Clank was… in awe of a great deal of many things, of shoes, ships, the exact components of ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings, but those were neither here nor there, nor anywhere near as important as the things he had to comprehend upon being booted up again.

His internal clock told him that it had been a year and a half since he had last seen Ratchet, and that scared him more than anything, even more than the portals in the sky suggesting something had happened to the Dimensionator. Therefore it would be more accurate to say that he was disturbed by all that he could see that has happened, and all the implications of that which he did not know yet that most likely has happened since…this was the longest he had ever been apart from Ratchet…and he was not even conscious upon leaving his friend's side. He didn't want to believe any of it, especially the time his internal clock was telling him.

"Uh, hi…I'm Rivet. I'm from a different dimension, and an organic Dr. Nefarious who's a good guy to the point of calling himself something cute and stupid as Uncle Neffy somehow got a hold of you and gave you to me as a Christmas present this year for safe keeping, along with some Phase Quartz he told me to infuse in my glove, and didn't explain why. But he also said you could help me with my dimension's actual version of Nefarious who is a robotic tyrant and still conquering everything he can get his grubby metal hands on and roboticizing anyone who's organic and not loyal yet, especially if they get sent to Zordoom. But it's obvious you've got more of your own problems that I need to help you with since I'm stuck here until a way back to my dimension is clear." Rivet greeted and explained slowly, since he was clearly in shock.

It was the first time since the Zurkon family that Rivet had ever seen emotion in a robot. It was interesting…he even looked sad, a very rare emotion to see in robots. That made him endearing.

"It is nice to meet you Rivet, I am Clank. Since my friend Ratchet is also a Lombax, I hope that you are able to meet him sometime soon. Though I do wish you and I could have met under better circumstances, I am sorry if I was any trouble even in my incapacitated state."

"No need to be sorry for what you can't, er, couldn't control." Rivet replied awkwardly, not knowing how best she could have worded it in the first place, especially since she had to hope to high heavens that he didn't have any security footage that records his surroundings when he's unconscious. She did threaten to melt him down to make better parts after all.

Clank merely gave a sad, accepting smile and a nod before turning to Talwyn.

"Miss Apogee, my internal clock seems to state that it has been a year and a half since I have last seen Ratchet. Would you say that is accurate?"

"That can't be right, even though it's felt more like a full two years really, especially with trying to wrangle Ratchet into…staying relatively healthy, its only been two and a half months at the least. He missed you a lot and has been trying to find you ever since you disappeared. But it seems like things only got worse, Tachyon has captured your father, but that's all I know since I've been trying to keep my post here since my own father is missing."

"Oh, dear. My sincerest condolences about your father….It is so strange for my internal clock to be wrong… I certainly hope that doesn't mean…" Clank trailed off and worried about the Great Clock's safety, his circuits filled with dread. It was bad enough that something had clearly happened to the Dimensionator, but the Clock and time itself could not handle being tampered with further.

"Miss Apogee, do you know where I can find Ratchet?"

"Not precisely…However, by the sound of the same dubious source I got the info about your father from, it sounded like he was still in the Breegus Nebula and its surrounding systems somewhere. I myself can only support him by phoning in messages to be played in radio commercials." Talwyn explained earnestly.

"Oh dear. I can only contact Aphelion to let her and Ratchet know that I am safe but I do not have the time to wait for a pick up. Where are we anyway?" Clank mused to himself as he pulled out his info tablet to look at the current star maps.

"We're on the Kreeli Comet," Talwyn answered for him before the information could load on the tablet. "I came by to visit the IRIS to see if she could help me locate Captain Slag, but I already found him so I might as well go ask to see if she can help me find my father, I just really hope the Kerchu didn't do him in along with the tall Lombax girl he was with. Sorry I forgot to clarify that a bit more specifically to you, Rivet." Talwyn referred to not explaining where they were before.

"It's okay, there's a lot happening and it's a lot to take in all at once." Rivet replied understandingly. Clank then gasped at something Talwyn had said.

"Kerchu? Miss Apogee, if there is a chance that they survived, then they must have teleported to another dimension. The original hat version of the Dimensionator was being held in Kerchu City for safe keeping. The portal anomalies in the sky are from the Dimensionator that I made and modified into a gun from scratch." Clank explained before turning to Rivet. "Miss Rivet, because the IRIS is a supercomputer and this comet was formerly a pirate base before Miss Apogee won its territory fair and square, we can get both a ship left over from the pirates and coordinates to your dimension. Getting you home might take a bit however as we have to find out what happened to the Dimensionator that I made."

"That's alright, it's two steps better than nothing. Besides, I'm always up for stealing a pirate ship, they're annoying in my dimension too!" Rivet told him cheerfully.

Xxxxxxxxx

Speaking of pirates, elsewhere Captain Romulus Slag was already annoyed by other matters once he and Pete reached his own private ship. By the looks of the call log, he'd been called nine times…by Tachyon. He was calling again now, making it ten.

