Four years had passed since Ratchet and his family defeated the Technomite leader, Otto Destruct, and saved the entire known universe from yet another villain that wanted to take over everything. At the same time they managed to attend the founding of the Heroes Association, where heroes gathered into small groups and took on whatever assignments the leaders of the organization had to offer. The groups always copied Ratchet and his family, going in groups of three to five at all times, and generally finished off whatever happened to be bothering the fair people of the Solana and Bogon Galaxies. The tasks were never anything major, like a villain trying to take over anything, rather they were bandits, marauders, and small organizations that were trying to copy Thugs-4-Less, all of which the new heroes had cleaned up by the end of the week that the tasks were posted.
With so many decent heroes running around the two galaxies, occasionally with a Jedi or two to help them if the situation demanded it, Ratchet and the others were able to settle down and enjoy the easy life for once. They had been sixteen at the time they had defeated Otto and were able to celebrate four birthdays for all three of them without having a villain invade the galaxy and interrupt them. Now Ratchet, Starlight, and Sunset were all twenty years old, though out of all of them the only one that had aged the least was Sunset, which was understandable considering what she was. They were even able to celebrate some of Angela's birthdays as well, much to her joy considering she had been running until she met them all and stepped out of the shadows... especially since one of the presents from Ratchet had been a pair of matching rings that had been made out of Raritanium.
That had been the start of them truly being boyfriend and girlfriend... though two years after Otto's defeat they eventually crossed the final bridge and got married, much to the joy of Starlight and Sunset. It had been a somewhat private event, with only their friends being allowed to come to it so they didn't leave another bread crumb for their next enemy to track them down with. Neither of them were planning on having any kids at the moment, not with the enemy of the Lombaxes hunting for them, but that didn't stop them from enjoying each others company whenever they weren't busy.
With no villains to interrupt their daily lives the family was able to resume a normal life, what could pass as normal when one sister was a talking unicorn with some serious magical abilities and the other was a literal God of Destruction. Starlight resumed her job with Gadgetron, making new weapons for the heroes to use while they were in the field while designing the next weapon in the RYNO Series, though she and Mr. Gadget deemed the fourth and fifth weapons so dangerous, based on the holo-plans alone, that Starlight ripped the plans into fragments and sent them to a sector of the universe where no one should be able to find them. Ratchet and Clank went into the mechanics business, opening a small shop that fixed up hovercars, upgraded the systems that needed updating, and sometimes even customizing them a bit.
Angela, of course, was still one of the top ranking Jedi in her order, along with Sasha working beside her, though unfortunately Sasha had been removed from her position as the captain of the Starship Phoenix, allowing her to fall back on being a Jedi for her full-time job. Qwark, staying true to his word, had started from the bottom of the rankings in the Heroes Association and had quickly rose to an A Rank hero, roughly were he was before being taken down by Ratchet and his family so many years ago... though his occupation suddenly changed when the last Head of the Planetary Defense Center tricked him into taking over for a day, so he could relax, and then never returned, leaving Qwark in charge of Metropolis' defenses.
Oddly enough Qwark was doing so well of a job in the Defense Center that he was actually being awarded hero points by the Association, which made him feel good inside as he kept the city safe.
Sunset was the only one that didn't resume her job or take up a new one, rather she gathered parts from the junkyards across both galaxies and gathered them on Planet Aranos, working on a secret project that she didn't tell anyone about. In addition to gathering spare parts she also practiced some of her spells on the opposite side of the planet from her work station, so she didn't end up destroying her secret project. She also took the four Cores from the Hyperion and used them in her work, though that told Starlight that her sister was no doubt trying to find the remaining two Cores that were still missing.
One thing that Starlight had noticed was that Sunset had sealed her powers, leaving her with roughly five percent of her overall power and giving her the ability to enjoy life without being bored when she simply obliterated everything that came at her. Sunset had admitted that the last time she had used her godly powers was when they were taking out Otto's forces, though now she preferred to limit herself to give her enemies a chance to survive her fight with them. Despite Sunset restricting her powers for when the next villain showed itself, and practicing her sword skills and basic magic abilities, they never got put to use in the four years they waited, as if something was trying to pull them into a false sense of security and make them lower their guard.
