Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose


Arsenal: Annihilation Nation, Second Course

When Ratchet and returned to the Hyperion, and set their ship down inside the docks, they were approached by one of the AI that controlled the starship while they were gone, though this time it was the pink alicorn that Sunset had called 'Cadence'. Starlight had told them, back when the AI had been installed inside the starship, that if Sunset was locked up in the cell, and they were approached by either Cadence or Twilight, it meant that both Celestia and Luna were working to keep Searing locked up. Ratchet also knew that the other two AI could be busy with their own duties and that the one in front of them could have finished her work early, which led it to come to them when they docked in the ship.

Either way Ratchet was curious as to why Cadence was hovering before them, because this was honestly the first time that he had the opportunity to speak with this particular AI.

"Is something wrong Cadence?" Ratchet asked, echoing the thoughts that were no doubt crossing both Angela and Starlight's minds, as they were constantly concerned for Sunset's well-being after everything that Qwark had done to her.

"Celestia and Luna are making sure that Sunset's energy levels are normal," the AI replied, following them towards the bridge, where they would put in the coordinates for Annihilation Nation, "Despite the power of two Cores coursing through her body, and disrupting the Dark Magic that allows Searing to take control, it appears that Searing was fighting the power of Generosity and Honesty. Sunset managed to break through the demon's hold maybe an hour before you arrived, so she'll definitely be without her powers for two to three days at the most."

"Its not ideal, but that's the price we'll have to pay for Qwark's stupidity." Starlight commented, shaking her head as she diverged from the main path and headed towards the chamber where her sister would be waiting, "Still, I think that she'll enjoy having some company that's not either Celestia or Luna."

What Starlight didn't say was that she now had a theory behind why Searing was growing stronger every time she managed to gain a hold over Sunset's body, something that had to do with the Cores. Sunset, according to what Starlight heard from Honesty, was able to unlock a portion of her former powers, and memories, whenever she meditated with a new Core that they had recovered. Starlight was fairly sure that the power recovery also applied to Searing, which was why she seemed to be gaining a foothold every time she took over. Sunset and Searing were linked in some way, though now Starlight was concerned that they were empowering the demon at the same time that Sunset was recovering who she was.

Starlight almost wished that she had been able to take the third Core without alerting Nefarious, because it would have enabled her to see whether or not she was becoming paranoid.

When she entered the chamber that the Cores were housed in, and spotted the cell that had been built on the other side of the entrance, she found the white and blue alicorn AI's standing before two separate terminals. Starlight knew that they were studying some readings, no doubt exactly like Cadence said they would be, though she had suspected that Twilight was a little annoyed that she wasn't a part of this study herself. Despite the fact that they were all AI, and thus shouldn't have any personality besides what had been given when they were designed and installed, the four alicorns seemed to possess their own unique personalities that evolved from what Sunset had given them.

It was almost like the Cores had given them the spirits of the four alicorns that had saved Sunset, and not to mention the entirety of Yeedil, from Searing's terrible power.

"Good evening sister," a voice said, one that Starlight was relieved to hear again, which allowed her to see that Sunset had regained control of herself once again, "How was your adventure on Planet Daxx?"

"It was okay," Starlight replied, walking up to the cell that Sunset was sitting in, noticing that she was working on something like the AI made sure that she was fully in control again, "I finally got the RY3NO from Mr. Gadget, so I was able to field test it a bit before we discovered that Nefarious has apparently built two weapons; a Bio-Bliterator and something called 'Cannon', though unfortunately all the relevant information on them had been deleted before our arrival. Apparently Courtney Gears, the music celebrity, might be in league with our enemy, so we're heading to Annihilation Nation..."

"...where Angela will win the prize and see if she can't strike a deal with the celebrity?" Sunset finished, a smile appearing on her face when Starlight nodded, "I figured as much, considering that she was the one that was able to get through it with some ease the first time we went to the arena. Have you heard anything from our friend?"

Starlight immediately knew that Sunset was speaking of Qwark, because the moment that she said the word friend there was a hint of anger that followed the word.

"Yes... he tried to explain why releasing Searing was a good idea." Starlight replied, though she waited a few seconds to be sure that Sunset was fine, though when neither AI reported anything odd she decided to continue speaking, "I said some words to him before teleporting out of the Phoenix, though I seriously hope he got the message this time around."

