Chapter 5: New Revelations, Old arrivals
Ratchet and Spyro followed the elder Lombax through the towering skyscraper, which Ratchet later learned that the elder Lombax was the king of, and the building was the king's palace. It looked much like what Ratchet thought it would, wonderful architecture, lots of security, and a view in all directions. The trio walked through a pair of double doors, and the king's office was revealed. In the center of it was a desk larger than Ratchet's ship, and both sides of the office were glass windows.
"So, tell me your story Racket" the Lombax king said.
"It's Ratchet" Ratchet corrected him politely. He went through his adventures from the beginning, thinking all the way back to planet Veldin where he met Clank, stopped Chairman Drake, was transported to the Bogon Galaxy, defeated the protopet, returned to the Solana Galaxy, defeated Dr. Nefarious, was forced to fight in Dreadzone, found the technomites and stopped their plan to take over the galaxy with Ratchet clones, how he was framed by Clunk and Clank saved him, then how Ratchet ran into Tachyon, defeated him, Clank was kidnapped, his search for a fulcrum star to communicate with Clank, running into Alister Azimuth, defeating Dr. Nefarious a second time, and finished with how he ended in a world with dragons.
The king's expression changed during Ratchet's telling of his story, into a wide-eyed expression when Ratchet defeated Tachyon, and into a regretful scowl when Ratchet talked about Alister.
"Tell me more about Tachyon" The king told Ratchet. Ratchet described his last few days in the Solana Galaxy on Metropolis, the attack of the drophyds, then meeting Tachyon face to face. Ratchet stopped after the hyperspace window opened to the Polaris Galaxy at the sound of Spyro laughing.
"You said his name was Percival?" Spyro chuckled.
"I thought it was funny at first also." Ratchet said with a smile. The king held up his hand for silence as he answered a call on his phone, which started to ring shortly after Spyro finished talking. He nodded his head.
"There's an atmospheric disturbance over the city happening right now." The king said, placing the phone back down on its counsel. Ratchet and Spyro looked out the window and saw the disturbance.
"That's the same portal that I went through" Ratchet whispered to himself.
Meanwhile…
"We lost thrusters and stabilizers!" Cronk's voice yelled through the small ship.
"Well then you should have changed the shockers and jumpers before we left!" Zepher yelled back.
"Replaced the who and the what now?" Cronk asked.
"Guys, give me two seconds to think!" Apogee Talwyn yelled at the two old war bots, still trying to steer the ship away from the vortex.
"Go to the left, no your other left, get him, get him" Qwark yelled as he played his little hand held game device, oblivious to everything that was going on. He was dressed in a suit and had the badge signaling his new presidential position.
The small ship was being pulled into the vortex quickly, and then got sucked in faster than a dog eats a treat.
Two minutes later…
The ship started to glide over the city and headed for the king's palace. Moments before it crashed, Aphelion grasped the ship with her kinetic tether, and pulled the ship up and over the building. She then circled and placed it down in the center of the city. The ships four occupants exited their spacecraft, slightly dazed. Ratchet was already on his way down the elevator while Spyro opened the window and flew down to the spot.
As Ratchet exited the elevator, he caught one of the many Lombax's looking at him rather than the ship. It was a woman, near his age, her fur was a bright blond color and her eyes were bright blue. She smiled, showing all her teeth, and moved her finger in a suggestive "come here" motion. Ratchet looked back to the ship, where Spyro had started asking questions of the four visitors. Ratchet quickly arrived at the scene, ignoring the female Lombax, angering her greatly.
"For the final time" Spyro said through gritted teeth, claws digging into the ground beneath him in anger "Who are you?"
"That is Apogee Talwyn" Ratchet spoke up arriving on the scene. "She's my girlfriend."
"Ratchet!" Talwyn yelled happily as she rushed into his arms. He lifted her up by her waist and spun her around, placing her back down with a smile.
"Where's Clank?" She asked, worried.
"Crap!" Spyro said "I left him with Cynder and Sparx!"
"Spyro wait!" Ratchet called, and pressed a button on his belt, to which Aphelion came down, feet away from them. Ratchet wondered how she had been repaired, but didn't ask a question that could wait until a more appropriate time.
