Clank wasn't even aware that he had even gone into sleep mode until he woke up to the sound of singing. Judging by the octave range being that of a Mezzosoprano and remembering where he was, the voice most likely belonged to his new Lombax acquaintance, Wrench. Oh, what a range they had, they just reached tenor flawlessly on a low note. Even though he wasn't familiar with what they were singing, they had a lovely singing voice. If only they were around back when he was still filming Secret Agent Clank, the director would have loved to have Wrench as a background lounge singer during any scene in a fancy restaurant when things were bound to get dicey.
Regardless, Clank opened his optics to find Captain Wrench cleaning the oxidation stains and smudges off of Boltaire who was in a little barrel tub, using simple ingredients such as vinegar, lemons, tomatoes, salt, and flour, but off to the side was a bottle of virgin olive oil and lemon juice. The latter two items must be the solution to prevent oxidation from happening too quickly.
The two were a few feet away and now that Clank was able to see more of Wrench's figure fully noticed a number of things. The first was that they had a pony tail, much like a certain Angela Cross from a number of years ago, however where Angela lacked a proper tail on her rear, Wrench did have one, and much like the fact that they were a different kind of Lombax such as Rivet, their tail was different as well, thin like Ratchet's but with a little more fluff to it in a wispy sense, it was also shorter than both Ratchet's and Rivet's to a point that he had to squint to see if he really was seeing a stubbiness to it as if it had been cut short five inches in a battle at some point in Wrench's life. Their figure as a whole was also quite lithe and slim, similar to Rivet's to reveal their true biological nature as they were so kind to admit, but there was still some muscle from a lifetime's worth of fighting, and that aspect reminded Clank of Ratchet.
"Mornin' sleepy bot. I hope that ridge on the top of your head really was a solar panel to help you charge up in case you can't get to a charging station right away. How's yer battery doing?" Wrench asked curiously after finishing the song.
Clank looked down at himself and blinked, and found that his battery was at 99 percent. He gave two thumbs up in response as he also found that his voice box was still out of commission. Ratchet had not returned yet and his internal clock told him it was already the next day.
"That's great! I'm so glad I assumed correctly. Wanna help rub out the oxidation spots on Boltaire? I could always use a second pair of eyes to even see the spots. Then I'll make a lacquer for you to polish yourself if you want since you're our guest."
Clank would have chuckled in glee at the suggestion if he were able, as it had been a while since he polished himself since he went on that last adventure mostly with Rivet before finally rejoining with Ratchet for the last legs of it. Sargasso most likely left a mark somewhere on him even if Rivet's Ardolis probably washed it out, then there was the dust of the catacombs of Savali. He shivered at remembering all those bone creatures, and he did not regret swearing at the sudden appearance of that undead grunthor. Ratchet agreed all too well with him for the foul choice of words anyway since he did all the fighting.
In any case Clank nodded eagerly at the Lombax captain, and hopped up to another nearby bar stool and scanned Boltaire for all remaining oxidation spots.
Wrench handed him a half of a lemon that was dipped in salt so he could get to scrubbing, then turned to another table to put a record under a needle and hit a button near the record player. Piano music started trilling the air shortly followed by some string instruments.
"Singing Saturday." Wrench explained shortly but continued a little for more explanation. "I just put on our favorite of Pirate anthems so forgive me as I sing along."
Clank used his optics to project binary to Boltaire to translate.
"He says he's more than happy to learn a sea shanty from the beginning, especially after hearing the tail end of your wondrous singing. Of which I myself, not translating, am also always happy to hear."
"Thank you both." Wrench replied with a very wide and flattered smile, patting Boltaire's head fondly, while giving an appreciative nod to Clank before they started singing melodic 'yo-hos' at first before getting to the actual first verse. "Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship up Bink's brew…"
It was a lovely little ditty that Clank thoroughly enjoyed and very much wished he could have hummed along. Even though there were a surprising amount of verses, he memorized the song easily enough and recorded it for extra measure. He was especially fond of the second to last verse about memories and fleeting time spent with others. It reminded him of how he initially felt about when his time with Ratchet is finally up and he would eventually go back to the Great Clock, but that was still a long ways off from now.
Then he realized why there was a slight echo from outside, the three of them were in the pirate radio tower, and when the song finished he heard whoops and cheers from pirates all over the pirate base from outside.
