Chapter 9: Restoration

He made a point of going immediately to the Bogon Galaxy to drop off the technical marvels he'd stolen from Tachyon's research facility to the Megacorp offices on the planet Endako. Mr Fizzwidget invited Ratchet right up to his suite and was delighted with the artifacts, though he had to ask, "What's all this for? And what sort of compensation would you like for it?"

Ratchet waved him off with a smile. "It's on the house. I sort of owe you for letting Captain Qwark fool me for so long anyway. Besides... I gave some of this to the people at Gadgetron, and it's only fair."

Mr Fizzwidget rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Oh well, I know you have to do something for the home team and all. At least we have some very interesting things to have our scientists look at." And then something ocured to him and he said, "Say! Why don't you go see Angela Cross? As I recall, you two were rather... you know..." He rubbed two fingers together to indicate a romantic entanglement.

Ratchet rubbed his head uncomfortably, blurting out, "Heh-hey, you know, that's a thought... I haven't seen her since we fought you... uh, I mean... Captain Qwark as you... I should do that right now!" Not waiting for a response, he escaped through the ornate doors.

Mr Fizzwidget chuckled to himself as he lined up the unusual looking alien contraptions on his carpeted floor. "You know... having Ratchet on the team would be quite an asset. And Angela Cross certainly has the assets to swing him over to our side... if I do say so myself." He emphasized with a little tiger growl as his secretary, Mrs Bluebottom, frowned at him scoldingly through the office doors.

Ratchet went to a terminal, but saw to his dismay that Angela Cross... or, he noticed, Doctor Angela Cross was occupied with an important research project and was unavailable. "Doctor Angela?" he said with a smile. "That explains why she was such a crummy villain." But then he caught himself gazing at her image sadly. On the one hand, he was relieved that she was tied up, as he was a pretty lousy liar and didn't want to have to dodge the issue of Clank's absence. He was sure that she would get all motherly and want to console him, and... no, not right now, not with the urgency of Clank's predicament hanging over him. But on the other... he yearned to see her badly, and be consoled by such a lovely woman, even if she was twice his size.

As his finger hovered over then drew back from the message button time and again, he became aware of a small queue of irritable users fidgeting and grumbling behind him, and he stood aside, biting his tongue as he muttered, "Go ahead."

One by one they glared at him as they took care of business, the last being an elderly woman, grumbling at him as she departed, "Weirdo."

He gave a short hiss at her, hoping she was out of earshot when he did it, then returned to the terminal. And once again, he struggled over the choice to leave a message or not, his finger constantly wavering. Finally, it plunged down as if of it's own accord, catching him off guard and he blurted out, "Hey! I mean... hey, it's... Ratchet. I'm, uhh... in town for a bit, aaand... I wanted to stop in and say hi. And... to appoloigize for not... well, hardly ever even messaging you. Or visiting. I mean... it's not like I'm not always racing all over the cluster and all... and, I'm not constantly busy..." He sighed, feeling foolish, and at the moment, more than a little infatuated, saying in a tender voice, "Angela... I'm really sorry. I promise... next time I'm anywhere within a galactic arc of here... I'll fly in and... we can do whatever you WANT!!"

He practically fell over in shock as Angela's startled image appeared, and she nearly tumbled over as well, placing her hand to her bosom. "Oh my...! Well, I come to check my messages, and here's an old familiar face yelling at me!" She added with a chuckle, "So, what brings you here?" Even in a lab smock, she was dazzling.

He looked around anxiously, and naturally, everyone in the area was gawking at him in shock. Growling to himself, he tried to shield the monitor from onlookers and spoke in guarded tones. "Well, I, uhm, you see, it's... long..." He grit his teeth and mentally slapped himself. 'Damn it... I'm babbling like Qwark!'

Angela had to laugh. "Calm down and take a deep breath, Ratchet." She couldn't resist posing demurely, saying in a sultry tone, "It's just li'l ol' me."

