//------------------------------//
// Commando: Tabora 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

During their flight to Tabora, which was just a few hours, Angela told Ratchet and the others that she had nothing to do with what happened to the planet they were currently flying towards, as it had happened during the early days of her time with Megacorp, so she was busy with her work, both to keep Mr. Fizzwidget happy while making sure not to make a name for herself, after finding a way to hide both her tail and true race. She had learned about the terraforming after the fact, once all of the work was said and done to be exact, but she was still ashamed by the fact that an entire world had been ruined during her time with Megacorp, even though it seemed like none of the other worlds had suffered the same fate, meaning her boss must have figured out that doing such a thing was wrong. One interesting piece of information that surprised the siblings was that the Fizzwidget she knew could speak just fine and didn't mispronounce names, where she suspected that what all of them had seen so far, with his odd speech patterns, had to be his old age catching up with him and was making him far more confused than what she remembered, to the point where she wondered if he was even the same man anymore, as some of his recent actions made her think otherwise. The siblings agreed that old age could be a factor in part of what was happening, though based on what she had told them his actions seemed to suggest that something else was going on, as if someone was pulling his strings and was forcing him to do everything that Angela opposed, though for now they listened to her tales about when she worked for Megacorp, just to learn more about the corporation.

Eventually they reached the planet in question and found their way to the mining site that Mr. Fizzwidget had pointed out in the coordinates he had sent them, though what was interesting was where he wanted them to meet up, in the wastes, as if he were taking out the trash, and Angela put on her Thief mask before returned to her 'cuffed' position as everyone climbed out of the ship... though as they walked a fair distance away from the ship they found a rather large black ship that just landed on top of their own, causing Mr. Fizzwidget to climb out of it.

"Everything's fine! There was just a bit of debris on the landing pad." Mr. Fizzwidget said, appearing to not care about the fact that he had crushed their ship with his own, in fact he might not know about the fact that they had parked their ship in the very area that he intended on landing in when he planned on bringing them to this planet, so it might be their fault if one thought about it another way.

"Fine?! That was our ship!" Clank stated, because if this was the end of their mission, and they couldn't do anything to help Angela with the Experiment mess, they would need a way to get back to Solana, in the off chance that Megacorp didn't just warp them back to their own galaxy once everything was said and done, hence why the ship seemed like a good idea, or at least it had been one.

"Don't worry about it, little fella. It's insured! But, ugh, do you have the, uh, delivery?" Mr. Fizzwidget inquired, deciding to ignore Clank's comments on the matter while focusing on why he had asked them to come to this planet in the first place, even though it didn't seem like any tours would be happening on this planet anytime soon, though Starswirl nodded as he undid his magic and the Experiment jumped forward, like a pet reunited with it's master and not the violent machine they had seen earlier, "Terrifulous! Come gentlemen, there is precious little time."

What they discovered was that Mr. Fizzwidget either didn't care about the fact that Angela was there, or he was planning on disposing of the Thief once they were off world, though as he moved his ship, however, their boss asked if they wanted to listen to some flying music and pressed a button near his controls, which launched Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela out of the ship and caused them to fall into a hole in a nearby rock formation, something that caused Ratchet to grab onto Angela and positioned himself so he collided with the sandy ground first and acted like a cushion.

"Ratchet! Are you alright?" Angela asked, the 'bindings' disappearing as she removed her mask and moved to aid him, as while they had landed on a large pile of sand it still had to be painful, especially since he had used his body as a cushion to make sure no harm came to her, which was a sweet gesture when she thought about it, though she was impressed that he had moved faster than his siblings, who used magic to protect themselves.

"Yeah... though I'll be feeling that for a few days." Ratchet replied, where he picked himself up and dusted himself off as he made sure his body was just fine, especially since Angela had landed with her face facing his, meaning her chest had been pushed against his for a few moments, though he made sure to hide any blushes that might have shown up as he looked around the underground area that they had landed in.

"I know we were willing to believe that he's easily distracted in his old age, but he did that on purpose." Clank said, taking a moment to speak to Autumn and Starswirl, deciding to leave Ratchet and Angela alone for the time being so they could talk to each other, especially after noticing what had happened when his friend moved his body between Angela and the ground a few moments ago.

"He wants us out of the way... meaning he knows more than what he told us." Starswirl remarked, because that had to be the only explanation for what happened over the last few minutes, that their boss had lied to them about something and wanted to remove all of them before they did something that put his plans in jeopardy, something that confirmed what Angela had told him and his siblings earlier, "Though I'm afraid that we won't be able to leave the way we entered, as that is a little too far for either of us to teleport out of here... we'll have to find another way out."

