Just to let you know, this is meant to be a side story. Much like Quest for Booty and Full Frontal Assault. Shorter, not as important, but leading up to something bigger. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Chapter I

A thick cloud of dust rolled, obscuring all in sight. All that could be heard were the bangs of blaster fire and explosions. A fierce battle plagued this desert planet. Ratchet was running through the think dust cloud with one hand in front of his face. Whenever he saw a faint light, indicating an enemy was in sight, he aimed his blaster and fired, taking down his enemy. His good friend, Clank was, as usual, strapped to ratchet's back. As Ratchet ran on, another robot jumped out in front of ratchet, firing at him. Ratchet dodged by rolling sideways, then firing his own blaster until the robot exploded. "Ratchet to Talwyn." Ratchet spoke into his com-watch. "What's you're ETA?" A moment past, then the voice of ratchet's girlfriend, Talwyn Apogee, responded through the watch. "Talwyn here." She responded. "I'm afraid Kronk, Zepher and myself are unable to land our ships until the dust cloud clear before we can aid you." Another robot had stuck up to Ratchet through the cloud and punched him in the head with his fist, regaining his awareness, Ratchet pulled out his omniwrench, swinging it at the robot. With two strikes, he was successful at bringing the robot down. "By all means," Said Ratchet, breathing heavily from the dust and strain from fighting. "Take your time. Clank and I have everything under control down here."
"We'll be down as soon as we can." Came Talwyn's voice. "Just do me a favor and don't die." Ratchet chuckled. "Okay." He said. "No problem."
"You do actually plan on keeping that promise, right Ratchet?" Came Clank's voice from behind Ratchet's back. "Sorry, Clank old pal." Said Ratchet, reloading his blaster. "Death is not apart of the plan."
"Oh really?" Said Clank. "Then perhaps you might want to draw your attention to this rather large robot behind you." Ratchet swung around to where Clank had indicated, aiming his newly loaded blaster. Sure enough, there was a huge, brute-like robot, brandishing an axe at Ratchet. As it stomped closer to him, Ratchet prepared to fire. Before he could shoot down the brute, there was a blast from behind it. The brute froze for a moment, a terrorized look on it's face, then fell forward, dead. Once the brute fell, the cause of it's sudden death was revealed. The teenage Aqory, Soara had her blaster pointing exactly where the brute was standing. As she lowered her blaster, she winked one of her violet cat-slit eyes at Ratchet. "You're late." Was Ratchet's greeting. "And you're welcome." Said Soara, pocketing her blaster. "You know, when you said the natives here were revolting, I was expecting torches and pitchforks." Ratchet scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I may have under exaggerated on that one." He said. "Ah, you think?" Said Soara, smiling. "Very funny, Soara." Said Ratchet, hands on hips. "Look, Clank and I pretty much have everything under control on this end. Why don't you secure things to the North?" Soara gave Ratchet a mock salute before ramming her elbow into the gravity-pack strapped to her back. She then began to hover in the air, and took off over Ratchet's head. Flying away towards another group of enemy robots, Soara pulled out one blaster with each hand and started firing them both at the robots, taking one with each shot. She then rammed her elbow into her gravity-pack again to deactivate it, causing her to drop. She landed into a summer-sault and continued to fire until her blasters started clicking, announcing that she was out of ammo. Soara threw both blasters, one after the other at two separate robots knocking them over, then unsheathed her electro-sword, activated it, and started slicing down the remaining robots. "Show-off." Said Ratchet, who was watching Soara in the distance. "There's not gonna be anything left for Tal." Behind Ratchet, Clank saw the silhouette of another figure approaching through the dust. As it drew closer, it pulled out a blaster and aimed it at Rachet's head. "Ratchet!" Clank shouted. "Behind you!" Ratchet spun around just in time. Smacking the blaster out of his enemy's hand with his omniwrench, he then swept the legs out from under the enemy, knocking