Chapter 34: Metro Scrap!
Chapter Theme: Any soundtrack from the original 'Ratchet and Clank'
"Oh no!" Hat yelled as her friend fell through the floor.
"You're sense have dulled, Hat Kid-chan!" Meowjima exclaimed as he darted around and pushed her to the ground. "Now that Tie Brat-chan is no longer around, I can finally finish you off! Ahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"What did we ever do to you!?" Hat cried indignantly as she straightened her namesake.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" He chose to scream and lunge at her instead of providing a proper answer.
"Alright! No more Miss Nice-Hat!" She declared as she put on the Time-Stop Hat and began slowing down time. Using this opportunity she proceeded to do the same thing he had been doing to her and zip around whilst whacking him in his blind spots with her baseball bat.
"To think you'd use such underhanded tactics!" Meowjima cried in shock.
Hat returned to normal speed for a moment. "You started it." She then resumed and continued to smack him over and over.
"You're...fighting spirit...never dies...! Bleh." After a bit he pretended to be knocked out.
"Hmhmhmhmhmhm…" Hat hummed to herself as she lined up a shot. "FOUR!" She then hit him across the entirety of the metro. "Ooooooh a home run! Welp, that takes care of that! I hope Tie is okay."
She peered over the platform and watched as a trail of debris and small explosions was making its way through Yellow Overpass.
"Oh dear." She admitted, before swapping out her bat for her umbrella. "Hold on, Tie!" She opened her umbrella and began floating down. Very slowly. "Any second now!"
"Sweetie..." I spoke slowly as the machine eyed us. "What is that?"
"That's a, machine from another dimension. Sand N' Sails." She said. "I think it's called the Scrapion."
"It looks like it's after you." I added as it began moving towards us.
"Well, I, kinda took this lovely cloth it had its eye on." She admitted as she produced a cloth that looked like it was some kind of tapestry with all of the golden swirls on it. "And it, followed me by breaking through the weak dimensional barrier."
"Do you maybe wanna give it back?" I suggested as it drew closer...and began picking up speed.
"But this is from a civilisation that only exists in that dimension!" She cried. "Plus!...It's really soft, and I think it would make a good cape."
"In that case, move!" We both jumped out of the way as the machine thundered past us with such force it fell off of the edge and landed on a lower level of Yellow Overpass with a metallic thud.
"That was close..." Sweetie admitted as the two of us looked at the machine, which was spinning around a lot as the Metro Cats were torn away from their phones to stare incredulously at the unknown apparatus.
Then, without warning, one of its metal claws stretched and and grabbed a neon sign before completely tearing it out of the wall, sending the cats running and screaming as the machine brought the now malfunctioning sign up to its 'face'. It's top and lower halves opened up like a mouth and it tossed the broken neon into its before closing.
"What the-?" I thought aloud as it proceeded to rip an electronic add off of the wall and do the same thing.
"Ahhh…" Sweetie seemed to act guilty. "The Scrapion was...kinda designed to scavenge for machinery and treasure...in a desert? So it...probably thinks, all of the, lights are, valuable...yeah." That was accompanied by a horrible screeching as the Scrapion tore up a mailbox and 'devoured' it.
"Okay, looks like I'm gonna have to intervene." I sighed as I jumped down.
"Be careful!" She cried as she surprisingly followed me.
I took out the nunchuks and lengthened them as much as I could. As soon as the machine opened its mouth to shovel in more stolen signs, I threw one of the ends and hooked it between its metallic teeth. I dug in my heels and pulled hard as it immediately began to be lifted off the ground and waggled its wheels desperately. With a desperate cry I threw it completely skyward before it crashed back down to the ground in a burst of debris smoke.
"Wow!" Sweetie gasped. "I forget just how strong you guys are!"
"Yeah, sometimes I forget too." I admitted.
There was a groaning and creaking as the seemingly sentient sentry picked itself up and set its headlamps on me. Now apparently seeing me as a threat, it wasted no time in charging towards me.
"Sorry, but I'm not good at direct confrontation!" Sweetie admitted as she scampered off along with the Metro Cats.
"That's okay, I've gotten pretty good at it." I told her as I switched to the Necro Necklace, causing the machine to charge right through me and grind to a halt in confusion before I charged the nunchuks into a spiked kanabo that I smacked it on top of its body with, causing the entire thing to tense up from the blow before I swung into it again. It seemed to have recovered by the time I readied a third swing though as its claws reached for me, but I managed to roll out of the way in time as it grasped at nothing and I fell to the ground.
