Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Time: Vapedia

Clank remained silent as his father, both of Ratchet's parents, Starswirl, Nefarious, Lawrence, and Sigmund gathered near a table in another part of the Great Clock's many structures, one that looked like a living area of some kind, with pictures of his friend and his adopted siblings, telling him what he needed to know.

"I know you must be curious as to how we're still alive, since Tachyon likely claimed that he killed us, and the answer to that is that Orvus saved us before we were hit." Millie stated, though as she said that Sigmund produced a number of drinks for all of them, each one suited to the unique tastes of the individual in question, while Kaden pulled out a tablet to continue his intense work, fixing the dimensional damage done to the universe, "We quickly discovered that the Council's efforts to save as many Lombaxes as possible had been successful, our people, while scattered, were safe from Tachyon and his wrath, and we had been brought to one of the greatest technological marvels of the entire universe. Naturally my husband freaked out when he discovered where we were and we talked with Orvus for a time, discovering that we would be unable to return to the rest of the galaxy, much less the rest of the universe, for a number of years, though he was interested in acquiring more assistants, to help him operate this place. Of course we weren't too happy about part of the arrangement, since both of us wanted to head out and help Ratchet, plus find Rivet so we could grow as a family, but he insisted that we had to let both of them grow on their own... including doing nothing when she went through her incident in the other dimension... it still pains me to leave Ratchet in this situation."

"Which is why I've been fixing all the dimensional damage that's been done to the barrier, not an easy task since I'm sure there's someone else causing problems," Kaden added, confirming what he had said when Clank first discovered them in the Orvus Chamber, which was interesting since he wasn't aware of anyone else who might be causing damage to the barrier between the dimensions, before he sighed as he tapped his tablet, "I'm positive that it's coming from the Zarkov Sector, but other than that I haven't been able to pinpoint anything... you can thank Tachyon misusing the Dimensionator and whoever else is messing with the dimensions."

"That's where I come into play: tracking down the movements of my evil self and the villains he's allied with." Nefarious, or rather Virtuous as Clank determined, continued, while at the same time Lawrence and Sigmund discussed something, no doubt an item of some kind in their own suite, since Clank was sure his father had set one up for them once he found out that they were planning on helping him out, "Vorselon and the Valkyries are minor villains, not skilled enough to mess with the barriers between dimensions, and Nefarious... you know who I mean... doesn't have the technology to even attempt such a thing. I have my eyes on a pair of siblings who might be responsible for this mess, not Starswirl and Autumn since we all know that their magic reacts badly to dimensional tears, but haven't been able to confirm or deny my findings, so a great deal of my time is spent between protecting the people of Polaris and my studies."

"In addition to that we had to stage Zanifar in such a way to ensure Ratchet and the others helped you out in trying to save me from 'Nefarious'." Orvus said, confirming Clank's thoughts on the matter, all of this had been set up to ensure Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela followed a specific path to maintain temporal normalcy in the universe, given how important his friend was for everything, "To ensure the Zoni tracked you down, and brought you to the Great Clock so you could begin your own lessons in how to maintain time, I had to disappear for a time and used my power to slip into the time stream, to let several years pass by, and Starswirl was the anchor that allowed me to return safely... let that be a lesson, do no use the time stream unless you have someone to assist you."

"I see." Clank commented, as there was a lot of information to take in right now, in fact he was grateful for them talking so he could listen and understand everything that was going on, where he determined that most of them were bound by Orvus' rules, so they didn't interfere with the universe until the time he said it was okay, "What about you, Starswirl? You weren't supposed to be grabbed by the Zoni, yet you were brought here and haven't made an attempt to return to your siblings... may I ask why?"

"I could have, but you have to remember where we are." Starswirl replied, though at the same time he twirled his fingers for a moment and they watched as his staff just floated around the area as he considered his reply, showing that his control was far stronger than it had been in the past, "Besides, this was the best place for me to learn about temporal manipulation and how to use magic that does the same thing without the fancy machines... you saw it when I made my copies to perform the trials you went through... and Kaden's been helping me learn how to safely manipulate dimensional energy."

