Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Time: Torren IV

It took awhile for Aphelion to reach the Vela Sector, though as they arrived at their destination she picked up another ship signature and found that it was the Helios, allowing Ratchet to dock with the starship and give them a chance to stretch their legs after spending so long sitting down, only to find that Angela was present.

"Sasha and Nika are busy tending to the rest of Polaris, helping Talwyn set up the new Defense Force," Angela explained, as she could see that the others were surprised that it was only her, though since she had been with Ratchet the longest, of the three girls, soon to be four after how Talwyn acted not that long ago, she decided to come help them out, "Do we have any leads as to where Clank might be being held?"

"From our enemies? No, none of them have mentioned Clank." Ratchet replied, though at the same time Autumn quickly outfitted Angela with the new weapons that they were carrying into battle, that way she could be ready for whatever they might find on Torren IV, before he recalled what Qwark was able to figure out from the Fongoids, "However Qwark has been talking to some Fongoids, a race we helped after crashing on Quantos... I'll tell you what happened later... and we've found out that there is a rebel by the name of 'Alister Azimuth' somewhere on Torren IV."

"Alister Azimuth? I vaguely remember a Lombax by that name... could it be the same one?" Angela commented, as that was something she wasn't expecting to discover when she decided to join the pair in their quest to recover Clank and Starswirl from the Zoni, even though she was impressed by the changes that had overtaken Aphelion.

"Tachyon said there was another, back before we defeated him and took the Dimensionator, so I would assume that they are one and the same." Autumn stated, though she was interested in meeting the other Lombax that had been left in this dimension, since it made three, not counting Kaden who was the fourth, who hadn't been displaced by Tachyon's attack on Fastoon all those years ago.

Angela said nothing to that as they climbed into Aphelion and headed outside, where Ratchet flew over to Torren IV with all the haste he could muster, though as he did that the others found that the planet in question appeared to be more of a junk planet, which interested them each to some degree. Once he landed he, Autumn, and Angela carefully explored the area they had landed in, all while Qwark informed them that Alister was said to live in the ruins of Volgram Pass, meaning Ratchet and the others would have to ask the locals to figure out where they needed to go. For right now Ratchet used his new wrench addition to move some devices for them to move forward, allowing the three of them to reach an upper area that was right above where Ratchet landed, which also gave everyone a chance to see that there was a large valley nearby, no doubt carved into the planet a long time ago. Standing near a device that would propel them forwards was a new alien race that wore red metallic attire and seemed to have cylindrical containers on their backs, or their shoulders to weigh all of their species down, which was filled with metallic junk, meaning he likely collected it for some odd reason.

The creature, a Vullard as he called his species, welcomed them to Molonoth and asked what they were doing here, which ended with him being surprised when Angela said they were looking for Volgram Pass, where to gain entry they would have to speak to the Guardian, and they also learned that Vorselon had been the greatest Terraklon assassin before he lost his body on Zaurik.

With that done they thanked him for the information before using the device to propel themselves over the area that they had landed in, where Autumn found a couple of junk robots pulling themselves out of the rubble to attack them, likely a defense mechanism for outsiders. Such a thing didn't stop the trio from blasting their way through their enemies with no real effort required, though before moving even further along their path Autumn noted that time also seemed broken in part of the area that they had landed in, but it didn't seem as important as what happened on Quantos. With that in mind they continued along the path in front of them and just opened fire on their enemies without delay, showing the Vullards that they were more than capable of handling anything that was thrown at them, all without Autumn using magic, but so far it looked like the Guardian was absent. As they reached a large tube, likely fallen from a massive mech of some kind in the past, Angela spotted what looked like a ramp, one that someone needed a special item to use, though she decided to ignore it for now as she and the others dealt with the enemies that were in front of them.