Eventually the day they had been waiting for arrived, the arrival of the next villain that would excite their lives, though it was once again followed by the family enjoying their lives before their foe came knocking on their door.
Ratchet, Clank, and Starlight stood on the roof of their home, where Ratchet and Starlight were in the process of completing a new experimental hover bike, one of their own design. Clank stood nearby, his eyes going over the list that Starlight had provided him so he could make sure everything was checked off so the vehicle would function perfectly, where the two siblings would try the bike out before fine toning anything that was wrong. Angela was busy at the building that housed the Jedi Order, no doubt going over another report of yet another supposed villain that might try what Nefarious had done so long ago, while Sasha was with her and sharing her insight to the master of the order. Sunset, once again, was off world, though this time she was actually working on the Hyperion, which was once again stationed on the planet's moon with permission granted to them to park it there.
"Fuel lines?" Clank asked, starting at the beginning of the checklist that he had been given, though in truth he was eager to see if this hover bike was even going to work or if it was going to break when they turned it on.
"Check." Starlight replied, a grin appearing on her face as she noticed the item in question was ready, much to her joy as she continued checking on everything else.
"Horizontal stabilizers?" Clank continued, turning his gaze to Ratchet, as both of them had specific parts of the bike that they would reply to and they both insisted on using this method when they did the check up.
"Check," Ratchet confirmed, though that was after examining the bike's wings and making sure that they worked, to which his face mirrored Starlight's as he noticed everything seemed to be just fine.
"Ion thrusters?" Clank inquired, going down to the next item on the list, though his sensors indicated that there was a change in the weather, one that would influence what his companions were going to say next.
"Tail wind..." Starlight breathed eagerly, indicating that she had felt the wind change as well, no doubt due to her own systems that had been installed in her own light suit of armor some time ago.
"If we timed it right," Ratchet added, excitement crossing his face as he envisioned what he and Starlight would be able to do with the bike, "we could ride the slipstream of the grav-train past the c-grid traffic-"
"-launch the mag-grappler onto that pedway overpass-" Starlight added eagerly, easily following her brother's train of thought while continuing his sentence with some ease.
"-and slingshot right up to-" Ratchet continued, his mind stringing together the scenario that he had been envisioning the entire time, though that was before he noticed Clank staring at them.
"Ion. Thrusters," Clank firmly stated, interrupting what they were saying and causing them to turn towards them, though once he had their attention he shook his head, "Last I checked, Ratchet, Angela had told you to mature a little bit, because she fully expects you to be a responsible parent once you track down and take care of the person that's hunting you guys down... whenever he or she shows up."
"The thrusters are fine, Clank," Ratchet reassured, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment for a moment, though that was quickly followed by him switching them on... only for them to start to burn out not moments later.
"Its probably just a fused ion duct or something," Starlight commented, checking to see what the problem was while Ratchet turned to Clank, "It happens all the time..."
Clank was beginning to think that Ratchet had taken on a little bit of Qwark's childlike nature, seeing how the man was almost never around them anymore, but even as he thought about Qwark his data tablet immediately began blaring the emergency signal... one that happened to be from Qwark.
"It seems that Qwark might require our services" Clank commented, letting the tablet float up to display the message, to which the three of them gathered around to see what was happening.
"Ratchet? Starlight? Clank? I've got a bit of a situation here at the Planetary Defense Center," Qwark explained quickly, almost as if he was actually hiding somewhere to send this message to them without being discovered, "there's just a few... thousand... heavily armed robotic commandos invading the planet. I've already contacted the other heroes and the Jedi Order, and they've engaged the commandos in their areas, though there's no one in your area at the moment and I felt that you deserved to know what was happening."
Before any of them could reply, and figure out if he needed help at the moment, Qwark turned his screen to the battle that was on the opposite side of the sealed room he was in, to which he loosed a war cry and charged into the battle with his blaster drawn.
"Hmm... heavily armed robotic commandos?" Clank commented, because the statement almost reminded him of when Drek was the one trying to take over the galaxy.
"When aren't they heavily armed?" Ratchet asked, though he helped Clank onto the hover bike as Starlight climbed into the portion of the bike that had been set aside for her.
"When we or Sunset are done with them?" Starlight offered, knowing that either of their groups could take care of the commandos in question, though as she climbed onto the bike she sent a message to Sunset and hoped that her sister would hear the message's arrival.
