Ratchet and Clank: Wrath and Ruin
by Saint Andreas
Chapter 1: The Sound
A golden light shone through the steep ridges and acid swamps of Sargasso. It illuminated the nests of speedles, the wildlife soaring high above, the gelatonium machinery dotting the landscape, and indeed, a small gathering of heroes.
The two pairs had set up a neat little rug over the soft ground, on which food and drink were spread. Meanwhile Aphelion, the lombax ship the heroes had used to get there, was perched at the top of a hill, the sun's light bouncing off its sleek frame.
They had a clear view of a vast green lake, flanked by high peaks which were covered by vegetation. A nearby tree cast a cool shade over the picnic, and a pleasant breeze flew by, creating a truly serene scene. Just as it had been all those months ago.
Right now, Ratchet leaned against a nearby tree, looking out to the lake before him with a pleasant smile on his face.
"We should thank Gary and the monks for letting us use their gates instead of the Dimensionator. I think it's safe to say this was a good idea," He said out loud. "I really enjoy these picnics of ours."
"Yeah, so do I," Rivet's voice came from behind him, accompanied by a short giggle. "Doing this one in your dimension's Sargasso was a nice little touch."
"I thought it'd be… fitting." He said as he turned around to see the other lombax.
"That's one way to put it. But I think we should only do these on special occasions, ya know, to help them keep their charm."
"Agreed." Ratchet said simply as he sat down cross legged across from her. "But I think this counts as a special occasion."
"Yeah, that Vorselon guy and the Emperor's slippery little secretary really know how to mount a comeback."
"Who would have thought that guy would be so much of a pain in your dimension?" Ratchet jokingly asked. "And they left us with this mess." He said, gesturing at the space between them where their many weapons were laid out.
Since the team of heroes defeated the two Nefariouses back at Megalopolis, they had also destroyed a huge chunk of the Emperor's forces. However, a few bastions had remained here and there, as well as some influential lieutenants. Namely the Emperor's secretary, who had avoided capture after his defeat, and an alternate version of Lord Vorselon, who in Rivet's dimension was the Emperor's go-to right-hand man.
After a grueling campaign and a huge climactic battle, which culminated with the elimination of the last remains of the Emperor's forces on Rivet's dimension, the two lombaxes had tied up the last loose ends in their war against the evil robot. However, in the aftermath of their battles, they had also been left with only half of their respective arsenals, meaning they had a single one of each of their guns between them.
"At least we've split most of them evenly already," Rivet picked up, taking her left hand to her chin. "Now we just need to pick who gets these." She said, waving her other hand at the two guns that remained unassigned.
There were two piles of weapons, one for each of the lombaxes. Ratchet's pile laid to his left, while Rivet's sat to his right. There were only two guns still sitting in the middle. The Enforcer, and the Blackhole Storm.
"Okay so," Ratchet clasped his hands together. "Which one do you want?" He asked, mentaly crossing his fingers for Rivet to pick the Blackhole Storm.
"Weeeell," She hummed, her eyes darting between the two guns. "I think I like the Enforcer a bit better."
"Aw come on! That one's my favorite!"
"So? It's my favorite too!"
"Okay, look-" Ratchet cut off, raising his hands. "Let's leave it to chance," He proposed, making a fist with one hand and smirking at her. "Deal?"
Rivet raised a brow and smirked as well, lifting her own fist. She nodded, accepting his challenge.
And so, the two heros got into a game of Rock, Papper, Scissors. They pumped their fists and produced different figures. They first both went with scissors, prompting a rematch. They then tied again with paper, this time earning a chuckle out of both of them. It was when they tied with scissors once again that laughter of comical exasperation escaped Ratchet's mouth.
"Oh come on!" He laughed.
"For real this time!" Rivet called stifling her own laughter.
After collecting themselves, the duo raised their fists once again, staring each other down before producing their figures. This time, Ratchet chose rock, while Rivet decided to keep with scissors.
"Ha! Loser!" Ratchet boasted, pointing at his friend.
"Yeah, yeah," Rivet rolled her eyes and swatted Ratchet's hand away. "Be careful with it, would ya? It has a lot of kickback." She teased.
"Sure." Ratchet replied with a cocky smirk. "I would have let you keep the Pixelizer too, if we still had one."
"Meh, can't say I miss that one."
"Me neither." Ratchet agreed with a shrug. "The RYNO on the other hand-" He continued, a pang of loss in his voice.
"That one I am gonna miss." River sighed.
"And I doubt Ms. Zurkon is going to be giving us any more freebies any time soon."
With that, Ratchet claimed his weapon and Rivet claimed hers. They then proceeded to store their respective piles, standing up once they were done. Afterwards, the two lombaxes walked back to their picnic mat, where their robotic partners were waiting for them.
"Are you finished with your arsenal redistribution?" Clank asked as they approached.
"Yeah, we're all set." Rivet confirmed, sitting down on the mat, Ratchet following suit.
"Excellent!" Kit began excitedly. "That means we are finally ready to depart to the Lombax Dimension!"
The air of relaxation seemed to immediately evaporate at those words.
Ratchet felt a weight prop itself on his chest. He knew she was right. No more loose ends, no more delays, no more detours. It really was time now.
"Y-Yeah, I guess it is," He half-heartedly uttered, a nervous laugh escaping him. "No more beating around the bush. Time to go meet the lombaxes!" He said, a little loudly, as if trying to convince himself of something.
He froze up when he felt a firm, yet gentle touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Rivet looking at him, an empathetic look in her eyes and a friendly smile on her lips.
"Don't worry, hotshot,'' She said, nudging him playfully. "We're doing this thing together, 'kay?"
"We will all be there," Clank added, standing up to place his own hand on one of Ratchet's knees. "There is no need to be afraid." He said in reasurance. "Besides, we are not going there immediately. We still have a picnic to finish." He declared, gesturing at the remaining fruits and drinks that remained on the mat.
Ratchet felt himself sigh in relief, his tense posture relaxing as he took in his friends' support. At that moment, whatever reservations he might have still had about going to the Lombax Dimension were quelled. He knew he'd have good company.
"Speaking of which-" Clank picked up, heading toward their food basket. "-Rivet and I met a very peculiar chef back on our trip to Blizar Prime. She was gracious enough to give us the recipe to a very special dish. I thought it would be a good time to-"
Clank suddenly trailed off, coming to a halt on his way to the basket. "Oh dear," He muttered, slouching.
"What's wrong pal?" Ratchet asked, an edge of worry in his voice.
Clank slowly turned to face Ratchet, discomfort evident in his features. He twiddled with his fingers and glanced to his side. "It's Qwark, he's trying to contact us."
Ratchet's ears drooped as he groaned. The second his spirits had been raised by his friends, Qwark somehow managed to tune in to the current of the universe to bring them right back down.
"I thought we told him not to bother us today?" Rivet chimed in, looking and sounding rather displeased herself.
"It must be urgent then," Clank surmised with a shrug, not sounding like he believed his own words. "Do you want me to tell him we are undisposed?" The robot offered.
Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned again. "No, let's hear him out. On the off chance this is actually urgent and not some bad joke, it's better to be safe than sorry."
With that, Clank gave him a single nod before pressing one of the buttons on his chest plate. "Qwark, you are on speaker."
"Oh, thank goodness." Qwark's voice soon came. "Hello my dear fuzzy friends. Sorry to interrupt your getaway-" He pronounced suspiciously. "-But we've got a bit of a situation back here in Megalopolis."
