Ratchet & Clank: Madness Returns

Meet the Astrado

-We're here!- Captain Quantum pointed at mountain of metal and junk.
Ship landed near the big banner, that says: Scrap Purchase. Or at least it was, because now it was saying: Scrp Puhas. Some letters were gone.

-Come on Ratchet.- Rivet looked at Ratchet, and jumped off the ship.
Captain Quantum grabbed Ratchet and Clank, and jumped off along with Rivet.
-Pierre!- Rivet shouted. Pirate quickly appeared. -Oui?-.
-Quantum, Ratchet and i are going to look for the metal for the dimensionator. We will be back soon.-.
Pirate nodded, and went below the deck of the ship, to keep Doctor Nefarious company.

A giant blackouted neons, were almost all around the entrance.
[A conversation between Ratchet and Rivet starts.]
-Hey Rivet.
-Hm?
-Why Pierre isn't supposed to know, that we're going to visit-
-Astrado?
-That's his name, yeah.?
-Mhm. Astrado and Pierre almost started fight in Club Nefarious, because they share similiar... feelings to me.
-Oh... So Pierre is just... jealous?
-Exactly. That's why i don't mention Astrado near Pierre anymore, since they met eachother.
A short moment of silence.
Ratchet looked at River. -What if Astrado and Pierre forgot about eachother?-.
Rivet wanted to say something, when loud sound of metal scratching interrupted her.

A strong amount of reddish light, came from some holes near Ratchet.
Rest stopped walking, when Rivet stopped and shouted -Astrado! Are you here?-.

-Ooh! Who do i hear?- A strange, demonic voice shouted back, from behind of some scrap pile.
Slow footsteps echoed between the walls. On one of the walls, appeared a shadow. Ratchet was... shoked.
The shadow. It had familiar shapes. The ear-looking shapes were...
Too familiar.

Was Astrado... another lombax?

This thought quickly disappeared, when Astrado appeared in all his glory.
Ratchet was... pretty terrified.

Astrado was grotesque, tall robot covered in rust, with peaked spikes, going through his spine's entire lenght. His face was especially scary.
Astrado's wide, never-frowning smile was decorated with crookedly, protruding, sharpy teeth. It wasn't opening while he was speaking, but instead, a barely noticeable amount of dark-blue light, was coming out between the teeth. His eyes were pretty small, yet his sight was very good. Left eye was golden, and right one, dark-blue. Astrado's head had two, pretty giant triangle plates.

-Hey Astrado. Long time no see, hmm?- Rivet looked at tall robot.
-Yeah. I was worring about you, you know?- Astrado was looking at Rivet, then looked at Quantum and Ratchet. -Captain! How you 're doing? Still having trouble with Emperor? Hehe... Aaaand?- Astrado looked at Ratchet. Rivet slowly reached Ratchet's shoulder. -That's my friend, Ratchet-.
Astrado's creepy-smiling face didn't changed, but his voice, sounded kinda concerned.- Oh. a... lombax.- Astrado was staring at Ratchet for few seconds, but quickly looked at Rivet.-Anyway, what brings you here, my dearest? Did you missed me?-.

Rivet smiled, and rolled her eyes.- Not exactly. I need some metal pieces. -Rivet reached to her pocket, and took the list of materials for the dimensionator.- Do you have... these materials?-.

Astrado gently took the piece of paper from Rivet, and quickly looked at it, silently reading.

-Hmm. Yeah. I have those materials... I'll be right back.- Astrado looked at Rivet. Then he turned backwards, and walked towards the small mountain of junk.

[Meanwhile on the ship]

-Hey... Pierre?- Doctor Nefarious looked at pirate. -Oui?- He responded. -This thing about me being your soulmate you've said to me earlier, was it for real?- Doctor sounded pretty nervous, while saying this.
Pierre was staring at Doctor for a moment, and looked at the window he was standing in front of.- It was.-.
Pirate was quiet for a moment, but after few seconds he stopped the silence.- You know. I've never thought i would say this but, you seem to be... good guy.-.
Those words suprised Doctor.
No one has ever said to him this before.

Doctor was about to say something, when it happened.

The crystal inside Doctor Nefarious' head pulsed again. But this time. It was different.
The pulse was stronger than usual. Doctor grabbed his right side of the head. Pierre didn't noticed that, but Doctor was struggling with impossibly strong pain. But then...

Gears inside Doctor Nefarious' green dome... suddenly stopped...