New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

01/19/14

Two Worlds
I am in a place I don't recognize. It is a futuristic looking city. There are many people walking around, simply going about their daily business. No one seems upset or anything. They are talking to each other about mundane topics. There are various races present, some of them look human and others look far from being human. There are also robots. A robot that looks similar to a C3-P0 unit politely says excuse me as he comes up behind me. I look and realize I am standing in the middle of a walkway. I mutter an apology and step out of the way. The robot wishes me a nice day and continues on his way. The humanoid reptile behind him isn't so polite. She is going on about how could a mere robot have the nerve to expect a real person to move aside for him. She says she can't believe the nerve of some of these artificials. Right now I am thinking I would much rather hang out with the C3-P0 unit than her. She is just rude and annoying. After seeing she isn't going to get any response out of me she continues on her way, now muttering expletives about people who love artificials. I follow after her for a short while, not sure if she has anything to do with why I might be here. She finally stops and turns back to me. She asks what my problem is, am I having sex with that damn artificial? If I am it makes her sick. I tell her that who I am having sex with is none of her business. She snoots her nose up in the air and walks off.

I am trying to decide if I should bother following the grouch any more… I am considering doing it just to piss her off… when someone shoves me out of the way rather rudely. I look to see who and I spot the back side of a lombax in a really big hurry. I recognize that lombax! It's Ratchet from the Ratchet and Clank games! He pushes past the rude reptilian woman who gives him a piece of her mind in a stream of expletives… but he is already gone and she finds she is cursing out someone who appears to be a human male. The man thinks she is cursing at him and tells her to shut the fuck up, calling her lizard brain. She seems offended by that, which seems ironic to me. The bigot bitch is now the subject of racism. She fluffs up some strange hood type thing around her head and gets all indignant and walks away in a huff. I am about to follow Ratchet when I hear something else. Someone is calling out Ratchet's name and telling him to come back here, why are you doing this? Of course Ratchet is long gone and could not possibly hear the person calling him. I go to investigate the person calling instead. I can track Ratchet down later if I need to.

I follow the voice that called Ratchet and find a small work room. There are computers all over the place as well as an array of tools. Some of the tools are put away neatly while others are strewn on a work table. Clank is here, he is standing on the work table. He is connected to a large object sitting on the floor by what looks like a long extension cord. Wtf? He isn't looking when I come in and apparently thinks Ratchet has come back. He says he is glad I have finally come to my senses… now put his robotic ignition system right back where it belongs, and he'd better have a good explanation as to… Now Clank turns around and sees me at the door, he sees I am not Ratchet. I tell him I don't know what is going on, but I saw Ratchet running down the street as if he was being chased by a blargian snagglebeast. I tell him I believe I have been brought here to help… so what is going on? Clank looks mad for a bit, then he just looks sad. He says he wishes he knew, but he doesn't think I can be much help unless I have a robotic ignition system. I tell him I can get one of those… I think… I access the penticon chip in my brain and ask if it can replicate a robotic ignition system. It scoffs at me and says of course, just upload the exact specifications. There is a pause, Clank looks at me strangely, and then a mechanical device appears on the work table. My penticon reports the replication is complete. Clank picks up the device, opens a panel in his side, plugs a couple things in to the device before putting the whole device inside and closing the panel. He then unplugs the extension cord. He says he's glad to be off of that thing. I ask what that is. He says it's a backup power source… his internal power system won't function without the robotic ignition system… which Ratchet stole! I ask why would he do that? Clank says he doesn't know, just that he seemed to be in a big hurry when he was setting up the backup power supply… which Clank hadn't realized what that was for at the time… but there must be something wrong. The Ratchet he knows would never have done that…

Well it seems there is a bit of a mystery, and I guess I have to track Ratchet down after all. I sniff the air and comment that I smell a Templar, more to myself than to anyone around. Clank asks what that is. I say it's like saying I smell a rat, only far, far worse. A Templar… smells like the stuff that comes out of the south end of a north bound blargian snagglebeast. He cocks his head and looks at me strangely. I comment that someone is going to eat dirt. Clank apparently thinks I mean Ratchet because he says no, don't kill Ratchet… there must be a very good explanation, he's sure of it… there has to be… I tell him I don't mean Ratchet… I mean someone else I know named Robert de Sable who I suspect is somehow behind everything. He's a Templar. Gotta go find him and Ratchet before something happens that can't be undone so easily as replacing a robotic ignition system.

