Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Time: Warship, Battleplex, Clock

Following their visit to Zanifar, and discovering that Orvus was fine, not to mention the fact that Dr. Virtuous existed and was a separate person that wasn't to be confused with Nefarious, Ratchet decided to return to the Battleplex, as he suspected that it might hold more weapons for them to obtain.

"I figure that we can do this while we wait for either Qwark to call on us again, or we hear something from Alister." Ratchet said, as there wasn't much for them to do right now, because there weren't any other planets for them to visit right now, and he felt that claiming new weapons from the arena would allow them to boost their arsenals further.

"Sounds good to me, since Alister is giving us the silent treatment... he's likely upset that we went back in time, while also keeping him from doing the same thing." Autumn replied, showing them that she had been thinking about what they had learned so far, even though she was still coming to terms with what happened on Zanifar, all while finding that Angela just nodded her head to agree with her.

Ratchet said nothing as they docked with the Battleplex and headed inside, where Mac intercepted them and informed the group that multiple challenges were now open for them, not to mention several new weapons were available to be won in the process, which was what they wanted to hear. Apparently the weapons included the Spiral of Death, the Constructo Shotgun, and the Chimp-o-Matic, along with several Constructo additions and three items that might be helpful on their quest, those being the Box Basher 2000, the Armor Magnetizer, and the Treasure Mapper. Autumn was able to tell that the gadgets were the same as what they found in the past, items to make things somewhat easier for them, but none of them were interested in complaining about it, not when Ratchet started them on the Silver Cup, since they tore down the Bronze Cup to get to Qwark. At the same time she found that many of the Agorians were cheering for someone to enter their arena so they could get ripped apart, meaning whoever had come after them earlier had been less or insufficient in the eyes of the Agorians, but they were a savage race and it was hard to understand them.

The first challenge of the Silver Cup was to defeat a certain number of enemies in a certain amount of time, though since there were three of them the Agorians decided to triple the requirement while keeping the time the same as before, not that it mattered since Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela tore through them with ease. After that they took control of a fusion turret and used it to defeat a number of Agorians clusterbombs, which were the explosive orbs thrown at them, and after doing that the officials limited their arsenal to the Negotiator, a challenge they overcame with relative ease. Once that was done the Agorians used a lethal toxin to try and take them down as the group dealt with the enemies that came at them, all while everyone in the crowd cheered for them, showing the trio that while the officials were trying to take them down the public enjoyed the fights. The final challenge of the Silver Cup was a fight with one of the Hydra Tanks, where Ratchet and the others simply dodged it's attacks, damaged it with their weapons, and then took turns breaking their defenses to make sure they brought it down, which they did in due time.

Following that the group dealt with the first challenge of the Gold Cup, which involved them fighting a ton of enemies, like they were used to, though to win none of them could take a hit, meaning it was one of the 'untouchable' challenges that the arena owners loved to throw at the group. After that Ratchet and the others fought a battalion of Agorian warriors, all of whom didn't approve of them participating in the arena, and the next was that some Terachnoids spread some rumors about them mocking the underdeveloped legs of the Agorians, resulting in another fight with them. With those two taken down Ratchet chuckled when he noticed that the next one was a randomized weapon challenge, something that he and the others took down with ease, even though many were cheering for their victory as they enjoyed watching them tackle all of the Battleplex's challenges. The final challenge was them fighting off against another War Grok and the Hydra Tank, though it was one at a time and they switched out every now and then, a tactic to slow them down, but it didn't matter in the end as they bested their opponents and claimed victory once more.

With those wins they got the Spiral of Death, which fired off sawblades of kinetic energy that harmed their foes, and the Constructo Shotgun, which was yet another shotgun style weapon that packed quite the punch, before they moved onto the last available cup, the Raritanium Cup.

Their first challenge was to use the new Constructo Shotgun to stop enemies from crossing a certain point, and with three of them it didn't take them all that long to actually win the challenge, with the watchers cheering as they watched the fight unfold before their eyes. After that was another toxic challenge where they used their melee weapons to take down the War Grok, which was more challenging than they originally thought, but, in the end, Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela claimed yet another victory before moving onto the next challenge. The next was kind of weird, using the Omnisoaker and some of the nectar to put warriors to death, an honorable one for Agorians apparently, before moving onto a challenge where they had to return Battery Bots to their containers while fending off waves of enemies. The final challenge was twenty rounds of combat, a fight with a War Grok, and a battle with the Hydra Tank, which really put a strain on their ammunition, even with the supplies that were provided during the waves, but, once again, they emerged victorious over their enemies.

With the Battleplex cleared out entirely, though Ratchet told the Agorians he'd return if they offered new challenges, they returned to Aphelion and departed from the large starship, though as they returned to space they got a call, this time it was from Vorselon.

"Greetings young Lombax, it would seem that I have something that belongs to you." Vorselon stated, where he moved for a moment and revealed that Alister was trapped in a cage, one they had passed through to get to Qwark not that long ago, though none of them said anything as they let him talk, because all three of them could see his ship off in the distance, as he wasn't trying to hide from them, "It is a dark day when one is tasked with destroying half of the universe's Lombax population..."

