//------------------------------// // Arsenal: Daxx // Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Once Ratchet knew that they needed the Hypershot to get through the facility on Planet Daxx, and likely needed it further down the line, he jumped into the training course that Helga had prepared ahead of time and listened to whatever she had to tell him. It wasn't as difficult as he had been expecting it to be, because the last time he had run her course she went on and on about how he had disgraced her course and almost made him pay for the gadget he was supposed to acquire from her. The Hypershot was definitely an improvement over the original Swingshot, created by Starlight during the time they had spent in the Bogon Galaxy no less, and he was impressed by how well it functioned. The Hacker, the same device that Skid had back on Aquatos, proved to be quite a challenge considering that he wasn't used to this particular device yet, but he actually liked it more than the ones he had used back in Bogon. By the time that he finished the course he was actually receiving praise from Helga, which he guessed was thanks to the commando training that he had gone through back when Qwark had used all of them to get to Sunset. With the Hypershot and Hacker in hand he returned to where Angela was waiting for him, to which he discovered that Starlight had returned to the Phoenix. "Sunset managed to overcome Searing," Starlight told them, leading to Ratchet, Clank, and Angela to sigh in relief now that they didn't have to worry about Searing running around at the moment, "the Cores are working their magic on her, so she should be ready to rejoin our quest to stop Nefarious when we reach whatever planet is after Daxx." "Unless our idiotic captain manages to piss her off again." Angela commented, echoing the thought that was on everyone's mind at the moment, at all it took was Qwark doing something stupid before Sunset was back in the cell, "Though we should focus less on Qwark and more on what we're going to do when we reach Daxx." "Al informed me that he's managed to find two terminals in the area where the communication came from," Clank told them, bringing up the map as they made their way to their ship, "One happens to be resting in the middle of the facility itself, so it will take some time and effort to fight our way to the terminal and see what Nefarious is planning. The other terminal is out in the middle of the nearby islands, but just because its away from the facility doesn't mean that its not as important as the one in the facility. We'll have to split up when we reach Daxx, so I propose that Starlight investigates the islands and then catches up with the rest of us in the main facility, hopefully before we reach the first terminal." Starlight opened her mouth to say something, though she immediately closed it when she spotted Qwark walking their way, no doubt with another idea on how to end his fight with Nefarious. Ratchet noticed the look on her face and continued towards the ship, knowing that she would catch up with him and Angela once they had powered up the Hyperion. Neither he nor Angela wanted to be anywhere near Qwark at the moment, not when he was constantly releasing Searing from her prison and using her to further his agenda. "I see that your leaving for Planet Daxx," Qwark commented, staring at Ratchet and Angela as their ship departed from the Phoenix, before turning his gaze back to Starlight, "Look, I can explain why I did what I did..." "No Qwark, you can never justify why releasing Searing was a good idea," Starlight snapped, annoyed that the captain even believed that doing something so reckless was even a good idea, though it was almost as if he had a brain injury that made him forget what had happened on Yeedil, "I can tell that you've forgotten something about the demon, so allow me to inform you of what your forgetting; she's a destroyer. Searing doesn't care what you, or anyone else for that matter, promises her, because the moment you let her free she's going to unleash her magic and destroy whatever she pleases... and I don't have to remind you of what happened when you broke the bracelet." Qwark's hand moved to his chest for a moment, clearly remembering what had happened to him when Searing attacked him, though Starlight sighed and calmed down, before she blew a fuse and did something that she'd end up regretting. "Look, let's forget about Searing and focus on stopping Nefarious," Starlight said, her magic surrounding her as she prepared to teleport over to the Hyperion, "because we can do that without having to resort to blowing up secret bases and erasing islands from the map. We need everyone focused on finding and stopping our enemy, and not on some evil monster that would be worse than the enemy we're trying to take care of." As the last word left her mouth Starlight's magic activated and she was gone in an instant, though Qwark didn't need to look around to know where she had gone. She and her family were heading to Daxx, to see if they could find anything that would help them in their fight with Nefarious, though he was sure that they'd find something that their enemy left behind. Qwark, on the other hand, let out a sigh as he palmed the light blue stone that he had been holding behind his back, covered so that no one would be able to tell what it was without confronting him about it. He had lied to everyone when he said that he remained on the Phoenix after the assault on Aquatos, because he had Al hack into the Phoenix's systems, by threatening him with the reveal of one of his darkest secrets to the rest of the team, and had slipped away for an hour or two to visit Metropolis. That, too, had been a lie for Al to believe, because in reality he had gone to Aquatos on his own and visited the person that Ratchet and the others had met down there. He had placed an express order back to Bogon, which was actually the mace he had hit Sunset