Ratchet noticed that Qwark also seemed to be on speaker on his end of the call, since he could make out the background noise of Megalopolis' bustling crowds and vehicles. He also noticed there was a single particular voice which sounded much closer than the rest. It sounded rather pissed off about something.
"What kind of situation?" Ratchet asked cautiously.
"Well, as you know, the Dimensionator is being kept safely here at Megalopolis, as you requested." Qwark stated, as is to deflect posible blame. "However, there is an odd-looking gentleman here asking about it, and he is being very insistent!"
Ratchet's eyes went wide and felt chills go up his spine. "There's someone asking about the Dimensionator?"
"Oh you should see him! He looks like a weird mix between a leper and an astronaut, with a little cyborg thrown in for good measure!" Qwark described boisterously. "And again, he is being very- Hey! Sir, please don't touch me, this suit is more expensive than your house by the looks of you."
Ratchet heard the mysterious stranger start screaming angrily through the call, shouting in a language the lombax did not understand. This made Qwark force out an anxious laugh.
"Seriously Ratchet, this guy seems like really bad news and-" Qwark suddenly stopped, audibly swallowing before resuming, his voice much shakier. "Uhhh, sir, what is that?"
There was a pause, where even the background noise of Megalopolis seemed to fade away. Then, Ratchet heard a near deafening sound erupt. A huge, distorted boom, akin to the sky being torn to pieces. And not a second later, the call ended.
He just sat there, in complete silence for what felt like minutes. He then sprang up to his feet, trying to keep himself from hyperventilating. Everyone else quickly got up too, expressions of pure, heart wrenching worry on their faces.
"We have to move."
The heroes flew through space, rushing desperately to Megalopolis as fast as Aphelion could go. Ratchet could feel his hands go numb from how hard he was gripping the steering wheel.
Everyone seemed to be just as tense as Ratchet himself felt. Rivet sat to his side, hands balled up into fists at her lap, ears low and eyes fixed ahead. Clank and Kit sat behind them, both in absolute silence.
"Come on, come on," Ratchet muttered to himself as they came up on their destination, the planet growing ever closer and taking up more of his view.
"Ratchet, the building we chose to harbor the Dimensionator is basically a fortress," Clank commented suddenly as Aphelion started breaching the veil of white clouds that lay above the city. "I find it highly unlikely this much worry is warranted."
"Look pal," Ratchet began, not taking his eyes away from his aerial path. "I just don't want to gamble on this. Whatever is going on, if it involves the Dimensionator, I don't think we should-"
Ratchet's voice died in his throat when he laid eyes on the scene before him.
A huge ship, colored black, green and gold, was laying siege to the building the Dimensionator was being kept in. The ship was slightly oval-shaped, with several flaring appendages, an open hangar bay and a large golden ring going around its middle. It seemed to unload a small army of hostile creatures onto the large platform that preceded the main building's threshold, while blasting approaching ships out of the sky using its cannons.
"Look out!" Kit screamed, pointing at the ship as it opened fire on the heroes.
"Woah!" Ratchet exclaimed as he maneuvered out of the way.
He veered Aphelion through the incoming fire, quickly repositioning himself. The lombax then spotted the cannon that was firing at him, located at the peak of one of the flares of the enemy ship. Once locked on, he unleashed a quick burst of fire on the cannon, destroying it along with a portion of the apenage it once stood on.
However, that was far from the only weapon the enemy ship carried, and upon noticing Ratchet's aggression, all the other weapons, which had previously settled for gunning down passing cabs, immediately focused their fire on him.
"Oh boy." Was all Ratchet could say without diverting his focus from his now much more difficult task.
Aphelion rumbled and shook from the strain of the manoeuvres Ratchet was pulling in an attempt to avoid all the incoming projectiles. Ratchet could hear the grunts and yelps form his friends as they desperately tried to hang on to their seats.
"We need to find a safe place to land!" Ratchet shouted, doing a barrel roll to dodge a particularly well placed volley of enemy fire.
"There!" He heard Kit shout.
Noticing a small window in the enemy ship's attacks, Ratchet risked a peek to see where Kit was pointing to. A landing platform, relatively near to the besieged building, surrounded by a glass dome and tall spires. It was close by and at a blindspot for their enemies, making it ideal.
"Good eyes, Kit!" Ratchet quickly thanked his friend before stirring the ship toward the platform, not without avoiding a couple final attempts from the enemy ship's cannons to bring them down.
Soon enough, Aphelion landed and opened its canopy, from which the two lombaxes practically sprang out, their respective robotic companions already on their backs.
"We have to stop these guys, whoever they are." River stated as she ran through the hallway that lay before them. "We can't let them get their hands on the Dimensionator." She added, a hint of worry in her otherwise angry voice.
"We will." Said Ratchet as he kept pace beside her.
They eventually made their way to the main platform on which the building stood. It was a wide, spacious place with several steps leading towards the main entrance to the building which, to Ratchet's horror, was not only open, but torn to shreds.
He could also see many Galactic Ranger robots in heated firefights against the incoming invaders.
Qwark's description was, remarkably, very accurate. The attackers were rather small in size, at least by Ratchet's standards. While he was used to his enemies being two or three times his size and extremely corpulent, these guys were rather scrawny-looking, and just a head and a few inches taller than he was.
They were clad in what looked like a really advanced hazmat suit with armored plates, like metal pauldrons, gauntlets and even a small breastplate. However, on closer inspection, there were also multiple dents on these plates, as well as bandages on various spots on their suits. These bandages looked ragged and worn, riddled with dark stains.
"So, cyborg astronaut lepers, ey?" Ratchet chuckled dryly, drawing his Burst Pistol. "Don't think we've seen these guys before."
"New or not," Rivet spoke up, drawing her Omnihammer. "These Fishbowls are going down."
Ratchet smirked at the newly assigned nickname. It was accurate, he thought, since the villains also wore crystalline spheres as helmets.
He also noticed these helmets had a long tube attached that connected to a small canister on the carrier's back. Whatever purpose it served, Ratchet did not know or want to learn.
What he was interested in, was one of the Fishbowls running down a frightened bystander, shooting at them with what seemed to be a Burst Pistol of their own. The civilian ran as fast as they could, heading towards Ratchet and his friends, even if they didn't seem to realize it between their screams and flailing about.
Ratchet raised his own weapon and fired a single shot, aimed at the Fishbowl's gun hand. The shot connected, and the attacker let go of his weapon, giving out a short howl of pain before gripping his injured hand.
"Oh, thank you!" The civilian said hurriedly, before resuming their escape. "Go get 'em, heroes!" They cheered, their voice already growing distant.
Meanwhile, Ratchet noticed the Fishbowl had seemingly recovered, his injured hand now clenched tightly in a fist. The lombax heard an angry growl emanate from his foe, just before he saw the Fishbowl raise his healthy appendage and produce from it an arm-mounted blade.
Ratchet had to admit being surprised when he saw the Fishbowl lunge at him, arm ready to stab him. "Rog!" It shouted.
However, before he could get the chance to retaliate, Ratchet saw the Fishbowl be practically smacked away by a single swing from Rivet's hammer. He even got to see the Fishbowl's helmet shatter under the blow before he was sent flying away.
"C'mon Ratchet!" Rivet called as she started running towards another one of the Fishbowls, hammer at the ready.
"Right behind you!" He said back.
As they advanced through the battlefield, beating the scattered enemies who were distracted fighting off the few remaining Galactic Rangers, Ratchet noticed the massive enemy ship had returned to holding off any approaching craft, but was no longer deploying troops.
Speaking of troops, the lombax also spotted a larger group of Fishbowls gathered near the center of the platform. These enemies took notice of them and began firing in their direction, with some even being as bold as to draw their arm-mounted blades and charge for them, all hollering war-cries at the lombaxes.
