A.N.: Rift Apart is GORGEOUS and definitely worth getting the PS5 for and after watching all the other games' cutscense while now slowly watching Snapcube's streams of them, this all came to me suddenly. Wrote a very rough draft for it in hand writing but changed a lot that I liked better as I thought of it when I typed it up. Enjoy~!
Oh Dear.
Damaged again. Clank wasn't even sure how it happened this time as that part of his memory banks seemed to be wiped clean… but in a way that a very powerful magnet could have grabbed him by that specific part of his head to wipe out the memories leading up to his being damaged this time.
He ran a quick diagnostics without opening his optic lids, and thankfully he did not lose the arm that Rivet was nice enough to build for him. Unfortunately his legs were stuck again, and his …. Oh dear. His voice box was damaged as well.
Suddenly the rest of his sensors picked up his surroundings and he felt his legs pop out again, along with a chuckle he didn't recognize.
"He really is like a toaster, reminds me of you, Boltaire." Came a voice he also did not recognize, nor could he distinguish the gender of for that matter but it matched the chuckle a micro second ago.
Then Clank heard a series of beeps whirrs and whizzes from his left, obviously from a fellow robot, offhand it was either Audible Binary or Dechadroid and he was just able to translate it easily enough. It translated to merely mentioning that he was awake but playing dead for the moment.
"I'm well aware of that, mate. I heard him start up and do a diagnostics a few ticks ago. Did ya ferget these big Lombax ears of mine hear plenty of decibles and aren't just fer decoration?"
That made Clank open his optic lids wide. The sight he was met with was equally as startling as the Lombax before him was also around Ratchet and Rivet's age range but the coloring was what through him for a few loops.
This Lombax was teal furred with dark black stripes, their nose however was half and half of black on their right and pink on their left. Their eyes were a splendid chocolate brown, and they had a hoop earring on each of their large ears. They were wearing a set of glasses that manually had different settings of magnifying range over a red bandana with the Ardolis pirates logo, but the logo was a bit modified to include Lombax ears. Clank couldn't help but find that fascinating. A glance to his left told him exactly why.
The robot was clearly another dimensional version of him given the same shape of the optics with optic lids despite the color being brown which unfortunately clashed a little with the copper plating but oxidized to green in parts, obviously due to living on the ocean. The fascinating factor here however was all the clockwork gear decorations on the fellow robot, reminding him of a Secret Agent Clank episode where he had to traverse a steampunk setting. Boltaire, as Clank remembered this robot being referred to, also had an old fashioned antenna that reminded him of an ancient form of satellite. It did not look like it would bend flexibly like his own.
"Well howdy there, XJ-0461, sorry couldn't help but read your serial number while I was fixing up whatever I could find that needed fixing in your ion radiator. I assume I really got your attention just by mentioning my species. Therefore, I can only hopefully assume correctly that you already have a friend who's a Lombax and is the last of their kind as well. Boltaire here has a similar serial number as yours, being that of BK-2461, so that leads me to believe that you're Boltaire's dimensional counterpart."
Clank could only nod but looked to Boltaire and tried something, he put binary numbers in his optics as a cheap attempt to interface. It seemed to work for as soon as Clank finished Boltaire turned to their Lombax friend and translated.
"He says he and his Lombax partner aren't the only dimensional counterparts, and they just met female dimensional counterparts to themselves who weren't even partners to each other yet until they accidentally ended up in their dimension."
The Lombax cringed but smiled with an exasperated shake of their head.
"Guess we round up the numbers in many ways of speaking, huh, Bolts."
Boltaire nodded with a few whizzes that sounded exactly like Clank's own chuckle (and by extension his father's) as well as Kit's, it made him wonder if they both had their own Orvus for a father, or perhaps funnily enough it was just Orvus and the three of them were in a strange dimensional way, siblings.
"Gah, where are my manners? I forgot ta introduce myself! I'm the Songbird Captain Wrench the Lombax of the Ardolis pirates. A long title I know, but I wear it like a badge of honor considering I've lived here my whole life and had ta defeat Captain Slash to even get the title, I really didn't want to cut him down ta size but he was getting too greedy at times and ta think it was already bad when he defeated good ol' Captain Darkwaters just ta be in charge. I only challenged him finally when I was of age and ready to make more honorable changes. Oh, and I may biologically be female and Boltaire here was designed ta be male but neither of us care for gender norms. I'm genderfluid and Boltaire is straight up non-binary, so we both go by they and them pronouns, though I myself will also accept both the male and female pronouns." The teal Lombax explained, and Clank catalogued the new information into his databanks.
Then Wrench leaned forward a bit to rest their chin on their interlocked fingers, of which Clank just noticed the left hand was robotic, but unlike Rivet, the rest of the arm was organic.
"But enough about us, I've fixed up everything but yer poor voice box. Sorry, lad, I don't have the parts fer that, never thought to have any since my entire crew is careful enough to not have that part of them damaged despite constantly losing their own heads in the heat of battle, literally at times, so you'll have to have Boltaire translate fer ya despite him not even having a voice box that speaks Common. I can understand his Dechadroid just fine though, Captain Darkwaters taught it ta me long before he passed. Came in handy when I met Boltaire years later. Regardless, the point I really wanted ta get to was your perfectly functioning comms. Do ya want me ta talk ta yer Lombax pal on the other end for ya and see if he can get ya a new voice box unit?"