with, and then marched through the empty base to see if Ratchet had left anything behind. That was why he had promised Searing that the third Core would never be in the hands of Ratchet and his family, because he had stolen it and brought it to the Phoenix, though he was amazed that none of them had felt the presence of the other stone. He figured that the constant use of the cell prevented both Sunset and Starlight from sensing that it was near, though Qwark had made a choice in the hour or two after Nefarious' call. He had resolved himself to hand the Core over and see what happened next, but now that Starlight was gone, and the Hyperion wouldn't be back for at least half a day, he merely sighed and called up his personal ship. He knew where to hide the light blue Core until he was ready to hand it over, as it was someplace that only he knew about and that only he could access without being attacked by the guardians. When Ratchet and his family arrived at the facility on Planet Daxx they quickly moved to the vendor and restocked their ammunition, including purchasing the new Holo Shield Glove that was available. It was supposed to summon a shield that would protect them from harm, similar to the ones that Starlight always used, but Ratchet had the feeling that they fell apart much quicker. Once they were all prepared for what was likely waiting for them in the facility they engaged their new Hypershots and crossed over to the platform that would allow them to enter the facility... and also head out into the islands. "Well, I'll catch up once I've found the terminal," Starlight commented, heading to the route that would take her out to the island, to which both Ratchet and Angela nodded to her for a second, "Have fun lovebirds!" She knew that if she had said that back in the Bogon Galaxy, back when her brother had started dating Angela, they would have blushed and stopped whatever they were doing. Now, however, they didn't seem to mind the fact anymore, which was likely because they had been dating for over a year and were just fine with how things were going between them. Starlight smiled as she watched the two of them ride the elevator up to the entrance of the facility, leaving her to use the Hypershot to activate the platforms in front of her and allowing her to progress towards the terminal she was after. When she levitated herself down to the platform above the water, which happened to made of spinning fans that had been linked together, she immediately noticed a gunship of sorts teleport into the area near her and start firing at where she was standing. It was at a moment like this that she wished that she had the RY3NO, but Mr. Gadget had yet to complete it and deliver a working prototype to her so she could see if it was up to her standards. Instead of engaging the gunship immediately, because she knew that she'd have to fight it eventually, she continued down the path she had been following and dodged any attacks that were coming at her. She levitated herself up a jump platform, which her body was unable to adapt to, and activated the platforms that were in her path, allowing her to move forward. She noticed that the gunship came in every now and then and fire at her, though when she reached a certain point the ship would teleport into a different part of her path and repeat the process. It wasn't actually hard for her to get through, considering that the ship failed to hit her thanks to her shields whenever it actually got close to hitting her, but eventually she reached a platform that made the ship teleport in front of a platform that happened to be in front of where the terminal was located. Starlight grinned as she crossed over to the platform that the gunship was floating in front of, though before it could teleport again she slapped it with her magic and prevented that part of its systems from working. She didn't want the gunship teleporting to a safe locating when she seriously wounded it, though once the spell was in place she pulled out her weapons and started firing at her target. It was actually an unfair fight in her mind, because her shield prevented the gunship from actually touching her while her guns ripped the ship to pieces, making her reconsider wanting the third RYNO weapon as the ship fell into the water around them. "How... disappointing," Starlight commented, knowing that it was because of the fact that she had disabled part of its systems that allowed the ship to be destroyed so quickly, "Well then, let's see what that terminal has in store for me." She swung over to the building she had been moving towards and entered it, though when she stepped into the building she noticed that there were a couple posters of Courtney Gears scattered everywhere. It made her think that Nefarious might be obsessed with media stars, thanks to what they had seen back in Aquatos, and wondered what she would find on the terminal. She approached the computer in question and began to analyze the data that she had found, though it didn't take her long to find a music video that Nefarious had clearly been editing for the music star. Out of sheer curiosity she played the video, discovering that it apparently included Courtney Gears calling out for robots to join in a sort of robot uprising, though she wondered if that was what Nefarious was actually planning. "This is music?! THIS!" Starlight growled, letting out a sigh as she copied the file onto her tablet so she could show it to her family, "I wish I hadn't bothered to watch that... it would have been better if I had been listening to one of Angela's strange music." She still had no idea what strange music Angela listened to, but it was certainly better than what Courtney Gears produced at the moment and kind of wished that she was listening to that at the moment. As she returned to their ship she had to wonder what Ratchet and Angela were doing... and how they were progressing through the facility's