him down. Ratchet then pulled out his blaster and pointed at his enemy, but froze, see his face for the first time. "You!" Said Ratchet. Pinned under Ratchet's foot was the teenage Cazar boy, Reese Sagittarius, a member of Echelon, the group of bounty-hunters hired to kill Ratchet. Ratchet and Reese glared at each other a moment, before Ratchet prepared to fire his blaster. "Ratchet?!" Came Talwyn's voice from behind. Lowering his blaster, Ratchet looked over his shoulder to see Talwyn and her two robot friends, Kronk and Zepher running in his direction. Seeing Ratchet distracted, Reese shoved Ratchet's foot off his chest, then used his hands to push himself off the ground. He then elbowed Ratchet in the head, causing him to fall on his back on top of Clank. Reese was unable to finish his mission however, for as they drew closer and saw what was happening, Talwyn, Kronk and Zepher began to fire at Reese. Seeing that he was out numbered, Reese backed away from Ratchet, pulled a smoke-ball out of his pocket and threw it to the ground causing a cloud of smoke to swallow him up. When the smoke dissipated, Reese was gone. Talwayn ran over to Ratchet and helped him into a sitting position before giving him a large hug. "Ugh. Tal." Said Ratchet in a strained voice. "You're squishing me." Talwyn let go of Ratchet, who gasped for breath when she let go. "Sorry." She said. Clank fell off of Ratchet's back with a clang, landing flat on his face. Kronk picked Clank up out of the dirt and dusted him off. "You alright there, rookies?" He asked. "You gave us a good scare there." "I'll say." Said Talwyn. "Who was that anyway?" "He was another Echelon bounty-hunter that we had encountered back on Vitholon." Said Clank as Kronk set him down. "Echelon?!" Said Talwyn, pulling Ratchet to his feet with one hand. "That group that Soara was hired to KILL you and Ratchet? Is she trying to get her friends to finish her-"
"Hold on there, Tal." Said Ratchet, defending Soara. "I don't think Soara has anything to do with this. She's no longer-"
"Oh look. Speak'n of the devil." Said Zepher, looking in the sky. Everyone looked in the direction Zepher had indicated and saw Soara flying in their direction and drop down just a couple of feet away. "Well I don't know about you guys." She said, sheathing her sword. "But I think the invasion looks like it's reached it's peak." She looked up to see the others staring at her oddly, Talwyn, Kronk and Zepher glaring at her. "Did I miss something?" Said Soara, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, I'll say!" Said Talwyn, stomping over to Soara with a finger pointed at her. "Where have you been?!" Soara pushed Talwyn's finger away. "Nice to see you again TOO, Talwyn!" She said snidely. Ever since the two had met, after Soara escaped Vitholon with Ratchet and Clank, they had been quarrelling ceaselessly. And Talwyn had good reason to hate Soara, seeing as that she had tried on numerous occasions to kill Ratchet. "And, for your information, I have been slicing robots all over this God-forsaken desert rock all day, while YOU and your nanny-bots have been all happy-go-lucky in your space-cruisers!" Ratchet put himself between Talwyn and Soara in an attempt to break them apart. "Woah, now let's take it easy here." He said "There's no need to-" Talwyn pushed Ratchet out of the way before continuing her argument with Soara. "Oh yeah?!" She said. "And then I suppose you had nothing to do with your boyfriend's COINCIDENTAL appearance!"
"What are you talking about?" Said Soara, annoyed. "It would appear that Echellon had known that Ratchet would be here assisting with the battle." Said Clank to Soara. Her look of anger that she was giving Talwyn faded. "What?!" She Said. She looked from Clank to Ratchet. "It was Reese." Said Ratchet. Soara turned away from the others, her hand covering her eyes. "I should have known this wasn't over." She said. "Some how they've escaped Vitholon, and now, not only do they want to finish what they have started." She turned back to face the others. "Now they are going to want revenge against us."
"Revenge?" Talwyn repeated. "Why would THEY want revenge? THEY'RE the one who tried to kill Ratchet."
"Well." Said Ratchet, scratching the back of his head. "We did kinda kill a couple of their bounty-hunters before stealing their ship and leaving them stranded."
