Ratchet and Starlight remained on the Dreadzone ship for the rest of the day, watching the other contestants run different courses that were scattered throughout the rest of Catacrom Four. From what they could tell the first actual planet that contestants had to fight through was likely the easiest one out of them all, considering the fact that every single one of the other contestants managed to make it through the course with no problems. It was somewhat funny to watch the announcers constantly declare that one of the other heroes would fall in the arena, only for them to be proven wrong in the end. In fact one of them seemed pleased to watch the heroes clear the courses that were thrown at them, as the female robot was constantly smiling throughout the entire day.
Despite their successes most of the heroes wanted to steer clear of each other, because they didn't want to form friendships with each other in case one of them was dead the following day, though many of them wished Ratchet and Starlight well... and that they hoped to see their sister in battle soon.
Ratchet silently wished that the other heroes wouldn't act so happy over the fact that Sunset would be stepping into the arena one of these days, because he and Starlight knew just how strong she really was. Searing, when she was in control of Sunset's body, was able to use what he assumed was seventy-five or eighty percent of their total power, but she always backed away when she neared their full potential. That was the one thing that he was both curious and worried about at the same time, because while he was curious as to what Sunset's true potential looked like, and the form that it created, he was worried that she could destroy anything if she wasn't in control of her powers.
Starlight had agreed with him on his feelings when he mentioned them to her, as she had no idea what their sister was even capable of if she unleashed her full potential... and it worried her to no end. Though they both knew that if they could get the Dreadzone Collars off of their necks, and get a message to Sunset, they would unleash a creature that would make Vox shake in fear.
When they returned to Dreadzone at the end of the day, and bid the other heroes farewell, they were greeted by Al and Clank, both of whom were pleased that they had survived the first obstacle course. There was still no news on what was happening to Sunset, and whether or not Vox was actually going to allow her to take part in the fighting as well. The only thing that they actually heard was that Vox was a little annoyed that they were using Sunset to fight Shellshock, which was apparently against the rules that they weren't told, but he was willing to go through with it because of the customers.
"If he's so annoyed about it than he should have revoked his decision," Ratchet commented, frowning as he heard the news, "I'm sure that Sunset would have understood that we were supposed to deal with the Exterminators..."
"I think Vox's 'customers' had an influence on him not going back on his word." Starlight said, shaking her head for a few seconds, "Vox might also be interested in seeing if Sunset is as powerful as the stories claim... which will be the end of Dreadzone if he decides to piss her off in some manner. Though he's not an idiot, so I'm guessing that we'll get to sit a planet out and see what Sunset has up her sleeves this time around... or rather what she and Searing have up their sleeves."
"Destruction," Clank commented, turning his head back towards the screen for a moment, as if he was thinking about something, "pure and simple destruction. It makes one wonder if Vox even knows what they did in the past, or if he simply heard about you and Ratchet and decided to hold her as leverage until she snaps. We must make haste... before something terrible happens."
Ratchet knew that Clank was also referring to the collars they were wearing, because they were the only thing that was likely keeping Sunset in check at the moment. They already knew what would happen if Starlight attempted to take one off with her magic, it would set in motion a chain of events that couldn't be reversed. Al and Clank had only been able to work with the few pictures they had taken before Starlight had departed for Catacrom Four, but now that they were back they could get some more information about it before they had to head to the next planet.
Ratchet hoped that Starlight was able to crack the code with the collars, if only so they could show Vox what he was dealing with by threatening Sunset and trying to use her to further his own gain.
Starlight spent the next two hours working with Clank and Al on the collars, though they made sure that the various cameras weren't looking at them before they did so. They didn't want word to get back to Vox that they were attempting to break the collars, so in reality they managed to get maybe thirty minutes of actual work done before they decided to call it quits. As they walked away from where they had been working Al commented that the cameras seemed to go offline when the contestants were either in the arena or were visiting another world for their metals. Starlight already knew what Al was thinking, mainly because she had come to the same conclusion that he was working towards; that they used the time Sunset was on Kronos to their advantage.
Starlight smiled as they went to bed that night, because it was only a matter of time until the uncomfortable collars were broken and Sunset's power was unleashed on Vox.
When morning finally arrived, or what they thought was morning considering that Vox had an alarm go off at that time, Ratchet and Starlight sat down with the others and had a quick morning meal. There they went over what Al and Clank were going to do while they were alone without the cameras watching them, while at the same time they reminded Ratchet and Starlight to simply pass through whatever Vox threw at them on Sarathos. They made sure to purchase more of the weapons that were available, one of which was called the B6-Obliterator, which reminded them of the Nitro Launcher they had acquired on their return to their home galaxy. There was also the Holoshield Launcher, which was basically a weapon that produced a shield to protect them for a certain amount of time until it expired.