"Rog, skachan itskalen!" They screamed in their parched voices.
Ratchet drew the Lightning Rod and began to spray fire. The electric weapon soon had arches of lightning jumping between the many stunned villains. This left them all perfectly positioned for Rivet to swoop in and throw a pair Shatterbombs at their midst. The resulting explosions wiped out the many Fishbowls in a bang of purple shrapnel and injured cries. This cleared their path forward, towards the ruined gates of the building.
Just as they approached the threshold and found the building's long shadow cast over them, Ratchet heard a familiar voice call his name. He whipped his head towards the voice and found none other than Qwark, hiding behind a pile of destroyed Galactic Ranger robots, waving for him to come over.
"Qwark!" Ratchet yelled, unable to control his voice in the current situation. "What in the world happened!?"
"Ratchet, my trusty sidekick!" Qwark began with a forced smile. "Just in time. These pesky ruffians have breached the stronghold and plan to take off with the Dimensionator! You must make haste and stop them before whatever wicked schemes they've concocted are completed!" He proclaimed, standing gracelessly over the damaged robots he previously used to hide behind, pointing towards the building.
Ratchet could spare no more than a half-lidded frown for Qwark's antics. He glanced to his side to find Rivet giving the faux hero a similar look, before shaking her head and turning around.
Not wasting any more time either, Ratchet turned heel and ran towards the building.
"Be careful!" He heard Qwark shout behind him as he entered the building. "They have a big one! A really big one!" His voice echoed as they went deeper and deeper into the metal hallway.
"A big one?" Kit repeated, concern lacing her voice.
"Probably the one that tore that door open." Ratchet answered,
"Nothing we can't handle," Rivet said confidently. "Am I right?" She asked with a grin as she looked over to Ratchet.
"You bet!"
"That's what I like to hear! Now, where to?"
The question made Ratchet slow down and realize they had reached a large open room with plenty of different paths to take. He also noticed there were plenty of signs of conflict here, with bodies of both Fishbowls and Galactic Rangers sprawled across the floor, countless marks of different shapes and sizes adorning the walls and floor instead of the original decorations.
There were a couple of hallways, an elevator and a large circular stairway, all apparently ravaged by the enemy force. One hallway in particular seemed to have been forcibly widened, as if a large creature attempted to push its way through.
"Just how big is this 'big one'?" Ratched pondered silently.
"The Dimensionator is only two floors down from here." Clank stated, pulling Ratchet from his thoughts. "I am also detecting extremely heavy fighting on that level of the building.
But then, Ratchet heard Clank fumble on his back. "Actually, it seems the fighting just died down," He corrected himself. "And a very large portion of the enemy force has split off and seems to be coming here right now. We might be having quite a lot of company soon." He said in a concerned tone.
"But there are still enemies down there?" Ratchet asked quickly, turning his head to see his partner.
"Yes. I believe the remaining force is still trying to extract the Dimensionator from its confinement, while this splinter force is planning to pave their retreat, and destroy any stragglers or reinforcements."
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Rivet asked, drawing her Blackhole Storm as Kit hopped off her back, her optics angled in a hardened frown.
"We'll hold them off!" Kit said bravery, raising her fists to her chest and glancing over to Rivet, who smiled and nodded at her.
"You guys go down there and stop whatever they're doing," Rivet said. "We'll handle them up here!"
With that, Ratchet gave a quick nod before hurrying towards the circular stairway.
Once he reached it, he immediately hopped over the security railing and let himself fall through the gap in the middle of the spiraling steps. The speed of his descent made his ears and tail flutter just before he broke his fall by activating his Hover Boots.
Once he was close enough to the ground, Ratchet deactivated his boots and landed with a light thud. He then searched his surroundings, noticing two possible directions to head in.
He focused for a moment and heard what sounded like talking coming from the hallway to his left. So, moving stealthily, he started going down said hallway, keeping an eye and an ear out for trouble.
Ratchet eventually made it to the end of the hallway, where the structure opened up into a large room. In it, he saw two figures lugging around what looked like the bodies of fallen Fishbowls, piling them up in a corner of the room.
"Lar ob ni keta sor weresh lu saorg?" One of the figures seemed to ask.
"Ar fal wasi, bor ar fal taj," The other one replied as it added another Fishbowl to the pile, rather haphazardly at that. "Ar ure kaz cher ib lo cawal."
"Clank, any idea what these guys are saying?"
"No, they are not speaking any language I'm familiar with."
Ratchet hummed at the reply, slowly creeping closer to the figures, using the debris and geometry of the room to his advantage. He had originally guessed the figures were simple Fishbowls too, but now that he was closer and had a clearer view, he knew better.
They were definitely aligned, since they shared the same black, green and gold color scheme as the Fishbowls and their ship. However, these guys were tall, slightly taller than a Goon, but sporting a much leaner build. Their heads were very subtly hunched forward, and they had long arms with fingertips that dragged across the floor.
They had tattered hoods made from a rough-looking cloth, as well as dirty bandages that covered their arms and torsos, features that contrasted sharply with the shiny cybernetics on their armored gauntlets and their much more advanced gas masks, evocative of green-eyed skulls.
Ratchet also noticed these guys had two very sharp hook swords strapped to their hips, lacking any other weaponry.
"Alright then," Ratchet said to himself. "Let's do this."
With that, Ratchet leapt out of hiding and smacked one of the figures over the head with his Omniwrench, knocking it out cold.
The other figure gave out a startled yelp, but immediately drew its twin swords. "Ni tan krin gur chag!"
Then, the figure rushed at Ratchet, swinging its swords at him at a frenzied speed. The lombax managed to closely parry the incoming blows with his wrench, but he was on the backfoot, being pushed steadily back by the hooded figure.
Eventually, Ratched used his Phantom Dash to put some distance between him and his enemy, only to find the figure almost instantly back on his case, slashing violently at him the second he came back into existence.
At one point, Ratchet tried to block an incoming overhead swing from the figure, putting his wrench up to catch the blow. However, the figure used the hook of its sword to catch Ratchet's wrench instead. Then, replicating the motion with its other arm, the figure had Ratchet's wrench held by both swords, and the lombax could practically feel the figure grinning beneath its mask.
Ratchet then felt the figure give a powerful tug, using its upper body and adding a cruel twisting motion, which caused a painful sprain on the lombax's hand as he tried and failed to keep his hold on his weapon.
The figure then threw the Omniwrench to the floor before flourishing its weapons extravagantly, finishing with a battle pose and chuckleing cockily at Ratchet.
Ratchet for his part, had already rubbed his sore wrist better and was frowning, unimpressed, at the figure standing before him.
He then took a quick breath and pulled out the Enforcer, emptying its double barrels into the figure, who flew backwards from the impact and crumpled to the ground, its body sizzling from the weapon's fiery projectiles.
"Show-off." Ratchet mumbled as he walked over to and picked up his wrench.
"Uh, Ratchet?" Clanks voice came, accompanied by a nervous tapping on Ratchet's shoulder.
Ratchet turned his head to look at where Clank would have been facing, and instinctively returned to a low battle stance.
Standing far enough away that their shape only took up a small part of Ratchet´s vision, was a single creature. It was smaller than the last two, or perhaps it was just an illusion made from the fact it was much more hunched over due to the large metal tanks mounted on its back.
The creature shared the colors of the prior enemies, but had a very different mask, if that's what Ratchet could call it. It was more like an ill-fitting sheet of cloth draped over the creature's head, with thick, round tinted glasses sown in to provide vision, along with a small microphone to provide speech.
