A little oneshot that I just HAD to write and publish. Hope you all like- and if you don't, too bad. Lol! :) And yes, I named it after a Mumford and Sons song. Don't kill me, please!
. . .
Ratchet looked around his new garage, feeling its emptiness. Three months had passed since Veldin's destruction. He bought a new garage in Aleero City, and while it was closer to the Ranger HQ and business was booming (sort of), it didn't feel right without Grim at his side. While Grim could sometimes be blunt, he was a great mentor and father figure to Ratchet.
And now he was just gone. Ratchet sighed and grabbed his old Omniwrench from his worktable and laid back underneath a ship that a client wanted repaired. The Lombax took off a panel and wrinkled his nose at the smell.
"You have got to be kidding me," he muttered. The ship's oil dripped from a hole in a rusty old tank. "No wonder it runs out of gas so quickly… when was the last time this thing was repaired?"
Suddenly he heard a knock on his garage door. Ratchet put the ship's panel back into place and crawled out from under the ship. He walked over to the wall next to the garage door, and pressed a button. The door slowly slid open, then stopped partway.
"Oops!" Ratchet pressed the button again. Nothing happened. "Uh… just a second!" He pulled off a panel next to the button and started messing around with some loose wires. "Ah ha!" The door started opening again and Ratchet smiled when he saw who his visitor was. "Felton!"
The large purple alien looked down at the Lombax. "It's me alright. How's my favourite nephew?"
Ratchet raised an eyebrow. "You mean your only nephew. I'm doing alright, I suppose…"
Felton walked over to the ship that Ratchet was about to work on earlier. "I see you're still carrying the tradition."
"Once a mechanic, always a mechanic," Ratchet told him, setting his wrench back on the worktable.
"I thought you were a Ranger."
"I am. But I'm still into fixing things, y'know."
"I see," Felton replied, leaning against the ship. "You weren't at my brother's funeral."
Ratchet was silent a moment. Then he said, "I couldn't go, Felton. I didn't want be around a bunch of people I don't even know, telling me how sorry they are, how they understand how I feel. Because they don't! They don't understand. Grim was the only father I ever had… and Vox killed him." The Lombax looked down at his feet. Then he picked his Omniwrench back up and showed it to Felton. "Ever since I was a kid, I wanted my very own wrench. Not to borrow, but to keep."
"Where did you get it?" Felton asked.
Ratchet smiled sadly as he thought of the memory. "It was a cold day, surprisingly, and we were at the tool store shopping for supplies…"
. . .
Ten years ago…
Eight year old Ratchet followed Grim through the store, bored out of his mind. Shopping day was always so tedious. As Grim tried to decide between two different brands of ship air fresheners, Ratchet looked around the aisle, trying to find something remotely interesting to look at. And then his eyes landed on it.
Sitting on a shelf across from them was a shiny new Omniwrench Millennium 12. Ratchet walked over and stood on his tippy-toes to get a better look at the price.
45,000 bolts.
Ratchet lowered his ears in disappointment. It cost way too much. The Lombax walked back over to Grim, who finally decided on which air freshener to get. Grim tossed it into the cart in front of him, then looked at the crestfallen Ratchet. "That was the last item on the list, Ratchet. You can stop pouting."
"Right," Ratchet said, unimpressed.
Grim sighed. "Ratchet, it's important that we get these supplies. Without them, we can't repair ships. If we can't repair ships, then we don't get business. If we don't get business-"
"I know," Ratchet interrupted. "Sorry. I'm just disappointed we don't make a lot."
"What do you mean?"
Ratchet pointed at the wrench he was eyeing earlier. "It costs too much."
Grim looked at the wrench, then back at Ratchet. "Come on. When we get back to the garage, I want to show you something."
. . .
Soon…
Ratchet followed Grim into the garage, who set the bags of supplies into the floor next to the door. Then he walked over to a closet in the corner and realised something. "I forgot I locked it earlier. I'll be right back." Grim walked off into another room to go find the keys.
Ratchet stood there in the garage, hands in his pockets. "What could he possibly want to show me…?"
Grim came back, the keys in his hand. "Alright. Over here." He walked over to the closet and unlocked it. Grim opened it, only for the contents to spill over his feet onto the floor. Hammers, screwdrivers, you name it. "Now I remember why I locked it in the first place."
Ratchet walked over, looking down at the mess. "Wow… that's a lot of tools. Cool."
"Yes," Grim said, "but that's not what I wanted to show you." He dug through the Tools, trying to find something. Finally he pulled it out triumphantly. "Ah ha!"
"An Omniwrench 8000!" Ratchet looked at it in awe. "I learned about those in history class! They stopped making 'em in 5262…"
Grim looked at the Lombax and smiled. "This Omniwrench belonged to my great-great-great-grandfather. It had been passed down for generations. A few years before my father passed away, he gave it to me. And now, I feel it's time you had it." He gave the wrench to Ratchet, who was still marveling it.
"You mean… this… is mine?" Ratchet asked. "To keep?"
Grim nodded and Ratchet jumped up and down in joy. "Woohoo!" The Lombax looked up at Grim. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. And don't break it! It's a very important heirloom!"
. . .
Back to the present…
"So that's how you got your wrench?" Felton asked.
"Yep!" Ratchet replied, smiling. The Lombax looked down at his Omniwrench. "If it weren't for this baby, I probably wouldn't even be standing here right now."
Felton nodded. "I should probably get going. That resort doesn't run itself, you know."
Ratchet looked back up at him. "Yeah. I need to fix that ship anyway, or my client's going to be complaining a lot."
THE END