//------------------------------// // R/C: Umbris // Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// It took Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank some time to reach the planet that Qwark had given them an Infobot for, all so they could prove themselves to the Captain before tackling whatever forces Drek had for the remaining planets he was going after, though they found that Umbris was a dry and muddy place, one that looked a little hot from space, and when they landed on the pad that Qwark had provided, where they found that the Captain was on a helicopter, staring down at all of them as they turn in their surroundings. "Welcome to my challenge course. Now is your chance to prove yourself strong and brave, like me!" Qwark stated, where he let out a chuckle for a moment, though they found that he was using a microphone, which looked like a Taunter that had been modified to some extend based on what Autumn could see, to speak with them from where he was flying, but as soon as he was done with his chuckle he glanced down at them once more as he beckoned to the course, "Conquer it and you'll join in my fight against evil!" "Haven't we done enough already?" Ratchet replied, because while they were interested in proving themselves to Captain Qwark, so they could begin their work in stopping Drek before he could damage any additional planets, part of him really didn't want to run another obstacle course and wanted the Captain to know that, especially since he knew about them and what they had done since leaving Veldin, which might mean that Drek might know about them as well. "What? I can't hear you!" Qwark said, acting like he hadn't heard them at all, which was understandable given that the noise of his vehicle prevented him from really hearing the response that was directed at him, where Ratchet tried, in vain, to convince him that they had done enough, leading to Qwark informing them that he knew they would do him proud and that he would be waiting at the end of the course to speak with them, leading to him flying off and leaving the siblings to glance at each other. "So, this is Captain Qwark's hideout... it doesn't look too bad," Autumn commented, where she glanced at out the area in front of them, finding what appeared to be a number of turrets that lined a path leading right to the massive structure the Captain was flying towards, though she did share Ratchet's thoughts on the matter and felt that everyone would be better off if they had been allowed to skip straight to the end. "We had best be careful, as he has some knowledge of our skills and has likely tweaked the course accordingly, to prepare for our arrival," Starswirl said, because the way Qwark reacted to their presence back in Blackwater City meant that this had been something he must have prepared once he heard about them, likely through the Novalis Chairman, all to make sure they were true heroes and that they could help him take down Chairman Drek's foul plans for their galaxy and bring peace to everything. Ratchet sighed as they made a quick check at the Gadgetron Vendor, finding that nothing new had arrived, before they used their Swingshots to latch onto the targets in front of them and swung down to the start of Qwark's course, where it took them no time to see that there were some defenses set up to stop them, like a machine that threw out bombs at the area it was in, though a few blasts from Ratchet's Blaster took it down. After that they found a bridge that allowed them to reach a rocky platform that had a bomb turret, some floating mines, and a gun turret for them to get by, so as Starswirl loosed a small burst of magic to take out the first target his siblings moved by him and gunned down the bombs and the turret that was further beyond, allowing them to carefully move forward as they kept their eyes open for any tricks that might have been prepared for them. Such a thing brought them to another bridge, which was slightly higher than the first one since they had to climb up a pair of small rock platforms to head in the opposite direction, where they opened fire on several mines as Starswirl blasted two more bomb turrets, opening the way for them to walk up some metallic steps and take down a number of mines that were resting between them and their next destination, where a single Blaster blast was enough to take each one down. With that done they carefully moved across the bridge that the mines had been guarding and found that it brought them right to a curved wall that had a thick locked door in the middle of it, though they didn't have to question how to open it since there were three buttons on the ground in front of it, so all they did was step on all three of them and it opened the door in question. On the other side of the door they found four of the bomb turrets waiting for them, to which Ratchet and Autumn blasted one each as Starswirl used his magic to knock out both of the remaining ones, though it showed them that Qwark might be pulling out all the stops and was trying to test all of their abilities, or whatever he was trying to test, before they found three more buttons that needed