A Tragedy in Three Acts

Part 2: Ace Hardlight is a Bastard

Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank or any of its characters. Mina is owned by wherearetherobots of FFnet and Instagram.

Man, Mina, I can't believe I have to show you how terrible your taste in men is... *shakes head*

A Tragedy in Three Acts

Part 2: Ace Hardlight is a Bastard

"Hey Al, I got here as quick as I could!"

Ratchet's breathless voice echoed in Mina's ear as she studied the front part of the Dreadzone collar around Clank's neck. Her concentration stuttered, but Al beat her to the punch.

"Silence!" Al cried, turning his attention away from Clank and onto Ratchet. "Can't you see we're trying to concentrate?!"

"We're tryin' to see if we can crack open Clank's collar with the schematics he got," Mina filled in, waving her right hand at the Lombax. "Al, everything looks good right here, so whenever you're ready..."

"Clank, are you sure this is safe?"

The little robot turned his head, careful not to accidentally smack Mina's face with his right hand. "It is an acceptable risk," he said. A tiny shrug came from him as he bobbed his shoulders. "I am more than willing to be a test subject in order to experiment if we can escape."

A strong shush came from Al as he leaned over Clank's neck. "I just need to close one more circuit... Mina, get ready..."

With a simple push of the engineer's fingers, the collar around Clank's neck unlocked and clicked open, finally freeing the robot from the threat of decapitation.

A happy cheer rose from the Markazian as she shot up from her crouched position, her fists pumping in the air. "Hell yeah! We did it!"

An enormous grin stretched over Ratchet's face as he laughed with shock and relief. "Al, Mina, you guys are geniuses!"

The main owner of the Robo Shack chuckled and tucked a hand behind his head. "I know..." he drawled, a bashful blush touching his cheeks.

"Ha!" Mina leaned over and punched Ratchet's arm playfully. "'Course we did it! That's what you get when you're with the Robo Shack crew. Now..." She made to push Ratchet out of the way and try to get around the other side of the table as Al lifted the open collar from Clank's neck. "It's my turn to get this collar off! Move your fluffy butt, Lombax boy!"

Just as Mina got to the side of the small workbench, no more than a foot away from Al, the world fell into slow motion.

The blaster shot bloomed against Al's back, and his eyes and mouth popped open in shock. Mina felt her face match something close to his expression before Al hit the cold, metal floor. His arms splayed out at awkward angles from his body, and his trademark lab coat burned around the hole near his right shoulder.

He didn't move.

Mina moved her head in a motion that dragged on for what felt like an eternity, gazing right towards where the blaster shot came from. As Ratchet's shocked "NOOO!" rang in her head, Mina looked straight at a grinning Ace Hardlight stalking towards the group.

Cruel laughter echoed from the gladiator's mouth as he cocked the blaster back. "Looks like somebody broke the rules..." he said, a sneer marring his face.

It only took a split second for the shock to fade before white-hot, burning rage filled the female Markazian.

Mina lunged as fast as she could at Ace, tears forming in her eyes as she charged at her friend's murderer. "OH, I'LL SHOW YOU BREAKING THE RULES, YOU NO-GOOD PIECE OF-"

Ace's hand latched tight around her throat as he lifted her off the ground. In a swing that Mina couldn't avoid, the butt of the blaster slammed against her as the remote pressing against her throat triggered the electricity in the collar.

Her head throbbed with pain and the rest of her body lit up with agony as thousands of volts shot through her form. The electricity cut right through her synthetic skin and dug right into the robotic form underneath, and as a high-pitched scream reverberated around the room, Mina felt pain overwhelm her conscious mind.

Her world flipped, and suddenly the floor rose up to meet her face and chest. The sting of the electricity was gone, but Mina's mind could barely comprehend the absence of the shock. Eyes rolled as the back of her head fell to her left.

Wisps of conversation and the sight of Al's still body, his face fallen and peaceful, faded fast as darkness swallowed Mina's consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 2's alternate title: 'Big Al F**king Dies'

Onto the last part! Thank you all for reading!! :)

XD