//------------------------------//
// Tools: Viceron, Jasindu 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

"So the Zoni said that Talwyn's somewhere in this prison?" Sasha asked, as she wanted to be sure of the information that Clank had received, even though they also called upon Qwark to get the layout of the prison and, to their surprise, he was able to deliver, giving them everything they might need to tackle Zordoom.

"That's correct." Clank replied, all while they flew down to the edge of the prison area, so the sensors wouldn't detect them and alert the guards until they were already blasting their way through whoever was guarding this place, though he did have something else to say, "I know we should be going after the Dimensionator, but there must be a reason behind why the Zoni would tell us about Talwyn's predicament... other than her being a new friend. She must play some role in keeping Polaris, maybe even the rest of the universe, safe and staying here will deprive her of that fate."

Ratchet had nothing to say to that as he, his siblings, and the rest of the group climbed out of their ships, allowing them to look at the somewhat imposing prison, in fact the one Rivet had invaded years ago was far more imposing than this one, for a few seconds before Autumn bought a new weapon, the Negotiator, which was a rocket launcher and would be a fine addition to their arsenal. Sure enough they found that Tachyon's commandos were guarding the outer reaches of the large prison, who reacted violently to the arrival of Ratchet and the others, though they were nothing compared to their might, as they wiped out the commandos without any real effort, before he hacked into a terminal to fix the grind rail. With that done he and the others jumped onto the rail and started to move around the outer perimeter of Zordoom, finding that there were all sorts of obstacles for them to jump or slide over, showing that Tachyon anticipated people coming to invade the prison and set up traps, ineffective and useless traps. It was just another sign that he was incompetent and was probably one of the worst villains they had faced since starting their adventures, at least in Autumn's eyes anyway, all while hearing about some of the inmates, such as Slim Cognito and Ace Hardlight, which just gave them another reason to trash this entire prison.

Normally the group would try and sneak their way through the prison, or at least the defenses in front of them, but when they heard a message from Tachyon, revealing that he knew they'd come for Talwyn, they discarded all notions of stealth and laid into the guards in front of them.

The guards weren't expecting such an assault, not to mention all of the heroes that decided to wage war on them, though it was satisfying for Autumn, since she didn't like Tachyon all that much, and Angela, who had spent most of her life hiding to ensure the Cragmite couldn't find her, only to break her shell after meeting Ratchet. With the Negotiator in hand they were even more well prepared to deal with the commando guards that were between them and Talwyn's location, which Clank informed them was deep inside the prison, meaning their foe was smart enough to force them to traverse this place a lot to get to their destination. Of course Autumn pulled back when they finally entered the main structure and hacked into one of the terminals so she could get a full layout of the prison, allowing them to confirm the Zoni's information, not that anyone thought they were wrong given what they had been through so far, before tampering with the controls to just mess things up. According to the prison roster there were rebels in the depths of Zordoom, people who hated Tachyon, his rule over all of Polaris, and who knew what else, and they had gathered together with leaders and all sorts of things to wage war against him, before she grinned as she broke into Tachyon's informational folder.

"Oh, get a load of this: there's an entire resistance force trapped within Zordoom... a force that was winning before our foe managed to get enough commandos to imprison them." Autumn remarked, speaking as Ratchet blasted a commando out of the air and Starswirl tore another one down with his magic, while the others used their weapons to mow down the set of guards that were in front of them, and the next page caused her grin to widen even more, "It seems that Ace came here to explore and become a greater hero than he was before his, um, incident, and he joined the Resistance to save people from Tachyon's dark rule... it seems that we've found the perfect military force to add to our arsenal, and I know where all of their weapons are located as well."

"Can I say that he's an idiot?" Angela asked, swinging at a commando that approached her, on account of her being one of the Lombaxes that Tachyon had been looking for earlier, and smashed him to bits, allowing her to fall back a little as the others picked up her slack for a moment, where she found that Autumn nodded, "Good, because he's an idiot. What sort of ruler or tyrant imprisons people and then keeps all of their weapons in a nearby vault? That's... well, that's asking for all sorts of trouble if they're able to break out."

Attention all Resistance members: who feels like breaking out of prison and taking Tachyon down? Autumn inquired, where she broadcast her question to all of Zordoom, showing that her intelligence was far superior to the defenses that had been installed in Zordoom, but it wasn't long before they heard the sound of something stirring in Zordoom, which she found to be the imprisoned rebels, eager to fight against Tachyon once more.

Ratchet found that, as they moved forward, Autumn focused less on their journey through the prison and more on what she was doing, deactivating the cells to release the rebels, making it so they were let out near their weapons and armed all of them within a matter of seconds, much to the surprise of the foolish commandos. Of course she found that Talwyn was set to a different channel and only someone with Tachyon's clearance could override the commands, at least from one of the terminals, but if they found a terminal they could hack into, linked to her prison cell, she was sure that using their new hacker could do the job. There were terminals that Ratchet had to hack into, since Autumn was busy liberating the rebels to provide them with even more firepower, and he did so as the others watched his back, before they reached a point where they had to glide down to the lowest point while avoiding some lasers. After that it was a simple matter to wipe out the rest of the commandos before discovering the cell delivery line that contained everyone who had been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in Zordoom, where Ratchet hacked into a terminal as Autumn tracked down Cronk and Zephyr, finding out where they were resting with ease.

A few moments later one of the cells came to a stop in front of them and the door opened to reveal Talwyn, who used her jetpack to leave the container and landed in front of Ratchet, while the others opened fire on the incoming guards, though she wasn't too surprised by this turn of events.

