//------------------------------//
// Tools: Mukow 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	The beginning of the journey to Planet Mukow was as simple as it could possibly be, as Aphelion engaged her warp systems to get them close to their destination, though the time allowed the ship to become used to flying again. Ratchet wondered how long the ship had been out of commission, but decided that Aphelion wouldn't want to talk about the event that ended with her being implanted in the ground on a ruined Lombax planet. This was perfect exercise for them to determine how well Starlight's repairs would hold up, which he and Clank knew would last until the ship was horribly damaged, but they decided not to bother worrying about it until Aphelion told them that something was wrong with her systems.

Of course she apologized to them when she had to disengage her warp systems and drop out near the Voron Asteroid Belt, though she indicated that she would need a few minutes to recharge before she was at full power and could get them to their destination by engaging the warp functions again. Of course before they could get very far their communicator sprung to life, though that was followed by some sort of skull emblem appearing on the screen before a robot pirate appeared before them.

"Ahoy there, young scallywags!" the robot proclaimed, at first beckoning to itself before pulling backwards and revealing that one of its hands had a hook on it, "This be Cap'n Slag, Scourge of the Galaxy. Surrender your vessel, or be cast to the depths of the universe!"

"You know, you aren't that scary," Starlight commented, though her comment stopped the robot captain from cutting off the link between his ship and Aphelion, "My brother and I have fought worse than you."

"Oh really?" Captain Slag replied, sounding annoyed for a moment, but his interest indicated that he was curious as to what was more scary than he was at the moment, "And what, pray tell, is scarier than the Scourge of the Galaxy?"

"Try the God of Destruction," Ratchet stated, though he raised his hand to his chin, as if he was thinking for a moment, "or would you know her by another name? Like the Demon of Desolation?"

"Cap'n... hic... is he being serious?" a voice behind Captain Slag said, though thanks to the camera angle none of them could see who was currently speaking at the moment.

"Oh course he isn't being serious Pete," Captain Slag replied, snapping at whoever had spoken, before turning his attention back to the group in front of him, "as if anyone could survive a fight with the God of Destruction... even the Scourge of the Galaxy has heard of her."

"Then you had best get out of our way," Starlight said, causing the captain to look at her again, "because Sunset Shimmer, the God of Destruction, is our sister... and if you decided to attack us, and succeeded in hurting us, you would soon receive a visit from our sister. So tell me, would you like to test your luck?"

Captain Slag stared at the screen, as if he was wondering if Starlight was being serious about Sunset coming for him the moment he decided to attack them, though before he could make up his mind one of his consoles started to light up. Before Starlight could wonder what was happening, and wrap her head around everything, Aphelion announced that her own sensors were going off all of a sudden. When Aphelion announced the signature of the ship, the identifying mark for all of the starships and warships, Starlight and Ratchet smiled when they heard the numbers. The space near where they and Captain Slag were flying rippled as the Starship Hyperion exited its own warp system and came to a stop nearby, though it was side by side with where the two ships were flying at the moment.

"Do you really want to see what happens when you attack us?" Ratchet asked, a grin appearing on both his and Starlight's faces as Captain Slag seemed to become a little frightened.

Starlight watched as the dreaded captain seemed to consider his options, as it was either run and live to fight enough day, or stay and get obliterated by the Hyperion. She knew that the pirates could also try to make an alliance with them, in order to preserve themselves, but she would only bring that up with Ratchet if Captain Slag brought it up.

"No lad, I would prefer to live for now," Captain Slag finally replied, though there was a wave of agreement behind him, indicating that his entire crew had heard of Sunset's destructive powers and wanted nothing to do with her at the moment, "Tell all units that these two ships are free to pass through the Voron Asteroid Belt... we'll see what else we catch in our net in the future."

With that said the pirates moved out of the way and allowed Aphelion to gather the energy necessary to replenish its supplies, though once she was done, and assured Ratchet and Starlight that she was ready to go, they engaged the warp systems and continued on their way to Mukow... where Starlight made sure the Hyperion had the same coordinates so it could follow behind them.





When Aphelion finally arrived at Planet Mukow, and landed in the area that the Imperial Fight Festival arena was in, Ratchet and Starlight waited to see if Angela and Sunset would meet them on the ground. A few minutes passed before their old ship, the one they had used to travel between the Hyperion and whatever planet they were heading towards, descended from the sky and landed near where they were landed. As the ship powered down the lid opened, to which Angela, still dressed up in her special robes, climbed out of the ship and ran over to them, where she threw her arms over Ratchet and kissed him.

