The morning finally dawned.

Ratchet was the first one to be awakened by the sun's rays shining through the curtains. Next to him lay the rebel, still asleep on the pillow and made the orange lombax smile softly. A soft kiss followed on the forehead of the white lombax, before her partner got out of bed and went first to the bathroom, then to the kitchen. On the table he found a note laying, which came from his best friend, so the sleepy hero took the piece of paper and read the message to himself.

"We are at the conference, see you later" ~Clank & Kit~.

Ratchet put the note away again before a great idea came to him, for that he just had to get his girlfriend awake. The male lombax strode back into the bedroom and gently placed his hand on Rivet's shoulder, "Good morning, Rivet."

"Hmmm...five more minutes," She lifted the blanket high above her head, and only got a giggle from the hero in return. She was always so sleepy in the morning. "Rivet, Clank and Kit are gone. I have an idea where we can go," another attempt to get his partner awake followed, to which he only got her tail slapped gently in his face, "Stop it, you're tickling my nose."

"Are we going to the mattress store? Because then I can keep sleeping there," finally Rivet stirred herself up, grabbed the prosthetic arm and went to the bathroom. First she had to freshen up before she could really listen to anyone.

"No, we're going somewhere for breakfast. I know a diner, which is excellent. The coffee's great there, too, and the food," Ratchet followed the rebel into the bathroom, just as she finished washing her face, "I really need coffee."

"Yeah...but definitely not more than that," he walked over and put his lips against hers. Rivet didn't wait long either and returned the kiss before grabbing her fresh clothes, "Let's go then. Cause I'm pretty hungry."

…later…

"I need to say that diner has a funny name," the dressing up quickly passed. Both loving lombaxes were already at a table in the small diner, sitting across from each other, "This place is really good. Clank and I used to come here a lot." The first thing both of them did was order coffee each before getting down to breakfast. The waitress, who was also a robot, brought Ratchet a plate of scrambled eggs with fried bacon, and Rivet once again indulged in waffles. She hadn't had any in a long time.

"Hmm, these are wonderful," grinning, the Rebel chewed on the baked goods sprinkled with powdered sugar and produced in renewed smile on the orange ones, "Great that you like it here. So what do you want to do today?"

"Hm, good question...we'll talk about that after breakfast," so they both enjoyed their meal and talked about some things from each other's dimension.

"Ratchet, can I ask you a question," Rivet suddenly blurted out as she put down her cup and her partner stared at her intently, "You gotta be honest...was I your first girlfriend?"

"Uhh...do I have to tell you that," the hero stammered to himself before catching sight of the rebel's cheeky grin again, "Ratchet, don't worry. I'm not a jealous crazy woman, who wants to control her boyfriend and hurt others."

"Rivet, you almost broke a waitress her arm last week," Ratchet had to admit with a laugh before his current girlfriend defended herself, "There's also a difference between in the past and right now when you want to pay and she's hitting on you!" Silence followed only briefly before they both burst out laughing.

"I'll even start, okay," then the rebel with the pilot glasses suddenly began, "So there was never anyone in particular. One rebel after another, but when Nefarious locked them up I never saw anyone again."

"Ouch," Ratchet looked at the white lombax in surprise, who wasn't too offended. "Okay...My turn," finally the hero settled into the conversation and told, "So...I met three women. With one, who first became captain and then president I was just crushing and gushing a bit. Our relationship was short. The first of the three was more of a best friend than a girlfriend and then..." He stopped short as he thought of his last relationship.

"Then what?"

"Then I met my first real girlfriend. Her name was Talwyn...no she wasn't a lombax, she was a markazian", interested the female lombax listened to her counterpart, "Yes we had a real thing, but it didn't last long. We lived it up a bit and at some point we both noticed that it didn't work out that way with us. Of course there were also sometimes fights that is normal, but we both have then separated in a healthy way. Today, however, we are still friends, but not anymore no worries."

