Chapter 8: Stress Test
Rivet let out a long, pleased sigh as the nanotech flowed through her, closing all the slashes the Acolyte had put on her. She smiled at the sensation, closing her eyes to relax fully.
Just as Kit had predicted, dealing with the Acolyte had been a less time-consuming endeavor than raiding the Ruined bases for the map pieces, and as such, the heroes actually had a little time to kill before the start of their third trial.
The rebel used this time to sit down with her robotic friend.
"I'm really sorry, Kit. I guess I got a little freaked out by those Caster punks. They, uh…" She paused, rubbing her metal arm. "They opened some old wounds and put me in a bad place for a bit."
"It's okay, Rivet, really!" Kit assured her sweetly.
"No, Kit, it's not," Rivet contered. "I shouldn't just let something like that put a wedge between us. You're my friend, and you deserve better than me just tolerating you." She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before looking at her friend with a smile. "Let's let old wounds heal, for real this time, okay?"
With that, Rivet stretched her hand out for Kit to shake. The little bot eyed the limb, before beaming happily and wrapping her little hands around it. "Yes, for real this time."
Suddenly, Rivet's ears perked up when a familiar voice rang out through Segen's home. "I'm telling you man, cannibalism would solve world hunger and overpopulation at the same time. It 's genius!"
"Gross and evil, that's what it is."
"Oh well, I don't hear any other solutions being brought up!"
"You can't just blindside me by proposing cannibalism as a solution and expect me to roll with it!"
The heated debate between the hero and technician had apparently escalated into a shouting match, causing Rivet to turn around and lay eyes on the two men arguing with each other from across the living room's table.
Rivet rolled her eyes at the sight, crossed her arms and cleared her throat loudly, causing the two to freeze in place and glance at her.
"Are you two done?" She asked, shooting her companions a disapproving look.
At that, Segen cleared his throat and stood up from his seat, followed by Ratchet. "Yes, right. This way, please."
After saying a quick goodbye to Kit and leaving her with Clank, Rivet quickly went after Ratchet and Segen as the technician led them to a different part of his home.
"What model did you say it was?" Ratchet asked, a little edge of excitement in his voice.
"You'll see, I want to keep a bit of suspense going." Segen teased. "Anyway, you two should have more than enough time to get that thing back in working order for the trial, just remember it's in a fragile state right now, so please be careful and don't blow up my house."
"I don't know, I think some spontaneous remodeling could be just what this place needs." Rivet said. "Worked well enough for my place back at Sargasso." She quipped, earning a mirthless chuckle from Segen as he came to a stop in front of a door on his long hallway.
"Well, knock yourselves out." The technician said, doing a little bow as he welcomed the lombaxes into the room.
Rivet felt like she was stepping into a dream. She saw a fully stacked workstation, several boxes worth of spare parts and all the tools she could ever need, even ones she had never seen before.
"Those are custom made," Segen said loudly, apparently noticing her gawking. "Please don't break them."
"Custom made? Who made them?" Ratchet asked suddenly, tracing his fingers over the workbench.
"My da-" Segen bit back his answer. "Another acquaintance of mine."
"Well, that acquaintance really knows their stuff," Rivet commented with wonder. "I might want to put in an order for them after all this." She said, admiring the metal instrument in her hands. "But anyways, we should probably get to work. I can see why you had this place locked down, that RYNO looks like it's seen better days." She declared, noticing the mighty weapon was basically broken down to it's skeleton, its metal guts sprawled over the wide workbench.
Ratchet then walked over to the RYNO. "You said it, but I think it's actually better this way," He said, shifting some parts, tools and notes around, making space. "Because now we get to fine tune everything about this thing, I've actually always wanted to…" He trailed off, his eyes falling on a little sticky note on the bench, a note he picked up, before he turned to Segen. "Hey, uh, is this… is this lombax script?" She heard Ratchet ask.
The rebel jerked her head up, turning it toward her yellow friend, before bringing it toward Segen.
Segen stayed silent for a moment, frozen save for his eyes, which darted between the two lombaxes. "Uhh, yeah, It is?"
"Why would you write stuff down in lombax script?" Ratchet pressed, a very specific doubt forming in his mind.
She should know, the same one was forming in hers.
"Oh well, that's a silly War Caste thing," Segen waved off casually. "Samson told me that back in the day, when the Ruined duked it out with the Lombaxes-"
"The Ruined fought the Lombaxes!?" Rivet cut in incredulously.