"I doubt it," Sunset calmly said, surprising Starlight that she could even be calm when speaking about Qwark, but she was actually glad that her sister wasn't letting the captain get to her, "So... when can I leave the cell? I'm getting stiff from sitting in here and I would like the opportunity to stretch my wings at some point before we return to the Phoenix."

"Your energy levels are completely normal." Celestia stated, turning from her terminal to face the two of them, while Luna powered down the field that was surrounding the cell, "The Cores have returned you to your original state once again... so you are free to leave once more Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset smiled as she got off her rear and stretched both her legs and her wings, though Starlight was pleased to have her sister back once again, which would be great when they reached whatever planet was after Annihilation Nation. One thing that Starlight was curious about was what Sunset had been working on the entire time she had been in the cell, because it looked some sort of wing contraption. Sunset noticed what her sister was looking at, so while they walked back to the bridge she explained that it was a set of blades that she could wear over her wings whenever she was drained like this. The blades actually extended past where her wings stopped, that way she wouldn't hurt herself when she used them, and it would give her the ability to fight beside her family again... though not in a style that they were familiar with.

Once they entered the bridge they found Ratchet, Angela, and Clank waiting for them, though they were all glad to have Sunset back in the game after everything that Qwark had put her through. They quickly caught her up on what they were doing and had done on the previous planet, filling in any gaps that Starlight might have left when she told Sunset what was happening. When Sunset was caught up they finished putting in the coordinates for Annihilation Nation and got underway, allowing them to have some peace and quite while they traveled to their new destination.


When they arrived at Annihilation Nation, and climbed out of their ship, Angela and Ratchet approached the screen that told them what challenges were available. It was at that time that Angela discovered that this arena was similar to the ones in the Bogon Galaxy, where the combatants could open new challenges once one of them was finished. She didn't care for most of the rewards, which was pure bolts at the moment, so she was mainly focused on finding the challenge she needed to complete so that they could speak with Courtney Gears. It wasn't hard to find the one they needed, but as she prepared herself to enter the arena, and the course that she would have to run through first, their communicator went off.

Unfortunately they found Qwark on the other end, so Sunset shook her head and headed to the stands while Starlight followed her, leaving Angela, Ratchet, and Clank to deal with whatever the captain wanted of them.

"This had better not be another scheme to get Sunset to destroy something for you Qwark," Ratchet said, cutting off the captain before he could say anything, "because she's finally back in control after everything you've done to her... and I'd like to keep it that way for once."

"Believe it or not, but this has nothing to do with the Goddess of Destruction," Qwark replied, again using the same name that the editors of Supervillain Weekly used, though it annoyed Ratchet that the man refused to call Sunset by her actual name, "Al managed to find a post on the Supervillain Forums, something that I felt that both you and Angela needed to hear before you two separated from each other. Apparently there's someone looking for you Angela, because Al's found comments about a dark figure that wants to cross paths with you and fight you... but I'm sure that you can beat whoever this person is when, and if, he shows his face."

"That has absolutely nothing to do with what we are currently doing." Angela said, shaking her head as she pulled out her beam sword, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to start the obstacle course and see whats in store for me... I have the feeling that the course will be simple until I get to the actual arena itself."

Ratchet powered off the communicator, not even wanting to hear what else the captain had to tell them at the moment, before giving Angela a hug and then heading to where his sisters were siting, no doubt waiting for the challenge to start. He could tell that they were all eager to see what the creators of Annihilation Nation had designed for the arrival of Courtney Gears, though they all had faith that Angela would be able to clear it out with ease.

When Angela entered the obstacle course she found that they had placed two walkways between where she was standing and the first room that she had to pass through, though she also noticed that they had flames moving down towards where she was. She waited there for a moment, studying the flames and how they were moving, before running across the walkways and dodging the flames before they could even touch her. Once she entered the room she held her beam sword out, which she extended the moment she walked into the area, but when she found that there weren't any enemies for her to fight she pressed the button and opened the door on her right.

