Whoo, I'm back! Sorry to keep y'all waiting for so long again, folks. There are too few hours in a day. Well, this is late as is, so let's just get to it already, shall we?

Complete and utter chaos followed Ratchet and Cora as they ran for their lives. Ratchet had quickly grabbed Clank before making a run for it, the synthenoids taking him as a target and unintentionally allowing Cora to make her move. The Zurkons realized a second too late as they were blown to smithereens by a Warmonger missile.

"You shouldn't have done that." Cora mumbled, shaking her head as she reloaded her missile launcher before taking off after Ratchet.

She found him a few corridors later inside a room filled with shipping crates, pinned down by a swarm of Zurkons.

"Cora, stand back!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Clank has a plan!"

Ratchet pointed to the magnet hanging above a few crates. Cora suddenly understood the plan. "I'll cover you, rookie! Throw Clank!"

Clank got off Ratchet's back and held on to Ratchet's wrench before the Lombax swung the weapon around, sending Clank flying to the magnet controls.

Some Zurkons found the little robot an interesting target, though they were quickly taken out by Ratchet and Cora. Ratchet ran out of cover to distract the rest as Clank hacked the magnet.

Suddenly, the Zurkons stopped as something else caught their interest. They gave each other a surprised look before they were suddenly pulled back by an invisible force and slammed against the magnet.

"Great job, pal!" Ratchet yelled, turning to Clank, only to see the little robot cling to the control panel like a lifeline, apparently also affected by the magnet. Ratchet quickly threw a Fusion Grenade, destroying the mass of Zurkons stuck to the magnet. Clank immediately slammed his fist down on the emergency override function, and the magnetic force disappeared.

They moved on through the facility, and they found themselves in a huge room. Assembly lines were running through the interior, with a huge furnace in the center.

"Oh, my. This is the place of my creation. I am experiencing many conflicting feelings." Clank said, taking in the interior of the massive room.

"Let's secure the upper level." Cora said. "I spy a refueling station behind that forcefield over there. I'll get to the upper level, you make your way through the lower level and make your way to that thing."

"Gotcha." Ratchet said, grabbing a Combustor as he made a run for it.

Running across the assembly lines, Ratchet ran under the furnace but found himself under fire immediately as a Blarg squad manning a turret focused fire on him. "Think you can flank that turret?" Cora radioed, who was beating the crap out of a Zurkon-unit.

"I got it!" Ratchet yelled. He took cover behind a large crate and pulled out the Bouncer. He fired a grenade to the left of the turret. The Blarg let out a yelp of surprise, but after nothing happened, they refocused fire with a laugh. "Ya missed, rug-in-the-making!" The Blarg on the turret yelled.

Ratchet gritted his teeth and waited.

BOOM!

The Bouncer grenade exploded, releasing a swarm of miniature bombs that sought out and annihilated the Blarg with deadly accuracy, a cluster of metallic predators seeking their prey in a deadly game of tag.

Ratchet made his way along the wall of the room, jumping from conveyor belt to conveyor belt while battling the Zurkon units trying to flank him before finally reaching his destination.

After Clank finished hacking the refueling station, they regrouped with Cora on the second tier of the facility. "Let's press on, we need to find Drek." Cora radioed before blasting off to the door in the distance.

Ratchet went after her, only to stop in mid-air as Cora slammed into a forcefield and comically slid down a few feet before her jetpack got her back into the air.

Drek laughed through the intercom system. "Oh, how amusing. I'd love to stay and watch the show, but I gotta run! Toodles!"

"Drek and his stupid forcefields!" Cora yelled, slamming her fist against the metal wall in frustration.

"There seems to be an override function in that control room up there." Clank pointed out with a nod of his head.

Ratchet and Cora immediately flew over to it. Ratchet slammed his fist into the override button, and the forcefield deactivated.

"You can all relax now, I'm finally here." Brax said, who came flying into the area from another hallway. He landed on the platform on top of the furnace. The peace was short-lived however as something rose into view behind him. Ratchet and Cora's jaws dropped. "Look out!" Cora yelled.

Brax turned around and came face-to-face with a monstrous machine. "GOOD-BYE, STUPID RANGER!"

