Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rivet plops down on the stool beside Klunk. Her partner’s been glued to the computer screen all day, and with good reason.

Just a few days ago, the two of them went with the Rangers to planet Quartu to find any more information regarding Drek’s past misdeeds over the years. There wasn’t much on the factory’s computers that they didn’t already know, but it did shed some light on things like exactly how much Drek was charging per acre of the planet (and it was a lot), and some previously unknown, uninhabited planets that were destroyed by Drek before he started targeting inhabited worlds.

In the midst of sifting through all that information, they found her. Klunk’s mother. Or what’s left of her. The code is a mangled mess, barely recognizable.

The young Lombax places her hand over Klunk’s shoulder. “Hey… we’re gonna figure out a way to get her back… okay, Bolts?”

Klunk drops his head, staring blankly at his feet. “I do not know if that is even possible. She… Rivet, there is not much here.” He looks up at her, and the heartbreak pulls down on her heart so much she can’t hold his gaze. “Even if we were able to write enough code to bring her back online… would she still be the same?”

Rivet sighs softly, and she’s about to speak again when a bright blue light envelops the both of them and— suddenly she’s falling off her stool onto the floor. Klunk hits the floor beside her with a loud clang.

The young Lombax summons her FissionMallet, scrambling to her feet as she locks eyes with— an old guy?? More specifically, a hologram of an old guy. He’s heavy around the waist and dressed in a nice-looking business suit… and emblazoned on the badge pinned to his chest is the familiarly-shaped “M” that stands for…

“Uhh, did we just get kidnapped by Megacorp’s CEO?” Rivet helps Klunk to his feet, all the while keeping her eyes trained on the Maybe-Fizzwidget and her ears straining to catch any suspicious noises.

“I am sorry to incapacitate you,” Fizzwidget begins, hands clasped, “but our entire galaxy is in a very precocious situation. I must humbly request your sustenance, on a mission of dire urgitude! A mission of superfluous peril! A mission of unequizzical imperitude!”

His voice rises with each nonsensical… well, Rivet doesn’t even know what any of that was, but regardless the CEO sure likes to hype up the drama…

“Allow me to clarify the situation.” Klunk presses a hand to his forehead, the gears in his head turning, both metaphorically and maybe literally speaking. “You just abducted us from our home, and now you expect us to go on a potentially dangerous mission… to do what exactly?”

Fizzwidget sends an annoyed glare his way before putting on an air of pleasantry once more as he continues, “A few days ago, this top secret, biological experiment—” He waves to a screen on the wall, which now displays an image of the creature in question. Admittedly, Rivet thinks, it’s kinda cute. “— was stolen from our testing lavatory, by this dupliferous criminal mastermind—” It switches to an image of the masked thief in question. “— and I need you to get the experiment back.”

“Aaaand why would we help you after you just kidnapped us?” Rivet asks drily, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m gonna say no. Why doncha go hire the Thugs-4-Less? They don’t seem super picky.”

Fizzwidget shakes his head. “Not for something so delicate as this. You see, there are still a few, ehh, bugs in the Experiment…” He waves his hand to the screen again and adds, “Perhaps it’s better if I show you.”

The screen flickers black for a moment and then in a flash of light, the darkness is replaced with an old-timey gray, and a countdown sequence.

“Dr. James T. Fullbladder reporting on Megacorp Experiment Number 13.”

“Fullbladder…?” Rivet and Klunk share a disturbed look, while Fizzwidget loudly shushes them.

“This update is strictly classified: if you are watching this, you’re fired.”

The countdown ends, and is replaced with footage of two scientists standing in front of a table, the Experiment sitting on said table and trilling softly.

“Early thinking held that the specimen was entirely docile in nature. Even overt provocation failed to incite it.”

Much to both Rivet’s and Klunk’s horror, one of the scientists pulls out a dagger and jabs it at the Experiment. The critter jumps back, startled, and watching the scientist warily.

“But the late Dr. Putridson observed that natural levels of monsterpropanase in the experiment’s bloodstream were triggering some remarkable changes.”

Another jab, and the Experiment snarls, and… it has a growth spurt?

“Well, if I got poked with a freakin’ dagger,” Rivet growls, throwing up her arms, “I’d be pissed too!”

It growls again, growing in size one more time before lunging and… ohh boy. Rivet winces as the Experiment proceeds to eat the scientist alive, tearing him apart limb from limb. Even Klunk, who’s seen just as much gore as she during their quest to stop Drek a few months ago, seems equally disturbed.

“Attempts at neutralizing the specimen's violent tendencies were met with…”

“Okay, we get it!” Rivet shouts. “You can turn it off now!”

Mercifully, the recording’s shut off. Fizzwidget clasps his hands and continues, “The thief intends to condition the experiment into a bioweapon, and to replicate it on such a scale that, if unleashed upon the galaxy… by the end of the week, there might not be anything left to save.”

“Gee, maybe poking it with a knife wasn’t such a good idea, huh?” Rivet meets Fizzwidget’s heated glare with an equally fiery one. She looks to Klunk and adds, “Still, though, if that Experiment is released… a lotta innocent people could get hurt or killed.”

“Agreed,” Klunk amends. “We cannot allow the thief to go through with their plans.” He lifts his gaze to Fizzwidget and says, “Mister Fuzzgasket—”

“It’s Fizzwidget,” the Megacorp CEO deadpans.

“And that is a better name how?” Rivet shoots back at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“— We will retrieve the Experiment for you,” Klunk finishes. As Fizzwidget opens his mouth, he lifts a hand for him to be quiet. “However, I would advise you to be more careful about how you treat your biological experiments in the future. This problem is one that your company has caused.”

Fizzwidget’s face twitches, even as he puts on a smile. “Very well. I will take that into configuration.” He turns to Rivet and begins, “Ratchet—”

“It’s Rivet,” she cuts him off.

Fizzwidget waves his hand dismissively. “I’ll need you in superlatory shape. While in transit to the Bogon galaxy, you will undergo heavy training and conditioning, including: martial arts, survival skills, stealth, macramé, ballroom dance, and origami.” The types of training in question flash over the screen one-by-one as he lists them off.

“…” Rivet raises a skeptical brow. “Uh, you sure the last three are actually necessary for the mission?”

