//------------------------------//
// All 4 One: Ephemeris 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After making sure that Suzie and her friends would 'hold the perimeter', Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous walked over to the launchpad they had been standing near and used it without wasting time, where it propelled them over to a rail that seemed to go straight into the charging station. Zephyr informed them that he was downloading the blueprints for the quadrant they were moving through and should be able to guide everyone to their destination, while Cronk seemed to be in the middle of reviewing the information on the Cragmite story about Toranux. At least that was what it seemed like at first, until Zephyr mentioned that it was Cronk's fault that they were heading for the defenses, which everyone was fine with since it would help cripple Ephemeris, though he seemed to be doing well as he moved pipes into place. Such a thing meant that they were able to reach the end of the line without anything funny happening to them, even though they could see that the alarms were starting to sound, no doubt the Steward informing the minions that intruders were here, to which they stalled for a moment to access a Vendor.

With that done, and all of their weapons were upgraded to their highest potential, the group started their assault against all of Ephemeris' defenses, firing on the minions that zeroed in on where they were standing or happened to be there before they showed up, such as the bomb dispensing minions near the Vendor.

While they did that Autumn and Virtuous noticed that there were an enormous amount of pipes, platforms, and all sorts of devices that were designed to power something like Ephemeris, which seemed to be slumbering right now since it had just come back from another planet. It was a good thing, because with the ship still here they had a chance to take care of the Master before he was able to complete his dark and mysterious plan, which Autumn was sure she had figured out, as both Croid and Nevo figured out that the critters of Magnus had some sort of energy inside them. Since the comet shards were pieces of Toranux, they had to be after everything she thought about, that meant some of the Loki must have found a way to survive the destruction of their home world, and one of them had to be this 'Master'. If that was true than that meant Ephemeris was bringing hosts for the Loki to possess, powerful and dangerous creatures to enslave the rest of the universe or destroy it, and it even applied to her and Starswirl, two of the strongest figures in the universe.

If she was right, and the Loki possessed either of them, it was the end of everything, as her power would burn everything around her and Starswirl's would allow the figures to all sorts of things to the rest of the universe, so she hoped she was wrong about this.

After clearing out the initial area they found that they had to cross a broken bridge and came face to face with one of the scorch minions, which was odd since they figured such a foe would face them later, instead of at the start of the area, but none of them complained as everyone opened fire on it, taking it down in no time at all. One thing it confirmed was that Ephemeris was guarded by the strongest of the minions and a large number of boss level foes, because this happened to be the most important place in the Master's territory, so it was possible that they would have to tear their way though a lot more than just a few boss minions and their soldiers. Another thing they uncovered was an easier way to trample most of the boss level minions that were scattered throughout the area, by utilizing multiple Arc Lasher they could inflict damage on them and, at the same time, open holes in their defenses that utterly destroyed them. Such a thing allowed them to deal with those opponents without wasting too much time or ammunition, so Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous tore through all of the lesser minions that were in their way, even though they could see that what happened in Uzo City had repeated itself in the charging station, each wave was greater than the last.

Such a thing told them that the Master was trying to make sure Ephemeris was safe from harm, a good call since it had to be the only one of it's kind in all of Magnus, and an important piece of the Master's plans, though minions collapsed while the group made their way through the charging station. As they did so, however, Autumn could see that there were next to no actual entrances for them to use to get inside the massive vessel that was their destination, meaning either most of the openings had been sealed after the ship landed or they were too far away for them to access right now. She suspected that there was an area for creatures to be moved through, which very well might be their only opening after studying the rest of the side they could see right now, but getting up there meant accessing something that would allow the Master to know that intruders were coming. With that in mind she focused on them pushing through the minions that were trying to stop them in their tracks, blasting enemies to make sure they weren't overwhelmed as they solved the various puzzles that extended all of the bridges that had been added into this place.

During their battles Cronk contacted them and, in an odd twist, informed them that they were sending in some backup to aid them in this mission, an unexpected ally to be exact, and when they cleared out another area they found Spog, of all the beings of Magnus they had encountered, flying towards them.

