It didn't take them long to get back to the Phoenix, where Ratchet pulled out the vid-comic they had obtained from Al as he and the others gathered in the room that had been provided by Sasha, who happened to be waiting for them in the room, as her father must have gotten a report from Al and forwarded it to her.
"Ratchet, guys, thank you for helping Marcadia, and my father, out." Sasha said, showing that she was grateful to have allies like them around, even though the Rangers needed some modifications to be made into a capable force, based on what Autumn had noted down so far, "Are you sure a vid-comic is the key to restoring Qwark's memories?"
"Honestly, we really have no idea," Ratchet replied, where he stepped forward and slipped the cartage into the machine, before stepping back with the controller as he sat on the right half of the couch, as it was split into two halves for some odd reason, allowing his siblings and Angela to take their seats as well, "but given what we know of Qwark, we can either play one of his vid-comics and hope it works, wait for Autumn to develop a device to pull those memories back to the surface, or wait for Starswirl to find a spell. This is the simplest option right now."
Sasha stood there for a moment before nodding her head, as she understood what Ratchet was saying, before taking a seat on his right, as Angela was to his left, where she noticed that Autumn had a tablet out, to take notes on what was said, while Starswirl was reading one of the many spell tomes or articles he was interested in. As he started the game they heard the narrator mention that this was the real life adventures of Qwark, constructed from 'eyewitness' accounts, bathroom gossip, wild speculation, and a Magic 8 Ball, which wasn't actually magical as Autumn noted, rather it was just a toy. This particular adventure was set during the early days of the fifth Solarian equinox, where the galaxy was being threatened by a notorious space pirate known as Captain Blackstar, while at the same time Qwark was a 'living legend', a fact that might have been true at one point in time, just not recently. That was when they learned something interesting, he ended up fighting a band of robotic pirate ghosts, something Sasha laughed at since it sounded so unbelievable, but, as Ratchet and the others expected, Autumn had an explanation as to why such a thing was possible, where she claimed that the crew suddenly vanished from Solana one day.
After the narrator was done talking, with Qwark cutting in so he could jab at the man, Ratchet was able to start playing the game, where they found that there were a few collectables that he could go after, tokens in the shape of Qwark's mark, as there were a hundred in each comic and gathering them all earned a skill point. Since there was no real reward for doing that, as they wouldn't be rewarded Bolts for gathering the tokens, Ratchet opted not to worry about them and picked up those that were in his path, so he could focus on punching his way through the enemies in front of him. Based on what he and the others were seeing the Robotic Pirate Ghosts could be hit by someone like Qwark, even if such a thing shouldn't be possible, before Ratchet found that he was able to pick up a gun and discovered that there was a robotic Space Eel that was haunting the ship Qwark was moving through. Other than that it didn't seem like there was anything else for him to worry about, as he moved the avatar through the ship and blasted his way through the pirates, before reaching the end of the ship and dealt with the Space Eel that apparently wanted to kill him, allowing Ratchet to bring an end to the game in no time at all.
The narrator went into how Qwark 'reluctantly' accepted a fee for his services that he donated to a charity, himself to be exact, and he used the money on makeovers and buxom bimbos, whatever that was, before he got a call that lead into the next episode in the series, though as that happened they heard a familiar sound.
"Well, who's that handsome devil?" Qwark remarked, where the group glanced at him and found that the monkey had, in the time they had been gone, collected a hand held mirror to show Qwark his reflection, only for the man to pause as he realized who was in the room with him.
"He's got his memory back... a shame, I was looking forward to building a machine and testing it on him," Autumn said, as she had started on a memory retrieval machine when she discovered that Qwark's memories were gone, or locked away in the depths of his mind, but now she guessed she could put it on hold for the future, as there were other things she had plans for.
"So, despite taking a RYNO II volley, she's still mad at me." Qwark commented, confirming that he did have his memories back and that he knew everything that had happened to him in the past, though the present was something they would have to figure out, especially since there was no telling what Nefarious would do.
