//------------------------------// // Arsenal: Phoenix; Aftermath // Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// "I can't believe it." Sasha said, pacing around the bridge of the Phoenix while she thought about what just happened, "I simply cannot believe that Nefarious would go to such lengths... and for what? A stupid magazine..." They had been studying the arm that Searing had surrendered to them when Starlight had approached her with two of the six Raritanium Cores they had acquired, before allowing herself to be taken to the cell that should, in theory, allow Sunset to take back control of her body. The problem was that the Cores seemed to have no effect on Searing at the moment, at least in terms of letting Sunset take back what was hers, so they had locked the demon in the cell that had been designed to keep her trapped. Starlight and Angela had run some tests on Searing, with the purpose of figuring out why she had yet to revert back to Sunset, but Sasha had no idea if they had actually found anything that would help their current situation. The people of Metropolis were homeless for the moment, thanks to Nefarious allowing Searing to basically destroy the entire city after she appeared, and the rest of Kerwan was in a panic because of the cataclysm that had literally reshaped the entire world in the course of a single hour. Sasha had known just how powerful Searing could be when her emotions were in check, thanks to the video that she and the rest of the Q Force had seen back when Qwark asked Sunset to destroy Aquatos, but an emotionally unstable Searing was something they hadn't seen before. As she looked at the damage that had been done to the planet she knew that it had been mostly the demon's rage for Nefarious killing Qwark that had sparked so much destruction, which only made her shudder to think what would happen if Searing truly snapped and went insane. She knew that the universe couldn't handle an insane Searing... otherwise she was sure that the entirety of everything they knew would fall apart around them. "Its actually not that bad," Al commented, looking up from his tablet, and more importantly the right hand of Nefarious that he was studying, "Supervillain Weekly actually has tidbits and notes on everything that the other villains are up to, so it would actually be in our best interest to have someone watching it at all times... just in case Nefarious plans something else after the thrashing that Searing gave him." "Personally, I would be surprised if we heard from him after what happened to Metropolis," Sasha said, crossing her arms as she looked over at Al, who appeared to be more interested in his tablet and not the hand of their enemy, "Have you found anything interesting in Nefarious' arm... or are you wasting time reading a magazine?" "I'm simply waiting for my decoder to break through all of Nefarious' firewalls," Al replied, turning the page on his tablet for a moment, "He showed something to Searing, something that stopped the demon from killing him, but somehow managed to lock it up before she took his hand clean off. The demon wouldn't tell us what that something was, so its up to us to see what Searing was shown and then act on whatever that something is." Sasha opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped herself when she spotted the door to the bridge open, though she was relived to see Ratchet and Starlight standing there, silently informing her that Angela had stayed behind to watch over Searing and the Cores that kept her trapped. "I don't understand how she's doing it, but so far Searing is resisting the power of the Cores." Starlight commented, letting out a sigh as she looked around the bridge before laying her eyes on Al, "Have you been able to figure out what Searing wants us to find? I only ask because we haven't been able to get anything out of her." "Personally, I think he fed her a lie about Qwark being alive," Ratchet said, rubbing the back of his head for a moment, as if he was trying to sooth a wound or something, "Starlight, upon hearing that, smacked me upside the head with a nearby book and told me that my idea was stupid... just like the last time I bothered to speak my mind." "What happened the last time?" Sasha asked, shifting her gaze between Ratchet and Starlight for a few seconds, wondering what she would learn about their lives before they came back to their home galaxy. "I tried to name Sunset's demon 'Pride'," Ratchet replied, letting out a sigh as he remembered what happened after he said those words the first time, "I was immediately out voted and Sunset quickly decided on calling her Searing... though why she chose that name, out of everything else she could have picked, I'll never know." Sasha was somewhat surprised that Ratchet would even consider calling the demon by that name, but then decided that it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. What was important was that the two Cores that they had already recovered had apparently stopped working, or Searing was asserting her power over them until she got whatever she was having them search for. She hated Searing, mainly because she was a threat to everyone in the entire universe, so she silently hoped that Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela could figure out a way to revere whatever had happened to Sunset. She opened her mouth to say something, but just like the last time she was interrupted, only this time it was because the main screen of the bridge turned on and her father appeared on the other side. "Mr. President, its good to hear from you." Sasha said, forcing a smile on her face as most of the