I head out of the work shop quickly, but I am sure Ratchet is long gone. I am wondering how to best find him when I see a ship fly overhead. It looks like the ships that are often used in the Ratchet and Clank games. I scan it with my penticon quickly and confirm Ratchet is on board. I summon my fire valkyrie, teleport aboard. I hear Clank following after me and saying he wants to come, so I also teleport him aboard. I follow after Ratchet as he heads into space. In space I use the communicator to contact Ratchet. At first he doesn't respond at all but then he apparently realizes Clank is with me and answers. He seems glad to see Clank is ok, though he also seems surprised and says he'd been told the replacement robotic ignition system wasn't due in until tomorrow… I say I replicated one. Clank wants to know what's going on. I can't really tell if Clank is pissed off or worried or what. He says there's no time to explain, there's something he's got to do… and shuts off communication. The other ship is preparing to go to warp drive, so I use a tractor beam and hold it in place. That gets Ratchet's attention back really quick and he makes contact again, now saying to let him go or they'll all be killed. All of who? The lombaxes! And he's already late, it might already be too late! Clank seems annoyed now, he says if there are lombaxes in danger, why didn't Ratchet just say so? Ratchet should have known Clank would help… Ratchet says no, he has to go alone, those are the rules. He has to give himself up or that bastard is going to kill all of them. Clank says it's no doubt a trap. Ratchet looks at something off to his side and then looks like the world is about to end. He says it's too late now… there's no way he can get there in time. I comment my ship can get there in time. Just tell me where. And there won't be any flying into a trap alone, either. He repeats he has to go alone or that bastard is going to destroy the whole planet. I use Of Wolf and Man to transform into Ratchet. Ok… now where? Clank and Ratchet are both staring at me now. I tell Ratchet if time really is running out, I just need to know where to go. Clank asks if I'm not worried that whoever this is will just kill me instead. I say no. Not at all worried. I got abilities this guy has certainly never even had nightmares about. Let's see if this asshole is counting on meeting up with a formshifting virus.

Well now I look like Ratchet, but I figure the asshole in question might also notice if a fire valkyrie comes flying in. So I use the ship computer to open a wormhole to the coordinates Ratchet provides. I tell him I'll use my transporter to swap places with him, just take my ship back to the planet, I need to use his to make sure the asshole doesn't notice a difference. He agrees to it, and my penticon does the teleportation. It feels a bit strange to see someone else sitting in the pilot's seat of my fire valkyrie… but I figure it will be ok. I fly through the wormhole. On the other side I can tell I am now on the outskirts of the galaxy. It is quite an amazing view. There is a space station hovering in the emptiness of space. That is where Ratchet has been told to go, so that is where I will go. I fly over to the station. I get a communication from the station. The transmission is from a strange alien that I recognize from the Ratchet and Clank series, he's a cragmite. Looks like Percival Tachyon from the later games. So I figure he probably wants to get rid of Ratchet, me now, because he (I'm) a lombax. He's just being an asshole. He says I am late. That is bullshit. I tell him I'm fucking early. He doesn't really respond, but the landing bay of the station opens up so I land.

In the landing bay I find I am surrounded by numerous strange creatures that look like fish wearing suits of armor. Weird. My first thought is that the sushi is delivering itself. But I figure I had better not resist or that damn Tachyon is going to do whatever it is he has been threatening to do. They use some kind of restraint to secure my hands behind my back. I test it a bit. Yeah, my viral strength can snap it like a twig. I do nothing but go with them, however. Gotta find the head of the snake. I follow the fish people into a large control room where Tachyon is standing right beside a console with a very distinctive red button. He is laughing at something. I see the largest display screen shows a city inhabited by lombaxes. I wonder where that is. Tachyon now that I'm here the show can begin. He tells me to say goodbye to the rest of my kind. While his behavior doesn't really surprise me at all, it does still piss me off. I say he gave his word that if I came he wouldn’t do that. My penticon is talking to me at the same time. It says it has accessed the targeting system and found a more appropriate target. Tachyon acts like he is surprised, then says he wouldn't have said that… I am trying to talk Tachyon out of firing the weapon, because I am not sure I can get to him before he can push the button. Maybe… but I'm not wanting to take that chance. My attempts to convince him to not do it seem to amuse him. He clearly doesn't care that the lombaxes on the screen have done nothing to him… the last thing I comment is that when someone does something like that it inevitably comes back to bite them in the ass. He says there's no one to make him pay.