At that moment, the propeller on the end of its tail gave off a clunk, as the blades turned in on themselves to form a spear, and began rotating incredibly fast until it was a drill, that lunged straight at me! I leapt out of the way as the weapon bored into the wall that was right behind me, leaving a large hole missing.
'It's all over if that hits me.' I thought as it pulled its appendage out. 'Guess I'm attacking from a distance.' I put on my glasses and chewed on my fishbone before unleashing bolts of electricity that zapped the robot, causing it to begin flailing wildly from the sudden shock.
I'd thought I'd found a weakness, but it returned to normal just as quickly and threw all three of its limbs at me. I jumped over the first two, switching to the Necro Necklace at the same time, as I blew a bubble to create two portals; one that stayed in front of me and one that appeared above it, causing the drill to shoot into the one defending me and subsequently have its own tail stab it from above, which definitely seemed to mess with it as it had trouble comprehending what had happened.
'I wonder if this thing was built for fighting at all?' I couldn't help but think as it whirred noisily. 'Still, if I don't stop it, it's just going to keep destroying everything. And as much as the thought that it hurts the Empress in some way pleases me, the 'innocent' bystanders would weigh on my conscience.'
It recklessly charged forward once again, but this time I changed to the Bat Bow and flew up to dodge instead, flying around above it as it stared up at me. Since I still had the Jetbat Badge on, I tried shooting at it from above, and launched two fireballs instead of missiles that exploded into its headlmaps.
Unfortunately in the smoke caused by that attack, one of its claws suddenly shot all the way into the air via its spring arm and grabbed me before I could react, pulling me back down right in front of its eyes. It had longer reach then I thought.
"Oh, peck." I cursed as it readied its drill. I managed to aim the exhausts of my Neckwear at its face and blast it with fire to try and make it release me, but a robot that doesn't feel pain wasn't going to grasp its face in pain and instead keep preparing its attack. "Sugar, sugar, sugar, SUGAR!"
Just then, a giant ice sculpture fell down and smashed into the top of it, causing me to go flying back but managed to land safely as the ice instantly thawed out.
"Hi, Tie!" My captain eagerly greeted me.
"Hi, Hat." I waved weakly as I got my breath back.
"Soooooooo why's there a giant robot here?"
"It's from another dimension."
"Ah." She nodded as if it was a perfectly normal answer. "You want a hand?"
"Would be nice." I nodded, before the machine began rumbling and moving again, forcing Hat to jump down.
Immediately it began pulling itself towards us, and it honestly looked annoyed, due to the fact one of its lights had broken from Hat's frozen impact and one of its wheels being bent. But that just gave me time to give it another jolt of lightning as Hat used her Brewing Hat to toss a vial into the robot's mouth opened up by the impact of the lightning, causing it to blow up right inside. It was now giving off an awful lot of black smoke both from the charring and its now broken jaw which had broken neon falling out of it.
"It seems kind of a shame to break it." Hat admitted. "It looks pretty impressive."
"Think of it more as shutting it down if that helps." I suggested.
"Oh, Tie, I don't need a reason to swing a weapon around." She responded.
Just then, the remaining light lit up and the machine, broken as it was, picked itself up, and began swinging its three limbs around violently! It evidently caught us both completely off guard because the swinging arms smacked us both in the side and sent us barrelling into the side of a wall.
"...Ouch." I groaned.
"Yep..." Hat agreed as we both fell to the ground face first.
Picking ourselves up we looked as the robot thrashed around madly, breaking chunks off of buildings with its wild movements.
"Looks like its gone haywire." Hat said as she dusted herself down. "One too many shocks, hm?"
"Well, I didn't know." I defended myself.
"It's gone into overdrive." We both jumped as Sweetie suddenly appeared between us. "It's kind of an emergency mode Thor made."
"Who are you!?" Hat gasped. "And why are you so cute!?"
"C-Cute?" Sweetie's lack of a face blushed red. "T-Thanks..."
"Uh, Hat, this is Sweetie." I tried to hurriedly introduce her, given the important event happening just over the road. "She's a dimensional traveller."
"You're like one of Snatcher's minions, but adorable!" Hat beamed.
"Heeheehee…" Sweetie was trying to find her beet red face.
A giant explosion shocked us out of the meeting and we turned back to the random destruction happening.
"We still need to stop it." I stated.
"Actually, that's what I'm here about." Sweetie spoke up. "I'm gonna open up a portal big enough to send it...or what's left of it, back to the desert. You two just have to push it on."
"Can't we just whack it more?" Hat asked far too innocently.