Fizzwidget ponders this for a moment and says, “I suppose not…” He quickly shakes his head and continues, “Additionally, you will be provided with a standard Megacorp commando suit and a few basic weapons.”

Rivet opens her mouth to tell him she has plenty of weapons—

“Megacorp products are much more powerful than our competitors’ at the moment,” Fizzwidget adds. “They have to be, or we’d be out of business. So in order to ensure your success, I insist.”

Rivet heaves a derisive sigh, rolling her eyes. “Ugh, fine, whatever.” She straightens her back, and placing her hands on her hips, she regards him with a stern frown. “There’s just one more thing before we leave.”

. . . .

Rivet’s pulling her new commando helmet over her head as Klunk enters the bedroom they’ve shared for the last two weeks. He sits down beside her on the bed, and in his hands he clutches a thick data pad.

“Thus far, the restoration of my mother’s code has been slow,” he explains, pocketing the device in his chest compartment for the time being. “But some progress has been made.”

Rivet smiles, and gently pats his back. She’d asked Fizzwidget to let them pick up something from their home before leaving for the Bogon galaxy, that particular something being the data drive in which the remnants of Klunk’s mother are contained.

“I also wanted to inform you that we are at our destination,” he adds, “and that Fizzwidget said he would speak to us in the hangar before we depart.”

Rivet nods, a frown tugging at her mouth now. “I asked the Rangers to do a background check on the guy, and apparently, mistreatment of biological experiments isn’t the only crime Megacorp’s committed. They turned an entire jungle into a desert wasteland just to mine crystals!”

Klunk hums at this information. “That is concerning… we will have to venture very carefully in this endeavor. For all we know, there could be more to this than Fizzwidget is telling us.”

“Yeah.” Rivet fusses over her boots, making sure the green straps are secure. “There’s definitely something fishy about this whole thing.”

And so, with this in mind and her partner secured on her back, the young Lombax makes her way to the hangar, where her new ship apparently awaits. It’s an ugly red, and it doesn’t look very powerful either, but at least it looks flyable. She yelps as a hologram of Fizzwidget pops out from seemingly nowhere.

“I see you found the hangar,” he says. “Good. We’ve used bipolar vector regurgitation to track the thief’s location to a flying base in Sector Seven of planet Aranos. Infiltribulate the base and retrieve the experiment.”

Rivet grimaces, placing her hands on her hips. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Toodle-do!” Fizzwidget’s hologram dissolves as he waves goodbye.

Her eyes narrow. He so did that on purpose.

. . . .

As Rivet and Klunk approach the flying base in their new ship, they can indeed see there’s the unattended hatch that Fizzwidget pointed out to them on the map he provided.

“Uploading access codes,” Rivet mutters as she presses the appropriate buttons to transmit them. The hatch drifts open slightly. “Yes!” She grins and fist-pumps.

“You might want to equip your O2 mask,” Klunk informs her as he squints at the ship’s small computer screen. “The oxygen levels at this altitude are dangerously low.”

A press of the button on her glove, and a mask extends down over her muzzle. “O2 mask on!” Upon setting the ship on autopilot and opening the cockpit window, the young Lombax stands up and pulls the hatch door open the rest of the way. Once that’s done, she takes Klunk by the hand and swings him around onto her back before climbing inside.

The sharp change in sound, from wind rushing past to near silence was sudden and a bit disorienting. Rivet shakes her head quickly and quickly surveys the room. It’s mostly glass, due to the walls being all windows and the only bits of metal being the hatch, the floor, and the window frames.

She slowly walks onto what appears to be the elevator, and, upon spying the flickering blue-tinted glass button, presses her foot down on it to activate the machine. With a jerk and a steady hum, the elevator slowly rises up the metal shaft.

Rivet equips her FissionMallet, not wanting to be caught off-guard in case they run into the thief’s security forces on the way. She feels rather vulnerable with just the Commando suit on— sure, lately she’s just been wearing her normal clothes after having them thoroughly cleaned and repaired after the whole thing with Drek, but she’s used to wearing heavier armor in this kind of situation, where she’s about to head into what might turn into a firefight, and even if the Commando suit offers more protection, it still feels weird.

It’s mostly a very rough, yet flexible cloth infused with strands of Nanofiber to pick up lost nanomites from enemies and increase her ability to take a beating in fight.

Kinda like those drinks from Orxon, Rivet had thought back when Fizzwidget first explained it to her and Klunk.

She rolls her shoulders and stretches her non-robotic arm, popping the joints just as the elevator finally reaches the top. Ahead lies a seemingly empty room, the only sounds coming from the two pumps lining the wall.

A quick glance upwards, however, tells another story. Two MSR type-1 security bots, each with one arm outfitted with sharp red blades, hang from the ceiling in what looks like a sort of sleep-state.

The young Lombax switches to her new Megacorp Lancer, takes aim, and shoots both machines before they can even register her presence. She sprints past the mess of machine parts left behind and climbs up the short ladder ahead.

The next room is empty, save for a few bolt crates Rivet smashes open with her Mallet because free bolts! The hallway ahead, on the other hand, is another story. A quick overhead smashing with her Mallet takes out the chainsaw model of security bot and her Lancer mows down the flamethrower variant in just two shots.

“Man, I was more impressed when we were outside the flying base,” Rivet grumbles, regarding the now smoldering heaps of metal on the floor before her. “Security here’s kinda lax.”

“Very odd indeed,” Klunk amends. “We should still tread cautiously, to be safe. There could be greater threats ahead.”

Rivet shrugs, stepping over the bodies. “Can’t argue with that.” The next room is more of the same, but upon equipping her magne-boots and stepping out onto the grav-ramp leading outside, things get a bit more dicey.

Good ol’ PX6 BladeBalls descend from two small tubes above the door ahead. Rivet blows them away with her Lancer, backing away quickly as they try to get close enough to slice open her middle.

Once the spheres of doom are reduced to shards of metal swept away by the wind, the young Lombax makes her way across the rest of the grav-ramp and into the next section of the ship. She shoots down the chainsaw bot that lies in wait on the elevator and avoids the sharp bits of shrapnel as she presses her foot down the button in the middle.

The elevator rises with a hum, and— “Oh look, more chainsaw bots!” Rivet blasts two of them with her Lancer and lets out a noise of frustration when the weapon stops firing and clicks.