"That was a live rendition of Bink's Brew by yours truly, your Captain. And remember, mateys, if ya see any other Lombaxes they are not to be harmed and ta be lead straight ta me. I have someone in my hospitality that they're looking for. Until then, get another keg of grog fer yerselves, ya all deserve it!" Wrench put out cheerfully over the intercom around Ardolis and of the radio station itself.
More cheers and hoots and hollers could be heard from outside.
Coincidentally they had also finished cleansing Boltaire of all the oxidation grime, confirmed by Clank with a nod when Captain Wrench asked if that was the last of it.
"Alright then, Clank, your turn." Wrench said simply, and dumped the little barrel tub out the door after Boltaire hopped down.
Clank jumped at that, having forgotten a little about the offer and honestly didn't think they would follow through.
"Wrench meant it when they offered, plus I will admit we are buttering you up a bit so they can give you a couple of customized upgrades. One of which you will need considering neither of us like the fact that it has technically been too long since your friends contacted, the other is optional but we think you will enjoy it nonetheless." Boltaire told him comfortingly.
"Bolt! Stop revealing surprises!" Wrench scolded in irritation but the small smirk betrayed their true emotions.
Wrench gave a sigh of exasperation before asking what Clank's plating was made out of and after hearing that it was Raritanium, gave a surprised look and commented that they were impressed that the color didn't turn out blue or purple, then another factor popped in their head as a swift breeze passed through the open door.
"Ah, bloody fudge, there's a storm on the way, and I know Raritanium is conductive as all get out. Have ta close the door now ta be safe."
Clank tilted his head at how they were able to perceive that just from a gust of wind, and his optics widened upon seeing the storm clouds already raining down on the open ocean off on the horizon. A second gust came in before Wrench closed the door and his internal weather scanners finally picked up the weather change incoming within the next two hours.
"It is an organic ability that I do believe is only sometimes faster than a robot's sensors. Sometimes they can smell it faster than feel it. Scientifically, it is just the burning of the ozone from the lightning in the clouds in the distance but the smells Wrench tends to describe makes me question it at times." Boltaire explained for Clank.
"Smells different every time, but once it smelled like junk food and another time like freshly cut grass." Wrench added preparing a new little bath for Clank.
"By the way, Clank. I cannot help but be curious about the differences in our dimensions. Would you be willing to indulge us with tales of how your journey with your Lombax partner started?" Boltaire whizzed and whirled curiously, dipping a tomato in salt with a dash of vinegar for extra moisture.
Clank happily indulged starting all the way at the beginning on the day he was created on Quartu in the Solanna Galaxy and crash landed on Veldin where he met his beloved Lombax, and through a lot of trial and error of convincing a very much stubborn teenaged Ratchet to help save Solanna from the destructive machinations of the Blarg.
Boltaire had translated for Wrench as they read off of the binary in Clank's optics, and Wrench couldn't help but look back solemnly at Boltaire upon hearing of what Clank and Ratchet were able to do in saving the Solana Galaxy.
The non gender conforming pair decided to trade stories of all of their notable adventures as well, as well as the key differences in their dimension from whatever Clank told them of his dimension. For starters, here in this dimension Solana consisted of only two or three planets because the Blarg had succeeded in making their own planet and over powering Solana's galactic rangers. And of course, the blame fell entirely on Captain Quadratic since he was acting spokesperson for the Blarg. Somehow he kept escaping any law enforcement left that cared and eventually bumbled his way to hide in Polaris.
Wrench was here in Polaris their entire life and young enough to not have access to driving their own starship just yet, while Boltaire was created by mere happenstance on Torren IV with instructions to find any young Lombaxes in the galaxy. Which led them to Ardolis, though they crashed into the ocean and Wrench saved them out of curiosity.
They both became fast friends and because Boltaire was newly created, they had no animosity towards organics like the majority of the Ardolis pirates did under Captain Slash's reign, Wrench had a newfound confidence to battle the now late Captain and take over the Ardolis Pirates with a new first mate to literally watch their back. Rustbucket Peter was the only other supportive robot amongst the pirates, having been somewhat of a sympathetic uncle to Wrench since they were little but played both sides to stay on good terms with whoever was in charge. So Peter was made second mate at the very least as the bridge to the rest of the pirates who were still hesitant to follow an organic.