As she walked out of the room she found that the next obstacle was one that required her to leap from one platform to the next, until she reached the end of its path and would have to hover down to the next part of the course. Angela wasted no time in climbing up the platforms, while also getting rid of the spinning enemies that came at her from afar, before she glided down to the next section of the course and cut the laser enemy in half. She then spotted two new enemies spinning in her direction, though they easily fell thanks to her new weapon, though as she moved forward she noticed a tank sitting in her way.

She honestly had no idea why the people of the arena had a tank, but she let out a sigh as she pulled out her rifle and started firing at it from afar, until she scored a lucky hit and blew it to pieces. Once the tank was taken care of she was attacked by a swarm of the smaller enemies, which fell to her beam sword as she entered the next room and opened the door on her left. That was when she had to fight some of the ninja robots that she had seen in the Secret Agent Clank show, though it actually took her a few minutes to clear them out, as they insisted on using their own weapons against her. The ends of their weapons had clashed, making it sound like two energy beams were hitting each other, but in the end Angela cut through them all and advanced towards the last bit of the arena.

When she entered the last bit of the arena she spotted two laser enemies that were standing guard with a ninja robot, though she removed the two laser enemies with her gun before fighting the ninja like she had done with the previous group. Once they were taken care of she walked up the steps and found three more spinning enemies coming her way, which were easily destroyed and allowed her to advance to the end of the obstacle course. That was when she was teleported into the combat arena, where the main door opened and revealed what her opponent was; a large tank that had been shaped into a scorpion and equipped with a large amount of weapons that made it more deadly than it actually looked.

The odd thing was that it already looked like someone had beaten her to the punch, because the tank looked like it had been cut to pieces before it had called to do battle once again. That was when Angela spotted the person responsible for damaging the tank, a black robed figure that reminded her of her days when she was trying to destroy the experimental Protopet. The mysterious figure walked out of where Scorpio was being held and approached her, though Angela tightened her grip on her beam sword and waited to see what the person was going to do. The figure then reached into his robe and pulled out a weapon hilt that resembled what Angela was holding, to which a red beam extended out of the hilt, though Angela was impressed that her new opponent had her style of weapon.

"It seems the mercenary got tired of waiting," Angela commented, extending only one side of her weapon as she looked at the robed figure, "So, what name shall I put on your tombstone?"

"...Maul..." the figure replied, pulling the hood back to reveal a black faced man with what appeared to be a crown of horns around the top of his bald head.

Angela sighed and ran at the man, slamming her weapon into his and forcing him backwards, though the instant he got back up their weapons clashed and made it known that he wasn't to be taken lightly. What came next was the fact that they moved around the entirety of the arena, their weapons clashing as if they were two ancient swordsman that were fighting each other with how they were using their weapons. Angela was more than willing to test what the man was capable of doing, considering that he had taken apart what was supposed to be her challenge in getting to Courtney Gears, but to be completely honest she wasn't impressed by her enemy.

To be fair Maul did hit her a few times, not with his beam sword as he used both his hands and feet to do the damage, but even those hits were nothing. In the end Angela cut the hilt of his weapon in half, destroying it entirely, and forced him back into the cell that her actual opponent had been sitting in, but she wasn't about to kill him. Before she could tell him to run away, and rethink his actions, the man threw a smoke bomb at the ground and disappeared in the smoke that followed, though when it cleared Angela knew that he was long gone. With the deed done she sheathed her weapon and kicked the remainder of her enemy's weapon into the lava around her, destroying it as the announcer declared her the winner.

"Angela Cross will take home a rare first edition Qwark video comic!" the announcer proclaimed, just as Courtney Gears walked in from the opposite side of the arena, though Angela noticed Ratchet and the others approaching her as well, "And here to present her with the grand prize, the incredible, incomparable, intalented... Courtney Gears!"

Courtney Gears was impressed by how well Angela had cleared out the challenge, but she was more interested in Clank, who she referred to as Secret Agent Clank. Angela had to resist the urge to face palm when she realized how easy it was to arrange for some information to exchange hands, as all they had to do was include the star in one of the upcoming episodes of the show and they would have everything they needed on Nefarious. With the third installment of the Qwark game in hand, and the promise to the music star fresh in their minds, the group returned to their ship, where Clank placed a call to the manager of his show.

All Angela knew was that their visit to Holostar Studios was going to either allow them to get one step ahead of Nefarious or make them stay where they were, but she was eager to be done with the visit before they had even left Annihilation Nation.