Welcome back to this week's episode of Our New(Old) World, this week we'll see an old face from Ratchet's past. Okay, so remember to leave me a review. I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much. Please, enjoy.


The family gathered around the fire, s'mores in hand to listen to Orion's story. All the older kids felt too old for stories and s'mores so they hung out on the roof of the house. Where their parents allowed them to be so they weren't too far away.

Simon, Dante, and Duncan were kicking a ball around to occupy themselves while Nessa, Virgil, and Pax sat in a row watching the story play out from afar. The younger three wanted to hear the story and have s'mores but they all wanted to make a good impression on the older teens. Not that they could actually hear Orion but whatever.

Dante kicked the ball to Duncan but the pass failed and the ball flew off the roof to a place unknown. "What happened to twin telepathy?" Simon laughed at the twins, climbing down the roof to find the ball.

"That's not actually a thing," Duncan claimed but still followed Simon.

Dante rolled his eyes. "What am I thinking about right now?" Leaving the three younger teens on the roof, he climbed down too.

"Great-Grandma Becca's dinner rolls?" Duncan questioned, poking around to look for the ball.

Dante shrugged. "Not far off."

"Focus," Simon called, further away from the twins. "You are two halves of a whole idiot."

Dante and Duncan shrugged, the three teenage boys all apparently needed to look for the one ball they all shared between them.

Nessa noticed her nephews disappeared, she rolled her eyes and went looking for them. Seeing them off the roof and wandering away from the house, the young teen did what she thought was best. "What are you guys doing?" She yelled at them.

"Relax, Aunt Nessa." Dante and Duncan shouted back. "We're looking for our ball."

Pax waved her hand above her head. "Echo, echo." Virgil and Nessa snickering next to her.

"Shut up, Paxxy." Dante and Duncan called. The twins getting themselves into a shouting match about who was copying who. Simon eventually threw a small rock at each twin to get them to knock it off.

Simon shrugged. "Seriously, two halves of a whole idiot." The twins just rolled their eyes and continued the search with Simon.

Pax got up and stretched. "Alright." She sighed. "I'mma steal some marshmallows. How many do I need to get?" Pax looked to her companions. Virgil and Nessa smiled, each requesting at least three for themselves. Now knowing her mission, Pax snuck down off the roof to acquire her target amount of at least nine marshmallows.

Somewhere off in the distance the twins, reunited, starting yelling and making a bunch of noise. Nessa climbed down from the roof with Virgil. They followed the noise to find the twins at the top of a small ravine and Simon down at the bottom of the ravine.

"I'm okay!" Simon called up from the bottom. He tried to get up but a sharp pain in his leg kept his butt on the ground. "Never mind, less than okay."

Nessa frowned and looked at the twins. "We need my mom." She grabbed the twins and they ran off to get help while Virgil stayed with Simon.

"Simon?" Virgil asked into the ravine that held his brother. "How mad do you think Mom and Dad are going to be that you fell down a crack in the ground?"

Simon laughed weakly. "Pretty mad." He smiled a little bit. "It's just my leg that hurts so maybe only a little mad." Simon tried to keep his leg still so it would hopefully stop hurting.

The brothers were quiet for a little bit before they heard someone approaching. Virgil stood and looked around. "Nessa? Dante? Duncan?" He asked the empty darkness. "If that's you, Pax, you are the worst."

The darkness didn't reply, the only noise being Simon and Virgil breathing. The silence almost deafening as the stillness permeated into Virgil's mind.

"Hey."

Virgil jumped about a foot in the air, turning around to see darling Pax standing behind him with a bag of marshmallows. "Not funny." Virgil scolded Pax. "Seriously."

"Let me have some fun, Virgil." Pax shrugged. "Plus I go back to the roof and no one is there, you all plan to ditch me?"

Virgil pointed down at Simon. "Something came up." He gasped at the bag in Pax's hand. "You weren't supposed to grab the whole thing!"

"My dad caught me." Pax laughed, rubbing the back of her neck. "So he gave me a whole bag so I wouldn't steal any." She leaned over the side of the ravine, holding out the bag. "Hey, Simon, do you want a marshmallow?"

Simon shook his head as he called up to her. "I'm good, thanks." He groaned and rested his head against the wall behind him.

"More for me." Pax shrugged and popped a marshmallow into her mouth.

