//------------------------------//
// Size: Quodrona 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

As soon as the group returned to the Hyperion, and put away their weapons for the moment, they set the lifeless body that had once been the robot that called itself Luna. They gathered around the robot and together, with the varying levels of knowledge they had on the inner workings of robots, were able to attach her memory banks to a terminal and started sifting through everything that was stored inside her. It took them roughly an hour to sift through everything that had been tapped inside the robot's memory banks, but in the end the group was actually disappointed when they discovered that they already knew most of what they had found. The only new things that they received were the coordinates for Planet Quodrona, which they would have gotten from Qwark anyway, depending on when he made contact with the enemy leader, and a picture of said leader... along with his name; Otto Destruct.

Everything else was just a copy of what they already knew thanks to the planets they had recently visited, so Ratchet set the Hyperion to begin the flight to Quodrona, giving them plenty of time to send Qwark a little message that would indicate that they were on their way.

Sunset still couldn't believe that Qwark, after everything he had done to her and her family, had suddenly stepped forward and declared that he wanted in on bringing down Otto and his clone army. If she had anything to say in the decision making she could have wrecked Qwark and erased his existence from the universe, but unfortunately she had to suffer through his existence. Despite the fact that she hated to admit when the oaf had a smart idea, of which there were few considering he rarely followed them anymore, she still failed to see how he could be useful in distracting Otto when it came time to fight him. If anything she secretly hoped that he would grab Otto while he was distracted, giving her the opportunity to blow the two of them to pieces... but unfortunately she knew that it would never come to that.

Half an hour passed before they received word that Qwark was in position, though for good measure he enclosed the exact coordinates of the clone factory, just in case they hadn't gotten them from the little robot they had taken out. That was then followed by Starlight receiving a file that was essentially the full layout of the clone factory they would be heading to, detailing where the weak spots were for when they went to destroy it once they had dealt with Otto.

"He's definitely thought this through," Starlight commented, looking over the map that Qwark ha sent them, spotting all of the weak areas while marveling at how such a smart foe could have built a factory with so many weaknesses, "Sunset, I'm willing to bet that if you took out any of these marked areas, just one of them I might add, the entire factory would soon be destroyed regardless of what you took out. I know the Technomites were supposed to be good at what they did, in terms of technology, but it almost looks like they skipped a critical step when they built their factory."

"Maybe Otto was stressed for time once he learned that we were on vacation," Angela threw in, knowing that it had been the perfect opportunity to strike, as they had lowered their guard while they were on Pokitaru, "Its plainly clear that he wanted Ratchet's DNA and a catalog of every move he used, all so he could create a clone army that would destroy any known force in the universe. Fortunately, like all of our other enemies, he failed to account for the fact that Sunset's powers are not to be messed with, as she so clearly demonstrated when she tore her way through the facility you two were taken to... or the outpost that had been resting in Challax's atmosphere. If anything Otto should be praying that Sunset doesn't show up to ruin all of his plans, though he'll be in for quite a surprise when we all show up and knock on his front door."

Sunset looked at the map that everyone else was staring at and was surprised by the sheer number of weaknesses that were scattered around the factory, some of which happened to be in vital areas that were keeping the entire structure stable. She even spotted some inside the power rooms, though how those ones hadn't been detected and fixed yet she had absolutely no idea, because Technomites would never build something as weak as this. She was beginning to suspect that Otto had only recently come up with his plan to attack the universe with an army of clones, as in the moment he became aware of just how strong and resourceful Ratchet actually was.

As her eyes scanned the map of the factory they were heading towards, so they could end this adventure, she reflected on how easy it would be to cause an earthquake and literally destroy the entire place without even trying... which meant that she was going to have to hold herself back more than usual when they eventually arrived. She was glad that she had finished working on her new sword, as it was designed for an occasion where she either didn't feel like using her magic or was in a position where using it would be bad for everyone, though this happened to be the second option.

Sunset turned her eyes to the planets and stars that they were passing by, to which she allowed her mind to ignore what they were about to do while she and her cat Razor relaxed, leaving the others to create their plan of attack. She already knew it would be a full frontal assault, as that was what they were good at, but she kept her mouth shut in case they came up with something better this time. Some change would be nice, but what she really wanted was the end this adventure... and she knew that she was going to get her wish soon enough.





When they landed near the coordinates they had been given Sunset believed that Qwark had fooled them, as there was nothing around the landing pad, but then Starlight told her that it was the same as Challax, where they would have to shrink themselves to a smaller size before they went off on their adventure. Ratchet and Angela shared a look for a moment, because both of them were wondering if the shrink ray would even work on Sunset or her cat, but to everyone's relief the two of them shrunk down without so much of a problem. Once all of them were the size they needed to be they hopped into the small hovercar that had been waiting nearby, either forgotten about or purposely left for them to find, before speeding off between some cracks.