Ratchet nodded his head as Angela pulled her hood back and undid her tail, as it appeared that being in the presence of another Lombax had convinced her to stop hiding and embrace her true form again, even though they could see that part of her was still hesitant to do this, a small part anyway. With that done they walked over to a nearby Vendor, which must have fallen down here at some point in time, and discovered that it had two new weapons for them to add to their arsenal, which made the siblings smile as they discovered more about their new tools. The first one was known as the Lava Gun, a weapon that allowed the user to fire a thin stream of lava at their enemies, though Autumn assumed that the insides had been designed to safely hold a condensed form of the dangerous element in question, otherwise it would have wrecked the gun at some point. After that the group glanced at the second weapon on the screen, which was the Bouncer and fired a decent sized spherical bomb that split into smaller bombs, ones that stuck everything that happened to be around the initial impact area, meaning it could be quite dangerous for their enemies.

"What is she doing?" Angela asked, as Autumn purchased both weapons and made some notes about them for the next generation of weapons that Gadgetron would be producing, though her question was more directed to what came after all of her notes were made, where she watched as the Lava Gun was duplicated into four identical weapons, one for each of the siblings and the fourth seemed to be for her, which she quickly replicated with the Bouncer.

"Item Duplication... makes it easier for us to have the weapons to defend the galaxy from harm," Starswirl said, where he checked out the weapons for a few seconds and nodded his head, as he was pleased with them and knew that his sister's spell would have replicated it perfectly, even though Angela was starting to understand why it had been so hard for all of the Thugs to take them down, not counting their magical powers.

Angela barely had time to come to terms with how the siblings had gotten away with cheating Megacorp, something she understood since some of their products were expensive, before Autumn made a quick copy of Ratchet's arsenal to fill in all of the weapons they had obtained so far, giving Angela everything from the Lancer to the Miniturret Glove, and both of the newer ones that Ratchet had just obtained, before they opened fire on all of the enemies that were in the tunnel they needed to head through. Sure, she had seen their skills several times before this point in time, receiving reports from the Thugs as the siblings smashed and blasted through whoever and whatever happened to be in their way, but seeing it from this side of things was another thing entirely, each of them were graceful in their own way, Autumn being graceful despite the fact that she switched between magic and weapons, all while Starswirl focused on using magic to blast his targets, no doubt saving his weapons for when enemies got close to him. Ratchet, on the other hand, was able to display his innate Lombax abilities as he struck his opponents and dodged attacks with far more grace than what his sister used, even if this was only their second adventure based on what they had told her, and it wasn't long before they discovered the knee sized Crawlers, red scaled quadrupedal creatures who changed as Megacorp terraformed Tabora, and a few mutant flies were loved to live in the sands. It was impressive to watch them take down the pack of enemies, all without actually breaking a sweat to do so, and she had to imagine that Ratchet was just fine, that her falling on top of him had done nothing to his body or skills, but Angela could tell that he seemed a little more skilled than before, meaning he and his siblings had to be growing the more they fought their enemies.

In that moment she found herself agreeing with what Ratchet had said earlier, that if the threat that was looking for them actually did find them, and she was sure that it would happen in due time, Ratchet and his siblings would be able to take care of their foe, making her wonder if she could gain the same skills that the siblings possessed, by traveling with them for a time, just to improve her chances if things didn't work out.

"Angela, is something wrong?" Ratchet asked, pausing for a moment as his siblings moved forward, jumping over a small gap to deal with some additional Crawlers and a Spawner of some kind, as Clank had pointed out that their new friend had stalled for a moment, which he understood since he counted three blasts and not four whenever one of them used their weapons, hence why he turned back and found that Angela was still standing near the Vendor.

"No, just... lost in thought." Angela replied, which was basically the truth of the matter, she had been caught up in thinking about everything that was going on right now and what it meant for her future, especially since she was distracted by the fact that she was in the company of a male Lombax, something she refused to admit right now, as most of her wanted to focus on her mission, before she sighed and collected her new arsenal before catching up to Ratchet and his siblings, as it would seem weird if she just stayed behind them the entire time.

This time Angela joined the siblings in firing upon both the Crawlers and Desert Flies, which she told the others what they were called so they knew about them, where Ratchet found that her movements had vastly improved and weren't as bad as when she was the Thief, even though some of those movements could have been blamed on the Experiment attacking her, but he suspected that having her tail out in the open, instead of contained in her belt, happened to be the cause for what they were seeing. One thing they discovered was that there happened to be a new type of Nanotech, purple colored this time, which Angela explained was supposed to be far stronger than the normal blue that everyone was familiar with, meaning that it healed far more than what they were used to, an interesting thing for them to keep in mind as they dealt with all of the enemies that were in the next chamber. Another thing the siblings discovered was that their new weapons did some good damage to the enemies that happened to be in the chamber in question, the Lava Gun burning everything that the stream came into contact with while the Bouncer bombs zeroed in one an enemy and blasted it several times in a matter of seconds, making them wonder what else Megacorp might have up their sleeves. After that they passed through an area that was just a few platforms, small ones that were created from the cave itself and weren't made by Megacorp, so they had to jump across a few gaps to move deeper into the cave system, even though Ratchet made sure that Angela had no trouble with it and found that she was more than capable of traversing the gaps.

