Deadline

Ratchet ran over to her and felt her neck for a pulse. And to his surprise (and relief), there was one. Then, he eyed a small dart lodged in her ankle. Ratchet carefully pulled it out. He recognized it almost instantly. It was a sleeper dart. And, attached to it, was a small, bloodstained piece of paper. He opened it up, and read it.

"Pitiful Creature! You probably thought that your adventures were over after defeating that crazy cyborg Dr. Nefarious. But your quest is far from over! Meet me in the Leonoid Galaxy, and let us finish what we began!"

-Lord Vorselon

Ratchet actually had guessed that Vorselon was behind it all. But after reading that note, he was sort of scared. But now was not the time for being scared. It was time for action!

Ratchet grabbed Clank and ran down the stairs into the living room, there he activated the waiting teleporter and warped to the outside. The actual space station was sitting on one of the largest asteroids of the ring. There were many others. Aphelion, his trusty starship, was on another asteroid far away. But, luckily, there were teleporter cannons on all of the asteroids. Allowing easy access from rock to rock.

Ratchet had just activated Cannon Zeta when a Vorselon troop appeared from behind him. Ratchet manifested his Omniwrench, and made quick work of him. Then, he spotted Vorselon's warship along the Space Horizon. He jumped into the teleporter cannon and began to fly toward Aphelion.

But, another troop destroyed Cannon Zeta. And so, with no two cannons to connect with, the translucent tube that Ratchet and Clank were flying through ceased to exist, and they began to fall through space. They were somersaulting through the asteroid ring's artificial gravity and air. And, by now, an awful thought had struck Ratchet: He was going to die!

Meanwhile, Aphelion had been sleeping when she suddenly awoke to a Lombax's scream. She started her engines. Her pilot was falling through space and would surely die if she did not react in time. Calculating intercept point=:) Target acquired=:) Adjusting flight path to 37 degrees south=:) Launching…

Suddenly, Ratchet was no longer falling through space like a meteor, but he was in the pilot seat of Aphelion! He closed the Shatterglas cockpit hatch, and flew back to the station with great relief and everlasting gratitude toward his starship.

As Ratchet and Clank landed at the entrance, he met with Justin, his nephew. Justin was a one year old Lombax who highly enjoyed playing vidgames with his uncle and clank.

"There's something wrong with Miss Talwyn, uncle Ratchet!" He said with apparent worry.

"We know." Clank replied. "But there is no reason to worry. Miss Apogee was simply put into a mini-coma by a high velocity, high octane Class G 296745 tranquilizer dart."

"You are such a nerd." Ratchet declared.