“Lancer ammunition depleted. Please visit your local—”

Rivet switches back to her FissionMallet, interrupting the automated message from Megacorp’s Helpdesk, and quickly smashes one of the bots chainsaws against the floor as it gets close. She then swings the weapon upward, smashing its face and doing it in. The feline makes short work of the remaining two robots, and then presses onward, stepping into a much wider room, thankfully without drop-offs into depths of darkness like she observed in the last room…

And on a small pedestal, in a cage made from Raritanium, sits the Experiment. It sees her through the bars of its cage and trills curiously.

“Uhh, hey, little guy,” Rivet greets as she cautiously steps into the room, still gripping her FissionMallet tightly. “Just sit tight, we’re gonna get you outta here—”

Turns out the wall ahead isn’t actually a wall. The two doors pull apart in a flash, and beyond stands the thief themself, and two more of those crappy security bots. The thief isn’t even looking at her. Instead, their eyes are trained on one of the security bots standing beside them.

“I see it’s time to update my…” Their words trail into silence as they finally turn their head and get a good look at the intruders. “You’re… a Lombax?” Though their voice is distorted by their mask and its vocal modulator, their surprise is evident.

Rivet heaves a sigh, shoulders slumping. “Yes, I’m a Lombax!” Her annoyance turns into a fiery determination as she adds, “A Lombax who’s gonna kick your butt!”

The thief hmmphs, keeping their Plasma Coil aimed at her. They remove the cage from its pedestal and inch towards the escape hatch to the right side of the room. “The irony…” they mutter, before snarling, “Finish her, and that… toaster on her back too!”

“I am not a toaster!” Klunk protests angrily.

The hatch opens and as they turn, the thief smacks their head against the hatch door. With the stupid security bots distracted in their laughter, Rivet takes this opportunity to take them both down.

Unfortunately, the thief uses this moment to leap into the hatch and slam the door shut behind them.

“Arghh!” Rivet growls as she smacks away the chainsaw bot’s blades with her Mallet. “The thief’s getting away!” She finishes off the chainsaw bot, and after smashing its head a final time, she quickly makes her way to the closed hatch. “Dangit, no keypad! And without our ship, we can’t transmit the access codes!”

“The hatch across from us appears to be open,” Klunk observes. Rivet turns slightly to see, and sure enough, it’s open. “Perhaps we can still catch up to the thief if we take another route.”

“I like your thinking, Bolts!” Rivet runs up to the hatch, and climbs onto the edge, preparing to slide down. “Let’s do it!”

. . . .

Does the universe hate her, or something? First Fizzwidget’s weird behavior the last two months, then him firing her, and now this? The first Lombax she’s ever met, and…

Angela breathes heavily in her mask as she climbs into her ship. She drops the cage onto the floor at her feet, ignoring the snarling of the Experiment trapped within.

It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if she’s another Lombax. What matters is finishing what she started. She starts the engine of her ship and settles her hands on the controls. Her chest still aches, even with her resolve.

“Guess today is just not my day,” she mutters.

Her ship lifts off, and she steers it out into the clouds. For a long time, as she soars through the white fluff, up and out of the planet’s atmosphere, and into the twinkling darkness of space, her mind is blank. Finally, something turns back on in her brain, and she begins typing in the number.

“555… 37… was it an 8 or…?”

She finishes typing and after a few rings, the person on the other end answers. Ah, splendid. She did type it correctly.

“Thugs-4-Less,” the Thugs-4-Less leader on the other end greets. “If it ain’t broke, we’ll break it.”

Angela makes a face at that, not that the Thugs-4-Less leader can see due to her mask. “… right. I’m in the market for some security.”

The Thug smirks and rubs his fingers together. “You bring the cash, we’ll bring the thrash!”

“Good…” Angela begins uploading the coordinates to him. “I need your best men to meet me at these coordinates.”

After wiring the payment, the transmission ends, and she’s back to being alone with her thoughts. “… another Lombax,” she murmurs. “Chances are, she doesn’t know…” Angela pauses for a moment. “Once you have been dealt with—” The Experiment hisses, perhaps knowing she’s talking about it. “— I should try to get through to her. I’d rather not have to kill her.”

Still. She should prepare herself for the worst.

Chapter Text

Rivet slides down the tube on her stomach, as it’s too cramped to slide down sitting up. As soon as metal turns into air, she twists her legs down and hits the ship’s wing feet-first, her O2 mask secure over her muzzle and her magne-boots engaged.

The flamethrower bots ahead jerk as they come online. She elects to ignore them, instead running for the open window next to the wing and climbing inside. As she sprints for the elevator, the moving platform itself comes down the shaft and… of course. Another flamethrower bot. And several chainsaw bots.

The young Lombax backs up a bit, whipping her head about, in search of ammo—

“Rivet!” Klunk shouts. “They are climbing through the window!”

“Of course they are,” she mutters.

She throws her Mallet, allowing it to smash into the flamethrower bot’s face. She quickly runs past, lifting her hand as her Mallet flies back onto her palm. She leaps onto the elevator and slams her foot down against the button as the chainsaw bots come online.

“I think it’s time to put you guys outta commission!” Rivet smashes her Mallet down against the nearest bot’s saw and immediately swings it back up to strike the head. Its metal armor crumples under the impact, and she swings again.

Fighting these bots in such tight quarters probably wasn’t her best idea. But a few more overhead smacks and some very creative dodging via leaping onto one of the bots’ shoulders and allowing its brethren to cut it down instead, and the elevator’s clear save for the bots’ smashed up remains.

The elevator reaches the top, and Rivet heaves a sigh as she spies the BladeBalls hanging out by the wall across from them.

“Of course,” she grumbles.

She smashes open the lone ammo crate next to her, which thankfully holds a few rounds for her Lancer.

She equips the weapon, takes aim at the BladeBall to the left, and pulls the trigger. Once all the BladeBalls have been dealt with, the feline sprints through the room to the twin doors ahead, which silently slide open as she approaches. She climbs up the way too high stairs, grumbling that apparently the same architect from Solana might’ve also been hired to work on this ship.

The room is empty, the twin doors to the right firmly shut, and the doors to the left wide open.

“… stay sharp, Bolts,” Rivet mutters. “Something’s not right about this room.”

