Flashback- Dodge Dagger: Resistance

September 29, 2040

As I walked into the interrogation room, I thought of how this might happen. Prometheus set up satellites that broadcasted distress signals daily, but he went crazy and shot down the only ship that came to help. He knew that the occupant was completely willing to help, because if he knew this furry thing was against him, its ship would have been scrap metal by the time I saw it. Something was nagging at me, something hidden. What was Prometheus's game?

A Resistance scientist sidled up to me and started to walk by my side.

"It woke up a few minutes ago. We're trying to keep it calm, but it's panicking. I'm not sure what we should do about it, but-"

"Thanks for the info, Dagros," I cut him off. "Keep him afraid. I need it." Dagros looked at me like a scared little kid. I stared at him coldly. "Stress relief. And he's our ticket to Prometheus. If I can get his true intentions, I can decide what to do with him." I thought while I was walking. "Dagros, what kind of toys do I get to use on him?"

"The most effective ones, sir."

"Those are always the best ones," I said as we neared a door. "Just in case I'm incapacitated and he tries to escape, station a couple guards here." I grabbed the handle on the door. "Dagros, if things don't work out, and he's more resistant than we thought, bring out the big toy, alright?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get to the overhead booth. We have us a victim." With that, I turned the handle and went inside. The room was black, with a solitary light shining on the alien. It was looking better than it was lying on the ground. I thought about what he looked like hours ago.

"I'm going to give you an anesthetic. It's like a knockout gas, only less painful. I'll put it in your right arm, because that looks like the safest place to administer it." Mason slid the anesthetic into the thing's arm, and its eyes instantly closed. Mason looked up at me.

"Boss, maybe we should check the ship. It looked like it had something that might help…"

At the ship…

"Yeah, it's got a blue cross on it. Looks like we found a healing fluid."

Mason didn't reply; because he was too busy trying to transport the alien without trying to injure it further. I signaled him. "Lay him down next to the robot."

Mason's large arm made the alien look small, probably because it was five feet and looked like it hadn't yet broken 150 pounds. He put it next to the robot, arms and legs straight, as if he had just been another body, carefully taken care of by his comrades. I took the see-through crate with the blue cross and set it on the dirt next to the ship. With the butt of my gun, I broke it open. Blue orbs were inside, waiting to be used. I grabbed one, and put it on the thing's chest. Immediately, it was surrounded by blue energy; whatever it was it was healing him. Finally, the glowing blue ceased, and it seemed safe to move him again.

"Mason, let's take him back to base. Set up an interrogation," I said, grabbing the mysterious crate. "Grab some towing cables and bring the ship with the cars," I instructed the rest of those with me. We'd find out what was happening soon enough…

Now here we were, hunter and hunted. The alien's ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps. I walked closer to it, trying to seem calm. The alien looked at me. Now we were five feet apart. We looked at each other for a few seconds. Then I hit him across the side of the face. He grunted and hung his head after I made contact, panting slightly. I slammed my fist into his chin again. He cried out in pain.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I yelled. "WHY DID YOU TRY TO LAND?"

"Why are you doing this? You gave me a-" I punched him, hard. He spat blue blood onto the shirt we had provided for him. I guess the scientists conducted an analysis on him or something.

"You're not the one asking questions here, understand?" The creature moaned shakily. "Do you understand?" I said, more forcefully.

"Yes...I do," it said.

"Now, we're going to play a game. I'm going to ask you a question. If you take too long or try to avoid answering truthfully, I'll give you a prize you're going to wish you never earned. Got that?" The creature nodded his head. I could see a tear leaking from its emerald green eyes down its furry cheek.

"Alright. Now...what is your name?" I asked.

"R..Ratchet. My...name is...Ratchet."

"Why are you here?"

He looked at me, his eyes sorrowful. "You had a distress signal. Why would you try to-" I slapped him across the face.

"No questions from you, remember?" I looked around. Ah! There's the table. I grabbed the mobile table and wheeled it so I could interrogate and grab my weapons at the same time. "Time for Regrettable Prize number one." I searched the items on the table. I heard the creature named Ratchet giving me advice in the background.

"There's no need," he said with an urgency to his tone. "I'll tell you everything, please, just put all that away." I ignored him. So he'd try the easy way, huh? Nice try. I did a play-by-play of my search, just to freak him out.

"Oooh, look what I found. An old car battery! But that wouldn't be complete without-" I grabbed the battery and the other parts of the equation and turned around showing them to Ratchet, "- a pair of jumper cables! Now, where would these best suit you?" I looked around his anatomy; it was similarly crafted to human specs, except for the huge, whopping-

"Ears."

Ratchet's ears drooped, and he begged. "No, please, don't, I'll tell you what you want, please, no, don't use those."