This dimension's Percival Tachyon had so thoroughly abandoned his own creations (the pirates) that he never checked up on them, hence why Wrench was safe for the entirety of their childhood until Wrench did decide to leave Ardolis to go on their first pillage as Captain for Lombax artifacts, namely the dimensionator, but it didn't exist anymore as it was already used by a tall female Lombax and a famous explorer by the name of Richard Satagee and they took it with them to whatever dimension they ended up in. However a dimensional opener was already being developed by the poorly named Professor Nefarious who was organic and preferred to be called Uncle Neffy by everyone he became friends with since he didn't have an evil bone in his body.
Clank found that immensely fascinating. However that fascination turned to horror when he learned about what happened to this dimension's Tachyon.
Because Wrench was officially the Captain of the Ardolis pirates, they had access to the IRIS supercomputer by right, and was easily able to access the knowledge of Tachyon's origins, that of a Cragmite, bane of the Polaris Galaxy's tyrannical rule that Lombaxes sealed away in another dimension, was found in a mine and raised by the Lombaxes. Wrench instantly saw the irony that Tachyon was going for, more so because of the similar circumstance of rising to power of some kind. The Lombax Pirate Captain wasn't going to stand for Tachyon's ironic upbringing and betrayal. So when the final battle came to pass between the last Lombax and the last Cragmite in this dimension, Wrench showed no mercy, even if Tachyon knew their mother, or their true name that they were given when they were born, that didn't matter to Wrench. What mattered was justice being served.
Served it was, as after the final bludgeoning blow was dealt, Wrench and Boltaire ejected the Cragmite's body into the blackhole by the Kreeli Comet. Wrench did read off Pirate burial rights since they didn't want to risk being haunted by the Cragmite. The second Tachyon clearly from a different dimension given that the Cragmite's head frills were red rather than blue was an unpleasant surprise. However, even to this day Wrench felt they were too merciful to that one by letting Uncle Neffy handle it by using his Portalizer to send this second Tachyon to a dimension of a single planetoid to be exiled on.
Regardless, Boltaire was then kidnapped by the Zoni and thus their Great Clock adventure started.
Clank eased back into fascination at the similar timeline of the adventure. Wrench had help from both the resources the pirates provided given the rights of being the Captain and further archeological help from the son of Richard Satagee, Tarrence.
Wrench was a bit upset that Rustbucket Peter had the gall to try to bring former Captain Slash back to life by sticking the severed head of Slash onto the body of former Captain Darkwaters. Peter was and still is relatively harmless though and so was forgiven under the condition to do a bunch of chores for the next year. However, it was more upsetting that Wrench couldn't get through to Darkwaters no matter how much they begged and pleaded, screaming the explanation for their situation of being desperate to get Boltaire back. Darkwaters was too adamant about protecting the Zoni and whatever knowledge traded with them stayed secret. Another notable difference was that Wrench kept the Fulcrum Star after using it to find that Boltaire was okay, but in stasis as the Zoni's teleporting had scrambled the poor robot's brain. The Zoni were receiving help from Technomites to fix Boltaire's brain, with the Technomite Emperor Otto Destruct being at the head of the project of fixing Boltaire.
Thus in place of Nefarious in Clank's dimension, it was the Technomites, having moved their entire civilization over to Polaris after the Blarg's success and news of Tachyon's defeat had spread, they had decided to grow bigger to be taken more seriously by galactic society, and even more worrying had learned about the Great Clock and had infiltrated it under the pretense of wanting to work on time based weapons for the sake of knowledge.
Otherwise the rest of the adventure to the Great Clock was similar, even Captain Quadratic had become somewhat of a friend after having been a suck up arena MC to Tachyon upon fleeing to Polaris. Although the Azimuth of this dimension was a woman by the name of Alyssa, she was every bit the same single mindedly driven old Lombax that Alister was. But where Ratchet wavered on willing to turn back time to meet his family and live in a timeline where he would have never met Clank…Wrench was too focused on Boltaire and had seen enough time travel holo media to know it was a bad idea from the get go.
