Ratchet took his time to reach the Feltzin System, where the Thugs were supposed to be gathering sometime in the future, giving his sisters time to plan out a strategy that they could use when they reached their destination. He had the feeling that they would be fighting the same ships that had ambushed them on their way to the Maktar Resort, so he had some experience fighting them and outmaneuvering them. The only thing he worried about was the default shield that came with their ship, because one lucky shot was enough to take it out and force Sunset to use her magic to protect them from being shot down. If worse came to worse they could pull off a barrier around the ship again, but with how unpredictable Sunset's magic could be they could very well knock her out and force her to sit a planet out.
Ratchet also didn't want to admit it, but he was concerned that, if they continued to rely on Sunset's magic to protect them while Starlight used hers to smash their enemies in situations like this, they might accidentally awaken the creature sleeping inside of her... and none of them wanted the creature to come back after what happened last time.
"I'm beginning to think we should have asked Megacorp to provide us with a second ship," Starlight commented, looking over what she and Sunset had created in terms of an attack strategy, though with it being forty against one she knew that their ship would take massive damage without someone to power the shield, "This ship is nice for traveling from one planet to another, but we seriously need another one if we're going to be engaging in space battles all the time. I doubt either Sunset or myself can hold a shield for more than an hour at most, so we need to either salvage some of the wreckage we cause and make another ship for someone to use, or we figure out how to improve this one to the point where we don't have to use our magic to protect ourselves."
"I guess we could try to capture some of the Thugs' ships and see if we can't reconfigure them into an additional ship that we can use," Sunset replied, tapping her ship for a moment as she opened a folder on her tablet that contained a list of potential ship designs she had spent a few days developing, "It would take some time and energy to do something like that, but it might be possible to accomplish such a feat... provided we found enough working parts to do it."
"Would be nice to have a repeat of what happened in Solana." Ratchet added in, referring to the two instances where they found an intact ship waiting for someone to take them, "If we found a ship in that manner I have no doubt that we'd be able to take it and use it to our advantage in these situations."
"I think that ship that the Thief used as a trap would make a decent vessel," Sunset said, already knowing that it could possibly serve as a research ship and as a fighting ship, "if only we had time to track it down and take control of it. I can already envision several changes that I could make to that ship to make it better than it already is, and of course that would include adding several systems that would improve the overall function."
Ratchet tried to imagine his sister taking control of that one ship and outfitting it the way she was speaking of, creating a research ship that doubled as a warship and had the firepower to deal with the Thugs. He could see her smashing everything that came at the warship, though he had the feeling that Megacorp might attack the ship if something like that happened. He had to admit that the thought of having any ally in space battles would be a benefit, even if it was controlled by one of his sisters, though there was no reason to worry about Sunset building a warship at the moment.
His scans indicated that they were approaching the Feltzin System, where he knew that they would find the Thugs and maybe some information on where the Thief was headed next. This time he turned on the weapons and shields before they entered the area, so that he could avoid having the shield broken by an enemy's lucky shot.
When they entered the area surrounding the space station they found that Ratchet had been right to activate the shield before they had reached their destination, because the instant they approached the station several of the Thugs fired at them.
"We are under attack!" Clank exclaimed, knowing that it would help snap Ratchet into the mode he needed to be in if they wanted to get out of this without a scratch on them.
"Its time for some payback," Ratchet said, activating the ship's weapons and heading into battle, tearing into the first ship that came their way without a second thought.
As Ratchet flew around the field and tore into the ships that were firing at them, and he noticed that they had come out in their full force of forty ships instead of two separate waves, Starlight grabbed several of the asteroids around them and hurled them at the station itself. Her intent was to ruin the station beyond repair and take out something that belonged to the Thugs, as Sunset had determined before they arrived that there was nothing they could salvage that she couldn't acquire from the research ship. She did, however, grab several items that appeared on her radar with her magic, certain pieces of the various ships that might come in handy later.
At one point Clank asked her how she was collecting the various pieces that she acquired, to which she explained that she had been working on a device that mimicked the weapons system that they used to cycle through their guns. She also parred it with an experimental device that was supposed to shrink items down, but she had to be certain of what she was grabbing because she could only take ten items max before she ran the battery dry and would have to recharge it. She mentioned that it would take some time to perfect the devices that she was carrying, but she was certain that she and Starlight could do just that... once they were done with what Megacorp wanted of them.
