//------------------------------//
// Arsenal: Daxx 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Back aboard the Phoenix, after the assault on Tyhrranosis, Ratchet was telling Skidd about what happened during the fight with the massive Tyhrranoid, mostly because he, Helga, and Al had stayed on the starship, while Angela and Sasha sat near each other while Starswirl studied his tomes nearby. Both he and Autumn had agreed on one thing, Ratchet didn't need to impress either of the girls that were clearly interested in him, as Angela had flat out kissed him and Sasha, while getting used to having him around, was trying to hide her emotions so she didn't upset him or his girlfriend. Autumn, on the other hand, was resting on one of the beds in the side chamber, as it allowed her to get comfy and work on her holoplans, be it more weapons or gadgets that might help them out in the future, or everyday tools since Gadgetron liked having stuff like that on the market for the none heroes. It also let her listen to what was being said and knew that, in due time, Ratchet might have to confront Sasha about her interest in him, because as far as she knew Lombaxes preferred to have a single person to share their lives with, though since Angela wasn't annoyed there might be more they didn't know about.

As Ratchet got near the end of the tale, and he exaggerated a few things to make the tale more exciting for Skidd, due to the fact that their friend seemed bored of them overpowering the massive Tyhrranoid, they were interrupted by the arrival of two holograms, Nefarious and his butler, who arrived in time to hear that Skidd wanted to know what happened next in the tale Ratchet was spinning.

"Yes, go on." the butler stated, his tone sounding like he was bored or didn't care about what was going on right now, so it was more like his boss had demanded that they do this so they could either intimidate the enemy or try to mess with all of them in some manner, "We're all riveted."

"Really? I could have sworn that all of you were soldered in some manner." Autumn remarked, though due to the fact that they were dealing with someone who truly believed that Clank was a secret agent, and everyone else were the characters each of them played, she decided to mess with him, taking to her Nirik state to surprise their visitors.

"How amusing." the butler said, one more sounding like he didn't care, meaning it was either his default setting or it was what Nefarious set him at, if he made the robot in question, all while he stood at the ready so he could see whatever his boss did to the people that were in front of him.

"So, this is the mighty 'Q-Force' I've heard so much about." Nefarious remarked, glancing at each of them in turn, while at the same time ignoring the fact that someone else had spoken after his butler had, which Autumn was fine with since it meant she could surprise him in due time, "Pathetic! I could obliterate the lot of you and they wouldn't even mention it in Supervillain Weekly!"

"Actually, we're the Bogon Gamer Club," Angela replied in kind, where she held up the controller for a moment, making it look like she was messing with a game or something, though the others knew that she was messing with him and that he would be enraged in some manner once he figured it out, "Your nodes are way off."

"Lawrence! You told me we had the correct signal!" Nefarious stated, rather loudly at that, meaning he was used to calling for the butler in this manner, though it got no reaction from the robot that was beside him right now, which told them that he was used to this.

"Actually, sir, I believe she is 'yanking your chain', or power cable as the case may be." the butler, Lawrence, said, which let the group know that he was likely the brains of their operation, as Nefarious' value was getting lower and lower the more they listened to him speak, or maybe it was a ploy to make them lower their guards.

"Ah yes, I should have expected Qwark's lackeys to try some underhanded method to distract me," Nefarious stated, as if he was in control of the situation and not them messing with him, all while turning his attention back to them for a time, even though the longer the connection was up the more Al would be able to tell them.

"I'd say you're plenty distracted already, since it looks like Qwark's already aboard your ship," Autumn replied, stepping out in her Nirik state, someone people who watched Clank's series would recognize as a rival who only joined up with him to take care of a more dangerous foe, and she was looking right behind the robotic doctor, causing him to pause for a few seconds before glancing back.

Of course he started to say Qwark's name, as in 'Qwaaa', before something in him broke and he froze up, likely part of his brain was broken and no one had told him about the problem, especially since a slight smile appeared on Lawrence's face before he smacked his boss in the face, causing the name to end in 'aaarrk', before he realized he had been played by the people in the room he was currently staring at. In that moment Al declared that 'Qwark's' orders were complete, he was able to trace the holograms back to where they were coming from, even if it was being bounced around several planets, and as the word 'Daxx' left his mouth Nefarious let out a scream of anger as he cursed Qwark's name, ending with him in the frozen state once more. Apparently the call came from a facility on Daxx, a place that would require them to use a few new gadgets, like the Hacker that Skidd was in possession of, which he handed over without delay, and the Hypershot, a new version of the Swingshot that was combined with the Dynamo, where Angela knew Autumn was behind creating it, as it seemed like something she would do. Of course that meant they had to tackle another obstacle course of Helga's to get access to the new gadget, as she wanted to be sure all of them knew how to use it, even if it felt like she was repaying the siblings for what happened the first time they met her, but in the end they ended up securing the Hypershot, one for each of them and Autumn, in her base form, integrated them into their armor.

