Ratchet was still staring at the screen that had showed Sunset taking care of the course that had been placed on Torval, still trying to wrap his head around what he and the others had seen. He had seen his sister when she was angry, and the destruction that she could cause, but what he had seen on Torval was different than what came before their stay in Dreadzone. To him it looked like Sunset was beginning to enjoy her new powers and the exercise that Vox was giving her, despite the constant frown she wore all the time, and had grown angry when someone came to claim what was clearly hers. Sunset was adapting to the power that was coursing through her body, though Ratchet knew that it would be some time until she was fully in control of her abilities.
He let out a sigh as he leaned back a bit; he never would have thought that one of his sisters would literally become a walking goddess, one that could destroy anything that annoyed her.
"I see that you are still hung up on the fact that one of your sisters is close to accepting who she truly is." a voice behind him said, to which he turned around and found Ace standing nearby.
"Its kind of hard to ignore it at this point." Ratchet replied, shaking his head as he turned to face the Head Exterminator, "Thanks to all of the headlines and news pieces that Vox is doing about Sunset, about her battles anyway, its impossible to ignore the fact that Sunset's become something greater than Starlight and I expected."
"And what it is that you were expecting?" Ace asked, clearly curious as to what Ratchet had been thinking about before he and his family had been captured by Vox.
"Honestly, anything would have been better than the reality we face," Ratchet said, letting out a sigh, "I just wish that Qwark hadn't broken the bracelet that Sunset had been wearing for almost her entire life, because I'm willing to bet that she would have been something else and not the 'Goddess of Destruction'."
"Well, we can't change the past." Starlight commented, stretching her legs as she walked out of the room she had been sleeping in, "Now I'm grateful that the guards that had been transporting us a few days ago decided to stop doing their job, because its easy to forget what having a good night's sleep feels like on the beds that Vox gives his prisoners. That also makes me wonder if Sunset was given a bed to sleep in at all, or does she have to sleep in the cell that he's trying to keep her in whenever she's not being thrown into the arena."
"Either way it hardly matters," Ace said, drawing their attention back to him, "We should be arriving at Dreadzone in about an hour, so that will give us plenty of time to go over our plan of attack before you have to go through the Vindicator Tournament and face the Eviscerator. Let me be clear on something, the Eviscerator is on our side... but that also means that you'll have to pull off a convincing battle with him to avoid Vox's eye when he speaks with me later. Then it is only a matter of completing the next couple of planets, passing the last tournament, and then we can put our true plan into action... as long as Sunset doesn't snap and kill Vox before we can."
Ratchet had forgotten that their next opponent, the Eviscerator, waited for them at the end of the Vindicator Tournament, which he and Starlight would be heading into once they returned to the Dreadzone Station. He didn't care about the tournament at all, considering that he and his sister would have to kill a bunch of gladiators before they reached the Exterminator, but they had to play along and make sure that Vox didn't catch onto what they were doing. If Vox knew that their collars had been deactivated, and the fact that they were allied with Ace in a plot to bring down the entirety of Dreadzone, the man would go off the deep end and try to kill them all. They had to be careful around the man, as there was no telling when he would do something they weren't expecting, but as long as they continued with what they were currently doing they would be able to catch Vox by surprise.
"I wouldn't worry about Sunset too much," Starlight commented, a light smile appearing on her face for a moment, "If Vox tries anything on her, say like trying to blow her up, she'll overcome the explosion and take down whoever is around her. We had better get ready for the Vindicator Tournament, because there is no telling what we'll have to face when we step into the arena... though I personally hope that there's more than what he sent at us in the last tournament."
Ratchet, on the other hand, didn't care how many enemies Vox sent at them, because in the end he and Starlight would eventually break through their ranks and clear the tournament. Between his skills and Starlight's magical abilities he already knew what was going to happen when they stepped into the arena, but he decided to wait and see what happened for himself.
When Ace's ship returned to the Dreadzone Station Ratchet and Starlight teleported back to their holding area so they could see what Clank and Al had been up to while they were away. It gave them the opportunity to tell their friends that they only needed to wait a little while longer, at least three or four days, before they could put their plan into action. Al was relieved that they would soon put this place behind them, not to mention putting the shadowy empire out of commission and saving the remaining heroes that were being held against their will. Clank, on the other hand, expressed his worry over Sunset's sudden change in nature, as in the fact that she was slowly embracing her destructive nature, but offered no method to stopping the change.
In the end Ratchet and Starlight were eventually called into the Battledome, to which they bid their friends farewell for the moment and climbed into the shuttle that would take them to their destination. This time when they arrived in the arena neither of the announcers had any remarks to offer them, though Ratchet and Starlight immediately found themselves restricted to one weapon; the Fusion Rifle. Gladiators came at them almost immediately, though the grouping of their enemies allowed Ratchet and Starlight to take at least two of them out at a time and sometimes even three or four if they were lucky.
