#Torren IV | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

terra-drone · 1 year ago

Text

My gripes with Rift Apart

Consider this a review of Rift Apart (PC ver). After playing this game twice on Renegade Legend, I have... opinions. Being a fan of the franchise since Going Command/Locked & Loaded, I admittedly have some strong biases for both the PS2 saga and the Future Trilogy for various reasons. But before I go lambasting this entry into the franchise, a TLDR summary;

Pros:

The game is pretty and well executed on a technical level (for the most part).

The platforming and movement is refined and a step up from previous titles.

Cons:

Quite literally almost everything else.

Also has a propensity for crashing (both freezing and blue screen of death).

Movement & Platforming

One of the core aspects of RaC that I am happy RA got right. The movement is buttery smooth and chain daisying from one platform to the next using wall runs, dashes and rift pulls is excellently designed. The addition of the dash function adds an extra dodge ability that was absent in previous entries although granted we can still use the age-old side jumping while aiming/shooting.

I do wish however that the hoverboots were more integrated into the platforming since most of the time you only ever need it for super long leaps or the timed step puzzles. Something like the jump pads from ACIT would be nice to see paired with the new wall run and dash mechanic. You hardly need to use it outside of Savali and Torren IV and the last part of the Nef Mech fight.

What I wished they truncated however was the glide mechanic the hoverboots had. Given that the hoverboots could both glide and make you go fast, it makes this better than whatever Clank could possibly offer. @erablisme has done a wonderful breakdown on this matter (see here), but essentially having the hoverboots be an upgrade of both the charge boots and fulfilling Clank’s contribution to Ratchet’s mobility (gliding) renders Clank, from a gameplay standpoint, moot. It renders Clank into nothing more than a glorified backpack/exposition device, which beats the entire purpose of the franchise’s own title.

Gameplay

Weapons

The arsenal, while fun to use, is too bloated. A lot of the guns overlap in functionality:

Shotguns: Enforcer, Pixelizer, Void Repulser

Seeker/Turret weapons: Agents of Doom, Bombardier, Mr Fungi

Crowd Control: Topiary Sprinkler, Cold Snap

Grenades: Shatterbomb, Bouncer

Rapid fire: Burst Pistol, Blackhole Storm

Lock-on weapons: Drillhound, Richochet, Buzzsaw, Lightning Rod

Heavy hitter: RYNO, Negatron Collider, Warmonger

Do we really need multiple weapons that do the same thing just with different particle effects?

The level up mechanic, while a staple of RaC games, is frankly outdated by this point and actively hinders the game. If anything, it punishes players for sticking to guns they enjoy once they hit max level. It makes the motivator for using weapons not be its function but rather to chase that arbitrary level cap. Plus, there’s no telling what the level up actually did for a weapon aside from damage buffs.

It’s not like they couldn’t do away with this feature, Deadlocked made the guns increase so many levels it frankly deemphasises them in favour of choosing the best weapon for any given scenario, ItN decreased the max level to 3 (6 on challenge) in favour of more meaningful weapon upgrades, and ACiT had the Constructo weapons and mods (which Deadlocked also had called Omega Mods) that incentivises experimentation on what combos worked best while allowing you to spice things up post max level. Why not tie weapon upgrades to collectibles? They already had the Raritanium collection, sprinkling effect mods for weapons throughout the locations shouldn’t be too difficult. They already did this for the armour system, so why not do it for the weapons too? Heck, why not make all the weapons customisable like the Constructo weapons? It would solve the bloated arsenal problem.

Enemy Design

The enemy design in this game just isn’t great. While it makes sense considering you’re fighting an army so it’s obvious they’re gonna have standardised units, you would think they would spice up their combat stratagem when they know they couldn’t beat our protagonists by throwing the same old shtick over and over. Instead, we keep having to fight the same miniboss Juggernaut over and over and over again. Sometimes there’s two of them! Make it three during the Juice fight!