Clank sat there for a moment, as he had expected that Starswirl had grown stronger over the last year, though learning that he was capable of using both temporal and dimensional energy, or magic to be more exact, meant he was far stronger, and more dangerous, than he originally thought.

"Sir, we had best get ready. Ratchet's team will be entering the Bernilius Sector soon." Sigmund spoke up, where Clank could see that, while he wanted the conversation to go on, there was something they needed to do and that he was involved with it, causing most of them to sigh for a moment, "We need to play your distress call and make it come from Vapedia... with any luck Ratchet and the others will take out the Valkyries, just as they took out Vorselon."

Clank said nothing as he and Starswirl joined Sigmund, as the others were returning to their own stations for the time being, though he had a feeling that things were about to speed up for this adventure, that Ratchet and Autumn were getting close to the end, he just had to be patient and see whatever happened next.

---

It didn't take Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela long to reach the Bernilius Sector, where it was easy to see a station that was in the shape of Nefarious' head off in the distance, all while noting that Alister reached the sector as well, ahead of them due to the fact that he wanted to end this adventure in the near future.

"Ratchet, come in. I discovered a looping transmission on one of the emergency frequencies." Alister said, showing that he must have been here for a while and had been looking for anything that might be used against their remaining enemies, as in two Valkyries and Nefarious, though it was easy to see him pressing a few buttons on his side, "What do you make of this?"

The group paused for a moment as they listened to the transmission, as they instantly recognized it, due to the fact that Autumn had insisted on having them memorize each emergency frequency that their family or friends used, and this was one that Ratchet was very familiar with.

"I... I don't believe it... that's Clank's signature!" Ratchet stated, though at the same time he, Autumn, and Angela thought about the information in question, because nothing seemed out of the ordinary when they made contact with Clank and Starswirl back on Lumos, causing him to grip his chin for a moment, "Something doesn't feel right about this... even if we eliminate the possibility of Lawrence surprising Clank and Starswirl, knocking them out in the process, there's no way our brother would have allowed something like this to happen... meaning a key to the Great Clock is at the end of the code, a villain needs to be taken care of, or we're walking into a dangerous trap."

"Still, we should investigate, just to see what it's connected to." Autumn remarked, causing Angela to nod her head as well, showing that she agreed with the idea, but she still agreed with Ratchet, something about this didn't sit well with her, and that was counting the Valkyrie ships that were between them and Vapedia.

Sure enough they discovered that one of the other Valkyrie leaders was patrolling the space around Vapedia, not that any of them cared as Aphelion engaged the Helios' weapons and tore the enemy ship's engines apart, sending it down onto one of the main small moons, allowing them to fly down to a floating citadel in the clouds and land in what was the outer reaches of their domain.

"You know, I copied the communications we got from the other ship, and something's definitely wrong." Angela said, not that any of them were surprised by this turn of events, all while finding that Alister landed nearby and climbed out of his ship so he could join them, "She mentioned that her sisters should stop us from reaching the main citadel, where we'll no doubt find their leader, but as far as I can tell there is no mention of the signal we discovered... either she's playing dumb, to ensure anyone listening didn't catch on to what they knew, or someone is framing the Valkyries."

"Either way, we had best take care of them." Alister remarked, as while he was getting used to how the family operated, in terms of being heroes, he knew that leaving the Valkyries alone would be a disaster for the rest of Polaris, where he found that Autumn purchased the newest version of her Mag-Net Launchers for herself and her family, "Are you sure that you need more weapons?"

"One never knows what you'll face on the battlefield, and Autumn makes a wide variety of weapons for us to use against all of our enemies." Ratchet replied, where he accepted the weapon and grinned for a second, as it had been a useful one during the battle against Tachyon and his Cragmite forces, even though he knew there were a few more for them to get before this adventure was over, "Alright, let's get this show on the road."