to be pressed and it opened another door that brought them to a pair of bridges that had been designed to have parts collapse and meant they had to jump over the new gaps. That brought the siblings to a new area that had a bunch of posts that had barbed wire linking them together, meaning there was one path and it seemed like they would have to also jump over the bullet trail that was being left by a gun turret, though Starswirl saved them a bit of energy by snapping up a shield in front of the turret, meaning it couldn't touch them as they moved deeper into the course that had been prepared for them. After getting around the barbed wire, and bypassing the turret in question, and found a few more Swingshot targets that would bring them even closer to the edge of the massive structure that was their final destination, once they cleared out the rest of the challenges and figured out where Qwark had wandered off to, but none of them said anything as they swung over to a walkway that brought them to what appeared to be a maze of sorts, or at least it would have been that if the walls were arranged differently. That allowed Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to see that there was another metallic door in their way, again locked like all of the other ones they had seen so far, to which they glanced at each other for a few seconds before nodding their heads and separated for the time being, as they knew that there were three buttons and had no idea where they would be resting, so this allowed them to cover more ground and waste less time looking for their targets. As it turned out the three buttons were really close to each other, almost within sight of each other since one was slightly behind a wall, though that allowed the siblings to open the door they had seen earlier and let them walk into what had to be the outskirts of the main structure, where they climbed up some metallic steps and found an open area that had a fair number of floating mines that were moving around the area, plus it had a golden statue of Qwark for some reason, but all of them decided to ignore the statue. Taking out the mines proved to be easy for them, as Starswirl used a bit of his magic to channel some lightning for a few seconds, which struck one of his targets and branched off to take down all of the others, something Autumn noted down for later on, as it might make an interesting weapon design at some point, before they activated the buttons and opened another door, one that seemed to have a number of posts attached to a wall that was designed to be a ladder for them to climb up, to reach another level of this massive structure. That brought them to an area that had a pool in it, an area that held a number of crates, and no way for them to actually move forward, though while such a thing would have caused the siblings to look around for a time and think about this, since there were buttons to press to activate the previous metallic doors, Autumn spotted a socket that the Hydrodisplacer could be connected to and the pieces fell into place, for both her and her siblings. As such Ratchet produced the gadget that interacted with it without delay and connected it to the socket, where they watched as he drained the vast majority of pool and made it safe for them to pass through, revealing a rather vicious looking shark fish of some kind had been swimming inside it, so using the gadget allowed them to see the danger that would have nibbled at them if they entered the water, to which Ratchet whacked it with his wrench as Starswirl and Autumn moved through a short tube that linked up with another pool. They found two more Sharkigators, which was the official name of the species when Autumn scanned one and checked what was in the databases she had access to, resting in the next pool and she burned them with her Pyrociter, opening the way for them to climb up a set of steps that lead to a walkway and, more importantly, another Hydrodisplacer socket, but before using it Ratchet decided to check the next pool for any Sharkigators or other enemies. With the pool cleared of enemies Ratchet connected the gadget to the socket and pilled the pool in front of them, allowing him to swim over to the other side, even though Starswirl formed a slightly curved walkway for him and Autumn to walk on, before finding another socket that allowed him to drain the third pool that was in their way, giving them a way to clear out all of the Sharkigators that were in it, and once that was done he returned the water to where it rested, even though he knew that Starswirl would have teleported himself and Autumn to the next part of the path. Sure enough he found his siblings standing in front of a curved pool of water that had some Swingshot targets for them to use, so Ratchet accessed the socket that was resting near the edge of the area and drained the pool, allowing him, Starswirl, and Autumn to swing through the partially drained passage so they could reach the next part of Qwark's test. It brought them to a chamber that had a number of the angry Sharkigators hanging around, in a pool of nearly drained water to be exact, but instead of