A/N For those who don't know, or can't tell, this takes place after Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, and right at the end of Blood of Olympus. Spoilers for both, if you don't want them, don't read.
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Tinkering is Universal
Part 1- Leo
Leo had been one hundred percent certain he was dead. Then something jolted in his brain, making him jerk back to life. Hopefully in a non Frankenstein or zombie way. He didn't seem to have developed an appetite for brains yet, so that was a good sign.
Looking up, he saw large hypodermic needle retract from his arm and into Festus, who was crouched over him protectively.
Realizing if Festus was above him, they probably weren't flying anymore, so he sat up and looked around. To his left; Sand. Nothing but sand and a few rocks as far as the eye could see. And past that, there were some rocky formations in the distance. No sign of any civilization.
'Did I get blasted all the way to the Gobi? Or when we blew her up, was Gaea so full of this stuff that we buried everyone?'
He immediately dismissed the second thought. Mother Earth or not, it wasn't likely Gaea was that much of a dirt-bag.
Smirking at his internal pun, he looked over to his right, and that's when things got more interesting.
As a child of Hephaestus, there were some things that Leo recognized anywhere, and a garage was one of them. It was a big, weirdly shaped metal garage with weird tubes coming out of it, but it was a garage, and garages most often meant tools and junk that He could use.
That's when he noticed who, or rather, what was standing in the doorway of said garage. He felt stupid for not having noticed it earlier, Festus had been growling at it the entire time he'd been up.
It was short, and fuzzy, and Leo had never seen anything like it. At first he thought it was a giant two-legged Chihuahua, because its ears and head were really big compared to its body. But after rubbing his eyes, and squinting at it, he concluded it looked a bit more like a giant cat instead. A big yellow cat with orange stripes, and wearing an aviator helmet and an orange jumpsuit that looked straight out of a sci-fi series.
'Wow my life is weird,' Leo thought for what must have been the millionth time since discovering he was a demigod, and for some time before that.
The cat-thing didn't seem to have noticed Leo, at least not yet. It had its hands out in front of it in the universal signal for 'I come in peace' as it tried to coax Festus to calm down, or at least for the dragon to stop snarling in its face.
Also the creature was talking. Leo couldn't understand a word of what it was saying, but it was speaking up at Festus in claming tones. Listening to it, Leo concluded the cat-thing was a he, the voice it was speaking in sounded male at least.
Finally, the big cat seemed to convince Festus he meant no harm, and the metal dragon all but collapsed onto his side, careful not to crush Leo when it did.
In doing so, Leo was brought to the attention of the cat-thing. Leo brought his hand to his toolbelt nervously. He couldn't remember hearing about big-eared cat people when talking about all the monsters in Greek and Roman mythology, but it would be just his luck to have to fight one right after coming back from the dead.
Still, he would like to think Festus wouldn't take a snooze around something that wanted to kill him. At least, not without barbequing it first.
"Who are you," he called to the cat. Maybe a name would give him an idea on who he may or may not be fighting.
The cat's ears twitched, and he looked at Leo with an expression that seemed just as confused as Leo felt.
'Great,' Leo thought sarcastically. 'The Cats musical is in town, and the main attraction doesn't speak English.'
Just then a second voice cut through his thoughts, and called his attention away from the cat-thing.
Standing in front of him was a small silver robot. To the untrained eye the little machine looked like one of those toy robots kids played with, that could walk and make pre-programmed motions. It had a round head with green lights for eyes, and a mouth on a hinge. The head was resting on a square metal body, and arms and legs sticking out.
But Leo could see that despite the robot's simple appearance, the technology put into it was way more advanced than anything he'd ever seen before.
Unable to help himself, Leo snatched the robot off the ground to get a closer look.
The robot let out a surprised yelp, and a moment later Leo became aware of the sound of crackling electricity near his head.
He looked up to see the cat-thing was much closer now, and was holding the most drool-worthy wrench in Leo's face that he had ever seen.
A weaponized wrench, why hadn't he ever thought of that. He needed to make himself one of those. The one currently aimed at his face looked big and heavy enough to bash someone's skull in, and the head of it was crackling with electricity. Its owner held it right in front of Leo, his expression murderous, and ready to strike at any moment.
"Whoa, whoa," said Leo, waiving his arms in what he hoped was a disarming manner, regardless of the fact he was still holding the robot in one hand. "I was just looking."
The robot yelped again at being swung around, and the cat glared at him even harder.
