After winning the Avenger Tournament, and discovering the next two worlds that they would have to tackle in the second Dreadzone tournament, Ratchet and Starlight had got together with Clank and Al, to go over the various hazards that the planets had. They had a whole day to waste before they were called back into the arena, where they could choose between their two choices, and they were confident that the other heroes could hold their own in whatever challenges Vox threw at them. Their choices happened to be Shaar, an icy planet that they had never been to before, and Orxon, which meant that they would be revisiting one of Drek's old factories that had to have been modified by Vox ahead of time.
Ratchet was tempted to assign Sunset to planet Orxon, just so she could erase one of the reminders of the madman that had started them down the path they were on, but seeing how they only had two planets to choose from until the Crusader Tournament it was the easiest choice for them to make.
"I expected there to be a third planet in this line up." Clank commented, looking over the various footage he could find on the two planets that had to be cleared, "At least this will give us some time to come up with a plan that will allow us to get a message to Sunset, though I'm hoping that Vox releases her before he angers her."
"I'm sure that Vox is going to try to give Sunset some lie about us at some point in the future," Starlight said, tapping her chin with her pen for a moment, "He's seen that she is essentially one of the strongest fighters in the entire universe, one that might not have an equal in his mind, and I'm willing to bet that he's going to try and persuade her to stay here by threatening our lives. He'll quickly find that she'll only go along with it as long as he has some sort of leverage on her... which we have removed without him even realizing the danger he is suddenly in."
"I wish Sunset was allowed to fight in the actual tournament, here at the station I mean," Al said with a sigh, "though I doubt that Vox would allow something like that to happen. She would feel the power of the Core that's being held here, acquire it for herself, and then obliterate Vox without a second thought..."
"Its better that she gets to take on whatever is waiting on Orxon," Ratchet replied, looking at the screen for a moment, though at the same time he was recalling what had happened on Kronos, "Who knows, maybe Vox will send a child of one of the other Exterminators at Sunset in the hope of removing her... or providing his fans with the entertainment that they're paying to watch."
Ratchet was sure that Warhead had been sent to Kronos by Vox, likely in the hopes that he could provide the fans with some entertainment to appease them. He wouldn't put it past the man to try the same thing again when Sunset stepped into the arena on the next planet, which only made him worry about the amount of destruction that would occur on the battlefield. Kronos had been lucky to avoid the larger amount of destruction that occurred whenever Sunset and Searing destroyed those that annoyed them, though he doubted that would be the case in the future.
"From what I've been able to gather, Shellshock was the only Exterminator that had a child." Al spoke up, once again showing that he liked to research everything and everyone that he came into contact with, be that directly or indirectly, "Though that doesn't mean that Vox doesn't have any other special gladiators that might be able to hold their own against Sunset in a fight... before she destroys them anyway."
Ratchet and Starlight nodded to Al for a moment, knowing that they couldn't trust anything that Vox told them at the moment considering that he had lied to them about keeping Sunset trapped in a cell the entire time they were fighting for their lives. It seemed as if Vox was actively trying to eliminate Sunset without them looking, as if the obstacles that were in their way were supposed to keep them distracted from the villain's true goal. They needed a plan of action to deal with Vox, something that they could come up with once they were done with Shaar and whatever was waiting for them, though Ratchet was excited to be in a snowy world again.
The two of them went to bed that night without too much excitement, allowing Clank and Al to make sure that nothing interfered with their slumber until the morning arrived.
When morning arrived Ratchet and Starlight were up to meet it, as the moment they got up they ate their breakfast, made sure that all of the weapons they owned had their ammunition restocked, purchased any additional weapons that were available, and went over anything that Clank and Al could find on the planet that they would be visiting. There were quite a number of hazards that they would have to fight through, though they were mainly the same challenges that they had already fought through and had some of the ones that they noticed when Sunset marched through Kronos.
Once they were fully prepared, to the best of their ability at the moment anyway, they approached the shuttle and teleported aboard the ship, where they waited for the other contestants to teleport in and take their seats before they left the station behind.
During the long flight to Shaar, which they determined because it took a few hours to reach the planet, both Ratchet and Starlight noticed that the other contestants had some frightened looks on their faces whenever they looked in their direction. It didn't take Ratchet long to figure out why all of the other contestants were scared all of a sudden; they were afraid of what their sister could do with the power inside her. They had seen her battle on Kronos, like he and Starlight had, and it appeared that Sunset's fight with Warhead was enough to shake them to their cores. Ratchet knew that Sunset hated inspiring such fear in the hearts of everyone around her, so he already knew that it might be impossible to change their minds about what they had seen.