At one point Starlight's asteroid got a lucky shot and tore the station in half, though that was followed by Ratchet tearing the last of the ships to pieces and looking around for anymore enemies.
"Come on, that was disappointing," Ratchet said, turning off the weapons and shields the moment he determined that there were no more enemies in the immediate area, "Clank, see if there are any transmissions in the immediate area."
What Clank found was a transmission from the Thief to the Leader of the Thugs, who proceeded to tear the leader a new one when she exclaimed that the Thugs she had hired were not where they were supposed to be. She then closed by saying that if the Leader's employees didn't come to the destination she specified then their contract would be terminated, only to be followed by the transmission being terminated and leaving the Leader confused. With nothing else to go on, and the station pretty much destroyed, Ratchet turned the ship around and set the coordinates for their next destination, knowing that they'd likely miss the Thief and that they'd find something interesting to make up for it.
When they reached Notak, and climbed out of their ship, Clank pointed at the sky in front of them and they watched the Thief fly off to who knew where.
"We always seem to be late," Clank commented, turning to his companions for a moment, "why do you suppose we're always late?"
"Well, we're chasing someone who knows this system better than we do," Starlight replied, a small smile appearing on her face, "besides, now we can focus on figuring out where the Thief went and what she was doing here. I'm sure that we'll find something, or someone, that can tell us where our target is heading next, that way we can hopefully catch up to her and put an end to this game."
"Well, hopefully we catch her at whatever planet she's heading to next," Ratchet said, checking the map for a moment as he figured out which path they needed to take, "It appears that we'll need to head towards that chemical factory over there if we're going to have any chance at figuring out where the Thief went next, though I see that she also left behind some of her guards to make sure that we don't immediately follow after her."
Before they moved over the bridge and did battle with the Thugs that were waiting for them, they could see them even from where they were standing, they approached the weapon vendor to see if anything new had been added. Ratchet found a weapon called a Synthenoid, which only reminded him of the Glove of Doom and the little robots that tore many of his enemies to pieces. He collected the weapon anyway, knowing that he would only be able to put it to use if he was ever separated from his sisters and needed some help dealing with his enemies. Neither of his sisters bothered picking up the weapon, which he figured that they would do considering what they were capable of doing by themselves.
Once Ratchet had the newest weapon they crossed the bridge and forced the Thugs to emerge from their hiding place, though they were followed by what appeared to be a legion of robotic chickens. Sunset started to laugh as she pulled out her sword and flipped a small switch she had built into the hilt, changing the blade from a solid piece of metal and transforming it into the whip she barely used anymore. Starlight noticed what was about to happen and leapt back with her brother not far behind, but the Thugs, not knowing their sister well enough, weren't so fortunate when Sunset started swinging her sword.
The tip of the whip lashed out towards one of the Thugs and cut his gun in two before he had even a chance to fire it, which was followed by him dropping to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The other Thugs rushed Sunset, hoping that one of them could pass the whip and gain the opportunity to hurt her, but they all fell to the ground as the tip of the whip cut them down as well. Sunset had designed the weapon to do this back when she was in the Solana Galaxy, as it had been useful in dealing with the toads that had bothered her back on Veldin. She hadn't had an opportunity to use this feature since she discovered her magic, as it had been potent enough to allow her to deal with anything without allowing them to get close to her.
When the Thugs had been dealt with Sunset returned the sword to its original form and backed up, allowing her siblings to take over as they loosed a hail of Chopper stars on the robotic chickens. They made quick work of the robotic chickens, allowing them to enter the tunnel on their left and enter a chamber that had a couple of pumps moving in unison. Ratchet smiled and pulled out the gadget he had acquired on Barlow, to which he froze the water in front of them and created a slippery walkway that they could use. Starlight would have preferred to use her magic and create a walkway for them, but she decided that they might as well save their magic for something that deserved to be burned by their powers.
They then leapt into another section of the tunnel that had a dispenser that happened to be spawning the robotic chickens, though as they approached it Starlight whipped out the Blitz Gun and tore the machine to pieces, allowing them to move forward with little to block their path. As they exited the tunnel three more of the Thugs came out of their hiding places and attacked them, though they didn't get very far as Sunset slew one with her sword and her siblings cleared the other two with their Lancers. When the enemies in front of them fell they walked onto the walkway in front of them, but Ratchet had them stop for a moment as he spotted an enemy ship waiting nearby.