It’s not a problem with just the Nefarious troopers, it’s an issue across multiple factions too. Across all three factions (Space Pirates, Goons & Nef’s army), they all follow the same formula;

the one with the gun: Pirate Corsair, Goon, Nef Lasertrooper

the one that does melee: Space Pirate & Shield Pirate, Goon Rusher & Undead Goon, Nef Slugger

the tiny short range/melee swarmer: Cutlassies, Robomutt, Nef Trooper

the vehicle one: Goon Dropship, Nef Dropship

the flying one: Zoom Goon, Nef Sniperbot & Blitztrooper & Sniperbot

the heavy flying one: Vroom Goon, Nef Peacekeeper

the rinse repeat miniboss: Pirate Marauder, Nef Juggernaut

While stylistically different, they don’t differ much from how they shoot/do damage at you. It would have been great if they did some things different from one another. Some really simple fixes;

While I think giving shields to pirates makes little sense, it is some variety at least. Expand on that. Maybe make the Goon Rusher actually rush towards you faster than the others, or make the Nefarious Slugger can do 360 attacks or have more range since it’s a) a robot, and b) basically has the Scorpion Flail for arms.

Make the Vroom Goons try to ram you instead of just having to avoid the taser things it shoots cuz that’s the exact same thing that the Nefarious Sniperbot does since all you need to do to avoid both attacks is sidestepping it.

Make the Pirate Corsair shoot high damage while the standard Goon does horizontal strafing rapid fire compared to the Nef Trooper’s vertical one

Make the Zoom Goons dodge your attacks, maybe give it a ground pound that opens it up to attack so it's at least somewhat different from the Nef Peacekeeper other than being a slightly squishier variant.

For a game so pretty it is bizarre they couldn’t put more effort into gameplay itself. The repeating minibosses get stale very quickly since once you’ve figured out a tactic that worked, it is rinse and repeat across the whole game.

Two Protagonists, Same Shtick

The gameplay doesn’t differentiate itself between Ratchet and Rivet. They play the exact same way, with the exact same arsenal, and the exact same progression. What is the point of having separate playable protagonists if they’re just gonna end up the same? You could replace Rivet with Ratchet and vice versa for 90% of the game and nothing would change. It would be something if they had separate weapons or separate movement gimmicks that make them distinct, but we didn’t get that for some reason.

Character Issues

The character writing is just abysmal, even when compared to the Future trilogy. While the Future trilogy (and by extension A4O, FFA and ItN) had plenty, and I mean plenty, of plotholes from a worldbuilding standpoint, the character writing was solid and fairly consistent. I cannot say the same for RA. Some examples;

Ratchet(?) & Clank(?)

I can hardly recognise Ratchet as the same character we had over the PS2 and PS3 instalments. He feels more like the 2016 reboot version just haphazardly retconned as the ItN version that RA was supposedly a continuation of. Being afraid of being a washed-up hero was Qwark’s thing, not Ratchet’s. Why would he even care? The man was downright tired of being a hero come ItN. And why is he even worried about meeting the Lombaxes? He saved Polaris multiple times and beat Tachyon, y’know, the reason why they left in the first place? The reason he gave up searching for the Lombaxes was because he had more going on with Talwyn and was assured the Lombaxes would do just fine without him. Why the sudden change of reason? What, is acknowledging Talwyn one too many female characters for Insomniac?

And why would Clank, despite knowing Ratchet not wanting to pursue the Lombaxes, go out of his way to make a whole ass parade about the Dimensionator? If he was just trying to cheer Ratchet up from his fear of being a washed-up hero (which, again, made no sense for his character) he would have just done the parade and given him the Dimensionator in private. The entire premise of Rift Apart hinges on the fact that Clank decides to give Ratchet what can be considered as a WMD since the Lombaxes used the Dimensionator to get rid of the Cragmites in an open public setting. Had he not done this, had he not told Qwark he wanted to surprise Ratchet, Nefarious probably wouldn’t have found out about the new Dimensionator, and the entire game wouldn’t have happened.

Another gripe I have with how Clank was handled was that his Zoni heritage was conveniently forgotten about. They could have tied the Zoni more deeply into the mysticism of the RaC universe and be the reason why he was able to fix the dimensional anomalies, but instead it was tied to Gary and... the Lombaxes. Huh.