"Yes, the Ruined fought the Lombaxes." Segen repeated dryly at the interruption. "For a little bit, anyways. But back then, the Ruined used to intercept lombax transmissions to try and get a leg up in their war, but they couldn't figure anything out because the characters were so different and weird. So, they had to eventually decipher the entire lombax language, meaning that back then you basically needed to know lombax script to be a part of the War Caste." He explained.
"But why do you know it?" Ratchet continued. "By the way you spoke, you made it sound like this took place a while ago."
"Well yeah, after the war ended they didn't need to decipher transmissions anymore, but they figured that if the lombax language was so difficult to understand, they could actually use it to their advantage." Segen elaborated. "So, the Ruined kind of just appropriated the lombax script to serve as an additional layer of encryption to their secret messages in their future conflicts. And well, it's stuck around ever since."
"Well, that sounds like a rather scummy thing to do." Rivet commented, not exactly thrilled at the appropriation of a piece of her race's culture.
"I think I've told you enough about the War Caste for you to figure out they are a pretty scummy bunch." Segen retorted. "Anyway, don't take too long, the trial starts in a few hours and it's gonna be the toughest one yet, RYNO or no RYNO."
"I think we'll be fine," Rivet said dismissively. "This baby should finally give us a way to really fight back against those robe-wearing freaks." She said with a devilish smile as she eyes the dismantled superweapon.
"I'll leave you to it then." Segen said, excusing himself.
The technician then shut the door behind him, leaving the two lombaxes to their own devices. They immediately stood at opposite ends of the workbench, countless ideas running through their minds as to how best to mold the heap of scrap metal before them into a weapon to trump anything the Casters of the maze could throw at them.
"So, I'm pretty sure this is actually a model 5 RYNO," Ratchet said as he poked at the metal frame.
"Sweet!" River cheered with glee. "You know what they say-"
"Mark five RYNO is best RYNO." The two quoted in unison, getting a chuckle out of each other.
"So, we're probably gonna want to get the main cannon's barrel and rifling tuned up first, and then work our way outward with each one of the extra layers." Rivet planned out, gesturing at the parts.
"You're right, those outer rings are going to be the toughest part too. All those moving parts and the amount of bullets the thing fires, we're gonna need one heck of a cooling system if we don't want this thing to overheat."
And so, the duo spent their time, mulling over the ways to turn the scarp before them into the mightiest weapon they could. They talked about the rate of fire, the loading mechanisms, the ammo storage, the firing mechanisms, the grip, the recoil compensation and every other fine point of firearm design that crossed their minds. They then got to work on bringing their envisioned weapon to life, passing tools and materials between themselves like a two person assembly belt.
They had lost track of time, gloves stained with oil and brows dotted with sweat, but pleased smiles on their faces as they beheld their work.
"Now that-" Ratchet began, jabbing a finger at the finished weapon. "-Is beautiful."
"You said it." Rivet agreed with a chuckle, extending a hand to her partner to hi-five.
The RYNO 5 sat, shiny and new on the workbench, customized with a dark gray and blue paint job, emulating the designs of the lombaxes' melee weapons. It was massive, as all RYNOs were, but s few tweaks were made to slim it down, namely some alloy materials Segen had around to keep the structure sound while in a more compact frame.
Rivet felt a sense of pride blooming in her chest as she eyed the weapon. However, an important question was now pending.
"I think you should have it." Ratchet suddenly said, making Rivet turn to face him with wide eyes. "You'll need it to get back at those Caster freaks for what they did." He said, shifting his gaze from the weapon to her, a sideways smile on his lips. "Besides, I think it's yours by right. Afterall, you did win that bet with Segen for it."
"Huh?" Rivet uttered absentmindedly. "Oh, yeah. Right, the bet… thanks, Ratch."
Her tongue tingled at using his nickname, something she found nothing particularly unpleasant about.
"Don't worry about it… Riv."
She should have guessed he would have followed up by using her own nickname, yet here she was, pushing down the mounting warmth on her cheeks.
The two locked eyes, and for a moment, Rivet felt a little something pass between them. It was a strange sensation, something akin to what she felt whenever they jinxed each other, or laughed at each other's jokes, or competed at sharpshooting, or got really deep into a conversation about guns and spaceships.
And by the faint glint she caught on Ratchet's eyes, she had a feeling he had felt it too.
But then, a shadow moved over his eyes, and that glint was snuffed out. "Uhh, we should get going then, before Segen comes in and yells at us. Hehe"
She rubbed her arms anxiously, her brows knitting. "Why do you do that?" She asked, the words slipping out. It was not the first time it had happened.
