Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose


Tools: Exhibition Match

Starlight and the others, for the fifth time, watched one of the fights that Red had recorded before handing the chip over to Starlight a few planets back, trying to understand all of Ysmir's abilities and skills before they had to fight her in the arena. As they watched the fights they became more and more worried about their chances, as it seemed that Ysmir had control over fire, ice, lightning, and a few other elements that were shown for a few seconds at most. Their soon to be enemy seemed to have the ability to phase through attacks, as several enemies tried to pierce her chest with their weapons and failed, as if she could simply slip by them. Clank commented that Ysmir had too many abilities for them to account for, meaning that it was virtually impossible for them to come up with a sound strategy that they could use to take out Ysmir and win the match.

Starlight, however, was going to be optimistic when it came to the fight with Ysmir, as she believed that no one was truly impossible to defeat, which meant that they had yet to find what Ysmir's weakness was. The only person that Starlight believed to be impossible to defeat was Sunset, as she was a God of Destruction and there was no other magic users in the universe save for her, Sunset, and maybe Ysmir.

"See? Right there, right before Ysmir is hit by one of the enemies she phases through the attack," Angela said, pointing at a part of the latest fight they had chosen to watch, where an enemy with an energy blade swung its weapon at Ysmir, to which it passed through the mysterious fighter before she destroyed the person in front of her, "but then when the next enemy comes at her she doesn't use the same ability again. Its almost like each of her attacks has a specific time limit that she has to wait through before she can use it again, so we should be focusing on using our more powerful attacks for that instant."

Starlight turned her head towards the screen and replayed the instant that Angela had pointed out, surprised that she hadn't noticed that fact the first few times that they had seen these fights. Even with that information in hand there were still a vast majority of abilities that they had to account for, such as Ysmir's elemental abilities, but it was times like this that Starlight was glad that she was constantly designing improvements to her armor, weapons, and gadgets. There was one untested modification that she had taken from the gauntlet that Qwark had used back when they were in the Bogon Galaxy, the one designed to suck in energy, natural or magical, and launch it to whoever she wanted to target.

She had managed to find the ancient sword that Sunset had used back before her bracelet had been broken, made some vast improvements to it while uninstalling the whip version that had been put into it, and installed the new modification that she had developed based off of Qwark's modification. Then she sharpened the edge and made sure that it was fully prepared for the coming battle... or rather one of her copies was working on making sure that the sword was ready, as well as some special modifications to her armor. She had yet to tell Ratchet and the other's about her new ability, to cast a spell that allowed her to create duplicates of herself for whatever purpose she wanted to use them for.

The four copies she had created, without trying anyway, were still hard at work in her workshop, but from what she could tell they were finishing some of the projects that would help them in their coming fight... and they were the ones that had finished working on rebuilding Sunset's old sword. Despite the fact that she technically wasn't working on the weapon, she did know that it was ready to go, making her silently wish she had discovered this power earlier in her life.

The four of them continued to watch and observe Ysmir's movements on the screen, studying how she moved around her enemies, when she used a certain power of hers, and when she dodged attacks. Clank had been right about Ysmir having a lot of abilities, not that anyone had doubted him and his opinion, but at the moment Starlight was starting to see that there were small instances where they could actually land a blow on her. They were going to have to be precise when they stepped into the arena, because there was no telling if their opponent was going to stick to what they were watching or if she was going to try something else.

Starlight took a moment to wonder where Sunset was, because this was the type of opponent she could get behind fighting and actually have some entertainment before eventually claiming victory... and then sighed as she returned her focus to the screen, as there was more to watch and additional skills they had to plan for.


When the Hyperion finally returned to Mukow, and the group had taken the time to have a decent night's sleep before the big fight, Ratchet and the others made their way down to the planet's surface, though not before Starlight ran into her workshop and gathered the sword that had been waiting for her. She had also learned how to dismiss her copies, as all she had to do was focus her magic on them and simply banish them, though oddly enough all four of the copies knew that she needed her full focus on the fight and were eager to leave for the moment. Once she had the weapon in hand, and it was attached to her belt, the group flew down to the grounds they had landed near the first time they had visited the planet, again taking two ships because Aphelion only had room for two, unless Clank rode on Starlight's back or something.