After that the trio found their way to a platform where a mechanical head activated and chatted with them, where they learned that Volgram Pass existed beyond the Hollow, the massive walled city that they were approaching with every step, but they would have to find the entrance themselves, which they were fine with. In addition to that Qwark informed them that he learned of a race of brutal warriors called the Agorians and that they hated Vorselon, along with Nefarious, which just confirmed that he was part of this madness, somehow, before revealing that he was going to talk to them, meaning they would have to bail him out of danger at some point. After learning that Autumn found a Zoni floating near the area that she and the others would have to move through next, where she quickly made sure the dimensions were stable, since there was no telling when something would happen, before expanding her magic to catch it and charge a spell that would call forth all lost Zoni, since she had a feeling they'd bring them home at some point in the future. With that done, and she confirmed that her spell was done, the group continued to move through the area, before finding a grind rail that seemed to wrap all around the area that they had just moved through and they used it without delay, only to discover it was shorter than they thought and that it launched them into the Guardian's mouth.

As it turned out the head was just a prop, used by a Vullard to keep their operation out of the eyes of the galactic authorities, before he lead them right up to the passage he used to enter and leave the Hollow, only to find a battery bot that wasn't in it's socket, so Ratchet grabbed it with his wrench before sending it back to it's home... but as the door opened they found a state of panic on the other side, battery bots rebelling against the Vullards.

Apparently this was a 'Code 11-13', meaning they had plans in case such a thing happened, and the Vullard told them that the way to Volgram Pass was now blocked, at least until the systems came online, and apologized for their bad luck, but as he started to leave Autumn asked how many systems were broken, discovering there were three. It was a coincidence for the group, to which they split up and tackled the three sections that were available to them, where Autumn and Angela just headed to the right and found two battery bots, one for a socket nearby and one for across the way. Angela caught the first battery bot and socketed it without delay, before carefully avoiding the compactors that were in her path so she could catch and socket another one, though as she did that Autumn avoided some saws as she carefully sent the battery bots back into their homes. While they did that Ratchet jumped up a few platforms, avoiding the bursts of fire that came out of them, and found that all he had to do was lower a jump pad so he could propel himself into the air and send a battery bot back into it's socket, which he did without delay.

Once all three of them were done the Vullards cheered as the Hollow returned to normal, giving them a chance to regroup as Autumn checked out the Vendor, discovering that a new weapon, the Dynamo of Doom, was available, which allowed the user to deploy a controllable orb that fired lightning at their foes. After purchasing the weapon, and making sure everyone had one in hand for later, they followed the path that lead to the center of the Hollow and found that they had to avoid the couple of compactors in their way before finding a launch pad that sent them to the upper reaches of the Vullard's odd base of operations. Sure enough they found a few more of the junk robots blocking the way forward and the group decided to use the Dynamo on them, finding that three circling their foes was more than enough to wipe them out, allowing Ratchet to walk over to a conveyor belt and used it to leave the Hollow, with Autumn and Angela following after him. As far as they could tell the only things that seemed to be outside this side of the large settlement was a wrecked giant, another one that was much like the talking head, before he stepped through an opening and stopped when he discovered something he had been expecting to see, but was unprepared for it.

Standing on the edge of a balcony, around the robot's head, was a male Lombax who was older than Ratchet, who had light gray fur with red-brown stripes, wearing some armor that had to be from before the attack on Fastoon, as it was different from what they had seen over the years, and he had a wrench that doubled as a staff while having two heads.

"Alister! We need to talk with you." Ratchet said, raising his voice so the figure could hear that he had guests, though he and Angela were overjoyed, as before Tachyon's arrival they had believed that they were the only Lombaxes in their universe, with Rivet in another one based on the Plumber's words, but discovering Aphelion allowed them to understand something important and now, against all odds, they had found another survivor.

In that moment Alister zeroed in on them and seemed upset about something, where he pulled out a device that he threw at them, which expanded into an explosive, though Autumn raised a shield around them to cancel it out before using more of her magic to yank the Lombax out of the air and pin him nearby.