The huge machine fired a blast of energy, sending Brax flying. He slammed into the wall next to Cora. "I'm okay..." Brax mumbled absentmindedly. "Shit!" Cora hissed, dragging Brax into the control room. "I'll try to get Brax back up, you get that thing down."

Taking a good look at the machine, Ratchet saw it closely resembled to a Zurkon unit, a blaster instead of a right hand and a thruster instead of legs. This model however, aside from being much larger, also had a different design, instead looking like an elderly lady with slim-lined glasses and a large necklace of steel orbs.

"MS. ZURKON WILL NOW PROTECT HER FAMILY!" it blared before a barrier formed in front of it.

Clank activated the jetpack for extra mobility, and Ratchet threw a fusion grenade against the barrier. It flickered for a moment.

Ratchet began to unload his entire arsenal on the barrier whilst trying to dodge the fire Ms. Zurkon returned, and soon enough the barrier shattered. Ms. Zurkon opened up the steel orbs hanging around her neck, and a whole army of regular Zurkon units came flying out.

"HA HA HA! IT'S TIME TO MEET THE FAMILY!"

Ratchet quickly took out a Pyrocitor and attacked the Zurkon swarm head-on, destroying them before they even had a chance to set up properly.

That's when he was sent flying across the room by a powerful blast. The air was knocked out of his lungs on impact, making him gasp for air. "HA HA HA! MS. ZURKON HAS BROUGHT YOU CLOSER TO DEATH!"

Immediately Ms. Zurkon took a missile to the face, but one that wasn't courtesy of Ratchet. "Hey asshole!" a female voice echoed through the room. Ratchet turned his head to where the sound came from and, to his surprise, noticed Angela positioned on a walkway on the other side of the room, holding a smoking Negotiator. She reloaded it with a loud click. "There's more where that came from."

The most eye-catching feature though was Angela's armor. It had the exact same color scheme as Hypernova's and, frankly, really closely resembled the hero in white. It covered her from head to toe, a blue visor protecting her face whilst still giving her a good view of her surroundings.

"Look out!" Ratchet yelled when he noticed that Ms. Zurkon was about to charge up another blast of energy.

Angela, however, didn't move. Ratchet saw her focus and somersault out of the way just in time. He raised an eyebrow, but immediately pushed any thoughts about her strange way of acting to the back of his mind. Clank's jetpack flared to life and he flew over to her position. "Ready?" he asked.

She nodded with a grin. "Let's show them who they're messing with."

Ratchet flew up into the air and began to fire from above while Angela tried to get a shot at Ms. Zurkon's back side, which was significantly less armored.

While Ratchet flew back and forth at record speed, Angela held still and focused. She held her breath as she carefully took aim at Ms. Zurkon's neck, and fired a few rounds.

Her aim hadn't been perfect, but accurate enough to deal significant damage. Ms. Zurkon turned around immediately and summoned her barrier once more, completely forgetting about Ratchet in the process, a mistake that Ratchet immediately used to his advantage.

Suddenly, with a loud war cry, Brax came charging into the fray, using his jetpack to build up speed before pinning Ms. Zurkon against the wall. "End of the line, you bastard!" he yelled. Ms Zurkon retaliated with a loud screech, releasing a blast of electricity.

Brax gritted his teeth and tanked the hit before slamming his fist into Ms. Zurkon's right eye, punching right through the glasses.

Ms. Zurkon tried to release another swarm of smaller Zurkon units, but those were quickly taken down by Combustor fire courtesy of Ratchet and Cora.

"Glad you two are joining in." Ratchet said, flying over to Cora.

"Yeah, but where did your girlfriend come from all of a sudden?"

"First off, that's not funny. Secondly, I don't know. What happened up there on the Phoenix?" Ratchet wondered out loud as he watched Angela fire a Negotiator missile at the thruster keeping Ms. Zurkon airborne.

Although the thruster didn't die, the blast did pry loose some protective plating. Brax immediately capitalized, tearing off the plating with his bare hands before tearing the thruster off altogether.

Without anything keeping her airborne, all Ms. Zurkon fell to the ground. Brax walked up to the sparking machine and threw one last punch, sending Ms. Zurkon falling into the depths of the production lines far below.