Virgil sighed and told Pax to stay with Simon, he was going to check what was taking Nessa and the twins so long. He got halfway to the house when he heard footsteps behind him. Though they didn't sound….normal. More mechanical. "Pax?" He asked the darkness again. "I told you to stay with Simon."

A pair of red lights looked back at Virgil. Then a bright light flashed right in his face, stunning him. Virgil covered his eyes, tripping over a stone and hitting his head on another one. Everything went black.

Nessa and the twins got more than just Leigh. The entire family but Onix, Genie, and the younger kids came to get Simon out of the ravine. Ratchet and Orion used their slingshots to lower themselves down, securing Simon to Orion to get him back out.

Claire frowned and helped Simon sit down next to the ravine. "Oh, honey are you okay?" Leigh immediately started to check Simon's favored leg.

"I'm fine, Mom," Simon complained, lightly pushing his mother away. Claire raised an eyebrow and looked to Orion.

Orion sighed and put away his slingshot. "How did you end up down there?"

"I jumped." Simon scoffed. "I didn't mean to fall down there." Simon let out a scream of pain as Leigh touched a sore spot on his leg.

Ratchet smiled and rolled his eyes. "Definitely your son." He elbowed Orion. Orion returned with a shrug of his own.

Grace turned to her sons, Lance beside her. "What were you doing out here?" She scolded. "You were supposed to stay near Uncle Ratchet and Aunt Kori's house."

"Our ball went rogue." Dante and Duncan spoke. "We were looking for it."

Zeon turned to Pax, serious. "Right, marshmallow thief?"

"Right." Pax nodded. "But when I came back to the roof they all were already gone. Virgil was out here with Simon and they were already getting you guys."

Claire gasped, looking around for her son. "Where is Virgil?"

"He went to go see what was taking Nessa, Dante, and Duncan," Pax answered. "You didn't see him when you were all coming over here?"

The adults clambered until Ratchet held up his hand. "Wait, no one saw Virgil?" He steeled himself and looked to Edmund, Leigh, and Zeon. "Get Simon and the kids back to the house," Ratchet gave the order. "Everyone else we're going to looked for Virgil. Travel in pairs, travel with light, and we'll find him. He couldn't of gone far."

Orion nodded and put his hand on Claire's shoulder. "We'll find him." He reassured her. "You should go with Simon."

Claire sighed, sending a scolding look to her eldest son. "Someone has to make sure one of us doesn't end up down the ravine again."

"I didn't mean to," Simon complained as Edmund and Zeon lifted him, carefully instructed by Leigh.

Claire smiled weakly at Orion, kissed him on the cheek and followed after Edmund and Zeon. Grace grabbed both her sons by their ears and pulled them away, the twins calling out in pain the whole way. Pax frowned and looked at Ratchet and Orion. "I want to help."

"Pax." Orion raised an eyebrow. "I think it would be better if you went back to the house, we don't need any more kids disappearing."

Pax crossed her arms and huffed. "He's my friend and cousin. I want to look for him."

"I don't think so, little miss," Orion told her, firm. "Your mother would skin me alive if I let you help search." He pointed toward the house. "Go on now before I have to make you." Pax's cheeks puffed up and her eyes narrowed before she turned and stomped away back to the house.

Ratchet sighed and pulled out a flashlight. "Come on," he looked to Orion. "Before his tracks have a chance to disappear." The search party expanded from that point, looking for any trace of the mini Ratchet.

Orion and Ratchet were walking toward the house when something caught Orion's eye. A footprint, but something about it was odd. It did have a faint tread, like their shoes, but some of the treads were worn away like someone with a big flat foot had stepped into the footprint. A little further away from the footprint Ratchet picked up a small device that was accidentally or purposefully left there.

"The Orb of Gratuitous Immobilization." Ratchet sighed. He picked up the small device and pocketed it. "Come on, Orion." Ratchet got up and started to walk to the garage. "I know where we need to go."

Orion followed, the name of the device sounding familiar. "Don't tell me."

In an undisclosed location….

"How many times do I have to tell you," Virgil, hung upside down, scolded his captor. "My name isn't Ratchet." He sighed and wrangled around to try to escape.

His captor was a tall lanky robot with a shorter wider robot in a suit. "Very funny," Nefarious clapped his hands together. "Since that Orion took over for you, it just hasn't been any fun trying to take over the universe."

"Orion?" Virgil questioned, laughing a little. "You mean my Dad."