"Oh thank the Maker that you, Starlight, and Clank are safe," Angela said, smiling at Starlight and Clank as she broke off the kiss, who were glad to see her as well, "A section of Tachyon's forces attacked the temple and held the attention of most of my knights, though when they suddenly pulled back I knew that you guys had done something. I got your message that you were heading into this galaxy and missed you twice, once on Cobalia and again on Kortog, though when the AI indicated that you were heading to Fastoon I checked the various planets and guessed where you would be heading next. I'm glad that I managed to find you when I did, because it looked like those pirates were about to attack you guys and your new ship..."

"My name is Aphelion," Aphelion said, causing Angela to jump for a moment and reach for her lightsaber, though she stopped herself from pulling it out when she realized that the ship had talked, "My records indicate that you are the daughter of Lorna Cross, her little Angela, but most of my memory is either locked down until Tachyon is defeated or corrupted due to my crash landing."

"That's unfortunate," Angela replied, though while she was glad to be back together with everyone else she was slightly disappointed to learn that any knowledge regarding her and Ratchet's race was out of their reach out of the moment, "I also have some bad news; Sunset's missing and she took all of the Cores with her. I went to Aranos to see if she had gotten the message you sent me, so we could travel to this galaxy together, but her lab was vacant of herself, the Cores, and whatever she was working on. So I left and followed your trail..."

"Well, its good to see you again anyway," Starlight said, though at the same time she was curious as to why her sister had suddenly decided to disappear, because she knew that it was impossible for someone to kidnap Sunset without something being blown up, "Come on, Qwark sent us the coordinates for this planet for a reason... so either he has some information he wants to hand over to us or he's wasting our time."

Shortly after the words left her mouth the communicator sprung to life and Qwark congratulated them on deciphering his clever message, to which Ratchet and Starlight rolled their eyes. The man indicated that he actually had important information for them and that they should meet him at the arena, which meant that they were going to have to fight their way through the Festival before they reached their destination. The trio walked forward and made their way towards the weapon vendor, where Ratchet and Starlight purchased the new Shard Reaper that was available, before they searched the area and started taking out the small robotic drones that were patrolling the area.

While they did that, and gathered some small statues that resembled Tachyon, Starlight overheard one of the robot's communications say something about evacuating the Emperor, which meant that they wouldn't be putting an end to this adventure just yet. Once they had recovered the last of the six statues, and they heard a recording of Tachyon's indicate that he was pleased with them, the group decided to see if there was anything useful that might be hiding on the side path. Experience told them that they should always check a side path, as they had uncovered some helpful items in the past by doing this, so they entered the tunnel that had some spinning blades moving around and ignored the recording this time.

When they reached the end of the tunnel they activated their swingshots and swung their way to the area that had a large ferris wheel, though they were somewhat surprised to find that there weren't any enemies nearby at the moment. Before they rode on the massive wheel, and continued their search, Starlight noticed some treasure boxes nearby and levitated herself over to them, where she broke them all and gathered the raritanium that happened to be stored within them... along with a piece of the RYNO IV holoplan that she had scattered a long time ago.

"I don't believe it," Starlight said, sensing the strands of her magic dancing around the fragment of the holoplan, as when she had ripped the plan into pieces and scattered them she knew that her magic had been embedded in each piece, "THIS is the galaxy that the RYNO IV plans were sent to when Mr. Gadget and I deemed the weapon too powerful to create?"

"So are you going to call all the pieces to you?" Angela asked, because at this point she wasn't surprised by what feats could be done with the magic that Starlight contained, "Or are we going to gather them while we visit the various planets?"

A flash of light followed Angela's words, to which the group stared at the completed holoplan, though that was quickly followed by Starlight storing it inside her database and indicating that she would figure out how to make it in the future. With the holoplan now in their possession the group continued along the path, swinging across the gap and shooting at the enemies that happened to be waiting for them. They reached another one of the tunnels that had a large number of spinning blades, though this time Starlight shook her head and grabbed all of them with her magic, to which she levitated them all through the tunnel and dropped them off at the end. As they reached the very end of Tachyon's special path, whatever he had decided to call it, they discovered a pair of Charge Boots laying around, to which they grabbed them before riding the rail down to where Aphelion was resting.