Rivet, or as I like to call her, “Furbait”

There is so much missed potential with Rivet. Where to start? Instead of a grizzled, closed-off survivor of a robot dystopia, we just get miss middle-of-the-road, clearly made for pandering, furbait. Design wise, she would have been perfectly serviceable had this NOT been a robot dystopia. The only physical giveaway to show that she was a survivor/rebel fighter was her arm. It is the only thing that shows she’s a rebel fighter survivor. Her suit is well made, her eyelashes are on fleek, her hair is silky smooth, her tail is all fluffy and clean. Nothing about her says she was a survivor. No scars, no dirt, nothing other than the obvious robot arm. It is lazy. Lazy and stupid.

Her personality doesn’t make sense for the universe she supposedly inhabits either. Heck, no one in this franchise fits well in this robot dystopia, tbh. She distrusts robots due to past experience, yet is chummy with both Clank and Kit (and by some extension, the Zurkons & Pierre) relatively quickly. For someone who should have gone through a lot of adversity, she hardly acts like it. She’s confident, has a lot of friends, and whatever negative aspect she does have (which is just distrust instead of the obvious robot racist she should have been) that would have given her an opportunity to grow as a character is watered down and conveniently forgotten, so she hardly grows as a character, if any.

Ultimately, Rivet boils down to being “What if Ratchet, but a girl?”. There’s work put into trying to make her her own thing, but there’s also the narrative yanking her by the collar to be Ratchet’s other self. She’s the last Lombax in her dimension, she also wonders where the Lombaxes went, and she’s trying to be a hero. At that point, how is she any different than Ratchet? They don’t even differ much personality wise for a version of Ratchet who never met her Clank, so to speak. One would think she would be the spunky RaC1 Ratchet since it was meeting Clank that got Ratchet to grow as a person. Instead she’s just your lovely neighbourhood Rivet, friend to all except robots except the ones she meets I guess. What is the point of having two main characters if they are just gonna end up the same?

Kit

While arguably the better other of the new duo, she has issues as well in the writing department. She had the most growth out of our titular cast, however how she got there is ramshackled at best.

In comparison to Clank, he was a defective warbot, which made sense why he was small. Kit on the other hand was tailor made by the supposedly competent Emperor Nefarious, so why does she have a cutesy mode? Why does she even have a character crisis from hurting Rivet, for that matter? Stopping rebels was what she was designed to do, and she suddenly gained a conscience from doing her job? If Kit is so effective at what she did, why did Emp Nef stop at making just one of her? Shouldn’t there be multiple Kit models roaming about? She could mow down hordes of newer Nefarious Troopers and Juggernauts, so why didn’t Emp Nef expand on that?

These inconsistencies make Kit as a character start falling apart as soon as you give it more scrutiny than a surface level glance. The writers could have easily solved these issues by just alluding that she might have been an outdated model, or was damaged and abandoned on Savali where Gary and the monks fixed her up and gave her a new purpose — protecting the Archives. Instead of an exterminator, she became a guardian. They could have taught her how to be more “human” as it were, too, which would tie up nicely to why she regrets her actions in her previous line of work. Instead, they went with the “Oh no, what have I done, I did my job and injured a trespasser, now I’m gonna be a recluse on Savali” route.

She doesn’t gel well with Rivet either because the only one actively having something to overcome was Kit. Had Rivet been written better (having to overcome her prejudices, letting go of her past trauma, solving her trust issues) it could work with Kit growing out of her self doubt and regrets, but it just isn’t there. Plus, there weren't enough scenes of them together to build towards that conflict resolution that would make their friendship more believable. She has more of a relationship with Ratchet than Rivet.

“EmPeRoR” Nefarious

He is boring. Simple as. There is no driving motivation to him other than “conquer everything”. We could have gotten an Ultron (which would make a perfectly sensible callback to the Biobliterator shtick our Nef pulled from UYA) but we just end up with a sassy English bastard with the personality of wet bread. There was no fun interplay between him and our Neffy, anything to make both their personalities shine as they work together or grind against each other, it just sucks.

