FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I can't believe it's this hard to find the Lombax dimension." Ratchet flicked one of the holographic nodes on the map they'd recovered from Emperor Nefarious' palace, causing the interlinked universes to spin around. "I mean, Tachyon just needed to shout "find the Lombaxes" to open a rift to them."

Clank reached up to stabilize the map. "The original Dimensionator had the coordinates already saved. Not to mention the further modifications added by this "Mags" person."

"I can't believe you guys actually fought Tachyon." Rivet commented.

Ratchet turned to his dimensional counterpart looking surprised. "You didn't?"

"No," Rivet sighed. "Emperor Nefarious beat me to him. The Polaris galaxy actually welcomed him as a liberator. Before he declared himself the new emperor of the galaxy and started roboticizing people."

"And I helped him." Kit added, regretfully. "At the time I thought we were doing good for the universe, but instead I only brought pain and..."

"Focus people!" Their fifth companion snapped her fingers. "We're trying to find our families here, not reminisce about the past."

"I know, I know Talwyn." Ratchet replied. "Though we don't know for sure that this map will lead to the dimension your dad and Angela escaped to. It might just tell us where the Lombaxes from Rivet's dimension went."

"Who knows?" Rivet shrugged. "Maybe the Lombaxes from both our dimensions fled to the same dimension. Mags did say something about our race being spread across so many dimensions and trying to save them all, didn't he?" She smiled. "We could be neighbors."

Talwyn's gaze flicked from one Lombax to the other. There was something going on between them, something that seemed a bit familiar. If a bit weird coming from two versions of the same person. "Hey, Rivet, you think maybe you could give me a hand with one of the gravity coils? It's been acting up ever since we crossed dimensions."

Ratchet started to get up. "I can help you, it would be just like old times."

"Yeeeaaahhh, see, it's..." Talwyn's tail twitched nervously. "Under the ladies' room."

Rivet leapt to her feet. "Guess we'd better get that fixed right away." She popped open a panel on her prosthetic arm. "Lead the way."

As the two left Kit turned to Ratchet and Clank, looking puzzled. "I didn't know this ship had a ladies' room?"

Talwyn led Rivet down two decks to a room dominated by a large reactor core and several rows of machinery. "So, what are we doing in the engine room?" The purple Lombax asked.

"Uh, it's accessible from here." Talwyn suggested.

Rivet looked skeptical. "Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure there aren't any bathrooms on this ship besides the ones in our cabins and the one by the bridge, and that one's unisex."

"Okay," the Markazian fessed up. "The loose coil is in the shooting range next door." She pointed at a wall with an already open access panel. "But I also wanted to talk to you without the guys overhearing."

"About what? No, wait." Rivet hazarded a guess. "You used to date Ratchet, didn't you?"

"Was it that obvious?" Talwyn asked.

Rivet just rolled her eyes at her. "You should have seen him when Clank suggested we call you up. He was so anxious about it. I take it that things didn't end too well?"

"I'm not sure "end" is the right word for it." Talwyn thought. "It was more like he just didn't care that much about our relationship. Almost as if he forgot we were dating."

Rivet looked confused. "What do you mean, didn't care that much?"

"I mean," Talwyn struggled to find the words. "He never really acted much like a boyfriend. We hardly ever went on a date, barely hung out outside of missions. He spent most of his time in his garage or playing video games with Clank when they weren't saving the universe."

Rivet pulled a screwdriver attachment out of her arm compartment, flipped her prosthetic hand back, and inserted the head into a socket in her wrist. "No offense, but it sounds like you haven't fully let go of him yet."

"Pardon the pun, but that looks pretty handy." At the Lombax's glare Talwyn apologized. "Sorry, and no, I'm not jealous or anything. I got over that with Sasha Phyronix?"

"Phyronix..." Rivet thought. "That sounds familiar. I think Phantom may have mentioned a president of the Solana galaxy or something?"

"Yeah, she was his daughter." Talwyn explained. "Ratchet met her while saving Solana from Dr. Nefarious' Biobliterator, and they had some sort of off-and-on relationship up until he went to Polaris."

"Guess there's a lot of differences between our dimensions." Rivet chuckled as she started using her arm's integral drill to uncouple a burnt component from the wall housing. "Really though, I'm not sure what me and Ratchet are. I mean, yeah, he's the first male of my species I've ever met, but it's not like the Lombaxes are actually an endangered species of anything. Then there's that whole dimensional counterpart thing, would that make us like brother and sister? How close are we genetically?"

Talwyn handed her the replacement part. "I was starting to wonder about, well, that." She pointed down Rivet's back.

Rivet glanced behind her and twitched her fluffy tail. "Oh, yeah, Ratchet has a thin little tail with a brush on the tip. With the differences all the other counterparts had it didn't seem that big a deal."

"I've only seen two other Lombaxes from my dimension." Talwyn replied. "And one of them had white fur, but his tail was shaped the same as Ratchet's."

"Look," Rivet quickly drove some screws into the replacement part. "I spent a long time snooping around the Lombax ruins on Sargasso. I saw holo-vids of blue Lombaxes, yellow Lombaxes, even green ones. Some had bushy tails like mine, others skinny tails like Ratchet, and a few had no tails that I could see."

"That explains Angela..." Talwyn thought.

"My dimension's Angela Cross was green-furred with a long tail." Rivet added. "She helped me escape from Zardoom prison," her ears drooped as she started to remember. "But then the guards caught up to us just as we reached the launch pad, she told me to run, and..."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Talwyn awkwardly reached out a comforting hand to place on the Lombax's shoulder. "My dimension's Angela was last seen looking for the Dimensionator with my dad, if he made it to the Lombax dimension, she's probably there too." She sighed, "as unlikely as that sounds."

"Well, there's no guarantee that we'll have any family in the Lombax dimension either." Rivet added. "I mean, a lot of Lombaxes got killed by Tachyon's forces. I'm pretty certain both my parents were among them." She took out the screwdriver bits and put them back into her tool compartment. "Though to be honest, I never knew them. I guess the closest thing I ever knew to family were the Morts." She snorted. "They didn't know what I was at first, they treated me as the "company pet" for a few years before they figured out I was smart enough to change a hover booster."

Talwyn burst out laughing at the thought of Rivet being led around on a leash, panting like a dog. At a harsh look from the Lombax she shut up.

"Did Ratchet ever mention who raised him?" Rivet asked by way of changing the subject.

Talwyn shrugged, "he said something about being taken in by some mechanic on Veldin, but I didn't get the impression he was particularly attached to him. If there was anyone close to him like family I'd say it was Clank. They're practically brothers, closer possibly."

"Brothers?" Rivet asked.

"You should have seen Ratchet after the Zoni took Clank away." Talwyn explained. "He was devastated, willing to do anything to get him back."

"Wow, I..." Rivet paused, considering her universe's counterpart to Clank. "I've only known Kit for a short time, but it's like we have some sort of indescribable connection. I might even say it feels like she completes me." She clicked her hand back into place and tested the joints. "As ironic as that sounds."

"It sounds like you can understand Ratchet better than I ever could." Talwyn started packing the spare parts and tools back up. "I wish you luck."

"Wait," Rivet started to object, but she started to think. What exactly was Ratchet to her? What was Kit? What was Clank for that matter? They'd gotten along pretty well before she reunited him with Ratchet. She followed Talwyn back to the bridge to find Ratchet trying to convince Kit to play a Captain Qwark vidcomic, something Ratchet had said got Clank laughing. Rivet couldn't help but smile a little, whatever they all were to each other, they were friends. They could figure out the specifics later.