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// R/C: Batalia 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After setting course for Batalia, and leaving both the Novalis Chairman's courier ship and Umbris behind, Clank found that his companions were either deep in thought about what had happened or were exhausted from what had happened due to Qwark's treachery, and after what he had learned from Ratchet he understood why two of them were thinking about things that weren't what happened to them back on Umbris. Autumn was clearly exhausted from having burned through all of her magical energy, as Starswirl confirmed that the sudden transformation had used up all of her magic and left her in the state that she was in right now, resting on one of the benches in the lower section of their new ship, one that was actually faster than the one they had been granted earlier, meaning they could now fly from planet to planet at a faster speed, so there was no way for them to know if she was going to be able to join when them they reached Batalia. Starswirl, on the other hand, was worried about his sister and wanted to make sure that she was fine, even though he had to be thinking of spells that might be able to help her out, or at least Clank assumed such a thing since he was still coming to terms with the powers he and Autumn had access to, especially that enraged form from earlier, though Autumn's transformation likely stopped her brother from doing something similar, but the unicorn said nothing as he kept his eyes on his sister. Ratchet, however, was the one Clank was more concerned about right now, as the sudden shock of what happened to Autumn had caused him to grasp his necklace again, causing the Lombax to remember that he was missing his own twin sister, who must have been separated from him at birth he guessed, or around that point, and his desire to find her at some point in time, before he turned his thoughts towards what they were going to do next.

Even with the faster ship it did take them some time to reach Batalia, where they found that Autumn was awake and was more than ready to join them, even though Ratchet insisted that she take it easy this time, as her magic, according to their brother, was still close to empty and that it would be some time before she was back to normal, causing her to nod as they climbed out of the ship a few seconds after it landed on the landing pad, finding the Commando from the Infobot staring up at the ships that were up in the sky.

"At attention, you deserting maggots! The next time you soldiers try to..." the Commando started to say, having turned the instant he heard a ship behind him and revealed that he assumed whoever it was had to be those who had served under him before the Infobot was made, though before he could get too far Autumn, despite Starswirl's warning, raised her hand and sealed his mouth shut with magic, much to the surprise of Ratchet and Clank, since this was the first time all of them had seen such a thing.

"We aren't your troops, rather we're combat trained civilians that are responding to your distress call," Autumn said, even if it was a little cold of her when her siblings heard her speak, revealing that she was still angry over what happened back in Umbris, while she managed to keep her dark side from surging forward and freaking all of them out, as that was what Ratchet was calling that flaming creature.

"So you can either treat us with the proper respect," Ratchet added, knowing that Autumn was still annoyed and that she would cool off in due time, hopefully before they encountered Drek or Qwark, the latter he really didn't want to see again and had a feeling that they would find him in due time, before be beckoned to the ships that were above them, "or we'll leave you to face the rest of this bombardment."

"Right..." the Commando replied, where Autumn let go of him when she saw him nod his understanding, granting him the ability to speak once more, before he gestured to the scene that was unfolding right now, with the ships raining down on everything that was below them and all of the troopers attacking the nearby settlement, "there is a turret across the way that needs to be repaired, so it can be used to shoot down the bombers that are attacking this planet... I'll scout out the area and give you further instructions when we meet back up."

"Is that all there is to do here?" Clank inquired, speaking once he was sure that the Commando was gone, as the man in question started to walk away once he was done talking to Ratchet and his siblings, allowing them some time to study the surrounding area and see if there was more to do besides simply smashing Drek's forces, something he was fine with if that was the case, since they still needed to track Drek down and put a stop to his plans.

"No, according to our uplinks there is someone out on the water who is in need of assistance, meaning it has to be one of the Command's troopers," Starswirl answered, to which he and his siblings glanced out over the area in question, as it was to the right of the area that was right in front of them, and found a number of grind rails that seemed to lead the way over to where the signal was coming from, before he glanced at the others again, "we might get an Infobot if we go over there, but that might be the only thing of importance over there."