even worrying about that Ratchet and his siblings opened fire on them from above, clearing the area so they didn't have to head down and deal with them while wading through the water, though once that was done Ratchet used the Hydrodisplacer to fill the chamber and found that the buttons that needed to be pressed were on the pillar in the middle of this area, which were connected to the door across from them. It took them no time at all to reach those buttons, as Starswirl had created with his magic, nor did it take them long to reach the now opened doorway, before finding a passage that looked like it might lead into the heart of the entire fortress, meaning they had to be close to where Qwark was waiting for them, or at least they hoped so since Ratchet and his siblings wanted to focus on taking Drek down and finishing their exploration of their entire galaxy, or part of it anyway. As they thought about that they found a path leading to what appeared to be a platform that rested far above the heart of a volcano, or maybe the side chamber of such a place, where Qwark happened to be standing in the middle of a ring while a single person platform rested behind him, meaning when the time came he would jump onto it and speak with them for some time, though Ratchet tapped Clank and let the little robot know that it was okay to jump off his back, allowing all four of them to approach the Captain. "Captain Qwark, we've beaten your course!" Autumn stated, just in the off chance that the Captain had no idea that they were even approaching him, though he did seem slightly surprised to see them, like he was expecting them to be delayed by the obstacles they had faced to reach this point, meaning he had been under the impression the obstacles would have forced them to slow down and not get here as quickly as they had done. "Indeed, and you have set a new record in the process." Qwark replied, where he pulled out a tablet and noted that they hadn't wrecked his course with their magical abilities, like he was worried of Starswirl or Autumn blasting through some of the walls to reach this part of the structure, something that caused him to chuckle for a moment as he stashed the tablet back in the pouch it came from, before leaping back onto the floating platform, "Well, well, you four continue to surprise me... step into the Ring of Heroes and I will finally give what you deserve." As soon as he said that, and he was out of the way, Clank was the first one to run forward and came to a stop in the center of the platform Qwark wanted them to stand in, the Ring of Heroes as the man called it, though it wasn't long before they found Autumn joining him in the Ring, though what surprised Qwark was that Ratchet and Starswirl were hanging back, as if they suspected foul play, which worried him despite his attempts to hide it. "Ratchet, Starswirl, this is no time for you to become cautious!" Clank loudly said, making sure that his companions knew his opinion on the matter, especially since this meant they were going to become heroes and take the fight to Chairman Drek, all to stop him from tearing more planets apart in his mad quest to make the perfect world for the Blarg, while he found that Autumn glanced back at her brothers for a moment, "We have reached our goal!" "...something fishy is going on here." Ratchet commented, speaking to himself for a time as he touched the area that his necklace rested in, all while noticing that Starswirl mentioned that someone was watching them, though not a couple of seconds later he and his brother stepped forward and walked up to where Clank and Autumn were standing, as while he felt that being cautious about this was a smart move, given how the Captain had been acting, neither of them were going to leave Autumn alone, before they came to a stop in the Ring and glanced up at Qwark. What they discovered was that Qwark stood there for a few moments, like he was mentally coming to a decision on what was going on right now, in fact Ratchet was sure that he spotted a look of indecision for a moment, before he heard a faint click and found that the platform they were standing on collapsed not a few seconds later, dropping them into the depths of the stronghold, though they safely landed on the ground thanks to Starswirl surrounding them with his magic, forming a barrier around them, before all four of them glared up at Qwark. "Captain, what is the meaning of this?" Starswirl asked, though as he said that he knew that he and his siblings were angry at being dropped in here, where if they were far younger, like say six or seven, all of them would have assumed that this would have been his way of deeming them of being unworthy of being heroes, or at least for the time being, but while he said that Ratchet readied his weapons, and Clank stood there with a confused look on his face, Autumn seemed to be in the middle of struggling with her anger, even though a dark mist appeared around his eyes. "I'm the spokesman for Drek's new planet... that means I have certain responsibilities, like making sure nothing gets in the way of his planet being completed." Qwark explained, something that caused