The creature's hands were disproportionately large, covered, or maybe made entirely of black metal. Thick tubes connected the back of both hands to the tanks on the creature's back, while luminous apertures laid on its palms.
"Uh, hey buddy?" Ratchet called, noticing the fact the creature had not moved, but still not dropping his guard. "Can we maybe not do this right now? I have-"
"Ob ni kaz ib iros?" The creature rasped, it's already rough voice garbled by its obviously malfunctioning microphone.
"Uhhhh,"
"Iros itskalen, ko tan lo nanui bor jom." The creature cut him off, raising its hands at Ratchet.
Seeing the obvious threat coming, Ratchet dashed backwards just as two streams of bright green flames shot out of the creature's hands, completely carpeting the space between them with fire.
"Oooo that's hot, hothothot!" Ratchet squeaked.
Ratchet activated his Hover Boots, using them to try and circle around the scorched ground between him and his enemy. He already had the Enforcer out and ready, so once he had gone around the fire, Ratchet started closing the distance.
However, just as he approached, the creature swung its arms in his direction, spewing more green fire. The heat alone made Ratchet retreat, trying to find another opening. But just as Ratchet started getting close, the creature unleashed its flames and kept him at a distance.
Eventually, the creature had created a miniature lake of fire on which it stood in the middle of, completely unbothered by the flames, staring vacantly at Ratchet behind its glistening crystal lenses.
"Okay, so I have to take you out from a distance huh?" Ratchet asked rhetorically. "Well, you asked for it." He said as he holstered the Enforcer in favor of the Ricochet.
He took aim and fired the glowing projectile, it's bright purple light shining through the green flames as it slammed over and over again against the creature.
After a good five blows of the creature flailing about in staggered helplessness, it fell backwards, defeated. A short moment later, a small explosion shook the room, centered on the place of the creature's demise.
After confirming his enemy's defeat, Ratchet started moving again. "Alright, now where was I?"
"We were going to stop the hostiles from taking the Dimensionator." Clank pointedly reminded him.
"Lar ha chag!?" A loud, gruff voice suddenly shouted. "Ner! Ner haxal!"
"Oh dear, it appears we have called some unwanted attention to ourselves."
"You can say that again," Ratchet grumbled, keeping his weapon aimed at the door on the far side of the room, from where quickly approaching footsteps were coming from.
The door was then kicked down by a squad of Fishbowls, roughly a dozen of them. Ratchet switched weapons once again, this time to the Cold Snap. He fired the frigid weapon, and in a flash of white snow, all the little enemies were encased in cubes of ice, struggling to break themselves free.
Ratchet took the opportunity to switch to his Blaster Pistol and spray fire. He had taken down about half of the Fishbowls when suddenly, a new threat entered the room.
Violently pushing through its frozen comrades, a hulking figure emerged from the doorway. Its arms and legs alone were thicker than the torsos of the scrawly Fishbowls. This thug was clad in a green hazmat suit, reinforced with square metal plates and had a black gas mask with a large vizor and heavy filters which was connected by a tube to a sturdy, narrow box on the thug's belly.
Its weapon was a large, stout cannon with three barrels, fed by a long belt of ammunition that looped over the thug's back from a metal ammo box. The weapon also had a curved, serrated bayonet on its underside.
"Ya think that's the big one?" Ratchet asked, switching weapons to something with a little more kick to it.
"Large as he is, I doubt he's the big one." Clank remarked.
The thug took aim at Ratchet just as the few remaining Fishbowls broke out of the effects of the Cold Snap, growling angrily at Ratchet and aiming their own weapons at him.
Then they started shooting. Their proyectiles blazed through the air but missed Ratchet every time. The lombax dodged and jumped out of the way, giving extra attention to the projectiles shot by the larger enemy, which were fired at a slower rate, yet announced by a very loud bang each time, remarking the firepower of the thug's weapon.
Ratchet decided to clear up the room a little, and thus chose the Negatron Collider. The Lombax charged up the weapon during his streak of acrobatic dodges and soon enough, released the powerful blue beam, sweeping away the Fishbowls and making the burly thug cease fire.
The large foe remained standing but gripped its head with its free hand, shaking it as if to regain focus. Ratchet wasn't about to give it that chance, as he rushed toward the thug and swung his Omniwrench at its head, cracking it's mask's visor and causing the thug to fall on its back, creating a loud thud as it did.
"Well, that guy wasn't so bad." Ratchet boasted proudly.
"You got off easy."
"What? What does that me-"
Ratchet had turned his head to give his pal an earful, but stopped himself at the sight he accidentally caught.
The wall behind him, the one his enemies had been shooting into, was riddled with bullet holes. However, Ratchet noticed that there were a select few marks that were wider than his fist, which also ran much, much deeper than the others.
"Okay, so," Ratchet gulped. "Let's try not getting hit by those guys."
"A wise plan."
Without any time to waste, Ratched pushed forward through the doorway his enemies had come from, venturing deeper into the compound.
He quickly found himself inside a new room. This one was much larger than the previous one, and had some high raised platforms near the ceiling.
In the far side of the room, was a large pedestal. It was shielded by an impressive, cylindrical energy field, which emitted a pale blue light. It was being prodded by villains, who intermittently shot and slashed at it, to no effect.
On this protected pedestal stood a single item. A dark-colored machine, capable of tearing the fabric of reality itself.
"There's the Dimensionator," Ratchet thought out loud. "They don't have it yet." He realized, a relieved smile forming on his face.
That relief was short lived, as he saw just how many enemies were in the room. Over thirty Fishbowls, with plenty of the more dangerous guys. Ratchet currently stood on an elevated position near the entrance of the room with a convenient bit of cover in front of him, which was the reason he hadn't been spotted yet.
To make matters worse, a powerful rumble shook the building, making Ratchet almost lose his footing while dust fell from the ceiling.
"Jeez, Rivet must be going nuts with the Warmonger," Ratchet commented as he lifted his gaze to the ceiling. The image of the rebel showering her enemies with explosives made him smirk despite the situation.
"That disturbance did not come from above." Clank stated, making Ratchet sputer for a second. "It came from below us."
Ratchet subconsciously brought his gaze to his feet, getting a bad feeling that something was going to shoot up from the ground and grab him.
And right he was, partly. Nothing grabbed him, but something did rise from the floor beneath. The sound that came was like that of metal being ground, a shrill screech, accompanied by the distinctive whirring of a high-powered saw.
Then, from the floor near the Dimensionator's pedestal, erupted an enormous circular saw. The saw started slowly turning, going around the pedestal, causing the energy shield to flicker and dim down the further the saw cut.
Ratchet quickly realized the villain's plan, and was having none of it. "Oh no you don't!" He shouted, emerging from cover, now with the Topiary Sprinkler equipped.
He threw out a single munition, before returning to the Negatron Collider. The many enemies had only barely registered Ratchet's arrival before they started getting covered in plantlife.
Ratchet then immediately opened fire with the Collider, spreading the beam's damage over as many targets as he could. With that attack alone, Ratchet thinned out almost half of the enemies in the room, but just as he did, the rest broke free of the Topiary's effects.
Among these enemies were four of the hooded figures, all having their hook swords brandished and rushing straight for Ratchet.
The Lombax was about to counter by giving them a facefull of the Enforcer, but just as he was about to holster his current weapon, Ratchet saw a projectile flash right beside him, leaving a large smoking hole mere inches from his head.
He quickly realized two of the high-caliber gun thugs had also survived, and were already opening fire on him.