From there it was a simple matter to ride the nearby taxi over to the entrance of the arena, where they found Qwark standing outside he building... and discovered that he was walking around with a nervous look on his face.

"There you guys are!" Qwark exclaimed, running up to greet them as they climbed out of the taxi, to which they all discovered that he appeared to be ready for battle if his blaster was anything to go by, "I was worried that I'd have to fight Ysmir alone!"

"Its nice to see you too Qwark," Angela commented, shaking her head for a moment, "Now what's this about you fighting Ysmir? We're supposed to be the ones fighting her."

"Somehow Tachyon discovered that I was spying on him and that I lied about all of your identities," Qwark explained, referring to the names he had given them when they first stepped into the arena, "He's furious that two Lombaxes were fighting in his arena, and managed to make him look like a fool the entire time, but he's apparently got this idea in his head that Ysmir is an unbeatable opponent and that anyone that challenges her will die. So, after discovering that I was getting ready to call you here to give you the next clue I discovered, he had me call you in for a fight with Ysmir, though he has given his word that if we should somehow beat her, and claim victory, we'll be allowed to escape with our lives."

"So much for keeping our identities a secret," Angela said, removing the mask she had donned, putting it back in its container as Ratchet removed the fake glasses and mustache that he had been wearing, though she paused to unbind her tail, "I don't trust a word Tachyon says, as he'll be trying to kill us the next time we encounter his forces..."

Starlight snapped her head towards the walkway that challengers used to get to the arena entrance, those that didn't have access to the taxi anyway, and everyone quieted down for a moment, in case Tachyon was coming their way. A few seconds passed before Ysmir stepped through the flames, crossed over the bridge, and walked in their direction, though oddly enough none of the flames touched her armor or set it on fire. Ysmir walked right up to them and stopped before the teleport pad, though she said nothing as she turned her head towards all of them, as if she was studying who her opponents were going to be, before walking forward and disappearing.

Starlight knew that it was impossible to read Ysmir at the moment, thanks to the mask that was currently covering her face so no one could see it, but she had to admit that their opponent seemed pretty sure of herself... which they could use against her in the arena.

After a few moments of waiting, so they could gather themselves before they entered the arena, though when they used the teleport pad they found themselves on some sort of island and not in the arena. Considering that Tachyon now knew their identities, and had likely done some research before their arrival, Starlight felt that it was safe for them to assume that the Emperor was expecting high levels of destruction and didn't want his arena ruined. She also spotted Ysmir leaning against a nearby tree, as if she was waiting for someone to say something before starting the fight that everyone knew was coming. As everyone spread out they kept their hands near their weapons, because the moment they were told to begin fighting Ysmir was going to come after one of them.

Their arrival on the island was quickly followed by a screen moving into position and setting itself down so they could see who wanted to speak with them, to which Tachyon's face appeared on the screen.

"Good morning combatants," Tachyon said, his voice echoing out of the screen as his image looked over at Ysmir before turning to Ratchet and the others, "Today you have the honor of fighting for our amusement, where the winner shall earn the privilege to leave this island with their life while the loser... well, I'm sure you know what happens to losers. You may begin whenever you are ready."

Ysmir charged at the group, using her speed ability to close the gap between them, but before she could attack any of them everyone burst apart from each other. Even Qwark, who had no idea what the original plan was, was able to figure out what to do as Ysmir came at them, though once their enemy settled down they all pulled out their weapons. Ysmir looked at the four available enemies for her to choose from, going from Ratchet to Angela and from Starlight to Qwark, as if she was silently determining who was the greater threat. A few seconds later she targeted Starlight and charged at her, though before she could make contact Qwark quickly crossed the distance between them and threw his fist at Ysmir.

For a moment Ratchet thought that the attack was going to hit, as there was no possible way for Ysmir to see the attack coming, but before Qwark could make contact Ysmir pulled herself backwards and moved out of the way, where she tripped Qwark as she pulled back.

Angela, taking the moment that presented itself, pulled out a trio of bombs and threw them at Ysmir, to which she was positive that this attack was going to hit before her target could react. In the seconds leading up to Ysmir getting hit, and taking damage, her body seemed to phase and the bombs passed through her, to which the bombs struck the tree in front of her and exploded. Starlight, seeing that happen, charged at Ysmir with Ratchet coming from the left as well, though before either of them could reach their destination Ysmir raised her hands towards them and blasted them backwards with her wind powers.