Switching back to her FissionMallet for the time being, she approaches the mysterious opening and gazes out at the empty platform outside. Is this where the thief parked their ship? Did they just miss them?!

“Rivet! Behind you!”

The feline whirls around, swinging her Mallet out in front of her. Two chainsaw bots tore their way out of the doors across from them, apparently. “Hey, Bolts, got the stones for a halo jump?” She re-equips her O2 mask, distorting her voice mid-sentence.

“The what for a what?!”

“Too late!” Rivet unequips her Mallet and runs out onto the platform and springs off just as the chainsaw bots lunge after them. She presses the button on her glove to call her ship and spreads out her arms and legs, free-falling…

Their ship swoops up and the feline twists her legs down to land in a sitting position. She hits the seat with a loud thunk, and her leg smacks against the plastic interior while she’s shifting around.

“Ow!”

She continues leaning forward as Klunk climbs off her back and settles himself upon his own seat. He crosses his arms and sends a stern glare her way. “Never do that again.”

Rivet shrugs, grinning sheepishly.

Upon exiting the planet’s atmosphere, she puts in the code to contact Fizzwidget. He answers almost immediately.

“Scratchet! Crunch!” He greets excitedly. “Have you got the Experiment yet?”

“No. The thief escaped with the Experiment before we could retrieve it,” Klunk explains. “And we do not know where they are headed now.”

Fizzwidget frowns, but he doesn’t seem too put out as he replies, “Well… I just received an emission that might illubricate the matter.”

The screen fades to black, and the grayscale inside of a general Megacorp store fizzles over… along with the thief, accompanied by—

“Thugs-4-Less,” Rivet grumbles. “Great.”

The thief and their companions approach the lone register table of the store. A store employee half the thief’s height stands in wait, clothed in a uniform with a Megacorp “M” badge and his nametag below it. He taps his knuckles against the hard plastic intermittently, whistling a tune under his breath.

“Do you have any maps for this quadrant of the galaxy?” the thief asks, hands resting on their hips.

“Oh, you bet, friendo!” Pausing his internal concert for the moment, the employee bends down to grab an armful and begins heaping map upon map onto the table. “We got galactic maps, 3D maps, foldouts, cutouts, maps to the stars, and their homes!”

The thief reaches for the map at the very bottom and pulls, causing the maps on top to spill over the side and hit the floor. Something made of glass makes a concerning sound upon impact.

“Sorry about that,” the thief says. The employee doesn’t look particularly convinced. The thief pats their pockets, and adds, “Hmm, I forgot my wallet.” They turn to one of the Thugs next to them and ask, “Could you, you know, take care of this…?”

The Thug nods, and as the thief begins to walk away, he picks up the employee by the front of his shirt as though he weighs nothing and throws him across the room. His back hits a big red button on the wall.

“Perimeter defenses deactivated.”

He slides to the floor with a pained groan, mumbling something along the lines of, “You forgot your change,” before promptly passing out.

The footage fades to black and Fizzwidget’s face appears on the screen once more, and he’s stroking his mustache in thought. “While you two investigate, I’ll see if I can acquire any further indignation on the matter. Fizzwidget out!”

“Wait a second—” He ends the transmission before Rivet can finish. The feline sighs, slowly shaking her head, and she looks to Klunk with a worried frown. “Wanna reach out the Rangers? With the perimeter defenses offline, those Megacorp employees are probably in deep trouble.”

Klunk answers with a sharp nod. “I will send them a message, and forward the security footage that Fuzzgasket showed us.”

. . . .

Rivet climbs out the ship first, followed by Klunk.

The two make themselves at home on the small metal landing platform as they wait for their friends to arrive. The young Lombax takes in their surroundings. A stark contrast to the artificial metal and the sterile smell of the thief’s flying fortress, this planet is full of green plants, gentle rain, and an awful stench coming from the swampy section not too far away.

There are some things that stick out— the Megacorp vendor to the left of their ship, the old metal arch to their right, and the Megacorp store sitting out in the middle of the swamp. But it’s still a very different environment compared to the flying base.

The hum of two ships approaching greets her ears, and both she and her partner stand up as both vessels in question, one deep blue and the other a bright red, carefully set down across from them.

Cora climbs out of the blue one, stretching her arms and groaning. Brax slides out of his red one, similarly stretching and popping his shoulders rather loudly. From the look on his face, it kinda hurt.

The two Rangers are, oddly enough, not wearing their usual uniforms. Instead, Cora now wears a tight-fitting green shirt with a few pieces of metal plating, dark pants, and faux leather boots. Brax has opted for clothes outfitted with more armor, especially around his chest, arms, and knees. Under the heavy chest plating, one can just barely make out the blue shirt underneath.

“Hope you guys weren’t waiting too long. We had to fill out some forms for a Bogon Hero Charter,” Cora explains, running a gloved hand over her hair. “We couldn’t do squat here otherwise.”

“Wait, you had to get a Bogon Hero Charter to do hero stuff in this galaxy??” Rivet looks to Klunk questioningly. “I thought you guys being Rangers would be enough.”

Brax shakes his head. “Nah. If anything, I think us being Rangers from the Solana galaxy is why it took so long for our applications to get approved.”

Klunk hums at this information, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

“By the way,” Brax continues, his muzzle wrinkling, “this place reeks. It reminds me of my old high school’s gym lockers.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t be here for too long,” Rivet offers. She’s not a big fan of the smell either.

The four visit the lone Megacorp vendor one at a time, each buying some new weapons. And much to her surprise, Rivet’s met with an unexpectedly familiar face.

“Fuzzball!” Moby grins, sending fingerguns her way. “I haven’t seen your face in a while, how are ya!”

“Good to see you too, Moby,” Rivet answers with a laugh.

 It is actually nice to see the guy. He got fired from Gadgetron a little while ago after he destroyed someone’s entire backyard by using a Pyrocitor to light their grill. After that, he was replaced with some new salesman, and it just wasn’t the same.

After purchasing a new Chopper for herself as well as a Blitz Cannon for Klunk, the feline waves goodbye to Moby. “Take care!”

“Thanks, kiddo,” Moby replies with a genuine grin. “You too.”

Rivet and her friends have to swallow down their laughter when Klunk strikes a dramatic pose with his new Blitz Cannon. He even flexes his arm, earning a bark of laughter from Brax— which is then met with an indignant glare from the little robot.

