Chapter Six: Veldin

(Note from the author: Let's go back a few hours and see what Ratchet and Pupuru were doing at the time of all the other battles in the previous chapters.)

Ratchet and Pupuru got into a ship they borrowed from Captain Qwark; they used it to fly all the way to Veldin, the one place Ratchet had missed for years.

Along the way, Pupuru looked out the cockpit's window to view outer space for the first time. "I never thought I would actually…" She tried to say something, but she was suddenly cut off. She began to choke and wheeze heavily; Ratchet did not know what was going on at first until a second later. He began to realize that Pupuru was not used to breathing in a spaceship while traveling through outer space. She could not breathe as well as any alien who could stand in space.

Quickly, Ratchet pulled an emergency breathing mask down from the ship's ceiling; he placed it upon Pupuru's face so her choking would cease. After a few seconds, she finally began to breathe fully and more calmly. "I guess you need to practice breathing on foreign planets," Ratchet said after Pupuru calmed down. "I'll give you something special when we land."

Ratchet turned on his comlink and contacted Captain Qwark for a moment. "Qwark!" Ratchet said over the radio, a bit upset. "Why did you cut off some of the life-support system of your ship?! You almost killed Pupuru!"

"Sorry," Qwark replied. "Some thief one time stole my ship, so I used my ship's remote control to lower the life-support system and make that thief suffocate."

"And you just HAD to suffocate our friend here! I hope you're happy! Where's your remote?!"

"It broke after the last time I used it. Sorry about that."

Ratchet angrily cut off the transmission and continued to pilot the ship to Veldin. But as he approached the planet, he suddenly stopped. He stared deep into the one planet that he had not visited for a very long time. But he could not sit right there for long; the shortage of the life-support system was soon to take full effect on him as well as Pupuru.

"Hang in there, Pupuru," Ratchet whispered softly as he patted Pupuru on the back. "We'll do this together… Everything will be alright."

Everything seemed fine at first; but when Ratchet drove the ship deeper into the atmosphere of Veldin, he immediately saw that something was not right. Somehow, a blizzard was blowing everywhere as snow coated most of what Ratchet saw on the planet. Usually, beautiful plants and mountains were visible to the naked eye of a pilot, but snow was now coating almost everything.

"I don't know how Grimm did it…" Ratchet thought, "…but he is going to pay for all this! I'll show him not to mess with my home!"

He looked for his old house, where he would land and make his base. After he landed right next to it, he took something out of the storage compartment of his ship. "These special pills will help you breathe on this planet," he said, handing them to Pupuru.

Pupuru quickly swallowed one of the pills, which opened her lungs to breathe better in the air of foreign planets.

After that, Ratchet said to her in a hushed tone: "Listen carefully. I know that it's a big blizzard out there, and we wouldn't be comfortable without our coats and snow gear. But it's too late to go back and get them now; we're already very close to the conclusion of our adventure. So here's what we're going to do: we'll quickly rush out there like rabbits and unlock the door to my house. Once we get inside, we'll be comfortable again. Are you ready?"

"I'm not very sure," Pupuru replied. "But I hope we make it through this alive."

"Okay then. Ready… GO!"

With that, the ship's cockpit opened, and Ratchet and Pupuru quickly hopped out of it and started heading for the house. They had to trudge through such heavy, thick snow in order to reach their destination. When they got there, they forced off the police tape that was stuck to the door, then forced themselves inside. Once inside, Ratchet and Pupuru sat down to catch their breath after a hard trip through harsh tensions.

"That was so close," Ratchet panted. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be okay," Pupuru wearily replied. "So this is your old home?"

"Yep. This is the place where all my adventures started. This is where I built my first ship and met Clank. I'm the one responsible for his name anyway. I had to save this planet from being blown up by that cheapskate Chairman Drek. If Grimm is attempting to attack this place, it looks like another chance to save my home."

"I hope Angela is doing alright at MY home. I bet she met some of my old friends there; they must be itching to see me sometime… That is if we make it out ALIVE."

"Don't doubt me, Pupuru. At a place like this, survivors win!"

Ratchet and Pupuru got back up to their feet and looked around the place. So many things were left untouched ever since Ratchet moved away. Dust and cobwebs hung from the things that stood on dressers and shelves.

"I bet all the food I left here are way too stale," Ratchet said as he walked into the kitchen. "But we shouldn't worry about it now. We have a very important mission to take care of. We'll wait for Grimm to come here, and we'll fight him with all we can. We brought enough food with us anyway. But the most important thing is: if we are going to fight him, we'll fight him together."

Ratchet led Pupuru to up to his bedroom; when they entered, they received a blast of moonlight flowing through a nearby window. "It sure is lucky that it IS cold outside," Ratchet said calmly. "That way, such beautiful moonlight can be so bright."

He plopped himself down onto his bed, not thinking that there might have been termites or bed bugs all over it. Pupuru laid a sleeping bag on the floor (across from the bed) and lied herself down onto it. They planned to keep watch until Mr. Grimm arrived, but waiting too long made them very drowsy.

Ratchet and Pupuru passed out cold a couple of hours later and fell fast asleep. Such dizziness caused their mind to drift away, they soon forgot that Mr. Grimm would soon come to them.

Suddenly, Ratchet's left ear twitched as he listened to a thumping sound. He yanked his eyes awake and saw that Mr. Grimm was standing right over him, pointing a gun at him. "Get up and walk out of the house, and remember I am right behind you!" he spoke up to him.

WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? IT LOOKS LIKE MR. GRIMM IS GOING TO GET HIS MEAL AFTER ALL! OR IS HE…?

SEE YOU NEXT TIME!