It brought them to another chamber that happened to have a Vendor inside it, though it was then that they discovered an odd sight, two glass cases that had writing on the bases of them, one being smaller and having a rock inside it while they found that the other was larger and had a wrench inside it, which seemed to be blue colored and not that much different than what Ratchet was carrying right now.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting to find this here," Ratchet said, where Clank was reading the puzzle written on the bases, as it said that in case of emergency use wrench to break the glass and then went into a line about using said wrench to get the rock to get the wrench, though he bypassed it by smashing the container that the wrench was in, though with it in hand he and his siblings glanced at Angela for a moment, "You want it?"

"No, I have my own weapon," Angela replied, where she pulled out the cylindrical weapon she had shown them earlier, as Autumn expected it to be a staff or pole of some kind, before she sighed for a moment, knowing that if she didn't show it off one of the siblings was bound to bug her until she decided to show them, to which she pressed a button and a beam on either side of the base emerged, stopping at the same length of the blade on Autumn's sword, only they seemed to be made out of purple energy, "this is a saber made of magnetically contained plasma, so called a 'Lightsaber' according to a bit of information from the Codex fragment that I recovered, though I've stayed away from traditional Lombax weapons to avoid drawing attention to myself."

"Very interesting... I might have to study it later." Autumn remarked, showing Angela that she was interested in what she had chosen as her weapon, especially since the information about it seemed to come from a Codex fragment, though as she said that part of her magic washed over both wrenches that Ratchet was holding as she merged his with the second, turning it a shade of blue, molding the head to be a cross between the two, and making his wrench even stronger than it had been before this point, even though she made three copies of Tabora's wrench, two to upgrade hers and Starswirl's, keeping the last as a reminder of what they found.

With that done, and everyone was ready to go, Ratchet and Angela moved forward and swung their melee weapons at the Crawlers that were in front of them, finding that the upgraded wrench was far stronger than it had been before, just like Autumn had told him, while Angela's weapon cut through her foes like butter, allowing Autumn to study it in use while she and Starswirl brought up the rear. The interesting thing that Autumn found was that Angela must have made a couple of modifications to the saber, making it so that her tail and her attire, which could be in the way of the blades, depending on her movements, weren't harmed by the intense beams of the strange weapon, so no one had to worry about her cutting either her tail or the cape she was wearing, though a few seconds later she removed the cape, showing them that she was done with resembling her Thief persona. Another thing they discovered was that there were a few pools of lava, which did make sense due to the fact that they were below ground and that it might have been caused by all the terraforming that had gone on during Megacorp's time on this planet, that happened to be nearby as they moved through the cave system Mr. Fizzwidget had launched them into before he departed from the planet. After a while Ratchet found a few Swingshots that seemed to head outside, or at least the downward sloped passage that was in front of them suggested that, where he carried both himself and Angela across a few gaps before holding onto her as he glanced down to a path of ground with Clank's helipack, even though his siblings just used their magic to follow after him.

When they landed two things happened, they discovered a lift that would take them up to the desert, maybe even to the area that their ship had been resting in before it was smashed, and Angela's ship landed some distance in front of her, as she had set it to follow them and track them down when Mr. Fizzwidget ejected them, where she pulled out a holodisplay and showed them a message about the Megacorp Testing Facility on planet Dobbo.

"Some of those things looked like of dangerous," Ratchet commented, referring to the Nuclear Mousetrap and the Lawn Ninja, items that had apparently been made by Megacorp before being rejected, among a few other items they had seen on the screen, but as he considered that information Angela messed with the rest of her former disguise and the sections covering her arms came off, like bits of a hologuise, revealing more fur that looked like his, "it gives us another good idea on why you wanted to take the Experiment."

"I have a reliable source in Megacorp who said that there should be more information on the Experiment in the facility, it just needs to be found," Angela replied, though she was happy to see that Ratchet and his siblings were willing to listen to what she had to say, as they were keeping an open mind about things and it seemed like they understood that they might have been tricked by the man who hired them, regardless of whether or not someone was pulling the strings, "we can try convincing Mr. Fizzwidget of the danger, but after everything that's happened I'm not sure he'll even listen to anything we have to say on the matter... and no, Davin would never turn me in, otherwise you four wouldn't have been brought in to take the Experiment back."

