[R]
Chapter Four
[R]
Outside Nefarious Tower, Nefarious City, Planet Corson V, Polaris Galaxy, Rivet's Dimension
Enormous and neon-lit, yet dark and heavily monitored, Nefarious City was built on the site where Megalopolis once stood after Corson V had been acquired through the military might of the Nefarious Army to serve as the Empire's new capital where Emperor Nefarious himself would rule all of the known universe. As was common with many major cities in the Nefarious Empire, the City was built to cater to a robotic population first and foremost, citizens were required to work long hours and continuously purchase with little benefit for themselves, and images of the Emperor were adorned throughout the City in the form of consumable products, the music of Club Nefarious which he himself composed, and a golden stature that led to his headquarters of Nefarious Tower.
It may have not been the perfect place to live, but to KT-7461, it was her home, and it was her sworn duty as a Warbot created per the Emperor's will, to keep his reign over the Polaris Galaxy and the greater universe secure.
As she was on patrol when Night fell over the City, KT-7461's yellow and black frame was in a larger, bulkier form compared to her smaller, off duty mode to fit her immense strength and wrist-mounted missile launchers. However, per her design as a feminine programmed robot and as a weapon separate from the usual Nefarious Troopers, KT-7461 had two orange light bulbs on her head that could be compared to an organic lifeform's hair buns and her chest was decorated with four blue lights that were structured triangularly, and like her usual blue eyes, were red in color due to being in her active Warbot appearance.
As KT-7461 surveyed the surroundings of Nefarious Tower, she was intrigued to have spotted a lone trespasser who appeared to have discovered the hidden entrance into the Tower. Quickly identifying the individual as a rebel opposing the Empire, and having not been used in combat often in spite of taking great pride in the Emperor referring to KT-7461 as his greatest weapon, she was eager to stop the rebel in one blow. Aiming the lasers in her optics toward the rebel, KT-7461 then fired, but all her pride vanished as she heard a loud feminine scream of pain as the area around her caught fire.
'I hurt someone,' KT-7461 thought to herself remorsefully as the reality of her destructive power was made clear. She finally learned what it meant to be a weapon and she hated it. With a newfound fear of what she represented, KT-7461 turned around and was about to leave everything behind, when she then heard a cracking sound from behind her and saw a form of purple energy expand into some kind of portal.
While KT-7461 tried to comprehend what was happening, her curiosity gave way to alarm when she saw a figure getting pulled into the portal from where she previously fired her lasers with a pained shout that sounded similar to the recent scream.
'The rebel's still alive,' KT-7461 realized with dread and knew that she had to help them, prompting her to approach the portal herself and immediately get pulled in as well.
[R]
Blarg Tactical Research Station, Nebula G34, Solana Galaxy, Ratchet's Dimension
After their visit to Eudora, where they scared Drek's Robot Lieutenant away before he and his troops could move on to completely deforest the entire planet, Ratchet and Clank acquired coordinates to the Blarg Tactical Research Station, a space station connected to several asteroids where the employees of Drek Industries, Blarg and otherwise alike, experimented with new gadgets and mutant animals for the sake of furthering the recently retitled Supreme Executive Chairman's cause. Since they could not get Drek's whereabouts from the Lieutenant, Ratchet and Clank hoped to get some useful intel and equipment there instead.
Upon their arrival to B.T.S., Clank explored the Station's exterior due to being able to venture into space without needing to breathe, which resulted in him finding a Hydrodisplacer. While not the most fanciful gadget Ratchet ever saw, he did figure it would come in handy later on. The two then explored a nearby Blarg Warship where they recovered an infobot before the vessel itself self-destructed, which had given them coordinates to Planet Rilgar where Captain Qwark was said to present the grand prize at the Intergalactic Hoverboard Competition. With their next destination decided, Ratchet and Clank then went deeper with B.T.S. itself to see what else they could find.
On their path, the two dealt with Blarg Commandos in space suits, frog-like experiments that attacked them in swarms, and large quadrupeds with the snapping jaws to pose as much of a nuisance. As they then approached the final area of the Station, Ratchet and Clank were then ambushed by an even larger Mutant Snapper with orange eyes, the Queen of the Snappers herself.
