//------------------------------//
// Arsenal Aftermath 
// Story: The Sparkle in his Eye 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	After Twilight finally talked Qwark back into his old costume after a long, frustrating, and hilarious in hindsight discussion, a party was quickly underway to celebrate the victory.  During the last mission, Al had successfully finished decrypting Nefarious data, and had managed to reverse engineer the Bio-bliterator to reverse its effects.  The process had already been tested on Skidd, and had worked perfectly.  Scientists were already being dispatched to reverse the robotization of the galactic populace.  And with Qwark returning, the entire victory had been achieved without any losses...unless the Tyhrranoids were counted, but no one seemed interested in taking them into account.

The party was in full swing, with Ratchet once more spinning tales of his exploits to entertain Sasha, who seemed quite fascinated.  Of course, the fact that her eyes trailed everywhere except his face whenever he looked away from her to gesticulate indicated it likely wasn't his story she found so fascinating.  Ratchet didn't seem to mind her distracted attention, though.  If anything, he seemed to take every opportunity when she turned to hear what someone else had to say to return the favor with his own eyes.  Twilight found this highly amusing, and began looking for opportunities to arrange for them to be alone together somewhere private.  The situation resolved itself, however, when Sasha suggested to Ratchet she test his physical prowess in the VR Training Chamber in traditional Cazar combat...just as soon as she'd uploaded the data for the computer to generate traditional Cazar combat garb for the both of them.  The fact that she sealed the doors from the inside with her Captain's authority and disabled the security cameras in the VR Training Chamber made sure that what happened inside was a secret to nobody, despite her best efforts.

(It was only later that Twilight's research revealed that 'traditional Cazar combat' was only ever utilized as part of Cazarian courtship, and was considered foreplay.  Clank and Qwark were left feeling very awkward when she asked them what foreplay was.)

Twilight, Clank, and Qwark engaged in a dance contest with Helga, Al, and Skidd as judges.  Clank won no contest, as when she danced to express herself Twilight's dancing could be best described as 'having less natural rhythm and grace than a jellyfish having a seizure', and Qwark on the dance floor had all the grace of a hippopotamus with an anal infection trying to scratch its bum.  Things became much more even when they shifted to zero-g DDR.  There, Twilight had the advantage as she had one hoof for each button.

Sparkle Squad joined in the party in their own way, dancing to the beat of the music and competing to see which of them could make the coolest, craziest hat out whatever was at hand.  It was eventually decided to be a tie between Madd for his pony hat - sticking Twilight on his head - and Ironhead for his Hero's Cap - sticking Captain Qwark on his head upside down.

Towards the end of the party, Clank received a call from Derek Tovid, informing him that the new Secret Agent Clank holo-vid was going to be screened soon, and they all had reserved seating.  Clank felt he had to inform Sasha and Ratchet - especially since the expanded script had them both on cast - so he decided to hack around Sasha's lock on the Training Chamber to tell them.

Thankfully, they seemed to be resting at the moment, but Clank did get a good look at Cazar traditional battle garb.  All he could say was that it was definitely suited to the climate of the Cazar home world and its binary star.





The cameras zoomed in on holo-theater, a massive picture of Clank and 'Sparks' above the entrance as throngs of people lined the sides of the red carpet.  "We're live from the star studded premiere of the latest film in the Secret Agent Clank series," Darla Gratch said into the news feed.  "The atmosphere is positively electric, as thousands of fanatical fans clamor for a glimpse of their favorite celebrities."

Behind Darla, President Phyronix was waving to the voting public, though every so often he sent an unhappy glance over his shoulder.  Ratchet and Sasha were walking hand in hand, waving to the crowd.  Whenever they weren't looking at him, he sent an unhappy glance towards Ratchet...until Sasha caught him at it and glowered at him, her upper lip pulling back over her teeth.  He backed up so fast he fell ears over tail and rolled into the theater, much to the amusement of the voting public.

Once inside the theater, everyone sat back to watch the film as it reached its climactic showdown.





Secret Agent Clank and Sparks raced away from pursuing forces of the dreaded Maximilian, the snowy backdrop adding tension to their flight.  Through quick thinking, the pair of them were able to divert the pair of robo-ninjas into self destruction, the first cutting down the second before getting snatched up by a yeti.

They both had to leap off their boards as they approached a cliff edge.  Sparks lunch fell out of her pack, scattering as her cookie burst apart on a rock.  Maximilian then rose up from beyond the cliff in a helicopter, the cookie crumbs scattering over his body.  "Agent Clank...Sparks..." he said as he grinned down at them.  "It seems your luck has finally run out."  He laughed wickedly.  "The time has come...to say-"

"Duck!" Sparks shouted, pointing.

Maximilian and Clank instinctively ducked, but nothing seemed to happen.  "Your tricks won't work this time, Sparks!" Maximilian snapped.  "I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, and now, I am going to blow you both into a million-"

At that moment, a large avian flew into the cockpit of the attack helicopter, pecking away at Maximilian to get at the cookie crumbs.  Maximilian roared angrily and flailed, accidentally turning off the engine of the chopper.  The blades broke against the cliff as it fell before going up in a massive, majestic fireball.

"I tried to warn him..." Sparks pointed out, her cyborg optic whirring.

Clank pointed at the avian.  "That is a goose," he corrected.

"Heh," Sparks replied sheepishly.  "Oops?"





As the credits rolled, applause echoed.  While Ratchet and Sasha shared a quick kiss, Twilight leaned up to give Clank a gentle peck on the cheek.  "When's the next film?" she asked eagerly.

"We'll find out," Clank replied, chuckling.