Ratchet And Clank Sol Trilogy book 1: The Mysterious Distress Beacon - Chapitre 1

7 years later
Meridian City
Planet Igliak
Praxus Sector
Polaris Galaxy
5:27 PM, Local time

Ratchet brushed dust and bits and pieces of rubble off of the info plaques of the many exhibits in the Galactic History Museum as he, Clank, and Talwyn Apogee finished cleaning up the city after the destruction from the battle that took place there earlier that day. The buildings floors were nearly clean and spotless, but walls and ceilings were mangled and blown out in places. Ratchet, Clank, and Talwyn regrouped in the museum lobby. Surrounding them was a clean up team, all wearing protective radiation suits and searching for any left over magnetic interference from the rips in spacetime that the Nethers had come through. Talwyn gave him a playful smile as she walked up to him. "Well, the radiation crews are finished. This area is officially decontaminated. Anything else you wanna do tonight?"
"Yeah." He said. "Clank and I are going up to the Lombax history exhibit to return this." He gestured to Clank who was struggling to hold up a helmet like device that was more than his size. Talwyn eyed the device and looked back up at Ratchet.
"Don't you think that maybe we should put that on lock down in some sort of high security facility or something? I'm sure Zordoom would be willing to work something out."
"Nah, It's perfectly safe here. Besides, it's unable to function without this crucial piece." Ratchet pulled a hexagonal golden washer out from his pocket and showed it to Talwyn. "Unless someone can somehow find a backwater planet like Veldin and then manage to locate me on a remote location like Kyzil Plateau, and then actually DEFEAT me, I doubt anybody will get much of a crack at using the Demensionator." Talwyn smirked.
"Well I suppose your more trustworthy than any other government figure or politician that could also give the order to do something about that device. Do what you wish, I'm headed home." She kissed him on the lips, then walked back to the landing pad to power up her ship. Ratchet had to yell over the roar of the engines.
"WE'LL BE OVER IN A BIT! WE'RE ORDERING PIZZA!" Talwyn laughed.
"I LOOK FORWARD TO IT!" She yelled back. With that, her cockpit closed, and her ship blasted off out of the planet's atmosphere. Ratchet and Clank then turned to walk back into the museum. Clank stumbled and fell over from the weight of the Demensionator.
"Okay can you um… take this off my hands please???" Clank's voice echoed inside the helmet that he was now trapped under. Ratchet laughed.
"Haha sure thing, buddy." He picked up the Demensionator and slung it under his arm, after which he helped Clank back up on his feet. They continued through the doors of the museum.
"So one thing I can't figure out. Are you two a thing now or…"
"Dude we've BEEN a thing ever since that business with Artimis Zogg."
"Oh! Well then… how come I never caught onto this?" They arrived at the elevator. Ratchet pressed a few buttons that closed the hatch, and the chamber began to ascend.
"I suppose you just never noticed." The elevator came to a stop and the door opened. Ratchet and Clank then walked out into the Lombax history exhibit. The large observation window was smashed. Had the cleanup crew not been there, there would be glass all over the floor. The lights were off, but the glow from the city night life was flooding into the room. Ratchet walked up to the golden statue of his old Cragmite nemesis: Percival Tacheyon. "Ugh. Your even more ugly in this color…" Ratchet reached for his gun holster and gripped the handle of his Omniblaster, and was getting ready to use the statue for target practice when Clank spoke up.
"Ratchet! No vandalism!" Disappointed, Ratchet holstered his weapon and returned the Demensionator to it's original spot on the statue's head.
"He's still hideous" Ratchet commented. He turned to leave but stopped at the statue of Alister Azimuth. An elder Lombax Ratchet had met a few years back. He had sacrificed his life to save the universe, and Ratchet had never forgotten his teachings. Clank walked up behind him and admired that statue with his friend.
"He would be proud of you, Ratchet" Clank said. "C'mon, let's get back to Miss Apogee's space station. She's no doubt waiting for us." Clank took Ratchet by the finger and walked him over to the elevator. It descends and lets Ratchet and Clank out into the hall of villainy. A room dedicated to some of the most notorious super villains ever to wreak havoc on the universe. There was Chairman Drek, who attempted to rip parts from other worlds to build his own in a scheme for money, Gleamen Vox, who ran an illigal to the death combat sport that ran by pitting captured heroes against eachother and making them fight to the death, Percival Tacheyon, who chased the rest of Ratchet's species, the Lombaxes into another universe, as well as killed his father, Stuard Zurgo, who did everything he could to lure Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark into a trap with the intention of killing them all, and the most notorious of them all, his stature towered over the rest. Dr. Nefarious. The tall robotic figure loomed over the rest of the statues, the green glass dome on the top of it's head shining in the moonlight from the skylights in the ceiling. Ratchet looked up at the statue as he and Clank passed by it.
"They haven't found him yet, have they?" Asked Ratchet.
"I don't believe so." Clank answered.
"Shame… I kind of miss kicking his ass." He and Clank chuckled and discussed their last encounters with this particular villain. Dr. Nefarious. In high school years, he was a gifted and intelligent Roswell Grey. Excelled in all subjects except for one: Biology. In this class he was bullied by the now super hero Captain Qwark. He grew to hate organic life forms, and in an attempt to wipe organic life on the planets Rilgar and Magmos, he was thwarted by Qwark, thrown into a machine that converted him into a robot. Another encounter with Qwark in Metropolis on the city planet Kerwan left Nefarious stuck with a compromising glitch in his system that caused him to freeze and play soap opera whenever he got too worked up. Ratchet and Clank thwarted him twice. The first time he was attempting to convert all life in the Solana Galaxy to robots, the second time he intended to use the Great Clock (the literal heart of the universe) to alter history in favor of all villains. Both times he was thwarted by Ratchet and Clank. The last time they saw him, he had attempted to kill them in an attack on Luminopolis on Igliak. During the battle with his Re-Animated Z'Grute, they were all kidnapped and taken to planet Magnus. They had to work together to get off the planet, and Nefarious did not so evil things. Repairing a robot, saving Qwark's life, and during their last minutes on the planet, they had all taken a photo together and for a bit, it felt as though they were all friends. But then Nefarious hijacked the ride off of Magnus with the help of his Butler, Lawrence, leaving the rest to find another way off the planet. Eventually they did, but Nefarious hasn't been seen since.
"I'm sure we'll hear about it when the Polaris Defense Force locates him." Clank said with a smile. He opened their ship's cockpit and hopped in, flipping switches to start it up. The engines roared to life. "C'MON, RATCHET, YOU WANNA HAVE THAT PARTY TONIGHT, DON'T YOU?!" Clank yelled over the loud engines.
"RIGHT!" Ratchet responded. He jumped into their ship and closed the cockpit, taking the controls to maneuver them away from the planet. He caught sight of another city. Luminopolis. "There was a time…" Ratchet began "that we were a trio. Me, you, and Appheleon." He padded the steering wheel as though the ship was alive.
"I'm sorry we couldn't bring back her consciousness, Ratchet." Said Clank. "But at least we were able to retrieve her and make her fly again."
"True." Ratchet went silent for a minute. "Coordinants locked in?"
"Indeed. We are now en-route to the Cerullean Sector."
"Alright, buddy. Punch it."
"Muehehehehe. With pleasure." Clank threw a lever, and stars began to streak along the outside of the ship as it entered hyper space. It shot into the blackness of deep space, leaving planet Igliak behind.