Pyrocitor in hand, Ratchet turned to Clank on his back saying, "Alright, pal, you ready for some action?"
"Ready as I ever will be, Ratchet," the shorter robot replied as they prepared themselves to fight the Queen.
Just then, however, Ratchet's telescreen popped out of Clank's torso compartment much to both of their astonished reactions.
"I did not turn it on, Ratchet," Clank quickly denied before the Lombax could ask.
Before Ratchet could wonder if Rivet was calling them again, the telescreen then shot out a burst of purple energy into the room's ceiling that then cracked into a portal from where a familiar figure came falling down onto the surprised Snapper Queen, shouting in a very familiar voice.
"Rivet," Ratchet and Clank exclaimed together in shock and fear as the female Lombax fell on the Queen's head, bonking the Snapper momentarily, before Rivet herself fell down on the floor unconscious.
"Okay, buddy, looks like we'll have to-," Ratchet's sentence was then interrupted when a second, feminine scream that was unfamiliar to both him and Clank was heard, followed by a giant black and yellow robot falling down on the threatening Queen, squashing the oversized mutant to death. "Uh, never mind," Ratchet commented then.
Of course, the Queen's death alerted the remaining Snappers and Swarmers to the scene, but using his Pyrocitor, Ratchet dealt with them all while the robot responsible for killing the Queen shrunk to a smaller size and then went to the side of a knocked-out Rivet. With Clank unlinking himself from Ratchet's back, the two then saw that the last-minute arrival looked remarkably similar to the former, but with orange light bulbs on her head and her torso appeared to be patterned after a dress.
"Please," the yellow Clank-lookalike begged as she directed their gazes to Rivet and her horribly burnt right arm, "she needs help!"
It was at that moment that a short felinoid with yellow skin and brown hair, wearing glasses and a lab coat, then appeared to see what was going on. "Do I dare ask what exactly happened," he finally asked aloud.
[R]
Having tried to sneak into Nefarious Tower alone after surveying the building and discovered a secret entrance, Rivet did not expect that her carelessness would bring her into contact with a shadowy warbot that immediately attacked her, or that she would somehow get pulled into a random portal before falling unconscious. As she slowly came to on what felt like a metal floor, Rivet screamed in a startled fashion before feeling someone grab onto her shoulders.
"It's okay, Rivet," she heard him say and was surprised to see that it was Ratchet calming her down with a sad expression. "You've been through a bad experience, but you're safe now," he added.
Rivet looked at Ratchet disbelievingly briefly before she finally said, "How are you here," then looking all over the unrecognizable place to see a concerned Clank and a wary felinoid, she added, "Where is here, anyway?"
"You're at the Blarg Tactical Research Station in Nebula G34 of the Solana Galaxy," the shorter felinoid informed Rivet and then added uncertainly, "in our universe. Sorry, but as a Gadget Engineer, my speciality isn't really in the physics surrounding time and interdimensional travel, so this is all new to me."
"Gadget what," Rivet said in confusion at the rather absurd sounding occupation.
Clank then explained, if a bit dryly, "Apparently, Rivet, to be the best at inventing, it's customary to be prideful in your own work. Fred's words," he added while pointing towards the now named inventor.
"Wait, but how did I cross dimensions," Rivet's train of thought was interrupted, however, when she tried to move her right arm and did not feel it at all. Prompted to look at it, she was then horrified to see a yellow bionic arm in place of what was once Lombax flesh and omnigloved. At that moment, Rivet felt the real urge to scream.
"Rivet," Ratchet exclaimed in concern as the female Lombax became increasingly frantic. Forcing her to make eye contact with him, Ratchet tried to calm Rivet down saying, "I know it's a lot to take in, but you're okay," but Rivet pushed him back in dismay.
"Okay," she snapped in a mix of incredulousness and anger as she raised her new arm for emphasis to say, "I go back to Resistance work for one day in one of the most dangerous places in my dimension only for a flipping limb of mine to get blasted off, and all you can say is okay?!"
Fred then felt the need to interject her rant, saying, "Uh, actually, your arm was so badly burnt that not even nanotech could've healed it, so I had to amputate and incinerate-," he was then elbowed in the stomach by the irate Clank on his right side, forcing him to embarrassingly amend, "Sorry again. Aside from not being a real physicist, I'm also not a real medical professional either, so please forgive my lousy bedside manner."