His knees felt weak at the seductive voice, his stomach turning to jelly. He was sure that this woman could make Dr Nefarious reconsider hating 'squishies.' "I know! I know... uhm... well, I... came into town to drop off some things for Mr Fizzwidget, but..." His voice grew soft as he told her, "I... did want to see you..."

She blinked at him, her own eyes taking on a mellow, tender look as she murmured, "Really? Well..." Then she brightened as she told him, "Hey, there's no reason to lock myself up with this work all the time. Why don't you come on down to the lab? We can have some latte."

"Really?" he blurted out excitedly. "That would be great--!" But then he remembered his quest, and promise to Clank, and realized that an hour with her could easily stretch into... who knew what span of time, and he was afraid to waste more than a few moments. He murmured dejectedly, a look of dismay on his face, "Wait. I... really... have to go."

She seemed to wilt at his admission, saying with a shrug, "Oh, uhm... well, I know how it is..."

He swallowed, feeling a strong pull on his heartstrings, saying to her quietly, "Listen... this may take a while, I don't know how long... but... when it's all over, I promise you..." He fell silent as he became caught up in the gleam of her eyes as they gazed into his almost wistfully, the curves of her figure and the lovely gold of her fur, and without thinking of it, he touched his fingers to the screen over the curve of her throat. He swallowed hard at the thought that there was a chance he... might not come back. She gazed back, a glisten in her own eyes as his eyes lingered in hers, reaching up to place her fingers in line with his.

When they touched, it was as if someone snuck up behind them and poked them in the ribs, both flinching away self consciously, and it took several moments for both of them to collect themselves. "Well... Ratchet," she told him without thinking as she stroked her plume, "I'm going to hold you to that promise."

He nodded, just as thoughtlessly. "It's a date."

She smiled, and he could tell that beneath her fur, she was blushing. "Well... I guess... I really should get back to the lab. And you... have to take care of... whatever it is you need to take care of." She added quietly, "Take care, Ratchet. And come back to me, someday."

He told her softly, giving her a nod, "I promise... I'll be back."

She drew away from the monitor, murmuring, "Bye..." And promptly ran over someone.

He couldn't help but chuckle as he turned away as well, saying to himself, "That's my Angela, all right--" as he ran face first into a man waiting to use the terminal.

He bolted for the first open corridor as if the Cragmite Army was on his tail, his cheeks burning with embarrassment as the man shouted after him, "Why don'tcha go see her!" And even after he scrambled to Aphelion and threw himself into the seat, it was the hardest take-off he'd ever performed, as every fiber of his being urged him to go back to Angela... taking the widest possible route around the area of that terminal.

He couldn't have known of the wide smile on the face of the nano-id, feeling a funny sort of joy at the couple's reunion scene. He was determined to see to it that Ratchet kept that unspoken promise.


Ratchet was beginning to feel worn out after the ordeal, and this was just the prelude, the preparation for the real quest to come, to find Clank and bring him back home. But at least he could take a breather at Metropolis as Al performed his usual magic, repairing the Dimensionator. The adventure made him realize just how invaluable Clank was, and how deeply he missed his friend, and with his absence, the journey had taken much longer and required much more effort.

He rented an air cart to haul his booty over to Al's place, as this collection of cases containing some of the rarest and most obscure contents in history was piled pretty high, and easily weighed half a metric ton. He puttered up to the Robo Shack, announcing his arrival, declaring, "Hey Al, I'm back! And you're... 'At a pizza party, be back in an hour and fifty-four minutes?!' I must have just missed him!" He was reading an automated sign left on the counter, with a countdown estimating the tech's arrival. Fighting off anxious irritation, he muttered, "It's... okay, it's only a couple of hours. I can... surf on Al's computer." He hopped on a stool, hit the wake up key, and muttered, "...Which is... password protected. Great." He considered his Decryptor, but not only was Al's security probably some of the hardest to crack, he didn't want to violate his friend's confidence. So to pass the time, he decided to see if he could get a new high score in one of his Qwark video games, squatting down against his stack of crates and cases, and forgetting how tired he was...