"Actually, it's a fourth, as there are four Lombaxes." Angela remarked, showing her annoyance for Vorselon's words, as he seemed to be ignoring her presence and it annoyed her, while she could see that Autumn was marking their foe down for his stupidity, a custom she must have developed back after the first or second adventure, "Besides, if you're calling to ask if we'll trade places with him, all I have to say is this: prepare to entertain guests."

As Vorselon opened his mouth Aphelion landed outside the ship, on a landing pad that Alister had docked his ship on, and they exited the ship as the call was cancelled, allowing them to make a quick stop at the Vendor to purchase another new weapon, the Buzz Blades, a rapid fire weapon with sharp blades. With that in had they entered the ship and waged war on the robots that were waiting for them, as their foe knew they were coming and must have prepared his forces before he made the call, but Autumn highly doubted that after seeing how Vorselon failed to acknowledge Angela's existence. None of them said anything about Angela's remark about there being four Lombaxes, as most only knew of her and Ratchet, while the people of Polaris knew of Alister, meaning she was referring to Rivet without drawing attention to her, especially since no one else could confirm or deny her existence. Ratchet, on the other hand, found that the Buzz Blades were one of the most impressive weapons he had seen so far, three of them simply tore through their enemies with ease, given that all of them used multiple blades at the same time, and when combined with their other new toys the robots really didn't stand a chance against their might.

What was interesting was that there was a place to use the Omnisoaker and some oil, allowing the group to move things to their liking so they could advance deeper into the ship, using a different route this time based on what they were seeing right now, before finding the arena that Vorselon was waiting in... only for Autumn to wipe him out with a weapon that was more like a machine gun than anything else.

"Autumn... what is that?" Ratchet asked, as the weapon was massive, much like all of the RYNOs they had seen so far, and when he thought about it he was sure that they fired off rockets like they were bullets in a machine gun, all while playing a tune of some kind.

"The RYNO V, the latest in the line... and no, you can't have it." Autumn remarked, though at the same time she used part of her magic to hold Vorselon down while forming magical charges all over the chamber, something they realized to be explosive charges, meaning she was planning on tearing the ship apart once Alister was saved.

At that point Ratchet didn't even care as they tore through the rest of the ship, in fact Autumn put away the RYNO V and said that she'd bring it out whenever she felt like it was needed, which might be never in his eyes, but that didn't stop the three of them from reaching Alister's location. Of course he wasn't too happy to see them, going on and on about how he should have been forgotten while they secured the Great Clock, but Ratchet pointed out that they had no new leads, so it was impossible for them to do anything without some new information. When he learned about their journey into the past, as in that they actually did what Clank asked of them, Autumn stopped him and told him that they weren't going to use the Clock to reverse Tachyon's attack on Fastoon, as they had confirmation that everyone, against all odds, survived and were out there somewhere. Angela even added the fact that if they did change the past it might lead to a future that was far worse than what they were currently going through, especially since he'd have the keys to both time and space if things went south, those being the Great Clock and the Dimensionator.

Alister, faced with that knowledge, admitted defeat and followed them outside, where the troopers fled in terror, showing him just how strong and capable the group was, allowing them to leave the ship unopposed, though as they fled off into space, and got far enough away, Autumn detonated her magic and tore Vorselon's ship apart.

"Well, I can see why you guys are famed heroes in two galaxies." Alister remarked, though he was still worried about even allowing someone like Autumn near the Great Clock, with how powerful her imagination was for weapons and gadgets, but he did have information to share with them, "Also, the reason I was aboard Vorselon's ship was so I could copy all of his flight data, to figure out his movements and see if I could find the Great Clock... I won't bore you with the details, but I did find an uncrypted file that indicated that he recently visited the Bernilius Sector."

"It's not much to go on, but we had best head over there." Ratchet said, where the others nodded their heads, as they all agreed with his statement and wanted to see if the information was good or bad, though at the same time both he and Alister input the coordinates that had been obtained.

Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela had a feeling that they were getting closer to the end of this adventure, it just felt that way, and not a few moments later Aphelion warped out of the sector they were in and started to travel to the Bernilius Sector, all while they readied themselves for whatever might happen next.

---

"So, what's next on out temporal to do list?" Clank asked, as after convincing Sigmund to help them make the time portal on Zanifar, so Ratchet and the others could head back to when Orvus was visiting Nefarious, they had moved into another part of the station, moving closer to the Orvus Chamber if he was right.

"Well, most of the planets have been repaired, I've ordered a new quantum entanglement module, and the time cleaners are eating away at the residual rifts," Sigmund replied, where he went over the items that had been done so far and what they still had to do, while at the same time Starswirl walked by them, studying everything he could see, "so the only thing left to do is test Mnemonic Station Iota... as in 'Iota test the Mnemonic Station'. Heh, sorry, Orvus' humor rubs off on you after the first thousand years."