Ratchet looked everywhere but her. "D-Do what?"
"This," She stated, gesturing between them with her metal hand. "Being all… comfy with me, us getting close and then you suddenly… pulling away." She said, still rubbing her arms.
"It's… complicated."
"Why? You know you can talk to me, right? If- If I'm doing something-"
"No! You're not doing anything wrong, Riv." He rushed to say, taking a hold of her arms. "It's just something I'm having some trouble with, is all."
"Well, can't I help you?" She countered, gently taking a hold of his forearms.
The look he gave her, a surreal mix between sadness and hope, left her speechless before he continued. "I promise I'll tell you all about it when this whole mess is over." He swore, giving her an earnest look. "We can sit down and talk, you deserve that much… I owe you that much." He rephrased. while her's fell to her sides.
Rivet's mind was still running on high gear, wondering just what exactly was ngeating Ratchet up like this. She was also not exactly pleased with his response, feeling more than a little dejected. However, beyond it all, she just wanted to unwind. Her eyes felt heavy, and the soft pressure of Ratchet's touch was calming.
But, just as she felt like closing her eyes and leaning forward, she heard a knock on the door, followed by Segen's voice. "Hey, are you two done in there? Is my apartment gonna blow up?"
She tried to answer, but felt Ratchet beat her to it. "Yeah, we're almost done, Segen." He said neutrally.
"Well you better be, the Trial starts pretty soon!" The technician announced, the sound of his footsteps growing distant.
It was then that Rivet felt Ratchet let go of her and took a step back. His expression shifted even as Rivet turned to look at him, changing from a thoughtful frown to a more characteristic smirk. "Come on, we have a tie to break, remember?"
Those words brought back some of her enthusiasm, causing her to chuckle. "Sure thing, hotshot." She said, pushing her troubled thoughts away for now… but kept them tabbed. She wanted answers, but she trusted Ratchet would give them to her in due time.
Either way, she had more important things to worry about right now.
Like how many RYNO bullets it would take to wipe those Casters off the face of the planet.
The lombaxes were clad in their disguises and were waiting at the edge of the Maze of Kamul. Ratchet had kept his trusty Omniwrench while Rivet had to change her own melee weapon for her RYNO.
Segen had kept a hold on the lombaxes' robot companions, promising to have them at his side as they waited for the duo to finish their final trial.
"Now remember," Segen said, pointing at the two heroes. "This is gonna be the toughest round yet. And with everything that happened over the last two rounds, I think the Casters are just gonna forget they're supposed to run a test and just flatout try to kill you both by whatever means necessary."
"Good," Rivet growled. "Iill be able to get them all in one go."
"While a little enthusiasm never hurt anyone," Segen continued warningly, giving Rivet a cringed look. "And I'm sure that RYNO will be packing quite a punch, I reaaaaaly have to stress that you should not underestimate the Casters. For my last round, they were allowed to bring in a bunch of Musketiers to help them. They made these really big sniper towers for them and practically had them gun us down."
Ratchet swallowed at the mention of Musketiers, rubbing the spots he had been stabbed in during his and Rivet's fight with one a while ago.
"Well, Musketiers or no Musketiers, we're making it through this." Rivet said adamantly. "I'm not letting those creeps pull another stunt like that on me again."
And as if on cue, the ground beneath the group started to shake, causing Ratchet to glance over to the black metal plain ahead of them. He caught a glimpse of the Casters, already covered in green light and chanting, before an enormous black wall rose to the sky. The wall was smooth and featureless, reminding Ratchet of the one from the first trial.
"Huh, they're just gonna put us in another regular maze like the first trial?" The hero asked aloud. "That's not so bad." He scoffed, glancing over to Rivet and Segen.
His demeanor changed however, when he saw the look on Segen's optics. "Something ain't right." He muttered. "They usually do the floating islands for their third round."
"Floating islands!?" Rivet squaked suddenly.
Segen looked like he wanted to say more, but he was cut off by the booming sound of several large openings being carved into the black wall, providing entrance to the abysmal maze ahead.
"Ner." The Casters' disembodied voices called.
Ratchet felt an air of unease spread through the scene. All around him, the Ruined seemed to be almost put off by the maze, something the hero had seen them get over the last round. There was also no brave little Fishbowl to rally their comrades behind him this time either, and a deafening silence seemed to take hold.
