[center][h3][color=tan]Courier 6[/color] and [color=orange]Ratchet[/color] and [color=sandybrown]Jak &[/color] [color=darkorange]Daxter[/color][/h3]
[b]Level 5[/b] - (49/50) EXP (+2), [b]Level 5[/b] - (29/50) (+2), [b]Level 3[/b] - (7/30) (+2)
[b]Location:[/b] Land of Adventure - Coral Highlands, Redgraccoon City - Charnal Lane
[b]Word Count:[/b]1033[/center]

Everything happened so fast, the Courier couldn’t see what all had happened in the exact moment. His shotgun shells had clearly done some damage to this dinosaur creature, but that didn’t seem to slow it down one bit. By the time he raised his head again, Bastion’s arm was on the ground and the robot was dissipating completely. The Courier’s eyes shot wide for a brief moment as he realized what had happened. Bastion would take some time before he could be deployed again, and in the meantime the threat of this monster was still looming, dangerous enough to cleanly cleave through solid metal. If it could do that, his own armored duster, not to mention his sub-dermal armor, wouldn’t be any better than paper. In an instant the Courier knew what this situation called for: he had to treat this creature just like a deathclaw, only smaller. And that meant it needed to be put down with as much firepower as possible, with [i]extreme[/i] prejudice.

While the creature attacked the young man who had appeared and made a ruckus, the Courier dropped the pokeball containing his newest compadre, the donphan Ivories. [color=tan]”Looks like ya got a chance t’show yer stuff, Ivories!”[/color] he said, pulling out what looked to be a normal bottle of water, but was in fact the chem Rushing Water. He downed half the bottle himself, then tossed the rest of the bottle into Ivories’ mouth. In an instant both could feel the invigorating properties of the water, increasing their attack speed by a very solid 50%! The Courier swapped to his magnum, not risking any more down time to reload his shotgun, and quickly fired 6 bullets into the monster as though the revolver were a semi-auto pistol! That on its own would have already been incredible attack speed, increasing his trigger finger by half, but he was a human.

Ivories curled up and began rolling at extreme speeds! The armadillo-elephant creature was already capable of rolling around at some absurd velocity, but increased by half? It used Rollout on the dinosaur! But would it be supereffective?

[hr][hr]

Things seemed to be going pretty well against the ent, all things considered! Sure, there were some hiccups, like the thing not catching on fire as they would have expected, but the minions it was summoning weren’t otherwise all that difficult to deal with and the slow, lumbering tree brute was easy enough to avoid. Ratchet even got a bullseye in that sweet, sweet weak spot! Clank’s rocket thrusters stayed on to let him slowly glide back down to terra firma, while he swapped weapons for the Coyote shotgun and cleared a landing zone from those little hollows. Meanwhile Jak was zipping around on his jet board, running over hollows and killing them off with the shockwave it was capable of generating. The things couldn’t even hope to touch him, while he made sure everyone had a better time hitting the ent without being accosted by such trivial minions.

Then everything changed when the ent let out a huge roar, and Nero was tossed aside like a rag doll. [color=orange]”Uh oh,”[/color] Ratchet said, seeing the big globs of nastiness spraying everywhere. The nimble, acrobatic lombax jumped and dodged and blackflipped away, thankfully safe from getting struck. Jak was likewise able to avoid his own projectile with a well timed kickflip. But that severely changed the battle arena, the environment was going to be more difficult to traverse now. On top of that, more enemies, these ones of a completely different type, were now spawning! 

[color=sandybrown]”Great, more small fries.”[/color]

[color=darkorange]”Lock and load, Jak!”[/color]

[color=orange]”Don’t worry, I’ve got this one!”[/color] Ratchet fired off his shotgun at one of the rot warts coming right for him, blowing it to smithereens! Aaaand also releasing its toxic miasma right into his face. Ratchet immediately dropped to the ground, coughing and wheezing, his normally untouchably agile self unable to hardly move.

[color=sandybrown]”Ratchet! I’ll save you, fuzzball!”[/color] Jak altered course on his jet board, but was too late. The ent prepared another shockwave and he had to ride it out on his board to avoid getting tossed to the ground. He pulled the stunt off expertly, but Ratchet couldn’t move. The hero of Veldin was sent flying, his fragile body breaking several bones in the process. Jak frowned, anger rising. His eyes turned black, his teeth became fangs, but only for a second. He hadn’t recharged his dark eco yet, and not even this rage was enough to trigger his Dark Jak transformation. Instead he calmed his mine to call upon another power. 

Jak’s jet board shrank down and attached to his back as a Heavenly light transformed him into Light Jak, ethereal membraneous wings sprouting from his back. Jak took flight up high, morph gun still in hand in its yellow eco Blaster formation. From his new vantage point, Jak unloaded shot after shot of yellow eco into the ent’s weak spot.

Meanwhile, Ratchet was clinging onto dear life. His tenacity meant that no matter what injuries he suffered he could always move around at full power. Unfortunately that tenacity didn’t account for a body paralyzing goopy infection, just injury. But that didn’t mean he was going to go out like a pansy! A true hero would go down swinging, no matter what! One of the hollows approached, ready to finish him off. Ratchet coughed, moving the Coyote into place, and summoned the power to pull the trigger. [b]BLAM![/b] The hollow was blasted away, its life ended, but something else truly remarkable happened.

[b]SECOND WIND[/B]

These words flashed across Ratchet’s visor, confusing him for a brief moment, when he felt all his strength returning. His wounds closed up, his bones knit back together, the toxic poison was expelled from his body. For all intents and purposes Ratchet was back on his feet as though nothing had ever happened! [color=orange]”Wow. Heh. No wonder you kept calling yourself a badass, Zer0.”[/color] Ratchet pumped the shotgun, then charged back into the fray!