Three days later
Ratchet is navigating the ship to his current destination.
"Tell me again why we're going to a Blarg research facility Clank. I thought the Blarg had a grudge against us for destroying there planet?" Ratchet asks his friend and ally.
"Apparently they are reformed after the Bio-bliterator incident. They have been trying to fix those affected. Such as the Tyrenoids, they have actually managed to reverse the effects of the Bio-bliterator." Clank says. Ratchet let's out a low whistle.
"Well if they are really reformed I guess we'll see. Alright tell me what they contacted us for again?" Ratchet asks as he checks the ship systems. They are nearing their destination and need to be prepared for anything.
"Their connection said something about a thief taking vital components from one of their machines. That's about all. Hopefully they'll go into more detail later when we land." Clank says as the ship enters the planets atmosphere. Ratchet opens the landing gear as he sees the nearing ground. Five minutes later he and clank are climbing out after a bumpy landing. A tall, six foot tall Blarg approaches them. He's wearing a black button down shirt, black slacks, and pointy dress shoes.
"Hello Ratchet, Clank. I see you answered our communication swiftly, just like we hoped. My name is chairmen Tyler, fourth seat of the new council for Blarg society." Tyler says extending a hand, Ratchet shakes it cautiously making sure that nothing will attack for no good reason.
"So your in charge of this facility then. Mind giving us a few more details on what happened? What you gave us isn't much help in tracking these thieves." Ratchet says.
"Actually I can do one better. We have cameras all over the planet. All free range of course. Come along I'll show you." Tyler says leading Ratchet and Clank along a path.
Five minutes later, and one long boring tour of the facilities 'main' floor, they arrive in the security room. As Tyler said monitors show different parts of the planet from their landing zone to even deeper into the planets crust. Ratchet notices that very few workers are on the surface, just enough to make it look like its being manned, but not enough to actually keep it running.
"Where is everyone?" Ratchet asks.
"They're at home with their families. No point in coming into work if a crucial component for our job goes missing." Tyler says.
"Crucial component?" Both Ratchet and Clank ask.
"Yes the thief in question-" Tyler points at the center screens which show someone by passing all the security and defenses from three days ago.
"Saw fit to break in and steal the spectral flux converter. It's main design was for our Bio-bliterator reversal machine. It took energy from natural elements of life, solar, wind, even the gas built up under the planet, and turned it into power to reverse the robotification process. While we worked on many projects here that one was the most crucial since there were so many effected by it." Tyler explains.
The figure walks into a room and jumps up onto a machine. He carefully opens a hatch and starts tearing the insides out with tools that must be hidden under his cape. He pulls out a glowing box like part with tubes that practically blind the screen. Then the lights out and he puts the machine back together. When he walks out of the room though he is greeted by a Tyrenoid and a Blarg. They immediately give chase as the thief leaps over them and seems to grind on air. Along the way the alarms are set off so the thief hides in a room. He looks at the monitors quizzically and then plugs in a flash drive and downloads a copy of something. After that he disappears in the vents till he reaches outside. But instead of sliding on air he hoofs it. Running hard for his life as a mob of Tyrenoids and Blarg grows behind him.
"Well seems like he is quite an escape artist if he got away from them on foot." Ratchet says
"Had help actually." Tyler says, looking back at the monitor Ratchet and Clank watch as a ship comes slightly into view and with a hook underneath. They watch as the thief winds up and punches loose a hook shot grappling hook. One of the latest models as well compared to the one they have. It actually looks better than the one they use.
"Why did you wait till yesterday to contact us? If this was three days ago you should have called the police instead of us."Clank says. Tyler looks at the robot and sighs.
"Believe me we would have. But police would shut production completely for a week and we have ideas and experiments that need to go out by the end of the week, two days away. Had we called them then we'd be behind schedule and our society does not take tardiness well. We called you because we couldn't find any trace ourselves, so we decided why not give the Lombax that destroyed our world a chance. Maybe he won't destroy us all this time." Tyler explains, while Ratchet and Clank look sheepishly at each other.
"Alright, we'll do it. Come on Clank this would be a good time to try out those special tracking goggles we made." Ratchet says heading back out to the vent the thief exited through. Clank follows and as soon as they leave the security room, he jumps onto Ratchets back.
Outside Ratchet puts on a set of goggles that Clank hands him from inside his storage compartment. He turns them on and it takes a minute to activate fully.
As soon as the goggles turn on Ratchet looks up at the vent and the goggles highlight where the thief touched the vent exit. He looks down and around the spot, and spots the faint foot prints of the thief. He follows the foot prints. Along the way he has to repeatedly fight off the planets wild life. He doesn't like to beat animals of any kind but it's the only way he's managing to survive without damage. He jumps over the large ones and uses his holo shield to block the smaller ones while he uses his blaster to stun the larger ones. Then he uses his omni-wrench to beat the smaller ones back, all while keeping a keen eye to the thief footprints.