As Alister nodded the group got moving without wasting time, taking care of some snapper enemies while finding a couple of devices that used their Hoverboots, though given the presence of the Lombaxes at one point in time it was easy for the group to tell the Valkyries had installed them to keep would be trespassers out. One thing they discovered was a rusted area and noticed that it required two Battery Bots, hence why they investigated a nearby area and returned with the pair of missing bots, allowing Ratchet to use the Omnisoaker to fix things for them. With that done they continued forward and found that it brought them to the start of the Valkyrie controlled area, where a group of enemies flew through the air so they could fire at Ratchet and his family, only using melee weapons when they were dropped to the ground. Alister found that his earlier thoughts about the group were right, they were a force to be reckoned with and that was missing their last member, making him wonder what he would see if Starswirl fought beside them, and it wasn't long before they wiped out the first group of Valkyries.

On the other side of the fortifications Ratchet found a lock that required him to move bits out of the way and move others into position, allowing him to spin it and lock it into place, which spun a walkway and granted them access to a small ship that brought them to another section of the citadel.

Upon reaching their destination the group discovered that the leader of the Valkyries was waiting for them and issued a command to her forces, to bring each of them down, labeling Ratchet and his family as intruders and not guests, to show that there was something wrong with this situation. Since they had no idea what was going on anymore Alister informed the group that he was going to head through another path before catching up with them, leaving them to deal with all the Valkyries who were protecting the citadel, while listening in on the leader's rather loud conversation. It seemed that she was talking with Nefarious, informing him that the family was here on Vapedia, wrecking her forces and breaking the traps she had for them, as she had several waiting for intruders and intended on killing them with each one. Cassiopeia claimed it was the Valkyrie training course and no male had ever survived it, indicating she believed Autumn and Angela would no doubt survive, but the first challenge was dodging bombs and hurling them back at the machine that used them, crushing it with relative ease.

As they did that, however, the group overheard Nefarious mentioning that they shouldn't be there, as he was still trying to find the Great Clock and Clank, confirming that something was going and, more importantly, they had played into the trap someone had set for them.

The second obstacle Cassiopeia had for them was a silo of deadly nerve toxin, where all they had to do was press a couple of buttons on the floor, or at least those that were glowing, until everything turned off, leading to them leaving through a second door as they left the silo in pieces, since it tore itself apart with their victory. Ratchet contacted Alister and told him that they had been right about this being a trap, by an unknown third party since Nefarious didn't know about them, but it didn't stop them from wrecking the forces that were coming at them. While the Valkyries were skilled, showing how their training shaped each of them into the warriors they were, it didn't matter to Ratchet, Autumn, or Angela as they blasted their way through the warriors that were trying to block their way. The third and last obstacle was them having to place a number of Battery Bots into their sockets before the glass floor shattered on them, dropping them into the abyss, and the trio cleared it in no time, allowing them to reach part of the main citadel.

Ratchet found that they were able to use an elevator to reach the upper reaches of the citadel, where Cassiopeia stopped on a turret so she could face them as the ceiling opened, revealing that they would be fighting on three platforms while she used her weapon to fire at whoever reached this point.

"I don't know why you came here, since we haven't reached the milestone of our plan, but I won't allow you to do anymore damage to our forces." Cassiopeia stated, showing them that this had to be a trap of some kind, not of Nefarious' making, and that she was upset with them wrecking everything to reach this part of their citadel, but before she could get started a blue magical portal opened nearby.

Autumn's eyes widened for a moment as Starswirl, accompanied by Clank, stepped out onto one of the other platforms, to which her brother twisted his hand and the turret broke apart before their very eyes, surprising them in the process, only to reform into cuffs that bound Cassiopeia's arms behind her and knocked her to the floor, complete with a mouth piece so they couldn't have to listen to her rage.

"Starswirl... I have so many questions." Ratchet said, though as he said that Alister joined them and Clank stopped in front of him, where he had to come to terms with the fact that his brother and their friend had done this to take out the rest of the Valkyries, though he suspected that they would be learning the answer soon enough.

"And we have answers, but first we need to stop Nefarious." Clank stated, something that caused the group to glance at each other for a few seconds, as they had been planning on doing that at some point in time, but with them at full power it seemed like now was the best time to take their foe down.

Ratchet, Autumn, Angela, and Alister said nothing as the group was brought back together and they headed back to where they had landed their ships, though Clank explained why they set up this event, to take care of Cassiopeia and the rest of the Valkyries, to get that out of the way as they readied themselves for the final event of this great adventure.