"Elaris, come in. We've run into some resistance, but we're wrapping up our sweep of Drek Industries." Cora reported. "Any ideas on Drek's whereabouts?"

"There's something happening at the facility's tarmac. I don't know what it is but there's a significant heat generation coming from that location."

"The tarmac? That is the location of the escape pods. I used one of them to escape the facility shortly after my creation." Clank said.

"Shit! The bastard's making a run for it! We gotta move, now!" Cora yelled. Immediately everyone made a run for the exit.

They arrived at the tarmac just in time to witness the last escape pod leave the atmosphere. "Damn it." Cora and Brax said in unison. "Elaris, target has escaped. Mission failed." Brax reported.

"Not entirely." Clank spoke up. "Remember that we have been able to gather information regarding the location of the Blargian aircraft manufacturing plants. Perhaps we can find more information on Drek's whereabouts or plans there."

"Hey, have any of you seen Qwark?" Ratchet asked, noticing the absence of their leader.

"We split up." Brax said. "He should be around here somewhere."

"Here I am, team." Qwark spoke up from behind them. He came running out of the facility. "Have any of you seen Drek?"

"Negtive, Captain. He got away." Angela said, crossing her arms.

"What are you doing here?" Qwark asked. "I bet you're the one who screwed things up!"

"What?! No! I got here just in time to help with taking down that huge Zurkon!" Angela cried out, offended.

"You ignored an order!"

"Guys!" Cora yelled, silencing both. "Captain, I can vouch for the fact that Angela here had nothing to do with the failing of this mission. In fact, without her help I'm not sure if we'd all have made it out in one piece. Although our target got away we have been able to locate where they build their ships. Have you been able to find any other intel?"

"No, although I blew up the generators. They won't be making any more warbots. What did you say you found?"

"The site of the Blargian aircraft manufacturing facilities."

It was as if a lightbulb began to shine in Qwark's head. "Rookie." he said, turning to Ratchet. "I hereby assign you and your metal friend the mission of investigating the manufacturing plants. Sweep them for anything you can find and make sure they come to a grinding halt. Oh, and feel free to have her tag along as well." he added, nodding to Angela, who rolled her eyes.

"What about us, Captain?" Cora asked.

"I need you and Brax on Kerwan. We need to find out where Drek went."

"Captain, if I may-" Elaris began.

"Hold your horses, the situation's under control." Qwark responded immediately, cutting her off. "Why don't you go fix the coffee machine while we get to work?"

Clank tilted his head, feeling a jolt of anger rush through his processor.

"Well then." Brax said, cracking his knuckles out of boredom. "Back to the Phoenix I suppose."

As soon as they were inside the phoenix, Ratchet took Angela's hand and pulled her after him. He charged down the stairs and into a supply closet, closing the door behind them. "What happened?" he asked instantly. "Why did you go planetside?"

"Because I wanted to help!"

"You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"Says who?!" she fired back.

"No, she couldn't." Hypernova's voice suddenly came from the armor she was wearing. The armor began to move, crawling off her skin, leaving her in a standard Ranger armor, as if it was melting, and forming a puddle on the floor next to her. From the puddle of liquid metal Hypernova arose. "I was her armor. There was no danger at all."

"Why? You were the one so against her going planetside!" Ratchet fired.

"Because a simulation and real life are in no way comparable. Thus, I changed my mind, and decided that we could make use of this situation to provide Angela some... 'field training', so to speak."

"Yeah, but... you did all of the work." Angela said, ears lowering as she rubbed her arm.

"No, I did not. I said that I would guide you, but instead of actually doing something, I observed. You made some mistakes but overall you're pretty good when it comes to the truly crucial component of combat - improvising. You were able to adapt to various situations in almost no time at all. Only thing left is to work on aim because that's one of the things I did do, help your aim. Aside from fortified physical strength. Anyhow, get some sleep when we arrive on Kerwan, you'll both need it."

Hypernova walked out of the supply closet and disappeared from view. "What IS he?" Ratchet said, staring at the open door.

"I don't know." Angela said, shaking her head. "But to be honest, it freaks me out."

They ate something during the flight to Kerwan and, after landing, took a taxi to a nearby hotel. Clank joined them this time.

