Starlight and her family sat around the table, aboard the Starship Hyperion, and relaxed after their trek through Otto's hidden clone factory and the capture of the villain that wanted to conquer the entire universe. As they sat in their chairs, and placed the cage that Otto was trapped inside in the center of the table, Starlight mentally remarked at how easy and somewhat dull this adventure had been. Sure, she got to see some new technology in use, and could research all of the armor pieces they had acquired so she could make some better armor in the future, but she enjoyed the challenge of besting an opponent that actually made them work hard. All Otto had done was send weak clones after them and test their emotions, so she was somewhat disappointed that he didn't sense a trick coming from Qwark.
She eventually let out a sigh and picked up her tablet again, resuming her search for the truth behind what really happened to Qwark's birth parents... though the man in question was merely siting in a nearby chair and staring at Razor, as if he didn't trust the cat to behave while he was around it.
After ten minutes of searching she discovered that Qwark's parents had apparently died due to some faulty Technomite equipment, though she resolved to tell him what she had found later, when Otto was safely out of Qwark's reach, and also tell him that his parents had apparently been great heroes during their time. Starlight found it amazing that Qwark, with no knowledge of what his parents had done with their lives, had actually followed in their footsteps and used his own talents to do what he thought was right. Of course the definition of right was kind of hit and miss with Qwark, seeing how he believed that Sunset's old golden bracelet was the source of her powers when in reality its purpose was to seal a darker entity away.
Starlight knew how much it had hurt Sunset to say goodbye to Searing, the demon that had once been the bane of her existence and later tuned out to be like a little sibling that wanted to please an older brother or sister. Despite everything she had done, and everything that had been broken along the way, Searing had done all of it in an effort to either save Sunset from a terrible fate or had tried to get Sunset to like her. In the end the little demon had grown on all of them, even Sunset, and at one point the two of them had stood together against another of Sunset's inner demons, the emotion called Hatred, but in the end Starlight knew what the reality was. Searing and Hatred had given the entirety of their beings to save Sunset's life, allowing her to ascend to the position of the God of Destruction, something that Sunset had hated at first... only to grow to like.
She couldn't believe that Sunset seemed to be so calm about being a god that basically destroyed worlds, though she guessed that the reason behind it was because her sister had found a way to bind her powers, allowing her to be normal again... or as normal as one can be when they are the God of Destruction.
An hour after their return to the Hyperion, giving them enough time to relax after everything they had gone through, was met with someone asking for permission to board their ship, though everyone, save Otto, smiled when they discovered who it was.
"Sasha, is good to see you again," Angela said, greeting her fellow Jedi knight the moment she boarded the ship, "I trust you got my message and came as fast as you could?"
"Yes, though I only wish you had told me about this man earlier," Sasha replied, staring at the small cage that Otto was currently residing in, "an army of clones would have been interesting to fight, even if you mentioned that they were nowhere near Ratchet's level. Regardless of me wanting to fight an army of Ratchet's, and improve my skills, I've come with a group of Rangers to take Otto Destruct into custody, where he will likely be thrown in jail for the rest of his life."
"Then we will never again have to worry about his evil polluting the universe!" Qwark declared, gently picking up the cage that held the villain in question and handed him over to the Rangers that had accompanied Sasha, who gently took the cage from him and made their way back to the Phoenix.
Sasha, while disappointed that she couldn't help bring Otto in like she did with Nefarious, turned to the group for a moment and started tapping her tablet, as if here was more that she wanted to tell them. A few seconds later she turned the tablet towards them and let them see what she had been looking for, though most of them were shocked by what they saw. Ratchet, Clank, Starlight, and Qwark were all being invited to join the newly created Heroes Association, led by Hydro Girl and Kid Nova, on the day that they did the whole cut the ribbon ceremony and officially opened their doors to any heroes that wanted to help protect the universe. The real shocker came when they noticed that they were all being offered positions as the first three S Rank Heroes, though according to what Sasha told them that was supposed to be mean that they were the strongest and most respected of all the heroes.
The ultimate shocker didn't come when Qwark accepted the invitation to join the heroes, which everyone had seen coming from a mile away, but rather it came when he declined the offer to become one of the top ranking heroes automatically... and again when he told them that he desired to start at the bottom.