Ratchet then looked at the entrance before him, noticing the darkness ahead was far too deep to just be the dark materials of the maze. He figured there must be some sort of roof to this maze, something to cover up the existing, if faint, ambient light of the sky.
Either way, the chill that ran up his spine after staring into the darkness for too long told him one thing. They were waiting for him in there, the Casters. He knew they had it out for him too, not just Rivet. They just went after her because they must have thought she was an easy prey. The thought made his fists clench and his blood boil, and just like that, he felt his unease be replaced by determination.
"Oh well, if no one's going in," He said, cracking his neck and limbering up his swinging arm. "I might as well show some initiative."
And with that, Ratchet charged forth into the darkness of the maze, hearing Rivet sputter to life and follow after him, with the rest of the Ruined soon following their example. He even heard a few cheers in his name, as strange as that was.
His keen eyes allowed him to see for a few precious extra seconds as the darkness of the maze swallowed his vision. He kept his stride measured and at more of a jog than a sprint, not wanting to bump face-first into an unseen wall or fall into some hidden trap.
Yet, as he kept moving forward, he realized there were no walls anywhere. It was just a flat, pitch-black plain as far as he had been brave enough to go.
"Ratchet?" He heard Rivet's voice whisper nearby. "I think we should be careful. Segen wasn't kidding when he said something was off."
He turned around to look at her, seeing her shadowy outline against the light that came from the open entrances. But a moment later, that light was snuffed out, and a series of rumbling booms echoed through the newly deepened darkness. Ratchet naturally assumed that the Casters had just closed the gates, sealing everyone in whatever their latest trail was.
He heard panicked murmurs spread among the Ruined all around him and he instinctively tried to reach for Rivet, tumbling through the darkness in an attempt to find her.
"So this is it, huh?" He heard her voice. "They are just going to pick us off while we cant see?"
And almost as if they could hear her, almost as if timed to spite her, flashes of green light began to appear all around, lighting up the darkness and making Ratchet wince from the drastic shift in brightness.
When he blinked his discomfort away, he was met with fully revealed surroundings. A titanic room, held up by pillars that vanished upward into a roof high enough to fit more than a dozen snagglebeasts stacked atop one another and have room to spare, stretched on into the horizon, all of it light up by ghostly green braziers placed on the surface of the pillars, which repeated endlessly everywhere Ratchet turned to look.
And yet, regardless of where he looked, the robed creatures were nowhere to be seen. Casters liked to wait for the opportune moment to strike, as he had come to learn from his last trials, so the hero assumed the creatures would wait for him to make the first move.
So, he did.
"Hey!" He shouted as he turned to face the Ruined behind him, causing many of them to yelp and jump. "Those freaks are going to try and pull something!" He said, pointing at the expanse of the room. "Whatever it is, we have a better chance of fending it off if we work together!"
At his words, more muttering and whispers spread among the Ruined, before one of them, a Shielder who bore a hammer, stepped forward. "Lar re ni kuse, buiro saki?"
"I'm sorry, I- uh, don't speak that?"
The shielder huffed in annoyance, but took in a breath. "What do you mean, small one?" He repeated in a choppy accent.
Pushing past the 'small one' comment, Ratchet elaborated. "You've seen them, you've seen what they can do. If we put all our efforts together, we can push past them!"
"That is good idea, small one." Another Ruined interjected, a Slasher. "But you forget, the Karmeshi only want you." He said, raising a single hook sword at the disguised lombax. "We have seen how you perform. You are very skilled!" He praised with an almost plastic laugh. "But the Karmeshi don't like you very much. You being so good is, uhhhh…" He paused. "Humiliating!" He added suddenly with a snapp of his fingers. "Yes, humiliating for them. So, best plan for all of us-" He gestured at the rest of the Ruined. "Is to stay far, far away from you. But worry not, small one, we will send positive energy your way! Ease pain as Karmeshi melt you into puddle!" He stated, hums of agreement and approval spreading among the Ruined.
"Well, see the thing about that is-" Ratchet rushed to rubbut the villain's words, loosing the crowd at dangerous speeds.
"Well, serve yourselves." Rivet's voice suddenly came, making everyone freeze for a second. "I guess you'll have to see how well you fare without one of these."
Rivet then revealed her RYNO to the crowd, holding it high above her head and making an extravagant pose as she did, making sure every one of the villains saw it, before aiming it at the ceiling and squeezing the trigger.
A massive torrent of bullets and rockets burst forth from the RYNO as the weapon's systems came to life in an industrial cacophony, the cyan light emitted by the proyectiles and the weapon itself clashing and overpowering the ambient green glow of the braziers for the short time Rivet fired it.
