Chapter 9: Busted

Ratchet stood there, constructo-pistol drawn, sites lined up on Kayla. Kayla had both her hands up in surrender. As she started to say something, Ratchet's finger brushed against the trigger…

1 day earlier…

Ratchet and Kayla broke contact, a blush spreading across their faces. Ratchet was happy for the first time in 36 hours, but then guilt-ridden. His face fell, and stepped away from Kayla.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I'm with Talwyn." Ratchet said. "She's alive, she's the one I proposed to, and she's going to get her memory back." Ratchet rushed out of the apartment before Kayla could offer a counter argument. She cursed as she let out a sigh; looks like phase two didn't work as well as she thought.

Ratchet twisted and turned through the city until he found the armory. He went in and brought up his RYNO project on the holo-desk, and focused on crafting it. The other Lombaxes were fascinated by the design, and were eagerly asking questions, Ratchet often only grunting in reply. He wanted to finish the weapon and show it to Talwyn, hoping that showing her something that he built would unlock a memory that she had of him building something.

A few hours later…

Spyro had taken Cynder down to the exercise yard of the hospital. It wasn't nearly as grand as the gym of the city, but Cynder was still being monitored by the doctor and nurses. As she did a few of the exercises, she seemed to get back to her more normal self. Spyro watched her as she jumped through hoops, tackled dummies, and used her breath attacks with sparring partners. As he started to smile, he caught a scent of something.

His smile froze in place, and he inhaled deeply. "No." He thought. "It can't be." He closed his eyes and inhaled even deeper. The stench was unmistakable. "Cragmites!" Spyro stood up and started following the scent. It was strong, whatever kind it was, it had been watching him; the scent was only a few minutes old. Spyro continued following the scent, picking up speed as he did so. He emerged into the city center. The scent didn't disappear, it was amplified. It came from every direction possible. Spyro cursed under his breath, spread his wings, and flew up into the sky.

Looking down, he tried to find the owner of the scent. He had picked it up before, now and again, but he never could keep up with it. Spyro looked up at the sound of a charge-up. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a shimmer in the air above him. The ship deactivated its cloak as it locked onto Spyro. A single missile fired from the ship, heading straight for Spyro. He was so stunned by the cragmite he saw in the cockpit that he didn't realize it until the missile was feet away.

Meanwhile…

Ratchet watched as the final piece of the RYNO was crafted by the machine, and placed in its spot. After it was finished, the RYNO was complete. Ratchet reached into the machine and pulled it out. A single barrel was seen, with plenty of ventilation holes. A large magazine was already set in after the trigger. A high-tech scope was attached to the top of it. It was a dark metallic grey, and took both hands to lift. As Ratchet gazed at the weapon, pride swirling in his gut, a siren sounded.

"What is it?" Ratchet asked, yelling over the blaring siren.

"Cragmites are attacking the city!" Another Lombax yelled back, grabbing a rocket launcher and running outside. Ratchet grabbed his RYNO and ran outside shortly after. As he emerged into daylight, a horde of cragmites were attacking the city, blasting buildings as well as civilians, taking no care of either one. Ratchet looked around for a large group of cragmites and found one. He raised the RYNO after switching off the safety. Looking through the scope, he locked onto the first one in the group. Instead of squeezing the trigger, he moved over slightly, locking onto another one. He repeated the process until the lock-on capacity was reached, which was ten.

Ratchet smiled and squeezed the trigger. With a boom that echoed across the city, a single rocket shot out of the barrel and flew up into the sky. At its peak, it flew back down, changing its angle at the last second and punched its way through the first cragmite. It turned around and blasted through the second, and then the third. One by one, each cragmite was destroyed by the missile. The final cragmite had the worst of it. Before the missile connected, it spawned 12 other missiles and 13 highly explosive warheads connected with the cragmite. Nothing but a smoking crater was left. He started looking around for another group to destroy, but saw Spyro plummeting out of the sky, a missile following directly behind him, less than a second from connecting. A dark cloud formed around him, and then disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, taking Spyro with it.

Minutes before…

Spyro flew straight up, hoping the missile wasn't a tracking one. Sadly, it was, and followed Spyro to a great height. Spyro slowed until he was nearly still. Closing his eyes, he listened for the missile. Hearing it gaining on him he rolled out of its path at the last moment and flew down. The missile continued to follow him. Spyro knew he couldn't evade it for much longer and closed his eyes, resigning himself to death.

A dark cloud of smoke popped out of nowhere to his left. He felt a pair of paws wrap around his neck, and then felt the strange sensation of going through a dark storm cloud for a second. When he opened his eyes, he was on the ground, standing next to Cynder. She had used her shadow power to teleport herself to him, and then teleport both of them to safety.

"You saved me, I saved you, and then you saved me again. I think we're even now." Cynder said with a smile.

"Probably, but we have work to do Cynder. Let the soldiers take care of the cragmites, we'll take care of the ship." Spyro growled, nodding his head toward the ship that fired at him. Both dragons nodded their heads and flew up into the air.

Ratchet saw their plan, and locked onto nine cragmites plus the ship, the ship being the final target. He wished he created a larger magazine, this RYNO had only six rounds total.