them to think less of the man once he told them this piece of information, though as he said that he sighed for a moment as he focused on the siblings, as if he had been telling the truth about them having the potential to be heroes and didn't want to do this to them, despite his contract with Chairman Drek, "Unfortunately, that means that I can't have the lot of you getting in the way." "You won't get away with this, Qwark." Ratchet growled, as right now he was angry and ready to bash his wrench into the side of the Captain's head, to vent his anger and whatnot for a time, even though he could see that the anger that both he and Starswirl felt was nothing compared to Autumn's, as it seemed like her magic was catching on fire, something that did cause all of them to pause, even though a large monstrous being, the one from Al's commercial, broke free of its bindings and started to march on their location. As Qwark opened his mouth, however, Autumn's anger ignited as it surrounded her, causing her siblings to back off for a moment, though what happened was that her body took on a black coloration, with red flames wrapped around both her wrists and ankles, while her eyebrows transformed into blue flames, her eyes went white, her horn turned black right at the base and transitioned to white at the tip, and her mane and tail transformed into flames as well, the outer part being red, followed by purple, and ending with blue as the core. The Blargian Snagglebeast, the creature that was marching over to where they were standing, didn't seem stunned or surprised by what was going on and swung it's right fist straight at the area that Autumn was standing in, where she stood there and simply raised her left hand in response, catching the fist before it could smash her into the ground they were standing on, as she had moved in front of Ratchet and Starswirl just seconds before that happening. Ratchet was surprised by this turn of events, that his sister's anger state, whatever they were going to call it, was strong enough to stop the fist of a creature that was as tall and as strong as the Snagglebeast that was in front of them right now, before she raising her right hand for a moment and gathered her magical energy for a few seconds, meaning she must have some sort of plan in mind or her anger was burning too hot for her right now, before she loosed a burst of red energy right into the Snagglebeast's chest. The blast sent the beast flying through the air for a time, as it smashed through the side of the mountain that Qwark had built this base on top of, allowing them to watch as it flew out over the water and disappeared under the weight of Autumn's fury, though in the chaos Qwark was smart enough to activate a teleportation device to get himself out of the area before he was came under fire from the enraged individuals who were below him, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl to calm their sister down. In the following moments Autumn, or whatever their sister was, turned and stared at them as she growled, which made Ratchet wonder if this was more of a feral beast or if Autumn might be trapped inside this form, where she pulled out her wrench and they watched as her anger washed over it, the magic transforming it into a broadsword that was on fire, one that looked like it was partly charred by her terrifying wrath, though before she could do anything Starswirl stepped up for a moment and stood his ground, giving the elemental a sad but patient smile... something that caused the creature to let out a shriek before disappearing, leaving Autumn resting on the ground with a normal blade, all while Ratchet noticed that the dark mist around Starswirl's eyes disappeared as well. "Come on Clank, let's go see if Qwark left us anything." Ratchet said, where he focused on seeing whether or not the foul Captain had left for them to find, stuff to act on when Drek's planet was complete and there was no reason for them to head to the coordinates in question, leaving Starswirl to tend to Autumn, since he was the more magical member of their family and would know what to do about Autumn's change. "Ratchet... how are you not overwhelmed with rage?" Clank asked, because while he was impressed by Ratchet's ability to control most of his emotions, which was incredibly impressive at his age, what Qwark had done to them should have done something to Ratchet, even though he could see that the Lombax was already thinking about what he was going to do the moment they found the man, but before he could say anything else they found a loading area with a large red ship that he could see was much faster than the one they had been given earlier, even if Ratchet glared at the mark of Qwark that was on the side of it. "Because of this." Ratchet replied, where he turned for a moment and reached up towards his neck for a second, which Clank recognized since he had done the movement earlier, before they had been dumped into the Snagglebeast's lair like a bunch of trash, though Clank paused as Ratchet pulled out a necklace that was unlike anything he had seen before, one that was split diagonally in half, meaning it had