This, combined with the pressure of being chased by four sword-wielding psychos was enough to get Ratchet on the move. The Lombax activated his Hover Boots to outpace the fast figures behind him, if only narrowly. He then decided to head straight toward the thugs, who were now hiding behind some surviving Fishbowls who were providing cover fire.
Ratchet took advantage of the extra mobility from the Hover Boots to practically dance around the incoming proyectiles. As he approached his foes, Ratchet drew the Cold Snap, planning to pull a sweet combo with it and the Enforcer.
But just as he got into range and got ready to pull the trigger, Ratchet saw a wall of green fire manifest itself between himself and his targets.
He abruptly slowed his speed and whipped his head to see one of the fire-loving creatures standing at his right-hand side, gauntlets still spewing their vivrant flames.
Ratchet couldn't hold in a frustrated growl as he resumed his movement. "So that's their game, huh?"
"These enemies seem to each fulfil a highly specialized role," Clank began. "The high-caliber gunners are in charge of eliminating targets from a distance, the sword-wielding warriors pressure you into leaving strategic positions, the fire-starters create hostile terrain and restrict your movement, all while the lesser soldiers provide constant cover fire." He explained.
"They sure know how to work as a team!" Ratchet commented sarcastically as he sped by the fire-loving creature, lining it up with some Fishbowls to get the most out of his Colider's beam. Cries of pain filled the air as the villains fell.
"Indeed. This seems to be a rather unorthodox military doctrine. I don't believe we've ever faced enemies like these, Ratchet."
"Doesn't mean we haven't beaten worse!" He retorted as he finally got off his Cold Snap, freezing the large thugs who had been narrowly missing their shots.
Then, Ratchet turned to see the four hooded figures still chasing after him and decided to lead them toward their frozen comrades. Passing through the two giant ice cubes, Ratchet quickly spun around and deactivated his Hover Boots. He then pulled out the Enforcer, and just when the four figures tried lunging at him, he pulled the trigger all the way, knocking them back.
He then decided to set off a second round of blasts for good measure, causing the thugs to break out of their icy prisons and the figures to be shoved further back, all enemies falling limply to the floor.
"Man, I love this gun." Ratchet said as he admired the weapon in his hands.
"Ratchet!" Clank called in so desperate a voice that Ratchet instantly snapped out of his victory zeal.
He then remembered. "The Dimensionator."
He turned to face the artifact's pedestal as quickly as he could. He managed to do it just in time to see the huge saw finish it's circle. Once it did, the pedestal, which now had its protective barrier deactivated, fell through the newly made hole in the floor.
Ratchet stared, mouth agape in shock. A second later, he shook off his surprise and started running toward the hole, heart pounding against his ribcage.
But just as he approached the hole, the ground below burst open in a cloud of dust and rubble. The shockwave sent Ratchet sprawling back, making him land roughly on his rear.
Getting back up as quickly as his body would allow, Ratchet managed to catch a glimpse of something big, something very big ascending through the newly enlarged hole, only to blast another hole in the ceiling, and then on the ceiling of the room above it.
Ratchet had a pretty good guess of what that thing had been, and wasted no time pursuing it.
Ratchet rushed over to the hole above him and spotted a good place to use the Swingshot function on his glove. He then pulled himself upwards through the air with the glowing tether, using the momentum to detach and land gracefully on what he quickly realized was the main platform, outside the building.
He saw the building's entrance before him, with scattered Fishbowls and other villains running hurriedly away. Hot on their trail, peppering them with Buzz Blades, was Rivet, deeply focused on her side of the carnage.
Awesome as the sight was, Ratchet found himself turning around when he felt heavy footsteps shake the ground beneath him. A startled gasp escaped him when he saw their source.
For the second time today, Qwark had been spot on with his description. 'Big One' was right on the money, since the creature giving it's back to Ratchet was only a few feet shy of being twice the size of a Nefarious Juggernaut.
It had all the trademarks. Black, green and gold color scheme, an enormous hazmat suit, some form of breathing mask, with bandages and cybernetics holding everything together. However, there were some standout features about this colossus, such as the angular, spiked pauldrons it wore, the fact golden nails seemed to be used in fastening the hems of its suit, and what appeared to be a missile battery mounted on it's right shoulder.
And of course, how could Ratchet forget the fact the giant's left arm was covered entirely by heavy machinery, which ended in a monstrous circular saw, the teeth of which, Ratchet was pretty sure were actually drill heads, since they spun slowly while the saw rested.
"That's the big one!" Ratchet heard Qwark's voice shout from far away. "Go get it Ratchet! You can do it!"
Ratchet couldn't help but roll his eyes as he got ready to face the enormous foe, thankful it had its back turned on him.
However, upon looking more closely, Ratchet noticed something odd. Standing on one of the giant's shoulders, was a single Fishbowl. The astronaut leper looked miniscule beside it's gigantic companion, but it also appeared to Ratchet that it was tinkering around with something.
He could hear the Fishbowl grunting, as if it were struggling to open some sort of tight jar. It was then that Ratchet saw the Fishbowl raise the Dimensionator above its head, and rip the phaze quartz right out of its socket.
Ratchet felt the blood drain from his face.
"Fash!" The Fishbowl shouted triumphantly, discarding the hollowed out Dimensionator as if it were a worthless trinket while hoisting the purple gem above its head.
"Ner." The giant rumbled, its mechanized voice so deep and booming that despite it's tone indicating it was speaking softly, Ratchet felt the need to cover his ears.
With that, Ratchet saw the Fishbowl sprout jetpack wings, and after a brief start up, it shot up into the air, heading directly toward their ship, while leaving a faint trail of smoke behind.
"No!" Ratchet cried out.
Regretfully, in his desperate reflex, Ratchet seemed to have alerted the giant to his presence. It turned around, a deep growl reverberating in its throat, before using its huge saw to slash at Ratchet.
He Phantom Dashed out of the way, narrowly avoiding the attack, which left a huge grove where it had passed.
Ratchet then backfliped further away, afraid of getting caught in any further attacks from the giant. However, much to his confusion, Ratchet saw the colossus get into a rather defensive stance, lowering its upper body and raising its arms in front of it's head like a boxer, saw arm forward.
That was when Ratchet felt another, very distinct set of steps shake the ground. His ears perked up in surprise at the sensation, but he quickly found himself grinning widely at the enemy giant.
"Oh, you're in for it now." He snickered.
Ratchet glanced behind him to see Kit in her warbot form, slowly approaching the large villain.
The two titans stared each other down, the air made heavy by their presence alone. Both had their fists clenched, both stood in combative stances, but neither made a move. The silence was rather suffocating, seeing how intense the fighting had been a few moments prior.
Then, without warning, the pause ended. The masked creature roared and rushed at Kit.
The yellow robot responded by opening her wrist cannons and shooting a burst of missiles at her enemy. But as the blue proyectiles trailed through the air, the giant only roared again, before a volley of green missiles shot out of its shoulder-mounted platform.
Both opposing volleys collided with each other in mid air, exploding loudly and creating a fleeting screen of black smoke. A screen the enemy giant jumped through, using its saw arm to throw a mighty overhead swing at Kit.
Kit raised both her arms and caught the spinning weapon, bringing it to a halt and holding her ground, even as the giant essentially crashed its entire weight on top of her. The impact sent a web of cracks all through the floor beneath, causing another small quake.
Ratchet could see Kit slowly start pushing the giant's saw away, but then, Ratchet saw the giant pull back his other arm, before sending shooting forwards to crash against Kit's head.
The blow caused Kit to grunt and recoil, only for the giant to punch her again and then kick her roughly in the chest. That last attack caused Kit to stumble backward and let go of the giant's saw, who in turn, took a couple steps back itself.