"Too late." With that, I opened the jumper cables, and hooked them on Ratchet's ears. He started screaming and his body started to smoke slightly. I counted to five in my head, then grabbed the jumper cables, pinching his ears with them as I removed them. His ears were bleeding from the cuts I left with the cables, and two tears streamed down his face. He was panting heavily.

"No, please...don't...I'll tell you everything," he said in a weak voice.

"If you don't want to have a painful night, then cooperate."

"I...am. I just...want...to help."

"Well, then, help me and answer my questions. This can either go the easy way or the fun way. Which way do you want it to go?" No reply. "Guess we'll find out.

"Now I'll ask you again- why are you here?"

"Heard...distress signal. Tried to...land, but...you shot me...down. Oh God…" He looked at me. "Clank…" he said weakly. "is he...alright?"

"You just don't learn, do you?" I said. "Ready for another round?"

"No...Please...I just...want to help," said Ratchet. "Please...just...let me...help," he begged. I turned around towards the table of torture once more. I found a syringe, and I narrated my search once more.

"This syringe looks like fun." I turned around and showed it to him. "You see this stuff inside? This is amplified capsaicin; this is what makes peppers hot. And I'll bet you can safely assume what I'm going to do with this. Don't worry; it'll only hurt a lot." With that, I stuck it in his right arm, where we gave him knockout fluid. He flinched in pain as I emptied the whole syringe into his arm. Immediately, he started to groan in pain, eyes screwed shut and teeth clenched.

"I've got all night," I said as he jerked around, trying to withstand the pain. It took about minute for him to calm down. When the capsaicin had run its course, his tears were not being held back; he let them flow without restraint.

"I just...want to help," he said. He was completely limp, but I had no pity for him.

"Answer my questions and maybe we'll get somewhere." At that moment, the door opened and a female entered the room. It was Noa Weis, another medic, a mage who used magic to repair anything and everything. She had a military cut, but she did look like a female. Her hair was black, and she had a soft spot for furry things. This doesn't bode well...I thought.

"Dodge! What the hell are you doing?" Even though she was lower in rank, I was a little intimidated, and she exploited that occasionally. She shoved me out of the way and ripped the straps off of Ratchet's hands and feet. He fell out of his seat, and lay limp on the floor, moaning softly. Noa knelt down beside him and started to chant softly in another tongue. His wounds started to heal, completely undoing all of my work. When she had finished, he sighed exhaustedly. Noa kissed him on the top of the head and helped him to his feet. He looked at me with a forgiving sadness in his eyes, as if I was his student and I had failed him. Noa, however, looked ready to beat the shit out of me.

"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?! HE WAS ON THE GROUND, BLEEDING AND DEFENSELESS, AND YOU GIVE HIM A FUCKING DRUG INJECTION? THEY WOULDN'T GIVE A SHIT IF I RIPPED YOUR DICK OFF AND MADE YOU SUCK IT RIGHT HERE AND NOW! YOU NEVER, EVER, DRUG SOMEONE WHO'S ABOUT TO DIE!"

"Wait, miss, calm down," said Ratchet. "It's fine, I know what he may be going through." He looked at me. "It's cool. I hold nothing against you. I just want to help."

"HE WAS GOING TO KILL YOU!" Her wrath was now directed at Ratchet. "YOU WERE GOING TO DIE ALONE, IN A COLD, DARK PLACE FAR FROM HOME, WITH HELL IN YOUR VEINS BEFORE YOUR LIFELESS EYES ROLLED BACK IN YOUR HEAD! AND IT'S NOA!"

"Noa, please, just calm down. I can see where you're coming from," said Ratchet. Finally, she seemed calm. "But if I want to help, then I can't kill him, right?"

Noa stopped her fire, and looked at me angrily. "Fine, I guess you can't." Then she walked closer to me and said, "Don't do that again, or anything like it. Alright?"

"Yeah, whatever," I said. She stormed out, deliberately and unsympathetically stomping on my foot. I looked at Ratchet. He seemed fine.

"I...uh...Yeah. Sorry about that."

"No problem. I've been as scared as you are right now. I don't hold it against you."

"I'm not scared," I said.

"Surrre...that's why you lashed out at me so intensely. Aggressiveness is an act that lombaxes take as a sign of fear."

"What the fuck's a sex wax?"

"It's lombax, and I'm one of them. Actually, I'm the last one in this universe. It gets kind of depressing."

"How do I know I can trust what you're saying?"

"Because I'm the only one who can help you out of your fear. You called out in distress, I came. But first, did you get my ship?"

"No, we didn't. But we can go back out there and get it. And we did find something interesting. It's in the mechanics wing. I can show you…"