It was then that they discovered that the factory in question rested in a lava like area, as there were at least two small flowing rivers nearby, though they decided not to bother worrying about it at the moment. They approached the weapon vendor and restocked all of their weapons, to which they discovered that there was one last addition to the list; the Laser Tracer, which was powerful enough to vaporize any enemy instantly. Neither Ratchet nor Starlight bothered to buy the weapon this time, because between the amount of people that were in the group, and the potent magical abilities that Starlight and Sunset possessed, it would actually be unfair for them to carry such a weapon into battle.

Once they were all ready for the assault on their enemy's base of operations, and both Sunset and Angela had their individual weapons at the ready, they walked down the conveyor belts and marched into the factory. The moment they passed through the door they found four turrets, each with two heads, popping out of their holding areas and zeroing in one where they were standing. As Ratchet and Starlight focused on the two in front of them, Angela moved to the right an cut the turret in half before it could even fire at them, though at the same time Sunset merely summoned a small shield to stop the missiles in their tracks before her sword pierced the turret she was facing.

The moment they had cleared the room of enemies they approached the door and let Ratchet shrink into an even smaller form, to which he jumped into the lock and began whatever he needed to do to open the door for them. A few seconds later and he hopped out of the lock, where he enlarged himself back to the same size as everyone else, before the door opened and revealed two nurse robots looking over some sort of contraption in the middle of the room. Ratchet an Starlight looked a pair of shock missiles into the room, taking out both of the nurse robots in a single surprise attack, though before they could get much further the door opened and at least seven Ratchet clones walked into the room with their weapons raised.

Ratchet was somewhat horrified of the clones, not because Otto had at least managed to get his face and body type right, but because each one of the clones looked completely different from his own look. Several of them didn't even have the same fur color, as some of them were a shade lighter or a shade darker, while others had different fur colors, as opposed to the normal Lombax orange that he and Angela had. Some of them had stripes in the same locations that Ratchet had, which was understandable considering they were modeled after him, but all of the ones that had the strips had different colors that weren't the normal brown. He even spotted one clone that appeared to have small demon like horns coming out of the sides of his head, making it a little unique in the sea of copies.

It actually didn't take them long to dispose of the group of clones, as it quickly became clear that they were not as well trained as Ratchet was and had next to no idea how to use their weapons, which meant that they were quite literally fresh out of whatever cloning machine Otto was using at the moment. The moment they had finished beating up all of the clones, and they were sure that they were dead, Ratchet picked one up and tossed it into the lava, allowing the molten material to devour and destroy Otto's creation. The others looked at each other and decided that it was best to not argue with Ratchet over this, because someone could actually do a lot of harm with the amount of DNA that Otto had replicated... and it would be best if both Ratchet and Angela didn't have to fear someone creating a specific poison that targeted their genetic cord or anything similar to it.

Once they had disposed of all the clones, and made sure that there were no more in the surrounding area, they walked out the backside of the room and found a number of swingshots waiting for them, to which they took turns swinging above the lava until they came to the next part of the factory, though Sunset carried Razor with her magic. The room they walked into was a room that was filled with chambers that clearly held all of the clones that hadn't been fully developed yet, though all of them could see that these clones also had mutations that separated them from the rest of their kind and from Ratchet. At least fifteen of the mutated clones burst out of their containers and came at them, though once again they were sloppy at fighting and allowed the group to finish them off rather easily.

"Otto was clearly unprepared so such an assault," Sunset commented, dragging all of the clones onto a bed of moving magic, which she used to move the bodies to the lava again, "What did he expect from soldiers that can barely hold their weapons and fall apart from the tiniest amount of damage?"

"I don't know and I could definitely care less," Ratchet replied, watching the last of the clones fall into the lava before turning his attention to the next door they had to pass through.

The next room was smaller than what everyone was expecting, as all it appeared to be was a wall they had to jump off of an land on a platform, which they would have to repeat until they reached the top. Instead of wasting time with the room, and pissing anyone off, Starlight and Sunset levitated them all into the air and dropped them in front of the next door they had to pass through. From there they entered the room where the more advanced clones were hard at work perfecting their skills against all sorts of dummies, though what annoyed Ratchet was the fact that the older clones still didn't match him at all.

There was always something wrong with one of the clones; as one of them had deep red fur, another had pitch black eyes, a third had what appeared to be a full set of razor sharp shark teeth with a matching fin in the poor clone's back, and a whole sea of mutations that just ticked him off to no end. These were just mockeries of life, twisted clones of what a Lombax should look like, and Ratchet could tell that even Angela was getting pissed off as well.