"Let me do the talking, Pete. If he actually has scanners this far out and wants details on that Lombax Lass, just tell him what she looks like." Slag warned dutifully.

Rusty Pete could only nod in agreement, before Slag answered the call.

"There you are!" Tachyon's God awful high pitched voice shrilled immediately through the holo call. "I hope your delay was due to subduing whatever Lombax popped up on one of my general's scanners, because now I feel the need to remind you that any Lombax found must be brought back to me alive!"

Especially since more Lombaxes have been popping up because of the dimensional rifts everywhere as of late. Most notably all that have been reported seemed to be dimensional variants of the Dimensionator Keeper's son and the Zoni Prince specifically… but that all went unspoken, though heavily implied as Tachyon's bloodlust was reignited tenfold as soon as reports of singular Lombaxes with a small robot companion started coming in.

"She's alive alright, yer graciousness, feistiest one in a long while. You'll be pleased to end her in battle when we are able to capture her, she's in Apogee's territory at the moment and Her Majesty made it clear that so long as that Lombax was in her territory she would protect her with her life." Captain Slag offered vaguely.

"Fair enough, so long as we get to her before Nefarious does, I will be satisfied when the time comes. Any sightings of the Zoni Prince?"

"Two birds with one stone, yer graciousness, we found him with this Lombax, and as soon as they're out of Apogee territory, we're bringing them straight to ye."

"Excellent! I knew I made the right choice in rehiring you to find me more Lombaxes to kill…and steal any technologies you come across. Ah, that reminds me, I've been hearing some chatter that there's actually a Lombax pirate Captain flittering about, you wouldn't happen to have any more than that would you?"

"Nothing more than what our dimensional variants that serve said Lombax captain I'm afraid. Rest be assured yer graciousness, as soon as we find that one, I can't guarantee how barely alive they will be when I'm through with them." Slag warned menacingly with a scowl, but not at the emperor.

"I expect nothing less from you my dear Captain Romulus, just please remember to keep them a few inches from death, I want to make the killing blow myself." Tachyon cooed already reveling in wanting to see the light fade from another Lombax's eyes.

"Always yer graciousness." Slag bowed his head respectfully, as Tachyon ended the holo-call.

The sigh of relief wafted between Captain Slag and Rusty Pete. Regardless, all they could do was lift off the comet and wait just outside of Apogee's territory.

Xxxx

The IRIS was a hit and a miss. She was able to give the coordinates to Rivet's dimension, however, Max Apogee and the tall Lombax girl who was identified as Angela Cross, ended up in the dimension the Lombaxes escaped to after Tachyon's betrayal. Coordinates that were erased from the IRIS' data banks. But at least Rivet was able to get a history lesson out of it and would be able to get home when the time came.

Until then, she had another Emperor to deal with but at least this one was an organic…which was more promising than the metal one she usually dealt with on a daily basis. Though the downside that came with this Emperor made things ten times more personal on account of this being the very being that drove away any remaining Lombaxes that weren't massacred in the initial attack on Fastoon and hunted down any other stragglers at a very successful rate. Scary new emperor to her or not, this short statured bug in a high chair was going down.

Regardless, as soon as the trio reached the docks that held the leftover pirate starships, one had already started up and was about to take off, but it hesitated and pulled back into port again.

Talwyn had her blaster at the ready and aimed at the lowering ramp royally ordering whoever was inside to come out with their hands up.

Rivet pulled out her Burst Pistol and aimed as well, while Clank merely took on a defensive stance.

The surrendering duo or quartet as it turned out on a closer look, shocked our trio more than anything else this day could throw at them.

Two Lombaxes came out with their hands up, each with a second pair of hands from small robots on their backs. The taller of the two Lombaxes was clearly around Rivet's age and wore leathery garbs of a pirate captain. They had teal colored fur and black stripes with the biggest chocolate brown eyes anyone had ever seen. Their nose was half dark like their stripes and half pink. The small robot on their back had copper plating and unfortunately it clashed with their brown optics. There was an antenna that didn't look very flexible attached to the robot's head, and there were golden gears decorating their chassis.

Meanwhile the smaller of the two Lombaxes was clearly a child, and came up to the taller one's hip in size, and despite having pink fur with magenta stripes, the child was clearly a boy judging by the meger attire of green cargo pants and a harness to carry his robot friend who was a lovely rose gold in plating color. The pair had gray irises and optics respectively. The robot was also clearly designed to be a girl as she had flexible helix shaped light fixtures on her head that gave the impression of twin tail braids.

And as Clank zoomed in on the fellow robots with his optics, he couldn't help but notice the uncanny mirroring of his own visage… from both of them! All in the distinct circular shape of their heads and optics, never mind that the copper one didn't seem to have a jaw hatch like Clank himself or the rose gold robot.

The sight alone couldn't have been more uncanny but it was what the taller of the two Lombaxes said that threw our trio for a loop.

"Rivet, lass? Do you recognise us?"