So it's two past one in the morning and I've finally finished writing this. All done. Now to get some sleep. I'm so tired.

Nevertheless, enjoy the story! :)

We had been travelling through the same dark passage way for more than half an hour now, flashing our torches at each and every inch of the place. The metal wall surrounding us become more familiar with each step as well as more comforting when we didn't see any digital Cragmites coming out of them. Though every once and a while we would see a red flash in the distance, taunting us. Showing us where to go…

Another flash of red burst out from the walls beside us, making me jump. The second of light gave me another good view of the corridor. Showing me how endless it looked. How long this was going to take. For all I knew the virus was already there and gone. But for whatever reason I hung onto the thought that they were still in Clank, waiting for us. What type of Cragmite would turn down a good fight?

"Ratchet… What's that?" Talwyn pointed towards the left wall. There was a door there. Just a lone single door.

"The door?" I asked her, though it was obvious there was something I missed.

"No, there was a red light coming from there."

"Well, lets go check it out then. Better we get it before it gets us." I pointed out, pulling out my Plasma Coil.

We crept towards the door, my finger over the trigger ready to blast these things to bits. Talwyn had her pistol out, favouring it against the Annihilator still hooked on her belt. When the door was in arms reach, I shot a quick glance at Talwyn before opening it. And I twisted the handle.

Empty.

It was a broom closet. Nothing in it was glowing or pulsing. The only bad thing I could spot about the small room was that the cleaning supplies weren't lined up symmetrically.

"So what did you say was in here? An ominous red light, or badly placed cleaning products?"

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. But I was sure I saw something in here."

"You sure?" I started teasing her a bit. If anyone was sure, it was me being sure that my mocking tone was getting to her.

"It must've retreaded. But there was something there!" The woman snapped defensively. I let out a small chuckle at the pointless argument, which caused her to glare at me. I wouldn't bother getting into a proper argument with her about something so small. She was stubborn, and hard to win against in an argument.

I pulled out the map I had gotten from the guard. A last minute thing he came running back to us for, after saying goodbye. It was a klunky looking device, pun intended. Who paints an old tablet like this gold?

"Okay, so according to the map. We take a left turn about 100 milimeters up ahead. That will lead us to the core mainframe which we will need to protect in order to save Clank."

"Great. And how long will that take?"

"About 20 minutes, depending on how bad the virus is. Then we can grab some of the food Tool left us." My stomach growled. Another reminder that I hadn't eaten in more than 3 days. I can't even remember the last time I showered. How could anyone even bear to be around me?

"Great." She smirked at my extra sound effect. "And after that, I might just be able to have a proper sleep. Being inside Clank and being chased and scared half to death by a Cragmite virus doesn't help much."

"I know, I know. But you didn't have to come. I could've done this on my own, and you know that."

"Well, it's not like I had much of a choice. Plus, I'm not letting you out of my sight anytime soon."

"Hey, that was a one off thing. I was just the unlucky pilot who go hit first. One in a million chance of it happening again. No, less than that!" I got defensive.
"Well I'm just making it even, lesser." She smirked to herself.

"Hey, I can handle this. I defeated Nefarious with a Sonic Eruptor, and personally vanquished Tachyon. I don't need any help… Not that I really get any."

"Sure, sure…" She was almost on her own little planet, having fun instead of dealing with the situation at hand, and starting an argument.

"Hey, you know-" I was stopped mid sentence as her lips came down on mine, silencing my defence. It was only for a second. A gratuitous second. I almost didn't know how to respond. What was she playing at?

"Oh how the tables have turned…" She said, and I finally clicked. It wasn't like Talwyn to just walk away from a joke being pulled on her, however seemingly minor. And this was her comeback.

She laughed at the look on my face as I slowly got what had just gone on. I had wound her up, and now she had done the same. Got me back and left me thinking; 'how did I fall for that?'

"Now that it's even, let's hurry up. I'm starting to get hungry again." She retook hold of my hand and changed pace.

'The perks of having a girlfriend' I thought to myself as she pulled me along through the corridor.

With both our spirits up a bit more, the walk to the Control Room went by fast and we soon approached the door. But even with one torch dead and the other flickering around it was easy to spot the recurring 'bad feeling' source.

The door was off it's hinges and a faint red glow came from the terminal. I had my wrench out before you could even say bolts. As we neared the broken door, Talwyn had chosen the Annihilator over her usual pistol which remained on her belt. And as they say; 'variety is the spice of life.'