Nefarious blinked and looked at Virgil closely. "Your Dad?"

"Yeah." Virgil smiled. "Orion is my Dad, I think you have me mistaken for my Grandpa Ratchet." Virgil, unfortunately, started to spin slowly around in his restraints.

Nefarious stepped back, surprised. "Grandpa?" He yelled for Lawrence, who was right behind him and demanded to know the meaning of this. Capturing his enemy's grandson.

"Oh, yes, sir." Lawrence produced several items from his lapel. "I may have forgotten to give you these." A wedding invitation to Kori and Ratchet's wedding, birth announcements for Claire, Franklin, Ian, Liza, and Rosie, a wedding invitation to Claire and Orion's wedding, and birth announcements for Simon and Virgil.

Nefarious scowled at Lawrence. Virgil looked around Nefarious to laugh. "You don't check your mail very often do you?" The young lombax turned toward the wall, still laughing. "And you're my grandpa's enemy but he invited you to his wedding."

Orion was driving the ship. "Why would Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence take Virgil?"

"He's kind of nuts." Ratchet shrugged. "If you hadn't noticed already."

Orion shrugged but turned the ship slightly to go to Nefarious' "secret" base. "He's just a kid, he hasn't done anything to deserve to be kidnapped by a mad scientist." Orion sighed and shook his head. "Virgil's the least of the troublemakers out of the two."

"That you know of." Ratchet smirked. "He's your kid so he probably did something."

"He better not of." Claire's voice came from behind them, startling both Orion and Ratchet.

The two turned around to see Claire behind them in the back seat. "Claire!" Ratchet scolded, "What are you doing here?"

"Getting my son back." Claire simply said.

Orion looked forward to not run into anything. "Claire, I can handle getting Virgil back." He frowned. "You don't have nanotech, and you've never faced Dr. Nefarious."

"I don't care." Claire frowned.

Ratchet scolded his daughter, frowning deeply. "What about Simon? Your other son?"

Orion nodded. "Yeah, he could have broken his leg from that fall."

"He did," Claire raised an eyebrow. "He broke his tibia, he's mostly heartbroken he won't be allowed to play any contact sports until it's healed." She crossed her arms and turned away. "Leigh gave him painkillers and he went to bed, Mom said I had to check on you two boneheads to make sure you weren't getting into trouble."

Ratchet and Orion sighed. Orion glanced at Ratchet. "We don't have time to take her back home."

"But we can't just bring her along." Ratchet frowned. "Claire hasn't been off planet since she was a teenager."

Claire scoffed and kicked her father's seat. "I can hear you."

Orion raised an eyebrow at his wife. "And we're just trying to look out for you. I've been properly trained to handle this, Claire. I can get Virgil."

"I guess we all will." Ratchet facepalmed. "Because we're here."

The small group entered in through the front entrance because all three of them agreed the trash entrance was too small. They traveled through the complex, Claire forbidden from doing any fighting, and found a big room with Virgil hanging from the ceiling with Nefarious and Lawrence standing not too far away.

"Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!" Virgil squirmed a little. "Hi, Grandpa!"

Nefarious looked between Virgil and Ratchet. "You got old." He commented to Ratchet.

"Haven't heard that before." Ratchet rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips. "Can I have my grandson back?"

Virgil smiled, "Please, the blood is rushing to my head." Unfortunately, Virgil was still upside down and spinning.

"Are you okay, Virgil?" Claire walked past Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence to check on Virgil. She petted his head and looked at the ropes that were holding him.

Nefarious looked between Claire and Ratchet, pointing at Claire and Virgil. Ratchet shrugged. "Nefarious, this is my daughter Claire." He smiled a little bit. "She's Orion's wife as well."

"Yeah," Orion smirked. "My darling wife." He turned to Nefarious. "Any reason you kidnapped my son?"

Nefarious scratched his head. "How does he look so much like you?"

Orion smiled. "I have another son that almost looks like Alister." He smiled sadly, "Unfortunately Simon doesn't really remember Alister."

"Can we get Virgil down?" Claire frowned.

Orion brought out his crossbow and shot the rope that held Virgil up. Claire caught Virgil's shoulders to keep him from falling onto his head. Claire smiled and untied Virgil. "There you go, sweetheart." Then she turned to Nefarious and Lawrence, her happiness dissolving into anger. Virgil ran to hide behind his father.

