Disclaimers: I don't own Ratchet and Clank or anyone or anything featured in the game. Anyone or anything NOT featured in the game is mine.

Chapter Twelve: The tracker for Lawrence

Amazingly, Gadgetron HQ had been rebuilt exactly the same as it was. It was as if Dr. Heinous didn't attack. But there was no time to marvel at the repairs.

Will, Al, Ed and Jane made their way to the nearest taxi. They boarded it and it flew towards the Helpdesk office. The passengers took up almost all of the space on the taxi, but no one fell off the vehicle.

The four Phoenix staff members went inside the Helpdesk office. There was a robotic female at the counter, reading a magazine.

When she noticed the visitors, she said in a robotic voice, "Hello, welcome to the Gadgetron Helpdesk Office. I am the Helpdesk girl. May I help you?"

"Yes," said Ed, "we are members of the Starship Phoenix. We have come here to borrow the tracker for one of your products known as Lawrence the butler."

"I'm sorry but I can't help you in that," the Helpdesk girl said. "You'll have to talk to the one in charge if you want a tracker for any Gadgetron product."

"Wasn't the one in charge killed in the attack? Darla Gratch reported this in the news," asked Jane.

"Yes he was. But he was replaced by his second in command, Mr. Krinkle," replied the robot.

"Very well," said Ed, "where can we find this 'Mr. Krinkle'?"

"Take the taxi and fly towards the tower, facing this office. He'll be there."

The four left the Helpdesk office. It was funny; they hadn't noticed the tower before. I was a typical Gadgetron- coloured tower; the first part, from the bottom up, was bright grey, almost white in colour. The second part was bright orange with the brick lines showing. There was a landing pad sticking out of the orange part. The final and top part of the tower was grey, coated with green, translucent glass. The glass was fixed in a cone shape. There were letters, circling around the tower, which said 'CEO'S OFFICE'.

The group boarded the taxi and taxi left the Helpdesk office. The vehicle landed on the tower's landing pad. The group left the taxi.

They stopped in front of an enormous, dome-shaped, blue door, made out of a thick carbonox alloy. The door had a giant 'G', situated in the centre and on the wall, to the right, was written 'MR. S KRINKLE, CEO'.

Seeing that there was no door bell, Al knocked on the three story door.

"Come in," came a voice from inside. The door slid upwards. Everyone entered the room. The door closed behind them.

The office was one single, circular room. The wall was grey like the outside of the tower, but it was plane; there were no decorations, except for one giant portrait of the previous ceo. There were clean, square-shaped and rectangular-shaped patches on the wall, meaning that removals occurred. The floor was tiled in bright blue tiles that could show one's reflection. On the left there were eight teleport pads. At the far end of the room there was a blue cupboard, next to it stood a desk with a computer and a lizard-like man typing.

"May I help you?" he said, not taking his eyes off the monitor.

"Sorry to disturb you from your work, Mr. Krinkle, but the galaxy's in danger of, once again, having all its organic life forms obliterated," said Ed.

"Oh really? Why do you need my help then?"

"This may sound weird, sir," said Will, "but we're going to need the tracker for Lawrence so we can find him."

"Lawrence? That robot butler, purchased by someone named Dr. Nefarious?"

"Yes."

"Wasn't Nefarious a bad guy or something? Isn't he dead?"

(Author's Note: I'm not going to write the part about the parts not being found, because you've already read it)

Ed told Mr. Krinkle everything about no parts being found, the explosion not powerful enough to send Nefarious and Lawrence into space and the possibility that Nefarious could still be 'alive'.

We can convince him to join us or we can implant a special chip that will make him a good guy," said Will.

"Why do you guys want Dr. Nefarious? Why not that Ratchet I've heard so much about?"

"Because last time Ratchet tried to stop the attack on this base, he ended up breaking both his legs."

Mr. Krinkle finally looked away from the monitor and at the visitors. "What attack here?"

"Remember the attack on the base a few hours ago?" asked Jane, "Ratchet got both his legs broken, trying to stop him from getting away."

"But why do you need Nefarious? There are many others who can stop--"

"Nefarious is the only 'living' relative of the enemy," interrupted Al. "For all we know, Nefarious could know the weakness of the enemy."

"Stop saying 'the enemy' and tell me his name."

"His name is Dr. Heinous," said Ed.

"So let's see if I know everything," said Mr. Krinkle, getting up and walking towards the group. The group hadn't noticed hot short Mr. Krinkle was. He was no taller than Ratchet.

"Dr. Nefarious and his butler could still be out there, stranded. You want me to give you the tracker for Lawrence so that you can find him, hopefully with Dr. Nefarious, take them with you and try to convince Dr. Nefarious to team up with you to defeat the bastard who killed my brother, Dr. Heinous. If he doesn't want to team up with you, you guys put this do-hicki in him so he'll want to team up with the good guys," he reached the group, "What if the chip fails?"

"Oh it won't, sir," said Will.

Mr. Krinkle looked up at the group. "I have only one thing to say then," he said, "come, I'll give you the tracker."

He walked towards the teleporters, giving a hand gesture to follow.

"This one," said Mr. Krinkle, pointing to a teleport pad. "One at a time."

Mr. Krinkle teleported first, then Jane, then Al, then Ed and then Will. Everyone was teleported to a small room with and old fashioned door with a handle.

"Behind this door," said Mr. Krinkle, "lays every tracker for every electronic product, created by Gadgetron."

He opened the door inwards. The room behind it was a straight, endless hall. There were twenty rows and, God knows how many, columns, packed with lockers. Will squinted to see the end of the hall, but failed.

"Come on," said Mr. Krinkle, "we have a five minute walk if we want to get the tracker.

Along the way, Mr. Krinkle said, "Gadgetron was founded in 1902. This hall of trackers took two years to build. Back then we didn't have any cool technology, which is why that door seemed so strange. And it's also why we're walking, instead of riding."

Exactly five minutes had passed before the group reached the destination.

Mr. Krinkle turned towards a locker on the right. Luckily, the locker was at his level. He took out a single key. "This key can open any locker here by transforming into different keys. It's sort of like a skeleton key, except it can only open these lockers."

He opened the locker and took out the tracker.

The tracker looked a lot like a sucker. The whole gadget was grey except for the red antenna, on top and the green, circular screen. There was a button on the handle. Mr. Krinkle handed the tracker to the nearest person to him; in that case, Al.

"Press the button to activate it and again deactivate it," said Mr. Krinkle.

Al pressed the button. The screen lit up and a red arrow appeared.

"Well, well, well," said Mr. Krinkle, "it seen that Lawrence is online and functional."

All four of the visitors smiled. Everyone left the hall and teleported back to the office. Everyone thanked Mr. Krinkle, who wished them luck.

Al, Ed, Jane and Will boarded the taxi and rode to the dropship. The dropship ascended.

Ed called to inform Captain Sasha that the tracker was in their possession.

"Excellent," she said, "proceed with searching."

Hurry on to the next chapter.