The Plot(holes)

Imma just list it down.

How does a helmet clearly designed to fit a Lombax head is supposedly “one size fits all”?

How did the fish kid Rivet saved in the intro made it around Nef City in the first place if this was supposedly a robot dystopia that eradicated all squishies? What, was he just having a stroll, taking some fresh dystopian air? Could have made it that this was a fellow rebel she was tasked to save cuz he had some intel that he swiped and Rivet decided to use herself as bait to draw attention away from him so he could get the intel out of there, but no.

On that matter, why do planets like Savali and Torren IV still have organic inhabitants?

What was Skidd trying to achieve by hacking the propaganda blimp? This served no purpose at all narratively since it didn't even turn any robots against the Neffies.

Why was Skidd even in Nef City, for that matter? What was his original mission that he was going undercover for? Busting Rivet out of prison? Couldn’t be, since he made no mention of it.

Why did none of Emp Nef's cronies question our Nef just popping in despite looking clearly different? He’s a whole head shorter and the wrong colour. What, do they not have colour vision?

How did Emp Nef know about the existence of the dimensional map? He barely knew about the Dimensionator so how does that make sense?

If Ratchet already has hoverboots, why couldn’t he dash/sprint with it until he gets to Savali?

Where and when did Rivet get a rift tether?

Where and when did Rivet get a pair of hoverboots?

Wasn’t the Space Pirates/Decadroids designed by Tachyon? Why do they exist in this dimension? Why aren’t they allied with Emp Nef since they too are robots? None of this is explained.

Where did the Lombaxes of Rivet’s dimension disappear to? Did they have a Tachyon-like threat in this dimension too? Did Emp Nef wipe them out? Don’t know, and the game doesn’t bother explaining it cuz Rivet is supposed to be girl Ratchet and nothing beyond that.

Why would Emperor Nefarious announce for the whole galaxy to see where he was going during the finale? Did he lose that much intelligence in the short timeframe we’ve known him? This is the guy who conquered the galaxy?

Why would he leave a portal for our protagonists to conveniently follow him through?

Where did that telekinetic abilities of him suddenly disappear to?

Where was this dimension’s Lawrence counterpart? That stupid little secretary is so dumb as to not recognise her own boss she couldn’t possibly be the Lawrence replacement.

Environmental Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Environmental storytelling & worldbuilding has never really been Insomniac’s strong suit. RA is pretty and all, but aside from Blizar Prime, none of the other locales did anything different from Ratchet’s dimension. If this was supposed to be a galaxy where Emp Nef has conquered it all, you would think that there’d be more neon, more cyberpunk, more Emp Nef aesthetic, more robots flying about. Instead, we just got the same thing we had from Ratchet’s dimension, just in prettier graphics. It is set dressing with no story to tell. It's a puddle pretending it was an ocean. While I appreciate seeing the graphical glow up the locations got, it’s a missed opportunity to actually show the impact Emp Nef had.

Take Nefarious City for example;

How was Ratchet able to move around Nef City without raising alarms? This negates the entire point of Rivet needing a robot disguise in the first place.

Why does a static statue in the middle of a city have a terminal that activates a platform that leads to Emp Nef's office in the first place?

On that note, why is an EMPEROR working from an office? Where’s the throne? The grand palace and palisades? The royal guards? If he’s an authoritarian that likes to take control, where’s the giant screen with a hundred monitors that watch every inch of Nef City?

Why does Emp Nef have a tiny four seater shuttle? If he needed to commute planet-side, wouldn’t he have something more posh? More grand? A Rolls Royce of shuttles instead of what can be considered a slightly pricier but still shitty Tesla model? They could have made Ratchet or Rivet have to steal a fighter jet and that would make infinitely more sense than what we got.