He froze as he heard a sound, fighting to open his eyes... the raspy, grating voice of Tachyon as he murmured, "There he is... have your way with him."

As his eyes blinked wide open, he was caught off guard as a pair of hands fell on his throat, seizing him in a grasp of iron. As he thrashed around frantically, he was lifted and slammed hard against the stack of crates, dazed from the crack of his skull against the cases. Then he managed to catch sight of who it was that had him, and he tried to force a scream from his strangled throat.

It was the Blarg he'd fought on the crane, and the fall had messed him up badly, his head crushed and lopsided, one eye bulging in a hideous way. "Now, Lombax!" he growled savagely, "I get to finish what I started... before you killed me!!"

He was helpless to do anything, as the Blarg shrugged off every kick and gouge, giving a bloodthirsty laugh as Ratchet felt his body grow limp, his eyes rolling back in their sockets, his mind gripped with terror as he felt his body slowly dying. 'No... no! Please... someone save me! Please... don't let me die! Don't let this be the end! SAVE ME!'

He nearly jumped out of his fur when he felt a jostling of the cases he was leaning against, leaping into the air with a shrill cry, his wrench poised to deliver a terrible blow. He was determined to kill whoever it was that had snuck up on him. Unfortunately it was Al.

They both cried out, the cyborg raising his arms fearfully, and Ratchet catching his swing just before unleashing it, though he fell straight down, landing flat on his back. The geeky tech came around the stack of cases, exclaiming, "For pity's sake, what was that for?!" He blinked at the Lombax, recovering on the floor there. "I thought cats landed on their feet."

He gave the tech a grouchy look. "We usually do, except when we're being snuck up on," Ratchet muttered sourly as he rubbed his head. "Al... how was I supposed to know it was you?"

The cyborg waved his hand dismissively, still smelling of pizza. "Who else would it be in my own shop? Well, besides you anyhow." He returned to poking around in the cases at all the goodies excitedly. "I thought it was a new delivery. Well... except I guess it is a new delivery... and you got everything?"

The Lombax nodded, not quite able to shake off the nerve rattling mood from that dream, rubbing a tender throat. "Yeah, and then some."

Al's voice raised several notes as he exclaimed, "Really?! Oh Ratchet, that's just awesome--!"

He cut in quickly, as he was quite anxious to be on his way. "Uhh... listen, could you hurry up and get to work on the Dimensionator? I really have to get going..."

"Well what's with the rush? You just got ba--" It occurred to him again that a significant other was missing, and twice was just not right. "Ratchet, where's Clank?" And then he caught the droop of ears and the sad stare at the floor, and he grew alarmed, stating the obvious. "Something's wrong... Ratchet, tell me what happened."

He looked up with a haunted look in his eyes, murmuring, "They took him, Al... some robots... they got Clank, and vanished."

The cyborg gaped at him in alarm for just a few seconds, then began moving faster than Ratchet had ever seen before. "Tell me... tell me everything... why didn't you tell me!"

Ratchet gave him the short version but leaving out no details while Al busied himself with the Dimensionator's repairs. He scolded his friend mildly. "Why did you keep this from me! Ratchet, this lone wol - er... Lombax routine might be okay any other time, but this is serious! And Clank is my friend too. For heaven's sake, what do you think friends are for?"

"Just what you're doing now," Ratchet told him with a lopsided smile.

"Yeah, but, if I had known, I could have put stuff off and been doing things to help!" He sighed as he drew the small laser out of it's case and caressed it almost lovingly. "A Raritanium laser... eh, I'll make a couple more later."

"I know, Al, but..." He sighed, admitting, "All I could think of was that you'd be worried and it would ruin things for you."