This time Leo registered the yelp, and looked down at the robot in his hands. Said robot was glaring at him. There was no other word for it. The optics on its eyes were narrowed, and its hands were on its 'hips,' and it was glaring up at him with an expression that was distinctly unamused.
Leo glanced at the cat again, who was doing a very good impression of Grumpy Cat. Once they made eye contact the cat nodded at the robot, and then jerked his head towards the ground.
The message was perfectly clear. Put the robot down, and no one gets hurt.
Leo carefully placed the robot back on the sandy ground.
Instantly the cat lowered its weapon, and the robot scurried over to stand beside it.
The cat looked down at the little robot in what could only be concern, and asked it something in their strange language. The robot replied in a reassuring tone that Leo hoped wasn't them deciding to kill him.
The cat nodded at whatever he said, then turned his attention back to Leo. He gave Leo a dirty look, but he holstered his wrench and reached out his hand to help Leo up.
Leo didn't want to offend the big cat with weapons again, so he accepted the hand up. As he did so, he let out a hiss of pain. Who knew coming back from the dead would leave you so sore.
The cat's face had switched from annoyed to concerned, and he asked Leo a question which sounded like cat-speak for 'Are you alright?'
Leo gave him a grin and said, "I just blew up Mother Earth, and came back from the dead. Dude, I couldn't be more awesome."
The cat gave him a bewildered but amused look at his response, and then looked down at his robot.
The robot eyed him up and down, and Leo got a funny feeling that he was being x-rayed.
The robot then gave the cat what Leo could only assume was a confirmation of his health. The cat nodded at whatever it said, then they both turned their eyes over to Festus.
Leo looked at his dragon as well, a little hurt his metal buddy hadn't come to his rescue when the cat had been pointing an electrified weapon at his face.
It was perfectly clear why Festus hadn't helped when he was being threatened. The poor dragon was a mess. He was still in one piece, but he was banged up pretty bad.
The most obvious piece of damage came from a large chunk of Imperial Gold cannon ball that was wedged into Festus's side. That had to be painful.
Leo rushed to the dragon's side and gripped the chunk of metal with both hands, trying to pry it out. But the metal was sharp and hot from the desert sun, and Leo couldn't keep his grip.
He began searching through his toolbelt for something he could use to pry it out. But the piece of Imperial Gold was huge. He wasn't sure the size limit of his belt could give him something that could be useful.
The clink of metal on metal brought his attention back to the gold lodged in his dragon. He saw that the cat had taken his giant weaponized wrench, and had clamped it down on the Imperial Gold. The cat had positioned himself so that he could start prying the gold out. He glanced over at Leo, and shifted so there was room for Leo to hold onto the wrench too. He then gave Leo a flat look that clearly said, 'Well, it's your dragon, are you going to help, or not?'
Leo needed no further prompting. He grabbed the handle of the wrench, and together the two of them were able to pry the Imperial Gold out of Festus. Once it was removed the metal dragon let out a loud, creaking, metallic groan, which was the equivalent of a big sigh of relief.
Without the gold lodged in his side, Leo could see that the rest of the damage was fixable, and Festus might even be fight-worthy right now, though not for a long distance.
Knowing he could fix the damage, he figured he'd better get a few answers before making repairs. First things first, now that he was fairly certain they weren't going to kill him, introductions were in order.
He looked over at the cat and the robot and pointed at himself. "Leo," he said as clearly as he could. He then pointed at the metal dragon, "Festus."
Introductions couldn't get much simpler than that.
The cat and robot exchanged amused glances, and the cat pointed at himself. "Ratchet," he said. He then pointed down to the robot. "Clank."
Leo blinked in surprise at the names. His new companions had the same names as one of his favorite tools, and one of his favorite sounds… Alright, his life had been weirder. Maybe the names meant something different in whatever language they spoke.
He reached out a hand in greeting, "Nice to meet you," he said in a friendly tone.
Apparently they still had handshakes wherever he was, because both Ratchet and Clank shook his hand, and said their own greetings.
Now for the next question, that might be more difficult to convey through the language barrier.
"Where am I?" Leo asked, using his hand gestures to try to make the question as clear as possible. He really hoped it worked. Otherwise he just looked really stupid.
Fortunately the other two seemed to have been anticipating that question, though Leo wasn't sure at first, as they seemed unsure on how to answer it.
Finally, Clank darted into the garage and came out holding another robot. This one didn't have any legs. Just a large square-ish head with big eyes, two arms and a small body.