The same can be said with the inhabitants of this universe. They only exist to serve as plot devices or to point the protagonists to the next goal rather than actual people. There is no culture, no differing beliefs, nothing to tell you about what they are about or what they do. If all they exist to do is to be exposition devices/mission pointers, what was the point of even making distinct characters? Then again, the Future trilogy suffered the same problem with environmental characters being practically stand-in cardboards so points for consistency, I guess.

Verdict

Essentially, Rift Apart is a creatively bankrupt, designed-by-committee tech demo for Sony Playstation. What used to be a franchise that does satirical commentary on capitalism that later tried to delve into narrative/character driven sci-fi story, has ended up being the most capitalistic-designed entry imaginable. Which is unfortunate because I want to like this game. God, do I want to like it.

Did I enjoy playing it? When it works and doesn't crash on me, sure.

Do I like it enough as an entry to the franchise though? No, no I don't. The gameplay hardly expanded on the RaC formula, and the narrative just killed it for me.

But of course, that's just me. If you enjoyed RA, more power to ya. If you told me to play it again, I'll probably do it. It's just not for me for the long run.

#terra rambles #ratchet and clank #rift apart

13 notes · View notes

ifanfictiondreamerworld · 5 years ago

Text

Ratchet and Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time-Part 10

Outside, Ratchet was equipped with the hover boots. Kim stood nearby as did Azimuth. Azimuth: "Now then, if you're going to stop Nefarious, you're going to have to outmaneuver him. Now, used properly, those hover boots will give you exactly the edge you need. Now, back straight, legs bent slightly at the knees and engage."

From there, he was able to activate the hover boots. He had a chance to move around in them. Ratchet: "Hey! I'm doing it! (laugh) This is awesome!"

Kim seemed very pleased as she observed him. Azimuth was also elated. Azimuth: "Excellent! If you want to turn, just shift your weight; the boosters will take care of the rest."

Ratchet continued on utilizing the hover boots. Kim watched a bit more. She then tapped on the device on her chest. Kim: "Are you getting all of this, Wade?" Wade: "Yep, every last second. This is amazing! Lombax technology keeps getting more and more incredible! These guys were phenomenal engineers!"

At that moment, Azimuth looked over towards Kim and stared at her in a perplexed manner. Kim: "Well, you did say that their technology has been difficult to duplicate." Wade: "Yeah, but you know how much I love a good challenge and my attempts have been doable aside from being time-consuming." Kim: "Oh, for sure." Azimuth: "Who are you talking to, young lady?" Kim: "Oh! Azimuth, I didn't notice you over there. Hang on for a sec."

She tapped on the device once more. Displayed from it was an image of Wade. Kim: "Azimuth, this is Wade, a super genius that I have worked with for a few years now. Wade, this is Alister Azimuth." Wade: "So, you must be the infamous rebel and exile that everyone's been talking about. Wow, I don't believe it. You really are a Lombax and here I thought they all left." Azimuth: "Yes, well, you could say that I was…left behind. Now then, both of you were mentioning something about duplicating Lombax technology?" Wade: "Uh, yeah, sir, it's been a lot more than difficult, even for someone like me. Your race has created some of the most advanced forms of technological anything in the entire Universe. I've spent more than a whole year studying this. I have to say, I'm quite impressed." Azimuth: "Uh, yes, well, our technology has surpassed many other species. But still, have you really been making strides to duplicate our work?" Wade: "Yes, I have. It's not exactly the same as the Lombax's ingenuity, but it's pretty close. Ratchet seems to appreciate my efforts so far."

Ratchet then stopped just near them. Ratchet: "Yeah, he's done a good job at it. It's been the closest I've ever gotten to connecting with the Lombaxes." Wade: "Speaking of which, I've been analyzing the hover boots, I've just finished with another modification to the Centurion Armor. Check this out."

With a few clicks on his keyboard, Wade enabled boosters to appear below the boots of Kim's Centurion Armor. Azimuth was greatly startled by this, Ratchet, however, seemed very much elated. Wade: "Go ahead, give them a try."

From there, she tested them out, but only for a few moments at first. Wade: "Well, what do you think?" Kim: "Wade! This is incredible!" Wade: "What can I say? I'm a genius." Ratchet: "Come on, let's keep at it, Kim." Kim: "OK."