Once they were back at the entrance of the Festival, and restocked their ammunition, they turned to the only other available path they could take, where they swung into an area that their tablets indicated was the challenger entrance. As they touched down on the ground they noticed four of the drones were coming their way, along with a robotic creature that was sprouting electricity from most of its body. The larger creature easily fell to their combined might, as Ratchet and Starlight used their plasma creatures to blow it up, while Angela cut the drones to pieces with her lightsaber. With the enemies taken care of, for the moment anyway, the trio crossed the bridge and attacked the fish controlled suits that were coming their way, though after a few seconds they were free to use the jump wall that was next to them.

At the top of the jump wall they found two more of the electric enemies waiting for them, which were once again taken out thanks to the plasma beasts that Ratchet and Starlight threw out, though once they had been taken care of they used the jump pad to access the level above them. They cleared the electric enemy that happened to be patrolling the top level, and gathered the raritanium that was stashed away in a nearby box, before they rode the nearby rail down to the next area in the challenger area. The instant they landed they took out the drones that were waiting for them, though as they moved forward they spotted even more of the fish controlled suits blocking their way.

After a few seconds of fighting the latest group of enemies the trio made their way towards the large gate that was in their way, though it was quickly taken apart by Starlight's magic. On the other side of the gate they found two more electric enemies waiting for them, which were easily dispatched with the plasma beasts, though once the way was clear the trio started to move forward, where they discovered a large amount of enemies waiting for them. They had to fight through several of the troopers, a small unit of the robotic drones, and another electric enemy before they even reached the bridge, where they found several more enemies guarding the only path that would allow them to reach the entrance of the arena.

As they approached the teleporter they found Qwark hiding nearby, though it was clear that he had created some disguises so Tachyon wouldn't be able to guess their identities so quickly.

"Angela?!" Qwark stated, shocked to see the female Lombax for a moment, though he quickly recovered his composure before continuing, "I was not expecting to see you here, so I don't actually have something for you to use as a disguise."

"That's okay, I came prepared," Angela said, pulling out the mask she had worn long ago, and kept in good condition in case she ever needed it again, before slipping it on and pulling her hood over her head, completing the transformation into the Thief she had used so long ago, "and I already belted my tail, so forgive me if I'm a bit clumsy in there."

Qwark nodded and handed over two small kits that contained the disguises that he had created for Ratchet and Starlight, though he had taken some inspiration from the galaxy they were in to create them. Ratchet was kind of annoyed when he spotted that his disguise was nothing more than a pair of pink glasses and a fake mustache, along with the name Mustachio Furioso. Starlight, on the other hand, was allowed to don the persona of her android character she had played back during the time of Nefarious' attack on the Solana Galaxy, to which Qwark explained that no one in this galaxy had ever heard of Secret Agent Clank... meaning that she wouldn't be signaled out later by a fan or anything like that.

Once all three of them were prepared to enter the arena, and Qwark was pleased with the disguises, he started to move towards the teleporter, though he stopped before he could activate it.

"I overheard someone mention that there is another challenger taking on the arena today," Qwark told them, though he refused to look in their direction, "despite the fact that she made it here first, long before any of you arrived, she insisted on waiting for someone else to arrive before going into the arena... and she even insisted on fighting after you guys finished. The only thing I was able to find out about this mysterious challenger was that her name was Ysmir... and the fact that she was wearing a black robe that had some strange lettering on it."

Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela shared a look with each other, because they already knew that 'strange lettering' meant that someone had a Codex fragment and was using the information for their own purposes, though while they did that Qwark slipped into the building to prepare himself. That also meant that they could acquire the information for themselves, once they had words with whoever this mysterious Ysmir was and explained what was so special about the fragment. Once the three of them were ready to enter the arena, and had their weapons ready ahead of time, they accessed the teleporter and headed inside, where they found Qwark standing on an announcer's platform and holding a microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Qwark proclaimed as loud as he possibly could, to which many of the specters cheered in response, "Join me in welcoming our guest of honor! Your Cragmite Overlord - and my new best friend - Emperor Tachyon!"

The moment Emperor Tachyon appeared on the screen all the cheering stopped, to which the Cragmite snapped his fingers and his troopers prepared their guns, forcing the crowd to cheer and giving the Emperor a moment to bask in their presence.