defenses. Ratchet threw out one of the new shields as he and Angela were attacked by what appeared to be four of the security robots that were waiting at the entrance, allowing it to take the damage while the two of them came up with a plan of attack. Before they could actually come up with anything another set of four security robots appeared behind the first group, doubling the amount of enemies they had to deal with. It was at a moment like this that Ratchet wished that he had one of the RYNO weapons, or more accurately the third one in the line, but the weapon had yet to be made according to Starlight. He sighed as he pulled out his rifle and started firing at the enemies hanging at the back of the pack, though as he did so Angela charged out of their hiding place, with her beam sword extended on both ends, and cut into the first enemy she came towards. He was still surprised that Angela had become so good at using the beam sword that had been given to her, because at times it almost appeared like she had been using it for her entire life. In a matter of minutes they had cleared the first two groups of enemies they encountered, though that was until a much larger security robot came into their line of sight and started to attack them. It didn't take them long to get rid of the larger robot, not with the combined power of the rifle and the N60 Storm that Angela had pulled out, before they moved forward to find out what horrors they had to fight next. The next area had a group of five security robots waiting for them, though they cleared them out with a barrage of attacks from their weapons before moving further into the facility. That was before they found that they had encountered a much larger force of enemies, as there had to be at least twenty security robots firing at them, including at least two of the much larger ones. Angela had to fall back to her guns in the face of so many enemies, shooting everything that came close to them while Ratchet focused on the ones that were hanging near the back until he ran out of ammunition. Once that happened they pulled out weapons that were designed to hit multiple enemies at the same time, all while making sure that they avoided every enemy that tried to hit them. By the time they had reached a gap between buildings they had managed to get through the enemies that had been waiting for them, only for them to find that there were more soldiers waiting in front of the second building. "It seems that Nefarious fully expected us to come here," Ratchet commented, crossing over the gap and blowing up the enemies that came at him, clearing the way for Angela to follow him, "The last time something like this happened our enemy used the self destruct button to blow the facility to pieces, though I suspect that Nefarious won't do that." "I don't see Nefarious doing that either," Angela said, cutting into an enemy that Ratchet left behind, making sure that Ratchet went undisturbed as he hacked into the terminal in front of them, "but I have the feeling that he might have messed with the main terminal." Ratchet nodded as he opened the door in front of them, because he also suspected that most of the useful information that could have been found on the terminal might have been erased before they even arrived. As they walked into the main part of the second building they engaged the soldiers that were waiting for them, blowing them to pieces before moving further in. The second room was also easy for them to cut through, making Ratchet think that they had encountered the most of their enemies when they were trying to reach this building, but once he hacked through the second security door he found a group of at least twenty soldiers waiting for the two of them. He and Angela ducked to the side as their enemies opened fire on them, though this time he knew that the new weapon they had picked up wouldn't remain standing long enough for them to clear out the chamber of or get to the other side of the room. "Its times like this that I wish that Starlight or Sunset were with me," Ratchet said, checking his weapons for a minute, while wondering if this would allow Starlight to catch up with them. "And now I get to try out my new toy," a voice said, though as Ratchet looked up from his weapon he noticed a barrage of missiles heading into the room, obliterating all of their enemies within a matter of seconds, "Thank you Mr. Gadget, it works exactly like I had designed it." Starlight was standing between him and Angela, though what was floating in her magic happened to look like another RYNO weapon, which told Ratchet that this had to be the third version; the RY3NO. Starlight grinned as she walked into the room they had been waiting in front of, telling them about what she had found, before they reached the door and Ratchet hacked through it. Once they were inside the room he and Clank accessed the terminal, though the good news seemed to fade the moment they realized that the terminal had been accessed shortly after Nefarious placed the call to the Phoenix. "Nefarious was able to delete nearly all relevant data before our arrival." Clank stated, shaking his head as he copied everything that he could get his hands on, "The only information that remains is the mention of two weapons; one called the Bio-Bliterator and another simply labeled 'Cannon'. Besides that there is apparently a mention of the Obani Moons, so it seems that our best course of action is to ask Courtney Gears for information... and hopefully turn her to our side." "Back to the arena then," Angela said, a overjoyed look appearing on her face as she held her beam sword out, "Oh, I am going to enjoy cutting my way to her." Ratchet smiled, because despite what was happening they had managed to get some clues as to what their enemy might be doing... though he hoped that Nefarious wasn't planning something that involved Searing. Otherwise he knew that they were completely screwed in that regard.