"Wow, a jailbreak... you certainly know how to impress a girl." Talwyn commented, though it only made her wonder what in the world Ratchet had done to impress Angela, Sasha, and Nika, before she focused on the fact that Tachyon only recently captured her and hadn't announced it yet, "How did you guys know we were here?"

"The Zoni told us." Ratchet replied, where he turned around and opened fire on the guards as well, showing that, while he knew she had more questions for them, especially when she noticed that he was far more determined than when she met them, he was focused on trashing this place and getting out of here.

As Talwyn followed after them, letting the group wage war on the commandos while the rebels wrecked another portion of the prison, she wondered why the Zoni cared about her, enough to pull Ratchet and his family off the search for the device that they confirmed the existence of back on Rykan V. She guessed that she should feel honored that the beings saw fit to rescue her, even if it meant the Dimensionator might fall into Tachyon's hands, but she had a sneaking suspicion that the Zoni knew they could recover it before someone else stole it. After thinking about it Talwyn asked about her warbots, since they were in danger as well, only to learn that the rebels were breaking the prison by freeing the innocent before heading to their ships, where her warbots were among them and were currently ensuring that their ship was ready to go, so when they exited Zordoom they could meet up with the group. She nodded her head as Ratchet opened fire on the commandos while Starswirl ignited the power source of the prison, because with the rebels departing from the planet, waiting near the Heilos for them, that left all of the true criminals and Autumn went one step further by breaking all of the ships that belonged to the criminals, stranding them on Viceron.

Once they were outside the group climbed into their ships and headed for the Helios, where Ace contacted them and told them that the Resistance would be joining the war against Tachyon once more, to which they got moving as they headed for Jasindu, as it was time to meet up with Slag and obtain the Dimensionator.





On the flight to Jasindu, giving the group a short period of time to rest and regroup, Angela and Sasha explained things to Talwyn, as she had boarded their starship before entering warp space, especially why Ratchet was so focused, he had been given a chance to help his sister and it had been stolen from him.

"No wonder he seemed different, he finally had a chance to help Rivet and couldn't do anything." Talwyn said, as that was a lot to take in, including the fact that there was someone out there that knew of the barriers between dimensions and held back when Ratchet made his attempt, "Once we get the Dimensionator, provided it still works, do you think he'll...?"

"Use it to save Rivet? Yes, there is a ninety-three percent chance that he'll do so, the other seven being in case Tachyon or Slag take it and use it first." Clank replied, as he had been listening to them while Ratchet focused on ensuring they came out in the space near Jasindu and not another location, like a black hole or something, before he readied himself for what they were going to do next, "We had best get ready, as there is no telling what we'll find on Jasindu."

As Talwyn and the others got ready, however, Ratchet pulled them out of the warp space and found that Jasindu was under attack by Tachyon's forces, where the pirates were waging war on all of his commandos, to which he brought the ship to a stop as the rebel ships appeared behind them. In that moment he connected their communications with Slag's and told the robotic pirate that they were done with Zordoom, and, more importantly, they had unexpected reinforcements, in the form of the Resistance members, who he sent down to deal with the dropships. Once he was done talking they headed down to the city that happened to be where IRIS claimed the Dimensionator was resting, where upon landing Aphelion joined the assault, getting her revenge on Tachyon's forces for downing her all those years ago, while Autumn found a new weapon in the Vendor, the Razor Claws. It was a melee weapon, instead of ranged like most of the others, but they added it to their arsenals and followed the path in front of them, firing on the commandos as the Kerchu and pirates welcomed them to the fight, or at least they assumed that was what the former said since they loved to speak in their own tongue.

The first group of pirates informed them that Slag had gone into the middle of the city, a rather empty location save for a number of rails, a platform, and a few structures, as he was sure that was where the target was located, and it happened to be where Tachyon was heading right now. With the pirates aiding them on the ground, eliminating the commandos that were in the way, and the rebels tearing through the invading ships that were above the decent sized city, ensuring that the ground forces weren't overwhelmed, the siblings and their family tore through those who got in their way. Of course they knew that Ratchet fought with more determination than ever before, because the Dimensionator was the key to opening the way to Rivet's dimension so he could swoop in and tend to her injuries, not to mention get her out of there, and they knew that he wasn't going to let anything get in his way. As such the group waged total war on their enemies and blasted the commandos out of the way, using their weapons and magic to tear through anyone who dared to get in their way, all while finding that the Kerchu weren't too happy to have their planet invaded and, while not too happy about the intruders being here, they weren't about to complain as they tore into the commandos.

With their combined forces they were able to reach the center of the city with ease, where they found a severely wounded Slag resting near what looked like some sort of Kerchu machine, a mech of some kind, and a pedestal that likely held the Dimensionator at one point in time, something that caused despair to cross Ratchet's face before he rushed over to where their ally was resting.

"Slag! What happened? Where's the Dimensionator?" Ratchet asked, though as Autumn joined him, to try to tend to the massive cuts that were etched into the pirate lord's body, even though he was missing one of his arms, the right one to be exact, causing him to pay more attention to the head.

"Tachyon... came... took the... device..." Slag replied, where it was easy for them to tell that he was wounded and that they were short on time, in fact Autumn knew that there was no saving him at this point, especially when she found out that his old wound had ruptured and wrecked his lower body, hence why he had no legs, before he removed his hat and pressed it into Ratchet's hands, "Qwark, he... fought to defend the device... followed Tachyon... to... Reepor. Take the crew... tear... him... dow..."

In that moment Slag expired, his systems failing due to the substantial damage he had suffered to defend this area from their foe, though Ratchet growled as he took the hat and placed it on his head, as there was no telling what Tachyon might do with the Dimensionator, as with his family backing him he knew that the 'Emperor' would soon face defeat and they would claim the device, he just had to be patient to bring about that reality.