//------------------------------//
// Arsenal: Veldin 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Ratchet found that the weeks and months went by rather fast for him and his siblings, which made sense due to the fact that they were busy protecting all of the planets of the Bogon Galaxy, keeping the citizens safe from threats like the Thugs and anything else that might show up. He and Clank were also involved in filing all sorts of episodes of Secret Agent Clank, a series that had gained quite a following in this galaxy and was even shown in both Solana and Polaris, even though the first episode was weird, since it involved a race called the mind-stealing 'Snotbeasts' from Dimension X, which had been very well received despite his thoughts. In fact there were all sorts of strange creatures that Mr. Hatfield and his team came up with for Clank to 'deal with', as some were from other dimensions, other planets, or even robots who lead crime organizations, but he was happy for his pal, as Clank enjoyed being the main hero for once, with Ratchet being the chauffeur who was in each episode for a few moments at a time. He was fine with that, because a lesser role meant anyone watching it wouldn't connect him to the almost extinct Lombax race, in fact some fans assumed that it was a Hologuise designed to replicate the race, though none of them read into the theories as they focused on the show and their own work.

Of course Autumn played the Supervillain known as the Nirik, a dark flaming monster who sought to cover the universe in darkness, so they basically took her dark side and turned it into something that excited the viewers, and since she didn't want to be in that form all the time Autumn created a Hologuise to do it, making it as realistic as she could and surprised everyone with how well it was made.

In addition to all of the scenes she was filmed in, as one of Clank's many enemies, Autumn continued to craft weapons for Gadgetron, as she couldn't work for Megacorp in that regard, and she expanded her area of expertise by making new sets of armor, starting with ones that would fit her body like a glove before moving onto her brothers. She also added Angela to the mix during that time period, taking her measurements and incorporating them into her folders for later, especially since she switched to wielding her wrench-staff after leaving Megacorp, that way if she bought the new armors they would fit over her body with ease. Angela was fine with that, as she wanted to be a hero as well and that meant following what her boyfriend, not to mention his siblings, in how they acted whenever they were on an adventure, showing them that the warrior side of her was coming out as time went on. In fact she and Ratchet acquired a parting gift from Mr. Fizzwidget, as in a gift for Angela resigning, which came in the form of light armor with light blue on outside of the limbs and black on the inside, complete with helmets that matched, which they learned was called the Alpha Combat Suit, made to help them in their missions for the Bogon Defense Force.

Starswirl also cut into Autumn's time, pulling her aside every now and then to make sure her magical power was fine and that it wasn't decreasing at all, even though Angela watched some of their magical contests and found that both siblings were quite strong, in fact it was hard to tell who had the upper hand, though Starswirl had access to all sorts of powers, making him a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Her reasoning for that was because he could summon all sorts of elements, such as fire and wind, even though he did find a few tomes about other types of spells, like manipulating the weather, delving into dreams, or calling on the power of the stars, the last being more akin to solar spells. Starswirl also admitted that he was researching some potentially dangerous types of magic, like time and the fabric of reality, but those would some at a later date, when he was sure he had finished researching and mastering everything else that he could call upon. Plus he was training Autumn how to wield her power as well, so it made sense that it would take him some time to get to the more important stuff he was researching, but for now things seemed to be working for them and she wasn't about to mess with their plans.

Such a thing made her think about one of the artifacts in her private storage, a recording that detailed a tale of a weapon of Lombax design, something capable of messing with the fabric of reality, but she said nothing about it, since she didn't want to worry Ratchet and the others. Of course she used the magic that Starswirl and Autumn had access to, as she had them enchant part of her larger ship to be a door to the vault, like how they stored all the other stuff in a private area that no one else could get to, and once the private dimension was made she carefully stored all her Lombax stuff inside it, just to keep all of it safe. In addition to that she and Autumn turned the ship into a starship, capable of traveling from planet to planet with ease, with all sorts of systems installed to make flight smoother, creating a mobile base for when they were on an adventure, though Ratchet had plans to purchase an area for their permanent residence, but he wasn't sure if it should be in Solana or if they were going to be calling Bogon their home, not that he had a problem with that. Still, there were a number of rooms aboard their starship, meaning they could sleep between planets if they wanted, or do whatever they wanted for that matter, and she was happy to see that her ship could be used in such a way, even if it had to be altered a little to make things work.

