//------------------------------// // Size: Pokitaru // Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// The manager of the Pokitaru resort was more than willing to let Ratchet, his sisters, and Angela have a private suite on the outskirts of the resort, where they would be able to avoid most of the other people and keep themselves hidden at the same time. The first thing that Ratchet and Starlight did was disassemble the Dreadzone armor that Vox had forced them to wear, with Angela's help no less, and the metal had been put to use creating the prototype for a more powerful RYNO weapon. Ratchet worried about Starlight, because of the fact that she wanted to start on the weapon during their vacation, but if that was what she wanted to do with her time he wouldn't hold it against her. There were also times where Starlight went onto their private beach and and enjoyed the sunlight with the rest of her family... save for someone that all three of them worried about; Sunset. Sunset spent the first few days they spent at the resort either standing on the beach and staring out into the distance or sitting somewhere, usually chosen at random, and meditating until night was upon them. Ratchet and Starlight knew exactly why she was distancing herself from them at the moment, because she needed to come to terms with everything that had happened to her thanks to Gleeman Vox. She needed to come to a understanding with her powers, and her station as the God of Destruction as she preferred to call herself these days, and get over the death of Searing, even if it was to save her life. Ratchet still couldn't believe that Searing, the demon that had saved Sunset's life several times during their adventures and shattered a couple of planets with her powers, was gone. It didn't seem possible that the demon, who had become like a little sister to them all, was actually gone this time, never to return to the universe. Starlight had told him that Searing had, at one point in time, represented Sunset's pride, meaning that she was also an emotion given life, just like Hatred was, but even the knowledge that he had named her correctly all those years ago did nothing for him. He could only sit and watch as Sunset came to terms with who she used to be and who she was now, because it had to be hard for her to accept that she was a walking god now. The other problem was the Codex fragment that Sunset had been given, one that documented the story of another God of Destruction, one that was called Beerus the Destroyer... though Ratchet had no idea why Sunset was so keen on knowing as much as she could about the person, considering that part of the story seemed to be missing. "Is she still meditating?" Angela asked, though at that point they were just finishing their first full week at the resort and were preparing to start their second week. "Yeah... she's been doing that since we came here," Ratchet replied, turning to look in Sunset's direction, discovering that she was meditating outside their rooms, "Don't worry, eventually she'll come to terms with what happened and join us." "It still doesn't seem real." Angela commented, staring out at where Sunset was sitting, her mind replaying what had happened back on PX-17, "I still cannot believe that Vox tried one last time to kill her... and yet that last attempt is what released her full potential for everyone to see for themselves. In an instant she erased the prison she had been held in, destroyed the robot that was serving Vox, and then got rid of Vox before erasing his station and the planet. Its like all of this is second nature to her." "Well, she'll calm down once she's done meditating," Ratchet said, though he knew that Sunset wasn't pleased with the idea of being a god that only destroyed, something that none of them were exactly happy with. Angela could only nod her head for a moment as she stared at Sunset, wondering if she would take after the person that was on the Codex fragment or if she would be different from him. It was too early to decide, so she merely sighed and rejoined the others, knowing that they would have the answers to their questions sooner or later. It was on their tenth day that the group decided to go to the beach again, though this time around Sunset actually stopped her meditation and came with them. Ratchet and Starlight had no idea if she had come to terms with herself yet or not, but at the moment they were both glad to have their sister back with. When they arrived at their chosen destination Ratchet planted two beach umbrellas for them all to relax under, though while he had been putting them up he noticed that Clank and Starlight were busy building sand sculptures, allowing him, Angela, and Sunset to simply relax in the shade. Clank seemed to be making a sculpture of himself, a very good one Ratchet noticed, while Starlight etched some sort of emblem into the sand, one that happened to have what appeared to be six gemstones arrayed in a pattern of sorts. "Harmony," Sunset commented, staring at the emblem for a moment, though there was a flash of knowledge that quickly passed, "the six Raritanium Cores arranged in a pattern to spread hope and good fortune to all." Ratchet had no idea what Sunset was talking about, besides the fact that she had called the fourth Core they had recovered a 'fragment of harmony', so he simply decided that it was better to have her talking and let her be... though before any of them could truly relax someone snapped a picture of them all. To his surprise it was a little red haired girl with her hair done in a quad-pigtail style, who happened to be smiling happily at the picture she had just taken, though that was followed by her turning and snapping one of Starlight and Clank. Oddly enough Ratchet noticed that the little girl didn't turn to Sunset, who happened to be in between both groups, but decided to ignore it and deal with whoever was interrupting their vacation. "What do you think you're doing?" Ratchet asked, because he had been hoping that they could lay low for a while and not get found out by someone, though now it seemed like that was over. "I'm taking picthureth for my thcool projecth!" the girl happily replied, though she did so in a pleasantly high pitched, innocent voice, "I'm doing a report on heroeth, and I recognithed you from the newthpaperth! You're Ratchet, right?" "Yeah, that' me," Ratchet said, though there was really no point in denying who he was for the little girl, despite the fact that she only seemed to be interested in him, "Why do you ask?" "I wath wondering," the girl continued eagerly, as if she had been waiting for him to ask why she was there or why she was asking if he was indeed Ratchet, "if it would be pothible to get thom picthures of you doing thome 'heroic' acthion!" Starlight pulled herself up from where she had been sitting, and away from her sand emblem she had been making, and walked over to Ratchet's side, indicating that she was up for whatever the girl had in mind. Angela, on the other hand, decided to remain where she was sitting, because this was all for her boyfriend and she really didn't want to pull out her lightsaber for some practice session. Sunset, however, merely stared at the girl the entire time, trying to determine if she was telling the truth or if there was something else going on at the moment. In the end Ratchet, with Clank on his back, and Starlight followed the girl down the walkway they had used to get to the beach, though