When the first wave was over they were required to switch to the Leviathan Flail, allowing them to smash through everything and everything that came at them. The third wave brought about the Hunter Mines, to which Ratchet and Starlight littered the entire field with the floating spheres that destroyed their enemies with ease. The Magma Cannon followed shortly after that, allowing them to break apart the dropships that came into their line of sight, while they completely decimated the enemies of the fifth wave with the missiles from their Arbiters. The final weapon that they were forced to use was the Dual Vipers, to which they literally opened fire on anything and everything that charged at them, until the challenge was completed and they were allowed to move forward.
The second challenge was when they found themselves back on top of the Tower of Power, where they basically had to fight their way through a horde of enemies and survive for about two and a half minutes. As they ran around the top of the tower they also made sure to dodge the explosive crates that were being dropped onto the field all around them, though they also used them to their advantage and removed some enemies to conserve ammunition. While they fought the enemies on the ground Starlight tore any dropships out of the air and dropped them on their enemies, though there was the occasional instance where she dragged one above herself or Ratchet to make the ship take the power of the explosives.
Eventually she and Ratchet finished the survival course and were allowed to move onto the next part of the Vindicator Tournament, though as they started to walk away from the Tower of Power they discovered that they were going to face the Eviscerator next. Ratchet looked at his sister for a moment, because he had been expecting a third challenge before they could face the Exterminator, but this tournament was disappointing him completely. Before Starlight could say anything the two of them were teleported down to the middle of the Battledome, where they had fought the Reactor in the previous tournament, and were forced to listen to the announcers say some horrible things about them, which they ignored seeing how none of them were true.
Once the announcers were done talking a nearby door opened and the Eviscerator flew out of it, before landing on the opposite side of where Ratchet and Starlight were standing and extending the blades that he was carrying. The Exterminator appeared to be ready for battle, though neither of them knew what lengths he would go to before throwing in the towel so he could join Ace at last.
When the battle started the Eviscerator went after Ratchet first, swinging his arms though the air as he rapidly approached where Ratchet was standing, but even then Ratchet dodged the blades before they could touch him. He immediately knew why the Exterminator was going after him, because it would make the fight a little more believable, where's Starlight could shield herself until she was ready to counter her enemy. Still Ratchet had to be sure to avoid the claws before they ripped through his armor or cut into any open areas, because he knew that the Eviscerator's blades were very sharp and could easily cut through skin and bones like they were made of butter.
After missing Ratchet a few times the Eviscerator would jump back and head after Starlight, who kept her eyes on their opponent and used her shields to keep him away from her. After a minute of chasing Starlight, and missing so many times, the Eviscerator leapt into the air and loosed a beam of energy at one of them, though when it was clear that he was missing them he landed and repeated his earlier attacks. Ratchet and Starlight managed to score some hits on the Exterminator, forcing him to loose a rain of spikes that they had to dodge before something hit them. At some point the Eviscerator combined all three of his attacks into a storm of spikes, constant beams of energy being fired at them, and him rushing them while they were distracted.
After some time, and an extensive amount of damage from both Ratchet and Starlight, the Eviscerator fell down to the floor and collapsed due to his wounds, leaving the announcers and everyone else to stare at them in shock. After a few seconds the announcers regained their composure and announced that Ratchet and Starlight had succeeded and advanced in rank once more, allowing their armor to change color once more. With the victory secured they left the Battledome and returned to their holding area, where they would check and see which planets were up next in the final tournament.
Ratchet smiled just a bit as they teleported out of the arena, because they were getting ever closer to bringing an end to Dreadzone and everything that Vox had built... and releasing Sunset from her cell completely.
"And now they've beaten the Eviscerator," Vox growled, staring at the screen as Ratchet and Starlight teleported out of the arena, his anger rising as his second best Exterminator bit the dust, "all that remains is you, Ace Hardlight. Do you think that you could beat them?"
Ace already knew the answer he would have given the man if he had exposed himself, but he had to continue to play this game until the time was right and make sure that Vox was left in the dark. It was easy to fool Vox into believing a lie, as he had been doing it since the day he had been captured, so telling another one was second nature to Ace now. He just needed to make sure that his plan remained in the dark... and see if Vox had another plan for dealing with Sunset once her siblings let her go to another planet.
"Ratchet and Starlight shouldn't be a problem," Ace said, pretending to be bored of them despite the fact that they had beaten the Eviscerator, "Sunset, on the other hand, will be a tough nut to crack."
"I've got one last plan I can try against her," Vox commented, though his tone made Ace wonder what he was thinking, "She might be able to take out some of our best Exterminators and Inmates, but I wonder how she'll last against an army of enemies that want nothing more than her head... or more like a 'ghost' army."
Ace had no idea what Vox was talking about this time, but that only meant that he had reached outside Dreadzone to come up with a way to stop Sunset. He was going to have to do some research before he spoke with Sunset in a day or two, because he had the feeling that her next fight was going to be more destructive than the other times she was released from her cell. Then, once she overcame whatever Vox was sending at her, they could bring about the end of Dreadzone.