With that done, and they were sure that everyone was ready to go, the group departed for their starship as Sasha stayed back to make sure everything was fine with the President, since there was no telling what Nefarious might have planned after hearing him speak to them and rage at what Qwark had supposedly done so far.





Once more it took a bit of time for them to reach their destination, though when they headed down to the area outside the facility Al told them something interesting, there was the main terminal inside the facility, which likely housed all sorts of information they might be able to use, and another rested on a small island nearby, one Nefarious had been seen near a couple of days ago.

"Okay, so two of us will head into the facility and see what the terminal has on it, while the other two should head out and see what the other one has," Ratchet said, as that was a fair division of responsibilities, especially since there were four of them, meaning they could clear this place out in no time and not have to worry about leaving anything behind, since they had no way of knowing what Nefarious might have left behind on the terminals.

"Sounds fair to me." Autumn replied, where she accessed the Vendor that was nearby and found another weapon for her and the others to obtain, the Holo Shield Glove, a weapon that could be used to create shields in front of the user, based on the direction one was thrown in, before she spotted something in a small structure near them and used her platforms to find a pair of Charge Boots, which she stashed away for later.

"Why don't Ratchet and I tackle the main building, while you and Angela focus on the other terminal?" Starswirl inquired, due to the fact that he felt that sending both magic users in the same direction was a waste, as they would decimate all enemies that were in their way, without actually trying, so this would give whatever enemies were here a fighting chance, giving the warrior Lombaxes a decent fight.

Angela simply shrugged, as while she would rather travel with Ratchet, and fight by his side, she knew that keeping both Starswirl and Autumn together was a bad idea, since they could mow down everyone who challenged them with ease, and in the end it was agreed that they would be using Starswirl's side. With the new weapon in hand, and everyone knew how to use it, they crossed the gap that was in front of them and split up, Ratchet and Starswirl taking the left path, where they had to use a lift to enter the facility grounds, while Autumn and Angela put their new Hypershots to use and activated the devices in front of them, creating platforms so they could move forward. Angela was still surprised to see what used to be Megacorp technology in Solana, along with the fact that Helga had created a training course for them to train on for some time, but given who she was with she had a feeling Autumn was responsible, like maybe she convinced Mr. Fizzwidget to sell the information to Gadgetron, leading to these being created. It reminded her that Autumn was one of the greatest minds in two galaxies, three if one counted Polaris, despite the fact that she hadn't been to the galaxy in question yet, and it made her wonder if she should give her access to some of the Lombax secrets she had, even though she would have to make time to tell Ratchet some things.

As they moved into the next part of the section of the facility that they were exploring right now, however, the pair found a ship warping into the area and started to fire at where they were standing, blasting the floor below them apart when they dodged the small rockets, only when they reached the end of the portion of the path it disappeared.

"A ship capable of warping into and out of an area, likely a sentry for this part of the facility," Autumn remarked, taking a moment to think about the ship after she and Angela climbed up a wall jump section, giving them a few seconds to study the area before doing anything else, "I'm sure Nefarious stole the technology, since the people of Bogon were capable of it long before Solana was... even Gadgetron doesn't have something like this, not yet anyway... I'm so capturing that when I have the chance."

"Just don't use the RY3NO on it, you'll end up losing it in the process." Angela stated, though she couldn't want to see what sort of information Autumn learned from the ship, as she knew the Kirin well enough to know that the gunship was going to be captured in no time at all, not with her magic and technical knowledge.

Autumn said nothing to that as she and Angela used their Hypershots to traverse the area that was in front of them, which happened to be where the gunship warped into the area, fired at them for a few seconds, and then warped out before it repeated the process in another section. Truth be told the ship was rather annoying and Autumn knew she could destroy it with a surge of her magical power, but that would ruin all of the information she would gleam from it and was why she held her power back for the time being as they made their way over all of the platforms. One thing they both agreed on was the fact that something important had to be resting out here, for this sort of security, and made them wonder if the one inside the facility was a decoy, but in the end it didn't matter to them, as Ratchet, Clank, and Starswirl would be able to find it and see what sort of information it had to give them. Between their thoughts on the matter, and dodge the rest of the missiles, it took the pair no time at all to reach the end of the path that was in front of them, which was a decent sized circular platform with a lone structure behind it, which happened to be what the gunship was guarding.

The gunship tried to warp in and out of the area, only firing at them for a short period of time before disappearing, but it wasn't enough for it to do anything as they dodged the attacks and put a few bullets into the wings, before Autumn raised her hand and seized the ship with her magic, taking enough time to teleport the pilot out before stashing it away for later, allowing them to reach their true destination.