Angela also slept with Ratchet every night, as they were definitely dating, even though she wanted to wait until they took out the threat to the Lombaxes, but they enjoyed their time together and that was more than enough for her, allowing her to enjoy herself as time went by and made her wonder what the future might have for them.





Eventually six months had passed since their arrival in Bogon, making it a year since the defeat of Drek and each sibling celebrated their birthday, before being given an off day so they could relax and do whatever they wanted, where they decided to remain in their apartment and just be lazy.

"Haha! My Blargian Snagglebeast devours your mutant swamp fly." Ratchet said, moving a piece on the board that they were playing on, as he and Clank were playing a game of chess, even if it had some alterations to make it funner, though as they did that Starswirl, Autumn, and Angela sat in the rest of the living room, watching whatever was on the screen or reading a book, "Oh yeah! I bet you didn't see that one... hey, what are you doing?"

"Check and mate." Clank stated, where he moved another piece as he said that, as while Ratchet's move was good it also opened the door for him to bring an end to the match, and while he could see his friend looking for a way to overturn this move he could see that Ratchet understood that he had been beaten, "Also, the rules of the game clearly state that the Blargian Snagglebeast has an allergic reaction to swamp flies that lasts two turns."

In that moment the show they had been watching returned, which happened to be an episode of Secret Agent Clank, where Clank, whose body had some alterations to make a tuxedo, was playing in a casino, tracking down a rich gambler who was connected to the shadowy crime rings, a brass robot called Maxmillian, and in the end he ended up dropping a chandelier on the robot. Ratchet's character, Jeeves, only appeared twice in the episode in question, dropping Clank off at the Maktar Casino at the beginning of the segment and bringing the vehicle around once his 'boss' came out with one of the 'hotbots', female robots designed to be attractive to all sorts of species. With that segment of the episode done, and everyone was told that they had to stay tuned for the end of it, Ratchet picked up the remote and changed the channel to the news, as while he and the others were supposed to have a day off he wanted to make a note of what was going on so he could spring into action tomorrow. What they discovered, however, was a news broadcast from Solana, which meant that Mr. Fizzwidget must have seen it pop up and sent it their way, where they discovered that Veldin was under attack by a race known as the Tyhrranoids and that they were working for 'Dr. Nefarious', and that they were sure that the planet would fall in a matter of hours.

As they watched that Angela noticed a change in Ratchet, as at first he was surprised by this piece of news, then outraged that his home was under attack, something that his siblings shared and even Clank seemed to be annoyed as well, which was followed by Ratchet standing up at one point.

"Come on, we're heading home." Ratchet remarked, where Autumn and Starswirl nodded, moving to activate the rest of the apartment's defenses so no one broke in while they were gone, before they gathered their weapons and headed for their ship, where Angela did the same thing as she noticed that Ratchet had a container that he didn't open at all, which only made her curious as to what it might be.

As they docked with the starship, however, she learned that it was a Gravimetric Warp Drive, something capable of what happened to them when they first arrived in Bogon, meaning jumping from one galaxy to the next, and that it was both untested and built from Blargian scrap metal, which Ratchet had made all on his own. Autumn, having know about it for some time, opened a small container for him to install the warp drive in and ran a test to make sure the starship was well prepared for what was coming next, before nodding to Ratchet as she made sure the Star Explorer was docked and ready for the journey. Once she informed them that they were ready, but before the warp drive was activated, Angela sent off a message to Mr. Fizzwidget, informing him of what was going on and that they might not be available for an undetermined amount of time, before focusing on what they were about to do. In the following moments Ratchet activated the controls of the starship and reality seemed to bend around them for a few seconds before they surged off into space, flying from Bogon and heading to Solana at long last, showing Ratchet that his warp drive was successful and that his inventor side was as good as Autumn's.