At the moment they were going to have to run with the hand that Vox had dealt them, because in the end they would be the ones that laughed at Vox when he reached the inevitable conclusion of this entire venture.
When the ship finally arrived at Shaar, and came to a stop above the first of the many obstacle courses that Vox had created, Ratchet and Starlight bid the other heroes farewell before teleporting down to the planet's surface. There they waited for either Dallas or Juanita to reveal what they were up against, because sometimes the two revealed things that may or may not help them in their challenges.
"Tonight on Dreadzone, Team Darkstar embarks on a journey through the hollowed grounds of planet Shaar," Dallas said, a smile appearing on his face while he spoke from the safety of the announcer booth, "What was once a boring historic temple is now the centerpiece of this explosive new battlecourse. Ratchet and Starlight will have to complete some of Drreadzone's deadliest challenges ever, just to gain entrance into the main temple, but even if they survive that far no contestant this season has come out of that temple alive."
Ratchet was tempted to say that they were the first ones to take on this course, seeing how the other contestants always went after him and Starlight, but then he let out a sigh as he engaged his helmet. It wasn't worth correcting the announcer at all, not when some of the facts had had given them were wrong and the others were definitely useless at the moment. All he knew was that this was supposed to be a challenging course that had claimed the lives of heroes from the other seasons of Dreadzone, which told him that they had reshaped the course a few times to change things up.
With a nod from Starlight the two of them moved towards the building directly in front of them, where Ratchet immediately began to hack into the control spheres that were waiting for them while Starlight took up a defensive position and took out any enemies that came near them. With the bridge restored they moved into the middle of the building and took out the dropship that was coming their way, before it could drop any enemies to fight them, before Ratchet turned his attention to the four control spheres that were around them. Several times he had to turn his attention away from the sphere he was hacking into because there were too many enemies for Starlight to deal with on her own.
They even spotted some sort of new enemy while they finished hacking onto the last sphere, some sort of creature that had two arms and fired energy blasts at them, but they took it out of the picture, removed the gladiators that were blocking their path, and approached the Landstalker that happened to be waiting for them. As they climbed into the machine they overheard Dallas mention that they would have to cut the power to the force fields that were preventing them from entering the main temple, and they had the location of the cranks they needed to turn already programed into the Landstalker.
Ratchet opened fire on all of the smaller enemies that spawned in front of them while he directed them towards the first bolt crank, though at the same time Starlight used the cannons to take out the tougher opponents that might give them trouble. As they approached the first crank they even took out a dropship that had come into the area, along with several turrets that would have fired missiles at them if they hadn't gotten rid of them first. Ratchet hoped out of the machine for a moment and started turning the crank, taking note of the fact that no one was trying to stop them from actually turning the device, though when he was finished, and was back in the Landstalker, enemies started to swarm their position.
It took them a few minutes to make sure that all of the enemies in their immediate area were taken care of, while making sure that the vehicle they were in would be able to stand up to whatever else they had to fight, but once Starlight indicated that they were fine Ratchet got them moving once more.
As they approached the second crank they encountered an enemy Landstalker that happened to have a shield around it, but Starlight solved the problem by chucking an EMP at it from afar and the shield came apart in seconds. Shortly after taking out the enemy Landstalker they spotted a turret, to which they removed its shield and tore it to pieces, though their fun was short lived when they noticed that there was a second enemy Landstalker that had two turrets backing it. They were able to take out the Landstalker in a matter of seconds, though not without sustaining some damage to their own vehicle, and were able to remove the two turrets within a few minutes. That left them with the small missile turrets that were guarding the crank, which were easily dealt with, and the enemies that spawned as Ratchet tried to take the crank.
Once the force field was down Ratchet climbed back into their vehicle and rode it into the temple, where they opened fire on anything and everything that looked like an enemy, which happened to be most of what was around them at the time. They moved to the left of where they entered and tore apart everything that Vox had assigned to guard the bolt crank that was waiting for them, along with two of the new flying enemy they had encountered. Once they claimed the crank for their own more enemies dropped in behind them, which they were expecting at this point, so they fought their way through the horde of enemies that had been placed between the two cranks and repeated what they had done a second time.
With the second challenge completed they were removed from the Landstalker and were told that they had to capture five more nodes, each of which were apparently hidden somewhere around the temple, though they both knew that they would be in for a long fight.