When the show was over, the Ruined seemed enthralled in the aftermath of the rebel's display. "UNGI!" They exclaimed, gasping, eyes widening. "UNGI, UNGI, UNGI!" They began to chant in a mounting frenzy.
"Who would have thought the Ruined have their own name for thr RYNO?" Ratchet thought to himself, overwhelmed by the almost ritualistic chanting of the Ruined.
"Ohoho! Small one, why did you not say your friend had an UNGI!?" The Slasher questioned.
"Yeah, Ratchet, why didn't you lead with that?" The rebel asked, voice thick with smugness.
"I thought some, ya know, inspiration might do them some good." Ratchet grumbled.
"Oh Ratchet, some people don't need grand speeches to get inspired." Rivet sighed with a slow shake of her head. "They just need to see a ridiculously big gun being fired."
"She is right!" The Slasher declared. "With an UNGI at our helm, even the Karmeshi stand no chance! Lead, she-small one! Lead us into glory!"
Rivet then turned to Ratchet. "Well, you heard them, hotshot. Follow me!"
Ratchet sighed and smiled under his helmet, going after his companion as she charged forward with a small army of Ruined behind her. And so, they pushed on, passing pillar after pillar.
It was after they had passed the third row of pillars that the group came to a halt, put on alert by a sudden rumbling and faint whispers. Rivet had raised a hand, drawing everyone behind her to a stop. Once the sounds of footsteps receded, the whispers became clearer, and the rumbling became more powerful. Both rose hand in hand, to the point where Ratchet was having trouble standing up and he felt like someone was breathing down his neck. But then, as sudden as a gunshot, both things were cut off. The air went silent and the ground held still.
And from the ceiling, a tiny green light shone, drawing Ratchet's eye. He thought the little light was descending, since it seemed to grow closer and closer the more time passed. However, he also felt the light was growing larger as it descended, and was picking up speed.
His eyes went wide as dinner plates and his jaw clenched. "Look out!" He shouted as he jumped back, noticing Rivet and the Ruined followed him.
A second later, he felt himself bounce clean off the ground when a thunderous cracking boomed, his limbs spread out mid air before he came stumbling back down. He was then engulfed in a cloud of dust that clouded the glass of his helmet, an opaque green light shining behind him being his only way to orient himself.
The dust quickly dissipated however, and he rose to see the Ruined slowly backing away from something behind him, something which was emitting a low, rumbling growling. Every hair on his body stood on end when he realized he had heard that deep growling somewhere else before.
Back at Megalopolis.
"Oh boy, it's another Big One, isn't it?" He groaned.
"Yep, just our luck." Rivet's voice complained beside him, the sound of the RYNO whirring to life coming soon after.
Ratchet turned to face their enemy, Omniwrench held tight in hand.
The Breaker, as he now knew they were called, was on his hands and knees, surrounded by a field of misty green energy. Ratchet then saw the Casters, more than a dozen, floating above the colossal creature, aiming their glowing hands at it. Ratchet then heard a sound like tearing metal, and saw as bits and pieces of the ground and the pillars around them started breaking off, flying toward the Breaker and slamming into its body with great force that seemed to rile the giant, causing it to emit pained roars as more and more metal was piled on top of it by the Casters.
"Uh, small ones!" The Slasher shouted. "I believe this is as good an opening as we are going to get!"
"Well, he's not wrong!" Rivet shouted, lifting the RYNO and taking aim.
Then, a stream of blazing blue light burst from the weapon, and Ratchet had to avert his eyes as the clashing green and blue lights grew brighter and brighter. However, he then heard the torrent of bullets come to a halt, and the lights diminished.
He expected to see the Casters and Breaker blown away to pieces, so the sight he was met with drained the blood from his face.
Held in mid-air by an ethereal green glow was every single projectile Rivet had fired out of the RYNO. Ratchet snapped himself out of his stupor to see that three Casters had broken off the main formation and had raised their hands at the countless missiles, keeping them in place with their powers.
The Casters then moved their hands, and Ratchet felt every instinct of danger in his body flare up at once, because all those still-powered RYNO proyectiles were now aimed at him and his companions. He managed to backflip out of the way just as the Casters released their hold on the proyectiles and a series of explosions rocked the arena and was on his feet and ready to move a moment later, just as he saw the enormous mass of the Breaker start to move.