“So here’s the plan,” Rivet begins, pressing a button on her glove to project a holographic map of the area. “Klunk and I will go left. That’s the path that leads to the store where the thief was last seen. Cora, Brax, you guys will go right. That path leads to the area where the scientists test their gadgets before selling them in the store.”

With that said and the map uploaded to the Rangers’ nav-units, the two pairs part ways and begin their search.

. . . .

“Uuuugh! I forgot how much I hated jumping around all the time,” Cora groans, as she leaps from the third section of broken bridge onto the small plateau that precedes the much longer stretch of land ahead. “Because of course our jetpacks’ power cells had to crap out today of all days.”

Quite literally bouncing around ahead of her and Brax are mutant muckdwellers. Their yellow eyes glow ominously in the darkness, illuminating the amphibians’ slimy skin.

Brax equips his new Blitz Cannon as he climbs off the small plateau and onto the path ahead, and pulls the trigger as soon as some of the muckdwellers stop bouncing and look at him. That pause is enough for the burst of fire and shrapnel to consume the small aliens, reducing them to piles of shard-ridden goo on the ground.

Cora climbs down beside him, equipping a Lancer and mowing down several more muckdwellers with ease.

The mutant swamp beasts pose more of a threat, what with their four tentacles armed with sharp claws and their ability to take a lot more fire than the muckdwellers. Cora ducks under one of the claws as it jabs the air, trying to snatch her and snap her body in two. She aims and pulls the trigger, blasting its stomach with fiery round after fiery round.

Brax grabs one of the swamp beast’s claws as it tries to snap at his head, and throws it down hard against the ground. He blasts the claw with his own Lancer, riddling the hard shell with glowing red-orange holes.

In less than a minute, the swamp beast slumps over, dead, green ooze spilling from the holes left in its body.

Cora twirls her Lancer and switches over to her new Teratannium LiteStaff, a Megacorp manufactured staff equipped with a kinetic tether and pre-magnetized for picking up bolts. She swings the staff and smashes open several bolt crates. The bolts inside swirl towards her staff and disappear in little flashes of light.

Brax busts open the rest with his fists, the armor magnetizer on his belt picking up the bolts inside. He admittedly is kinda not a fan of having to use Megacorp products, considering their practices are even more unsavory than Gadgetron’s (and that’s saying a lot), but Rivet recommended that they do so in order to level the playing field should they run into any adversaries also wielding Megacorp weapons.

The two Rangers approach the gap between themselves and the next section, a metal walkway leading into a cave in the mountain. There’s no way they’re getting across, he realizes, without having to improvise. And he’s really, really not liking what is coming to mind as he casts a glance towards the purple swamp dragon chewing on its scales a few feet away.

There’s just enough room on its back for both him and Cora to stand on.

Cora follows his gaze and grimaces. “We gotta ride that thing to get across, don’t we?”

“Assuming it doesn’t try to eat us alive or drown us in the process… yeah.”

The creature, thankfully, is surprisingly calm when they begin slowly approaching it, only lifting its head to glance at them with sleepy-looking eyes. The two cautiously climb onto its back, and once they’re more or less stable, the swamp dragon slowly swims to the other side of the gap and waits as they get off.

“Huh,” Brax says, as he turns to the swamp dragon. He gives it a thumbs up. “Uh, thanks, buddy.”

The swamp dragon rumbles in reply, before dipping down under the water and vanishing without a trace.

“I guess it knew we just wanted to get across,” Cora muses thoughtfully. She casts a glance towards the cave ahead and nods towards it. “Come on, let’s get moving.”

Lurking in the cave are more mutant swamp beasts, who are swiftly dealt with by the two Rangers’ more ranged weapons. When it comes to the swamp fireflies buzzing around, neither are too keen on wasting ammunition on the bugs. Instead Cora swats and smushes several with her Staff, while Brax punches the rest so hard their guts quite literally splatter all over his armor.

He grimaces, trying in vain to wipe the stuff off. “Well, now I kinda wish I hadn’t done that…” He’s only making it worse, as his attempts to wipe off the gunk only result in bloody smears all over the metal.

Cora rolls her eyes, but she can’t completely hide the faint smile tugging at her mouth.

The only way to get up to the upper section of the cave is by climbing up an old fallen stalactite and quickly leaping across a mutant venus flytrap before it snaps its maw over them and eats them for lunch.

They climb down the rocky steps leading down from the cave’s exit and are met with another swamp dragon. It’s equally as calm as the last as they climb onto its back.

“Wonder why they’re not afraid of us…” Cora trails off into silence as the dragon swims across the water to a broken dock on the other side of this part of the swamp.

“Dunno either,” Brax replies, gently patting the creatures neck after he and Cora climb off, “but it could be the employees used them for transport too. Guess we can ask, if we find anyone still alive.”

“Speaking of which,” Cora begins as she smashes open a few more crates with her Staff, “why the hell did Megacorp put a convenience store in the middle of the damn swamp?”

Brax shrugs. “Beats me.” He stops, and looks at her with a massive grin. “Maybe it was convenient.”

Cora sends a glare his way. “Shut up.”

“Oh, come on, that was funny!” Brax pouts when his fellow Ranger still doesn’t laugh, instead opting to trudge on ahead. He follows after her, now outright sulking. “Daww…”

. . . .

Rivet sprints down the winding path ahead, Blitz Cannon equipped and ready to blow to smithereens any hostiles who cross her and Klunk’s path. A pair of mutant swamp beasts await at the bottom, slithering across the ground like giant snails, and leaving a trail of goo behind them wherever they go.

The young Lombax repeatedly pulls the trigger, burying shards of shrapnel in the creatures’ shells and burning their flesh. The smell kinda reminds her of roasted Sandsharks.

Once the two swamp beasts are dealt with, Rivet sprints past their corpses and finds herself having to contend with mutant fireflies. She opts for whacking them with her FissionMallet instead, punting them so hard they splatter upon hitting nearby rock faces or trees.

When no fireflies remain, Klunk asks in a hushed tone, “Rivet, do you hear that?”

Her ear twitches as she strains to listen for any sounds. At first she doesn’t but as her ears adjust to the silence… someone’s calling for help! And whoever it is, it sounds like they’re very close!