And so, they rushed out together. They both seemed very ecstatic. Azimuth, however, seemed to be less than pleased. They kept on going with breaking in their hover boots. Ratchet was greatly excelling, becoming more proficient at it. He utilized the many skills that can be carried out while using the hover boots as did Kim. Azimuth indeed seemed very impressed as he continued to observe Ratchet.

Ratchet continued on the course. He then looked towards Kim. Within a split second, she collapsed on to the ground. Ratchet was startled by this. Ratchet: "Oh, no! Kim!"

He made his way towards her as fast as he could. He landed next to her, kneeled down and sat her up just a little. He tapped on the device on her chest. Ratchet: "Wade! Come in! Kim just passed out again!" Wade: "I know. I just did a scan of her brain. I'm picking up massive brain wave activity within several areas of her mind; a lot of it deals with processing and retrieving memories, including the hippocampus. It's almost as though an enormous amount of lost memories are flooding into her mind." Ratchet: "Could that be what's been causing these headaches?" Wade: "I would say yes. I remembered to scan her brain the next time she passes out since you mentioned that she blurted out something that last time, as for the "tempus simia" thing? I've been looking into that and…it seems to have some involvement with time." Ratchet: "Involvement…with…time?"

Just then, Kim instantaneously opened her eyes and sat straight up. Kim: "Time monkey!?" Ratchet: "Kim!"

She seemed somewhat confused as she sat by for a bit. Kim: "What…what happened?" Ratchet: "You passed out again. At least I know you really are alright. Tell me, do you remember anything when you were unconscious?"

She thought about that for a few moments. Kim: "No…I…I can't…remember anything…it…it's all…a blur…" Ratchet: "Hm…I see…well…Wade did manage to pick up on a crucial piece of data. I think we may be on to something."

Kim was at a loss for words.

Soon enough, Kim and Ratchet were walking along with Azimuth. Azimuth: "Well, Ratchet, I have to say that you have done very well with your first lesson. You seem to be a much faster learner than your father. I'm impressed." Ratchet: "Uh, gee, thanks, I…I appreciate that, general." Azimuth: "Don't mention it. And you, Miss Possible, I admit that you're pretty good on those replicas of the hover boots that your young genius friend built. You seemed to be very skilled for a human." Kim: "Well, it was no big, really. I can do anything." Azimuth: "Yes, I suppose you can, but you'll never be as good as a Lombax." Kim: "Uh, as if that really matters to anyone."

Azimuth chuckled in a somewhat conceited manner. Azimuth: "There's clearly so much you don't understand, young miss."

Kim stared back at him, annoyed and confused. Ratchet: "So, what do we do now? Storm Nefarious' stronghold and force him to tell us where the clock is?" Kim: "Um, I don't think it will be that easy to do." Azimuth: "The human girl is right, Ratchet. Nefarious would be foolish to reveal that information to us, regardless of what we do to him." Kim: "So the question is how do we find out where the clock is?" Azimuth: "Well, fortunately, we have an advantage I did not have before: a contact on the inside." Kim: "Wait, are you referring to Clank?" Ratchet: "But how are we going to be able to talk to him? Even Wade can't track him down, let alone come in contact with him."

Azimuth tapped on a large emblem attached to his chest plate then turned away from Kim and Ratchet as he walked towards a nearby ledge. Ratchet: "Uh, general? My ship is this way." Azimuth: "No thanks, I brought my own."

At that moment, his ship rose up from behind the ledge. He lifted himself off of the ground with the use of his hover boots and entered his ship. Ratchet: "Whoa…" Azimuth: "Meet me in Axiom City, planet Terachnos." Kim: "What are we looking for there?" Azimuth: "A way to talk to Clank."

Soon enough, he took off and left the planet. Both Kim and Ratchet stood by as they watched him leave. Ratchet: "Well…uh…better get going." Kim: "Uh, yeah, we should."

They made their way back to their ship and departed from the planet.