Exhaling in frustration, Rivet forced herself to calm down and turned to Fred, sardonically telling him, "Well, thanks for getting rid of my unhealable arm, Fred. I don't think I could stand the sight of what it became," she then softly added, "And I guess I owe all three of you for making me a new arm, too."
Forcing a small smile, Ratchet placed a comforting hand on Rivet's left shoulder as he quipped, "You make it sound like you couldn't do any better."
"Actually, I'd probably have made something similar," she replied without the humor, much to the visible concern of the three guys. Sighing, she then repeated her earlier question, "Still, why am I here?"
"Well, from what little we pieced together," Clank began to answer on the trio's behalf, "when you were attacked in your dimension, the blast caused a chain reaction in the Phase Quartz in your right glove to open a dimensional rift that propelled you from home to the universe you have been in continuous contact with."
"Meaning here," Ratchet added before further saying, "One moment, Clank and I were going to fight the Big Mama of all mutant Snappers, and then our telescreen spitted out a rift at the ceiling from where you came out of."
"I gotta admit, meeting someone from a whole other universe was not something I was expecting when I started to work here, let alone two people," Fred could not help but say much to the panic of Ratchet and Clank.
"Fred," they shouted in dismay while Rivet caught on to the last part of the short inventor's sentence.
"Two? Who else could've come-," Rivet's curiosity died in her throat when she then got off the floor in terrified realization and immediately summoned out her signature Hammer for a weapon ready for a fight. "Where's the warbot, guys," she nearly screamed while Fred backed away in fear. "I'll tear it apart for what it did to me!"
"Rivet, please," Clank pleaded with his arms raised for calm. "I know you are upset, but KT-7461 regrets what she did and-," Clank's appeal fell on deaf ears, though, when Rivet turned her furious gaze on him then.
"You're on a personal basis with it now, or something, Bolts," Rivet yelled out.
"Rivet," Ratchet shouted to get her attention. Once he got it, his expression became sympathetic as he said, "If it happened to me, I'd be slow to forgive, too, but this warbot isn't like those Nefarious Troopers you've dealt with. I could tell in her body language and in the sound of her own voice," gesturing for Rivet to put her hammer away, he added, "She followed you into our universe because she knew you needed help after what happened. Even if you don't forgive her any more than she can forgive herself, I can assure you that KT-7461 doesn't want anything to do with the Emperor anymore regardless."
Finally calming down with an enforced exhale, Rivet put her Hammer away and asked in a calmer tone of voice, "Where is she, anyway?"
"I am right here," a quiet voice from the neighboring room called out. Following the sound of it, Rivet looked in a stunned form of dismay as she saw that the warbot had regressed in size into a form similar to that of Clank's. After a moment of briefly trading uncertain glances with Ratchet and Clank, Rivet turned back to see the yellow and depowered KT-7461, who looked at her with guilt in her blue optics. "I just did not have the heart to be around you as things are," she explained before then adding, "but I am sorry for what I have done to you, Rivet. I know I am underserving of your forgiveness, and I will not ask for it, but I have no desire to be your enemy whether we are in this or any other universe."
Seeing that the shrunken down warbot was sincerely sorry just as Ratchet and Clank said, Rivet sighed even more unsurely. She could understand where the little bot was upset at, but Rivet would have been lying if she said that the anger she felt was gone. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Rivet decided to tell KT-7461, "I don't know where you and I stand right now if we're not enemies, but I am willing to put anything bad in the back of my mind if it means we can work together to find our way back to our dimension." Leaving KT-7461 to contemplate she then turned to Ratchet while asking, "Any ideas on how to do that, though? I know you have those Dimensionator blueprints I sent you, but you and I can't even begin to build it all things considering."
Shrugging unhappily, Ratchet replied, "I wish I could figure it out right now myself, but right now, I've got no ideas except that maybe we should call your Resistance to let them know that you're mostly all right, just not at home." Shaking his own head, he then said, "Still, Clank and I aren't against more traveling companions at the moment. While Fred here gave us Grind Boots and locations of where Chairman Drek is operating at from here to Clank's home planet of Quartu, the only coordinates we do have is for Rilgar where Captain Qwark should be at."
