As Ratchet flew towards Nebula G34, which was close to where Eudora was located, he made a stop on Kerwan and found that it was nighttime, though when Clank spoke up to complain about them wasting time, since he wanted to stop Drek at all costs, he shook his head and flipped a few controls, mostly to make sure none of them cooked while they rested, where he informed Clank that they had been through a lot the last couple of days and had only rested a tiny bit during the time they spent traveling from planet to planet, as it had been a few days since leaving their home. He also mentioned that they had eaten everything that had been placed in the ship by the Novalis Chairman, to make sure they had some supplies, so he and his siblings needed some food before they did anything else, hence why he, Starswirl, and Autumn were putting in an order to one of the local food joints, a delivery that would be brought to them once it was ready, so this would allow all of them to have some food and some rest before they did anything else, and Ratchet made sure to include something for Clank, since robots did need their own fuel as well. Clank, despite his desire to continue with their mission, realized that there were limits to what Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn could do at the moment, since he was a robot and they weren't, eventually nodded his head and entered what could be his own sleep cycle for a time, as Ratchet would wake him up once he and his siblings were ready to depart for Nebula G34 and the information it contained, or rather when the food arrived so he could get some additional energy as well. With that done Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn waited for a time, allowing their food to be delivered to their location and transferred the Bolts needed to pay for what all of them ordered not that long ago, before he activated Clank and they dug into their meal, though once everyone was done eating they spread out and got some well deserved rest, so they could be well rested for whatever was waiting for them in the station that the new Infobot had revealed to them.
Sometime later, when it was closer to morning and everyone had a fair number of hours to rest, Ratchet tapped some of the controls as Clank did his part to get things started, allowing them to depart from Kerwan and head for Nebula G34 at long last, though upon their arrival they discovered that the Blarg research station was actually connected to several large asteroids by tubes and other components, where Clank pointed out the landing zone and Ratchet flew inside the station, making sure to wait for the door to close before powering down the ship.
"It would seem that we have two paths to pick from, one that leads outside and one that cuts through the station, while the latter might activate the shuttle over there," Clank commented, taking a look at the area they were in right now while Ratchet took a moment to stare out though the large glass window that was in front of them, giving them a good view of the station, all while Autumn chuckled for a moment as she purchased a new weapon from the Vendor, one that looked like a modified microphone of some kind, "Autumn, what is that?"
"A joke weapon I created, the Taunter, which is designed to pull enemies closer to you and make them activate traps, all to help clear areas out," Autumn said, though she really hadn't expected Gadgetron to produce the weapon in the first place, but since it required no ammunition to use, making it cost far less than the other weapons she had created, she had an idea as to why her superiors would have decided to create it for her and whoever else purchased the various weapons she had created so far.
"Anyway, the door leading outside is locked," Ratchet added, where he walked over to the Invinco-lock and pulled out the Trespasser again, something that he slipped into the lock and fiddled with it for a few seconds, though once he was done the door in front of them opened and revealed a small passage that lead to another door, one that would head outside, into an area that neither he or his siblings could walk in since they didn't have any masks or anything that would allow them to survive in space, "Okay Clank, this is all yours."
Clank wasted no time in walking through the opening as the door closed behind him, an airlock of sorts Ratchet guessed, though while their companion was figuring out what might be outside the ship he and his siblings sat around the door for a time, mostly since they didn't want to head deeper into the station without Clank, even if they could take down anything and everything that was thrown at them, given the magical powers that Starswirl and Autumn possessed and their ever growing arsenal of weaponry. Based on what he was seeing Autumn had pulled out the Suck Cannon and was studying it so she could improve upon the initial design, which she seemed to be disappointed with, and deliver a new product to her superiors, even though they probably had a backlog of weapons and gadgets coming from her at this point, given that she had a large amount of ideas and did her best to write all of them down for the future, when the technology caught up with her ideas, as he knew there was a whip of some kind and a lava gun she wanted to make. Starswirl, on the other hand, did what he usually did whenever they were waiting for something to happen, he opened the tome he was working on so he could learn more about magic, since there was no telling what they might face in the future and he wanted to be ready for the planets that would be coming up after this, causing Ratchet to mentally chuckle, as his brother loved to gather all sorts of knowledge, not just the magical kind, and he usually lost himself until someone brought him back. Ratchet, for the most part, simply rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes, figuring that he should simply sit and rest as Clank worked outside the station, though the sound of the door opening a few minutes later informed him that Clank had returned to their location and he opened his eyes accordingly, finding that his siblings were ready to see what their little friend had found outside the Blarg station.