"Unless you want it to explode." Sweetie shrugged.
"Sweetie's plan it is." I decided.
"Mutiny, Tie!" Hat gasped in mocking shock. "...But okay, let's go with Sweetie's idea."
Sweetie circled around back as me and Hat went to confront the machine, which was still flailing out of control.
"Alright, Tie." Hat said as she attempted to crack her neck to no avail. "We'll take turns hitting it to push it back. Me then you then me then you."
"Got it." I nodded as I put on my Cleaner Cape.
Hat started off in the most bizarre way possible; by hopping on her scooter with her Sprint Hat and literally charging right into its side with a scream of triumph. It wasn't looking towards us at the time, so the hit knocked it off balance, which left me to jump forward and smack it several times with the nunchuks, causing it to fall onto its side.
"This way! Over this way!" Sweetie called to us as a green portal was slowly getting larger and larger.
"Got it!" Hat said, before she unleashed a laser from her bat whilst I created a pushing wind with the Cleaner Cape, pushing the Scrapion back.
For a moment all it could do was flail helplessly as it was pushed towards the portal, but right as it was about to go through it managed to get up and grab onto the ground, anchoring itself down right at the mouth of the portal.
"Oh come on!" Hat cried.
"One last push." I said as I ran towards it.
In one final act of resistance, it shot its drill stinger at me once again, but I was ready this time and dove under it, before jumping up and smashing it in the face with the kanabo, the force of the blow making it release the ground and fly back through the portal before Sweetie completely closed it.
"Phew! That was close..." The Minion breathed a sigh of relief.
"No worries!" Hat boasted cheerfully. "Thanks for your help, Sweetie!"
"Aha...I'm the one who caused it in the first place so, you really shouldn't thank me." She admitted. "I feel more bad for the Thor in that dimension for breaking his machine."
"Thor?" Hat looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Do you know that name, Hat?" I asked incredulously.
"Hmmm...no." She shook her head. "I wonder why I got this sense of deja-vu though..."
"In any case, I'm really glad you two helped me out." Sweetie said, before she tossed a Time Piece towards me. "Here, I found this whilst looking around here."
"How did you-?" I was cut off as I caught it.
"I have a knack for this kinda thing." Sweetie said. "And with that, I'd better be off before anybody sees me. Bye-bye!" She then hurried off into another portal.
"I like her." Hat said.
"Of course you would." I sighed.
"You two." We turned to see those two cats who always turned up when we grabbed a Time Piece. "Come with us, the boss wants a word with ya."
"So that, machine, just appeared out of nowhere you say?"
"Yeah." I mean, I wasn't technically lying.
Empress narrowed her eyes at the latest Time Piece, then at us, silent for a horrifyingly long time. "...Well, according to what my cats managed to see, at least the ones who didn't run away like utter cowards, that's the best explanation on offer. There's no possible way an automaton of that size could get down here, and nobody would have been able to build and hide it, not with my eyes on the streets. And the problem was resolved rather quickly, plus you brought another Time Piece. Damages can be mended by throwing a little green around, so...good job."
I think we both breathed out a breathe of relief we didn't know we were holding.
"Still, don't think this unexpected setback means we can slow down at all. I've got a big operation coming up, as well as big plans for you two, seeing how useful you've been to me." Empress spoke. "You may go."
We both turned to leave.
"Except for you, boy." I could feel her gaze piercing into my back. "I want a private word with you."
Me and Hat stared at each other. She was looking horrified, so I didn't want to imagine I looked like.
"You can go, girl." Empress insisted.
"I'll keep close." She managed to whisper to me, before the cats ushered her and themselves out.
Leaving me to turn towards her.
"I heard from one of my cats how you fought that machine. The abilities you used were described as...impossible." She spoke. "Behind that soft look lies something truly dangerous, isn't there? I like that."
"Uhh…" Wow, she was making me even more uncomfortable. I didn't know that was possible.
"I'll tell you honestly, which is a rarity for me." She actually stepped out from behind her counter to tower over me. "You could be a great asset in my network for your abilities. Just a couple of jobs for me, and you can get anything you want. Money, fame, you name it."
She leaned over me. "All you have to do is work for me instead of the girl. You clearly have talent that is being wasted following her around like an obedient little pet."
That was all it took for me to get my confidence back.
"Sorry, Empress, but no deal." I denied. "Hat is my captain, my partner, and my friend. She's done more for me then I can repay, so I'm sticking by her side no matter what."