"Are you both certain this is functioning properly?" Clank inquired, as he was certain that they should at least finish checking the hover bike before they took off.
"You worry too much Clank," Ratchet commented, pulling the main lever to activate the engines, to which the bike levitated into the air and moved off the edge of the roof... where it promptly began to plummet towards the ground.
Ratchet engaged the auxiliary thruster and began to maneuver them through the crowd of hover cars that were in front of them, though when Clank asked where they were going Ratchet merely stated that they were taking the shortcut so they could get to where Qwark was quicker than if they ran the entire distance. The ride was cut short as Ratchet sent them flying into a Gadgetron blimp, to which they were ejected from their seats as the bike went crashing towards the ground... while at the same time Starlight levitated them down to where their bike eventually landed.
"I guess we're walking," Ratchet said, touching down on the ground, staring at the ruined bike in disappointment for a few seconds, before turning to Clank and Starlight, "So, what weapons do we have this time around?"
"Unfortunately none of our old stuff," Starlight replied, shaking her head as she pulled out the weapons in question, "Right now we have access to the Combuster and Fusion Grenade launcher, though these weapons, in addition to leveling up through us using them, can be further upgraded with Raritanium. And, at the same time, we can test out the new nav units we were given."
With the new blasters in hand the group crossed the bridge that was in front of them and came into contact with their latest enemy, which happened to be fish-like aliens, locked inside a dome of some kind, that happened to be controlling robotic bodies that they used to terrorize and attack anyone around them. All of their new enemies appeared hostile, which they had anticipated considering what Qwark had told them earlier, so Ratchet and Starlight tore through them without concern with their new weapons, though at the same time Starlight listened in one whatever the attackers were saying. From what she could gather they were looking for 'the Lombax' and that they were under orders to 'bring his head back to the Emperor', to which Starlight had to wonder who their enemy was.
Starlight had the feeling that they had finally found the person that Angela had told them about so long ago, back when they had saved the Bogon Galaxy, though if it was then they could finally bring peace to their lives and not have to worry about someone hunting them down anymore.
The second type of enemy they encountered were smaller robots that rolled around on one wheel and tried to zap them when they got close, though they could be destroyed in a single hit. The area in front of where the hover bike landed happened to have one of the oldest golden statues of Qwark, though it had definitely been damaged by the assault, as half of the statue was missing. They found three more of the fish controlled robots standing to the right of the statue, but due to their experience Ratchet and Starlight were able to take them out with some ease. They then crossed through the small building that was in front of them, making sure the citizens were safe, before taking out the flying enemies that had been waiting for them on the other side of the building, the smaller enemies that had been standing on the next bridge, and smashing the dropship with Starlight's magic.
At the end of the bridge rested what appeared to be some sort of jump pad, a new one that had been based off the ones from the Bogon Galaxy and mass produced by Megacorp, though when they used it they jumped through the air and landed on an edge of the building they had been fighting their way to. That was when they spotted what appeared to be some sort of battle walker with four legs, once again piloted by the fish aliens, though it ended up jumping to another part of the building in front of them as three more of the flying enemies zeroed in on their location. They easily took out the enemies that were coming their way and moved onward, though at the same time Starlight looked at the sky and noticed that there was a larger of starships resting in the sky, ones that had to be the ships that the invaders were using to attack the planet.
She had a hunch that the 'Emperor', as their enemies called their boss, was waiting on one of those ships, watching his forces attack the city while they searched for either Ratchet or Angela, as they were the only Lombaxes on the planet at the moment.
Once the flying enemies had been taken care of, and no more were coming at them at the moment, they accessed the next jump pad and crossed over to the building to the left of the building they had been on, where they found another group of enemies waiting for them. The enemies were easy to take care of, as they grouped together and died due to the duo of bombs that were thrown at them, though that was before Ratchet and Starlight noticed that they had been standing in front of a grind rail the entire time. Ratchet jumped onto the rail and followed the path to its destination, while Starlight waited for him to reach the end on the rail before teleporting to him, using a special head piece that they had developed that would allow her to teleport into an area that Ratchet was looking at.