Autumn and Starswirl said nothing as they walked over to the lift and stepped on it, allowing it to take them up to what seemed to be an old mining camp that was, despite the claims of it being abandoned by Megacorp, still in good condition, like someone happened to be calling this place home, and sure enough they found their ship on a landing pad, with an old blue skinned man who seemed to be meditating in front of the ship, while dressed in brown robes.

"Thanks for moving our ship out of the desert... certainly saves us the trouble of tracking it down," Autumn said, as none of them had been looking forward to a trek through the wastes that were all around them, since it would take some time to track down where the ship had been before it had been smashed, though for the most part it looked like the man was deep in his meditation, or at least he was until he opened his eyes.

"Possession is an illusion. Do not all things belong to the cosmos?" the man, a mystic of some kind, replied, showing them that he saw the ship in a different light, though it did look like he was sort of with them and not with them right now, like he was stuck between two different states, before he turned his head and regarded their ship for a few seconds, "This vessel suffers from wounded chi. Only the power of the crystals can hope to heal it."

"Crystals, sir?" Clank asked, because they had seen no crystals on this planet, not since their arrival, and he suspected that if any remained it was either due to Megacorp missing them or they might have grown since the company left, though he failed to see the logic of needing crystals to mend the ship, not when Autumn and Starswirl could use their magic to put it back together in no time at all.

"Crystals, like those found in the desert, beyond." the Mystic answered, though instead of giving them anything else to go on, other than the fact that what he needed was around them, he closed his eyes and continued his meditation, as if they hadn't disturbed him in the first place, causing the group to glance at each other before shrugging, as it seemed like he wasn't about to let them do anything with their own ship.

The first thing they did was check out the rest of the settlement, finding that it was incredibly small and had two buildings, not counting a bridge that crossed over a gap, where one building seemed to have been made into a little house, given the chair that could double as a bed, and another seemed to head downward, no doubt into a passage that Megacorp had built before they left Tabora. Autumn decided to check the other path out and see what it held, though Starswirl stayed in the area that Ratchet and Angela were in, only he crossed over the bridge before finding a number of Crawlers and Desert Flies waiting for enemies to arrive, giving the two Lombaxes time to speak, without being worried about someone hearing something they shouldn't hear. What Angela discovered was that despite the fact that Autumn was the main weapons and gadget designer of the three, to the point that she was the top rising star of Gadgetron and didn't seem like she was going to be stopping anytime in the near future, Ratchet still tried his hand at making his own items, as he knew that Lombaxes were both great warriors and inventors, or at least the people of the planet he landed on told him what stories they had on them and Angela even confirmed a few for him, or at least what she could. Angela shared the fact that she was, for the time being, focusing on the inventive side of her own heritage, as the limited records she had been given before being sent to Bogon indicated that both her parents had been inventors and her father had been a warrior, hence her mixed heritage and skills, where she suspected that Ratchet was the same way, that both had been inventors and one of them must have been a skilled warrior, given his skills.

While they talked with each other Starswirl blasted through the enemies that were around them, breaking a purple crystal out of whatever it was stuck in, one that happened to have sort of energy to it, though before he could study it he found a new sight, Autumn flew up from the gap they had walked over, by using the bridge, and he discovered that she must have found a glider of some kind, given a pair of red wings, before she loosed a burst of magic that wiped out a group of foes, including a large sand creature, and then landed nearby.

"All I found was this glider, nothing more," Autumn said, where she weaved her magic over it for a few seconds and made a few copies of it, allowing Ratchet, Starswirl, and Angela to have their own, something Angela was still coming to terms with since she wasn't used to dealing with their magical abilities and her duplicating spell, before they put them away and she stared at the crystals that had been claimed so far, as Starswirl had found a few of them, which caused her to have an idea that might save them some time, "Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Angela had no idea if she wanted to know what Autumn was talking about, though that was when the pair focused their magic on the crystal, where a wave of magic rolled over the entire desert and she heard the screams of what she had to assume were the large sand creatures, allowing the pair to gather what looked like a hundred or so crystals in total, even if Autumn duplicated one and stashed it in her pocket, just to have something to study later on... only to find that the Mystic needed ten to reform the ship, which he did as soon as they handed over the crystals.

"Okay, that wasn't magic... still pretty cool though," Starswirl remarked, because what he said was true, that wasn't magic, rather it seemed like some sort of cosmic force had been used to put the ship back together, and everyone else agreed with his statement, though after everything was said and done he and Autumn made a quick check of the Star Explorer, as in checking it out for a few seconds, before revealing that everything was fine.

With that done the Mystic informed them that he would be willing to pay for any and all crystals that they found, to which Ratchet handed over all ninety of the true crystals they had recovered, leaving Autumn with her duplicated one for later, earning them ninety thousand Bolts, but with that done the group climbed into the ship, and Angela decided to join them while leaving her ship in the tracking mode in case she needed it, before they headed for Dobbo.