Empress sneered. "What a waste of talent. Fine then, continue squandering your potential. It doesn't matter anyway, because that just means both of you will be in my circle all too soon..." She went back behind her counter and tapped her claws against the glass. "And it will only be a matter of time before you go behind her back for the better life. Now on you go."
I walked out feeling a little disgusted, honestly.
"Are you okay, Tie?" Hat instantly ran over to me.
"I'm fine." I assured her, keeping my tone in check.
"What did she want?"
"Something I didn't."
"She didn't scare you, or HURT you, did she?"
"Nah. Funnily enough, if anything..." I folded my arms. "She's given me the confidence to go against her and get out of here."
"Really!? In that case..." She placed her hand on my shoulder. "I'll take some of that confidence, thanks!"
"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes, but still smiled a little. "For now though, we should finally go to Pink Paw Station."
"Agreed." Hat nodded. "Maybe we'll find something there to help."
So we made our way downwards towards Pink Paw...which was purpl-no it was pink. My favourite area so far I think.
"We should think about grabbing some lunch soon." Hat patted her stomach for emphasis.
"Alright." I said. "We'll break when we see the next food tru-"
I was caught off guard as a pair of arms grabbed us and pulled us into an alleyway, causing us both to immediately struggle.
"Heyheyhey, calm down!" A familiar voice said.
"Wha-? Knit!?" I gasped.
"Bow!" Hat cheered.
Sure enough, the two of them were there, and promptly released us.
"Thank goodness we found you guys!" Bow cried.
"Tiiiiiiie!" Knit's entire body unravelled and wrapped me up in a hug.
"What are you two doing here!?" Hat asked, not trying to hide the happiness in her voice.
"We got your letter." Bow explained. "Me and Knit decided to come down here and back you up. Leviathan gave us a lift down, but when we fell down here, we couldn't get anywhere because we didn't have those pink passes. Then we heard some huge commotion going on, so we hid for a bit, then we saw you two walking around! Nice clothes by the way."
"Thanks..." I managed to breath.
"You two really are here!" Hat beamed, before frowning. "But now you two are stuck down here too! But you're here! Ahhh, I don't know how to feel about this! I'm too sappy!"
"We wanted to come down here." Knit assured us. "Because we care about you both! I'm pretty sure everybody else would've wanted to too."
I had to admit; I was really happy to see both of them here. I didn't realise how much I missed them, even if it was for one day.
"Aaaaawwwww!" Knit seemed to squeeze me tighter with tears in her eyes.
"You said that out loud." Hat snickered.
"I did?" Huh, usually I'm an expert at keeping my thoughts to myself.
"Careful or you'll lose that cool and aloof persona." Bow warned.
"Cool and aloof?" I was genuinely confused by that.
"Ah! I also just realised! We've gotta get you two clothes so that you fit in around here!" Hat gasped.
"I thought of that!" Knit boasted as she released me. "I made something for Bow to help fit in."
"Yeah! Check it out!" She pulled something out of her Hammerspace and threw it on. It was a light green trenchcoat that covered her from neck to ankles with light blue wool wrapped around the sleeves and waist like a belt, as two balls of yarn hung down from her neck like pulleys. She'd also traded her bow for a blue scrunchie that tied her hair up in a bunch to give her a 'tougher' look I think.
"And I've got it covered too!" All Knit had to do was unravel herself and reform with a set of cat ears and a tail instead of hair.
"You two look so cute!" Hat squealed.
"I think they were going for intimidating." I suggested.
"Either works!" Knit nodded.
"So, you wanna tell us the situation?" Bow asked.
"Certainly! But can it be over lunch?" Hat smiled. "We're kinda hungry."
"Absolutely!" Bow wholeheartedly agreed.
"Let's go!" Knit said as she jumped on my back and began piggybacking.
"Okay, but let's stay discreet." I warned as the four of us went off.
It felt nice.
Sorry this chapter was a bit late, had a busy week.
With this chapter, I have successfully given all of the chapters that didn't originally have a Boss battle one, even if Scrapion was out of left field. Did you guys listen to the music I suggested? You should, it's a really awesome soundtrack. Speaking of games, Origami King got leaked...and pirated...yay. But at least I have other games to look forward to like...um...No Straight Roads...and...oh god please let there be a Nintendo Direct this month...
In other news, Mr. Mega's doing an epilogue story which people can suggest things for. Go check that out if you want. I might do something in preparation for the final arc...and it is coming soon, isn't it? Weird to think about, right?
Thank you to Konan720, Mr. Mega1423 and ScalchopWarrior as always for reviewing. Hope this was somewhat worth the wait.
Take care all, and see you in the next chapter!