Rivet runs faster now, taking longer and quicker strides as she rounds the corner towards the source. A Megacorp store employee claws desperately at the dirt before him, as the lower half of his body is being tugged by something under the swamp water. He reaches out towards her with one hand as she approaches—

A final tug, and he’s pulled under before Rivet can even grab his hand. She stares blankly at the water, the only sign of his having been there being the claw marks in the dirt and the dying waves left behind in his wake.

“… sorry,” she murmurs, before lifting her voice as she tells Klunk, “Keep your eyes peeled, Bolts. Something just yanked that Megacorp employee under the water, and…” She kicks a rock gently. “I got a real bad feeling about this.”

Klunk hums thoughtfully at this information. “Do not worry, partner. I have your back.”

Rivet springs from the plateau onto a small, glass platform that wobbles a bit concerningly under her weight, and sprints across to the next section of land. The young Lombax pauses when she hears something snarling from her left. Cautiously, she approaches a small gap in the rock face, partially blocked by a crumbling log that has fungi sprouting from the bark. She peers over the top, at the same time equipping her FissionMallet.

Mutant muckdwellers growl and snap at each other intermittently as they gnaw on what looks to be the mangled remains of another Megacorp employee.

The young Lombax vaults over the log, switching over to her Blitz Cannon and blasting the creatures before they can even acknowledge her presence. When all the muckdwellers are nothing but splatters of goo against the rock face, she kneels down beside the body.

Rivet mutters several apologies as she removes a small, glowing green gadget from the shredded, splintered arm. She has no idea if she’s gonna need it to get around the store, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

She uploads the device, apparently called a “Dynamo” according to her helmet’s HUD, to her neural interface, and climbs back over the log to push onward. Several lily pads and several more dead muckdwellers later, and what awaits them but more glass platforms forming a path over the swamp waters.

As she begins to cross, Klunk begins in a hushed tone, “Rivet… use your hoverboots. There is something following us under the water.”

She doesn’t question, immediately kicking on her hoverboots and vaulting over the remaining glass platforms as something smashes the ones they just crossed.

“Well, I suppose now we will not be going back the way we came,” he observes.

“Yeah, kinda figured!” Rivet calls back to him as she springs through the air and hurtles over the edge of the raised plateau ahead just as whatever it is smashes the last glass platform.

She yelps and ducks as a startled mutant swamp beast snaps at her, trying to decapitate her. She continues hoverbooting past, leaping off the plateau and across the lily pads, swiftly reaching a wider section of land just outside the Megacorp store.

The young Lombax slows to a stop and shuts off her hoverboots, cautiously surveying the area. Mere seconds later, an eyestalk pokes out from the water, followed by two spikey tentacles.

She heaves a sigh, grumbling, “Of course.”

She tele-equips her Gravity-Bomb, and with the help of her hoverboots, dashes to the left as a tentacle swings down towards the ground in an attempt to crush her. She pulls the trigger, and from the weapon’s massive barrel a giant yellow orb bursts, soaring through the air before coming into contact with the creature’s eye.

The bomb explodes, burning flesh and burying shards in the monster’s eye. It yelps sharply in pain, but nevertheless does not move, instead responding with a swipe of its other tentacle, over which Rivet leaps. She fires another bomb, vaporizing more of the monster’s muscle and rendering its eye nearly useless, the thing barely still hanging onto its eyestalk by a thread, and the eyeball itself riddled with pieces of metal.

“One more shot should do the trick!” Rivet dashes to the side again as the beast tries to crush her again, and she launches one more bomb.

The monster squeals as its eye is finally fully consumed by fire and metal, and back into the depths it sinks, tentacles and all.

Rivet fist-pumps the air. “Ha! Rivet and Klunk: one, monster thingie: zero!”

“Perhaps we should celebrate inside,” Klunk suggests drily, “before something worse comes along?”

“Oop!” Rivet laughs awkwardly at that as she hoverboots across the swampy gap to the other side, where the entrance to the store lay. “You got a point there, Bolts!”

While her helmet’s HUD tells her she can use the Dynamo she acquired to activate a holographic elevator, she opts to simply leap to the top with her hoverboots to waste less time. Upon entering, however, she can only release an exasperated groan at the ridiculous layout.

“Why can’t people stop hiring stupid architects?!”

Chapter Text

Her frustration at the terrible layout of the store is quickly forgotten, however, as screams of terror from above reach her ears.

“Someone! Help, please!”

Through the window above, she can see a pair of mutant swamp beasts carrying a Megacorp store employee in their claws. Wordlessly the young Lombax summons her FissionMallet, getting a running start.

With a yell she springs, hoverboots pushing her higher and farther into the air.

She swings her Mallet, smashing the glass and spraying the shards everywhere. The swamp beasts stop and turn their single eyestalks upon her, tossing the employee aside before snapping their claws in anticipation.

“Eat THIS, jerk!” Rivet ducks under a claw as she hoverboots past, slamming her Mallet into the attacking swamp beast’s shell. It shatters under the weapon’s impact, and she slows to a stop, crouching low as she switches over to her Blitz Cannon. “Let’s see you slime away from this!”

The feline aims and pulls the trigger, once, twice, thrice, until both swamp beasts are very, very dead splatters on the floor. She stands up, unequipping her weapon and turning around to look for the Megacorp employee.

“He hid behind the mannequin at the very end of the room,” Klunk tells her.

The employee peeks around the aforementioned mannequin, blinking slowly. “Are they dead?”

“Yep!” Rivet approaches and holds out her cybernetic hand to him. “Are you okay? Do you need any Nanotech or anything?”

He takes her hand and allows her to pull him up onto his feet. She glances at his nametag: Greg is his name, apparently. “I’m fine. If you two hadn’t come along when you did, though…” He quickly shakes his head at the thought. “I just wanna get out of here.”

Rivet nods, and she presses the button on her glove to bring up her map of the area.

“I know a quick way outta here,” Greg tells her, grabbing her and her partner’s attention once more. “There’s a teleporter in the back. When the swamp beasts breached the store, I tried to…” He sighs. “Obviously, I never got there.”

Rivet dismisses the map and re-equips her Blitz Cannon. She grimaces upon seeing she’s low on ammo for it, and switches back to her FissionMallet.

“Alright,” she says, resting the back of the weapon against her shoulder. “We’ll take you there.”