"Something to change." He told himself mentally, and then squeezed the trigger. Luckily, despite the low ammo, Ratchet had designed the missile spawn to activate only on the final target and to avoid all other objects, stationary or moving, and only strike the target.

As the missile blew through cragmites, Spyro and Cynder were attacking the ship; Cynder teleporting herself and Spyro out of the missiles paths using her shadow skills, Spyro melting the hooks holding the missiles with his fire. He quickly got the idea, and instead switched to ice. When only one missile was left, he froze the locks. When the ship turned and attempted to fire the missile, it started flying after Spyro, but its velocity was greatly reduced as it was attempting to drag the ship with it.

The pilot was surprised and attempted to pull the ship in the opposite direction, not understanding what was happening. Smiling, Spyro turned around to see Ratchet's RYNO missile spawn 12 other missiles, bend around Cynder and him, then strike the ship, creating a massive fireball.

As little pieces of the ship fell, so did the seat, which suddenly released a parachute. Looking carefully, Spyro and Cynder saw Tachyon in it. As they hovered speechless, Ratchet had dropped the RYNO and taken out his warmonger, and gasped as he saw Tachyon. As rage boiled in his blood, he waited for the warmonger to confirm it had a lock on. Before it did, Spyro flew and tackled the seat out of the air and ripped Tachyon free. Spyro then grasped Tachyon by the back of his neck with his jaws and slammed him into the ground. Spyro shook him back and forth like a dog does with a toy. He continued to do so until Tachyon was so injured and weak he couldn't fight back.

Ratchet slowly walked forward, drawing his wrench with an evil look in his eye than worried Spyro. As he raised his wrench two flash grenades were thrown. As both detonated, Ratchet covered his eyes against the light and Spyro dropped Tachyon and roared in pain, rubbing his eyes with his paws. Spyro quickly focused on his senses of hearing and smell until his sight returned. Catching the stench of Tachyon, he turned and hearing feet shuffle, he leapt with a roar and pounced on something. It felt furry, so Spyro planted himself on top of it, just in case his sense of touch was out of whack. As sight returned to both heroes they saw that Kayla was there, Spyro on top of her. Spyro got off and started sniffing the ground, trying to catch Tachyon's scent.

Kayla stood still for a moment as Spyro sniffed across her and then continued sniffing the ground. Cynder quickly joined. Both dragons continuously went back to Kayla, for some reason Tachyon's scent always lead back to her. Ratchet thought back, his hearing, despite his large ears, wasn't as developed as Spyro's.

"Spyro, did you hear a transport beam shortly before your sight returned?" Ratchet asked. Spyro nodded his head, still sniffing around. Ratchet then just noticed the belt of flash grenades around Kayla's torso, two of which were missing. Ratchet quickly pulled his constro-pistol and lined the sights up on Kayla.

She held her hands up in surrender.

"Ratchet, let me explain." She said calmly, trying to cool Ratchet off.

"I saw the wound on your shoulder Kayla, and I also saw the fur under Talwyn's fingernails. Before I went to the armory, I dropped them off at the lab and gave the doctor my nav-unit contact. Shortly before the cragmites attacked, he called, saying that the fur was an identical match. YOU attacked Talwyn. YOU bashed her head against the ground. YOU tried to kill her to get me." Ratchet had angry tears in his eyes. Kayla was young, he didn't want to kill her, but his rage at what this Lombax had done burned in him.

"If you had just come down that alley with me, we wouldn't be having this problem." Kayla said, revealing her true nature.

Ratchet re-adjusted the sights. Kayla, with her hands still up in surrender, started to say something else. Ratchet's finger brushed against the trigger and a single bullet flew out of the barrel.

"WAIT!" Cynder yelled, but it was too late. The bullet was on its way to Kayla's heart.

How about that? Yes I know all of you wanted to see what would happen to Kayla at the end of this chapter. Don't worry, chapter 10 will start with her. Is she dying, does she have a shield, does Keith, Tachyon, Clank, Quark, Cronk, Zepher , Spyro, and/or Cynder also attack her or save her? Sadly, you can't say, since I'm the author but I would like to hear your reactions. Also, two things. First, if you're having trouble imagining Ratchet's RYNO in action, it is a fusion of the lock-on from the hydra gun from "Up your Arsenal," the missile spawn from the Decimator in "Up your Arsenal," the scope from the Plasma Striker in "A Crack in Time" and finally the size of the Harbinger from "Deadlocked." Second, I have a question for you; What do you think Tachyon's plan is? Does he want to rule the Lombaxes, kill all of them, or just kill Ratchet? Also, what are his plans for the dragons? Normally I wouldn't ask questions like this, but I'm kind of starting to hit a writer's block. I would love to review your ideas. If you give me a good one, I will mention you by name in the chapter summary and you shall be bathed in fake riches and glory. If several people give me good ideas, I will attempt to integrate all of them into the story at some point or another. Shout out to Lucy the cat, Guest, and Brandon the Albino Cat. You guys have the special privilege of being my very first fans and should feel proud. Also, be on the lookout for another fan fic I will start writing called "All stars unite" which is a "PlayStation all-stars': Battle Royale" Story. I think I've rambled on long enough, so please review and see you all next time. LATER! ;)