The creature, covered in stygian armor and rippling green lights, stood at almost twice the height of a regular breaker. It's limbs, head and chest were covered in interlocking plates of dark metal the Casters held together with their powers. As for the floating figures themselves, they had huddled together in masses of yellow robes, black slime and green eyeballs contained within malformed lumps all over the Breaker's body. On its chest, on its back and even smaller groups on its arms and legs.
From the Breaker's left arm, the Casters there spat out streams of glowing acid that coalesced into a huge, arm-mounted blade for the monster, a blade made of corrosive fluid the size of one of Kit's arms. And on the other arm, the Casters there migrated to a lump on the very palm of the Breaker's hand, where they raised their hands and emitted a sheen of phantasmal green glow, almost taking the form of a shield.
The monster then gave out a deafening roar that echoed through the entire chamber, causing Ratchet to flinch and try covering his ears despite his helmet.
He had no time to falter however, as he saw the monstrous Breaker lift a foot, only to stomp it down with great force, rending a wave of green energy outward. Ratchet jumped over the wave, trying to blast the Breaker even as it stomped down again, sending another wave for Ratchet to avoid.
Afterwards, the Breaker raised his sword and swung it down, sending debris and slashes of acid everywhere.
Ratchet saw how Rivet took advantage of this and fired a burst of bullets from the RYNO, actually managing to hit the Breaker's armor and tear some pieces clean off before the beast stood up and raised it's shield.
"Small one!" Ratchet heard the Slasher's voice call to him. He turned to see the slender Ruined dashing toward him while dodging stray balls of acid, all while pained an panicked screams of other Ruined sounded all around. "I think we severely underestimated Karmeshi!" He shouted over the sound of the Breaker stomping his foot again, pausing his speech as he jumped over the wave. "I hope you have plan!"
Ratchet racked his head, the current battle playout in slow motion in his eyes. He saw Rivet trying to strafe the Breaker, firing short bursts of RYNO fire at the monster, only to have those rounds caught by the Casters shield and followed up by almost cataclysmic strikes from the Breaker's acidic sword. All the while the Ruined were running about aimlessly, some daring to shoot a few rounds at the armored giant, while others outright made a run for it, ditching the main group. Those runaways were usually gunned down by a sharp-eye Caster, who lobbed a ball of acid at their back.
But Ratchet also saw a Shielder setting down some barriers around himself, effectively blocking the onslaught of acidic attacks and even giving cover to some Fishbowls. He also saw how several Slashers had gone this whole time completely unsathed, weaving in between the acid deluge and hopping over the seismic stomps. He saw Bursters flying above the whole mess, struggling to aim their targeting systems at any concise target. He even saw Calibers fire rounds that were actually strong enough to chip off tiny bits of the Breaker's armor.
That's when it clicked. "A synergistic military doctrine, huh?" The lombax echoed his robot friend. "They are all just pieces to a puzzle."
"What was that!?" The Slasher's strained voice asked over the sound of the Breaker's roaring.
"I have a plan!" Ratchet replied. "Get as many Slashers together as you can and bring them back to me! I'm gonna need your speed to get everyone in sync!"
"What will you do!?"
"I'll tell you later! Just go!"
With that, the lombax sprinted off after a pair of Bursters that were hovering closeby, glancing over his shoulder to see the Slasher dash over to a pair of his fellows, yelling something at them.
He returned his focus to his own objective. "Hey, you two!" He bellowed, throat aching from the volume he used.
The Bursters seemed to have heard him, and lowered themselves to better hear him, just as the sound of a huge explosion blasted behind Ratchet, cueing the lombax to jump over the incoming seismic wave.
"What do you-"
"We need to coordinate!" Ratchet cut the Burster off. "Rivet-" He pointed at the rebel for the Ruined to identify. "-has a weapon strong enough to destroy that thing, but it can block her shots! Now, you guys can charge up a big burst of energy, right? Pretty heavy-duty stuff?"
"We can," One of the Bursters replied in it's gurgly voice. "But that beast is huge! What do we even target?"
"Anything! You aren't trying to hurt it, just distract it long enough to make Rivet an opening!"
The two Bursters glanced between themselves, a short silence before they turned to Ratchet and nodded in sync, flying off shortly after. It was then that Ratchet's ears flicked at the sound of footsteps approaching.
The lombax turned around to see the main Slasher leading a group of half a dozen of his brethren, made silhouettes by the explosive light show behind them. "Alright Small one, what is the plan?"