She follows him out onto the rain-spattered walkway outside, both her and Klunk’s searching for any sign of trouble ahead or behind. They re-enter the building through another door and follow the employee down a short hallway. He stops and points to a grav-ramp in the room ahead.

“There’s another creature in there we haven’t been able to get rid of,” he explains. “I think it’s where all those swamp beasts came from.”

“Are you asking us to kill it for you?” Klunk asks drily. “I thought we were escorting you to the teleporter.”

Greg quickly shakes his head. “No, I don’t expect you to kill it. I think it’s safe to say this place is done.” He rips off the “M” badge on his shirt and throws it onto the floor. “Even if it’s not, I quit. I didn’t sign up to be almost eaten by monsters!”

He then waves for them to follow him down a separate hallway to the left. As they enter the room in question, Rivet stops and approaches the small, blank screen bolted to the wall.

Both she and Greg jump as Fizzwidget’s face flickers onto the screen.

“Stop doing that!” Rivet shouts at him, jabbing an angry finger in his direction. “How the heck are you even using that screen anyway?”

He’s not even looking at them, instead looking to someone off-screen. “No, no… decapitated.” He finally seems to notice their presence and grins. “Oh! Cricket! Clank! I have some new inflammation for you on our experiment’s wherewithal. The thief was indemnified at Megacorp’s Maktar Resort. Also, the Thugs have towed a moon-sized jamming array into Maktar Resort orbit.”

“And that is our problem how?” Klunk asks, as he slides off Rivet’s back and sends a disapproving glare Fizzwidget’s way. “Do get to the point, Mister Fuzzgasket.”

Fizzwidget glares back at him. “Please, stop calling me that.”

“Then do tell,” Klunk begins, “which do you prefer better? Fuzzgasket, Fuzzbucket, Fuzzball, Fuzzblanket, simply Fuzzy, or perhaps even, Fuzzable?”

“We’re not going there, Spunk,” Fizzwidget grumbles.

“Then why are we already there?” Rivet asks, earning an exasperated groan from the old man.

“It is not our fault you are a bit of a basket case,” Klunk adds.

“Wait, I got it! Frizzle!” Rivet exclaims excitedly. “Like that fancy cartoon teacher from the good old days!”

“Stop torturing me!” Fizzwidget wails, covering his ears. “How can the both of you be so cruel?!”

“What is even happening right now?!” Greg shouts, sounding rather panicked.

Oh, whoops. Rivet kinda forgot he was there. She sends him a sheepish smile, to which he only responds with a glare, before returning her attention to Fizzwidget and getting serious once more.

“You still haven’t answered my—”

“Oh, let me show you our annual Galactic Gladiator’s broadcast!” Fizzwidget cuts her off. “That jamming array is disconfrabulating it!” His face vanishes from the screen.

Rivet drops her face onto her palm. “This guy…”

Greg waves his hand to the screen. “This is the CEO I’ve been working for the past two months!?” His shoulders slump as he lets his hand fall back to his side. “I don’t believe this…”

Various images of a silhouette in different poses flash across the screen as the commercial plays.

“Ask yourself: are you man enough, hero enough, insane enough to step into the ring with two of the fiercest warriors in the galaxy?” As the announcer speaks, two much bigger, monster-esque silhouettes join the first one on the screen. “If you answered yes, you’re a big, FAT LIAR!!!”

Rivet rolls her eyes, resting her hands on her hips.

“But that’s okay, because Megacorp is bringing ‘Galactic Gladiators’ into your home for a special Mega-View event!”

It now switches to footage of a massive, muscular gladiator covered in heavy armor and wielding two massive swords. He flexes and shows off his sharp, jagged blades as the announcer rambles on about him.

“First, it’s survival of the fittest in our Bio-Competition. Be there, as Chainblade—” It’s here that the transmission’s audio cuts out for a bit, and only resumes a short time later. “— 500 straight matches.”

The footage now switches to a colossal robot with four legs, two cannons mounted on either side, and a brain inside of its dome.

“But if our Bio-Division doesn’t do it for you, our Robotics-Division will!”

The audio cuts out again, earning an exasperated sigh from Klunk. The audio comes back as the commercial now focuses on Courtney Gears, standing in the middle of the arena and holding up a small gadget that appears to be the prize for this competition.

“And presenting prizes to the winners is none other than the lovely Miss Courtney Gears!”

The arena’s logo flashes over the screen once more.

“So what are you waiting for?” And then joining it are the two gladiators shown in the footage from earlier. “Call now to bring Chainblade and the B2-Brawler into your living room! But put away the fine china, ahaha! The ‘Galactic Gladiators,’ only on Mega-View! Call your provider now.”

The commercial mercifully ends.

Rivet rolls her eyes again as she grumbles, “Sorry, but Zurkon Jr.’s Battleplex commercials were better.”

She sighs, pressing the glowing blue button on her belt to download the coordinates onto her nav-unit.

“Alright, might as well check it out.” She turns to Klunk, frowning. “But seriously, is it just me, or does it seem like we’re being led on a wild goose chase?”

“It appears that way to me as well,” Klunk answers, glaring at the now blank screen with narrowed eyes. “If we do not find any clue regarding the thief’s location at the jamming array, we may need to consider finding leads through other methods.”

“Elaris can do it.” Rivet holds her hand out to Klunk. “If anyone can get a real lead on where the thief went, it’ll be her.” He nods and takes her hand, allowing her to swing him around onto her back. She turns to Greg, who’s dabbing his sweating head with a tissue now. “Sorry for the wait. Let’s get outta here.”

“Finally!” Greg stuffs the tissue into his pocket and leads them to the teleporter in question. He disappears in a flash of light as he steps onto it.

Rivet shrugs and follows him.

. . . .

“Let’s never do that again,” Brax says as he reaches the bottom of the tube, heart still pounding as he breathes heavily. “That thing almost took off my leg.”

Cora pats his back as he pushes himself to his feet. The two finally look on ahead to see, standing before them, a Megacorp employee wielding some kind of gadget on his arm. It’s a bulky, silver-and-red thing with a single, glowing light on the front.

“What is that?” Cora asks drily, not impressed in the slightest. “Some fancy torchlight?”