Ratchet was about to call out Kit's name to make sure she was okay, but he then noticed something interesting. Despite all those hits, there wasn't so much as a scratch on Kit, and her eyes, previously blue, were now glowing a fiery red.
"Looks like he pissed her off." Ratchet commented, a proud smirk forming on his face. But he quickly shook it off, remembering the severity of the situation. "Kit!" He shouted, drawing the robot's attention. "They got the phaze quarts out of the Dimensionator! We have to go after them!"
"Ratchet." Kit called suddenly, not taking her eyes off the giant. "This one is just guarding the others' retreat." She stated.
Upon her comment, Ratchet scanned his surroundings and noticed that the rest of the villains were indeed running away, hurriedly scampering towards their ship.
He realized that Rivet had actually kept attacking the fleeing enemies, but even as she continued trying to bring down as many of them as she could, her proyectiles were now being either blocked or countered by the giant, who stood imposingly between the heroes and the escaping villains.
The thwarting of her attacks made Rivet snarl but eventually cease fire, opting to not waste any more ammunition.
"Ratchet," Kit called once again, regaining the lombax's attention.
Upon turning to face Kit, Ratchet saw the yellow robot had lowered her hand and extended it out to him. Her gaze had softened now that it was directed at him, but her optics were angled in a serious expression. She then nodded toward the ship, shaking her hand a little.
It then clicked inside Ratchet's head, and a daredevilish smile found its way on his face. "Let's do it!"
He then hopped onto Kit's hand and felt the metal limb move as Kit positioned herself for a throw. "Be careful." The robot warned quickly, before flinging her arm forward, sending Ratchet rocketing through the air.
Wind pushed against his face as he shot towards the enemy ship, forcing him to straighten his figure to reduce drag. Kit had aimed for the open hangar of the ship, which meant he at least wouldn't end up splattering against the dark metal hull.
Despite the whistling of wind in his ears, Ratchet managed to hear the masked giant give out an enraged roar, right before firing its missiles at him. The lombax was about to scream in fear as the green proyectiles gained on him, but instead shouted in joy when he saw blue missiles intercept them mid-flight, courtesy of Kit.
He even let out another cheer when he turned his head down and saw Kit tackle the giant like a ram, knocking the huge creature to the ground. And as much as he would have liked to see Kit mop the floor with that thing, Ratchet had to focus on his part.
The wind had made Ratchet close his stinging eyes, but after a moment, Ratchet forced himself to squint them open to see just how close he was to landing. He yelped when he saw the polished floor rising up to meet him.
Ratchet quickly spun himself around and managed to plant his feet on the ground, dispersing the extra momentum by flipping acrobatically and finaly sicking his landing.
He blew air out of his mouth and got his bearings. He turned his head and crouched, looking out for any incoming enemies.
The inside of the ship was lit rather poorly, with only green strobe lights overhead. The hangar itself was mostly empty, spare a few piles of crates and containers.
Ratchet squinted in the environment, but kept his ears up, leaning more on his hearing than his sight. "Any idea where they might have taken the phaze quartz, buddy?"
"I am detecting its energy signature several meters ahead. However, I am also detecting a lot of energy surging through the ship, which leads me to believe they are getting ready to depart."
"We better be quick about this then."
With that, Ratchet moved through the vacuous hangar, heading towards a corridor that led deeper into the ship. His eyes were hurting slightly from just how bad the lighting was, and the smooth black floor and walls made navigation awkward, with him nearly tripping when he tried turning a corner.
As Ratchet ventured through the ship, he noticed there weren't very many people here. He guessed that most of the crew had been deployed in the siege and had been taken out by him and Rivet.
"How much farther?" Ratchet asked out loud as he moved down another corridor.
"We are still quite a ways away, I suggest picking up the pace a little."
Ratchet groaned as he forced himself to run faster, not wanting to use his Hover Boots and risk someone hearing him.
He then turned one more corner and quickly came to a halt.
Working on some wiring inside the wall to Ratchet's left, was a single person. They were dressed in a similar attire to the other enemies Ratchet had come across, but this one seemed different.
It was about as tall as a Fishbowl, and just as scrawny. But this one had a rather distinctive helmet, a closed metal one with a gas mask merged to it as well as a single curved horn on the right side of its head. Ratchet also noticed this person had a tattered cloth cloak that reached down to its waist, partly covering up the hazmat suit it wore.
The figure then stood up and sighed, nodding at its handiwork before turning in Ratchet's direction. It was holding a wrench. Was holding, since it dropped it when it laid eyes on Ratchet.
"Wow, y-you're…" The figure stuttered. "You're a Lombax."
Ratchet felt himself choke on his spit.
From hearing all those other villains speaking in their, gluterral, hard-sounding alien language, Ratchet was thrown through a loop upon hearing words he could actually understand come from one of them.
The two just stood there for a moment, gawking at the unnatural reality of their situation. Strangely enough, the person in front of him did not seem very hostile, arms down and body slack, so Ratchet's stance relaxed ever so slightly.
The lombax was about to draw in breath to speak, but just as he started formulating questions in his head, the floor beneath him exploded.
Ratchet let out a startled scream as he felt himself start to fall through the brand new hole in the ship. He managed to grip a nearby protruding metal pipe and successfully broke his fall. He was panting from the adrenaline, but swallowed and regained his cool.
Ratchet looked down at the platform the ship floated over. There he saw Kit and the giant, still locked in combat, shooting missiles and throwing punches at each other. Ratchet assumed a stray missile must have caused his current predicament.
Then, when his eyes wandered around as he searched for a way to get back onto stable ground, he noticed that the stranger was also hanging over the blast hole, gripping onto a frayed cable for dear life. The stranger looked over to Ratchet, his eyes, hidden behind mechanized optics, were wide with fear.
"Uh, you had a plan to get out of here, right?" The stranger asked pleadingly.
Before Ratchet could admit his lack of preparation, a strange mechanical sound started to intensify. It sounded like a potent electrical humming that was slowly growing louder. Ratchet noticed that, from the golden ring that surrounded the ship, two long, thin spikes shot out, bright purple lights steadily growing brighter at their tips.
"Hey, buddy?" Ratchet called. "What is going on?"
"It appears the ship is powering up for departure." Clank surmised.
"You got that right!" The stranger confirmed rather bitterly.
Ratchet could feel his heart rate going back up already, pushed around like a child by the dread mounting in his chest. They still didn't have the phaze quartz back and the bad guys were about to leave.
At that moment, another stray missile hit the ship, shaking the hull. Ratchet yelped and tried to hold on tighter to the pipe as the metal cylinder held steady even as the structure around him rattled.
The stranger however, wasn't so lucky. The cable he was holding onto snapped, and the masked creature plummeted through the air, screaming as he went.
Ratchet's instincts triggered at the sight. He let go of the pipe and fell after the stranger. Only now did Ratchet notice the light coming from the two spikes on the shop was becoming blinding, and the sound coming from the heart of the ship was growing ever louder.
He didn't pay them any mind, he was focused on getting to the stranger, planning to use Clank's propellers and his own Glide Boots to break their fall.
But just as he got close enough to lock eyes with the stranger, he heard it.
That same sound he'd heard from Qwark's call back on Sargasso.
A sound like a machine tearing the sky to pieces.
And right behind the sound, came a shockwave, a powerful blast of wind and light that blew Ratchet away and forced him to close his eyes and grit his teeth.
The next thing Ratchet knew, he hit ground harshly on his side, bouncing like a skipping rock from the sheer force of the impact. He groaned groggily, his aching body too sore to let him stand, a big headache ringing in his skull.