"Let's hear it for the first batch of challengers!" Qwark continued, beckoning to the trio for a moment, "Their names are Mustachio Furioso, Android 18, and Ms. Mask! Let the battle begin!"

The trio found that their enemies came at them in small groups, no doubt enlarged to give them a challenge and provide some entertainment for the people watching them. To Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela the formula for the arena was the same; fight the enemies that were coming their way, dodge every attack the enemy throws at them, and survive until the end of the challenge. There was absolutely nothing challenging about the three waves of enemies that they ended up fighting, though Starlight did tone down the amount of magic that she was using so Tachyon didn't guess who they were from his screen. They were also sure that Tachyon had seen her and Ratchet fight, so they made it look like they competent fighters, as the cheering crowd seemed to enjoy watching competitors struggle in the arena.

Eventually the trio had to contend with a large frog like creature, one that had been upgraded with pieces of machinery to allow it to walk and fire weapons at whoever it was fighting, but in the end the three of them were able to beat the creature into submission... to which they were given a new gadget, the Heli-Pods, as well as a slightly damaged vid pack that would, in Qwark's words, explain everything.

"Ingrate!" Tachyon proclaimed from the display screen, though while the insult was thrown at Qwark, who was clearly only taking it so h could get Ratchet and the others vital information necessary to beat him, his voice caused nearly everyone to stop cheering for a moment, "Clear the arena and return to your position... I wish to see how our other contestant fares in battle."

Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela made their way to an area where they could sit and watch what happened, as they were all eager to see who this Ysmir character was. A few minutes passed before the second contestant teleported into the arena, though the trio found themselves staring at someone that was wearing a robe like suit of armor that appeared to be made out of dragon scales, or something that mimicked the appearance of said scales. There were several places that were missing scales, which appeared to be intentional, though what really caught Starlight's attention was the metallic mask that the fighter was wearing, complete with a shroud of some kind that covered the back of their head.

The trio also found it odd that the fighter had no weapon to speak of, which meant that they were in a world of pain once the fighting started and they were surrounded by enemies.

Ysmir stood where she was standing as the gladiators entered the arena and charged at her, as if she didn't care about them at the moment, though when the first soldier reached her, and raised its weapon to strike her, she leveled her hand with the soldier's chest and pushed the foe back with what appeared to be a powerful gust of wind. Another soldier came at her, to which she spun around and kicked her target in the chest, cracking his suit, before loosing a gout of fire that tore through the suit and cooked the fish alien alive. The other soldiers back up for a moment, clearly showing that they were freaked out by their foe's abilities, before Ysmir moved from where she had been standing and attacked the nearest soldier.

Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela watched as the fighter used some of the strangest abilities they had ever seen; such as becoming see through for a few seconds and becoming immune to damage, dashing with incredible speeds to get behind her opponents and knock them around, and even freeze her opponents where they were standing before shattering them with a swift kick to the chest. Starlight was sure that Ysmir was using some sort of natural ability, not magical in nature considering the fact that she couldn't feel any such energy coming off of the fighter. The attacks the figure was using reminded her of what Sunset used to do back when she had started learning her abilities, though Ysmir seemed to be more in control than her sister was so long ago.

Eventually the battle was over and Ysmir was declared the winner, to which the figure bowed her head towards the screen, and a completely shocked Tachyon, before she made her way towards the exit and disappeared... leading Starlight and her family to make their way out of the arena as well.

"So, who was that?" Angela asked as they made their way towards their ships, though it was clear that she was still shocked by the mysterious figure they had seen.

"I don't know," Starlight commented, plugging the vid pack into Aphelion and listening to the information it had, where she found out that there was a location that Tachyon would soon be attacking, "Its a shame that she departed before we could speak with her... she would have been an interesting ally in the fight against Tachyon."

"Well, we should head to this mysterious facility and warn whoever owns it that they've got invaders coming in the near future," Ratchet said, just as Aphelion downloaded the coordinates for the small space station, "We'll figure out what to do about this Ysmir later... once we've finished dealing with Tachyon."

Starlight couldn't help but wonder who Ysmir was and why she felt the need to wear the mask she had worn, along with the strange suit that she had been wearing... though she knew that, in time, they would be able to solve the mystery and begin the search for their sister.