//------------------------------//
// Time: Warship, Clock 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

As they departed from Quantos, confirming that Aphelion was flying well and true, in fact Ratchet was sure she was even better than before thanks to the bioenergy of the Zoni, Ratchet contacted Qwark while Autumn stared off into space, as she was keeping an eye on the warship that was leaving the planet behind.

"Qwark, do you read me?" Ratchet asked, though at the same time it was almost unnecessary, as he could see that the link had been made and they were getting information from Qwark's nav unit, building a map of the warship so he and Autumn could find their way through it.

"I read you Ratchet. They've got us caged up in these containment cells, unlike any I have seen before, and they don't give out food, only tap water and terrible pills for substance." Qwark replied, where it sounded like he was depressed over the food situation, though they knew it was an act in case there were any guards listening in on whatever he might say, "Don't worry, I made sure to activate the unit before Vorselon's men captured us."

"Good, then sit tight and we'll be there soon." Autumn said, where they cut the connection off, letting Qwark know that they were on their way, though at the same time she found that enemies were coming out of the warship, something both her brother and Aphelion noticed, "Good, Vorselon knows he's being followed... he's clearly smarter than Tachyon."

"You're never going to stop mentioning that, are you?" Ratchet inquired, though he had a smile on his face, as the mad Emperor of Polaris really got on his sister's nerves and it was easy to tell that she was never going to stop mentioning it, or maybe she'd do so once enough time had passed, and the look she gave him told Ratchet that it was more of the 'never' category.

With that conversation done he turned his focus on the approaching enemies and blasted them with Aphelion's guns, as he would have done had they not crashed into Quantos, only to find that they were stronger than he originally thought and that they were able to cut through Vorselon's defenders. Once he was done with them he found that he could land on one of the wings of the warship, near some outer engines, which he did so without delay and made sure that both he and Autumn had their O2 Masks on before he popped the lid. A few moments later they started to make their way towards an entrance of Vorselon's ship, an airlock for maintenance no doubt, though Ratchet revealed an alteration to his wrench, as when he swung his wrench in a specific manner, with a certain grip strength, he sent out the head and it connected to all sorts of items, allowing him to pull down walkways and tear off power modules. Autumn had to admit that it was a worthy addition to his melee weapon, allowing him to do things whenever his siblings weren't with him, and it allowed them to get to the airlock in no time at all so he could tear it open and marched inside, surprising some of the smaller robots that had to be on guard duty.

What was interesting was that the passage to the elevator had a number of lasers they had to avoid, making them wonder if Vorselon was responsible for destroying his own troops from time to time, though it was easy to get around and Autumn took out the robot in the elevator, before it could react. As they entered the elevator a voice asked them which floor the pair wanted to go to and Ratchet informed it that they wanted the detention wing, where it actually complied with his statement before closing the door, allowing them to move deeper into Vorselon's ship. Autumn resisted the urge to moan, as even the ship's computer was stupid, as it should have known that they were intruders and that it would be best to drop them off in an area near a large number of enemies, but she said nothing as the elevator came to a stop and they stepped out to see what else stood between them and their destination. It wasn't long before they found a magnetic surface that connected to the door to the next portion of the warship, where Ratchet blasted the nearby robot as he and Autumn walked up it, even if he also had to use his wrench addition to pull apart some modules to let them move forward.

When they entered a cargo area, however, Autumn found a Vendor and discovered that the Mr. Zurkon gadget was now a full blown weapon, causing her to grin as she and Ratchet deployed them, allowing them to go to war with the enemies that were in the large chamber. She found that they were the same as before, the Zurkons loved to cause pain and misery to all those who were enemies of those who deployed them, killing everything that dared to attack the siblings, which caused her to smile, as they were one of her more interesting inventions and it was nice to see that no one had tampered with them over the last year. Together the four of them wiped out the enemies in the cargo hold and moved forward once more, but they did stop when Autumn found a piece of the RYNO V holo-plan, making her wonder how in the world a piece of it ended up on an enemy warship, though she collected it without wasting time and opened fire on the robots coming at them, as by now Vorselon knew they were here. Eventually they reached what looked like a single cell containment area, for priority prisoners no doubt, though the siblings wasted no time in firing on the enemies that were here, opening the way for them to use a magnetic walkway to reach so fuel modules, which Ratchet pulled apart so they could move into a hallway with more lasers to avoid.