With these new weapons in hand, and another goodbye said to both Clank and Al, the pair marched up to the Dreadzone ship, teleported aboard the shuttle, and selected their destination, where they took their seats and waited for whoever was running late. Once the rest of the heroes were accounted for, and everyone had taken their seats, the ship departed from the station and headed in the direction of Sarathos.
When they arrived at their destination Ratchet and Starlight teleported down to the planet's surface, as they were apparently the first ones up again, though they waited by the weapon vendor so they could hear what their objective was.
"Welcome back Dreadzone fans," Dallas called out, though this time Ratchet had no idea where he and his partner were this time, "have we got a show for you! On today's episode Team Darkstar has been dropped onto the hellish alien world of Sarathos. Their ultimate goal; destroy a monstrous alien creature known as the King Leviathan. And, take it from me people, monstrous is putting it nicely."
Ratchet would have been shocked if the beast had been captured by Vox and imprisoned here for the contestants to fight, but from what he had seen so far this was where the creature actually lived and the entire course had been built around its home. He couldn't remember the last time he and his family visited a swamp planet, but now he knew that it might be better to avoid them unless there was no other option available for them. They noticed that there was another weapon available, the Hunter Mine Launcher, but at the moment they didn't have enough for it, so they ignored the new weapon and started the course.
The first enemy they came into contact with was a pack of small green creatures, almost like wolves of some kind by the way they acted, though once they got near them the creatures attacked them, forcing Ratchet and Starlight to put them down. Further up the path they encountered scorpion like creatures that looked annoyed, or maybe they were always annoyed because their home had been invaded by Vox's crew and they took that anger out on whoever was near them. It wasn't long before the three of them had been taken care of, though when they reached a small pool of watch they watched as another scorpion jumped out with some of the smaller creatures behind it.
They then reached a door that had two control orbs in front of it, so while Ratchet used the hacker device they won from Catacrom Four to get though the door Starlight stayed back and fired at all of the enemies that leapt out of the two nearby pools. At one point Ratchet decided that it would be better to deal with their enemies first, considering that there appeared to be more than what Starlight was originally expecting there to be, and he opened fire on the creatures that were coming their way. Once the door was unlocked they entered a small area that had more of the smaller enemies running around, though once they were taken care of a dropship entered the area and let some gladiators down to fight them.
Once the first challenge was over they passed through the door in front of them, restocked their ammunition on the other side, and then walked out so they could see what else Vox could throw at them, though that was immediately followed by them killing one of the scorpion creatures. From what they could tell they were going to have to fight through some sort of gauntlet and secure another vehicle for the next part of the course, which was actually pretty easy considering what happened back on Catacrom Four. With their new objective ready to go they departed from where they were standing and loosed their weapons on the enemies that were waiting for them, wiping out the smaller creatures before they came to a turret.
It was a simple matter to get rid of the turret, as all they needed to do was loose an EMP and its shield was down, though when it fell two dropships came in and started dumping more gladiators for them to fight. Not only were there more gladiators to fight, but there were also more of the native creatures waiting for them, as they leapt out of the nearby water when Ratchet tried to hack into the pair of orbs in front of them. When the enemies were taken care of he finished hacking through the shield in front of them and brought it down, allowing them to press onward once more.
They ended up fighting through a small group of enemies, consisting of both gladiators and native creatures, before they reached a pair of swingshots that took them to where another turret was waiting for them, though the moment they landed they noticed more dropships were coming in to stop them. They ducked behind some barricades as the turret opened fire on them, though as more gladiators jumped out of their ships Starlight smirked as she leveled the EMP device with her target. The shock of the EMP hitting the turret's shield not only knocked the turret offline for a few seconds, but also several of the gladiators stopped moving as well.
Ratchet and Starlight seized the moment and opened fire on their enemies, destroying them before they had a chance to recover, which allowed them to hack into the two control orbs that were nearby. Once they brought down the barrier in front of them they leapt onto the platform that held the vehicle that they needed, which happened to be a cross between a normal car and some sort of tank, and learned that it was called a Puma. Starlight clearly wanted to tinker with this one, which meant that she didn't agree with how it was designed, but she let out a sigh and hoped in anyway, allowing Ratchet to take the driver seat again while she took the main cannon for herself.
With the vehicle now in their possession Ratchet moved them forward, running over anyone and anything that was unfortunate enough to be in front of him. His map indicated that they needed to take control of three nodes that were in the area in front of them, so he moved to the right and shot over a gap with ease. Once they were back on the ground he moved them around until they were inside the building that housed the node, though the moment they were inside Ratchet hoped out and started to turn the bolt crank in front of them. Starlight took full control of the Puma and used its weapons to obliterate anything that tried to hurt Ratchet, while keeping a magical shield around him so he didn't get hit by any stray shots of hers.