The group jumped down into the area that the clones were using for their practice session and immediately tore into them, using their hand held weapons instead of their guns to literally hack and slash the mutated clones into pieces. Razor, on the other hand, moved to the back of where the clones were standing and attacked them from behind, tearing one of his chosen target's legs off before ripping the other limbs off. By the time the mutated clones had been completely dealt with, and were nothing more than a pile of part at this point, Ratchet calmed down enough to shrink himself and slip into the keyhole of the next locked door. When he returned a few seconds later it was clear that none of them were through with venting their rage against Otto's creations, as the next room they entered ha another twenty clones, all of which were mutated like the last bunch, waiting for them.

Ratchet's anger snapped at that point, as he pulled out all of the weapons he had gathered over the course of this adventure and started loosing everything he had on the mutated clones, causing them to either run for cover or get blown up by his onslaught. A full two minutes passed before he finally ran out of ammunition and dropped the last weapon to the floor, though he had to smile when he noticed that the entire chamber had been nearly ruined with all of the blast marks and busted pieces of the walls that were sticking out everywhere. He waited for a few seconds, merely to contain the amount of anger that was inside him, and realized that this is what Sunset must have felt every single time Qwark did something stupid to her.

Once he had calmed down, and was no longer on the verge of snapping again, he rapidly collected his weapons and backtracked a little bit, where he stopped at the nearby weapon vendor and restocked all of his ammunition before returning to the group.

"Damn Ratchet, I don't think any of us have ever seen you get that angry," Angela commented, looking at all the mutated clones that were scattered everywhere, surprised that Ratchet's rage was as explosive as Sunset's or Starlight's was.

"Otto didn't even do a good job at cloning me, and in his haste to create his army he created an army of mockeries," Ratchet replied, letting out a sigh as he checked his weapons, "Come on, let's bring this guy down so we can go back to what we were doing before he and his minions ruined our vacation."

The next room they entered happened to be one that contained quite a number of crates, all of which were the same height, and found that some of the clones had been stored inside this room, as the moment they walked through the door several crates opened and the mutated clones charged at them. The group separated from each other and attacked the clones that came after them, after they had put enough distance between them and the others, and in a matter of minutes the clones were defeated once more. It actually would have surprised them that all of these clones, apparently crafted from Ratchet's genetic code and had a great knowledge of his moves, were failing this badly, but then they remembered that they had to have caught Otto when he wasn't prepared.

The clones were supposed to be the guardians of the factory and the greatest fighting force that the Technomites had ever created, but in the end it appeared that they were nothing more than failed copies of the real deal.

Once they were done with all of the clones they approached the back of the room and found a rather large red button waiting for them, to which they assumed that it would bring about the destruction of the factory if someone touched it. Ratchet climbed onto the button and waited for it to touch the floor, where he waited for the sound of the self destruct sequence to engage, but what really happened was a section of the wall on their left opened and revealed another path for them to take. They left the room and noticed that the walkway they were on was, once again, surrounded by lava, so Starlight and Sunset disposed of the bodies of the clones before Starlight restocked her weapons at the nearby vendor.

"According to all of our information this should take us directly to Otto," Starlight commented, looking at what could potentially pass as an elevator of some kind, "which means that we can finally bring this adventure to a close and put it behind us."

Everyone nodded their agreement, along with Razor letting out a growl that seemed to have an agreeing tone as well, before they entered the small elevator shaft and rode up to the area that it connected to... where they found Otto Destruct, the very person they had come to defeat, floating in front of them with a look of joy in his eyes.

"Ah, Ratchet and his beloved family, how very nice to meet you." Otto said, glaring down at them while he spoke, "Although, I'm pretty sure that all of you have seen enough of Ratchet today."

"Thanks to all of your miserable attempts to clone me," Ratchet replied, his hand itching towards his weapon so they could get the fight started and not have to exchange dialogue with the madman, "I thought your technology was supposed to be better than this."

"Oh trust me, those failures meant nothing to me," Otto said, though his hovering platform moved around the arena they were in, as if he was getting a good look at the other members of his group, "You know, its actually a shame that we were unable to mimic or replicate the magic properties that you possess, Starlight Glimmer, because an army of you would have been much better than an army of Ratchet's. Its also a shame that we were unable to grab you, Angela Cross, because your skills with that weapon you carry, the lightsaber I believe you call it, would have made quite an interesting army."

"And what about Sunset?" Starlight added, knowing that there would never be a way for someone to clone her sister, not when she was a walking god at this point.

"It would have been the same as your army of clones," Otto replied, staring at Starlight for a moment, as if he was annoyed that she had spoken up, "Regardless of the fact that you manage to beat an army of weak and ill prepared clones, which you have my thanks for saving me the time of destroying them, I will enjoy collecting some fresh samples from all of you and begin the creation of an army that will conqueror the entire universe."

"But all of Luna's files indicated that you only wanted credit for all of the inventions your race created," Angela remarked, as she had found something interesting while searching through the little robot's memory banks, "Why the sudden need to conquer the universe?"