Autumn's opinion of Vorselon decreased as she heard that he was more annoyed that someone tapped over the show he was interested in last night, meaning it was a new episode, and he told them that the one response should use an airlock as punishment, meaning he had no regards for his troopers, before they finally reached Qwark's cell.

Qwark, of course, was happy to see them and waited for Ratchet to bring down the laser wall so they could leave their cells, as one of the children and an elder were trapped with him, before he busted down a nearby door and the siblings fired on all the enemies that were coming at them. Neither of them were even remotely worried by Qwark's actions, in fact both of them had been planning on going wild once they saved everyone who had been captured, though this meant that they had to do things differently than they originally planned. Qwark joined in on the fun as he fired on some of the robots that were in their way, though for the most part he was protecting the innocents that had been kidnapped with him, as he knew that Ratchet and Autumn didn't need assistance, especially since both of them were tearing through their foes with a familiar ease they were used to having. Eventually they reached what appeared to be an escape shuttle area, which also had the rest of the kidnapped Fongoids, where Ratchet and Autumn wiped out the guards before opening the cells, all in a matter of moments, allowing Qwark to board the vessel with the Fongoids as Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank, which lead to the ship flying out of the warship.

With that taken care of the siblings continued their assault on Vorselon's warship as they started to leave, finding that the way back was different from what they used to enter the ship in the first place, meaning Vorselon changed things on them at some point, before they entered what looked like an arena and found the figure waiting for them.

"I don't know who you are, Lombax, but you've caused enough problems already. Prepare to be killed by... wait for it... Lord Vorselon!" the figure stated, showing them that he thought himself higher than what he was, as he was just one of the mercenaries Talwyn had told them about before they came to the lawless section of the galaxy.

"Like we said, you aren't intimidating." Autumn remarked, where Ratchet used the opening provided to smash the side of the headpiece that Vorselon's head was contained in, hard enough to break it off the body which actually served as armor as well, though it collapsed after losing the main control center, "Come on, let's get out of here."

Ratchet nodded as they made their way back to Aphelion, where they got a message from Qwark that Azimuth lived on a planet named Torren IV, in the Vela Sector, and he was kind enough to provide the coordinates, so as they left the warship the siblings flew off to their next destination, hoping to get some real answers at long last.





Clank quickly discovered the one named Sigmund, a red robot who looked like he might have been a janitor and floated with some assistance, after he floated out of a broom closet, containing a few items that looked like they were designed to fix up parts of the station they were on.

"Greetings sir, I am Sigma 0426A, but you can call me Sigmund." the robot said, confirming that he was, in fact, the one that Clank and Starswirl were looking for, where Clank found that he also had a screen attached to a ring around him, and a flower pot for some reason, so it was easy to assume the mini computer was linked to the station's systems, "I'm the Junior Caretaker here at the Great Clock."

"Forgive my ignorance, but what is the 'Great Clock'?" Clank asked, as that was the part he was worried about, especially given what happened during the adventure to defeat Tachyon, though he found that Sigmund had an alarm in the form of a small metallic bird that emerged from his chest, like an old fashioned clock.

"A technical marvel that was designed to maintain temporal normality to the universe... it keeps time stable, while also having facilities to combat corruption to the timeline." Starswirl replied, though at the same time he and Sigmund lead the way out to the area that Nefarious had stopped them at before he and Lawrence had to leave, allowing Clank to stare out at the rest of the station, "It's also constructed in the exact center of the universe... give or take fifty feet... but due to the power it commands it is kept a secret from nearly everyone, as villains would come here in an attempt to change the falls they suffered over the years. I assumed Nefarious was after the same thing, given what we know of him, but it seems that he's turned away from his villainous past and has taken on the role of the Clock's guardian, while trying to fix you like the Zoni asked him to do."

Clank considered that information as he launched himself over to another platform, where he found that some damage was being done to the facility by the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, a device from another dimension that had an evil version of Nefarious in it, though he wasn't too sure he trusted their Nefarious either. Sigmund, of course, was annoyed by the destructive robot's existence and hoped that they destroyed it at some point in time, even though Starswirl wasn't using his magic, no doubt determining that a dimensional rift or tear was nearby. There was also the fact that the systems were designed for 'Senior Personal' and Sigmund, being a Junior based on what he said, as some doors refused to open for him but, if Clank stepped up, they would open like magic, meaning that he was tied to the Great Clock in some way, as if he had been partly created here before being shipped to Solana. After that they reached a chamber that had two really odd buttons on the floor, one blue and one green, where Sigmund explained that, during his year of slumber, their ally had installed some software that would allow Clank to be more in tune with the Great Clock and do things that he, Orvus, and the Zoni could do.