So Tachyon is laughing his ass off when he makes a show of pushing the button. Nothing happens. He stops laughing and looks at the screen which still shows a city with lombaxes going about their daily business. He pushes the button again. Still nothing. He pushes it several more times, getting more frustrated with every push. I can't help but point out how anti-climatic that was. He is pissed and pounding on the button. I look over at a screen near the firing button. There's a gage that had been maxed out just a few minutes ago, now it is sitting on empty. It is the reading for the weapon charge level. I tell Tachyon it clearly already fired… maybe he needs to check his targeting coordinates. He stops pushing the red button and looks at the gage. He then looks at a terminal and begins typing something on it. He says something can't be, seems visibly upset by it. The scene of lombaxes on the screen is replaced by a scene showing the debris of what may have recently been a planet. He looks at the console, at the screen, then he glares over at me and asks how the fuck I managed to do that. I tell him I did nothing… he did that. What did you do? Blow up the wrong fucking planet? My penticon reports to me that he has successfully destroyed the planet where the cragmites had ended up after the lombaxes had sent them through a dimensional portal. I do a face palm… a double… I need more hands. He blew up his own planet!

Tachyon is pissed off beyond belief at me. He seems to think I somehow managed to access his computer system and retarget the weapon all while being restrained and right in front of him trying to talk him out of firing it. I tell him nope, this is all him. I told him it would bite him in the ass… He insists on saying I will pay for it and so will all of those other filthy lombaxes. Well I don't particularly want to consume this one… I am thinking his thoughts and memories might be too repulsive… but I also want to know if he has had dealings with Robert de Sable, if that is why I was brought here. I tell him maybe he was given a defective weapon… by who? The name wouldn't happen to be Robert de Sable, would it? He stops mid rant and looks at me. He looks like he has just figured it all out. He says Robert de Sable must be my friend! I knew the whole time that the weapon wouldn't fire where he aimed it because my friend Robert de Sable set me up. I tell him Robert is no friend of mine… but that does explain where a dumb cragmite managed to get hold of an interdimensional planet destroyer weapon. I smell a Templar. He says it doesn't matter… as soon as the weapon is charged he will make sure it is aimed at the lombax planet and blow them all out of existence. He pushes a couple buttons on the controls and the power gage starts rising as the weapon is recharging.

I decide I have had enough of Tachyon. More than enough, really. I tell him the only ones about to not exist are him and his pal Robert. He laughs at me and says there's nothing I can do about it. If it wasn't for the fact he wants me to see the rest of the lombaxes wiped out of the galaxy I'd already be dead. I tell him he talks a lot… that's because he's weak. And pathetic. He says I'm in no position to be insulting him. I break the restraints like a twig. He backs up a couple steps. He points at me and say GET HIM! So that's his whole plan? Not going to work on a virus. I don't bother shifting back to my normal form, but I do activate an Alex Mercer blade on my right arm. There are fish people all around me in their futuristic armor. My blade slices through their armor like a hot knife through butter. So I cut down the enemies that attack me. I see Tachyon staring at that scene for a bit before he apparently decides it would be a good idea to make a hasty retreat. This guy is as much of a flaky chicken-wuss as Robert himself! Come back here, you flaky jerk! Feel my blade! I am about to chase after Tachyon when I see the power gage on the weapon is at full… and still climbing. It is now overcharging. It is entering the red zone. The intercom system is now warning of imminent detonation if the charge is not stopped.

Forget Tachyon. He will most likely blow up with his station. Just to be sure the overcharge can't be aborted I smash the controls before leaving. I head back the way the fish people brought me from. My ship, or really Ratchet's ship, is still sitting in the landing bay. I jump into the ship and launch out of there. I am flying away from the station when there is a blinding explosion behind me… the whole thing just blew up. I wonder if there is any chance Tachyon got out of that alive. I figure if he did, at least he won't have access to an interdimensional planet destroyer weapon now. Scans show no signs of life in the vicinity. So I just have to go back to Ratchet and Clank and tell them the lombax planet is safe, and Tachyon is most likely subatomic particles. I use the penticon chip in my brain to open the wormhole I need to get back quickly. I land Ratchet's ship near my own fire valkyrie, which is landed not far from the work room where I originally found Clank. I get out of the ship and go to the work room. Both Ratchet and Clank are there, though I get the idea they haven't been getting along too well. I hope Robert didn't succeed in fucking things up between them with his stupid interference… I tell them that the planet destroyer is gone, Tachyon is space dust. Or at least I think he's space dust. I didn't actually see him explode. Ratchet seems relieved at that news. Clank still looks kind of pissed. It seems Ratchet is just giving him some space. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I flood the room with positive energy with a song spell I hum to myself. It does seem to have some effect. Clank doesn't look as mad, he asks me what that strange melody is. I say it is called Voices, from a show where I come from called Macross. Well all I can do is hope what Robert did doesn't leave any lasting effect, because it is here that I wake up.