Thus, they didn't stick with Alyssa Azimuth's goals, but followed along for the sake that she had been living in that part of the Polaris Galaxy that she had information Wrench needed. And because of the better in tact Fulcrum Star that Wrench had kept from the year prior, the connection lasted longer, and certain points were made painfully clear from the start. The Clock was not built to be able to alter time only keep it since it had been tampered with too many times already. The only exception for even a mere chance at going back in time would have to be the time anomalies on Fongoid inhabited planets, but they never went back further than a decade.
Azimuth was crushed at the revelation, but with Wrench having let slip earlier that there was another Dimensionator that was called the Portalizer, and that Tachyon was indeed dead, at least there was a hope of seeing what remained of the species. She at least accepted that the past, and her mistakes couldn't be rewritten so easily. Especially since Wrench noticed that the mistake of letting Tachyon have access to the Lombax technology haunted her enough that she wanted to have been a martyr rather than exiled, thus, Wrench offered to kill her in an honorable duel to atone for what she can't forgive herself for.
However, it never came to that, as the Technomites proved to be extremely formidable, and managed to overpower Azimuth making her a martyr then instead. Wrench barely won with their large arsenal of upgraded weapons; defeating the Technomite Emperor wasn't easy but at least Boltaire, the Clock, and the universe were safe. Then naturally, Wrench proposed to Boltaire, not wanting to be separated from the little bot ever again. Boltaire had said no at first wanting to fully devote themselves to taking care of the Clock like Orvus had asked, but Wrench insisted and was willing to stay in the Clock and help fix things even though the Chrono Scepter was more than enough to fix anything. Then Boltaire heard the entirety of Orvus' final message in the Orvus Chamber, copied the recording and decided to leave the Great Clock to Sigma -A113, the former Junior Caretaker, now Senior Caretaker.
"Then we got married and have been helping restore Polaris to be under galactic presidential rule than whatever the quiznack Tachyon was doing with it when he wasn't hunting down Lombaxes. Which leads us to this day and age, Terrance became the head of the Polaris Defence force and while he had asked us for help with transporting Vendrin Prog to Vartax, I was sick with a horrendous stomach bug, and…something bad happened along with Nefta breaking Vendrin out." Wrench finished explaining, trailing off at the end in their guilt.
"Clank says he already knows, because in their dimension, they were on board the prison transport ship and there was nothing they could've done to prevent their Cronk and Zephyr's death, they were flung out to space while the two old war bots were tied up. So Clank is asking that we don't feel bad for not being there for the results would have been the same." Boltaire translated.
"Thanks fer the sentiment, Clanker." Wrench replied gratefully. Clank giggled silently because of his lack of a voice box but was tickled to have another nickname from another Lombax.
They decided to show Clank the entirety of Orvus's last message from the Orvus Chamber as Clank had also expressed that he didn't stay to see the entirety of it.
Again, Clank was fascinated by the similarities and differences, as the message went as follows,
"Hello BK-2461! Or should I say, 'Boltaire'? Here in this very chamber, I watched over time. And now that you understand the power of the clock, I must ask that you protect it at all costs! For even the slightest misuse of its power can rip the very fabric of existence. The Clock, much like time itself, is a gift, and not to be tampered with! But like any father, my only wish is that my child does that which makes them feel whole. You are an intelligent, and logical being, Boltaire. But intelligence and logic would have been wasted gifts without honor, and loyalty. I am proud to see you came into those on your own. So, should the Clock be too small for your plans, I pray the cosmos light the way towards a future you yourself design. And remember, the universe has a wonderful sense of humor, the trick is learning how to take a joke." Orvus finished with a giggle.
It was exactly the same aside from the fact that it was Boltaire the message was directed at and the appropriate use of pronouns that Clank surmised that the rest that he hadn't heard before must have been the same in his dimension. Oh how he regretted not being able to hear the rest of it but if he hadn't left when he did, he would have missed Ratchet leaving entirely. It was nice to hear now that his father supported whatever decision he made even if he had teleported somewhere (from Nefarious and Otto Destruct dimensionally respectively).
"Incoming call from Mr. Satagee." Boltaire announced suddenly.
"Alright, put him through." Wrench relented with a sigh, finishing up the lacquer for Clank. There was a little projector that doubled as a flashlight that came out of Boltaire's chassis compartment and a hologram came to life showing the full body image of a Markazian male bearing an undeniable similarity to Clank's own Talwyn Apogee. "Captain Satagee, my sincerest condolences once again for your loss, but I am curious as to the occasion of this call."