"Yeah, well, they're so much better now, aren't they?" He shoved his hands in some strange looking foil covered mits, warning the Lombax, "Don't touch this, or it could kill you." Ratchet gasped in shock and backed off as the cyborg opened up a case, fog immediately beginning to pour out, frigid, thick fog that chilled the entire room, then he hissed uncomfortably as he held a piece of it, "Oh my God cold cold cold cold cold cold cold!" Before the Lombax could react further, Al dumped it and the other components into a containment vessel, explaining in an awestruck voice, "Bose-Einstein Condensate. The purest ever." He shut all the cases then shook the gloves into a box which stunned Ratchet by immediately frosting over, then he pointed at his friend meaningfully with blue fingers, his voice forming vapor puffs and rings. "See? That's why I told you not to open the cases."

"I... uh... you... from now on... uhm... one word!" Ratchet stammered, thinking, 'That had to be as close to absolute zero as you can get!' He said jokingly as he joined the tech at the containment chamber, "That would be some killer air conditioning coolant."

"Yeah, if you wanted your house to be as cold as intergalactic space." As he grabbed some manipulators, he told Ratchet, "Anyway, this thing is almost done. I just need to insert the Dark Matter into the Quantum Induction Coil cores... let's see, it's been a while, what's the right filter for Dark Mat... oh, there we go."

Ratchet watched in amazement as the view turned green, and the small containment box holding the Dark Matter revealed a weird glowing crystal that hadn't been there before. "It looks kind of like... Raritanium."

"Well," Al explained as he slivered off a piece, "this is what a computer is making up so it makes sense to our minds. And... it looks like Metal 12 so it should be perfect! Anyway, as far as the matter of our universe is concerned, it's not even there, so your hand would pass right through it if you wanted to touch it."

The Lombax scratched his head in perplexion, as the scene didn't make any sense. "So... how exactly are you touching it with your tools now?"

"Technomite magic," Al whispered reverently, and when Ratchet gave him a dim look, the cyborg admitted, "Okay, really it's special energy fields with a vector that runs skew to those in our reality, stuff that only Dark Matter responds to. It's like a force field on the tools there."

Ratchet kept pondering this as Al began screwing the finished coil into the helmet, barely comprehending what the technologist was saying. "But... if this is energy that only affects Dark Matter, how does it adhere to the atoms in your tools?"

"I have to warn you that you're about to get into deep water, where I'd have to give a physics dissertation, and I know how much you like techno-speak." When Ratchet shook his head, he continued, "Besides, I wanna know more about the Zoni. I don't get it. According to all the legends, they're supposed to be kinda like guardian angels."

"I know, but I'm beginning to think they're not the good guys in the fairy tales any more."

Al blinked up to him with a worried expression, "Oh, gee... if that's true you're... uhm..." He muttered under his breath, "Kinda screwed..."

Ratchet grumbled back, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Al."

"Well... I'm just sayin'... they're kinda powerful... according to the legends, anyway." As he screwed the last induction coil into place and tightened the new hexagonal washer down, he asked quietly, "Do you have any idea what you're gonna do when you find 'em?"

His ears drooped as the Lombax admitted, "No, but... what choice do I have?"

Al coughed out, "Ratchet, you're just gonna dive in head first swingin' and hope for the best? Alone?!"

"Well..." he began, wondering what to tell his friend, "Not exactly, but... I'll think of something, I always do. And yes, alone. I can't ask anyone to join me on something like this!"

"But Ratchet, that's crazy! I..." He looked in his containment chamber and declared, "I won't give you the Dimensionator. How about that?"

"Well, then," Ratchet told him pointedly, "I'll just take it from you. And if it's not finished, I'll work on it myself."

Al muttered resignedly, "No... it's complete."

Ratchet looked down with an unhappy sigh. "Al... I don't want to be like this with you. But... I have to do this. Clank is... the closest friend I've ever had, outside of my step-parents. In some ways, maybe even closer. I can't just let him go."

"I know..." Al moaned, "but... be reasonable! I couldn't bear losing you too. Hey... at least take Qwark. If he disappears, hardly anyone will care!"

Ratchet made an unpleasant face. "Erghh... when someone else talks like that, it just sounds... mean. Uhm... do I sound like that?"