A few moments later they emerged from the tunnel they had been traveling through and appeared in the space near the atmosphere of Veldin, to which they carefully parked the starship and used the Star Explorer, modified to fit more people than the standard two, to head down to the planet's surface, finding the Galactic Rangers, green robots designed to guard the planets of Solana, fighting the Tyhrranoids in the area they landed in.

"Of course they're the first generation that I created," Autumn remarked, finding that the design of the Galactic Rangers was identical to what she designed shortly after Drek's defeat, though they also discovered that the Tyhrranoids either used guns or sat in mechs that fired lasers from their hands, or at least all of the small ones were that way, not that such a thing mattered since Starswirl blasted their first enemies apart with a few fireballs, "I'll update them later, once our home is safe and we understand the situation better."

What they discovered was that a group of Galactic Rangers had been waiting for them to arrive, meaning Mr. Fizzwidget had informed Mr. Lumos of their impending arrival, or maybe he knew they would come if their home planet was under attack, as they were given one of the newest weapons made by Gadgetron, a shotgun weapon called the Shock Blaster, one for each of them. In addition to that the Rangers were designed to register Ratchet and his siblings as their brand new sergeants, allowing them to step forward and declare war on the Tyhrranoids that were in their way as Ratchet blasted one of them with his new weapon, finding that it took a few hits for them to take it out, but the weapon packed quite the punch and made him wonder what else might have been produced so far. A few moments later they found a few more Rangers that were being pinned down by a cruiser, reminding them of what the Thug Leader did, and one handed them a second weapon, a bomb launcher called the Nitro Launcher, allowing Angela to blast her target to pieces with one bomb, opening the way for them to drop down a hole and move through a short tunnel to progress. Of course that involved the group taking out a few Tyhrranoids that didn't have blasters in their hands, opening the way for Angela to swing her melee weapon and knocked them down, taking out a group of enemies with ease and allowed all of them to continue towards the next part of Veldin.

As they did that Ratchet noticed something, they were in part of the settlement that they had grown up in, and, if he was correct, there was a path that would lead right to where their old residence rested, which had to be ruined at this point in time, but both he and his siblings were worried for Brook and the others, who Angela knew about thanks to the tales she learned from her new family.

"The colony must have expanded after we were brought to the Bogon Galaxy," Starswirl commented, as they made their way through a building that he didn't recognize, where he was sure that it looked like a storage structure that was linked to an opening on their right, while Angela and his siblings blasted the Tyhrranoids out of the way.

"Probably due to Veldin being our home, as tourists might have come to see where we lived," Autumn remarked, making sure to blast one of the mechs down as they headed up to the next level, though she did collect a bit of it so she could study it and whatever went into making it, before the group found that the area outside was like a courtyard, with a few mechs and a saucer guarding the area.

As Ratchet and his siblings blasted the mechs apart Angela pulled out the Nitro Launcher and fired it at the saucer, which blasted it apart and opened the way for them to continue moving forward, where they found a path that lead right to an old shed that everyone recognized, even in the ruined state that it was in, meaning their old place had been destroyed by the Tyhrranoids, hence why they focused on the Rangers and their large ship that rested nearby.

"What's the situation?" Ratchet asked, speaking to the pair of Rangers that were standing in front of the dropship, which happened to be on the other side of their ruined house, as he wanted to be sure that Veldin was safe and sound before he even did anything else, especially tracking down the colonists and making sure they were fine.

"The 'noids have fallen back to a base in F-Sector." the Ranger on the right said, where the group found that it was a little weird for them to shorten the name of the Tyrranoids to just 'noids', before noting that his partner seemed worried about something all of a sudden, "We have orders to go in and take them out."

"F-Sector?! No way, game over man! We're all gonna end up as scrap metal!" the Ranger on the left remarked, though it was easy for Ratchet and the others to tell that he was definitely worried about his own survival and not the survival of the planet that was being attacked, especially since he started to leave the area in front of the ship.