"I'll get Cynder, you stay here and make sure he" Ratchet said pointing at Qwark, still playing his hand held game "doesn't do anything stupid."
"And what about those two?" Spyro asked, pointing at Cronk and Zepher with a wing.
"Just tell them to stay, otherwise they will be in more trouble than Qwark will" Talwyn spoke up, hoping into the co-pilot seat of Aphelion. Her hatched closed, and she was off back to the place that Ratchet and Spyro had camped for the night.
Spyro turned and looked at the three new arrivals, the two war bots looking around, Qwark still oblivious to anything happening around him.
"So, what are you, some kind of winged lizard?" Cronk asked Spyro. Before he could answer, Zepher quickly spoke up.
"Hah, he's just a small woodland creature spawned by fish people."
Spyro tried to correct him, but Cronk interrupted
"He's clearly a lizard with wings"
"HEY!" Spyro yelled, causing the two war bots to jump in surprise, Qwark look up from his game, which he turned off and put in his pocket, strutting forward.
"Galactic President Qwark, what seems to be the problem citizens?" Qwark said in his arrogant voice, curling his hands into fists and placing them on both sides of his waist, puffing out his chest in an attempt to increase his already massive size. Spyro glared at Qwark, knowing he wasn't going to like him already.
"I'm a dragon." Spyro said plainly "and I'm smart enough to know when I should leave a particular area, especially when the people are making assumptions about me. However, since you two tin cans and a big hulk of flesh have absolutely no idea where you're going, I'm going to have to lead you to your new areas of residence. Follow me please."
Spyro turned around and had the three new arrivals follow him, Qwark pulling out his game and playing it again. A few minutes later, they arrived at three large houses, made out of beautiful marble, each big enough to hold three full grown dragons.
"This will have to do for now, until Ratchet gives us the rundown of you guys." Spyro said.
"No need to worry about us rookie" Zepher said cheerfully "It will do us for a spell." Spyro shook his head and then walked away. He looked up and saw a Lombax woman, head low, sobbing, and decided to see what was wrong.
"Kayla?" Spyro asked. The Lombax woman looked at Spyro, and wiped the tears from her blue eyes as best she could.
"Hey Spyro" She greeted with a weak smile.
"What's wrong?" He inquired, sitting down on his haunches.
"Oh nothing, just a little heart pain."
"Literal or figurative?" Spyro asked.
"A bit of both." Kayla said, and then walked away, her face turning from sadness to an almost evil grin. "So easy to play on people's emotions." She said to herself. "If I can fool a dragon, wonder how hard it will be to drive a wedge between Ratchet and his girlfriend." She spoke the last word as if it caused her pain.
Meanwhile…
Ratchet was flying Aphelion towards Clanks nav-unit.
"Apogee" Ratchet said, catching her attention "I've been meaning to ask you something for a while now."
"Yes?" She asked sweetly.
"Well" Ratchet said slowly, heart pounding "Don't you think we should take our relationship up a notch?"
"Of course Ratchet" She said. Ratchet started to reach into his pocket as he put Aphelion on auto-pilot.
"After all" she said "living together will make sure whether we can live under the same roof when we're married."
"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking." Ratchet said, placing the box back into his pocket, mentally kicking himself for bringing it up in such a horrible manner.
Moments later, Aphelion hovering inches above the ground, gave Ratchet a view of Cynder and Clank walking, Sparx hovering over them. Cynder again doubled over in pain, and a small amount of liquid burst from her body.
"What's happening?" Ratchet asked as he hopped out of the ship, Apogee not far behind him.
"She's going into labor, real labor this time." Clank said and Cynder started to roar in pain.
"Get her in, now!" Sparx yelled. Ratchet and Apogee quickly put her in Aphelion, and Ratchet told Aphelion what to say to Spyro when she found him.
She took off quickly, using her advanced thrusters to quicken her arrival.
"Talywn" Ratchet said, hand clenched around the small box.
"Yes?" She questioned, hearing the seriousness of Ratchet's voice.
"I wanted to do this for a while now; but I couldn't find the right time. I'm not sure if this is it, but it has to be." He got down on one knee and pulled out the box opening it up. In it was a silver ring with a diamond in the center. "Will you make me the happiest man in the galaxy, and marry me?"