That was quickly followed by Qwark, who Ysmir had ignored up until that moment, planting his boot in her chest and knocked her backwards, to which he opened fire with his blaster and emptied the entire clip in Ysmir's direction... to which the group discovered that the majority of the shells bounced off her armor with a few making tiny dents.

"How about that?!" Qwark declared, carefully switching the empty clip with another one that he carried with him at all times, "First blood goes to Captain Qwark!"

Ysmir pulled herself to her full height, her head facing the direction that Qwark was in, before bringing her hands to her face and connecting her hands together, indicating that she was preparing something. Ratchet, knowing what was coming due to the many times he and the others had watched the fights while they were in the Hyperion, moved to the side and dodged what was coming their way, as did Qwark, but Starlight as the one that stood her ground. Starlight watched Ysmir as she drew the blade that she had remade, allowing the energy function to activate as she held it in front of her, waiting for her foe to make her move.

That was followed by Ysmir releasing a large gout of fire at Starlight, who spun the sword around in a circular motion, where several of the flames breached the barrier she had briefly created and forced her back for a few seconds. As Starlight moved away from Ysmir, and still held her attention, Angela pulled out her Buzz Blades and loosed a swarm of them at their enemy while she was distracted. Ysmir, somehow sensing that the blades were coming her way, turned in Angela's direction and shifted her right hand towards her, cancelling the fire spell while summoning the wind spell that knocked out the blades from the air and sent them back at Angela. Starlight, seeing what was happening, snapped up a shield and stopped the blades from hitting Angela, though before anyone did anything else she summoned a cloud of smoke and had everyone back away from Ysmir.

"Its hard to aim at her weakness when she can somehow sense when our attacks are coming," Ratchet commented, though at the same time he put his guns away and tapped his wretch, to which the head collapsed and produced a blade that had a bit of lightning coming off of it, "Guns clearly aren't working in our favor, so we're going to have to focus on fighting her with blades and other weapons... because it might the only thing besides magic that could potentially hurt Ysmir."

"Then its a good thing I had this made in case I encountered someone that Starlight's weapons couldn't take out," Qwark said, to which he tapped his gloves, which turned silver and unfolded into a bow of some kind, while a quiver appeared on his back, "I've been practicing with an old weapon, made modern by one of the other heroes I became friends with, and I've kept this hidden until such a time that it was necessary to use it."

"Well then, let's do this," Angela stated, jumping to her feet as the other followed suit, to which they faced the smoke that was beginning to clear and reveal the shape of their foe.

Angela, Ratchet, and Qwark immediately charged towards their foe, with Qwark breaking away so he could provide cover fire with what appeared to be arrows made out of some sort of energy, while Starlight stayed at the back and powered up the sword she was carrying. She wasn't sure if what Ysmir was doing was even magic or not, but she could tell that the blade was absorbing every left over bit of energy that followed all of the attacks. She considered gathering her magic into an energy sphere and firing it at Ysmir while she was distracted, but that would actually hurt the others if they didn't see it coming... so she decided on simply charging into the battle as well.

Ratchet came from Ysmir's left while Angela came front the right, though when they swung their weapons at their target Ysmir extended her hands and stopped them dead in their tracks, slowing both Ratchet and Angela down to the point where they looked like they were standing still.

Wait, she's got a time ability as well? Starlight thought to herself, not believing what she was seeing at the moment, but noticed that the oddest thing at the moment was that she was able to move at her full speed, This just made things a lot harder.

Instead of attacking either Ratchet or Angela, and taking advantage of their situation, Ysmir merely moved out of the way as time seemed to resume for the two Lombaxes, where their weapons collided with each other before they realized what was happening. Starlight, however, let her magic gather inside the blade she was carrying for a few seconds before throwing a wave of energy at Ysmir, something that caused Ratchet and Angela to move out of the way. Ysmir stared at the wave of energy before extending her hand towards it, stopping it in the instant that it reached the area around her, before she waved her hand upwards and sent the wave into the air.

That was roughly followed by a pair of arrows flying through the air and slamming into Ysmir's chest, one next to her right shoulder while the second one found its home in her stomach, which caused her to stagger for a few seconds.