"Including," Said Soara, glaring at Ratchet. "Reese's twin sister, Shawn. Which would explain-"
"Hey, that wasn't my fault." Said Ratchet defensively, pointing a finger at Soara. "She did that to herself. All I did was duck." Soara laughed shrewdly. "You don't know Reese like I do." She said to him. "If you sneezed, and Shawn dropped dead from an ANEURYSM, he'd still blame you." Ratchet shrugged, and turned away. "So, what do we do?" He asked. "I won't stand around and wait for them to find Ratchet and Clank." Said Talwyn, still glaring a Soara. "For once, we can actually agree on something." Said Soara. "I say we go after them, before they pick us off."
"Oh, GREAT idea!" Said Talwyn, getting in Soara's face. "Just HAND them over to Echelon on a silver platter! I won't be apart of that!"
"No one is asking you to tag along, missy." Said Soara, getting closer to Talwyn's face, so the two were almost touching noses. "You can just go back to your fancy space station, and twiddle your fingers until we get back."
"WE?" Talwyn repeated. "No one ever said they were in on this little plan of yours." She backed off of Soara, and looked at Ratchet, with a "Ratchet, back me up" look on her face. "Well, I for one." Said Ratchet, clearing his throat. "Agree with Soara on this one." Talwyn looked appalled, while Soara stared at Talwyn with a wide triumphant grin on her face. Talwyn then looked at Clank for support, but saw that her had the same agreeing look as Ratchet on his face. "Ratchet? A word with you, please?" Said Talwyn in a forced calm voice. As Ratchet made to leave the group, Talwyn turned to Kronk and Zepher. "Keep an eye on that kid, will you?" She said to them so quietly, that they practically had to read her lips. "I'm not a KID!" Soara snapped, crossing her arms, who had heard what Talwyn said, even though she was standing to far away to hear her. "How does she keep doing that?!" Talwyn said to herself, walking over to join Ratchet. "Are we out of hearing range?" She asked him quietly, still glaring at Soara, who wiggled her fingers in a sarcastic hello when she saw Talwyn. "Oh, trust me." Said Ratchet. "She can hear every word we're saying. "Never mind." Said Talwyn. "Ratchet, I don't want you and Clank going off her and getting yourselves killed!"
"Well, that's not gonna happen." Said Ratchet. "We've been in tighter jams than just a few ticked off bounty hunters."
"What is Soara is still one of them?" Said Talwyn, desperately. "What if this is a trap that she has put together to deliver you to her REAL friends? Don't you understand?! I don't TRUST her!"
"I do." said Ratchet, speaking sweetly to Talwyn. She glared at him. "Really?" she said angrily. "Have you forgotten that she wanted to kill you herself just a few short months ago?"
"No, I'm not denying that. But I believe she has changed." He gently took Talwyn's hand. "And this could be her opportunity to prove herself to you." Talwyn's eyes filled with tears as she embraced Ratchet tightly. "I just don't want to lose you." She said. "Or Clank. I love you too much."
"You won't." Said Ratchet, hugging Talwyn back. "And that's a promise."
"Are you through with your sappy love-fest?" Soara asked as Ratchet and Talwyn rejoined the group. "Have we reached a verdict?" Talwyn sighed. "You know where they are?" She asked Soara. Soara nodded. "Their base is hidden in a remote corner of the Bogon Galaxy." She Said. "I Could lead them there safely."
"Fine then." Said Talwyn. She then got up in Soara's again, a vicious, angry look in her eyes. "But if anything, ANYTHING happens to them, I will kill you personally!" Soara gave a mock salute to the threat, smiling at Talwyn. "Aye-Aye, Captain!" She said. "And, Kronk and Zepher go with you!" Talwyn added. The smile on Soara's face vanished, and Kronk, Zepher, and Clank all chuckled quietly. "What?!" Said Soara. "Oh, come on! Not the nanny-bots! Ratchet, you can't be serious!" Ratchet shrugged. "Sounds like a fare compromise to me." He said, grinning. Soara grunted, folding her arms together like a child not getting her way. "Fine." She mumbled. "But they better not get in my way!"

Psst! Hey! don't forget to leave me a comment. I like to hear from all of you.