//------------------------------// // Clank: Eudora // Story: The Sparkle in his Eye // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// As they had no other leads to follow - and no coordinates yet for Blackwater City - the trio made their way to planet Eudora. Landing, they saw that the 'harvesting' of the planet's trees was well under way...and at this point, the robots had ceased with collecting and now seemed to be focused on simple destruction. "Okay," Ratchet said calmly, "I think this time we'd better stick together." "Alright, Daddy," Twilight said calmly, seizing a nearby harvest robot in her telekinesis and slamming it repeatedly into another until they both exploded. Clank remained silent, internally calculating exactly how much force Twilight was actually generating and running through the calculations of her potential energy generation if she could do so at such range without even visible signs of strain. The results were not proving to be comforting. Here, they discovered the first bolt crank operated bridge. At first, Ratchet was going to use his Omniwrench and walk around it to open it up, but Twilight was able to handle it much more efficiently by levitating her Omniwrench over, attaching it to the bolt, and remotely spinning it around the bolt crank. "Say, Daddy," she spoke up as she did so, "why does this work?" "Well," Ratchet explained, "according to Gadgetron Help Desk, bolt cranks like this are designed to interact with things like the Omniwrench." "But only you and I have Omniwrenches," Twilight pointed out. "And I made mine by duplicating yours. So why would systems be designed for interface with tools nobody has?" Ratchet opened his mouth to answer, but had none. "Much of the construction technology available to the galaxy is based off the initial reverse engineering of Lombax tech," Clank spoke up. "Aside from those facilities which are old Lombax constructions left abandoned and adapted for later residents. The Omniwrench, obviously, is a Lombax tool, so it makes sense that various other tech is designed to interface with them." "...huh," Ratchet and Twilight said together, doing their best to wrap their heads around this. After a while of exploring along the main path, they eventually came across a new weapon. "The Suck Cannon," Ratchet read from the Gadgetron Uplink. "Apparently, it can suck up enemies and fire them as high-caliber missiles...but only if they're small enough to fit in the barrel of the Cannon." "It sounds a great deal like what Twilight generally uses her telekinesis for in combat," Clank pointed out, "except...more limited." "The name's appropriate then," Ratchet admitted. "This Suck Cannon really...sucks." "I wouldn't be so sure," Twilight said, looking the cannon over and tapping her chin. "Daddy, can I see it? And your Power Glove Gadget?" Blinking, Ratchet handed them over. "Sure. What did you have in mind?" "Let's see..." Twilight muttered as she began disassembling both devices. "A miniaturized power source...tweaked to generate high end suction and propulsion...if I instead tweak it to amplify the gravimetric energies of the Power Glove...hey, it's already based in gravity manipulating principles, this'll be easy! ...and done!" Turning back, she held out the Power Glove Gadget, but slightly bulkier and with a new design on the outside. "Behold the Power Gauntlet!" Taking it, Ratchet slipped it on. "Looks and feels like the old Power Glove..." he pointed out. "Try using it to grab that robot!" she said, pointing at one of the smaller robots nearby. Shrugging, Ratchet held out his gloved hand, focusing to trigger the gravimetric field the glove generated. The robot in question levitated, flailing about in the field. "Well, that's impressive..." "Yes!" Twilight cried, pumping her hoof. "The glove's circuitry takes the fluctuations of the target's movement into account in adjusting the field strength! Now, look at another target and flick your wrist towards it!" Shrugging his shoulders, Ratchet glanced towards one of the larger robots which was watching its levitating comrade, and flicked his wrist in its direction. The levitating robot launched forward, slamming into the other robot's head and exploding, breaking both. "Sweet!" "The enhanced targeting system works too!" Twilight crowed happily. "Now, try grabbing one of the smaller robots again, but this time make a fist afterwards." Eager to see what else the Gauntlet could do, Ratchet followed her instructions. The generated gravimetric field crushed the levitated robot into scrap. "Now that's a weapon!" he crowed. "Oh, I can't wait to submit this new design to Gadgetron!" Twilight cheered, bouncing happily from hoof to hoof. Coming to the end of the looping path back to the ship, the group headed forward to a door protected by a Gadgetron Invinco-Lock, which Ratchet's new Trespasser was designed to interface with and unlock. "Hang on a minute!" Twilight complained. "So Gadgetron makes these Invinco-locks, which are supposed to be unbreakable except with the key the lock comes with, right?" "That is correct," Clank agrees. "And then they come out with the Trespasser, which is specifically designed to interface with any Invinco-lock and bypass them?" she continued. "That is also correct." "Then how are they still selling Invinco-locks?" Clank opened his mouth to answer, his hand lifted to make a point. "...that is a very good question," Clank finished lamely. "Because their customers for the locks are impressionable idiots who fall for carefully designed marketing schemes?" Ratchet suggested as he finished opening the lock. Twilight frowned. "...okay, I can see the logic there. I don't really like it, but I see the logic." Eventually, after clearing many widely spaced platform jumps, the group encountered the lieutenant they had seen in the original infobot transmission. He stepped forward as though to attack, but as soon as he saw how much force was readily arrayed against him, he quickly ran for it, leaving an infobot behind. "Why didn't we capture him?" Twilight asked. "Because we don't know anything about interrogation," Ratchet pointed out. "Besides, the infobot should provide all we need." After watching the ad for the Blargian research station, Twilight bounced eagerly. "Did you see all that new tech? I bet I could figure out how to make all sorts of new tools to help us fight them if we went there. Not to mention I could figure out how their tech works and find a way to combat it." Clank frowned. "We don't really have time for side trips-" "We don't exactly have any other leads to follow," Ratchet pointed out. Clank sighed. "Very well," he relented, collecting the infobot and downloading the coordinates for the Blargian Tactical-research Station.