Clank placed the new robot in front of Leo, and its head split apart like it was opening its mouth. Inside the mouth was a TV-screen that began playing a video.
It showed Ratchet working on some machine in the garage and talking towards the camera. Then a loud boom from outside sent Ratchet and Clank (Leo was assuming from the lack of small robot, that the video was from Clank's point of view) running out of the garage and looking up at the sky.
In the sky outside the garage a swirling vortex opened up, and dumped Festus and Leo on the ground in front of them.
The video ended, and Leo could guess what happened from there.
Ratchet then gestured to the area around them. "Veldin," he said, and Leo assumed that was the name of the place he was now at.
Swirling vortxes that led to garages owned by alien cat-people and their robot buddies. This was definitely not in any Greek or Roman myth. At least none that Leo had ever heard. This was somehing straight out of Doctor Who.
"How do I get back?" he asked more to himself than anything. He stared up at the sky where the vortex had shown up on the video. There was nothing there but sky as far as he could see.
Ratchet sent him a sympathetic glance, probably having guessed what he'd said. He glared up at where the vortex had been and grumbled "Progs," under his breath.
So Leo may be stuck on some weird desert planet or something, but at least he was learning some new alien swear words from the experience. Trying to see things on the bright side might help him ignore the fact he might never see his friends again. Happy thoughts.
Clank then interrupted Leo's inner pep talk, and said something that drew Ratchet's attention away from the lack of portal in the sky.
The cat frowned at whatever the little robot had said, and replied in a skeptical tone. Then he turned, and climbed to the roof of his garage. Then Ratchet took a running jump off the roof.
Leo was about to shout in alarm about that, when light burst from the bottoms of Ratchet's feet, and Leo gaped in shock.
'Rocket boots! That big fuzz-ball had rocket boots! Cool!'
Leo was so busy making mental blueprints to make his own, that he almost didn't notice when Ratchet used the boots to propel himself into the sky. He reached up and his hand seemed to brush against something. All of a sudden the vortex was back and spinning above their heads.
Ratchet landed next to Leo, and the three watched as the vortex shimmered above them for a minute, then disappeared again.
'So, it's still there,' Leo concluded. 'It's just out of sight until something disturbs it.'
So all he needed to do was fly Festus back through it. Leo looked over his dragon. He was sure Festus was at least flight-worthy, but for how long was the question. It would probably be bad if he crashed in the middle of a portal. If he could just make some repairs before he left…
"How long will it be there?" he asked, forgetting momentarily his new companions had no idea what he was saying. He remembered it quickly from the confused expressions on their faces.
Leo reached into his belt and pulled out a watch and showing it to them. "How long-?" he started to ask, but broke off, wondering if they even knew what a watch was.
But they both seemed to recognize the clock, and Clank spouted off an answer that Leo couldn't understand.
Ratchet then pointed up at the sun above their heads, then slowly trialed his finger down westward till it was pointing at the distant mountains.
Sunset then. That was plenty of time.
"Mind if I fix Festus in your yard?" Leo asked, pointing to Festus, and pulling tools out of his belt. He didn't know why he was still bothering to talk, be he supposed some part of him was hoping they'd suddenly start understanding him and talk back. One sided conversations weren't half as much fun as mutual communication.
The two exchanged another glance and shrugged at each other. The Ratchet nodded and said something with a gesture that Leo took as 'Do what you want.'
And so Leo started his repairs on Festus. At first he was aware that Ratchet was watching him work from over his shoulder. But that soon faded into the background. Leo was in his element. Building and fixing things were what he did, what he'd been born to do, and there was nothing more soothing to him than that.
At least until Ratchet decided to point something out.
Leo was brought back to Earth (or Veldin, was that the name of the desert or the planet, neither would surprise him), when the large cat started pointing at something in Festus's cables and began chattering in his ear.
"Dude, what?" Leo asked, trying to decipher what had the fuzz-ball so excited.
Ratchet made several gestures and said a lot of things Leo didn't understand. Finally the cat rolled his eyes and threw up his hands in exasperation, and then marched back into his garage. To the side, Clank chuckled in amusement.
Ratchet emerged a minute later with a high-tech looking gadget. He then slipped past Leo, and quickly began adding the part into Festus's mechanics.
"Hey," yelped Leo, when he realized what the hairball was doing.
But when he moved to stop him, Ratchet had already finished what he had been doing. Leo was about to yell at him, when Festus let out a loud happy sounding purr.