"Until Autumn makes more of these boots, I'm the only one that can go over there," Ratchet commented, referring to the new boots that they had acquired back in Drek's station, the one that allowed someone to use rails like this to traverse a great distance, or maybe even a small distance in some instances, something that caused Autumn to nod her head, as she knew that making more of them would benefit the three of them at some point in time, before he thought about what he had seen so far, "unless you want to levitate over there, Starswirl... so we can either wait near the grind rail until I figure out what's out there, or you two can tackle Drek's forces and I'll catch up in due time."

Autumn, instead of saying anything in response to that, pulled out her weapons for a moment and paused as she took a moment to check out the Vendor, finding that the Devastator, basically a rocket launcher, was available and purchased it without delay, making sure that her siblings had it as well, before she waged war on the enemies that were in front of her, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl standing there, watching as she yanked the small little robots out of the air with her magic and cut some down with her blade. The others fell to her blaster, a single shot being more than enough to take them out before she noticed more enemies ahead of her, though as she did that Starswirl found a machine that sent out small balls that unfolded into the new white floating enemies and he smashed it with a blast from his weapons, not even bothering to check which one it was since he was more interested in keeping an eye on Autumn and her magic right now, as there was no telling how the transformation would affect her. While they were moving one of the bombers flew close by and loosed a missile that tore apart the walkway in front of them, leaving a ring for them to walk on to reach the next part of the path they were following, where it was easy for Autumn and Starswirl to find that there were a number of white robots, soldiers, and a few hidden bombers waiting for enemies in the next section they were exploring, hence why they opened fire on all of their enemies as they spotted a Bolt Crank being guarded by Drek's forces. Based on what Starswirl could see it looked like the Bolt Crank would extend a bridge for them to use, to make their way around this area and approach the area that happened to hold the turret the Commando wanted one of them to use on the Blarg bombers that were currently all over the city the Infobot had brought them to, and he was sure that there was a tank up on the other side of the bridge as well, one that would become focus on him and Autumn if they got close enough.

Of course Autumn was thinking the same thing as she stared up at the area that was beyond where they started, though a few seconds later she sighed as she raised her weapon and found something interesting, if she turned the base of her new blade towards the Bolt Crank it transformed into a wrench head, even though she wasn't using her magic to do it, before she quickly turned this device and caused the bridge to extend so they could move forward, though since they were below the bridge the tank couldn't target them at all.

"When this adventure is over, I'm going to have to take a while to think about things," Autumn commented, referring to the anger she had felt back during their time in Umbris, as it was the first time, in a long time, that she had felt such a surge of emotion, though the surprising part was that her magic had responded in such a shocking way, transforming her into what she assumed was a beast of pure rage who reacted to Qwark's betrayal, before she sighed and glanced at the weapon in her right hand, "and figure out why my other side picked a blade, of all things."

Of course Starswirl was surprised by that change as well, though before he could say anything Autumn did something he never expected her to do, she jumped up to where the tank was located, no doubt using her magic to boost her jumping ability for a short period of time, though what he was referring to was the fact that she pulled out the RYNO and loosed a small volley at the tank, tearing it apart in seconds, and when she landed they found Ratchet catching up to them, but for the time being he said nothing about what he had uncovered. With that done the siblings, now reunited, crossed the now extended bridge and used a small flow of water to direct themselves down into an area that had all sorts of enemies, as in a number of soldiers, a few hidden bombers, and a tank, all of which weren't happy to see the siblings and opened fire on them as soon as they were able to, something that caused Starswirl to surround them with a magical barrier for a time so Ratchet and Autumn could spread themselves out before retaliating on their opponents. Sure enough it didn't take them all that long to smash their way through the enemies that were in front of them, even without Autumn using the RYNO to clear out some of their foes, though Drek's forces did put up a good fight before they were taken out, but as soon as all of their foes were taken out the siblings stepped forward and two of them activated a pair of Bolt Cranks that caused a long bridge, broken into two segments, to be linked back together. With that done they walked up some steps and then quickly crossed the bridge in question, allowing them to find the Commando standing next to a magnetic surface that looked like they would need some special shoes to walk on, though as the man opened his mouth to say something, since there was a gap between them and the Bolt Crank outside the structure that held the turret, Starswirl used his magic to send his own wrench staff over to it and turned it without delay.