"Wow...I must admit, that I'm a little sorry," before Rivet knew it, Ratchet gently took her robotic hand and looked at her with a loving gaze where anyone would have melted immediately, "Hey...if that hadn't happened, I never would have met you." The rebel returned the smile before grinning again, "Well, actually, we would have met because I had Clank."

"Oh yeah...anyway," before she knew it Ratchet leaned forward and kissed the white one again, who immediately gave in to it. So they spent some more time in the diner, but from the half of their visit, Rivet however became more and more serious. Not because of her boyfriend, but something else was bothering her at the other end of the room, and finally the orange lombax got that she wasn't listening to Him anymore.

"What's wrong, honey?"

"That guy over there has been staring at us the whole time," with her eyes she looked at a tall figure whose head was covered with a hood and he was sipping his coffee. "Ratchet, can we go? Something is strange here," he was a little confused by the request, but agreed. So the hero paid for breakfast and both lombaxes escaped the diner hand in hand. The figure, however, was close on their heels at a distance.

"Rivet...I notice him too! He's following us!" the orange one remained quiet, however, anxiously squeezing her hand a little tighter until the rebel had an idea, "Quick, through the people and off into the alley!" They hoped it wouldn't have to come to a fight amongst the town's citizens, so they both walked through the crowd and indeed shook off the stranger before walking down the alley.

"Okay, looks like we..." but they were too sure too soon. Now, in front of Ratchet and Rivet, the strange figure landed with a tremendous force.

"Now that I have your attention, we can talk," the person took off his hood and showed his tiger-like head. What he didn't expect was Ratchet and Rivet each twitching their omniwrench and hammer, "Who are you!"

"I am not here to harm you," the alien raised his strong paws high. He was much taller than both lombaxes and looked down at them, "My name is James Clawfield...and I need your help." "Then you wouldn't literally peep and chase us," actually Rivet wanted to smack the tiger-like guy right in the face with the hammer, but Ratchet still held her back, "Speak, and no lies!"

"I...am not an honest man," James now began quietly, "...I was a member of the Galactic Rangers, until my father died in battle. After that, I left the ranks and went off the rails. I needed money, and the wrong people offered it to me. My boss is a gangster queen whose headquarters are on another planet, and I've been under her employ for years."

He paused for a moment and continued, "She gave me the pseudonym Mr. Sandman." "Why is that," the hero wanted to know with interest and James held the back of his head with one hand, a little embarrassed, "Maybe because of the fact that I bombard my enemies with hot sand."

"Wow...", the white rebel looked questioningly at the tall one, but became serious again, "I wanted to finally step out, but she won't let me go...the worst thing, though, is that she knows how to threaten me! And that's why I come to you, I mean you are heroes, right?" "What exactly do you want," Ratchet put his fists against his hips seriously before James now got down on his knees in front of the two Lombaxes, "I want to bring her organization down. Everything the boss built and then we'll finally be free! Please...you are the only two right for the job."

"And you think we're helping a criminal playing power games in the mafia? Forget it," Rivet protested, pulling Ratchet away from the gangster. The latter now resorted to his last ace to convince them both after all, and that was a card, which he gave to the two, earning confused looks.

"Come to this address in half an hour, then you will see why I need your help urgently."

"And so the outer shell of the Dimensionator is explained," a round of applause followed. Clank stood on a high platform with a mic placed on it so everyone could hear him. Kit was off stage and also gave a round of applause, to which the silver robot smiled gratefully.

"You see, ladies and gentlemen," again Captain Qwark, typically dressed in his green superhero uniform, stepped on stage and also held a microphone to his face, "This shows that you don't need an perfevt body or a perfectly built chin like I do to be smart." At that, the little robot rolled its green optics. While the big muscleman was no longer the traitor he had known then and is now finally a real hero, Qwark was still the same old from the sayings and self-absorption. And he also doubted that the Captain was as smart as he claimed to be, "And now Clank will explain a little more to us about the phase quartz inside."

"With pleasure, Captain," Clank cleared his throat and all eyes were eager to see the robot, who now wanted to say more about the main part of the device than...