"Ratchet incoming message." Clank says over his shoulder as they reach the end of the foot trail. Ratchet looks up and spots the faint emission trail from the ship the thief used to escape.
"Who's it from?" He asks while locking the signature into the goggles mainframe and takes them off.
"It is from Angela." Clank replies. He passes the email screen to Ratchet.
"Angela? Isn't she still working for Mega Corp?" Ratchet wonders aloud as he opens the video message.
"(Static) Hey Ratchet, Clank! Long time no see! It's Angela Cross here. So how have you guys been? I'm good, yes still working for Mega Corp. Hey listen, I have some free time next couple of days. We're about to release a new product so Abercrombie is giving us a break. Come back and visit some time, I'm still living in the Bogon galaxy, Endako, Megapolis." The message ends leaving coordinates back to her.
"Well she seems to be doing well for herself. What do you say clank, wanna go visit Angela?" Ratchet asks.
"Are you certain that is a good idea? We are in the middle of a job."
"Sure bud, heck she might have something to help us out, she is one of Mega Corp's best. So she's bound to have something we can use. Besides its been years since we actually saw her. She must have missed us." Ratchet says. Clank hops off his back.
"If that is what you want to do. And you still have the emission trail locked in the goggles mainframe. So we can always follow it later." Clank says. Ratchet smiles and they walk the rest of the way back to the ship.
A few hours later Ratchet and Clank find themselves back in the Bogon galaxy, back on Endako, in Megapolis.
"Security systems are as spot on as ever." Ratchet says, Clank hops on his back as the security drones attack Ratchet.
Using his wrench he swings left and right knocking the Security bots back, he back flips over charging bots and brings his wrench down in a meteor slam. He throws his wrench and it gets stuck in a wall, so he pulls out the doom glove and tossing two containers, eight of his doom bots run around chomping and using their mini rockets to cut a path through them, leaving them in scraps along the way. Ratchet pulls his wrench from the wall and swings it in a circle wiping out the last of the security bots as his doom bots self destruct.
"Whew. Now that's a work out." Ratchet says. Clank Agrees, and directs Ratchet to Angela's apartment.
"Coming!" Angela says as the door is knocked on ten minutes later.
"Man if it's another tellemarkerter I'm gonna use the security bots to blast them." She mumbles to herself walking to the door in her short pajama bottoms. They hug her hips nicely showing off her slender legs from thigh to her petite three toed foot, as most of her species has. A light blue crop top that leaves her hourglass figure,and gold and brown striped fur, exposed, but still covering her upper arms and tits. With out her helmet and goggles on her hair is in a huge mess right now but reaches to just below her shoulders. Her large ears pick up the faint sound of a bot by her door.
"Yeah who is it?" Angela asks swinging the door open wide without looking through the peep hole.
"It's Ratchet and-whoa!" Ratchet exclaims. He never saw Angela like this before, barely any clothing on, and messy hair. Her sport shorts barely off her hips, her tops loosely covering her breasts. Truthfully since she's older than Ratchet he never thought of her sexually, mostly because of their work history and the fact that she doted on him usually like an older sister. But seeing her like this, his body reacts to her like she just set off every mating reaction his body could have at once.
It's just a natural thing I guess, seeing a beautiful female of your own species. Old enough to breed, that's for sure, but I can't. Or more like shouldn't, she's older than me, and she has a life. I can't ruin that by acting on my baser instincts. But I gotta admit, with a woman like Angela life would never be boring, and we'd no longer be the only two pure bred Lombaxes in this universe. Ratchet thinks to himself.
Angela smiles when she sees it's Ratchet and Clank at her door.
Well Ratchets sure grown up. Big and strong muscles, and I'm guessing he's learned some of the lombax secrets wearing Armor like that. But no stop thinking like that Angela, he's like family. I'm sure he'd like to be with someone a bit more his age. But I wonder what it would feel like underneath a man like that who's repeatedly saved the galaxy. Ugh gotta stop thinking like that. Angela thinks to herself. Then she looks directly at Ratchet follows his line of sight, then her fur bristles with her blushing and she runs back inside.
"Sorry! Come on in and sit on the couch I'll be out in a bit!" She yells over her shoulder running to her bedroom to change out of her pajamas.
"Well that's was unexpected. She is usually so well behaved and is almost always covered from head to toe." Clank says. Ratchet doesn't say anything as he walks inside looking down embarrassed for his behavior.
I can't believe I just ogled Angela like that. He thinks, not noticing the pole, he walks into it. He grunts as he hits his head and then falls on his tail. Clank walks over to him.
"Ratchet are you OK, you seem distracted." Clank says. Ratchet shakes his head clear.
"Yeah bud, sorry just a little disoriented from that fight. I'll be fine in a bit." Ratchet says sitting on the couch. Clank doesn't believe him and does a bio scan. What he finds he keeps to himself.