Such a thing caused the Commando to acknowledge their strength and bravery before handing over an Infobot, one that was for the planet that Drew and the Blarg came from, Orxon, and then departed from this area so he could go find those who had been part of his battalion, though once he was gone Ratchet informed them that he and Clank found a soldier at the end of the grind rail area and that they had acquired the Infobot for Gaspar, where he was sure they could find a new helmet gadget and maybe get some information on Drek's location.

With those two Infobots in hand the siblings crossed the bridge that Starswirl extended with his wrench, where they found that the area was covered in soldiers, tanks, and all sorts of enemies, something that caused them to separated from each other before firing on Drek's forces once more, while making sure to use their melee weapons on whoever got close, but it just showed them that their true foe was trying to take down every planet that existed in their galaxy, basically confirming what Clank suspected at this point in time. None of them knew why this particular outpost was so important to Drek, as it didn't seem like he was here for the trees, or the water, or for a chunk of the planet, rather it seemed like he was attacking it simply to keep the three of them busy for the time being, as with Qwark under his thumb he didn't have to worry about the authorities coming after him and his army, but with a trio of heroes in training, which is what they could be considered at this point, he had to make sure they were stalled as much as possible. Even with that thought in mind there really didn't seem to be much of a point of Drek attacking Batalia, because it seemed like the military here was planet based, as in the Commando and his people focused on defending this city and the surrounding area from the other continents that rested all over this planet, armies trying to take control of the planet, so it meant they were already distracted and didn't need a common enemy to unite against, but in the end Ratchet and his siblings decided not to worry about this, since there was no telling why Drek had decided to attack this planet. The only thing they needed to focus on was the fact that Drek did want to tear this planet down, maybe determining that it held no worth for his people and wanted to get it out of the way, hence why they blasted through the remaining enemies, the pair of tanks, before finding a Bolt Crank that went to a gate in front of them, which Ratchet opened and caused him to grin as they found that the path that brought them right to the turret the Commando had mentioned, along with someone working on it.

"If it isn't the Plumber," Ratchet commented, causing the man to finish his maintenance on the turret before turning and hopping down to where they were currently standing, though while Ratchet wanted to ask him about his twin, now that the events of Umbris had brought his thoughts about her back to the surface, he suspected that now wasn't the time to ask about his lost sister, that would come at some point in the future, "What are you doing here, on another planet that Chairman Drek is assaulting?"

"Maintenance on this planet's useless defense turret, which I just finished fixing." the Plumber replied, revealing that he knew far more than fixing pipes and other toilet related items, if where they found him the first time was any indication of things, but Ratchet was far more interested in his knowledge of other things, even if he knew that none of them were at all ready for the information he had to share with them, before he chuckled as he pulled out a gadget that looked like an old metal detector, "This is for you, Autumn, to have some fun with later, to help with recent events... though I'm afraid that I don't have much to offer the two of you at this point."

Ratchet shrugged, as he had been expecting such a response to his unasked question, before climbing into the turret and opened fire on Drek's bombers, where Starswirl watched as his brother blasted the vessels out of the air, even though he used his magic to blast any missiles out of the air, so Ratchet didn't have to worry about them, all while Autumn studied her new toy for a time, as she had a feeling she'd mess with it later, though it wasn't long before Ratchet was done, the Plumber confirmed that he was as skilled as he thought he was, and the siblings returned to their new ship, as it was time for them to head to a new planet and see what happened next.