"You have to admit, last night was pretty... odd... even for us." Ratchet commented, as part of his attention was still on the event that happened not too many hours ago, even though Autumn had assured everyone that no damage had been done to his right arm, in fact it was like phantom pain from his twin's injury.
"Yes, it was odd, and we will get answers in due time." Starswirl said, where he found that their brother and Clank were in the middle of working on a new hoverbike, one that Ratchet was sure would replace some of the older models, or at least at some point in time, though he needed to test it first before presenting it to Gadgetron, if he could focus on the vehicle and not get distracted.
"Good luck with that... those cracks are unpredictable and we haven't seen the Plumber in a long time." Ratchet stated, as that was the truth of the matter, the only ways for them to figure out what was going on with his twin were unreliable right now, though it didn't stop him from wondering what in the world had happened to his sister, given what happened while he was sleeping.
Autumn, who was standing nearby, had nothing more to offer her brother, though she did find that he was half listening to Clank as he asked about the fuel lines, horizontal stabilizers, and the ion thrusters, as he was too focused on what had happened last night and on his necklace, though the former would plague his mind for a long time.
Clank turned his attention to his tablet for a moment as they received a message from Qwark, who informed them that there was a battle going down at the Planetary Defense Center, as in heavily armed robotic commandos, and while he and the other heroes on duty hated to interrupt them during their day off, due to their birthday, they were in need of aid.
"Just like old times... especially with the heavily armed commandos, as that never changes." Ratchet remarked, though he had been hoping for a pleasant day off and not have to deal with an invasion, as Autumn was now receiving reports on what was going on.
"They're heavily armed until we get to them." Autumn stated, where she and Starswirl joined Ratchet and Clank on the new vehicle, as it seemed to be the fastest way for them to get to their destination, even if it meant cutting through most of the city to reach Qwark's position.
Of course, despite the time that Ratchet had poured into making the vehicle, it had a failure immediately as it failed to fly and fell as soon as it was over the edge, leading to the activation of a set of auxiliary thrusters, though as Ratchet made his way through the city he collided with a blimp and was only saved because of Starswirl's magic, which set them down on a walkway below where the collision happened. This gave Ratchet a chance to try out a new navigation unit, as he changed out his old attire for an orange shirt and blue pants, plus his brown gloves, boots, and leather cap, while his siblings didn't change, rather they acquired new versions of their attire. Autumn took the chance to reveal their newest weapons, one being a gun called the Combuster and the other being a grenade launcher that she called Fusion Grenade, the latter being more like a Bomb Glove. Ratchet wasn't even too surprised by this discovery, given what he knew about his sister, though with the weapons in had the three of them moved forward, gunning down small tracker enemies while blasting humanoid sized enemies that were basically walking suits of armor with a fish controlling each one.
One thing they discovered was that the commandos seemed to be hunting for Ratchet, as they said 'the lombax' and used male pronouns when speaking about him, to which Ratchet paused for a moment and sent Angela a note, telling her that their enemies were only after him and that she should begin their plan, to wait until he contacted her again, because the two of them, along with Sasha and Nika, had prepared for this day for a long time. Despite living with them for so long, and also understanding that she had some strong allies, Angela knew that a dangerous threat was coming and wanted all of them to be prepared, hence why the code system she and the others came up with for Ratchet to use. The code that he sent her was basically for her to make sure their enemies didn't discover her existence and wait for them to chase him and his siblings out of Solana, as these guys had to be from Polaris, before she warped to Bogon. They were going to use her old house as a base to make sure she stayed safe, since this had to be the threat that hated Lombaxes, and once they were sure that the coast was clear, or were close to beating their foe, he would call them in, to bring the starship and join in the finishing of this adventure.
Another thing they uncovered was that an 'Emperor' was after them, which was strange, though even when they made it to the Planetary Defense Center a foe blasted the door to stop Ratchet in his tracks, leading to them using a set of grind rails to escape from a large ship that was chasing them, even if it ended with them landing on a platform in the middle of the city and the ship landed after they did.
"Behold, the last Lombax in the entire universe... and such a weak specimen, despite the chase." a voice said, where they found some sort of small creature, with pale skin and wearing the attire of an emperor, complete with a headpiece that was unnecessary, who happened to be sitting on some sort of walker, likely designed for battle if need be, before he took a moment to pause his mech and raised a shoddy looking scepter, "I am Emperor Percival Tachyon, Crown Prince of the Cragmites, Conqueror of Space and Time, and, pending the obliteration of a few insubordinate species, Ruler of the Entire Universe! If you don't believe me, check the crown, the scepter, the walking throne, AND the legion of robotic commandos that are..."
"Being decimated by the other heroes?" Starswirl asked, which was the truth, Tachyon's forces weren't all that impressive and it seemed like all he was capable of doing was ruining buildings or walkways, because they could see the Rangers and the other heroes dealing with some of the enemy ships and the commandos, without them having to do anything for the first time in a long time.
"Out of curiosity, what took you so long to discover Ratchet's existence? He's been in the news for a while now." Autumn inquired, because that was the part that made her wonder about their foe's intelligence, that it had taken him this long to hear of her brother's existence, though she was glad it had since Tachyon arriving early would have altered history in who knew what way.
"Really? He only appeared on my search a few days ago." Tachyon replied, where he raised his hand and checked a device on his wrist, where Autumn rushed over to where he was positioned, shifting her hands into their clawed form, giving her a bit of grip as she stared at the screen, only to see 'Lombax Invention' in the search bar.