Oh my god I can't believe I just opened the door looking like that. If that was anyone else I'd have blasted them right off my door step. But Ratchets eyes... No stop Angela! He's a friend, that's all!.. Still it felt nice to be noticed as a woman again, not just a scientist. Angela thinks to herself as she heads to her closet. She strips out of her top and shorts leaving her in a dark grey strapless bra and matching thong. She goes in her closet and pulls out a pair of skin tight royal blue leggings, and a sleeveless shirt that hugs her body fully.
She looks at herself in a full length mirror, her leggings framing her thighs well, her shirt showing off her large double D cup bust, she cups her breasts a little moaning internally. Her hair is up as she combs it down with her hand, and decides to not wear her helmet and just let her hair down. But she still grabs her goggles and ties her ponytail.
"Hey sorry about that, you caught me when I was waking up." Angela says. It's been a day for her having sent the message.
"It's OK, you've caught me waking up more times than I can count." Ratchet says trying to ease the tension in his own mind. But his comment makes Angela blush. Clank interrupts before they say much else.
"Well we are sorry for waking you Angela. But we thought it would have been best if we visited as soon as we can. We are currently on a mission to find a thief and we need to track him. But we received your call and decided to come visit you first, as we have not seen you in nearly a decade." Clank says.
"Well that's sweet of you. So what's the job?" Angela asks. Clank explains the details they have collected only from starting it.
I never noticed how wonderful she looks with her hair down. But then again she usually wore a helmet all the time. Ugh stop Ratchet, you have to stay focused right now. Ratchet thinks to himself as he listens to Clank and Angela talk.
"Hey Ratchet, you still have those goggles with the vapor trail? I can trace it from here and give you the closest planet it landed on." Angela says. Ratchet nods reaching in his Armor pants pocket and pulling out the goggles. Angela takes them as he hands them over and walks over to her holo desk.
"So can I get a look at who your hunting?" Angela asks. Clank looks to Ratchet who nods and then he looks towards the center of the room. As Angela plugs the goggles into her desktop and waits for the vapor trail to load into her tracking system, she turns to the image that Clank is replaying. She watches the security footage playback through Clanks eyes. She flinches just slightly her eyes focusing on on the figure.
No it can't be! He disappeared years ago. Why would he resurface now of all times? Angela asks herself watching the security playback finish.
"Seems this thief is pretty good." Angela says turning back to the holo screen on her desktop. She pulls up the vapor trail for the ship and uses a program too trace it's path
"OK your first stops gonna be Fefrir, Yotienheim galaxy. Mind if I join you guys? I'm gonna be off for a while like I said in the message, it would be nice to get out for a while." Angela says. Ratchet and Clank look at each other.
"Um are you sure Angela? We're gonna be fighting monsters, robots, and things we don't even know about." Ratchet says, on one hand he thinks it would be nice to have someone else along, even though the ship is a little cramped. But on the other hand she was out on the field once during the Proto-pet fiasco. And she barely survived that when she revealed herself.
"Yeah, I'm big girl, I can protect myself." Angela replies. Ratchet shrugs.
"Alright, you can come along for now. But I'm letting you know now, if we run into more trouble than you can handle I'm locking you in the ship." Ratchet says, playing a doting father or caring lover.
She's the last known female of our species in this dimension I'd rather she hate me for protecting her than lose her to some random laser fire. Ratchet thinks to himself as he looks down at his omni-wrench in his lap.
He's worried for me? How sweet, more than I can say for alot of the males of other species I dated. Angela thinks to herself before she nods in agreement.
"Clank tell Aphelion we'll be adding a passenger." Ratchet says. Clank nods and signals the ship through his antenna.
"Aphelion? Isn't that lombax for angel?" Angela asks. Ratchet nods.
"We've got alot of catching up to do. But we can do that along the way to Fefrir." Ratchet says.
?:well this was awesome. Let's get to the interview part of the story.
Ratchet: um, OK this will be my first time actually doing this interviewing thing.
Angela: Same here guys. But this for the fans. And as long as it doesn't feel to personal I will answer to the best of my abilities.
5'5" creature lands inbetween the two.
Drak: hey guys I'm one of the writers here to let you know we'll be putting this up maybe on a monthly basis from here on in.
Ratchet: Hey! Watch it you gecko! Nearly landed on us!
Drak: Turns head slowly showing off rows of razor sharp fangs. "Did you just call me a Gecko little rat? Cause I will have you know I AM A MOTHER F #$ING DRAGON!
Angela: "Ratchet you might want to RUN!"
Ratchet: Bolts from chair as Clank shakes his head in his chair.
Drak: "Run lombax run cause I'm gonna turn you into crispy critter." I say chasing him.
Another creature comes down.
?: oh crap is Drak pissed.
Angela: yeah, so who are you?
Kate: names Kate! And to let everyone know we will be taking questions for the interviews and put up answers when we can.
Both: Remember to keep the balance!