"What a remarkable city this is." he said, staring at all of the traffic flying past. The sun had already set where the Hall of Heroes was located, and the entire city was lit up beautifully.

"You're not kidding." Ratchet said. He noticed that Angela was falling asleep out of the corner of his eye, and he poked her arm. "Hey, try to stay awake. Just a little longer."

"Muh..." she muttered as she half-opened her eyes. "I'm tired of today."

Ratchet laughed. Soon enough the taxi stopped at the hotel. "Alright, we're here."

Angela didn't move. "Hey, you still awake?" Ratchet asked, gently poking her arm. No response. "Well, looks like she dozed off. Clank, why don't you go in and get us a hotel room, I'll carry this sleepyhead."

Clank nodded and used his Heli-Pack to fly out of the taxi before making his way inside.

Ratchet took a deep breath. "This is gonna take some creativity." he mumbled, taking Angela into his arms and lifting her out of the taxi.

Fortunately, Clank had already managed to acquire the keys to one of the hotel rooms by the time Ratchet stumbled into the foyer with an unconscious Lombax in his arms. They swiftly made their way to their hotel room and, because Clank couldn't reach the lock, Ratchet ended up inserting the key with his teeth before Clank turned it by flying up and pulling on the key as he fell back down.

Not the most practical approach but it worked. Ratchet lay Angela down on one of the hotel beds and took off her shoes, placing them onto the ground next to the bed. "Good night, Angela." he said over his shoulder before he turned off the lights. He walked through the hallway to the second bedroom, where Clank was already installing himself on the nightstand.

Ratchet brushed his teeth in the small bathroom attached to the bedroom before taking off his shoes and armor. He placed his shoes under his bed and hung his armor over a chair, before killing the lights and crashing on the bed.

Clank opened one eye. "Sleep well, Ratchet."

"G'night, pal." was the last thing Ratchet mumbled before his ears slowly went limp, indicating that he had fallen asleep.

After waking up, Ratchet checked up on Angela and Clank. Both had not awakened yet.

Ratchet went out and bought some breakfast for him and Angela, as well as some backup miniature power cells for Clank.

Upon arriving back at the hotel room, he found Angela sitting at a table across from Clank, who was setting up pieces on a chessboard.

Angela looked as if she wasn't fully awake yet, if her constant blinking, occasional yawns and the fact that her hair was messy were anything to go by.

"What was this game called again?" she asked Clank as she rubbed her eyes.

"Chess." Clank replied. "I came across the box containing the board and pieces yesterday evening and quickly downloaded the rules online."

"Uuh... I don't think Angela is fully awake yet, Clank." Ratchet said with a chuckle.

Clank tilted his head in confusion.

"Organic life forms need a few minutes to get going." Ratchet clarified. "Coffee?" he asked Angela, offering her one of the cups he'd bought along the way.

"Yes, please. Thank you." she replied, taking it from him.

Two hours later they were all set and headed to the Hall of Heroes for briefing. As they walked across the long bridge leading to said building, Ratchet couldn't help but feel proud, and honored that he was allowed to walk here.

A noise behind them made them stop and turn around. Hypernova was approaching the Hall of Heroes and swiftly landed behind them. "Morning." he greeted the trio. "I hope you've all slept well?"

"Wonderfully, thank you." Angela replied as they continued down the bridge to the Hall of Heroes. "What about you?"

"Didn't sleep." Hypernova truthfully replied.

"Huh? You must be feeling tired."

Hypernova chuckled. "You'll be surprised." he replied in a way that made Angela tilt her head a little in confusion, as if there was a double meaning to those words.

Soon enough they reached the entrance to the Hall of Heroes. Passing Qwark's statue (the head had been blown off during the attack on the Hall of Heroes that alerted the Rangers to the whereabouts of the Blarg. There was currently a team trying to weld the head back on) they walked up the small staircase and entered the massive building housing the people Solana looked to in times of need.

They met up with Captain Qwark in one of the conference rooms. Besides him only Elaris was present. She looked up from her tablet and gave the group a warm smile as they entered.

"Alright, everyone have a seat." Qwark said.

Ratchet, Angela and Clank sat down, while Hypernova simply leaned against the wall.