"After everything I have done, to all of you and the planets that suffered during Drek's reign, I deserve to start at the bottom," Qwark commented, knowing that the group was going to ask him why he made the decision and decided to tell them ahead of time, "Eventually I will return to the highest ranks to the order, and have the fame like position I had before I was toppled, but this time I will gladly work hard for the rewards... and who knows, maybe my presence will inspire more people to do more heroic deeds and take some of the pressure off of all of you."
"It would be nice to relax and not have to save the day every week," Ratchet said, as if the idea of being able to avoid a villain appealed to him, "and besides, being at the top of the list means that they would only hand us something that none of the other heroes could take care of."
"You mean something like a villain that's on Otto's level?" Starlight asked, though she already knew what her brother was talking about, "I'll admit that the offer sounds appealing... though its a shame that they didn't offer Sunset anything."
"I'm fine with it," Sunset spoke up, though she ran a hand over Razor's head while she spoke, "People still remember the destruction that occurred during Nefarious' attempt to take over the Solana Galaxy, so they've likely assumed that he had an accomplice that later disappeared. For me, who everyone will likely see as the thing that wiped out Metropolis and destroyed Koros, to join the Heroes Association would no doubt damage their new reputation and make it impossible for most people to call on them for assistance. I'll be fine with not being counted among the numbers of the heroes... though I never thought I would actually say something like that in my entire life."
Starlight was a little sad about that statement, because Sunset had, at the time during their journey to stop Drek, had said something about being a hero, not like Qwark considering what had happened. It was sad that she couldn't join them, but Starlight knew that Sunset likely had to figure out what being the God of Destruction meant, besides erasing worlds.
"Don't look so upset Starlight," Sunset commented, noticing that her sister seemed to be unhappy about her not being offered a position like her and Ratchet, "Think of this in a different light; the free time will allow me to track down whoever Otto sold the fifth Raritanium Core to, see if he's a villain like everyone else, and then potentially take back the Core before he or she even realizes that I'm there. Or maybe we'll be surprised and we won't find a trace of the Core until later... one never really knows."
"Well, Sasha and I have an army of Jedi to train," Angela said, a smile appearing on her face, "We want to be prepared for the coming of the next villain, because we are both certain that he or she will be coming with an army... and before anyone asks, is very simple as to why we know that fact. Drek, from what you told me, had an army, Qwark had an army when he was faking being my boss, Nefarious had his own army that he later turned into robots, Vox had a very ineffective army, and so did Otto. All of the villains have an army to do their bidding, but they always try and wreck wherever they attack, so we want to be prepared ahead of time for the incoming invasion... whenever it happens."
"Then I had best get started on designing some new weapons," Starlight spoke up, though her frown changed into a grin as she thought about what she could make next, "I've been meaning to make another RYNO weapon, especially after the third installment in the series, but the last two adventures have prevented me from putting down any ideas I might have had... though nothing is stopping me from finally creating the fourth weapon in the series."
"And I'll be sure to help the other heroes in any way I can," Ratchet threw in, knowing that it was going to be some work considering that Qwark would be there as well, but the man seemed to simply nod his head in agreement, "If the next villain is indeed coming with an army, just like everyone else, then this time we should be prepared for it and not be caught off guard... especially since we'll likely be attacked in the middle of a city or something."
"Then it is settled!" Qwark exclaimed, pulling himself from his chair and facing everyone, "We shall go our separate ways, in a manner of speaking anyway, and prepare ourselves for whatever foulness our next enemy has in store for us, be that foulness be their actual deeds or whatever their plan happens to be. And then, as the heroes of justice that we are, we shall rain our fury upon our foe and make sure that the universe is kept safe from their evil."
Sunset knew that it was likely going to be some time before they found whoever the next villain was, but the good thing was that they all had something to do to occupy their time. She recalled that Angela had known that someone was hunting down and killing any Lombaxes that had survived what had happened to their race, so she had to wonder if the next person that came to bother them was actually going to be the person that Angela was talking about. As she thought about it, and threw some ideas out, she decided that it was really just wishful thinking on her part, all so her friend could live without the constant worry that someone was hunting her and Ratchet down... which was one of the reasons why they hadn't gotten married or tried to have kids.
Sunset let out a sigh as she looked outside the Hyperion's window and stared at one of the planets that they happened to be passing at the moment, knowing that she and her family would one day be rid of whoever was searching for Ratchet and Angela... and that they would be fully prepared to meet it when it finally arrived.