Al shrugged, saying, "Well... heck, everyone sounds like that. I mean, it's Qwark, after all." He made a muscle, saying in a faint imitation of the hero, "The pects of truth, powered by the ego that ate Metropolis!"

Ratchet forced a chuckle with the technician, his eyes returning somberly to the frosted dome of the artifact in the containment chamber. "Uhm... listen, I really need to get going. It's been several days already, and who knows what Clank has been going through?"

"Oh, yeah, true." The technician opened the door to the containment chamber, reaching inside. "This thing is - yikes it's cold!" He donned the gloves and drew it out, saying as he swatted frost building up rapidly on it's surface, "It's all ready to go. I even cleaned the fuel injectors. It just needs to... warm up a bit - oh golly..."

Ratchet watched dubiously as the frost shell began growing larger, rapidly freezing water vapor from the air, and even though Al was busy thwopping it off, creating quite the cloud of snow inside, it continued expanding. "Al... I have to wear that thing, and I'd rather not become a snow-Lombax in the process."

"Oh, you'll be fine. It just has to adjust to room temperature... oh, for pete's sake..."

"Oh yeah? What about the 'touch this and you'll achieve room temperature' box?"

"Ratchet, don't worry. This is just residual supercooling from being in the chamber with it. Honestly, this thing has some of the best insulation I've ever seen. You might even be able to put it safely on the sun's surface... oh, for crying out loud..."

"Yeah, that might just defrost it..." Ratchet muttered dryly, flinching away from a scoop of snow.

Al set the device on the counter and grabbed him with those snow-covered gloves. "Oh Ratchet, you have to take me with you!"

"Al..." he began disapprovingly, prying those uncomfortably cold, frosty gloves from his fur. "What about your customers?"

The technician flopped ice from his hands. "Oh, there's half a dozen places they can go for service just a few blocks from here. Listen... I don't need much, and I can pay my way. On top of that, I can do things for you, like upgrade your gear. Heck, we have the Raritanium. And if the Dimensionator goes down, now I know how to repair it. Besides, I wanna help! Clank is my friend too, and you just can't go this alone. You have to have someone watching your back... even if it's just me."

Ratchet stroked his chin slyly, murmuring, "Well... you might have a point. Why don't you go pack? And don't worry about traveling light. There's plenty of room for gear in the ship."

Al was beside himself with excitement. "Oh, thank you Ratchet, this is going to be awesome! Just wait right there, I won't be but a jiff." He continued from his bedroom in back of the shop while Ratchet grabbed a marker and giant Post-it, "I know all the best eating joints in the galaxy, and they're affordable to boot."

"Yeah... good thinking, Al," he called back as he began scribbling.

"And we don't have to visit IRIS. I'm all for saving Clank first. But if we do, I'd sure like to fix her up and open up all her ports, so everyone can finally get decent access to her. You'd be surprised how we celebrate on the boards every time one of us can get through."

"The universe is gonna owe you big time for that, Al." He stuck the page on the side of a crate where it couldn't be missed, gazing at it sadly for a moment, then reached for the Dimensionator. His heart skipped a beat when it wouldn't budge, frozen to the counter, and he yanked on it, hissing, "Oh for the love of Fastoon--!"

"And you know, having a scientist along who speaks fluent geek will probably come in handy when dealing with the Zoni."

"Yeah, ya know... having you there to negotiate would probably be a good..." He managed to pry the device off, although it took part of the counter with it, and he gasped in dismay, 'Oh crap--!"

Al emerged from his quarters a few moments later with an armload of hastily packed suitcases and a Hover-tote, saying, "I thought I'd bring along some light entertainment, so I have my Qwark vidcomic collection... Ratchet?" He fell quiet when there was no sign of his Lombax friend. And then his attention was drawn to the note stuck to the crates, and he began reading. And then whimpering.

'Al, I can't tell you how sorry I am for doing this to you, but I can't take you with me. Just preparing for this quest has been more dangerous than I suspected, and I know it's only going to get worse. I can't bring myself to put you in danger. I still hurt over what happened to you back at Dreadzone Station, regardless of the outcome. That's not something I can just forget. If you ended up getting killed, I--' Something there was scribbled out. 'Well, let's not go there.

