Ratchet and Clank Future: Out of Time

Ratchet stared at the empty space where the Zoni had disappeared with his best friend in the universe. As he lowers his head, his remaining friends gather around him. Qwark, doing his best to be heroically sympathetic said, "Well, you know, these tiny robots, always getting lost. Had one disappear on my once. Found him a week later! Hmmm… Come to think of it, I technically didn't find him, more like some scraps, but…"

"Shut up for once in your life Qwark!" Ratchet roared as he tore away from his large lime companion. Talwyn walked over to him and said "Ratchet, calm down. He's just trying his best to help, even if he isn't as usual. But what were those things?" Ratchet sighed and said "Zoni. They are inter-dimensional creatures that travel through space and time. Clank's been seeing them for a while, but I didn't think…" Ratchet broke down again, and almost started crying. But he didn't. Instead, he picked up his wrench, feeling its weight and holding it before him.

This wrench. It had helped him save galaxies and fix anything. It was the one thing left to him by his mysterious father. He knew it's every couture, how much weight it could bear, the content of the alloy, it's every scratch better than he knew himself. It was his soul. He stared at his reflection in the chrome plating of the blade, the Last Son Of Lombax. He rose, pulled the Dimensionator off of Zepher's head, and took it into the lab. Talwyn ran after him and called, "Hey! What are you doing? Even if it worked, it's to dangerous to use!" "That's right, it is. And those freaks are going to find out exactly how dangerous when I get this thing working." Talwyn muttered something and walked back to Cronk and Zephyr, who were talking with Qwark. "Yeah, he's been that way since I met him, hot headed, getting in over his head, as a matter of fact, I actually rescued him twice, once when he was in mortal…"
"What about shut up did you not understand, you liar!?" Yelled a voice from the lab.

"Oh, well, okay, maybe it was only once."

"Qwark!!"

"Okay, okay, it was me trying to kill him. Can you blame a guy?"

Both of the ancient drones looked at each other and Cronk said "Well, actually, that's how we met. Summer of… "

"It was winter you decrepit mono digit moron!"

"It was not! It was hot enough to fry a morlud possum baby!"

"That's because it was winter on Veldin!"

"Oh yeah, why were we there anyway?"

"Uh…. It'll come back to me. Dang it! CPU's not what it used to be."

"How could it be what it never was!" Cronk said as he smacked Zepher over the head, and lost that arm.

"Enough!" Talwyn said. "We've got to stop him. If he reactivates that thing it could be bad, like end of the world bad."

Qwark suddenly looked at his watch and said "Oops, look at the time, got to go, press conference from saving the universe and all that. See you later!" As Qwark ran down the hall to his ship, Talwyn sighed and said "Well, that's one problem down, 3 to go."

Meanwhile, some where so very far away, Clank was. That was all he could discern at the moment, that he was. He was floating in some kind of bluish light that was as foggy as his head, and occasionally Zoni appeared and disappeared from view. Finally, Clank overcame the fog and said "What is it you want?"

Several appeared around him and said "Sire, we must protect you. The hoard is to be unleashed in your time. None can stop it."

The last thought (or word, he couldn't really tell) Clank had before falling back into the mental murk was "Ratchet… will."