//------------------------------//
// Arsenal: Holostar Studios 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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On the way back to Annihilation Nation Autumn and Clank discovered something interesting, Mr. Hatfield had sent them a copy of a script he was working on, the next movie in the Secret Agent Clank series, and found that one of the things he was missing right now was someone to play the Baroness. Sure, there were actors lined up to get a part in the show, but it looked like he was having a hard time getting someone to play what was essentially a role they would play once or twice, which made sense when one thought about the situation. Many people, robots and organic beings, wanted to be part of the show and would do literally anything to get on it, and the pair knew that such a thing wasn't a joke when they considered what happened in the past, before they realized what was going on right now. The empty role was preventing the movie from being filmed, especially since Clank wasn't there to film it, and a quick search revealed that Courtney Gears was also a massive fan of the series, just like Nefarious happened to be, causing an idea to form in their heads.

Autumn pitched the idea to all of them, use the role of the Baroness to get whatever information Courtney Gears had on Nefarious, his whereabouts and whatnot, which might allow them to save Solana that much quicker if they could find their foe and remove him before he used the weapon they had discovered the existence of.

"And you think the plan will work?" Starswirl asked, as while he trusted his sister, they all did, this seemed like quite the risk for them to take, especially since Courtney could lie about what she knew to get what she wanted, and that wasn't counting the other part of the plan she had created, in case things followed the series of events she had thought about.

"She might be loyal to Nefarious, but she adores the show as much as he does, possibly even more than her partner, and we can use that against her," Autumn replied, though she knew that Mr. Hatfield would have things set up by the time they figured out if Courtney Gears took the bait or turned them down, where she was sure the former would happen once Clank talked to her, since she liked robots more than organic figures, "We just have to win the Annihilation Nation course, as they've likely made it harder so we don't win it as easily as we did the last ones."

As it turned out Autumn was correct in her assessment, the people of Annihilation Nation had set up a new DeathCourse for them, with the reward being what looked like another installment of the Qwark Vid-Comic series, though it was being given by Courtney Gears, just as they expected. This time she and Starswirl stood back as Ratchet and Angela faced the dangers of the course, finding that the very first thing that had to be dealt with was crossing some platforms that had bits of moving flame, so the two Lombaxes timed their movements with a surprising display of accuracy, or at least it was the case to the people watching. The magic users weren't surprised by this, as they had been traveling with them for a long time and knew all of the skills that Ratchet and Angela possessed, though both of them focused on the screen as the pair activated a button and opened the door on their right, all while readying their weapons for the enemies that might be in front of them. Most of the enemies they encountered were the same they had seen during their last visit to this place, as in the spinning blade robots, the laser robots, the spinning spike ball bots, and some of the ninja bots, though there was an addition, a tank that blocked one of the passages they needed to pass through, or at least it did for a few moments, as Ratchet and Angela blew it up before moving forward.

Between the two of them the obstacle course stood no chance and they were teleported into the ring once they reached the end, finding that it was the same as before, facing off against waves of enemies as they waited to see what sort of foe was the second boss of Annihilation Nation. A few moments later they discovered that what they had thought about was wrong, as it moved them right into the fight with the second boss, a massive tank-like robot that looked like a scorpion, only it had flamethrowers in place of it's pincers and it's tail didn't have a stinger, rather it had a saw that could likely cut through part of the ground as it sought out whoever the robot was fighting. This robot was known as 'Scorpio', a name the pair understood since it was a scorpion, before they separated from each other and opened fire on their foe, as standing in a single location would bring it towards them and being in two different places meant it had to fire at one of them, a fact that they used against it with ease. Of course it constantly switched between chasing Ratchet and then switching to Angela for a time, but for the most part it didn't seem to have much luck in figuring out how to deal with two opponents, which was a flaw on the officials end of things, as they had allowed the two Lombaxes to tackle the challenge together and now it was looking like a bad idea on their end.

In the end Ratchet and Angela emerged victorious, much to the surprise of the crowd since they were expecting Scorpio to do some sort of damage, though they cheered for them as the announcer informed them of their prize, a first edition of the third installment of Qwark's Vid-Comic, which Courtney Gears handed to them after the announcer spoke about her skills and talents, or lack of in some cases, not that she noticed the difference.

"My, you're even more gorgeous in person than you are on the Holo, Agent Clank." Courtney said, right after pushing the vid-comic into Ratchet's chest for a moment, showing that she didn't care much for organic lifeforms and preferred one of her own kind, hence why she was focusing on Clank right now, so Angela pretended to ignore her as she stood near Ratchet, "You know, I would do anything to play a part in one of your Holo-films."

Before they even had a chance to say anything Courtney Gears had lined things up perfectly for them, where Clank told her that she would be perfect for the role of the Baroness, though it came with revealing some information on the man she was partnered with, causing her to realized that he must have figured out her connection to Nefarious. The part that they found interesting was that she talked as if no one else was there, so while the heroes learned the information about her being on his side was accurate they also found out that she wasn't worried about someone else leaking the statement to the press. It told them one thing, Nefarious was likely using her for her connections and nothing else, as she was dumb at times and it made each of them wonder how the villain could put up with someone like her, but they said nothing as Clank informed her that if she agreed to help him out, making no mention of Ratchet and the others, he would talk with Mr. Hatfield about her taking the Baroness role. That was enough to light a fire in her, as she agreed to help him out if he helped her get the role she wanted, and with the bargain struck she put him down and went back to whatever she had been doing before this point in time, allowing Ratchet and the others to regroup aboard their starship so Clank could call Mr. Hatfield and tell him the news.