With my wrench at the ready, I peeked around the corner, peering into the square room.. The only object in the dimly lit room was an air vent on the ground. The source of the light. I crept towards it, Talwyn right beside me. If anything were to jump out at us, we were ready both staring at that vent. With each step we gained on the vent, the red light dimmed. As we got closer, so did the fact that the light was going to fade away, and before we knew it; it was gone.

I looked over at Talwyn, who like me had a confused look on her face. Something didn't add up. Something wasn't right.

"Any ideas?" I asked her. She was now on top of the vent, trying to look down it like the Cragmites had just turned their lights off. Maybe they had…

"Talwyn I think you should hop off the vent." I cautioned her. To my surprised, she actually agreed.

"Yeah. Could be bad news." She started walking towards me. One of her feet was now off the vent.

BOOM

The red explosion threw me to the floor and shot a painful ringing through my ears. I tried to look around at the scene, but the intense red light made it hard for my eyes to adjust. No doubt what was going on though. I tried to get up, only to see that there was a multitude of the swarmer cragmites, clawing at my legs, slowly creeping up towards my body.. I looked over to my right and saw the same thing was happening to Talwyn… Except she wasn't fighting back. All the bad language I knew popped into my head as I found my wrench and tore through the pulsing simulants. They dissipated in a flash as soon as my wrench made contact with them. Finally something went right for once. With a newfound adrenaline rush, I got on my feet and sprinted over to the woman on the floor, kicking off the red swarmers surrounding her legs and throwing my wrench at a bigger one that just appeared through the new whole in the floor. I picked up the unconscious Markazian, and activated my hoverboots. We we're getting out of here, fast. I needed to get her to someplace safe. Someplace not too far away, but far away enough from the virus that was spreading throughout the room.. Speeding along almost blindly through the black corridor, I finally came across the unorganised broom closet we checked out before. It was just big enough to lie her down on, and in the dark where I could barely see her face, I still couldn't help but think of how peaceful she looked. 'Well, she said she needed rest, right? I'll leave her here, away from the danger' I told myself.

After closing the door, and loading my Vulcan cannon with its pyrocidic shells, I set off on my hoverboots again. This time as I approached the room, it was like seeing a cragmite rave. They were everywhere, thier mouths shouting, screaming, taunting me, with no sound being created. The place was in silence except for the slow hum they created naturally. So I pulled the trigger.

Outnumbered 100 to 1, I stormed the room sending out a constant jet of blasts from the cannon I held. The auto targeting shells were doing well against the swarmers as I mowed them down to nothing and even the bigger one's were having trouble getting close. I eventually ran out of ammo and without time to reload I took the chance to change my weapon. The Nitro Launcher was the next dual handled weapon on my list that I took out. The explosions this thing made were fierce, controlled bursts. And the best thing of all, I wasn't in them. They blasted through the reddened lizards like lunch, leaving nothing but scorch marks on the floor. By the time my 8 bombs had gone out, taking multitudes of enemies with them, all the swarmers were gone. Now it was just the big ugly ones. I took out my Plasma Coil, which easily one-shotted the remaining hunters.

When the room was clear, I gave myself a quick pat on the back. Destroying over 100 digital Cragmites was harder than it seemed! But the rewards would be worth it - both Clank and Talwyn safe, and relaxing for a bit. I stepped through the next door to access the Control Room. The Core Mainframe was undamaged, at the computer screen wasn't cracked. The room was completely untouched. Looks like the virus preferred to fight an unfair fight than do its job.

It took awhile in the dark, but I finally found the power switch on the back of the wall which would manually reboot Clank, and I was pleased to find the lights back on only seconds after I pushed it. The next thing on my mind was Talwyn. I pictured her in my mind, sleeping peacefully in the untidy closet I had left her in 10 minutes ago. Just laying there alone and safe. Not alone for much longer though.

I once again activated my hoverboots and set off through the brightly lit corridor. The place was much less dismal than before. It had that 'Clank' feel to it now that it wasn't pitch black. I got to the door which kept her from me in almost no time at all, opening the door quickly too. It wasn't until the sensor detected movement and the lights flicked on that I started to feel guilty for letting her follow me here.

Her legs were scared, scratched, burnt and singed from the bomb and the cragmites that had initially followed. Her pant were ripped and the Annihilator was missing, but if you looked at her from the waist up she was fine. But her legs obviously weren't. And the feeling that it was all my fault continued to rain on me.

So was that bad considering the time I wrote it at? I don't think so... then again I'm half asleep. Thanks for reading! :)