people in the bridge turned to the screen, "I trust the day is finding you well?" "No... not when Metropolis is in ruin and the rest of the galaxy is panicking that they might be next," the President replied, looking more serious than he had been the last time they had seen him, "I saw the end of your little 'skirmish' with Dr. Nefarious and that you managed to capture the creature responsible for the city's destruction. Tell me, how soon until we can execute the demon?" Sasha couldn't believe that her father was even suggesting that they kill Searing; one, because she assumed that it was impossible to do something like without Searing fighting back, and two, she had no idea if something like that was even possible. If they could separate Searing from Sunset's body, then she assumed that they would be able to execute her, but at the moment she knew it had to be impossible. "Its not that simple," Starlight replied, speaking up before anyone else could say anything, "You saw how powerful Searing was for yourself, so imagine how much destruction she would cause before someone was able to do some lasting damage to her. Not only that she's called the Goddess of Destruction, so I don't think we'd be able to kill someone like her without intensive study and preparations. Besides, there is another problem that you aren't aware of... Searing escaped the moment she handed Nefarious' right hand to us." "How could you let her escape?" the President demanded, though this was the first time that Sasha had seen her father this pissed off about something since he had been running for his office. "She's much stronger than me at the moment," Starlight admitted, though everyone knew that she wasn't foolish enough to fight her sister, even in her possessed form, "She could have easily overpowered me, but instead she allowed herself to be captured so she could hand over the right hand of Nefarious. Then she teleported out of the ship we had her in and went who knows where, but we've got people looking for her, so that way we'll know when she decides to resurface." The President looked at them all for a few seconds, as if silently deciding something, before he let out a sigh and pressed a button near where he was sitting, cutting off the communication rather suddenly. "I can't believe we just lied to my father... and got away with it." Sasha said, taking a seat in her chair, which she turned so she could look at Al and the others, "Please tell me we can find something useful before he begins a galactic search for Searing in the near future." "And we're into Nefarious' hand at long last," Al said, setting aside the magazine application he had opened and brought up what he had found, "It appears that Nefarious played some videos shortly before his arm had been cut clean off, which means that they are what stopped Searing from killing him. Let's see what our enemy had to show the Goddess of Destruction." What they found was a video of Nefarious confronting Qwark and the others that had boarded the Leviathan, which they knew about thanks to the tale that they had been told some time ago. It was nothing different from what they had heard, but then they noticed that there was also some scans and systems in place that had been keeping track of the cruiser in its last minutes. As the self destruct sequence was engaged they discovered that an escape pod had been ejected from the ship half a minute before the explosion, something that the systems in place had scanned before the ship met its end. That was when they discovered the signature of a man that resembled Qwark, though it wasn't long before the video stopped when the ship exploded, leaving them to wonder what they had seen. "Is it possible that Qwark survived the explosion?" Ratchet asked, voicing what everyone was thinking at the moment, all which silently wondering what Searing would do if she found out that the man was actually alive. "It sure seems like it." Starlight commented, rewinding the video so she could see where the escape pod landed, which happened to be the Planet Zeldrin, "If we were to investigate the crash site, and see if there is anything that he might have left for us, then we would likely want to leave the Hyperion behind. There's no reason to give Searing the information she's likely looking for automatically... better to make her wait until we're sure we know what's going on." "So then we're heading to Zeldrin," Ratchet said, letting out a sigh as he leaded towards where their ship was waiting for them, "I seriously hope that we find something useful there... otherwise we'll have to figure out how to stop Nefarious a different way." What he didn't want to say was that he was scared of what Searing would do if she discovered that Qwark was alive, after they had witnessed his death when the ship exploded. He was sure that she would shatter an entire planet, and that was in the vein of actually destroying the planet and bringing it to an end, if she discovered the truth... which they had to avoid at all costs. They had to keep Searing in the dark as long as they could, because it seemed like the demon would patiently wait until she was told whether Nefarious was telling the truth or not. It was the only way to ensure that the worlds of the galaxy survived to see another day, unless Nefarious attacked and pissed of Searing in the time they were gone. One thing was for certain, the crash site of the Leviathan, on the planet of Zeldrin, held some piece of information for them to discover... though whether that information was good or bad they would have no way of knowing until they discovered whatever was left behind in the escape pod.