//------------------------------//
// Arsenal: Florana 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After departing from Veldin, leaving it in the hands of the Galactic Rangers that were still on the planet, Autumn did two things during the flight to Florana, the first was send a message to Mr. Lumos so she had an idea of which weapons were available, as she wanted a catalogue of the weapons she had designed back in Bogon. She knew that she had created a fair number of schematics during their time in Angela's home galaxy, so she was interested in seeing which ones had been added to the list of available weapons and which ones might be put on hold for the future, plus she wanted to see if they had completed work on the RY3NO. She had designed it to be far stronger than both the first and second versions, which was understandable given that they had obtained weapons that could level and she incorporated that into the newest generation, and if one were to look over her shoulder they would find that she had another file, the fourth RYNO that was even stronger than the final form of the third. Part of her reasoning was because they were facing stronger and stronger foes as time went on, and she was sure that one Nefarious was taken care of she and the others would end up fighting an even stronger foe or enemies, so having stronger weapons was a requirement in her eyes.

The second thing she did was confirm their thoughts on the matter, they were looking for Qwark, who had gone missing sometime after taking the RYNO II silo, something he had asked for when she thought about it, but they really had no idea how he traveled from Bogon and arrived in Solana. Her best bet was that Qwark had been testing some sort of device that warped the fabric of reality, like how she and her brothers had been brought to Bogon in the first place, so maybe it was a return device that Mr. Fizzwidget was interested in making. Of course everyone had doubts that the man actually fought and took care of Nefarious, given that their first adventure allowed the siblings to discover his corrupt nature and he was the main villain of their second one, so it was hard to believe that he actually saved the day. Even if it was the truth they had a hard time believing that he would have any information to share with them about how to stop whatever Nefarious was planning for all of Solana, but the President had asked for their assistance and that was what they were planning on doing when they reached Florana.

Sometime after that they reached the space above the planet in question and Angela parked their starship, where they took the smaller ship down to the planet below, finding that it was a jungle covered planet and that there were some ruins in the area that the President had sent them the coordinates for earlier.

"So this is the Nabla Forest, with a number of ancient ruins," Autumn remarked, as they stared out at the area that they landed in for a few moments, taking in the sights as Angela sought out any enemies, of which there seemed to be none at the moment, before they climbed out of the Star Explorer and walked down the path in front of them, bring the group to a new Gadgetron vendor, an orange colored cube with a hologram of the name floating above it, "and we've got two brand new weapons to add to our arsenals: the N60 Storm, a pistol-like weapon that can pack quite the punch, and the Plasma Whip, a melee weapon designed after seeing and hearing about your Lightsaber... and the benefit to being back in Solana, the prices are far more reasonable."

Angela could see that when she looked at the screen in front of them, the N60 Storm only cost ten thousand to buy and the Plasma Whip was between six to seven thousand, where she knew that the former would have cost at least fifty to a hundred thousand and the latter would have been more around two hundred and fifty thousand in Bogon, and she even noticed that those were the reduced prices, as Ratchet and his siblings were employees of Gadgetron.

"Oh, that reminds me." Ratchet said, where he pulled out an envelope that had arrived on their starship while they were down on Veldin, which he had collected and paid for before they departed for Florana, one that he handed to Angela, who raised an eyebrow before pulling out the same cards that the siblings had, a Bolt Card and employee card for Gadgetron, all with her name on it, causing her to look at him, "Apparently Mr. Fizzwidget and Mr. Lumos were talking to each other and set you up with your own cards, so now you have the same benefits that we have... your old boss pulled a few strings to make it happen, or at least I'm assuming he did something to get this done so quickly."

She chuckled as she heard that and inserted her new Bolt Card for a moment, allowing her to see that, despite the fact that she would only be a new member of Gadgetron, she had the discount as well, like she was being linked to Ratchet's account or something, and it wasn't long before they all had their own versions of the new weapons, giving them four in total so they could safely tackle whatever the ruins held for them. With that done Ratchet and the others moved down the path in front of them, finding that they had to cross a few steps to reach the first part of the path, though it did allow them to find a few red swamp flies in their way, enemies that were quickly put down with a single swing of the Plasma Whip, a fact that gave Autumn good hopes for what the future held for the other weapons. With that done they continued along the curved walkway that was in front of them, with Starswirl heading off to the left for a moment since he found an area with a number of brown crates that contained Bolts inside them, which Angela knew he would be collecting for the future, before they opened fire on some enemies that swung down to where they were walkway.