"Simple; I conquer them and force them to give me the credit I deserve," Otto answered, as if the answer to her question was obvious, "and then I will reach passed the limits of the Solana and Bogon Galaxies, where I shall conquer every planet I come across until I am the emperor of everything and anything. But before I can create my clone army, and get to conquering everything, I have to get rid of all of you... which is easier done than said."

With that said Otto's platform rose into the air as four openings appeared in the floor around the group, to which more mutated clones poured out and started attacking them. They were also apparently going to be timed on this fight, as it appeared that they would have to survive three whole minutes, though they all knew that Otto was underestimating the power that they could use against him. As they fought the clones, and immediately started by decimating their numbers, Ratchet had to wonder why Otto, who seemed to know a lot about them, wasn't scared of Sunset. Its not like he had taken the time to do the research that Nefarious had done to create something that negated magical abilities, so if Otto knew about her godly powers, which Ratchet was sure the villain did, then it was strange that he was even attempting to beat them.

The three minutes passed by rather quickly, which wasn't surprising considering that they could easily beat up the clones without too much effort on their part, though once the time was up, and no more clones were coming out out to fight them, Qwark appeared over one of the building's walls. He seemed gigantic, considering he hadn't been shrunken like everyone else, though it didn't take Sunset long to find that he was holding a small cage in his right hand, one that seemed big enough for a single person.

"Is it time?" Qwark asked, as if he was supposed to be doing something at the moment and wanted to be sure that he was doing the correct action, so he didn't mess up.

"Yes my son, it is time to enact our plan," Otto replied, floating up to Qwark's shoulder and stared down at Ratchet and his family, "Go ahead and crush them... though make sure to save Ratchet for later."

Qwark grinned and raised his empty hand, as if he was intending to crush everyone in the arena until they were all dead, but then he grabbed Otto's floating platform and dumped him inside the cage he had been holding, which he promptly sealed before the villain even knew what was happening. He then grinned as he tossed the platform to the side and set the cage down in the arena, where Ratchet shrunk him down to a better size so they could inform the villain of his defeat.

"How could this have happened?" Otto demanded, glaring at Qwark the entire time, though he knew better than to try and touch the bars that lined the cell, as he'd be shocked if he tried anything, "We were supposed to take over the universe as father and son!"

"You know, I knew from the moment you informed me that you were my 'father' that you were lying to me," Qwark replied, though he pointed a finger back at the group that was standing around them, "So I told Ratchet and his family that you had made contact and we devised a plan for me to infiltrate your base of operations, see what you were really planning, and then bring you down from the inside. You pretty much sabotaged yourself with your clone army, who couldn't even fight at half of Ratchet's full potential... not to mention that Starlight's got enough power behind her to do more than what she showed you. And, to top all of this off, you were fighting against Sunset Shimmer, the mortal turned God of Destruction... who even I have come to fear after, um, recent events."

"Please, the God of Destruction is merely a title," Otto retorted, as if he didn't believe Qwark at all, "No mortal can break planets, and even destroy them in some cases, without some sort of weapon backing their every move."

"Oh trust me, you don't want to make her mad." Qwark said, to which he turned his back on Otto and faced the group, "So, what do we do with him?"

"He goes to jail for attempting to take over the universe," Angela spoke up, slipping into her role as a Jedi Master once again, "which is what we would have done to Nefarious had he not escaped at the last moment. Once we lock Otto away we can return to our vacation and plan out our next move."

"Though before we do any of that, I have a question that needs to be answered." Sunset commented, walking up to the cell and staring into Otto's eyes, "Tell me, where are you hiding your Raritanium Core?"

"I sold the one piece of raritanium I ever found to a collector, who expressed an interest in the stone's odd red color," Otto replied, not even bothering to hide the truth from his captors, "I received five million bolts for the stone, which I then used to begin my preparations for my conquest of the universe. I don't know much about the man I sold the stone to, other than the fact that his name started with a 'T', so your on you own."

Sunset growled for a moment, annoyed that the stone had been sold before they had even known that Otto was going to be annoying them on their vacation, but after a few seconds she calmed down and opened a portal for them to take back to their smaller ship. Once they were on the other side they enlarged themselves back to their original heights, though they left he cage small so it would be easier to carry. In time Angela would call the authorities and they would hand Otto, and his factory, over to the Galactic Rangers, ending this adventure and allowing them to move on with their lives. They would then return to Pokitaru, to finish their vacation, where they would relax and unwind before they even bothered to think about what to do next.

Sunset let out a sigh as she rubbed Razor's head and listened to the cat as he purred for a moment, though she knew that they would find the missing stone that Otto had sold and claim it for their collection... and then they could begin the hunt for the villain that was holding the last of the six Raritanium Cores. She still had no idea what was so special about the six stones and the connection she had with them, but she was sure that she would figure it out in due time... once they had the whole set.