'Thanks, Al, for everything. It means a lot to me. You're really something special. I promise I'll make this up to you. Just name it.

'I'll be back soon, with Clank. I promise that too.

'Till then,

Ratchet'

'Oh, and sorry about the counter. I left you some bolts for your trouble. And please return the air cart to the rental place at the end of the block. Sorry again, Al... really, truly sorry."

Next to his signature was a little Lombax smiley he left on his messages. Just staring at it brought the cyborg close to tears. Bursting out of the doorway, he bellowed, "Ratchet! No!!" He spotted a trail of frost and was about to follow it, but he knew there was no way to catch the speedy Lombax, even burdened with the Dimensionator. "At least consider what I told you!"

He wasn't too far away to miss what his friend was shouting, and it pained him to hear the plaintive tone, but he shook his head. "No, Al... I can't even ask Qwark to go through this. This could be the worst adventure ever. I'll just have to dig a little deeper for this one."


Author's notes.

Angela Cross: the lovely feloid "villain" in the first part of the second game, R&C: Going Commando. She stole an experimental synthetic lifeform, a small furball, little more than a feathery head with feet and named appropriately the Protopet. However, the Protopet had a genetic flaw that resulted in it turning violent, and worse, multiplying rapidly into a massive deadly swarm. She fled with the Protopet from the Megacorp labs where she worked as a geneticist on the project when it became clear Megacorp was going to go ahead and produce the monster and unleash it on an unsuspecting public. She assumed the role of a hooded villain, hiring the services of Thugs 4 Less in the hope of scaring off any vigilantes, which she really needed as she was an awkward villain. When she tried to drive off or kill the pair, Ratchet defeated her, and when things were sorted out, they decided to team up, ultimately solving the entire mess and restoring the Protopet to it's proper form.

Bogon Galaxy: a galaxy neighboring the Solana Galaxy Ratchet and Clank come from. In the second game, R&C: Going Commando, Mr Fizzwidget convinced the duo to fight a villain who had stolen the Protopet. Unknown to them, this was really Captain Qwark impersonating the CEO of Megacorp, and while he did everything he could to get the pair either killed or discredited, they managed to prevail over him in the course of traveling to a number of Bogon worlds, and rescue the actual Mr Fizzwidget.

Galactic Arc: a term I coined which is used by space captains to measure great distances in galactic or "local" galactic scale. It is roughly 25,000 light years, and is figured by

33,000 light years (2/3 average galactic radius)

times pi (3.14159... for the circumference)

divide by 4 (for one-quarter the distance around this circle, 90 degrees of arc)

25,918.1175 light years, or 25K LY.

This is a significant distance as it is used in calculating hyperjumps, and because each galaxy is a different diameter, each one has a specific Galactic Arc figure. For bonus points, a Light Year is the distance a photon will theoretically travel through empty space in one year, and is 5.878 trillion miles, 9.47 trillion kilometers, or 20.691 trillion kilocubits. A Parsec is based on the distance from Earth (our Earth) at which stellar parallax is one second of arc (err...beats me) and equals 3.258 light years, 19.18 trillion miles, 30.86 trillion kilometers, or 67.513 trillion kilocubits. In addition, intergalactic distances are measured in Galactic Diameters, and is roughly 100,000 LY, although like Galactic Arcs, the Diameter between two galaxies is a unique, sliding scale based on their two diameters, once again used in intergalactic hyperjump calculations. And the specific Galactic Diameter is based on a circumference enclosing 95 of a galaxy's stellar orbits, outside of which is the Rim Band containing the rest. And if you read this far and find this interesting, Welcome to Geekdom! :-D

And finally, thanks go to the sharp eyes noticing Clank's conjunctions, such as "it's" and "won't." While I scoured the chapters for those pesky errors, it's obvious I missed a few, and will be updating them sometime soon. Whew...