"Really? You've worked for him for that long?" Starswirl asked, as that was an interesting thing to discover, even though he knew that there was a chance that Sigmund might have been working for Orvus for much longer than a thousand years, all while Clank was focused on the obstacle in front of them.

"Relatively speaking... quantum entanglement screws with our chronometers, and there's the fact that you work with time." Sigmund said, meaning there was a chance that he had been working for Orvus for more than a thousand years, in fact the pair was certain of that fact, before he considered something for a few seconds, "Anyway, I have a few things that I need to take care of, part of my own duties as a Junior Caretaker, but I'll catch up with you two at the station."

Clank nodded for a moment as Sigmund flew off into the distance, where he and Starswirl focused on carefully jumping from platform to platform, knocking blasts back at the turrets on them to knock them down, before crossing some floating rings to reach the first puzzle of this section of the Great Clock. What Clank discovered was that the puzzle was much harder than all of the others that came before it, where he had to carefully plan out how to use his echoes to move platforms and open doors to access all of the key pads so he could move forward. Starswirl, as he expected, wasn't even bothered by the puzzle, once more showing him that he was far smarter than one might assume by just looking at him, in fact he carried himself as if he was a sage of some kind, and Clank found that his friend solved the puzzle faster than he did, which he was perfectly fine with. After that they made sure to fix up the rest of the area that was around them before using a launch pad to travel over to another part of the Clock, where Starswirl weaved his magic around himself for a few seconds and took down the enemies that happened to be there, opening the way for them to move forward.

Sigmund was waiting for them at the entrance of the next structure and opened the door to reveal a busted station, one that Clank repaired with his scepter before slipping inside it, allowing Starswirl to glance around the area for a moment, to see that every Mnemonic Station building was the same, though it was short lived as Clank emerged from the station not a few seconds later.

"I... found the Plumber inside my head. We talked for a time." Clank said, speaking to Starswirl as Sigmund departed from the building, though at the same time it was easy to tell that whatever he had talked about was more of a private nature, where Starswirl said nothing as they followed after their new companion.

After testing out the Mnemonic Station, likely the last one based on how far in the Great Clock they were, they used one of the launch pads to reach another building, one that happened to have what had to be the hardest puzzle Clank had seen so far, likely a test of his skills when he thought about it. Clank spent a few moments studying the various obstacles that had been installed for this puzzle, trying to figure everything out in his head before he made a move, and the moment he completed his observation he got started on tackling it with his echoes. It took him some time to get it right, to open the way so he could access the door, though when he did Clank found that Starswirl made his way through it as well, mostly to see how hard it was for himself, before they regrouped and continued towards the Chamber. Sure enough the pair had to take down some additional enemies and turrets to even get near their destination, which was common at this point and made Clank wonder how his father dealt with the annoying creatures, before finally coming to a stop on a pad that caused the icon on the door to move, revealing his face.

It was a grand reveal, showing that his father put a lot of effort into making sure he was ready for this, or whenever it was time to succeed him and take over the Great Clock, and the center of the Clock, the Orvus Chamber, was full of consoles and switches that likely controlled all of time, and they weren't the first ones to enter it.

"Finally! The dimensional damage caused by Tachyon using the Dimensionator has been fixed." a voice said, where Clank and Starswirl found a male Lombax, who looked a lot like Ratchet, standing in front of one of the terminals that formed a ring around the center of the chamber, "However, there's still a large amount of dimensional energy going haywire, so I'm not out of the woods yet."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, honey." another voice replied, where Clank found a female Lombax that had white fur and a number of blue stripes, along with blue colored eyes, which caused him to wonder if they had found Rivet, only to quickly discover that this one still had her right arm and was wearing metal armor that was similar to Alister's, "Oh, Starswirl, it's good to see you again... and it's nice to meet you as well, Clank."

"Kaden, Millie, hard at work I see?" Starswirl remarked, though at the same time he engaged his magic and opened what looked like a portal in time, where Clank's eyes would have widened if he was organic since he found his father flying out of it, before he turned to face the little robot for a moment, "Sorry Clank, but they swore me to secrecy when I found out they were here... now that you know of them, however, I believe it's time to answer your questions."

"And there will be a lot, I wager." another voice said, where Clank found both Nefarious and Lawrence standing nearby, as if they had been silently working on one of the terminals and had only pulled themselves away after hearing that they had reached the final section of the Great Clock.

Clank had no idea what was going on anymore, especially when he considered the fact that Ratchet and Rivet's parents were right in front of him, and he had a feeling that he was going to have a long conversation with everyone, just to figure out was going on, even though he worried that this might impact Ratchet once he learned that his parents were alive and well and hadn't come for him, but he'd cross that bridge when it was time to do so.

Comments

[Golden_Reflection]

Wow. This is a big change in the timeline.

I wonder how this will alter Nexus and Rift Apart.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11327013 Depends on which change you're referring to: the robot doctor being split into Nefarious and Virtuous, or Kaden and Millie being in this dimension.