"Wretched assassins, you'll have to do more... than... that... Kaden?! No, you... you're Kaden's son." Alister stated, where it was all too easy for them to see that he had been enraged by the fact that Tachyon had driven his race to flee into the rest of the dimensions, at least according to Aphelion, though as he gazed upon Ratchet that anger faded away as he realized who was in front of him right now, and when Autumn released him he knelt for a moment, "Forgive me. I am General Alister Azimuth, Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard, and Elder Councilman of the Center for Advanced Lomabx Research. You must be Ratchet... you look so much like Kaden, but those eyes... they remind me of Millie. And if I had to guess you're Angela, Lorna's daughter... but I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Autumn Blaze, one of Ratchet's siblings... sworn siblings, if you prefer, since we grew up on Veldin together," Autumn replied, though she wasn't surprised by the fact that Alister didn't recognize her, since he only knew Lombaxes and his own words told them that he knew Kaden, not to mention Ratchet's mother as well, "we also have a brother whose not here right now, called Starswirl."

"What about Rivet?" Alister inquired, showing them that, because he was a good friend of Kaden's, he knew about the fact that his friend and his wife had twins and even knew their names, though in that moment he noticed the look on Ratchet's face and realized that something was wrong, something that instantly worried him.

Alister, seeing that they would be talking for some time, had them retire to his residence, the robot head, and served up some tea as Ratchet explained the situation to him, explaining how a year ago, on the night before Tachyon attacked their home in Solana, that he woke up screaming and felt like his right arm had been blown off. He revealed that they used one of Tachyon's ships to reach Polaris and found their way to Fastoon, allowing them to claim Aphelion and her information so it didn't fall into their enemy's hands, while confirming that the Dimensionator existed, something Alister knew about due to his Elder Councilman position. He was, however, amazed that Ratchet remembered that it existed, as he explained that a memory of the device had surfaced while they were on Rykan V, and he was even more amazed when Ratchet told him of it's original design, as he wasn't expecting him to remember that it was gun shaped, which he blamed on Mags, a Lombax Kaden worked with. When they reached the end of their previous adventure, however, Alister learned that they were in possession of the Dimensionator and inquired as to why Ratchet hadn't used it to track down his injured sister, to which Angela told him that he tried, but the temporary fix they used to get back to Polaris only worked for so long and he had used it to banish the Cragmites, unaware of how many charges it had left before breaking.

In that moment Alister knew why Ratchet was unhappy, he had the key to finding his sister, his wounded sister, and had it ripped from him, and now, with a year having passed with no new cracks opening, he was worried that he was too late to do anything to help Rivet. Alister put together the pieces with ease, Clank had been kidnapped before he and Autumn had a chance to start their work on the Dimensionator, causing him to explain that Kaden was the first one of their kind to talk about the Great Clock, where the Zoni came from and were said to work. He figured that Clank played some role in how it operated, otherwise it made no sense for the race to take him and Starswirl, and informed them that he had an idea that should help them get in contact with Clank, based on the pirate portion of their tale and his own previous experience. He also had a pair of hoverboots, Kaden's to be exact, which Autumn quickly studied before fixing something inside them so it didn't blow out, causing Alister to raise an eyebrow before handing them to Ratchet.

As he gave Ratchet and the others a lesson on how to use them, however, Alister had a feeling that things were going to get much better for all of them, they just had to complete a few missions and they would be at the Great Clock in no time at all, they just had to be patient and not be overwhelmed by what the future might throw at them.

Comments

[Golden_Reflection]

I really hope that Alister doesn’t end up as stubbornly set on undoing Tachyon’s takeover as in the original timeline.

Only coming to his senses when he has thoroughly messed up and the only way to fix it is to sacrifice definitely doesn’t seem like something that would happen with the combined convincing of all the members of the main group, especially if it includes both Clank and Starswirl.