Rude Awakening

Ratchet awoke to his important, yet highly annoying digital holovid alarm clock. He checked his surroundings, and realized that he was in his room in bed. After stepping out of bed and putting on his slippers, he also remembered that he was at the Apogee Space Station in the Nundac Asteroid Ring. He had lived here ever since he defeated Dr. Nefarious the previous month.

He walked away from his bed in hopes that today could be eventful, as he did every day before. But his demands were never met. So, he usually took a hydro-shower, put on his holo-flux armor (just in case this day WAS eventful), woke up Clank, and wait for Talwyn to wake up as well. Cronk and Zephyr always got up really early to go fishing in their specialized fishing hole, so he wouldn't have to wait for them.

As he approached the shower, he ordered the station to turn on the water. The house did so, and Ratchet stepped inside. The shower bombarded him with multiple streams of water at his preferred heat setting. After the shower sensed that Ratchet's fur was all wet, it then used the same jets to pelt him with his "special" cleaning liquid (which was Captain Quark shampoo. This he swore not to tell anyone). Luckily, the soap did not penetrate his tightly shut eyelids today. After this, he was once again being drenched with water, but this time, it was for rinsing himself. After all the soap was removed, he instantly felt the harsh winds of the air blast system against his fur. This was always his favorite part of the shower's three minute duration. And, since he was having a good day so far, he softly allowed himself to purr. But he discontinued after a few seconds, mortified that someone might hear him.

But by now he was completely dry, and stepped out of his hydro-shower. And his Anti Dark Matter Bathroom Buddy spit out a ready towel. He wrapped this around himself and proceeded to his auto-dresser. He pressed a button that read: 'Holo-flux armor' and it instantly dressed him. First, putting on his underwear with the specialized, (but rather silly) little rocket ships on it. Ratchet groaned at the fact that this was all he had. Then it dressed him in the armor. Starting with the upper torso, then moving down to his lower body, which, attached to the pants, was his manifestor, which carried all his weapons, gadgets and ammo. Then, the dresser finally dressed him in his gloves and boots.

Once he was fully dressed, he went next door, knocked on Clank's bedroom door, and rather loudly shouted:

"Clank! Time to wake up, pal!"

No answer.

He tried again. "CLANK!! Wake up so Zephyr can make you breakfast!"

"I would not dare to touch Zephyr's cooking," a metallic voice responded from behind the door.

Ratchet had to admit, Zephyr's food was revolting. Last week, Talwyn tried some of his "waffles", and locked herself in the bathroom. She didn't come out until about 6:00 PM.

Ratchet left Clank to get up when he wished. He went to the kitchen (if you could call it that), went to the beverage dispenser, and touched a button on the screen that read: 'sludge'. (This was sort of like coffee from the Leonoid Galaxy.) Another screen popped up, and Ratchet selected 'extra strong' from the menu, and pressed 'dispense'. A cup fell from a tube attached to the small device, quickly followed by his helping of sludge. Ratchet took the cup, took a large drink, and instantly felt more awake than he had previously that day. He sat down on the couch and turned on one of his vidgames. He played for about an hour before Cronk and Zephyr came in from fishing. They were wet, but had brought in a nice catch of Frilka Fish.

"Is Talwyn up yet?" Cronk asked.

"No…why?" Ratchet responded.

"She's usually up before now." Zephyr added in worry.

Ratchet looked at the holo-clock. 9:30. Zephyr was certainly right.

Ratchet raced up the flight of steel steps to Talwyn's bedroom. She was lying on her floor. Unmoving.