Disclaimers: I don't own Ratchet and Clank. If I did, the Revolverator would have made it into the first game. It will be in this story.

Thanks Gruntzilla and SLYFOXX for reviewing.

Chapter Nineteen: The story of two brothers

Nefarious sighed. "Should I tell them, Lawrence?" he asked, without looking at his butler.

"I think you should, sir," Lawrence replied.

"Okay," Nefarious looked at the floor. "I was six-years-old when it happened…"

"Will, Jane, Al," said Ed, "take notes."

The three nodded and pulled out one pad, paper and pen each and began writing.

"My father, Johnny Nefarious …," Nefarious went on, "… he was in too deep with the mafia. He… was in a lot of dept. One day, when I was at school, my father stayed home with the flu. Two agents from the mafia were told to pay him a visit…"

(Author's Note: In the flashback, Nefarious won't be called 'Nefarious'; he'll be called 'Vince')

A small hover car pulled into the driveway. Mrs. Nefarious and her son, Vince stepped out. It had been another long day at school, but today was the day everyone looked forward to for it was Friday.

Vince, happily, ran to the front door.

"Mommy," Vince called, "am I tall enough to open the door?"

"Why, yes you are, dear," Mrs. Nefarious replied.

"Good afternoon, Jen," a neighbor called.

"Oh, hello, Ana," Mrs. Nefarious replied.

Jen began walking to the fence to speak to Ana, when she felt something tugging her pants leg. She looked down to see her loving son. Jen smiled and began rummaging through her handbag. She pulled out a keycard and gave it to Vince.

"Thanks, Mom," Vince happily said. The boy ran to the house to open the door for the first time while his mother went to spend some time, talking to the neighbor.

Vince was on tiptoes, trying to reach the slot for the keycard. He still wasn't tall enough. Then the boy had an idea. He removed his backpack from his back, put it on the welcome mat and stood on it. Now, he was tall enough. The door slid open to the right. Vince picked up his backpack and walked in.

The moment the door closed behind him, Vince was greeted by an awful smell. The boy coughed and waved his hand in front of his face to ward off the smell. This smell was unknown to the boy.

"Dad?" the boy called. "Dad? Where are you? I'm home."

No answer.

"Dad? This isn't funny!"

Vince discarded his backpack on the kitchen table and went to search for his father. His father always watched the holovid when he was sick, so Vince ran to the living room.

"Ah, there you are, Dad," Vince happily said.

Johnny Nefarious was lying on the couch on his back. His eyes were wide open but, for some reason, they weren't blinking. There was a crimson stain on the top left of his shirt. The horrible smell was coming from him.

"Dad?" Vince called. "Dad? Wake up, Dad!"

The naïve boy began shaking the body. But the father didn't move.

Vince was oblivious to the truth. He ran outside to see his mother, still conversing with the next door neighbor. Vince ran up to her and tugged her pants leg. Jen looked down.

"What is it, dear?" she asked.

"Mommy!" the boy exclaimed. "It's Dad! He won't wake up! And his shirt is covered in red paint!"

"Red paint?" asked Ana.

"Yes! Right here!" Vince pointed to his left side.

Ana's and Jen's eyes widened. Vince still had no idea what was going on.

Jen bent down. "Where?" she asked.

"The living room!" Vince exclaimed, "Come; I'll show you!"

Jen and Vince ran to the house. Ana jumped over the fence and followed. The three ran through the front door, which Vince kept open.

When they arrived to the living room, they saw it. Johnny was dead. He had been shot once in the heart.

Jen began crying over the loss of her husband.

"What's wrong?" Vince asked Ana. "Why isn't Dad waking up?"

Ana knelt down so she was at the naïve boy's height. "He's dead," she said.

Everyone was shocked. Not only had Nefarious gone through a rough time, but he was openly telling everyone about it.

Qwark was even beginning to feel sorry about picking on Nefarious so many years ago.

"Go on," said Sasha.

Nefarious took another breath. "Not only was my father killed, but our house was ransacked," he said. "Exactly fifteen thousand, one hundred and sixty-eight Bolts were stolen. All other money and valuable belongings were ignored."

"How come?" asked Ratchet.

"Cuz that's all my father owed."

"What about Dr. Heinous?" asked Al.

"I was getting to that…"

Vince sat it the kitchen, doing his math homework. He found this subject very easy. It was like a game to him. He could do it subconsciously if he needed. He always remembered the methods for everything. There was never a time in Vince's math history that new information, coming in, pushed out the old.