"I'm going to enjoy breaking you when the time comes." Autumn remarked, as that was all she could say in the face of the discovery she had made, Tachyon only cared about inventions that Lombaxes had made, dismissing everything else that one could do, before she let go and attacked the walker's legs.
Ratchet and Starswirl ran by Tachyon as Autumn ruined his throne's legs, allowing the siblings to climb aboard the ship as Clank got it started, where they found that the autopilot lifted the ship into the air and, unfortunately, knocked everyone out as it surged towards the planet that it was programmed to return to.
Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank had no idea how long they had been out, but based on what they could see none of them were in the black ship anymore, rather they were laying on the ground in what appeared to be a swamp forest, due to the smell in the air, and the ship had crashed into a rock wall.
"Huh, ship must have run out of fuel and ejected us." Ratchet commented, though based on what he was seeing he and his siblings, not to mention Clank, were just fine, no harm had been done to them, but they also knew that they had to get out of here before Tachyon showed up, since he was likely tracking the ship.
"I ought to tear it apart and reprogram the autopilot... who in their right might uses cryosleep when traveling between two galaxies..." Autumn mumbled, showing that she didn't care about the machine that knocked them out, though she disliked Tachyon more, before she got up and stretched her arms, which her siblings did as Clank returned to Ratchet's back, all so they could be ready for whatever this planet held for them.
"Well, let's get exploring. We need to find a ship to get some more information on the situation." Starswirl added, since he and his siblings had no idea what was going on in the galaxy that Tachyon was from, save for the fact that he had to come from Polaris, though he did find Tachyon's title, the 'Conqueror of Space and Time', to be interesting, given the cracks they had seen in the past.
The siblings found that there were a number of little red snappers and some aggressive centipedes that wanted them all dead, hence why they pulled out their weapons and blasted their way through them, before finding a large serpent beast that rose out of some of the acid water. It didn't stick around to fight them, allowing Ratchet and his siblings to continue on their way, finding more smaller enemies that they tore their way through like usual, though Autumn showed that she was more skilled with her new claws as she cut one centipede down with ease. As they found a building to fight through Starswirl found a ledge that brought them to a large pirate chest full of Raritanium, where he collected it before joining his siblings on their fight through the structure, which was just two open chambers connected by an outer area. When they reached the top of the area all three of them glided down to the next section they had to pass through and wiped out the rest of whatever enemies happened to be out there, before eventually stopping at an arena area with the serpent beast in the middle of it.
Together the three of them waged war on the beast, as it roared and attacked them first, and with the odds in their favor it wasn't long before it was taken out, some sort of soul became theirs, and they found their way to a port that had some messages from Tachyon about a Lombax, to which Ratchet shrugged as he ignored them. He could do as Angela did, use a special belt to hide his tail, but he didn't have the skill to offset the balance issues and right now he needed his balance to counter whatever their foes sent their way. While he thought about that Autumn spoke with the Vendor, as GrummelNet was the Polaris version of Gadgetron and their cards worked with both companies, since she figured out how to make the pair and Megacorp sign a pact during the last four years. Such a thing allowed her to purchase the Tornado Launcher and the Plasma Beasts, the former being as the name suggested and the latter being mines that used green beasts that would attack enemies, before upgrading them with their vast amount of Raritanium, a benefit of working at Gadgetron for so long and the contracts she had signed.
With their new weapons in hand, all upgraded no less, they made their way through the plant and discovered a scene that made them pause, a blue skinned figure, dressed as a smuggler, was arguing with a red parrot, though since they were the only no robots in the area the siblings stopped to talk with them.
"Is everything alright?" Ratchet asked, mostly because they seemed to be the ones that might be able to help them figure things out, even if it was just a ride to another planet, and his siblings agreed with his idea, since there seemed to be one ship in the plant and it had to be theirs.
"Imperial spies! Hide the bodies!" the parrot declared, though in that moment, before anyone could do anything, Autumn responded by giving him a face full of claw, shifting in no time at all, with a bit of magic dancing around the claws for good measure, which the smuggler instantly noticed.
"Accuse us of being on Tachyon's side again... I dare you." Autumn said, showing them that she didn't like the 'Emperor' at all and that she would gladly tear him down the next time they were in the same area, unless the mission prevented her from doing such a thing.
The Smuggler hastily apologized for his companion's words and arranged a deal with Ratchet, the three of them fix the gelatonium plant and he'd take them off planet, where he even offered a gadget, the Gelanator, to aid them in navigating the potential hazards. While he went off to ready his ship, however, the siblings headed inside the plant and charged their new gadget up with gelatonium, allowing the user to fire out squares of gelatin that they could jump on or even stack, to boost their jump height, all while discovering annoying little robots that ate the material in question. As such Starswirl just used a bit of his magic to freeze the bots, allowing Ratchet to use the gadget to make platforms so they could make their way towards the end of the plant, finding two devices they had to turn the bolt cranks for to reactivate, even if the voice of the facility informed them that they were disobeying the Emperor and his decree. When the second one was activated it also restored power to the entirety of the plant, allowing the siblings to leave the facility and make their way down to the area that the Smuggler and his parrot happened to be hanging in.
With the deed done they climbed into the transport ship he had readied for them and they left Cobalia, the planet they had landed on, behind as he made his way to Stratus City, on planet Kortog, which would give them some time to figure out a few things and give them a better idea of what was going on in the Polaris Galaxy, and what they might have to do to bring Tachyon down.