"I told you, first blood goes to me!" Qwark said, drawing two more arrows from his quiver as he took aim at Ysmir, "I guess watching you in the arena so much has given me the upper hand!"

Ysmir stared at Qwark for a moment, as if she was annoyed with him or something, but that was followed by her pulling out one of the arrows out of her body, then the second one, before she snapped them like they were made of some brittle material. Starlight couldn't tell if their opponent was hurt or not, as she didn't see any blood coming out of the small holes that Qwark had put in her armor, but she knew that now wasn't the time for her to be spending too much time thinking. A few seconds later Ysmir flashed through the air and slammed her fist into his chest, knocking the wind out of him before forcing him backwards, while surprising everyone else by the sheer speed she had pulled off in front of them.

Ratchet and Angela, sensing that their opponent wasn't paying attention to anyone else, held their weapons out and charged at Ysmir again, though this time they tried something different. Angela swung her weapon at Ysmir and forced her back before she could strike Qwark again, but that was exactly what she was hoping would happen. Ratchet approached from behind and swung his weapon at their opponent's back, though in the seconds before he could touch her, and continue the amount of damage they were doing, Ysmir activated the ability that would allow her to be immune to damage and the weapon passed through her. Before Ysmir could react with an attack of her own both Angela and Ratchet moved away from her, though they were annoyed that they weren't doing anything to her at all.

Starlight teleported into the area and loosed a volley of elemental attacks at Ysmir, intending to make her use up all of her abilities so she could deliver a blow that would change the course of this battle. As she expected Ysmir once again used her immunity ability, dodging the most of the attacks, while using the speed ability to dodge the rest of them, but Starlight had been tracking her the entire time. When Ysmir ended her speed ability she found herself impaled on Starlight's sword, though by the stance she took on Starlight noticed that she was a little shocked by what had happened.

"You have done well," Ysmir said, her voice sounding oddly familiar to Starlight, though she couldn't place where she had heard it, but Starlight flinched as Ysmir's right hand touched her horn, "but you can do better. Come Starlight Glimmer, show me your true power."

With that said Ysmir suddenly vanished and reappeared some distance away from Starlight, though what was odd was the fact that she still wasn't phased by the wound that Starlight had inflicted on her. Starlight was through playing around at this point, because so far they hadn't been able to do any damage that was slowing Ysmir down and it was starting to annoy her. Sure, she had been holding back with her magic because she had seen what Sunset had been able to do with her own magic, but that duplication spell was a sign that her own seals were starting to fall apart. Even Ysmir touching her horn was a sign that she needed to stop holding back, especially when their enemy was one of the strongest foes she had fought since, well, encountering Searing.

Starlight let out a sigh as she undid her seals, though at the same time she engaged her duplication spell, allowing the four copies she had created earlier to show up again. Numbers One through Four appeared around her again, much to the surprise of Ratchet, Angela, and Qwark, but she stopped focusing on them and focused on Ysmir. The copies charged at Ysmir and loosed the same spell at their opponent, summoning spires made of ice around Ysmir's feet, forcing her into the air as Starlight made her way towards the top of the trees. As the real Starlight stopped at the top of the spires, and charged the sword off of the energy in the air, her copies loosed every spell that was in her arsenal, throwing every element they could use at the seemingly invulnerable Ysmir.

As the copies fought Ysmir, and continued to force her backwards all of a sudden, Starlight noticed that their opponent was weaving some sort of energy through the air, though towards what end she had no idea. Then, just as she was getting ready to reveal herself, Qwark charged in and loosed arrows at Ysmir, who turned the energy she was gathering into a gust of wind that knocked the arrows, not to mention Qwark himself, backwards. She was then forced to engage her immunity ability as the copies of Starlight used more magic against her, though this was the time that Starlight was waiting for. She teleported behind Ysmir and swung the sword, now burning with a large amount of energy that rivaled the amount of power that Sunset used before her ascension to being the God of Destruction.

That was followed by a large wave of magical energy slamming into Ysmir and exploding on impact, causing Qwark, Ratchet, Angela, and the copies to back away as the explosion rocked the area... though when the smoke cleared the only thing that Starlight had managed to destroy was a portion of the back of Ysmir's hood, which revealed the coloration of her hair. Starlight found it odd that Ysmir's hair color looked like Sunset's hair, more specifically when she was in her godly state, but she had seen multiple people having the same hair color before, so she wasn't going to worry over anything like this at the moment.