"To be fair, we're all pretty mad at you... but we don't have time to go over the past," Ratchet replied, as he didn't like the man in front of them, in fact trying to make him and his siblings, and Angela for that matter, into the criminal masterminds of Bogon really upset them, but right now they had bigger fish to fry, "There's another threat to the Solana Galaxy, and it's one that you took down at some point in the past... in fact, the President asked us to track you down, said that you have some valuable information or something that can help us."
"Is that so?" Qwark inquired, where they found that he was actually considering the information and not jumping for joy at the thought of the President wanting his help with something, like he would have done when he was working for Drek or during their time in Bogon, before he let out a groan as he pinched the bridge between his eyes, "It's Nefarious, isn't it? He just had to come back, after all these years, didn't he?"
"Yes, and I will be briefing you on the situation," Sasha stated, though while she was able to slip into the role of the captain with ease, showing her experience over the years she had worked for her father, Ratchet was able to tell that she wasn't too pleased about the idea of working with Qwark, before she turned towards them, "Also, while you were tacking care of the vid-comic, the President left me a new message, he has another mission for the five of you. Apparently there's a new prototype holographic device that can disguise the user as a Tyhrranoid, even allowing him to speak Tyhrranese, based on one of the devices Autumn built in the past."
"Right, it's the Tyhrra-Guise Mr. Lumos sent me a message about, after we returned to Solana," Autumn said, which meant that their boss knew that they would be taking the fight to Nefarious' forces and had readied something built like one of her own previous devices, before she considered something, "it's either a marketing ploy, a way to get it into our hands without outright handing it over, or both... either way, it would be a good addition to our growing arsenal, especially since it would be great for any infiltration missions we do."
"Indeed, and it's being offered as this week's prize on Annihilation Nation," Sasha said, where she beckoned to the screen for a moment and showed them the commercial that she was talking about, revealing a battle arena that reminded them of what they had tackled back in Bogon, only this one also had what they called the 'DeathCourse', similar to the Path of Death Qwark had them take, "Given what happened on Marcadia, the President wants you to retrieve the device, but we should let Autumn look at it, to make sure it's ready for being used in the field."
Ratchet and the others nodded, as it seemed like a good idea to them, before departing from the Phoenix, as they had a device to obtain and some challenges to take down, since there had to be more than one between them and the gadget in question, even though they were all eager to see what happened next.
As it turned out Annihilation Nation was held in a rather large space station, one that looked like a modified asteroid from afar, which was known as Station Q9, why none of them had any idea, though it didn't take them long to reach the station and travel down to the arena's entrance. While they were traveling the group had debated who should face off against the challenged that would be thrown at them, as the rules stated that only one could tackle a challenge at a time, otherwise it would be unfair to the gladiators and boring for those watching. It was different than what happened in Bogon and both of the arenas they had made their way through, making them wonder what sort of rules Polaris followed, if they had these sorts of places, but that thought was shelved as they considered who would win the gadget they needed. In the end they decided that Starswirl would be the one to tackle everything Annihilation Nation had to offer, because both Ratchet and Clank would likely be confused for their characters from Clank's show, Autumn would either fall into the same category or someone would claim this was a stunt by Gadgetron, and Angela really wasn't that well known in Solana, while Starswirl, at the moment, was more of a background person.
Once they came to that decision, and Clank informed the officials of who would be tackling the obstacle course and those who were waiting in the arena, Ratchet landed their ship in the landing area before he and everyone else made their way to the stands, allowing Starswirl to step forward and access the terminal that held the challenges.
"Alright, let's meet our first contestant!" the announcer declared, which was followed by the crowd cheering, no doubt due to the fact that they enjoyed seeing new people try, and fail, to complete the obstacle course, "He's an adventurer that claims to have saved two galaxies, the shadowy brother of Gadgetron's star inventor and Solana's own heroes... Starswirl! He's hoping to win the Tyhrra-Guise to either win him a contest in the future or help unlock the 'mysteries of the universe'. Contestant Number One, are you ready?"