"Now, Claire." Ratchet held up his hands, laughing nervously. "Let's not act without thinking."

Claire cocked back her fist and punched Nefarious square in the nose. "Don't touch my son again." She growled. Nefarious bounced back, clanking and sputtering.

Ratchet, Orion, and Virgil all exchanged glances before they watched Claire walk past them to get back to the ship.

"Take Virgil to the ship Orion," Ratchet smirked. "I'll be right there."

Virgil smiled and followed his father back to the ship. "Can you show me how to use your crossbow, Dad?"

"I don't think your Mom would like that, Bud." Orion messed up Virgil's hair, smiling.

Ratchet smirked a little but circled back with Lawrence. He made sure Nefarious was still okay and apologized for Claire, especially on the fact she may have knocked Nefarious' circuits out of place. Ratchet said goodbye and went out to the ship to find Virgil telling his parents all about how he was captured.

Ratchet smiled to himself, Virgil did look just like him and as the 14-year-old told his parents the story with such energy it was easy to imagine Virgil taking over for his father.

"Grandpa," Virgil smiled. "Did you do this sort of stuff all the time when you were my age?"

Ratchet laughed. "Not quite your age." He shook his head and climbed into the driver seat of the ship. "I was a little older than your brother."

"Really?" Virgil climbed up into the ship, sitting shotgun. "I can't wait to tell Nessa and Pax about this."

Orion laughed and helped Claire into the ship, sitting behind their son. They watched as their son asked Ratchet to recount the story of how he saved the Solana galaxy, even though the kid had probably heard it at least a hundred times by the time he was 8 months old.

Ratchet drove the family home, Kori was very happy to have darling Virgil back. Claire and Kori escorted Virgil back into the house, keeping the bouncing kid in check. "Pax and Nessa are gonna die when they hear I got kidnapped by a bad guy!"

"No, bedtime." Claire smiled.

Virgil stopped and slumped his shoulders. "Aw, Mom." He huffed a little bit. "It's not even that late."

"Bedtime." Claire shook her head and put her hands on her hips, her smile mischievous but stern. "No discussion."

Virgil pouted. "Aw…" Virgil turned to his dad and grandfather, who still stood by the ship. "Can I stay up, Dad?"

Orion held up his hands, smiling as he stepped back. "I'd listen to your Mom."

Virgil sighed and crossed his arms across his chest. "It's not fair."

"One of us has school in the morning." Claire gently took her son's shoulders and pointed him to the house. "And I want you bright eyed and bushy tailed when morning comes around."

Virgil complied with his mother and grandmother, pointing out how he couldn't be bushy tailed. Their tails couldn't possibly be bushy. Orion was about to follow them into the house when Ratchet held him back.

"We need to talk," Ratchet told Orion. "I think Virgil should take over after you."

Orion frowned at Ratchet, both of them moving closer to the ship. "What are you talking about?"

"Listen," Ratchet grabbed Orion's ear, "with your big ears." Ratchet sighed and shook his head, letting go of Orion's ear. "You won't be young forever, and heck you're not young anymore now. I think we should start training Virgil to take over for you."

Orion raised an eyebrow at his father-in-law, rubbing his ear. "Virgil's still a kid." He crossed his arms and leaned on the ship. "Plus Simon is the eldest, don't you think he should do it? And I mean he has the build for it."

"Neither of us have 'the build for it'." Ratchet pointed out how both of them were on the skinny side. "I think Virgil has the bite for it. He was just captured but he acts like it was nothing."

Orion looked off toward the house. "I chose this life and you were forced into it," he rubbed his brow and sighed. "If Virgil wants to do it then sure, but if he doesn't then we need to respect that decision."

Kori appeared at the door. "Boys, come on inside." She called for them.

"We'll be right there," Ratchet called back before turning back to Orion. "We probably shouldn't tell our wives we had this discussion."

Orion shook his head. "Claire will do much worse to me than Kori will do to you." He smiled a little. "You see that hit she got in on Nefarious? I don't want that."

"She always was tough." Ratchet started back to the house, Orion following him. "But hey, you married her."

Orion laughed a little. "Best decision I ever made. I never did thank you for letting her go to the Lombax Dimension."

"Like my father said." Ratchet smiled, lightly punching Orion's arm. "Polaris was never big enough for us, she would have found her way to you one way or another. Like Kori did for me."


Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave me a review and again, thanks so much. See you next time! Bye!