"-chet!" He heard someone call. "Are you okay!?"
He felt hands lift him up to his knees and grab him by the shoulders. He tried to focus, eyes still closed as he willed his body to stand fully, noticing the hands retreat when he did so.
He grabbed his aching head and rubbed his eyes, opening them slowly.
Once his vision focused, he saw Rivet standing in front of him. Her brows were knit in concern, her hands fidgety, resting uneasily at her sides.
Ratchet tried to pull a smile to calm his friend down. "I'm okay, Rivet." He said soothingly. "How about you? Those guys didn't give you any trouble did they?" He quipped.
That got an amused scoff out of her. "As if," She said, her worry already dissipating. "They didn't stand a chance." She added, shifting her gaze toward something at her side.
Ratchet followed stare to find Kit, already back in her tiny form beaming up at Rivet.
"You okay there, Kit?" Ratchet asked, tilting his head at her. "That guy looked pretty tough."
"He was very resilient." Kit admitted. "And I must say, I am not used to being… challenged, like that. Most enemies I face are defeated rather quickly."
Speaking of the giant, once Ratchet got to looking for it, he quickly noticed the huge fallen shape a few meters away. Judging from the amount of smoke coming up from its stiff body, Kit had really put a number on that thing.
"But, hey," He heard Rivet pick up, returning his focus to her. "You went up there to get the phaze quartz, right? How'd that go?" She asked, attempting to make her voice sound calm and relaxed, but unable to keep the nerves at bay.
That's when it came back to Ratchet. The stranger falling, the enemy ship disappearing. The phaze quartz having been on board.
Ratchet started feeling his stomach churn. His mouth was dry.
The look on his face must have been easy to read, because slowly, he could almost see the blood leave Rivet's face. Her mouth opened wordlessly, as her ears drooped, all while her eyes grew wide and glistening.
She realized it as well as he did.
They were stranded.
00000000000000000000
It had been about an hour or so since the battle had concluded. Clean-up had arrived shortly and had gotten to gathering all those fallen in the conflict, Galactic Rager and invader alike. The entire area had been closed off and repairs were already underway.
Qwark had taken up the role of press sponge, directing all the attention toward himself, spinning the story as a grand conflict where the Galactic Rangers had fended off a ruthless, mysterious threat in an epic battle, with Qwark at its helm of course.
Ratchet and his friend's involvement was routinely undermined and understated by the green hero, but this time, it had been done as a request, not on a whim.
Ratchet and the rest really needed some peace and quiet to digest what had just happened.
The yellow lombax sat at the edge of a high platform, near where they had parked Aphelion. He was bouncing his leg rapidly, eyes staring at something a thousand miles away.
"This doesn't make any sense," Clank's voice grumbled behind him. "Why take only the phaze quartz? Why not the whole Dimensionator?" He pondered.
"Could it be that they were seeking to power a different device?" Kit proposed. "Something else that is powered by phaze quartz, a weapon perhaps?"
The words of the robots behind him were little more than white noise to Ratchet. He really couldn't bring himself to care about why those things had done what they did, all he knew was what they had left him with. No way forward.
"It's funny, ya know?" Ratchet asked with a mirthless laugh. "Just when I was ready to go find the Lombaxes, something like this happens." He said dryly, throwing an arm forward.
Rivet, who sat beside him, legs dangling off the edge of the platform, spoke slowly. "Maybe we can find more phaze quartz? We still have the Dimensionator itself. We can fix it!" She tried. Ratchet saw her put on a very tight grin, which crumbled when he turned to face her. "Oh, who am I kidding, we all know-"
"-Phaze quartz is one of the rarest minerals in the universe." They said in unison, each sighing disappointedly.
"We were lucky we knew where to get that last one. We could cross-reference it's location with our own universe." Ratchet said, his voice barely a mumble. "I don't think we're going to get that lucky twice."
"But then what are we going to do? We can't just give up, can we?"
Ratchet winced at the pleading sound in her voice. "Rivet…" He started slowly, pausing to weigh his words. "I think-"
Ratchet was interrupted by a quick grunt, accompanied by the soft thud of someone sitting down beside him, followed by a relaxing "Ahhhh".
Ratchet blinked and quirked his brows at the sequence of sounds before turning towards their source. He then felt his brain short circuit.
Sitting there, looking at the horizon, was the stranger. Completely unharmed and sitting in a slack-shouldered, relaxed pose. He didn't even seem to acknowledge the two lombaxes. The stranger just pleasantly horizon-gazed for a few moments, sniffling ocationaly.
Then, Ratchet heard a low beeping sound ring out from the stranger, which prompted the shifty character to move.
"Oh crud," He muttered, looking at one of his metal gauntlets, the screen on the inside of his arm being the apparent source of the beeping.
The stranger then flicked his wrist and the beeping screen slid back and ejected a small empty glass container which the stranger caught and stored away in a pocket. He then pulled out of said pocket an identical container, this one filled with a bright orange liquid, and proceeded to insert it in the slot the previous container had been ejected out of. After this, the screen slid back over the slot and beeped once last time.
"There we go," The stranger said contently, clenching and unclenching his hand. "Sorry about that."
Ratchet was still not quite sure what he was witnessing, he wasn't even sure it was really happening. He just stood there and stared silently at the stranger, mouth slightly agape.
"So," The stranger began, clasping his gloved hands together. "That whole business back there, with the siege and everything, that was really intense, huh?" He commented, chuckling nervously. "I suppose I should apologize on behalf of my- ooooh! Nonono, don't shoot me!"
Ratchet's body had apparently moved on reflex by itself, and his mind had barely caught up in time, because he now realized he had his Burst Pistol drawn and aimed at the now cowering stranger.
"What is happening!?" Clank shouted, rushing over with Kit right behind him
Ratchet was breathing heavily, gun hand shaking. "Who are you!?" He asked, voice loudened by rage. "What are you doing here!? What do you want!?"
"Why did you attack us!?" Rivet's voice soon added as she stood up herself. "Who are you working for!?"
Still on the ground, the stranger glanced frightenedly between the lombaxes. "Okay, that's a lot of questions, really fast," The stranger said, raising a finger innocently. "Would you mind- Ah! Waitwaitwaitwait!" He slurred in a panic when he saw Rivet draw her Omnihammer and take a step towards him. "Segen! Segen! My name is Segen!"
At that, Ratchet saw Rivet break her advance, lowering her hammer and calming down slightly.
"Jeez! I thought you were the good guys, Clank!" Segen said offendedly while looking at Ratchet.
"That's not my name," Ratchet growled back.
"Uhhh, Rivet?" Segen tried again.
"..."
"Kit?"
"I'm Ratchet!"
"Aha! Ratchet!" Segen exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Dang it, one in four." He grumbled, smacking his thigh disgruntledly
"How do you know our names?" Rivet questioned in a severe tone.
"Well, because I asked around?" Segen replied matter-of-factly. "Ya know, like a normal person? You guys are very popular around here."
Ratchet had calmed down though the course of the conversation, having holstered his gun and controlled his breathing. He kept his eye on Segen and stayed tense, ready for any attack, even though he noticed the stranger didn't seem to carry weapons.
"Answer the rest of the questions," He demanded. "Who do you work for? Why did you come here?"
Segen's mechanized eyes flickered between his many onlookers, pausing, almost imperceptibly, on Clank, who still had the hollowed-out Dimensionator in hand. He then raised his brow slightly and drew a breath.
"Ok, before all that," He started, raising his hands up to his head, palms toward the heroes as he very slowly started standing up. "Can I make an educated guess about something?" He asked, tilting his head.