a counterpart, somewhere in the vastness of their universe, "Clank, do you remember what the Plumber told us back on Novalis?" "Yes. He mentioned a 'she' and that you 'weren't ready' for the information he had." Clank answered, though he failed to see the connection between the mysterious figure that caused Ratchet to act like this and the necklace he wore, despite the fact that this would give him some understanding as to how his friend worked and might allow him to know far more about him, or at least those were his thoughts on the matter. "He was referring to my sister... not Autumn, mind you, but a twin sister whose lost... and this is the only thing I have, save for the pod I was in, that confirms her existence," Ratchet said, though that was basically the basics of the information that Clank needed to know so he would understand why this was so important to him, where he stared at it for a few seconds and felt his anger cool off as that happened, which he had done several times since it had been returned to him, before he glanced at Clank once more, "I'm honestly not sure what this is, a charm or a key of some kind, but it helps me think about my twin sister, wherever she is, and when I grasp it and focus on it I find that I'm able to calm down and not be burdened by my rage or anger... thinking about finding my sister, and not focusing on the cause of my anger or rage, allows me to calm down. That's why I'm not overwhelmed by rage right now." Clank didn't see anything special about the necklace, save for it being a reminder of someone Ratchet wanted to find at all costs, but before he could say anything he and his companion found that Starswirl was walking over to them with Autumn in his arms, who was still unconscious and caused Ratchet to run over immediately, where they quickly carried her over to their new vehicle, because they were totally taking this, and found that there was a ramp located in the back that lead into a small living area of some kind, so while Ratchet and Clank piloted the ship Starswirl and Autumn could rest. While they did that, however, Clank also found an Infobot resting nearby, one that happened to have the coordinates for Batalia, a planet that appeared to be under attack at the moment, no doubt due to Drek's forces, and that there was a commando who was in need of assistance, causing the little robot to glance at Ratchet as he climbed out of the ship and returned to where he had been standing earlier. "While I commend you for finding a way to not be consumed by rage, we still have work to do," Clank said, because at this point he felt there wasn't a need for them to talk about the necklace anymore, not when Ratchet had done a good job in explaining his reasoning, to which he gestured to the Infobot for a moment as his companion glanced at it, even though Clank was sure his mind was elsewhere right now, "Batalia is under attack, and a commando is calling for aid. What are you going to do about it?" "Honestly? I have no idea... I mean, Qwark made it clear what happens to 'heroes'," Ratchet stated, because while there had been times where he felt that the stories about the Captain were far too good to be true, as one of them had to be the more grounded sibling of them all and it seemed like that was his job, he and his siblings had enjoyed his tales and he said nothing about them, though now he wished he had, before what happened today had come to pass, "you either perish in the fight against all of the villains, like some of the other heroes who have vanished over the years, or you live long enough to become a villain yourself... just look at what happened to Qwark." "So what? You, Autumn, and Starswirl are just going to give up and go back to Veldin?" Clank inquired, as that was what he was determining from how Ratchet was acting, the necklace allowed him to not be blinded by rage and might make him do all sorts of foolish actions, such as possibly allowing the man who betrayed the siblings to get away with his actions, not to mention his employer for that matter, before he sighed for a moment, "Ratchet, I know the Captain's betrayal stings more than anything you have encountered so far, and I know that I am partly at fault for blindly trusting him to be the man I had hoped he would be, but there is a reason it stings so much: you and your siblings, despite this turn of events, know what it means to be true heroes, what it takes to be true heroes, and that is why it hurts so much." Ratchet stared at Clank for a time, wanting to lash out at him and say some of the things that were on his mind, where he had a few hurtful ones as well, though as he considered all of that he realized something, Clank knew that he was far more mature than his siblings, to some degree, and that he wasn't going to take them back to Veldin, nor was he going to take them on a quest for vengeance, to tear down Qwark for his crimes, rather his mind was set, that he and his siblings were going to tear down Drek and bring closure to everyone who had been harmed by his quest... to which Ratchet sighed and simply nodded his head as he and Clank climbed into the ship and departed for Batalia.