"Now, as you all know, the Blarg are well-supplied in terms of vehicles, mainly aircrafts. Ratchet, you and your girlfriend-"

"Captain, she's not-" Ratchet began.

"Please save your questions until the end of the presentation." Qwark cut him off before continuing. "As I was saying, you and your girlfriend are to explore planet Arylis. Locate and destroy the aircraft manufacturing plants."

"Clank and I will go with them." Hypernova said.

"On the contrary. You are to investigate the rumors of a fleet of Blargian aircrafts sighted near Aquatos."

"Like that's gonna happen. You have no power over me, Qwark."

"Will you stop always being such a stick in the mud?" Qwark angrily said. "These are still MY Rangers and this is still MY building!"

"Or what? What exactly are you going to do when I choose not to follow your orders?"

Elaris stepped forward. "If I may, I think it would greatly benefit the teamwork if you were to follow Captian Qwark's orders for a change."

"You don't understand, Elaris. I am only concerned for their safety." Hypernova replied, nodding towards Ratchet, Angela and Clank.

"I know, and I respect that. But Aquatos' citizens deserve safety too. Besides, they can't always have you watching over them."

Hypernova sighed. "Whatever you say. I hope I'm not making a big mistake here."

Clank raised his hand. "Excuse me for interrupting, but I was not named during the presentation. What will my task be?"

"The captain actually asked if you could assist me with some stuff around here." Elaris replied.

"Oh. Okay then."

"Don't worry, pal. We'll be back soon enough." Ratchet said, trying to cheer up his little, metal buddy.

"Ratchet?" Angela asked as they left Kerwan's cobalt blue sky behind.

"Yeah?"

"I just... I got a really bad feeling about this." she confessed.

"Cheer up, we'll be fine!"

"I know that, but still..."

Ratchet lifted up her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Hey. I'll make sure we both get home safely. I promise."

She sighed. "Okay then."

Ratchet grinned. "Let's kick some tail then."

Meanwhile Hypernova watched the blue Star Jumper fly off until it was but a speck in the distance. "Be safe, Kay." he mumbled before setting sail for Aquatos.

Alright! Mimicking the change I made in authors notes style in How It Should Have Been, I'll answer reviews down here from now on so you all don't have to dig through a wall of text before reaching the chapter itself.

bayj: "Love this chapter!
it was great!
Aww cute moments with ratchet and Angela :3
Seriously qwark it won't kill you to make a plan before leaping into action! It doesn't hurt to sit down for 5 minutes and listen to what your teammates have ti say!
what will happen next?
Looking forward to reading more soon!"
Thank you! As for those two Lombaxes... ah, there's the sword of Damocles...
Either way, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to produce. I hope that I can get chapter 15 done sooner.

Max Chronicle: "Ahh, the good stuff. Buttkicking, budding friendships, Qwark...
In the movie I'd always had a mixed reception of their infiltration leading up to Qwark in Drek's office. It just always felt off to me. And I've only ever played like an hour of the PS4 game. (I know, I know, behind the curve) But I wonder what the extra info Clank found in the room is for.
I trust you for more shizness down the line and I'll catch the next chapter.
Max out.
P.S. Simon vs. Nathaniel... I'd honestly like to write one out and I'd also like to see what you could do with it. Just a hunch that it would quite the battle. (Mild evil chuckle)"
Yeah, looking at the movie and PS4 game... I loved it at first, but if I'm really critical about the plot, they dumped all of the character development that the first games had and didn't put it back in, although it made the first game that great. Ratchet's overly happy attitude makes him somewhat shallow - there's barely any conflict. Same goes for Clank, why doesn't Clank call him out for lying? Ratchet's using him to get into the Rangers, they could have used that so well but they didn't! Lost opportunity to add some much-needed plot points... Oh well.
P.S. Oh, it's nearly guaranteed that it'd be a crazy fight!

zero fullbuster: "love it.
great work.
wow.
I can't wait what happens next."
Thank you! Here's hoping this late chapter lived up to your expectations.

Desertstorm272: "nice and you add some quotes from Overwatch"
Thank you! And yes, I couldn't resist... XD

Alright, once again, I hope I can get chapter 15 done sooner. Aside from that, I hope everyone's still here. Oh well, only one way to find out...