"Get back in there, trooper. We've got a planet to save!" Ratchet barked, allowing the military training that Qwark had put him through, while under the guise of Mr. Fizzwidget, to make sure he was ready for whatever Bogon threw at him, which his siblings had tackled as well and Angela didn't need it at all, where his words caused the Ranger to fall back in line as he and his partner saluted him.

With his 'order' acknowledged the group joined the Rangers on the dropship and watched as the door closed behind them not a few seconds later, where it took off and flew over to 'F-Sector', which appeared to be nearby since it took only a few minutes to reach their destination. The interesting thing was that there were a total of five Rangers aboard the ship, as the group was expecting there to be far more than this, and when they reached their destination they performed what was commonly called a halo jump, as in jumping out of a ship and descending through the air to reach an area below them, yet another move they had been trained in. As they did that, however, Angela found some missiles coming at them and let a smile appear on her face as Starswirl and Autumn moved into position, magic rushing forward and blasting the incoming missiles out of the air with ease, allowing them and their allies to land in a remote area of Veldin that wasn't connected to everything the siblings were used to seeing. Of course that didn't stop them from firing on the Tyrranoids that were there, no doubt getting ready for the next stage of their assault on the planet, and they even brought in a few mechs to try and take them down, not to mention a large red dropship that Starswirl shattered with a burst of magic.

Between the four of them and the Rangers they were able to clear out F-Sector with ease, including a saucer that was on the other side of a door that opened, and with that done they were able to return to their dropship, where the Rangers were happy to have survived their mission, before discovering something interesting.

"Sir, we have a transmission from the President!" one of the Rangers stated, something that interested them, since none of them were expecting to even receive a message from someone of his level, as the President was one of figures of this galaxy who held the most power, causing them to focus on a Holoscreen the Ranger pulled out.

"How are things on the front line, soldier?" the figure on the screen, a male Cazar who wore an official looking suit and was a bit thick in terms of body size, asked, though in that moment he spotted something that caused him to pause, due to the fact that he was staring right at Clank, as he had climbed off Ratchet's back to be respectful towards the Galactic President of the Solana Galaxy, before noticing who else was with him, "Is... is that Secret Agent Clank?"

"Greetings, sir. We are here to help." Clank replied, though as he said that all of them knew exactly how the President was going to react to their presence, as he seemed like the type of person who would believe that the series was real and that he was his character, which would be the same for the others.

"Well, this is an honor!" President Phyronix said, his tone confirming that he saw them as their characters from the show, even if two of them weren't even involved with it in the first place, where he eyed Ratchet for a few moments, no doubt a little surprised by his abilities, given Jeeves' abilities in the show, "And I see you brought your chauffeur along, including an entourage of loyal fans. As much as I want to talk about your latest villain take down, Agent Clank, we must stop the one behind this attack: Dr. Nefarious! As you may know, only one man has ever faced him and survived... I have just received a top-secret report on that man's whereabouts. Here, take a look."

The report, as it turned out, was none other than a mystery show called Nature's Mysteries, where this episode was on something called the 'Florana Tree Beast', where it showed a shadowy image of Qwark, as the group recognized the body size anywhere, with a small monkey on his right shoulder, and the show went into how he had been the 'greatest' superhero who ever lived.

"Mr. President, are you sure that this is the guy you're looking for?" Angela asked, because she didn't trust Qwark, due to all of his schemes back in Bogon, and the only reason she was listening to this was due to the fact that the man had gone missing sometime after taking the 'RYNO Silo of Friendship', as he called it, "He doesn't seem like he's all there... you know, that he wouldn't have the skills or knowledge to take down someone of Nefarious' caliber."

"You may be right, but he's the best chance we've got. I know the lot of you won't let me down." the President replied, his words informing them that their next stop was going to be Florana, to look for the one person that they wanted to forget about and leave buried in the past, before the transmission was terminated, after they saluted him and informed him that he could count on them.

With that done the group used the dropship to return to where their ship was located, but before leaving Ratchet and his siblings wanted to be sure that Brook and the colonists were safe, only to find that the people had been evacuated after the first wave of Tyrranoids arrived on the planet, to which they breathed a sigh of relief before focusing on the planet they would be heading to next, and the man they were tasked with finding.