Ysmir turned her attention to Qwark, as if she believed that it was his fault that she had actually taken some damage, to which the air around her shifted... though in Starlight's eyes she noticed that while Qwark and everyone else, excluding Ysmir, seemed to slow down she could still move at her full speed. Without wasting a second, and letting the opportunity go to waste, Starlight teleported herself in front of Ysmir and blocked the attack that was heading Qwark's way, stopping Ysmir in her tracks. Before she could move away, and get out of Starlight's sight, Starlight engaged her magic and the ground behind her target broke open, to which a dozen golden chains wrapped around Ysmir's arms and legs to bind her in place.

"Let's end this," Starlight said, to which she opened herself to her full magical potential, which was followed by her magic pulsing around her sword as she prepared an attack that Sunset had used to great effect so long ago, back when she and the others were adventuring through the Bogon Galaxy.

Starlight pulled in almost every ounce of magic she could muster, including reabsorbing the copies and what little magic they possessed, while at the same time Ratchet, Angela, and Qwark retreated before the attack hit its target. As Qwark retreated he seemed to realize something, as he turned back and loosed one last arrow at Ysmir from the side, forcing her to activate her immunity ability, which was what he had been hoping for. Starlight, thankful for the opportunity, readied herself as she started the attack, shouting the name the instant Ysmir's immunity ability crumbled before her eyes.

"Eat this! Getsuga," Starlight shouted, swinging the weapon at Ysmir's chest, intending on going from the left hip all the way to the right shoulder and releasing all of the power in one massive attack, "Tenshou!"

The resulting explosion rocked the entire island, kicking up so much dust and dirt that starlight had to lower her visor to prevent anything from getting in her eyes, while at the same time making her shield herself with the minor shield she was able to summon. When the smoke cleared, and everyone was able to see what had happened, there was a massive crater where Ysmir had been standing... and everything that had been in the immediate area of the center of the attack had been obliterated in that instant. Starlight was amazed by the sheer destruction that rested before her eyes, because it almost looked like something that Sunset would have done with a single swing of her blade, but after a few seconds she sat down where she was standing and kept her eyes on the crater.

"I... I don't believe it," Ratchet said, staring at the crater as he, Angela, Clank, and Qwark pulled themselves out of their hiding spot and approached Starlight, "that was one of Sunset's moves. When did you find the time to master that?"

"No... idea..." Starlight huffed, exhausted beyond belief, which was understandable considering how much power she had poured into that attack, "I... hope... it worked..."

A few seconds passed before they spotted Ysmir, though when she emerged from the smoke the entire group was shocked to see that Starlight's attack had literally destroyed most of the clothing above where she had been cut, as a vast majority of the left side of her body was now exposed... save for her chest, as there was some sort of cloth wrapped around her. Even her mask, the one thing preventing people from seeing her face, had been destroyed by the attack, to which they group let out a gasp as they stared at a face that looked like the humanoid version of Sunset they had created for the Secret Agent Clank show; Professor Darkstar. Then they stared at the bleeding cut that Starlight had given Ysmir, which was surprising because of the fact that none of their other attacks had caused any damage at all.

"You did good," Ysmir said, her voice sounding like their sister as well, which was impossible considering that Sunset had never taken on a humanoid form like this in the past, "you have beaten me..."

Starlight was about to say that they hadn't beaten Ysmir, as she and the others were still standing, but before she could speak up she noticed some cracks spreading across Ysmir's body, almost as if she was suddenly made of glass. The cracks spread out all over her body, creating crack upon crack, reminding Starlight of when Sunset had used her ability to crack the air and shake the earth. A few seconds passed before Ysmir shattered as if she had been a glass window or something, causing all of them to look at each other in shock, but before Tachyon opened up the communicator they quickly returned to the teleport pad, with Qwark carrying Starlight, and teleported back to the entrance of the arena.

Qwark promised that he still had everything he had taken from from Tachyon's quarters and office, so they returned to their ships and took off, each of them wondering what had happened to Ysmir when Starlight's attack had struck her... though Starlight had the feeling that they hadn't seen the last of her.