"Hello...sorry...want to get through for a minute," in the ranks of scientists he saw his two friends Ratchet and Rivet striding onto the stage suddenly and disrupting the conference. "Do we have any surprise guests today," Qwark was also surprised by the sudden appearance of the two Lombaxes, where the rebel called for Kit and Ratchet grabbed the microphone, "Well, Clank has to leave early today, I'm afraid. We have important things to do."

"Ratchet...what's going on?" the silver bot got nowhere, as his best friend placed him at his back, as usual, and strode outside with his girlfriend, "Thanks for understanding, science rocks!"

"That...was weird," Qwark said, scratching his head in even more confusion before having to find a solution to keep the conference going.

"So let me get this straight," a few minutes later the four heroes were on their way through a poorer part of town and Clank was recapping everything his friend had explained to him, "You let me and Kit out early so we could meet up with a criminal, who's potentially murdered people, who needs help?"

"I'm not thrilled about it either, Bolts," Rivet still had a bad feeling. There was definitely something off for the Rebel, and it only increased her distrust of the tiger alien. "I still want to look at this, then we'll decide together what we're going to do," Ratchet ended the conversation with this statement and stopped. They reached the old apartment building, "This looks...inviting."

"Horrible is a better word for it," Rivet and her boyfriend strode up the few steps to the front door, which was opened. It was then a matter of walking up a few more stairs until they finally arrived at the room number the stranger had written down. The orange lombax rang the bell and heard the creaky squeak of the door being opened.

"The door is broken, sorry," the same tiger-alien stood before them, this time wearing only a white tank top with black sweatpants, and invited the heroes inside. The couple took a closer look at the apartment and they quickly realized that it was not in a good condition, "Here...do you live?"

"Not alone...honey, I brought visitors," once in the living room his wife stepped out and immediately greeted the heroes in a friendly manner, "Ratchet and Clank...and the new heroes here too? Hello, my name is Whitney. I guess it seems like James really wants to go through with this."

"You're married," came it from Kit, breaking away from Rivets back, who was staring at some pictures, "And he has kids."

"They're in school...the reason no one comes and takes them away from me is because of my job," James sat down on the couch, whereupon his wife immediately joined him next to him and snuggled up to his broad arm.

"But...you work in the mafia...how can you have a home like that", Ratchet looked shocked at the tall one, who was now grunting again, "Because the boss doesn't pay me shit! I do everything and this is the thanks I get." The four friends slowly understood the dire situation this family was in, living in a hellhole and forced to commit crimes to get some money for it.

"Ratchet...Rivet," Whitney spoke up and looked at the two lombaxes with some sadness in her gaze, "James isn't a bad guy...he's just doing this to provide for us. He doesn't have a clean slate, but I love him and if it means that with your help he gives that tyrant what she deserves, then he would do anything...even for you."

"I was just unlucky with the job choice," the tiger stated with a slight grin before putting both paws against his face again.

Silence fell again and both lombaxes were a bit overwhelmed by the statement of the markazian woman, who was married to the criminal. Rivet was the first to dare to stand in front of James with her arms crossed, "If this is a trick...if you betray us, sell us out, or otherwise hide some dirty thing from us, then I will not hold back against you."

"Y...Yes...it's the truth. No tricks, just a man who needs help," the tiger-like looked at the blue eyes before they then sparkled with determination and the white female lombax let out a slightly annoyed groan, "...Ratchet, are you with us too?"

"Yeah...we want to help bring down the boss," the four of them stood in front of the family man, who gave a big grin and was just as happy about it to his wife. "Take care of him...and thank you," Whitney stood up and gave a big hug to the lombaxes, who were surprised by it.

"Alright," James also straightened up from the sofa and looked at both lovers with determination, "We'll meet tomorrow at the warehouse around the corner from here, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."

"A whole team up your sleeve...wow," Ratchet and the others strode back towards the exit, but before something was shouted after them by tiger-alien, "I have to warn you though...I'm not the only gangster working for the boss. We'll run into the strangest criminals once we get deeper into it."

The four heroes took in the information, and listened to James again, "I hope you're ready for what's coming."