Once he understood why they were doing this, as Courtney Gears had information they needed, he agreed with the plan and went to work getting everything set up for the new cast member, giving Ratchet and the others some time to run a few more obstacle courses and arena challenges, just so they didn't draw attention to themselves for leaving after getting what they had come for.





It took some time for Ratchet, Angela, Clank, Starswirl, and Autumn to be done with Annihilation Nation, enough time to see that Courtney Gears got the news she was waiting for before departing with a smile on her face, though once she was gone they had no reason to stick around and they decided that they would come back later. Thanks to the improvements made to their starship they got to Holostar Studios ahead of Courtney, allowing Autumn to go over her plan with them, as she had an idea on how to trick both the star and Nefarious, assuming things played out the way she was thinking at the moment. It involved some of her magic, a fake duplicate Clank that Mr. Hatfield had created to be a stunt double for his star, which had been shelved after discovering that Clank was able to do things on his own just fine, a bit of Starswirl's own magic that would come into play soon, and a few things from the studio itself. The basic idea was to trick their foes, which wouldn't be easy since Nefarious was supposed to be one of the smartest minds in Solana, so in a sense this could be a battle of wits between them, while acting like they were planning nothing at all.

She admitted that it would be hard, though what worked in their benefit was that many of their foes expected them to act in a specific manner, so they wouldn't be expecting something like this in the first place, and if it worked they would gain all sorts of information on Nefarious, potentially enough to end his plans earlier than intended.

Courtney Gears wasn't the only one to arrive, as Qwark apparently noticed that they were at Holostar Studios and sent his monkey, Skrunch, along for the ride, as he had been part of the mission on Aquatos and Clank had decided not to mention working beside him, though once they were there both figures were pulled off to the side for a time. Courtney had to learn what her role was and whatever lines the producers had created for it, where Clank noted that the role might have been created for someone like her in mind, but he said nothing as she got ready and the others slipped into their roles, at least those who were involved with this film. For the monster part it was a pretty standard film for the series, as Autumn wasn't part of it and that meant the Nirik wouldn't be showing up, so it was mostly him, Ratchet, Skrunch, and Courtney, leaving the others to stand off on the side and watch as they put their plan into motion without their foes figuring out what in the world was going on. Mr. Hatfield was pleased to have them here and he got started when everyone was ready to go, while at the same time keeping the fact that he knew about the trap hidden, as there was no telling if Courtney would figure out that they had something planned, despite the fact that she was totally focused on her role as the Baroness.

Ratchet, as per his role as the 'bumbling chauffeur', was generally required to mess up the button presses for whatever scene they were shooting, just to add some comedy to the show and people had received it quite well, though there were times where the script called for him to be smart and this was one of them. As such he activated the cloaking device and moved through the area that had been prepared for him, slower than his normal speed since this was a spy thriller most of the time, and eventually came to a stop at the area that Mr. Hatfield wanted him to stop at. Such a thing allowed Clank to jump out of the ship and start to making his way through an area that had been set up for his combat skills, like a chase from the rooftops as he chased Maxmillian once more, which seemed to be what the Director wanted and that was what they gave him, to make the film as good as it could possibly be. He did have to fight a few of the small ninja bots, as part of the story was that his target was using them to stall him, and also used the banana launching gun to move Skrunch so the pair could progress, both making it look as realistic as possible.

Eventually Clank had to fight the 'Terror of Talos', a large monster with guns strapped to it's wrists and had wings that let it fly around the area, which meant he had to use his own Giant Form to save the Baroness, who was hanging onto the large creature for dear life, and he also had to contend with some larger ninjas who came to aid the Terror, but in the end he emerged victorious and shrunk down to his normal size.

As Autumn expected Courtney showed her true colors after doing her part of the show, which was the Baroness thanking Agent Clank for saving her from the Terror of Talos, though her actions also triggered her own trap, freezing the pair for a time and let her get to work. The first thing was replacing Clank with the double that had been created for him and made a slight alteration to the hotbot who tried to trick them so she could hand over Clank to her boss, which she wouldn't notice until later on, though once that was done she made a slight change to Courtney's inner clock so she wouldn't notice that she had been stuck in stasis for a time. With that done she backed off and restored the robots, watching as Courtney did a second thing that confirmed her allegiance to Nefarious, she happened to have a communicator that linked up to where the robotic doctor happened to be resting right now. Such a thing lead to Courtney heading to one of the trailers that were on the outskirts of the studios, where Nefarious was waiting, to which Autumn and her family listened in from the room they had set up before Courtney arrived to play her part in the new film.

What was amusing was that Nefarious was just like the President, thinking that 'Agent Clank' was a real person and that all of his adventures were real as well, including the 'mind-stealing snotbeasts' from Dimension X, something that was totally made up since Autumn knew they didn't exist. That was part of Autumn's job, when she wasn't playing the Nirik, coming up with believable otherworldly monsters for Clank and the other cast members to face off against, though none of them existed and she made sure of that before offering the ideas to Mr. Hatsfield, so it was amusing that so many thought that the species existed. Other than that piece of information it didn't seem like either robot had much to share, no plans they could learn about, but Autumn did learn about the 'surprise' that Nefarious had planned, another Clank that was built by one watching and observing the show, who emerged from the trailer and walked over to where they were positioned, but it never made it as Autumn shocked it into unconsciousness and set things up so Nefarious wouldn't know. Once that was done Courtney departed for another part of the Solana Galaxy, while Nefarious was heading for a star cruiser called the 'Leviathan', no doubt where they would find him at some point in the future, hence why Ratchet passed on that piece of info to Sasha and the others, so they could find it.

With that done, and they were done tricking their foes, the family returned to their starship and took off, as there were other places for them to explore and, hopefully, discover more information about their foe's plans while they were there, they just had to be patient and see what sort of dangers the next planet held for them.