widened as it shot past inches away from his eyes. "Whoa, that was close! Thanks, pal!"
"Anytime." Clank said, staring at the splatters of the green goo. Analyzing the spectrum revealed a high concentration of protons, indicating that it was acidic. "Ratchet, that green stuff is highly acidic, avoid any skin contact at all costs."
"Got it." Ratchet said, jumping to the right to avoid another blast courtesy of the other green creature. Ratchet got rid of the last swarmers before they could overwhelm him before taking the fire to the two creatures on the upper tier. After gunning down one of them with his Combustor, he turned to face the other only to jump aside just in time. "That was close!" Ratchet said, getting up after narrowly dodging another acid blast.
He fired some more rounds at the green alien before his Combustor made a terrible sound.
'CLICK!'
"Oh, snap!" Ratchet yelled. "I'm out of ammo!"
"Ratchet, keep your distance. From what I've been able to gather from the mainframe so far, I can safely conclude that these creatures will seize any opportunity you give them. Their reaction time is also stunning."
"Great." Ratchet said, throwing his Combustor in the creature's face as a last resort. "But I've got no other options."
"Be careful." Clank warned as Ratchet switched to his OmniWrench and closed the distance between him and his foe.
True to Clank's prediction, the alien's head snapped forward, but Ratchet raised his wrench defensively and blocked the attack, before countering with an overhead strike.
The alien had lost, however, it had one last resort, and thus, when Ratchet brought his wrench down a second time to finish it off, it exploded, sending a wave of acid his way. Ratchet quickly shielded his face, but couldn't prevent a few droplets from landing on his ears.
"Ah! It burns! What do I do?!"
"Find water! According to the map I've found of the station, there should be a... water cooler for Drek Industries Premium Members nearby?"
Ratchet didn't care, soon enough he found the water cooler... and accidentally broke off a handle in his haste. Ratchet decided to just smack his wrench against it, and was rewarded with a blast of water in the face. Clank couldn't suppress a giggle as Ratchet comically held his hands in front of his face to block the stream but to no avail. Afterwards he was soaked.
"Great." he growled, ears lowering in annoyance.
"We must press on." Clank reminded him. "We must find what Drek is up to."
"Yeah, yeah... I just wished these suits were waterproof." Ratchet said as he walked on, the wet rubber under his shoes squeaking as he walked.
Apparently Ratchet had damaged something else with the blast of water from the water cooler, as the forcefield blocking off the next room was now gone.
Walking into the next room, Ratchet saw that the room had a huge, cylindrical power core in the center, with four maintenance platforms around it. Unfortunately, the only other way out was behind a forcefield to the right of him, and hitting the button on the power core up ahead deactivated the forcefield to the left.
Thus, Ratchet and Clank were forced to get through the room clockwise rather than counterclockwise. The next platform had three more of those green aliens on it, which were easily dealt with using Fusion Grenades and some precise timing, up to two times Ratchet managed to throw a bomb into one of the creature's gaping maws as they were about to fire another blast of acid.
With no armor protecting them on the inside, the explosions were devastating, and Ratchet could move on in under two minutes.
Opening up the path to the next platform, Ratchet had to combat a Blargian soldier. About a minute later, they could move on to the next platform, which only had four of the green, four-legged creatures, ergo Pyrocitor food.
The final platform that lead to a locked door, however, was protected by two of the brown creatures.
Ratchet blew one apart and heavily wounded the other before running out of ammo, thus he delivered the finishing blow using his OmniWrench.
After restocking on ammo at a nearby, conveniently placed Gadgetron Vendor, Ratchet equipped the Trespasser and started to mess with the lock that was keeping the door from opening.
After three minutes the door was finally open, and Ratchet and Clank cautiously walked inside.
They found themselves inside another hollowed-out asteroid, although the floor had panels of metal here and there supporting the structure. There seemed to be an observation deck on the far side of the huge room.
What caught Ratchet's interest however, was the lava surrounding the room.
But then a voice spoke. "Attention intruder!"
The voice sounded slightly electronic, it was shouted through an intercom system. "You have entered the testing facility for a Blargian Snagglebeast!"
Ratchet spotted the speaker, a Blargian scientist, in the observation area up ahead. What caught his interest more, however, was the huge creature dropping down from above up ahead. At least five times Ratchet's size the Snagglebeast was already intimidating enough, and the titanium plating and bulging muscles only added to it.
"Chairman Alonzo Drek thanks you for your sacrifice!" The Blarg shouted through the intercom before giving his colleague a fist bump.
Ratchet and Clank backed off slowly as the creature approached him. "Ratchet, inform Captain Qwark!" Clank said immediately.
Ratchet pressed his right index finger against the com-unit on the right side of his helmet. "Umm... Captain? Did you know Drek's secret project was a 'Blargian Snagglebeast'?"
Qwark gasped. "It is?! I wonder why it wasn't in any of my intel! I was expecting something much less lethal!"
The snagglebeast had reached the two heroes. Clank closed his eyes and Ratchet covered his face, both expecting an attack, one that never came. Ratchet lowered his hands and both heroes opened their eyes, only to see that the Snagglebeast had disappeared. Judging by how the Blarg in the observation area were laughing though, the danger wasn't gone at all.
Thus, Ratchet and Clank frantically looked around them. Qwark spoke through the communications one last time. "Errrrrrrr... don't worry. Just relax, and remember what I taught you!"
"What did you teach me?!" Ratchet replied. No answer. "Captain?!"
Suddenly, Ratchet and Clank felt and heard a loud smack behind them. They both knew what it was.
They slowly turned around, coming face-to-face with the Snagglebeast. The creature drummed on his chest with it's arms before letting out an ear-shattering roar at point-blank range, purposefully spitting some saliva at the two heroes to further underline what was about to happen.
Ratchet and Clank glanced at each other, then at the towering mass of muscle in front of them. "Oh, boy." Ratchet yelped, grabbing Clank and running for his life as the Snagglebeast attacked.
Cue MEGALOVANIA. If you don't know what that is, it's a song, look it up and you'll find it immediately, and oh boy is it epic!
Anyhow, the next chapter will be uploaded next week, per usual again. I hope to see you all then!