What that was, as he found out, was that they could use the platforms to record their movements, so while a time copy did one thing the original did another thing, so in this instance he could open the door with one copy and then use his main body to pass through the now opened door.

"This quantum actuator will come in handy." Clank commented, as the ability to make multiple selves was great and would allow him to navigate the puzzles that might be scattered throughout the Great Clock, though as he did that he found that Starswirl did the same thing, only his copies were more like him and weren't colored like the platforms, in fact he didn't use either platform at all.

"Yeah, he's been learning how to manipulate time while he's been here, and his skill is far above mine... in fact, he might be second to Orvus himself, maybe third counting you." Sigmund said, as he understood Clank's surprise, because he had experienced the same thing when he discovered what Starswirl could do, all while this revealed that he could use magic, in small fragments that didn't seem like he was even using magic.

The next chamber had something interesting, Clank found that he had to write over one of his selves to move forward, as he had to trap one in a chamber to open the door, where he did the calculations in his head and acted on them without to much delay, impressing Sigmund in the process. Such a thing made him wonder what in the world was going on, due to the fact that this was his first time doing this, before determining that it was to boost his morale or something, though he decided not to worry about it too much as he focused on solving the puzzle. As soon as he was finished he kept moving, as there was no reason for him to stop as he explored the rest of the Great Clock, especially since Clank knew Starswirl had no need for assistance and would overcome the obstacle in no time at all, allowing him to focus on his tasks. The chamber beyond that, after using a pad to get to the next building, held what was called a mnemonic station, where Sigmund told him something interesting, it would allow him to delve into his own mind and tap into lessons left there by Orvus, for the day when he returned to Polaris and the Zoni called him back to the Great Clock.

As Clank climbed into the station, which involved him closing his eyes and letting himself float up into the device, Starswirl weaved a bit of magic around the chamber and Sigmund watched as everything that had been broken since the rift had brought out the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler fixed itself in no time.

They discovered that it wasn't long before Clank emerged from the station and approached them, where Sigmund opened the second door and revealed a scepter that radiated temporal energy, where Starswirl found that it contained the energy and only used it in accordance to the user's will. As the group exited the building they discovered some small critters that Sigmund claimed could eat quantum energy, so if one used their time copies near such foul creatures they had to be a tad bit careful, because if one was eaten it would break that recording and have to be remade. Clank stepped up and swung his arm as he released a sphere of temporal energy, trapping the critters in the dome it created and slowed them down, a fact that made it easier for him to clean up the surrounding area, especially with some flying critters that looked like some of the leviathans the siblings faced during their last adventure. As he did that, however, Clank found Starswirl walking up to him, the air around him shuddering as he drew his staff, though the reason for that was because he noticed that there was a sphere floating above the peak and it had a ring of magical runes floating around it, a sphere that contained both fragments of temporal and dimensional energy.

Such a thing allowed him to deal with a group of flyers that attacked him, wiping them out in mere seconds, making Clank wonder just how much training Starswirl had done to become stronger than he remembered, before deciding to continue his exploration and clean up of the station.

From there Clank found a few more puzzles to do, testing his ability to use the quantum actuator and his time copies, all while finding that they were quite fun to do, as if someone had made work fun for some reason, where he suspected that Sigmund might be responsible, since he was the only one here besides Orvus. Of course he considered the Zoni to be like workers in a hive, while Nefarious and Lawrence were outsiders who didn't have much authority, so Sigmund was the only one who could be responsible for such a thing, unless Orvus did this before taking on a trainee. On the other side of what had to be the last puzzle, for this portion of the station, they found an open arena that the Scrambler landed on, where Clank jumped down into the arena and did battle with it before it could do more harm to the Great Clock. Starswirl, on the other hand, simply stood back as he channeled his power into wiping out anything that dared to attack him or Sigmund, as some came at them while Clank was distracted, all without moving from his post.

It wasn't long before Clank smashed the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler to pieces, mentioning that the robot had been scrambled, causing him to chuckle as Sigmund applauded his efforts, while Starswirl agreed with him, causing the three of them to head into the next section of the station to see what else needed to be fixed.