"I am back," Clank stated, walking through the doorway not a few seconds later and came to a stop when he found Ratchet and his siblings staring at him, where he opened his compartment for a moment before pulling something out, a gadget that looked like a water bottle of some kind, something that caused Ratchet to raise his eyebrow for a second as Starswirl and Autumn stared at it, "and I found this while I was outside."
"Thanks... um, what it is?" Ratchet asked, because while he had a good idea as to what each gadget was, since Autumn had made most of them and told him whenever she was making something, there were all sorts of items that he didn't know about and would have to rely on her knowledge to figure out what a new item might be, hence why he was glancing from Clank to Autumn as he waited for one of them to tell him what was going on.
"A Hydrodisplacer, which is a gadget capable of holding and carrying fifty thousand liters of water thanks to the quantum compression technology installed inside it," Autumn explained, where she studied the device for a few seconds and pulled up some schematics on it, showing Ratchet that it was one of the Gadgetron gadgets and that there was a chance that his sister had made it, before she decided to use an easier explanation for them, "basically, it can hold a lot of water and carry it so we can move it to a new location, like draining a pool or container of water to fill up an area to reach another section of whatever planet we're visiting... I doubt we're going to find a socket for it on the station, but it will be useful in the next few worlds, or at least I hope so."
Ratchet nodded his head in understanding, as the simplified explanation of the gadget's abilities allowed him to figure out what Autumn meant, before stashing the gadget away as they headed for one of the other path Clank had spotted, only to find that there was an airlock that had a shuttle attached to it, one that the controls seemed to indicate would bring them to a warship that happened to be sitting in orbit nearby. Instead of wasting time thinking about it Starswirl informed both of his siblings of his intentions, that he was going to use the small vessel to travel to the warship and see what might be on it, since it would be nice to find an Infobot for another world, and while he did that Ratchet and Autumn could tackle what was left of the station, even though they had to smash a small glowing orb that powered the laser barrier, so with the item destroyed Clank found the siblings moving forward once more. From the opening they made their way down a passage that had a few vents that were spewing poisonous gas into the tunnel, moving like each of them were targeting whoever walked down this area, so Ratchet and Autumn jumped over both bursts of gas before opening the door into another part of the tunnel, one that had some odd toad-like creatures hanging on the ceiling and coming from some of the vents that had no gas coming from them. The green skinned Swarmers, as Autumn called them, were incredibly easy to take down, as in a single swing of their melee weapons was enough to wipe them out and if using a wide swing they could eliminate a good number of them in the process, before finding a small chamber with one of the Blarg, wearing a spacesuit, who took one look at Ratchet and Autumn before loosing a burst of fire at the ground, using a weapon that had been designed by the scientists in this place, though the pair easily took him down before moving forward.
As Ratchet smashed two more orbs Clank found that Autumn's magic was washing over the chamber and it tugged on all sorts of items, such as the weapons and attire of the Blarg they had taken down, the orbs before Ratchet smashed them, and whatever else she was interested in, where he had to assume she was scanning them for later, so she could make new weapons and gadgets for them and whoever else used Gadgetron merchandise.