now it happened to be infested with enemies that the young girl wanted them to fight. Their first opponents happened to be some wild crabs, which snapped at them whenever they came close, but neither one of them bothered to pull out any guns as they used their hand weapons on remove the crabs. They then jumped over the log that happened to be sitting in the path, which they were sure hadn't been there thirty minutes ago, before they attacked the next group of crabs that got in their way. As they made their way through the path they could hear the girl requesting various physical actions while they explored, such as double jumps and the like, so she could take pictures of them. Once they jumped over a wall they encountered a robot that wanted them dead, though in a matter of seconds they had taken care of the robot and looked at each other. "What are the odds that we'll encounter more of them the further we go?" Ratchet asked, though he both knew that there were likely going to be more enemies waiting for them. "Likely a hundred percent," Starlight said, though she pulled out the other weapons she had been working on, and approved by her superiors at Gadgetron, before she threw a pair over to Ratchet, "Well then, I guess we'll get to see how well these new weapons, the Acid Bomb Glove and the Lacerator, function in battle. There's also another weapon available in the vendors, the Concussion Cannon, but we should hold off on getting it until we know for sure if we need it or not." Ratchet was amazed that Starlight was able to come up with three new weapons, and get two of them approved, within the first week they had spent at the resort, though he was glad that she had done so. They had left most of their weapons on the Hyperion, which was currently docked near their resort building, so they would have had to waste some time to get whatever they had on board the ship. This way they would be able to test whatever new weapons Starlight had created without having to fall back on the weapons they had acquired during Nefarious' invasion, as the Dreadzone weapons had been broken down into spare parts and turned into the weapons that they were currently holding. With the weapon situation taken care of Ratchet attached his wrench to the crank in front of them and opened the way forward, allowing them to jump over the gap they had discovered and proceed into a waterfall area. There they fought another group of wild crabs and jumped onto the ledge above them, where they encountered another group of robots that were either standing guard or preparing to go attack something. Instead of wasting time Ratchet and Starlight loosed a pair of bombs and blew their opponents to pieces, though once they were taken care of they rode down the slide like ledge behind them, where they arrived in a camp that was infested by enemy robots. It took them a few minutes to clear out the entire group of robots, though once they were all taken care of the door opened and they walked out of the village like area, only to be attacked by yet another group of crabs. When the crabs were gone they encountered another group of robots that were hanging around an area with chairs, though after a few minutes they were all dead and the two of them moved on once more. They found a bolt crank in their way, so Ratchet turned it around and brought up a bridge that connected to where he and his family had been trying to relax... along with some sort of armor resting in the middle of the bridge. "Wildfire Body Armor eh?" Starlight commented, staring at the armor for a few minutes while her scanners looked up the armor and its schematics, "So its elemental armor... that might be useful in the future." They both turned to the girl, who had indicated that her name was Luna, but before they could ask her anything a group of green robots flew into the area and blew up part of the resort, causing the girl to run while the robots followed after her. Ratchet let out a sigh as he pulled the armor on, knowing that they might need it in the future... once Starlight had finished doing whatever she wanted to do to it. "Seriously? We couldn't go two weeks without another villain ruining our vacation?" Angela growled, picking herself up and pulling out her lightsaber, to which she extended the blade as she joined Ratchet and Starlight, "Okay, these guys are asking for it... considering the fact that their attacking the resort and endangering the lives of innocent people. Hey Sunset, you want in on this?" Sunset sighed and stood up, dusting the sand off of her godly attire before she joined her family, though it was merely out of a desire to see what this villain wanted instead of actually wanting to blow something up. They followed the new path that the robots had opened up, where they attacked the large groups of green robots that happened to be waiting for them while climbing up a wall and continuing their assault. Angela's weapon proved to be useful in dispatching a large majority of their enemies, allowing Ratchet and Starlight to conserve their ammunition while Sunset merely walked behind them. Normally this was when one of them would ask Sunset to target the enemy ships and take them out, but considering that the little girl may have already been taken they didn't want to run the risk of killing her on accident as well. They eventually rode a rail down into another section of the resort, where they attacked the large group of robots that happened to be waiting for them before moving forward. They then came to a cave that happened to be guarded by only four of the green robots, though they were easy to take care of with the amount of firepower that was backing them at the moment, to which they discovered the gloves portion of the armor they had uncovered. Ratchet slipped the gloves on and then the group moved forward once more, to which they rode a small platform to one of the other islands that happened to be around the resort that they had been placed in. Once the platform came to a stop they jumped off of it and attacked the enemies that happened to be waiting for them, a combination of crabs and green robots, before they rode another platform to a different section of the resort. There they repeated the same process as before and cleaned up all of the enemies that happened to be in the area, though they eventually arrived at an elevator. They climbed onto the platform and went to the top of the tower, though they were just in time to see Luna being taken away by a green robot, who said something about a planet called Kalidon. Even as Luna was abducted before their eyes something fell from the ship, though none of them bothered to retrieve it until the ship departed from the planet. The item in question appeared to be a Technomite artifact, though that resulted in Starlight looking confused while Ratchet, Angela, and Clank smiled, though Sunset didn't seem too interested. The three basically told Starlight that the Technomites were considered a fairy tale, because parents tell their children a story about them to explain how technology works. They all knew that this latest adventure was going to be somewhat different than the last ones they had been on, though they made their way back to the Hyperion. They had a little girl to save and some ancient secrets to uncover... while bumping into Qwark outside their ship, but they were in a hurry so they merely beckoned him aboard and they took off, heading for the next planet they needed to visit.