After Vince had finished doing his homework and packing his backpack for the next day, he decided to watch the holovid.

Later, Mrs. Nefarious arrived home with a smile on her face.

"Why are you smiling, Mommy?" asked Vince after switching off the holovid.

"Jeremiah finally proposed!" she said, stretching her right hand forward so that the boy could see the ring on her finger.

(Author's Note: We're talking about Jeremiah Heinous III; not Jeremiah Heinous IV. OKAY?)

"Does this mean I'm going to have a new daddy?" asked Vince.

"Yes. It does," Jen hugged her son.

"This is great!" said Vince.

"You even get a new brother," said Jen.

"Huh?"

Vince broke the embrace.

"Jeremiah," said Jen, "he has a son."

"What's his name?"

"Jeremiah."

"As well?"

"He's named after his father. Instead, people call him 'J.J'."

"Oh… Wait. If the Jeremiah has a son, doesn't he have a wife?"

"Well, no. Two years ago, she died of lung cancer."

"Oh," Vince tried to change the subject. "When will you get married?"

"Six months from now."

"When can I meat J.J?"

"The same. Six moths from now."

"Aww! But, Mum, what if I don't like him?"

"Don't be silly," Jen chuckled, "you'll like him."

"I didn't like him," said Nefarious.

"Did he like you?" asked Jane.

"Hell no!" exclaimed Nefarious. "He always picked on me; he always copied my ideas, which is why he has a butler."

"Wait," he has a butler cuz you have one?" asked Ratchet.

"Yup. Heinous III was rich. I saved all my money so I could buy a robot butler. When Jeremy saw this, he wanted a butler too. But, because he wasted all his money on crap, all he could afford was a blarg butler."

"How did this sibling rivalry start?" asked Darla.

"Well, it was a weak after the wedding…"

Vince was playing outside the mansion.

It had been a weak ago that he received a new father and he loved it. Jeremiah wasn't the greatest father, but he did what he could to make everyone happy.

The three-story mansion was huge. There were three swimming pools; two outdoor and one indoor. There was a ten acre front yard and a twenty-five acre back yard. Hundreds of robots where everywhere, doing their daily business.

Vince squatted down, stretching one hand, filled with nuts, forward to a squirrel. The animal was sniffing the boy's palm.

"Come on, little guy," said Vince, "I'm not gonna hurt you."

The squirrel scooped all the nuts with its long tail and ran into a hole in a near-by tree.

J.J was walking by, telling a robot to clean his room.

"Remember," said J.J, "spotless with a capital 'S'. Got it?"

The robot nodded and hovered away.

"Hey, J.J!" Vince called. "Wanna play?"

"Hey, Vince. No thanks. I'm busy," responded J.J.

"Oh, come on, Jeremiah!"

J.J stopped. "What did you call me?"

"Um… 'Jeremiah'."

"I thought so."

J.J turned around and charged straight into the unsuspecting Vince. The nine-year-old rammed the seven-year-old into the tree and held him up high from his shoulders.

"Don't. Ever. Call. Me. That," J.J sneered.

J.J let Vince drop and started walking away, leaving the scared boy to cry…

"How horrible!" said Jane.

"And that's how it began," said Nefarious, "the rest is history."

The room was silent.

"Okay. I've told all of you about my childhood. Will you just let me go?"

"You mean you're not gonna team up with us?" asked Ed.

"Of course not!"

"Please, Dr. Nefarious," said Clank, "if you team up with us, you can get back at Dr. Heinous for all the trouble he caused you."

"Since when are you up for revenge?" asked Ratchet.

"I'm not, but I'm sure Dr. Nefarious is," Clank said to Ratchet. The robot turned to Nefarious, "Isn't that right?"

Nefarious smiled and said, "You bet your ass I do."

"So, will you join us?" asked Will.

"Well, I--wait a minute. What's in it for me and Lawrence? What will happen to us once kill Jeremy?"

"I believe that's my department," the president stepped forward. "Dr. Nefarious, if you help us defeat Dr. Heinous, you and Lawrence will be given full rights as robotic citizens of Solana. We are prepared to give you your own mansion in the outskirts of Metropolis."

"That sounds great," said Nefarious with a smile.

"But, if you refuse," the president went on, "you and Lawrence will be sent back to your asteroid prison."

"That sounds bad," said Nefarious with a sad frown.

"So, what's it gonna be? The decision is yours."

Another cliff-hanger. I swear; there things are just flying outta me.

Please review and stay tuned for the next chapter.