Clank then added in an attempt to be optimistic, "I am sure that once the Blarg are stopped, we will have ample time to research interdimensional travel and the gratitude of an entire galaxy that will aid us as well in that pursuit."
Humming in thought, Rivet then shrugged noncommittally as she responded, "Well, it's better than nothing, especially since I can take down that Blarg dictator when I've always had so much trouble trying to take down Emperor Nefarious back at home." Turning to KT-7461, she then asked, "Are you going to come along, too?"
Looking uncomfortably, the little warbot finally answered self-deprecatingly, "I have been considering my options, and I think that I will just remain in this universe no matter what, so long as I can find an uninhabited world where I cannot hurt anyone else. I am sorry once more, but I do not make a good teammate. I am too dangerous."
While Rivet took a step back at how downtrodden KT-7461's demeanor was, Clank looked on in sadness at the sight before Ratchet then bent down on one knee and suggested with a hopeful look, "Well, how about this? We'll all work together to take down the Blarg and find a way for Rivet at least to go back home, and if something goes wrong, which may or may not happen, we can find the right uninhabitable planet where you can retire at, okay," he then took his right hand out while saying, "Team?"
"Team," Clank was the first to place his own hand over Ratchet's just as hopeful while Rivet and KT-7461 looked on unsure as ever.
Finally, KT-7461 placed her hand over the two boys' hands saying with emphasis, "Team, for now."
As the female Lombax looked on at Ratchet associating with robots with wariness, and deep down, fear, Rivet ultimately followed their example as she said, "Yeah, for now."
The four then heard Fred clearing his throat awkwardly to get their attention and say, "Well, seeing that my work here is finally done, I'm going to head straight for Pokitaru to clear my head before I go see that Big Al guy you recommended." As he approached the nearby shuttle to leave, Fred then turned back to the unlikely team up of Lombaxes and robots from two separate universes and said sympathetically, "Still, for what it's worth, try to survive and get along, kids. It's not every day I see remarkable things, much less do good deeds because I care and not because I'm getting paid to do it."
As soon as Fred made his exit, Rivet then said aloud, "If it's all the same to you, Ratchet, I'm going to be flying whatever you're flying for a while. It'll help clear my head."
Although disgruntled by Rivet's decision, Ratchet accepted it while saying, "Okay, but Clank gets shotgun since he's the one who can start it up."
"Fine by me," Rivet replied undeterred before using her own Gadgetron-branded Grind Boots to travel on the nearby grind rail to the landing bay alone.
Taking her sad gaze away from the grind rail, KT-7461 turned to Clank asking partly out of genuine curiosity and partly to get her mind off of Rivet, "Is it personal preference for you to start up Ratchet's vehicle, or is there something I am missing?"
"It is a technical feature that is complicated to explain," Clank answered before Ratchet placed him on his back, took KT-7461 in his arms, and proceeded to follow Rivet on the grind rail using his own new boot mod to grind.
[R]
Felt some inspiration, so I did what I could for the fourth chapter of Ratcheted and Riveted. Chapter Five will take its time, but, in all fairness, I have seventeen other stories in progress, Ratchet & Clank and otherwise, to update as well, so please keep your shirts on.
In the meantime, there was a question last chapter, on Archive of Our Own, of whether or not Ratchet and Rivet would be paired up in this story as I have done for some of my other works. Truth be told, I am open to that ship under the belief that they are dimensional counterparts in terms of universal roles rather than literally being the same person across two different dimensions, but the topic unfortunately gets some heat under the assumption that the latter concept is more factual, and I do not want to deal with unneeded and unwanted heat born from what may be an innocent misunderstanding.
Therefore, I left a poll on my FanFictionNet profile for the sake of argument. I will keep it on at most until I get to the end of the "Ratchet & Clank Collection", meaning the Up Your Arsenal arc, or until Insomniac Games gives a statement about such things while I write, so to anyone who follows them, please clue me in if and when they respond to the fandom's confusion about the total differences between Ratchet and Rivet, if they have not already.