The first node that they went after was the one in the middle of the temple, mainly because they guessed that there might be more enemies there than anywhere else in the temple, so they ran up the stairs and opened fire on the enemies that were flying around the air. The node itself was guarded by three of the laser turrets that they had encountered in the first tournament and a fair number of gladiators that flew in through the various openings the building had. Ratchet counted their blessings that he had bought the Holoshield Launcher, so that way he could summon a shield to protect himself while Starlight was busy focusing on the enemies in front of her. It didn't take them long to clear out their enemies and claim the node, but they did circle back to the weapon vendor and restocked their ammunition before they encountered something tougher.
They circled around the middle temple and decimated all of the enemies that happened to be resting around the platforms, just in case they happened to fire down on where the other nodes happened to be located, before they actually left the middle area and walked to the left of where they entered. It was quite easy for them to remove the small amount of enemies that happened to be waiting for them, but as they walked through the small building that would take them to the next node they encountered a much larger group of gladiators waiting for them. It was clear that Vox wasn't messing around with them, so in response to the amount of enemies Starlight charged her horn and blew several of the larger enemies to pieces, allowing Ratchet to take the others out on his own.
The moment they were finished with their enemies they claimed the node in front of them, once again put off by the fact that no one came to stop them, before they leapt off the side of the building they were on and assaulted the enemies that were waiting below them. It was fortunate that the third node was so close to the second one, as they didn't have to waste time on enemies that might slow them down more than they would afford. The enemies around the next node clearly weren't expecting them to jump over the edge and attack them, as they were caught completely off guard for a few seconds, giving Ratchet and Starlight a head start on wasting them before they reacted. A few minutes later they had captured the third node and were on their way to the passage behind the center of the temple, where they would cross to where the next node was located.
They encountered the normal amount of enemies that guarded one of the nodes, the enemies they had bypassed to get to the third node, and the enemies that they would normally encounter when they went for the final node, telling them that Vox wasn't messing around with them anymore. Ratchet and Starlight were sure that this was for the ratings that Vox cared so much about, but it didn't matter to them in the slightest as they engaged their enemies. This time Starlight had to pour more of her magic out as the fought the gladiators, using some of the fallen weapons around her to their advantage as they tore into the enemies that flew around the battlefield. She even went as far as to pick up one of the explosives that had been laying around, attached it to one of the enemies that was approaching a cluster, and set it off in an explosion that took them all out.
Eventually the smoke cleared and they claimed the last two nodes that they needed to capture, earning them the metal that the were after and the ability to retire to the Dreadzone ship once more. They would be able to take another day off from the fighting once tomorrow came their way, as Sunset would be sent to Orxon in their stead, so they sat back in their seats and looked at the screen as the next contestant was teleported down to their course.
"I could have sworn that Shaar would have gotten rid of them," Vox growled as he looked at the screen, one again annoyed by the fact that Ratchet and Starlight were tearing apart his courses like they owned the place, "and now they're skipping out of Orxon."
"Sunset will be able to clear that place in no time." Ace commented, resisting the urge to smile at Vox's annoyance and anger, "I would be surprised if she let the planet standing, considering that it might be a reminder of the first villain she and her family had to fight. I'm also sure that the gladiators that call that planet home will be unable to to stand against her power for very long... not unless you have a great idea on how to stop her in her tracks."
Vox let out a sigh as he thought about the various people that owed him a favor, wondering if any of them could come up with something that would stop Sunset in her tracks. Warhead would have been an excellent choice, but the young son of Shellshock had jumped the gun and gotten himself killed before Vox could tell him to fight Sunset. It made him wonder how Warhead even knew that Sunset was going to be on Kronos, as he had been on a different planet at the time and had no access to the news until he had departed from said planet. There was always Toxin, a creature made of living poison that could kill pretty much anything it touched, though he had to wonder if the creature could even damage Sunset.
Then his mind turned to the duo of Sniper and Spy, where one distracted the target while the second one took the target out from afar, making them a fearsome combination in the arena.
"I'm going to make a call to our facility on PX-17," Vox said, letting out a sigh as he reached for his communicator, "I might have a way to get rid of Sunset that won't backfire on me."
As he turned around in his chair he didn't notice Ace looking at the number he had dialed, the one thing that would allow someone to figure out where PX-17 was located. This time Ace did smile as he silently excused himself from the office, as he was now one step ahead of Vox... and could now contact Ratchet and Starlight when everyone was focused on Sunset tomorrow. Soon he would finally bring about the end of Dreadzone, he just had to be patient and pray that Vox remained unaware of his plans until it was too late to stop him.