The Natives had orange colored skin and a humanoid appearance, wearing tribal gear that was metallic in nature, though each one was wearing a different wooden mask over their faces, but as Ratchet smacked one around with his wrench the group found that they had simian features on their faces, after knocking their masks off. The interesting thing was that the Natives seemed to use boomerangs as their weapons, as there were no guns or other melee weapons, and each one used them with a surprising degree of accuracy, though not enough to actually stop the group from marching down the rest of the path. One thing they discovered was that there was a water serpent of sorts in part of the water, one that raised up for a moment and tried to spit some sort of damaging substance at them, where Autumn surrounded it with her magic and safely deposited it elsewhere, for when she had time to study some new substances, all while the others blasted it down so they could move forward. On the inside of the ruined building they found a number of Natives that were guarding the area, no doubt holding it sacred to whatever beliefs they might have, though since they were aggressive the group lashed out at them as they carefully climbed up some of the fallen rocks and moved over a few short gaps, eventually bringing them to an area with a few vines that the Natives used to slide down into the chamber.

Taking them down was rather easy, as all they had to do was stand in a vertical line and open fire on the area that their enemies were sliding into, knocking them out in the process, and once that was done Ratchet climbed up a nearby ladder so he could reach another section of the ruin, even though Starswirl weaved his magic around him and knocked down yet another group of Natives.

From there they had to glide down to another walkway, which was easy for most of them since Ratchet had Clank's pack to get down safely and both of his siblings had their magic to fall back on, while Angela didn't have either one, hence why she had Autumn make something for her so she could glide like Ratchet. She didn't use it back on Veldin, there wasn't any real reason to do so, but here she needed the small little metallic pack that was right on her back, something that opened up like Clank did when he used the Helipack, allowing her to glide down to where the path was located, not to mention let her blast a Native into a wall so everyone could move forward. Of course they had to deal with one of the Swamp Worms, or whatever they were called since they weren't listed in the information Autumn had found on Florana, before jumping over to the opening of another ruin and knocked out the Natives that tried to engage them, allowing the group to head inside the main structure, finding that it had a raised walkway that needed to be lowered. Sure enough a number of Natives just jumped out of the water and the group knocked them out with their weapons, switching between melee and guns based on what was in front of them, before the walkway lowered and Ratchet took out the trio that was on the other side, which allowed them to access another ladder, bring them to a higher point of the ruin.

Once more they found that there were some Natives to take down and that they had to zipline down into a circular arena of sorts, which had two of the Swamp Worms nearby, in addition to a small walkway that lead to where some Natives were standing, plus some swamp flies were near the pair of large enemies, causing the group to open fire on them before even reaching an area that seemed to be near the landing pad.

"Um.. Ratchet, we have company!" Clank said, though in that moment Autumn and the others figured out what he was talking about, as there was a small monkey with a single eye hanging on Clank, who must have latched onto him after they used the zipline to reach this area.

As Ratchet turned around, so he could laugh at Clank's words, they found a large figure who dropped down behind them, though such a thing allowed them to confirm that they were dealing with Qwark, as he wore the same pants and ripped shirt, plus boots and gloves, that the man wore, only he had a tribal mask on and didn't seem to know them, while they found that the monkey jumped onto his right shoulder.

"You trespass on sacred ground!" Qwark stated, as there was no denying it at that point, the voice was the same, which only made them wonder what was going on with him, before he made a monkey noise and motion, by nearly scratching his sides, and then motioned to the tunnel that was near them, "Now you walk Path of Death. PATH... OF... DEATH!"

Ratchet and the others found that the second statement of the name was due to Clank trying to convince him to stop, so they could speak, before they headed into the tunnel and found that it lead to what appeared to be an underground area of sorts, with a path of some kind that was made out of metal, had flaming traps that needed to be avoided, and was likely filled with some Natives that had a bone to pick with them. The Path of Death wasn't anything special, as they soon found out, as it was just an obstacle course filled with sections that pulled out when someone walked on them, rolling rocks that easily avoided, flaming jets that were easy to move around, and even the crushing pistons were nothing to worry about, as all they had to do was wait and then move during their small rest period. Ratchet was sure that this would have been far more impressive to someone who hadn't been on multiple adventures, or trained to be a commando, though in the end it didn't matter as he, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl were able to reach the end of the 'Path of Death', which happened to be a ring that Qwark was standing in.