There were more Swarmers in the next passage and one of the Blarg happened to be there as well, not that Ratchet and Autumn cared all that much and took him down with the other enemies, though after that Ratchet found another lock that needed the Trespasser and he unlocked the door in a matter of seconds so they could see what was inside, even if it was a lot of crates that allowed them to gain more Bolts for later, even if the pair also smashed some Swarmers before they had a chance to jump out at him or his sister. With that done they entered the chamber that was to the left of the door, which was a decent sized area that had a few poison vents that needed to be avoided, though the pair were able to avoid them and use their Swingshots to move even deeper into the station, but as Ratchet dealt with a Blarg soldier that was blocking the way forward Autumn turned and stared at the missile they had passed by, a large thing that filled the whole asteroid she and Ratchet had just passed through. One of the spells she had learned and mastered over the years was Starswirl's duplication spell, which he had used to make two copies of Ratchet's wrench, though she didn't think that using it on the missile was a smart idea, so she moved onto the next best thing and used another spell, one that she had asked about and learned from her brother in the past, where she weaved her magic and dismantled the missile as best as she could, as in without causing something to blow up on them. With the way clear Ratchet and Autumn marched through the next tunnel and came to a chamber that had two odd shaped aliens resting in cages, a creature that was four legged, hardened hides, sharp talons for feet, and heads that looked like they could snap the Blarg in half, so what the siblings did was smash the pair of power orbs that were in the chamber and then moved out of the way as the Snappers burst out of their cages and started to advance on some Blarg soldiers that were coming from the next tunnel.
Basically, instead of fighting the Snappers themselves, they were allowing them to take down the Blarg and the Swarmers that were in their way, so Ratchet and Autumn could conserve ammunition in case there was something stronger deeper in the station, before it brought them to an area they had to jump up to move further and it meant taking down the now exhausted Snappers, even though the chamber it brought them to had a number of Snappers and Swarmers standing all over the area. This time around Autumn had a good idea as she pulled out the Taunter and set up a magical shield around her as she activated the device, drawing the attention of the enemies that were inside this chamber and watched as they started to move in on her location in a matter of seconds, allowing Ratchet to slip by her before loosing a few bombs that tore all of their foes apart, a rather effective method in Clanks eyes since it played to their strengths when Starswirl wasn't in the area with them. With that done they smashed a couple of crates that were around this chamber, collecting Bolts as they found ammunition crates and gathered more resources for their weapons, before breaking some power orbs to head into the next chamber, which had a few more electrical fences for them to get around, if they wanted to find out what else was in this station, but Autumn saved them some ammunition by using the Taunter to cause the Snappers to attack the fences in front of them and caused each of her targets to fall off the edge so they could easily make their way through his particular area. That brought them to a massive chamber that just so happened to have a massive foe, a Queen Snapper, waiting for them or for intruders, though the moment it saw them it attacked them without remorse or hesitation, causing the pair to split up and open fire on the Queen as they attempted to outmaneuver the creature, who seemed to be much tougher than those they had faced previously and had a longer reach due to her size, so they had to be careful while also making sure to use whatever openings they could find to deal damage to their foe.
The part that made the fight hard was when the Queen called in the last of the Swarmers and Snappers to fight them, as it forced them to divide their attention as well, but in the end they toppled their foe and opened the door to the left of the one they used to enter this chamber, finding a small chamber that had a small scientist, which might be one from the bot that brought them here, being attacked by a pair of Swarmers, who Ratchet took down with ease.
"Whew, I thought I was a goner this time... some nano-wit in genetics must have left the cages open again." the scientist commented, though his tone suggested that he was pleased with them arriving to save him from the pair of Swarmers he had been hiding from, by standing on a stool that put him above his enemies, before he sighed as he climbed down to the floor, so he could relax and get over what had happened to him, "Honestly, a gadget engineer deserves a bit more respect if you ask me!"