"You guys need to get all Shielders and Calibers you can find into groups! Tell them that they need to focus on that thing's legs! Also, you guys are fast, real fast. You guys can avoid anything that thing throws your way, the others? Not so much. You have to harass that thing, draw its focus away from the other units while they do their jobs, got it?"
"Very well," The Main Slahser huffed, jumping over an approaching energy wave. "I hope your plan works, Small one, we are not yet unbound to ride the winds!"
Ratchet was going to quip about not having the faintest idea what any of that meant, but he shook his head and began heading toward the Breaker, the squadron of Slashers spreading out in all directions and homing in on their fellow Ruined.
He caught glimpses of the villains talking among themselves, rapid nods of understanding passing between them all, soon enough, Ratchet began seeing small formations take shape; Shielders making sturdy barriers for Calibers and even some Fishbowls to hide behind, all firing at the Breaker's massive legs. He saw the two Bursters floating overhead, their computers engaged and tracking the giant, light steadily growing on their bodies. He saw Slashers dashing wildly around the Breaker, hollering all waving their arms about.
But despite it all, the Breaker stayed focused on Rivet, bearing down on the rebel with seismic stomps, sword slashes and a constant rain of acid. Ratchet even saw some burn marks on Rivet's body already and knew she couldn't hold out forever.
But nothing the Ruined were doing was breaking the Caster's concentration. He squeezed his eyes and tried to come up with something, anything.
No, not anything, something specific. Something the Casters would never let slide. That's when something Segen had told him came to mind. Something about a certain insult.
And so, taking a step forward, Ratchet drew in as much air as he could, puffed out his chest, shaped his hands into a megaphone and shouted with all his might, above the sounds of the heated battle.
"HEEEY, MERGUIL!"
Ratchet felt a strange tingle run though him as the word left his mouth. He was no stranger to cussing, and yet, this foreign word made him feel like he had broken some sort of taboo.
That feeling was increased when he noticed the instantaneous silence that befell the scene. All battlecries were cut off, all the screaming silenced, all the weapons ceased fire and everyone held still. He felt a bit of sweat forming on his temple when he noticed that all the Ruined were also staring directly at him, some even had a hand covering what would have been their mouths.
But then, he saw the Breaker, back turned against him, slowly start to turn around. A deep, rough growl reverberated in its throat, a tremor spearing through it like half-contained rage, the green lights of its body palpitating erratically as the beast moved.
It then let out an ear-popping roar, before lifting its sword over its head and charging straight at Ratchet, completely disregarding everything around it.
But before Ratchet's life could finish flashing before his eyes, he saw how two blasts of brilliant yellow energy collided against the Breaker's back, sending the beast stumbling forward. But when it tried to regain its footing, the Breaker's shins snapped clean off, cloven through by the Caliber's bullets.
And there, holding itself off the ground with nothing but its hands, the Breaker was then leaped on by every single Slasher there, all of them cutting and stabbing and tearing into the bubbles where the Casters were hidden behind.
And then, he saw Rivet jump atop the Breaker's back, rush all the way to its head, RYNO in hand and aim her weapon down before squeezing the trigger. Ratchet then saw River run all the way back down the Breaker's body, RYNO firing all the while.
When the rebel somersaulted off the fallen titan, its body was split in half, searing blue scorch marks outlining each segment. And from the now crumbling corpse, Ratchet could see faint wisps of green mist emerge, along with trails of black goo oozing out and pooling around the defeated monster.
"I think we won?" Ratchet said aloud, a weary grip on his Omniwrench.
"TAR TAZURIR!" An indistinct Ruined yelled in the distance.
The cheers of victory that followed were almost as thunderous as the Breaker's roars.
The Ruined were all whooping and cheering, some even hugging each other. Most of them laughing at the dead Casters and kicking their and the Breaker's remains around.
But amidst all the chaos it did not take Ratchet long to spot Rivet. Disguised or not, a RYNO tends to draw attention to a person. As the rebel walked up to him, Ratchet sheathed his weapon and stretched out a fist for her to bump. "Well, how's revenge for ya?"
"Oh that felt goooood." Rivet commented as she brought up her fist. "DId that look good? 'Cuz it sure felt good."
"It looked awesome."
"Hehe, I'm sure it did." She said as she holstered her RYNO. "Nice going getting everyone together like that. You make a pretty good leader." She added, making Ratchet smile under his helmet.
"I must agree, Small one!" A familiar voice said shortly before Ratchet felt a rough smack on his back. "I believe you have it in you to become a Bishop!" The Slasher laughed.