The moment Starlight was with her brother again they were assaulted by a group of seven fish controlled robots and ten of the smaller ones, though they didn't put up much of a fight and soon the group was moving forward once more. As they passed through the building in front of them they discovered a new enemy that was attacking any hover cars that passed it, one that looked like a flying saucer that was controlled by the same fish aliens they had been fighting the entire time. As they followed the path they needed to take they were attacked by another saucer and a group of the smaller enemies, though once they were taken care of the group accessed the next jump pad and went on their way.
This time the jump pad had them land on a second pad before they got anywhere near the location they were supposed to land on, which was, of course, crawling with enemies that were searching for them. They were attacked by two more of the saucers and seven of the shocker enemies, but after a minute or two the group had taken them out and where moving forward once again. The next part they had to overcome happened to include walking over one of the bridges that were scattered throughout he city, though this one happened to be under attack at the moment they crossed over it, leaving them to make sure that they didn't fall to their deaths while clearing out all of their enemies as they ran to the next building.
Inside the next building they found twenty of the shocker enemies and two of the flying robots, though with Ratchet and Starlight's experience they were able to overcome their enemies and see what they had to do next. Ratchet found another grind rail for them to use and hopped on it, knowing that Starlight would stay put as she waited for a decent place to teleport to, though not a few minutes later he noticed that the ships were forcing him to go where they wanted him to go, so he had Starlight teleport to the area he would be landing in before he even reached the area. The instant she teleported into the area she loosed several shots with her new Combuster and took out the robots that were waiting for her brother, though the moment Ratchet arrived they jumped onto the jump pad and went up to the platform above them.
The two robotic enemies that had been standing on the platform were easy to deal with, allowing them to access the next jump pad that took them to a purple one, which sent them soaring towards a somewhat broken sky bridge. Unfortunately the moment they touched own on the bridge it started to fall apart, as their enemies were firing at them from their ships, forcing them to run through the robotic enemies that happened to be waiting on the bridge. Ratchet and Starlight took turns throwing their grenades at the enemies in front of them, as one was powerful enough to take out two enemies at once, though after a few minutes of fighting they eventually reached an area of the bridge that looked normal and undamaged... which was when the entire bridge collapsed and dropped them into rush hour traffic.
Starlight grabbed them with her magic and levitated them down to the Planetary Defense Center, where Qwark happened to be leading a group of heroes and Jedi against the invaders, though he didn't have time to say much while he was busy blasting his targets to pieces. One of the enemies took a shot at Ratchet and he jumped out of the way, though that allowed him to understand that this was definitely the person that Angela had warned them about back when they first met her. With all of the enemies turning towards him, and ignoring everyone else, Ratchet jumped onto a nearby grind rail and beckoned for them to chase him, to which he smiled as the heroes and Jedi tore the invaders to pieces.
As Starlight stayed behind to help the heroes and Jedi, until Ratchet found a place for her to teleport to, Ratchet rode along the rails and dodged the attacks that the enemy saucers threw at him, while at the same time discovering that the leader of the invaders, the Emperor himself, wanted to personally deal with him. Clank would warn him of where the ship's attacks were coming from, making sure that Ratchet understood what he was saying to him, and Ratchet made sure that nothing roasted them from behind. After a few seconds Ratchet noticed the perfect place for Starlight to teleport to, so while he finished up on the rail he had his sister teleport into the area ahead of him... though once he landed he found that they were already surrounded by their enemies.
The ship that had been following him on the grind rail eventually came to a halt on the side of the building that was opposite of where Ratchet and Starlight were standing... though that was quickly followed by a mechanical walker, complete with some sort of throne, walking out of the ship. The person that the walker carried was a small creature, one that Ratchet had never seen before, that had a tiny head and was wearing red clothing on most of its body, with what appeared to be some sort of crown on its head. Starlight also noticed that the creature happened to be carrying a scepter of some kind, though floating in the middle of something that looked like the letter C was a red gemstone that appeared to be glowing.
Ratchet and Starlight exchanged a glance for a moment before turning their attention back to the person in front of them, though i was clear that they both knew that this was the man responsible for buying the fifth Raritanium Core off of Otto Destruct all those years ago.
"Behold! The last Lombax in the universe!" the creature wickedly proclaimed, though at the same time it almost sounded like the person was bored, "Truly a pathetic specimen of the race, I'm afraid... so weak."