"It doesn't seem like the Blarg treat their scientists very well, if you ask me," Autumn said, because right now it looked like Drek might have gotten everything he wanted out of his research station and gave the order to have the defenses lowered at some point, to cause all of the experiments to break free and attack the scientists and gadget engineers that were here, especially since some soldiers had been left behind for some reason, "Maybe you would be better off quitting this job, as it is dangerous for your health, and go work somewhere else, maybe Gadgetron or a company that would actually do good things with what you make?"
"You... you're Autumn Blaze, aren't you?" the scientist asked, recognizing Autumn like Al had done when they found him in Metropolis, meaning she was more well known than what she and her siblings originally thought she was, though when she nodded her head he pulled out a pair of boots that looked rather interesting, as they were red colored and seemed to be made out of metal, "D... Do you think you can look over these Grindboots that I developed? I was thinking about leaving my current employment and seeking a job working for Gadgetron, to make gadgets for them and the heroes who ended up using them, and was hoping to offer these to them as a starting point."
"Understandable. Here, sign this," Autumn replied, as she already liked the look of the Grindboots and could see that her brother was wondering if he could get his hands on them at some point, hence why she produced her Gadgetron uplink for a moment and made sure to reveal the form that would include the engineer's name and a few pieces of information he needed to provide, like what she, Ratchet, and Starswirl had done when she first joined up as a weapon and gadget creator, where the engineer eagerly looked it over and signed it, "and I'll have some of my product testers go over them, before we write up a review and send it along to Gadgetron... Mr. Lumos is always looking for new employees, be they the inventor type or tester type, so he might even hire you after reading the review."
The engineer, so named Fred according to the form he signed, something that also gave her the blueprints for the boots so it could be included with the review, bounced for joy for a few seconds after hearing that, though once he was done he handed Ratchet the Grindboots before walking into the nearby shuttle and headed for what Autumn assumed had to be the docking area for employees, meaning he was leaving before the Blarg realized that the small brown haired engineer had changed companies. Once he was gone Ratchet slipped on both of the Grindboots and found that they fit him rather well, better than what he was assuming and it made him guess that those these had been made for were the same shoe size that he was, or they adapted to the size of whoever happened to be wearing them, making Autumn wonder if they might work for her hooves or Starswirl's, before they turned towards the glass tube that lead back to where their ship was resting and Ratchet smiled. Autumn found that he was focused on a rail that seemed to be in the middle of the entire tube and seemed to be the only thing someone could stand on, to which Ratchet made sure the rest of this room was cleared of crates before jumping onto the rail, where they found that he was able to grind on the rail, hence why Fred called them Grindboots, though since there was only one pair of them Autumn was forced to surround herself with her magic and just float down the tube as she followed her brother, taking note of what he was able to do with the boots. While they did that they heard an explosion and found that the warship that was resting near the station had blown up rather suddenly, as if Starswirl had struck something accidentally, though before either of them had a chance to worry about their brother they found that he was standing near their ship and seemed to be enjoying the fireworks that came from the warship being torn apart by whatever explosives or magic he had left aboard it.
"It seems like you were successful," Starswirl commented, seeing the new boots that Ratchet was wearing, while noting the fact that being away from Autumn seemed to have caused her to use a few new spells, meaning they had been successful in searching the rest of the station for clues and objects that might be able to help them in the future, before he held out what he discovered aboard the now destroyed warship, "I found this on the warship, though claiming it activated the self destruct sequence... a clever trap that would have worked if I hadn't teleported back to the shuttle as soon as I claimed the Infobot... though I was waiting for you to arrive before I watched it."
Ratchet raised an eyebrow for a moment as Starswirl revealed what the Infobot had to say, where they watched as one of the reporters for Blackwater City, located on Rilgar, was talking about the Intergalactic Hoverboard Championship that was going to be held in a few days, and would likely be ending when they arrived on the planet, that Captain Qwark would be attending as the person who gave out the prize to the winner, something that immediately caused them to rush over to their ship, quickly take their seats, and depart from Drek's research station as they headed for Rilgar, as they might be able to get some headway in Clank's mission at long last.