"Greetings again, interlopers. Your friends in the sky have informed me that you would like a word with the Master." Spog stated, his tone having lowered so only they could hear him, no doubt to keep their presence hidden from the Steward, a figure they all loathed more than they were willing to admit, and he happened to be carrying a large glass container, which had to be how they were going to get inside Ephemeris, "I hope you'll permit me to facilitate an introduction... I assure you all, I mean you no harm, as I decided to retire earlier than planned and, oddly enough, the Master was willing to accept my request to retire early."

"You do realize that we're likely to beat the Master, right?" Starswirl inquired, though at the same time he and the others slipped down into the container that Spog had provided for them, as it was the only way forward at this point, so they had no choice but to trust him.

"It is possible, but He might also win... either way, it is irrelevant to me now." Spog replied, causing them to glance at each other for a few moments before the lid was sealed, meaning they had no choice but to wait for the container to be taken to the part of Ephemeris that the Master happened to be in, allowing them to see a lot of machines around them, not to mention all sorts of creatures, "Amazing, isn't it? Over twenty-two thousand predators have passed through these halls since Ephemeris was created, each one catalogued and studied... it's unfortunate that the Master wishes to use them for such a dark endeavor, but I suppose that's just his nature. I do have one favor to ask, interlopers: should the Master fail in his mission, and you survive, would you find and destroy that annoying Steward?"

"Sure, I want to tear her apart as well... maybe we can bond over it?" Autumn stated, as Spog, despite being on the side of someone like the Master, seemed like a nice warbot to have around and she was sure that they might be able to convince him to be a hero after all of this, with some upgrades anyway.

Spog chuckled as he left them to head into Ephemeris, the container bringing them to an area that they could be moved into, a hallway that told Autumn that the container might have known they were more along the lines of 'staff' and quickly brought them to an area they could use to find their target. Zephyr was sure that the group was approaching the core of the vessel, as there was a large power spike near their current position, though Autumn and the others found instances to use their Reflectors once more, breaking some of Ephemeris' outermost defenses so they could travel deeper into the vast ship that picked them and the Z'Grute up some time ago. After that they used an elevator and found that it took them up into the insides of the large ship, oddly enough without anything attacking them for some odd reason, and when it came to a stop the group found that they had to use a moving Swingshot to progress into the core. As they did that, however, it was far too easy for them to find that the core of Ephemeris was a circular arena with several machines around it, not to mention a number of fragments from Toranux, making Autumn wonder if her thoughts about the Master's plans might be the truth, even if she severely hoped not.

As the Swingshot reached the core, and they dropped down onto a circular platform on the edge of it, only to find Nevo standing in the direct center of the main platform, who paused for a moment as he heard them approach and turned to face the direction they were in, only for him to freak out.

"What are you doing here? You two have to get out of here!" Nevo stated, zeroing in on Autumn and Starswirl the instant he laid eyes on them, partly confirming what Autumn had considered on the way here, all while gesturing to a pod that was floating above the center of the core, "If he gets a hold of you he'll..."

"Nevo, you didn't tell me that we were expecting guests." a voice said, where they found that the sinister speaker was the small critter known as Mr. Dinkles, who was hanging out in the main seat of the pod, like it was a throne, before his eyes lit up as he laid eyes on the siblings once more, "However, I will forgive you, as the final pieces have returned to me, which I have been looking for for some time."

"Let me guess: you're going to use the predators as vessels for the Loki of Toranux?" Autumn asked, where Mr. Dinkle just paused for a moment as she said that, confirming that all of this was for bringing new hosts to him and the rest of his foul kind, even though the readings she got indicated all of the fragments were dark, meaning all of them must be inside the feline in front of them.

"Nevo and Croid were right, you're far too smart for your own good." the Loki Master stated, where he took a seat on his pod throne and engaged the weaponry system of his seat, while at the same time pressing a button that raised one of the containers, a far larger one with a rather imposing monster inside it, up near the pair of machines, "I know you two won't use magic against me, since it would give me free reign to possess your bodies and become the ultimate being in the entire universe, so we'll have to do things the old fashioned way: through pain!"

Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous waged war on the minions that were brought into Ephemeris' core, blasting them apart while keeping an eye on the Loki Master, since he seemed to be enjoying the battle that was unfolding before him, who enjoyed talking about how everything was mostly Nevo's design. After all of the minions were taken care of the Loki Master opened fire on them with the intent of knocking down Autumn and Starswirl, since they happened to be his targets right now, where it was easy to see that he had a shield that had to be taken down first. It was another instant where they had to use the Reflectors, blasting their foe's own laser attacks back at him and breaking the barrier in question, though it was funny that he was annoyed that they had broken the shield as he repaired things to the best of his ability, giving them time to break the machine with their weapons. Eventually, when they did enough damage to his hoverthrone, the figure floated out of range so his minions could engage them once more, causing the group to restock their ammunition at one of the two provided stations before laying waste to all of the new minions that were coming at them.

What was interesting was that the Loki Master was saddened by the fact that the Cragmites were no more, as before their defeat he had been planning on sending some of his kind to Reepor to torment them, but as he talked they shattered the rest of his minions and toppled his hoverthrone, causing him to frown for a moment.

"You know, this isn't working out as intended... Steward, bring in the Grivelnox!" the Loki Master stated, though Autumn paled as she heard that, as she now remembered the monster they had seen in the large container, an alpha predator that called Rykan V home and happened to possess the power to absorb the powers of whatever it digested.

Her worst fears were realized as the Loki Master used the machine Croid and Nevo invented to extract himself from the body of Mr. Dinkles and allowed him to surge into the body of the Grivelnox, which woke up a few moments later and just broke out of the container without much delay. While their foe likely expected this to be enough to make them submit to his will, and let him take either of the magical siblings as his ultimate host once he was done with the Grivelnox, they had other plans in mind, as the group summoned their RYNO VI Protosuits and engaged the large worm like creature that had squid tendrils as it's limbs. Autumn smiled as she and the others blasted into the Grivelnox, showing the Loki Master that sometimes technology was superior to pure brute strength, as with the final weapon of the sixth tier of weaponry the four of them were able to inflict great damage to the massive monster that was trying to squish all of them. Nevo, joined by the sudden arrival of Croid, they weren't questioning his appearance in this place, ran off with his friend and Mr. Dinkles, as it allowed them to focus on tearing into the monster without having to worry about bystanders getting caught up in the fight that was going on.

Eventually another container came out and the Grivelnox ended up eating a Wigwump, gaining it's powers, though it didn't do much against the power of the RYNO VI Protosuits, causing the Loki Master to call up the Z'Grute and eat it as well, just repeating the process while giving the beast powerful regeneration powers... something that caused Nevo and Croid to use the device once more and started to extract the Loki Master from the Grivelnox.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Qwark asked, as he knew that they could lay waste to the massive monster, but the spirit of the Loki Master was another thing, one that he suspected Autumn didn't have an answer for since this was the first time they had encountered something like this.

As the Loki Master was separated from the Grivelnox it rushed at them, intending on claiming it's host in Autumn, though as a few seconds passed by a dimensional crack appeared nearby and burst open, revealing a purple hand that looked like it belonged to an anthropomorphic cat which possessed some odd purple energy as it pointed it's first two fingers at the spirit, causing it to glow before breaking down, as if it was being erased or something.

"That: aid from another dimension... I guess." Virtuous remarked, as he wasn't sure what to make of the situation, though one thing was for certain, the barriers between the dimensions was weakening despite Kaden's efforts to ensure nothing terrible happened to their universe, meaning the villain doing it was still out there.

Autumn said nothing as the Loki Master disappeared from existence, by a power stronger than it, though she dismissed her protosuit as the others did the same, as it was time for them to rest, relax, and make sure everything was fine with the planet they had been brought to, all while looking forward to what might happen next.