"Let's do this." Starswirl stated, speaking as the crowd cheered and let the machine in this area teleport him to the starting point of the DeathCourse, where he found that there were two paths that seemed to link up at certain points, along with all sorts of obstacles waiting to do him harm, just like the 'Path of Death'.
Once the machine was done teleporting him to his destination he moved forward and got started, where he avoided some flames coming out of the platforms that were in front of him and reached the structure that was at the end of it, swinging his staff for a moment to knock down all of the little Blade Bots that were in his way. He felt that doing that was better for now, as it allowed him to converse his ammunition for later, before pressing the button in the middle of the chamber and found that it caused a sign to spin, one that stopped with an arrow that pointed to his left and the door opened, allowing him to continue forward. There were some lasers that deployed when he got close and there was a laser robot beyond the set he made his way through, though this time he used a bit of his magic gather around him before he appeared behind the lone robot, allowing him to knock it down before picking up the pace. There were more laser bots waiting for him, and a few flaming platforms that he avoided, before he reached another chamber and knocked out all of the blade bots that were in his way, allowing him to open another door, to his right, so he could fight his way through more robotic enemies and activate another door.
That one opened the door to his left and let him find some pushing sections in the wall to his right, so he used them to get further along this area and blast a few more robots with one of his weapons, before reaching an ending point that had to be the end of the DeathCourse, earning him some Bolts and the second vid-comic in Qwark's series, before he was moved into the arena for the second half of the challenge.
What he discovered was that there were a number of humanoid gladiators who wanted a piece of him, in addition to the robots he had faced so far, though this time around Starswirl decided not to use his weapons and channeled his magic as he faced those that were coming his way. Such a thing meant using Fireballs, Ice Spikes, bolts of lightning, and pulling in the wind, something that caused many of his enemies to pause before charging at him once more, showing him that they were foolish enough to not back down, even though the crowd was cheering for them. Based on what he could see of the arena it was circular in nature and had six containers that would bring more foes for him to fight, though there were two large doors that were opposite of each other, no doubt where the 'boss' gladiators rested, like how Bogon had two in both of their arenas. Even though he was sure that the announcer might be annoyed with him using magic, instead of weapons, the crowd cheering was more than enough to convince him to remain silent for the time being, though it appeared that there were no real challenges to be had for this trial.
Once he finished taking down the gladiators, much to the amazement of the announcer and crowd, he was rewarded the Tyhrra-Guise, which was handed to him by Courtney Gears, a slender feminine robot, much like the Hotbots from Clank's show, whose attire was a metallic crop top, a metallic mini-shorts, and a metallic red mini-skirt, who simply handed him a device with a green front before backing off. Activating the Tyhrra-Guise disguised the user as one of the small single eyed Tyhrranoids they had fought so far, and made on what he was seeing the device worked as intended, before deactivating it as he returned to his siblings and Angela, who smiled as he handed it to Autumn. She would make sure it was ready for whatever field operations they might need it for, though while she did that both Ratchet and Angela glanced at Courtney Gears as she left the station, as she seemed disgusted by being near so many organic lifeforms, meaning they might have to keep an eye out for her in the future, given what had happened to them in the past. Other than that it didn't seem like there was anything else for them to worry about right now, giving Autumn some time to work on making sure everything was ready, though it didn't take her long to verify that the Tyhrra-Guise was ready for any stealth missions they might need it for.
Before returning to the Phoenix, however, the group turned towards the screen and decided to clear the remaining set of courses that were being offered to them, along with acquiring the Agents of Doom weapon as well, and the best part of them doing this was that it gave Sasha time to brief Qwark and get him ready for the war against Nefarious and whatever he was planning.