Clank nodded then turned to Boltaire for another translation to add a few things.
"My name is Clank, and his name is Ratchet and please tell him you're a Lombax too, it will ease his nerves, as we have been separated one too many times for his liking… probably."
"The Great Clock incident happen ta you too, mate?" Wrench guessed cheekily.
Clank's jaw plate dropped in astonishment.
"Lucky guess really, happened ta us too, right after that Percy Tackypawn fellow ended up here in our dimension before Professor Nefarious sent him packing to, specifically Dimension A2-66 with his Portalizer, so he should be on a planet fragment tucked away in the middle of nowhere….Your dad wouldn't happen to be named Orvus would he?"
Clank nodded in astonishment of the given differences and similarities and the fact that Emperor Tachyon, his Tachyon, ended up here briefly, and that his father was somehow here too.
Wrench leaned over to Boltaire with a cheeky grin and said "Ya owe me five hundred bolts, yer siblings after all." Then let Clank press his communications button to start contacting Ratchet.
"Ratchet, are ye able ta read me, lad?"
"Yeah, I hear you…who is this?" Ratchet asked skeptically after two or three seconds.
"This is a fellow Lombax here with Clank, my name's Wrench. His voice box is damaged and I don't have the parts ta fix that but the rest of him is a-okay. We're on Ardolis, I'll tell my crew ta stand down and let ya through ta come pick him up. My security sentries should be slacking a bit anyways since today is Fix-it Friday where I do repair jobs on all of my crew members that need it. I'm the Captain of them adorable robotic scallywags so I can't just leave without notice too easily... That and I don't trust my second mate Rusty Peter to handle repairs anytime I really do have to leave on Fix-it Fridays."
"Ardolis, got it. Thanks for taking care of Clank, and reaching out, and fixing what you could, I'll get a new voice box part for him so I'll be a bit. Uh, by the way, any dangers in your dimension I should be wary of?"
"The Prog twins took Professor Nefarious' Portalizer sometime after Nefta broke Vendrin out of the prison ship on its way to Vartax. They succeeded in using it to bring the rest of their kind to this dimension. Unfortunately, my crew is extremely susceptible to possession by the Nethers, even with my own little first mate, Boltaire, we haven't been able to turn the tide very well. So in short, beware of ghosts."
"Great, the Nethers again, thanks for the heads up. Clank, hang in there a little longer buddy, as soon as I get that voice box part, Rivet, Kit and I are coming right for ya. Oh, and Wrench was it? We'll help turn the tide a little while we're at it. And uh, just out of mild curiosity, what kind of omnitool do you use as a go to in battle?"
"Omnipliers, detachable so I can duel wield them like a pair of swords. You?" Wrench replied with a grin and couldn't help but ask back.
"Funnily enough, an omniwrench, oh, but Rivet uses an omnihammer." Ratchet revealed with an amused chuckle.
"Nice, oh and if you see a guy in an orange superhero costume, that's Captain Quadratic, you have my permission to kill him for me if he gets in your way or does something insanely stupid."
"Oh lovely, you have a Captain Quark and Captain Quantum too? Well if he gets in my way, I'll give him a good punch for ya, no promises on the killing though."
"Fair enough. Clank's giving a sad smile at his chassis where his speakers are I think… he misses you too." Ratchet could hear the gentle smile in Wrench's voice.
"I miss you more buddy, hang in there for me." Wrench could hear the sad but glad his friend was safe smile in Ratchet's voice.
"He understands, you be careful out there, Ratchet, give them Nethers a run for their bolts fer me out there."
"Will do, over and out." Ratchet replied and cut the communication.
Unknowingly they both sighed in awe and said the same thing at the exact same time, Ratchet more bewildered since it was another Lombax encounter so soon after Rivet even.
"Wow, another Lombax."
If Clank could chuckle, he would have at the irony of the line happening again.
"Rivet, Kit, did you two get all that?" Ratchet hailed them directly since both Lombaxes still had their imperial starships from Rivet's dimension.
"Sure did, holy Zoni what are the odds that we'd find yet another version of ourselves I think? I mean it sounded like their mention of Boltaire was their version of Clank and Kit. They even have their own Pierre!" Rivet replied excitedly.
"Indeed, there was no deception that I could detect, and the signal did come from Clank's communications unit on this dimension's Ardolis. I suspect this Wrench character fixed quite a bit of damage that Clank must have sustained after Captains Quark and Quantum tripped over our Dimensionator." Kit added.
"Didn't it also sound like their Nefarious made his own version of the Dimensionator? How crazy of a coincidence is that?" Rivet marveled.
"Yeah, I'm getting some weird déjà vu from hearing the name of the Portalizer, and something about a pizza dimension with 367 toppings." Ratchet replied, realized what he said and started drooling. Unsurprisingly there was a pause over the comms and maybe a grumble from Rivet's stomach. Which Kit couldn't help but glance at.
"Welp, I certainly could go for pizza right now. How about Kit and I get the Pizza and you get the voice box part for Clank. Any preferences for toppings?"
"Sounds good to me, no preferences except no pineapple." Ratchet told her excitedly.
Another pause.
"Two pizzas it is then, 'cause I'm getting the pineapple one." Rivet replied cheerfully. Kit chuckled at her enthusiasm.
"Suit yourself, meet you two later in Ardolis." Ratchet said before cutting the connection after the girls said their equally excited goodbyes after the turn of events.
The universe really did have quite the sense of humor.