Ratchet turned around, rubbing his sore back as he did, to look at the Slasher. "Yeah, thanks." He said dryly. "You weren't half bad yourself."
"Come now, Small one," The Slasher said disapprovingly, putting his hands on his hips. "How can we become friends if you do not take compliments?"
"How can we be friends if you don't even call me by my name?" The lombax countered. "Name's Ratchet. Use it. Please." The hero said, stretching out a hand for the Slasher to take.
The villain eyed the limb for a second, before straightening out and taking a hold of it. "Renzer." The Ruined introduced himself. "Good to meet you Ratchet. May Alterra's smile never leave you."
"I'm Rivet by the way." The rebel cut in suddenly.
"Ah yes. Exceptional work with that UNGI. You are warriors worthy of Bishophood." Renzer praised.
"Heh, think we could beat Bishop Samson?" Ratchet asked jokingly.
"Oh no, he break you like cheap toys." The Slasher flipped back, draining a good chunk of Ratchet's current joy. "But do not take this badly. He is Ureganesh Arlor. A… well-loved… Bishop, you said?"
Ratchet recalled Segen saying something about Samson being a Favored Bishop. Apparently that was some sort of big deal.
"In any case," Renzer picked up. "We should get going, Small ones! The trial is not over until we cross the finish line!" He said, breaking into a sudden sprint
"I thought you were going to stop calling us that!" Ratchet yelled, chasing after the Slasher with Rivet behind him.
"Well this sucks." Rivet moaned as she looked down at her brand new RYNO, now smoking and sparking at her feet.
"I can't believe it broke down after just one fight." Ratchet cried beside her.
"That's just sad." Segen agreed, a downcast look on his optics as all three of them looked at the broken weapon. "I think it's salvageable though." The technician picked up. "I know a guy who could pathc this up nicely, so it might be worth hanging onto this for now."
"Yeah, I guess…" Rivet mumbled, putting away the RYNO.
The lombaxes were quickly reacquainted with their corresponding backpack buddies and walked over to the leaderboard. There, they saw their timings had remained unchanged from their prior trials. Segen explained that apparently killing all the Casters had disrupted the grading system for the trial, so no new records were registered.
"Aw man, now how am I supposed to prove I made it to the finish line before you?" Rivet complained to Ratchet.
"What do you mean 'made it before me'? I clearly beat you!"
Rivet snickered as the two of them began a classic bout of banter with an almost unnatural ease, a sign in her mind that maybe they really could work past whatever it was that had Ratchet so worked up.
However, before they could really get into it, she heard a dreadful voice rasp against her ears.
"Lo and behold, here you are."
Rivet's fists clenched on their own accord when she fixed a half-lidded glare on Bishop Samson from beneath her helmet. "It fills me with great pleasure to tell you that you have passed all your Trials with flying colors! You are now one step away from joining the War Caste!" The towering man announced excitedly.
Rivet felt a rush of satisfaction at the knowledge they were one step closer to getting out of this mess. However, she kept her guard up when the Bishop kept speaking.
"But before that, I believe it's time we had that talk I told you two about." Samson added, his tone growing more serious. "I really think you should come. It's about your… future prospects."
"Really now?" Ratchet asked, feigning interest. "And where and when should we meet you, sir?"
"At my office, as soon as you are available, but preferably soon. We shouldn't miss your Grafting Ceremony, now should we? Segen can tell you where my office is, he's been there." The bishop said, gesturing in Segen's general direction.
Rivet felt the need to swallow. "That's today?"
"Oh yes, in a few hours in fact." Samson confirmed. "Exiting, isn't it?"
"Definitely." The two lombaxes chorused stiffly.
"Excellent, I'll be waiting for you there." The Bishop said, turning heel without another word, leaving the group in silence.
Segen broke said silence first. "Alright, we're almost there. Just rummage through his office for the map and we're golden. The Grafting Ceremony is pretty lengthy, so you'll have plenty of time to get the Folding Drive and split.
"Let's pray it actually goes that smoothly." Rivet sighed, her eyes not leaving Samson's back until the man was swallowed up by the light of the teleporter. "Otherwise, we're gonna need to improvise." She emphasized, leaning toward Segen, grinning smugly under her mask.
"Yeah, that'll be the moment we know we're doomed." The technician joked back.
Rivet chuckled, and straightened out,looking over to the teleporter Samson had used, taking a loot at Kit's backpack form, and then at Ratchet and Clank, determination mounting inside her.
"We're almost there."
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