"Thank you for the sentiment. Now, when were you going to tell me there were three other Lombaxes visiting our dimension, nevermind that they are helping with the fight against the Nethers, I'm more worried about why there was a child amongst them." Tarrence was clearly about to blow a gasket but remained as professional as possible.
"Wha-? Three?! CHILD?!" Wrench shrieked as high as a low soprano in shock, and instantly looked to Clank for some kind of explanation. Clank looked back but shook his head in equal confusion and held up two of his three fingers to indicate that he only knew of his two Lombaxes. "News to me I only knew about the older two from Clank here, Ratchet's little partner, so who's the kid?
Suddenly a bright pink Lombax child in a rather warm looking hat with straps that made him look like he was supposed to be a lumberjack came into view and started waving. And despite the coloration was clearly a little boy just on the verge of being a teenager as he simply wore teal cargo pants, and a harness to carry his rose gold robot partner that was clearly designed to be a girl given that she had flexible light bulbs that looked as if they were supposed to be twintail braids or something.
"Hi fellow Lombax! I'm Nugget, and this is Rosy!" The boy greeted cheerfully his gray irises shining with enthusiasm, moving his back to the side so Rosy could wave sheepishly with half lidded gray optics upturned at an angle to show that she was a bit embarrassed by all this.
The trio's jaws dropped, or Boltaire's would've if he had a jaw hatch. Eventually Wrench broke free of the stupor out of pure spite that a child was forced to weild a gun under whatever circumstances this kid's dimension was putting him through.
"Howdy, Nugget. I'm the Songbird Captain Wrench of the Ardolis pirates, this is my partner in crime and first mate, Boltaire, and this is Clank, Ratchet's little buddy."
"Oh, cool! We got the voice box part, but the Nethers have had us all tied up that we haven't had a chance to get away, even with Kit's awesome warbot form! We're about to strategize the final battle against Mr. Eyeball, wanna come?" Nugget explained excitedly, and even pantomimed finger guns to emphasize Kit's stronger form.
"I'm assuming this is happening on Igliak in Meridian City?" At Tarrence's nod, Wrench continued with a slight eye twitch. "Then I guess we'll be there in about half an hour, I have ta give Clanker here a customized upgrade - of a simple shield Captain Tarrance, the steam powered hoverboots will obviously have to wait if we're gonna give those Nethers what for." Wrench had to interrupt the Polaris Defense Force Captain before he could butt in.
"If you also have a spare set of shoes for Lombax feet, that would be nice." Tarrance did finally add once Wrench had finished.
Instantly Clank made motions of giggling but of course still couldn't be heard because of his lack of a voice box, and though Wrench caught it at the corner of their eye, their true line of sight went to Nugget and traveled down.
"I'm from Eudora which is a forest filled planet, I have to climb a lot of trees for my job." Nugget explained sheepishly, wiggling the three widespread toes.
"Imma get you a nice pair of my old boots, kiddo don't you worry." Wrench assured.
"Alright, half an hour we're counting on you, no more excuses, pirate captain." Tarrance reminded for the sake of it.
"Aye, I'm keeping my word, Boltaire and I will bring Clank, you keep the kid safe because you know how I feel about child soldiers, and we'll finally get the Nethers out of our dimension." Wrench agreed with a nod and was clearly keeping in a sigh of irritation.
Again, Clank thought cynically but of course couldn't say both physically and even figuratively since this wasn't his dimension.
"For Crank and Cyclos." Tarrance announced as a final goodbye.
"For Crank and Cyclos." Wrench and Boltaire agreed as the hologram feed shut off.
"Our dimension's version of your Cronk and Zephyr." Boltaire supplied for Clank. The latter of which, nodded in understanding and had to ask about the specifics of the curiouser upgrade, the steam powered hover boots that they didn't have time to implement.
"They're really more like rollerblades that have steam powered boosters, but they ended up being more versatile than even I expected, as they work wonders in the water when even Boltaire's hydro-pack can only go so fast." Wrench explained humbly, as they picked up the components they needed to make Clank's new holo-shield upgrade.
Clank smiled at that and relayed through Boltaire that he was looking forward to eventually getting that upgrade when the time came.