"Well what do you know, someone's a huge fan of Courtney Gears," Autumn remarked, referring to the posters that were on one of the walls of the structure's inside, not to mention that it looked like one of the terminals had been used to alter or edit something with her in it.

"Yeah, and whoever it was edited one of her music videos in the last few days," Angela said, where she sighed for a couple of seconds as she considered what this might mean, because as far as she and the others knew the robotic star was just a music sensation, even if her songs kind of sucked and most of the people watched for her body, "What are the chances that this might have some valuable information for us?"

Autumn glanced at her for a moment, the silence between them revealing that both knew the answer to that question, to which they activated the video and found that Courtney Gears was dancing with her troupe, singing about a rebellion of robots and the destruction of organic life, where they understood that she had to be in league with Nefarious and quickly downloaded the video as evidence, before returning to their ship as they waited for the others to return, all while silently questioning how that could be considered music.





After splitting up Ratchet and Starswirl used the lift to get up to the outermost reaches of the facility, finding that a good number of robotic guards were either patrolling the walkway in front of them or were floating in the air above their allies, telling them that Nefarious must have hidden something in this place. Of course they were programmed to deal with any individuals who were seen as intruders, which the brothers and Clank were since none of them had any idea who actually owned this place, only that Nefarious worked here from time to time, so the robots attacked as soon as they noticed that they were there. It gave Ratchet a chance to test out the Holo Shield Glove, where he found that the shields it produced in a matter of seconds were quite strong, capable of taking some serious damage before breaking down and disappearing, so it gave them a chance to survey the situation before firing on their enemies. An interesting thing they discovered was a large robot that looked like the torso of one, like the more powerful robots they faced back in Bogon, though Starswirl just teleported a sphere of wind energy into the robot's chest and broke it into pieces.

Ratchet chuckled a little as he saw that, as Starswirl preferred to use his magic more often than his weapons, though while that was the truth he also knew something else, his brother was getting stronger as the years went by and he knew that it was only a matter of time until he stuck to using only his magic, just like how Autumn preferred to use her toys and only used her magic when necessary.

With the first group taken care of the brothers carefully made their way forward and found more robot guards blocking the way, not to mention a few snipers that Starswirl spotted and took out with his magic by blasting the area they were in, allowing Ratchet to focus on all of their other enemies. Other than that they found a gate that needed to be lowered and a few more of the torso robots, including a few of the white colored robots that floated and zapped their targets, showing the pair that whatever was here was definitely important. After another torso robot they used the Hypershots to reach the door of the actual facility, as it appeared that the outer area that they had fought through was just a defensive perimeter, and Starswirl used a bit of lightning to break down all of the smaller robots in their way, allowing his brother to stop up for a moment to use the Hacker on the door. Not a few moments later they were inside the facility, firing on the robot guards and a few snipers that happened to be guarding the area, where Clank scanned the computers as he tried to find the one they were looking for, that way they knew which ones could be destroyed and which ones they were allowed to break, all while Ratchet was grateful for that information.

After the second locked door they found a greater force of guard robots, though none of them could stand before their might, which meant it wasn't long before the brothers had defeated their enemies and Ratchet hacked through another door, this one bringing them to the end of the facility and a rather impressive computer terminal.

"So, this is the master terminal." Ratchet commented, where he and Starswirl came to a stop as Clank dropped down so he could see what was on the computer in the center of the room, but both he and his brother stayed on alert, in the off chance that more enemies came to stop them from accessing the terminal, "Clank, can you get anything off of it?"

"This terminal will give us high-level access to all of Nefarious' project plans... and what I have found so far, after a moment of searching, isn't good," Clank replied, where he tapped a few keys and displayed something on the screen that they were staring at, a spherical device that had all sorts of technical terms attached to it, though they found that it was something called the 'Biobliterator', before he sighed, "I'm afraid that there is no information on the device, as Nefarious left nothing about where it might be found, what it is capable of doing, or anything else of importance... only that a large transport left this facility yesterday, and that it was headed for the Obani Moons."

"Then that's where we'll go next," Starswirl said, as it made perfect sense to him, the large transport had to be the strange device being moved, which meant there might be a clue to the Biobliterator's purpose or location on the moons, though as he said that Clank carefully downloaded everything that was on the terminal, in case there was something else locked away in the depths of Nefarious' files.

Ratchet and Clank nodded for a moment before using a teleport pad to return to their ship, finding that the others were back as well, to which they compared notes for a moment before leaving a message with Sasha and the Q-Force, letting them know about the Obani Moons, before retracing their steps to Annihilation Nation, to talk with Courtney Gears and see if they could grill her for information.