This is my first crossover story that is not a one-shot and I'd like to say that "Ratchet & Clank" and "Mass Effect" are probably the best sci-fi games of all time. I love both game franchises equally and I hope everyone enjoys reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it. The location marked in bold will be identified as "city, planet, galaxy," or "planet, system, galaxy."
Be aware, thought, there may be spoilers for those who have little to no knowledge of "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction," "Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time," the Ratchet & Clank comic by DC Comics, or "Mass Effect 1" Proceed with caution when necessary, and be glad your robotic companions are here to help you; just be sure that those robotic companions are not Geth.
"Ratchet & Clank" is owned by Insomniac Games, High Impact Games and Sony Computer Entertainment America (2002-present). "Mass Effect" is owned by BioWare and EA Games (2007-present). All rights reserved.
Enjoy!
Lombax Effect—A "Ratchet & Clank" and "Mass Effect" Crossover
Meridian City, Igliak, Polaris
On a clear day, where hovercars zoomed by near dozens of neon-lit skyscrapers, many people in Meridian City, including those from Lumonopolis, have come to hear a special announcement from their galactic president. He has been sent reports of a strange object floating at the edge of the Cerulean Sector by several Polaris recon officers and President Copernicus Qwark was the only one who they believed would give out the lecture of this discovery.
The heroic duo, Ratchet and Clank, have also been told to come to hear of this, despite their unorthodox friendship with the wannabe hero. They were standing at the front of the audience, waiting for Qwark to come up on stage to present his speech. Ratchet could see the two news reporters Kip Darling and Pepper Fairbanks being filmed with their report at a far corner near the stairs up to the stage.
"Today," began Pepper. "We're reporting live from Meridian City as Galactic President Copernicus Qwark is making his way to give out his lecture of an extraordinary discovery at the Cerulean Sector."
Kip took his turn with his microphone in hand. "That's right, Pepper. Galactic scouts have reported to the president of a strange object orbiting the sector, but the station uncovered holds an origin unlike any other we know today."
Ratchet overheard this and looked to his synthetic friend. "Hey, Clank. Do you know anything about weird-looking stations out in this galaxy?"
"I have searched the holo-net on that, Ratchet," Clank answered. "However, if the station does not resemble anything known in this galaxy, or even those in the Solana and Bogon Galaxies, perhaps it was left by someone from a galaxy unlike those we have already visited."
"Hmm… You could be right on that, buddy," Ratchet acknowledged. Seeing Qwark come up to the stand on stage, standing straight with multiple kinds of microphones held at the top, Ratchet and the rest of the audience became silent before the galactic president began his lecture to his citizens after clearing his throat.
"Citizens of the Polaris Galaxy," he started. "As all of you may know, there has been a very strange-looking station found in the Cerulean Sector. None of us know who works there or how their technology can be used. Because we have little to no knowledge of this, I will be sending out a research team with the brightest and nerdiest minds this galaxy has so that we can dig up these unknown secrets and more. There will also be volunteers coming from here, the Solana Galaxy and the Bogon Galaxy—people like Big Al from "Big Al's Robo Shack and Gaming Superstore," Mr. Fitzwidget from Megacorp, and even my assistant warmonger Vorn. We will begin work tomorrow, and this project of mine will not be done until we have found all the station's mysterious facts!"
There was an applause from everyone in the audience, with Ratchet and Clank only clapping their hands lightly with respect, but also with hints of doubt in their mind and memory banks.
Ratchet piloted Aphelion over to Qwark's large freighter with Clank in the passenger's seat. They called Talwyn to come with them and see if she would have any theories about the strange station itself, as she did hold the necessary expertise on ancient or pre-war architecture and items, so she kindly accepted their offer. But in case something went wrong, she believed it would be wise to bring her two warbot caretakers, Cronk and Zephyr.
By the time they docked at Qwark's freighter, theirs truly greeted them excitedly and gave them a tour around the ship, while going so far as to try and describe each scientist's job in their research on the unidentified station.
From the observation room, Ratchet, Clank and Talwyn saw the station at a short distance through the window. The station was huge, formed in the form of an artistic arrow with a sort of gyrosphere mechanism, the two rotating rings spinning rhythmically around an enormous blue, ethereal orb emitting an amazing type of energy for the entire station.
Ratchet was in awe. "Wow... Man, that thing is huge."
"This is amazing," Talwyn said. "How come no one's ever seen this before now?"