Ratchet narrowed his eyes at the stranger, but upon not hearing any qualms from his friends, he decided to keep quiet.
Segen, identifying the oppressive silence as his cue, resumed speaking. "Okay. My guess is that you want to go to the Lombax… 'Dimension'," He pronounced, doing air quotes as he did, which Ratchet found odd but didn't question.
"What makes you think that?" Rivet asked, her voice so cutting, Ratchet wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic.
"Well, you are lombaxes with access to trans-universal travel," Segen said with a shrug. "Where else were you gonna go?"
Upon the silence resuming, Segen flickered his fingers and continued. "I also guess that you have some sort of map? A beacon? Something to show you the way there, right?"
"Right," Ratchet cut in sharply. "What we don't have is a way to actually get there. Thanks to you." He hissed, balling up his fists, ears low and his tail swishing behind him.
"H-Hey, easy now, easy" Segen stuttered, taking a cautious step backward. "I'm just a technician, I'm not the guy in charge." He said, putting a hand on his chest.
"Then who is?" Rivet asked suddenly. "Who are you people?"
Segen shifted slightly in his place, evidently uncomfortable. "They call themselves the Ruined," He uttered. "They are, simply put, bad news. Very bad news."
"Why did they steal the phaze quartz from our Dimensionator?" Ratchet continued interrogating.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
Segen stared at him with an expression Ratchet would have guessed to be a frown beneath the mask and helmet. Segen then sighed before speaking. "Fine. They believe it is food for the giant, planet-destroying, universe-hopping monster they worship as a god."
Ratchet stayed quiet for a moment before speaking up. "Is that it?"
Segen looked taken aback. "What?"
"You really thought that was going to be hard to believe?" Ratchet asked, recalling memories of his previous adventures, finding more than a couple of them just as, if not more crazy than Segen's explanation.
The stranger hummed. "You really are all that, huh? The big hero everyone here says you are?" He asked, not sounding malevolent, per se.
"Okay look, we're getting sidetracked here," Segen spoke up, shaking his arms elaborately. "The situation now is; you want to go to the Lombax Dimension, you have a map to get there, but you can't get there because you don't have the means, right?" He summarized, lowering his arms and head in an appealing manner.
"Weeeeeell," Segen resumed in a tone that made Ratchet frown suspiciously at him again. "What if I told you, you don't need a Dimensionator to get there?"
"Oh come on!"
"It's true!" Segen said defensively, pointing a quick finger at the lombax. "How do you think my compatriots-" He spat the word derisively. "-Arrived and left? Teleportation technology can't haul things that big around, not without a designated port."
"And your secret interdimensional travel mcguffin can?" Ratchet scoffed.
"Trans-universal travel mcguffin," Segen corrected. "And yes! I'm telling you, it works!"
"Let's assume for a second that we believe you," Ratchet picked up, rubbing his eyes from the stress of the situation. "Why would you give us such a thing? Why help us?"
"Because I also want to go to the Lombax Dimension." Segen replied plainly.
Ratchet had to do a double take at those words. "Wait a minute, are you a lombax!?"
"No, I'm not a lombax, you idiot!" Segen shouted back loudly, more angrily than he'd said anything in the conversation up to that point. "The lombaxes just happen to have something I need." He explained, his voice back to its normal volume.
"And what would that be?" Ratchet asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You think I'm wearing this-" Segen gestured at his body. "-This military-grade hazmat suit- which I can't take off by the way- as a fashion statement or something? I'm sick, Ratchet! I'm a dying man!"
Ratchet stumbled over that reply. He wasn't really expecting to hear that.
"The lombaxes," Segen continued. "Are the most technologically advanced race I've ever heard of. They developed machinery that could heal chronic degenerative diseases, things that modern medicine can't hope to cure." He paused. "Things like what's killing me right now." He finished somberly, his gaze falling to the floor.
"So here's the gist of it." Segen suddenly spoke anew. "We both want to go to the Lombax Dimension. You have a map, but no means to get there. I can get you those means. All I ask in return is a ride."
Ratchet felt his head swirl as it tried processing what was being offered to him. His eyes were on Segen, who stared right back at him, waiting for an answer.
He looked to his friends for any sort of guidance. His eyes shifted between Clank, Kit and Rivet, but they each looked just as unsure as he did.
"What do we do?" Kit practically whispered.
"So? Are we doing this or not!?" Segen asked loudly.
"Give us a minute!" Rivet snapped back, causing the so-called technician to recoil.
Afterwards, the group huddled together, clustered tightly so as to keep Segen from hearing their deliberation.
"I don't trust that guy!" Rivet hissed, glancing towards Segen.
"I don't trust him either but…" Ratchet paused, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw. "Do we really have a choice? They wrecked the Dimensionator, and as unbelievable as it is, they have their own interdimensional travel tech. I'm not sure we have any other options."
Rivet gave a low growl and shut her eyes before turning to Clank and Kit. "Guys, you're the geniuses here, you know our odds better than anyone. Do we really have a chance of doing this any other way?"
Clank and Kit locked eyes, debating silently. Moment after moment passed, each heavier than the last, but eventually, the bots turned to face their friends. The looks on their faces said it all.
Ratchet could feel a pit form in his stomach. He shut his eyes closed, the mixed bag of feelings weighing on his chest and all the wild implications of what he was about to jump into making his head throb.
But he powered through it. If this was the road he had to take, this one last hurdle, then so be it. He looked over to his friends and realized.
He'd have good company.
And so, giving his friends a nod, Ratchet broke off from the huddle, heading towards Segen. As Ratchet approached, Segen straightened out, meeting the lombax's intense eyes.
"You know," Ratchet began in a warning tone. "If you stab us in the back-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Segen waved at him as he rolled his eyes. "You'll beat me up, or whatever. Trust me, I have no love for my fellow Ruined," He said, making Ratchet raise a brow. "And I know better than to pick a fight with a multiversal hero." He added, returning his gaze to Ratchet.
Afterwards, Segen stretched out an arm.
"Deal?"
Ratchet looked at the hand being offered to him, then at the one who offered it. And then, after taking a deep breath, he took it.
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Heya
Ok look, I know I just puked a whole bunch of crazy stuff at you really fast. New Bad Guy Faction, New Character, New Worldbuilding. All in the first chapter through what was essentially a giant action scene. And that's with me proofreading and re-editing this thing like three times.
But look, I got big plans for this thing. And on account of the nature of this first chapter, I plan to release the next one later today or tomorrow, to kinda help myself get a bit better standing and develop stuff better.
So. Key things for the story:
It's gonna be pretty action heavy, as you might have guessed, not that there won't be slower, calmer bits. (This due to the fact I attempted to structure the story kind of like a mainline game, which means; breakneck pacing, lots of action, but plenty of cool, slow, heartfelt moments. And also my sad attempts at comedy)
I'm going to try to keep it cannon-typical in terms of violence and swearing and stuff like that. (Save for some special occasions)
There is going to be a lot of OC stuff here, like the new villains, the setting etc, but it's mostly a vehicle for the plot. The main journey is going to be about our favorite 4 heroes and their struggle.
As for Ratchet and Rivet… Well, I think we all know what we're here for. (Just give me some time ok, good things come to those who wait)
The story is rated teen for a reason. There are going to be some pretty… lets say, "intense", moments later on.
If you're interested, great! Welcome aboard! If not, that's fine too.
Read and review at your leisure, feedback is appreciated!
PS: This story is also available on AO3, and the version there includes some extra goodies, like extra Lore and even some art of the new characters!