The employee, whose nametag reads “Toby,” glares at her somewhat indignantly. “This is no flashlight!” he exclaims. He gestures to the device and then to… empty air, as he continues, “This! This, my dear audience, is none other than the Tractor Beam!”

“… And?” Brax presses, equally unamused. People literally have those things installed on ships all the time, big deal!

Toby scoffs, shaking his head. “Would anyone like to volunteer for today’s demonstration?” He trails his gaze across the area as he awaits a response.

Heaving a bored sigh, Cora lifts her hand. “Fine, let’s get this over— wooooah!”

The appropriately-dubbed Tractor Beam thrums as its activated, and the yellow cord of energy sprouting from it connects to the platform under Cora’s feet. Toby swings his arm and yanks it out from underneath. She falls onto her back with a yelp.

“And there you have it! The Tractor Beam in action!”

Brax leans over her, searching for any sign of injury. “Cora! Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” she grumbles, pushing herself into a sitting position. She sends a glare Toby’s way, but he’s not even looking at her. “Hey! Smart-ass! Are you done yet?! We need to—”

“Perhaps you’d like to take advantage of our Show Special?” Toby cuts her off, grinning.

Brax places a hand over Cora’s shoulder, keeping her in place. He knows that look. It’s the “I’m-shoving-my-Combustor-up-your-butt” look. He turns his gaze onto the employee and says, “If we do, will you come with us? This place isn’t safe for you anymore.”

Toby blinks, and then shakes his head, sighing. “I suppose the demonstration can end a bit early today… the weather is a bit too spotty for my liking.”

Brax breathes a sigh of relief.

After paying for the Tractor Beam and using it to create a makeshift staircase via moving around two giant pillars with the glowing things on the sides, the three climb up their newly-made staircase and make their way down the path which—

As Brax kicks down the ladder with his foot, the two Rangers can see it leads right back to their ships. Convenient, Brax thinks. Then his eyes lock onto the Megacorp store and he bursts into a fit of laughter.

“Stop that.” Cora elbows him in the arm, earning a soft “Ow.” “I know you’re laughing at that stupid pun again.”

As the three climb down the ladder one by one, the previously offline teleporter near the ships suddenly lights up with power, and off steps another employee, promptly followed by Rivet and Klunk.

At the same moment, another ship, a lavender pink, touches down on the ground across from their ships. Brax immediately recognizes it as Elaris’ new ship and runs up to it, waving.

Cora, Rivet, and Klunk quickly follow as Elaris herself climbs out.

Elaris’ usual Galactic Ranger uniform has been replaced with a blue long-sleeved, a black sleeveless vest, and dark blue pants. Only her gold tiara and boots remain the same.

She greets them all with a smile and opens her arms, allowing all of them to collectively hug her.

“Sorry I’m late, guys,” she says as she returns the embrace. “My place got flooded because someone in the apartment above me tried to flush an Ace Hardlight action figure and it busted open a pipe on its way down the drain.”

Brax can hear Rivet snort, and then ask, “What kind of an idiot flushes an action figure down a toilet??”

. . . .

Greg sits in the back seat behind Rivet and Klunk in their ship, while Elaris got stuck with Toby since neither Cora nor Brax wanted to deal with him. Luckily, the Ranger captain is interested in his Tractor Beam invention (which Cora and Brax passed onto Rivet and Klunk before leaving Oozla), and so the two while the time away by talking about the work that went into designing and building the device.

An hour into the trip and they’re passing through the Wupash Nebula, the halfway point to the Maktar Resort according to Elaris.

“We have to be careful here,” the Ranger captain adds over the shared comm. “There’s a lot of asteroids flying about, and they’re too unpredictable for the computers to calculate their trajectory.”

“Uhh, I do believe we have bigger problems!” Klunk points out the cockpit window. A swarm of small green and grey vessels can be seen, and they’re headed straight towards them! “Unidentified vessels on approach!”

“Thugs-4-Less!” Brax exclaims. “The thief must’ve found out we were headed for the Resort!”

“Well, they just made a big mistake attacking us!” Rivet steers her ship towards the nearest Thug fighter and slams her thumbs down against the buttons to fire the ship’s blasters. The ship explodes as the rapid-fire rounds rip its hull to shreds. “Let’s get ’em!”

“I think I’m retiring after this,” Greg bemoans, covering his head and ducking low as the young feline performs a barrel roll while firing again.

Fighting these guys is nothing compared to the firefight Rivet and Klunk shared with Qwark over the Gemlik Base. It probably helps that the Rangers are here too, but even if they weren’t Rivet is pretty sure these Thugs’ crappy fighters couldn’t stand a chance anyway. The real challenge is dodging their sprays of supercharged bolts while also avoiding collisions with asteroids and pieces of ice.

Seriously, have these guys never heard of shields or something? Rivet wonders as she destroys a fifth ship. Her and Klunk’s ship, as well as the Rangers’, all came equipped with a basic shield.

Well, she’s definitely not gonna look a gift-horse in the mouth, that’s for sure.

Both the first and second wave of ships are reduced to shipwrecks left to drift in the nebula for the rest of time, while the few survivors blast back off into space with their metaphorical tails between their legs. The only one who’s worse for the wear is Greg and the ship’s upholstery in the back.

Neither Lombax nor robot are particularly looking forward to having to clean that up.

. . . .

“How is it you morons can’t even catch one stupid Lombax?!”

Thugs-4-Less Leader Killnar Stout can’t believe this. He sends like, 30 guys to do a job, and only five come back, and no Lombax?! What is he paying them for!!?

“There were other ships,” one of the five Thugs standing before him replies. “They took out everyone else!”

Killnar pauses. Hmm. Other ships… He places a hand on the underside of his chin, thinking. “So… the kitty-cat has some friends… employees of Mister Fizzwidget?”

“We don’t know, sir,” the Thug answers. “But whoever they were, they were good.”

With a snort, the Thug Leader waves his hand dismissively. He pauses, thinking for a moment.

“They’re on their way to Maktar Resort. So I’m sendin’ some a’ my better men to take ’em down and bring back the Lombax!” He points to the five Thugs before him and adds, “As for you five, the only pizza party you’re gettin’ now is a Cosmic Crust pizza party!”

The Thugs groan in disappointment at this revelation.

Good, Killnar thinks. Maybe it’ll encourage them to do better next time.