"They did," Qwark answered in an overly enthusiastic way. "They found it only weeks ago."
This followed with a several seconds of dead silence until the Lombax hero groaned as he slammed his gloved palm to his forehead. "She meant before that, Qwark..."
Suddenly, a crackling sound was heard over the ship's intercom as another starship—not like those belonging to Ratchet, Talwyn or to any of their other friends—came into view from the wide window.
"Hello, Mr. President!" a familiar, maniacal voice was heard when the crackling stopped.
Everyone turned to see who was in the starship, until the hatch in the cockpit opened to reveal two old, robotic foes. They simply don't know when to stay out of trouble.
"Nefarious..." Ratchet muttered, clenching his hand in a fist. "I thought he was long gone back when he was after the Great Clock."
Qwark quickly put on his metaphorical mask of bravery on as he said, "Well, it's time they learned a lesson they should've gotten a long time ago." He then grabbed a small microphone from its case near the rim of the window. "Listen to me, Dr. Nefarious. Whatever it is you're here for, you're not going to get it, not whilst I have my bodyguards here!"
It was Clank's turn to perform to imitate a face-palm before looking up to the hero wannabe with his synthetic features showing a frown. "Qwark, we are not here to be bodyguards. But perhaps Nefarious has some interest to this mysterious station you have been researching."
The robot villain simply cackled lightly at Clank's suggestion. "You think you know everything there is about it, do you, you dimwit? I'm afraid I got here before you incompetent squishies came by. Your weak minds can't even figure out what this is really used for! Just watch as I prepare myself and Lawrence to be transported to a new galaxy, using the Mass Relay!"
"We do certainly deserve a nice holiday, sir," Lawrence said over his master's laughing.
Ratchet was in a state of shock, confusing and urgency. "What, 'Mass Relay'? Qwark, we have to go after them, quickly!"
Ratchet, Clank, Qwark and Talwyn got in their rightful starships and followed Dr. Nefarious, thrusters running at optimum power, to try and stop him from getting close to the "Mass Relay," as the mad doctor called it. He had some plan involved with it, and it couldn't be anything good compared to his past attempts of becoming an unstoppable villain.
There were times when Qwark had defeated Nefarious when the robotic menace used to be an organic being, and even during his first time as a robot due to an accident that would have been fatal for any organic. There were also times when Ratchet was in the picture and had stopped Dr. Nefarious from turning the entire Solana population into docile robotic slaves, and again when he wanted to turn back time for his own twisted goals.
And now he was going at it again, only this time it could be something almost as bad as his first confrontation with him, worse than his recent victory against him, or even something that was somewhere in-between those two plots.
Nefarious was now only a few dozen kilometres away from the Mass Relay's gyrosphere. With one quick movement of his hand whilst keeping the other on the flight stick, Ratchet was hitting Aphelion's thrusters to maximum power, not wanting to fall behind by even one metre from his greatest enemy.
"I'm picking up strange energy readings from the station," Aphelion chimed in. "It seems to be increasing in power as Dr. Nefarious is closing in."
"Then we'd better pick up the pace. Thanks, Aphelion." Ratchet put his communications line over to Talwyn's and Qwark's ships. "Qwark, Talwyn! We need to get to Nefarious quickly before he hits that..."—he was close to saying "station" before he resumed—"...that relay!"
But just as he finished, the starship they were chasing was given a web of blue electricity from the relay's orb, and the ship immediately went into light speed.
"That orb must have sent Nefarious to another system, or galaxy," Talwyn said to Ratchet on her communications line. "This could be our only chance to catch up to him!"
"What, we just get near that glowing orb and it gives us that electricity stuff to go somewhere else from here?" Ratchet felt a bit uneasy about it.
"I believe you may be right, Ratchet," Clank said.
"I have picked up the co-ordinates Dr. Nefarious used when he disappeared," Aphelion said. "However, these are not recognisable to those in this galaxy. They could belong to those from a different galaxy, but I cannot be certain of Dr. Nefarious' exact location."
The Lombax looked to his friend in the passenger's seat before taking a deep breath, calming his nerves. "OK. I think you guys may be right. Let do this."
"Full throttle!" Qwark called out on his line.
All three starships went passed the gyrosphere and same way Nefarious' ship did and they were soon gone from the Cerulean Sector. Wherever the Mass Relay would take them, Ratchet hoped that he wouldn't lose his long-time nemesis once they returned to regular speed.