Leo looked at his dragon in surprise. "You like that?"
Festus let out a string of happy messages in Mores Code.
"Huh," said Leo, looking closer at the part, then at Ratchet, who was standing by looking proud of himself.
"So what's that do?" he asked the cat both in words and hand gestures. "And do you have any other ideas?"
Ratchet beamed at him, and began explaining as best he could.
Things only went up from there. Once Leo got the gist of Ratchet's modification, he let the big cat help him with repairing Festus, just as long as he ran all other new attachments by Leo as best he could before adding them.
With that things just clicked. It didn't matter that Leo was a demigod and was probably from another planet, or that Ratchet had a fluffy tail and wore rocket boots, they were just two guys working on a machine, and finding new ways to jazz it up. Ratchet was full of ideas that he was eager to share, and his ideas helped spark new ideas in Leo, that he wanted to try.
Suddenly different languages wasn't such a big issue.
Clank kept a close eye on the two of them as they worked, and while he hid it well, Leo would see him pull out a fire extinguisher whenever he or Ratchet did something that may explode (and sometimes when they were doing things that wouldn't). Often times he would interject and speak in very Annabeth sounding voice, pointing out things Ratchet and Leo did that he found illogical or dangerous. Ratchet would always reply with a snarky sounding retort, and do whatever he was planning anyway. When it worked, Ratchet would send the bot a smug grin. When it didn't he'd shrug, and seemed to follow Clank's advise.
Clanks lectures towards Leo had little more success. He still had no idea what the little robot was saying, so he'd just take a closer look at what he was working on. Sometimes he would spot what he assumed was the problem, and fixed it. Other times he couldn't see what was wrong, and just continued as he was. If what he missed was too bad, Ratchet would run over and stop him, then point out the problem. Fortunately that only had to happened once.
All in all, it was some of the most fun Leo had had since leaving Camp Half-Blood for New Rome.
All too soon the sun was starting to hang low in the sky. Standing back to look at their handiwork, Leo had to give himself a pat on the back. Festus was looking better than ever. The repairs and futuristic additions Leo and Ratchet had made had the dragon standing prouder than ever.
Festus seemed to realize this, and sent a plume of flames into the air to show off.
The flames caused the portal above them to become visible again, and Leo could see that it seemed smaller this time than it did when Ratchet activated it hours before.
"Guess I better get going," said Leo regretfully.
His new friends nodded in understanding, also looking disappointed that time was up.
Leo shook Ratchet's hand again before moving to do the same for Clank.
He then climbed up onto Festus' back and with one last wave goodbye, Festus took off towards the vortex.
As he flew away, Leo couldn't help but call out, "SEE YA' CHIHUAHUA-CAT MAN! BYE TIN GRIN! YOU'RE BOTH NOW OFFICIAL MEMBERS OF TEAM LEO!"
The last thing he saw before flying into the vortex was Ratchet and Clank's bemused faces as they waved back, and Ratchet yelling something after him. Leo knew none of his friends were ever going to believe him about this little adventure.
He was still going to tell them anyway.
The ride through the vortex was over in the blink of an eye. Leo looked around and saw that he and Festus were soaring above the clouds.
Leo opened the access panel on the back of Festus's neck. The astrolabe and the crystal were active, and a quick look at his GPS and compass told him all he needed to know.
"Festus, good news!" he called. "Our navigation readings are completely messed up!"
Festus let out a creak, and Leo grinned. "Yeah! Descend! Get us below the clouds and maybe-"
Festus broke through the clouds, and Leo could see Ogygia below them. He let out a loud whoop of joy, as the dragon took them down.
Calypso was there waiting for him.
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A/N This came from a combination reading all of Blood of Olympus in one night, coupled with watching Ratchet and Clank videos in preparation for the up-coming movie (Though they still haven't given a release date, just that it'll be 'early' this year). I woke up the next morning with this in my head. It just struck me that Ratchet and Leo are kinda similar. Both are scrawny, sarcastic, funny, mechanical geniuses that are the last person you'd expect to save the day, and yet they do it anyway. I thought it'd be great if they met, and this is the result.
I'll post the second half later with Ratchet and Clank's point of view later.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus series or Ratchet and Clank or any of it. I'm just a crossover-obsessed fangirl with too much time on her hands now that she's graduated college. Heroes of Olympus belongs to Rick Riordan, and Ratchet and Clank belongs to Insomniac Games.