"This... can... not... BE!" Qwark stated, his tone informing them that he fully believed that intruders would be slain by what the Path of Death had to offer, even though all of the Natives Ratchet and the others had faced were laying on the ground, defeated by mere 'intruders', all while the group stared at the figure in front of them.

"Alright, Qwark, it's time you told us how to defeat Nefarious, if such a thing happened anyway." Autumn said, where she stepped up for a moment, putting herself between Qwark and the others, though in that moment the monkey decided to remove the mask and confirmed that they were talking to the disgraced captain, who proceeded to kick at her with his right foot, which she blocked with her magic, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this more than I should."

Ratchet found that Autumn slipped into her Nirik form, only this time her eyes remained, turning a flaming red like some of the flames on her body, though as she did that Qwark seemed to stall as he watched what was going on, no doubt due to part of his memories possibly resurfacing for a few seconds, before pulling out his own metallic boomerang and threw it at her. In the following moment Autumn raised her left hand and grabbed the weapon with her magic, stopping it before it could reach where she was standing and crushed it with a flick of her wrist, though before Qwark could do anything she raised her right hand and pulled it back, yanking her foe towards where she was standing. Autumn moved out of the way before Qwark reached her and spun around, hitting the man in the back of the head with the side of her leg, knocking him into the floor for a few seconds, and once that was done she lifted him up with her magic and smashed him into one of the support pillars that lined this arena. With that motion complete she used one hand to keep him positioned there, due to the fact that she used the other hand to tear off a piece of the nearby metallic pillar and repeatedly smashed it into her foe's body, punishing him a little more for betraying them back on Umbris and for nearly bringing destruction to Bogon with his dumb idea, and the only reason she was doing this was due to the fact that he could take a RYNO silo without it killing him.

Once she was satisfied with the beating Qwark had received, even if he seemed to resist all of it, she dropped him right in front of them and let him go, causing the monkey to place the mask on her face, meaning she had to be in charge, not that she cared all that much, but it did allow them to force a feral Qwark back to the ship. Of course she needed to weave a bit of magic over their ship so Qwark had a place to sit, without forcing all of them into a squished position, where Autumn did a little more than what might be necessary and ordered the man to sit in the back, that he was to be her throne for the time being, and he did so without delay. With that done she turned around and positioned herself like she was a queen or an empress, something that caused Ratchet and the others to chuckle for a moment as they saw it, as it was weird to see Qwark in a submissive role like this, before climbing in and taking their places in the Star Explorer. As Ratchet got ready to leave, however, they received a transmission from a new location, one that seemed to come from a starship, something that made them interested in what was going on and caused him to accept the transmission, as the identification claimed it was from one of the President's trusted officials.

What they discovered was that a female Cazar was calling them, one who seemed to be close to their age, meaning she was close to Ratchet and Angela's age, who had a soft brown color to her body, light blue eyes, a slim build that made her look similar to Angela, just of a different race, and she was wearing a purple captain's attire with a pair of golden bracelets and ankle jewelry, and a hair band of sorts, with a phoenix resting in front of her throat.

"This is Captain Sasha of the Starship Phoenix." the Cazar said, formally introducing herself to the group that the President had told her would be helping them in the fight against Nefarious, though as she spoke Ratchet and the others noticed a few other things, that she had back hair and that there was a single triangle shaped ruby in all of her golden jewelry, which had to come with her position as captain, "The President has asked me to assist you."

"We read you Sasha. I'm Ratchet, along with my siblings Starswirl and Autumn Blaze, our friend Clank, and my girlfriend Angela Cross." Ratchet said, taking a moment to introduce them to their new friend, all while making sure that she knew he wasn't available in terms of a relationship, even if he did like how Sasha looked, before he focused on the mission they had been given, "As you can see, we've located Captain Qwark, but... well, he thinks he's a monkey."

"Of course." Sasha remarked, where she let out a little chuckle, showing them that she was like the group, she didn't share the President's opinion on Qwark, in fact she might not believe the tales of his 'heroics', before she considered something as she stared at them and the man who was obeying Autumn's orders, "Bring him to the Phoenix and we'll see what we can do... and we'll prepare an are for him, so he's not stuck on your starship. Sasha out."

Once the transmission was terminated Ratchet piloted them up to their starship, so they could fly off to the location that Sasha had given them the coordinates of, no doubt where she and the Phoenix were resting, and once they arrived they would see what else needed to be done to bring an end to Nefarious' plans.