Once they had captured the first node, and knew how it was supposed to go, they rode the Puma to the other two nodes, obliterating everyone that happened to be guarding the cranks before their arrival. Then Ratchet would hop out and begin turning the crank, allowing Starlight to take full control of the vehicle and use everything it had to lay waste to anyone foolish enough to come at her brother. When the second crank was taken care of they moved forward once more, killing everything that was directly in front of them and not stopping for anything else until they entered the building where the final node was located. Then it was a simple matter of repeating what they had previously done, which resulted in the door to the King Leviathan's holding cell being opened for them.
The instant the door was open Ratchet rode up the ramp and jumped the gap, landing in the middle of the final arena as if he was a professional at doing this sort of thing, though once they were inside their destination they leapt out of the Puma and listened to the explanation of what they were supposed to do next. From there they gathered that this was essentially a repeat of what happened on Catacrom Four, that they would have to fight through a host of enemies that wanted to kill them before they could reach the King Leviathan. This time they were going to have to hack through seven control orbs to wake up the Leviathan, which meant that they were going to have to wait until all the enemies were taken care of before they could hack into one of them.
It took some time and a lot of effort, not to mention ammunition, but they eventually managed to clear the way through the host of enemies that wanted them dead and successfully hacked through all seven of the control orbs, though they were barely given a moment of rest before the King Leviathan was upon them. At first the King Leviathan remained in the pool that had been in the middle of the arena, using its tail to attack them the entire time, but after a few seconds it clearly got annoyed and burst out of its hiding place, revealing that it was basically one of the scorpion creatures, only it was at least twice the size of the others they had fought.
Unfortunately the end of their fight was less than what Vox likely wanted, because the King Leviathan died after taking a few shots from the new B6-Obliterator that Ratchet and Starlight had acquired, leaving them to wonder if it hadn't recovered from all of the fights that it had been used in against the heroes that had come before them.
Once they were finished with their challenge, and had been awarded their third Green Metal and a new gadget, one of the announcers, the fembot again, announced that their next destination would be the planet called Kronos. Then came some news that they weren't expecting to hear; that both Ratchet and Starlight, the key players for Team Darkstar, would be sitting out the next planet and that Sunset would be fighting in their stead. They wondered how the announcer could have known that this was going to happen, as they had no idea if Vox even told them what was happening next, but now everyone, viewer and contestant alike, knew that the next episode was one that no one wanted to miss.
Ratchet allowed a light smile to appear on his face for a moment, because he knew that everyone would come to understand what Sunset was capable of when she stepped into the arena tomorrow.
"Are you excited for tomorrow?"
Sunset stared at the screen that was in front of her, watching Ratchet and Starlight crush the enemies that Vox threw at them and finish the course that was on Planet Sarathos. She was glad that they were able to work so well without her, something that had been tested thanks to Qwark in the past, and that they were fighting to release her. She had overheard someone mention that Vox was fuming that her siblings chose to let her fight on Kronos, where one of the Exterminators was resting, as if they weren't supposed to do that, which only made here smile at the thought of Vox looking angry at his own idiocy.
Still, the screen did nothing to make her forget that she was in her own cell at the moment, speaking with the designer that was delivering her clothing that she would wear in the arena tomorrow.
"No Eve, I'm not excited." Sunset replied, letting out a sigh as she turned to the designer, "After studying the information you brought me, and doing some soul searching, I've come to the conclusion that I am nothing like the God of Destruction you mentioned. He enjoys fighting and destroying, while I have come to dislike the feeling of destroying anything, be it a building or someone else."
"Well, just make sure that you don't say that on the show," Eve commented, setting a box down by the door before she turned to where Sunset was sitting, "I know its not my place to say this, but I believe that you have the potential to become who you were truly meant to be... though whoever that is, whoever Sunset Shimmer is meant to be, is entirely up to you. Just show them what you are capable of doing and maybe they'll let you go... or you could show them the true power of the Goddess of Destruction."
Sunset looked at the box for a moment and remembered the clothing that Beerus had worn in the picture she had been shown, though she let out another sigh as she knew that she would have to play the role of the Destroyer for a little while... though she seriously hoped that Vox gave her the opportunity to end this madness in one go. Maybe once all of this was over she could retire her magic and go back to what her life had been before the bracelet had cracked, but for the moment she needed to live in the now... and that meant revealing to the universe what the 'Goddess of Destruction' would do.