As they flew into space, Azimuth contacted them immediately. Azimuth: "Ratchet, come in." Ratchet: "General?" Azimuth: "I've keyed into your nav-unit so that we can communicate. Is that girl still with you?" Kim: "Uh, yeah, I'm here. What's the sitch?" Azimuth: "Don't give me an attitude, young lady. Anyway, you're probably wondering what we will find in Axiom City." Kim: "Of course we are. You were kind of vague on the details but you did mention to us that there is a way to talk to Clank there." Azimuth: "Not quite. There's a company called Pollyx Industries. Nefarious hired them to locate Zoni technology. They keep a data base of every Obsidian Eye in the Universe." Kim: "Obsidian Eye? What is that?" Ratchet: "It's an extremely advanced telescope; perhaps the most advanced telescope in the entire Universe. I found one when I was on Merdegrew. Unfortunately, the Hoolefoids that live on that planet dismantled it." Kim: "Well, that's inconvenient, but we do have a way to find another one." Azimuth: "Don't think it'll be that easy, miss. Pollyx won't just let us waltz into the building. We may have to be…a little aggressive." Kim: "Of course, it always comes with a challenge. But no big, we can handle anything. So not the drama, right, Ratchet?" Ratchet: "Yeah, so not the drama indeed. It wouldn't be fun if it was too easy." Kim: "Oh, for sure."

They did a high-5 with one another. Azimuth: "You 2 sound a lot alike. Ratchet, you've been hanging around with that girl a little too much." Ratchet: "Uh, what?" Kim: "What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Azimuth: "Well, no matter, I will see you soon." Ratchet: "Copy that. See ya, General. Ratchet and Kim out."

They severed communications with Azimuth. Kim: "Geez, what was that all about? Does he not like me just because I'm not a Lombax?" Ratchet: "Don't know, he doesn't display any hostilities towards you, but I did detect a hint of superiority over you just for him being a Lombax and you…not." Kim: "So, he thinks Lombaxes are better than all other species? I so do not agree with him." Ratchet: "Same here. Lombaxes are not better than humans and the same goes for humans being better than Lombaxes. We're just…people; the only thing that matters to me is who's a better person." Kim: "I agree. Um…Ratchet? There's…something I want to tell you. I…um…"

She hesitated as she seemed quite despondent. Ratchet also seemed to be saddened. Ratchet: "You know, there's been something that I wanted to say to you, too. I…I…"

Just then, they got caught in an unseen force field. Kim: "What…what's going on!?" Ratchet: "I think we're caught in some kind of barrier! Hang on, Kim!"

Ratchet engaged the accelerators and attempted to push right through the barrier. After a long and persisting effort, he was able to force his ship right through. Kim: "Alright! You did it, Ratchet!" Ratchet: "Heh! Was there ever any doubt? Now let's go."

They made their way towards the planet.

They were able to land into the middle of Axiom City. After they found a spot to land their ship and got out, they contacted Azimuth. Ratchet: "General, come in. We just landed in Axiom City. Where are you?" Azimuth: "I'm afraid I've run into a bit of trouble. I had to make a slight adjustment of our plan." Kim: "Uh, what kind of adjustment?" Computer voice: "Attention, citizens. Rogue Lombax Alister Azimuth has been spotted within city limits. Troopers have been mobilized for your protection." Kim: "Oh, I see, well that seems to be an unavoidable set back." Azimuth: "Don't worry, I have a plan." Kim: "And what kind of plan would that be, oh great General Alister Azimuth?" Azimuth: "Just get to Neurox Plaza and wait for me to make contact." Ratchet: "Got it. We'll see you then." Azimuth: "Roger that. Oh and Miss Possible? Mind your manners, will you?"

Communications were severed again. Kim: "Easy for you to say." Ratchet: "Come on, we need to get going now."

And so they rushed out further into the city.

#Ratchet and Kim Possible #Ratchet #Kim Possible #Another Sitch in Time #A Crack in Time #Alister Azimuth #Torren IV #Vela Sector #Wade #Aphelion

1 note · View note