"And you are?" Ratchet asked, though he was somewhat pleased that the creature thought that there was only one Lombax in the universe, which meant that he had no idea that Angela even existed.
"Emperor Percival Tachyon, Crown Prince of the Cragmites," the creature replied, standing on its tiny legs and waving its strange scepter around for a moment, "conqueror of space and time, and, pending the obliteration of a few insubordinate species, Ruler of the Universe!"
"Nice to meet you, Emperor Tachyon," Starlight said, tilting her head to the side as she studied the walker, immediately noticing some key points they would hit if they wanted to escape at a moments notice, "So why are you looking for my brother?"
"Because I have sworn vengeance against the Lombaxes for what they did to my once noble race!" Tachyon angrily proclaimed, telling them that whatever had happened was enough to make him hate the Lombaxes with his entire being, "I will hunt down and exterminate every last Lombax in the cosmos... and annihilate them!"
"So how come it took you this long to find me?" Ratchet asked, as he was genuinely curious as to why Emperor Tachyon hadn't shown up after the defeat of Nefarious, or anything similar to that, "I mean, my sisters and I have been on the news for years."
"Sisters? Well that might explain why I never found you until I got a message about your hover car shop," Tachyon replied, though that was followed by a palm hitting his face, "I never considered that you might make a family type connection to someone who was your age and grow up like a family."
"Its actually a little disappointing that you didn't find the three of us because of the five times we saved the known universe," Ratchet commented, as it was a tad bit annoying that it was his shop that brought the Emperor to the planet and not his deeds, "or how we helped create the Jedi Order... or even how we're some of the highest ranking heroes in the Heroes Association."
"Now it makes so much more sense," Tachyon said to himself, as if he had actually missed something obvious and was annoyed about it, while at the same time failing to keep his thoughts to himself, "I was searching for 'inventions' instead of 'accomplishments'... your kind has always been quick to take the credit for anything they did, be it inventing something new or defeating a certain villain. Oh well, I'll have time to see what you and your little family has done over the years... once I've killed the both of you and finished annexing this planet for my ever growing empire."
"Wait," Starlight said, a small smile appearing on her face for a moment, one that she was sure that Tachyon was bound to miss as he and his soldiers stared at her, "do you want to see something cool?"
"I don't see why not," Tachyon replied, though he pulled out a watch to look at the time before turning his attention back to her, "Though do be quick about it, there are six more planets I wish to conquer and annex today once I've finished off your brother."
Starlight summoned her magic and weaved a glimmering barrier around her and Ratchet, one that would prevent Tachyon from getting at them while she used the second part of her plan. This specific type of shield she had summoned was designed to bend the rays of the sun itself, allowing her to either use a beam of light and cut down her enemies or temporarily blind them for a quick getaway. The entire time they had been talking she had been trying o figure out which power to use, but in the end she decided that they had best run and regroup with the others... before they waged war against Tachyon and his army.
"Solar Flare!" Starlight called out, to which the barrier reflected the light away from her and Ratchet, effectively blinding their enemies for the moment while leaving them unharmed.
With Tachyon and his troops trying to recover their sight, Ratchet, Clank, and Starlight ran towards the warship that Tachyon had been flying in and seized control of the ship. It didn't take long for Clank to seize control of the ship and soon they were heading away from the city, following the ship's directive to fly to some preset coordinates... ones that appeared to be in the Polaris Galaxy. The moment they left the planet behind the ship told them that the auto pilot would be taking over and that cyrosleep would begin shortly, to which Ratchet was immediately knocked out the moment the gas entered the area they were in.
Clank, beginning to comment on how cyrosleep didn't work on robots and chuckle to himself, received a punching glove that delivered enough force to knock him out. Starlight, already knowing that the ship would insist on her going under as well, merely opened her tablet and sent Angela a message with the coordinates they were heading to, knowing that she and Sunset would be following after them the moment they finished up whatever they happened to be doing. Once she was done with the message, and was sure she had sent it along, she powered down her tablet and slipped it into its case, before allowing the sleeping gas to knock her out.
The last thing Starlight heard was the ship entering hyperspace, heading to the coordinates that had been programmed into the ship's systems before they had even taken it over.