Ratchet then pulled out his Pulse Rifle and leveled it with the ship, waiting for a few seconds before putting a shot right in the pilot's heart and destroying the ship in a matter of seconds.
Once the ship was down they eliminated the group of robotic chickens that had been standing in the area before it, which was easily dealt with and opened the way for them to move on. The next platform had another group of robotic chickens waiting for them, though as they moved to clear the way several Thugs popped out from where they were hiding and fired at them. Starlight summoned a shield and stopped the attacks from reaching them, giving Ratchet the opportunity to take out one of the Thugs without having to put himself at risk. Sunset, on the other hand, lifted one of the containers that the Thugs had been hiding behind with her magic and threw it at the platform that they would soon be heading to, destroying the enemies that were waiting for them.
"Let's do this the easy way," Ratchet said when they reached the next platform, leveling his rifle with the platform that they would have to jump to, though he noticed that Starlight was doing the same thing.
The two of them then proceeded to shoot every enemy that happened to be standing on the other platform, erasing them and any allies they might have had before they emptied their ammo. Once they were done with the Thugs they leapt over the gap and rode the elevator up to another platform, where they found another ship waiting for them. Sunset sighed and extended a hand towards the ship, her magic wrapping around it and crushing the metal until the ship exploded as if it had been made of paper. With the ship taken care of they leapt over the next gap and approached what appeared to be a screen like the one that Mr. Fizzwidget used to show them the Thief and the experiment.
What they found was the coordinates for someone's shack, where he worked on ships and upgraded them passed what was considered legal by most companies in the Bogon Galaxy... and that included Megacorp. Ratchet expressed his desire to visit the location at some point in the future, so they didn't have to drain either Starlight or Sunset of their magic by creating a shield to protect them, before Clank stated that they really should be getting a move on. They then leapt off the edge in front of them and levitated down to the platform below them, or glided in Ratchet's case, before they landed on the platform and loosed a few shots at the robotic chickens that were waiting for enemies to show up.
They rounded a corner and spotted another device that was spawning more of the robots, but this time Starlight grabbed an enemy and smashed it into the machine until they were both ruined. The three of them then switched to their hand held weapons and fought their way through the amount of robotic chickens that were coming their way, knowing it would be a waste to use their ammo against such easy enemies. They then approached the factory itself and found a bolt crank waiting outside it, so Ratchet spun it around and opened the door so they could figure out where the Thief went.
Starlight spotted a space where they would have to jump between two walls and tried to convince her siblings to just teleport to the top of the platform, but in the end she was the only one to do that as both Sunset and Ratchet walk jumped until they were beside her. The next turn gave them an overview of the majority of the factory, though the moment they spotted the water beneath them Ratchet pulled out the gadget from before and froze the water solid. Once the deed was done they moved across the surface until they came to a set of platforms that they jumped up until they came to yet another bolt crank.
Once the bridge was connected they crossed over it and smashed the few enemies that were waiting for them, before Ratchet had to thaw the frozen water that was waiting before them. Starlight stayed back as Sunset and Ratchet leapt into the water and swam through the tunnel that had been frozen over, where they emerged on the other side and leapt out without wasting a second. As Sunset beckoned for Starlight to teleport over to them Ratchet unfroze the water in front of them, before he glided down to a bolt crank and revealed another walkway that was connected to the platform he had just been standing on.
Ratchet then swam through another tunnel, froze the water when he was in a smaller area, and leapt up a wall so he could reunite with his sisters, before the three of them moved on. The next watery area had rising water that lowered after it reached the top, but when Ratchet noticed the shark swimming in the water he merely sighed and allowed Starlight to move them to the next platform. They rounded a corner and spotted another shark in the next tank, so Starlight caught it with her magic and quickly moved it into the tank they had bypassed completely. Ratchet then froze the water at a certain point and the three of them walked through the tunnel that was waiting for them, connecting to another tank that had yet another shark in it.
When they were on the next platform Ratchet unfroze the water, but instead of removing the shark this time Starlight merely moved them once more. They then froze the next tank at the halfway point and walked through the tunnel that would take them further into the factory, to which they leapt up into what appeared to be a control room of some kind. They found a trio of small robots, that looked almost identical to the ones that came with the Glove of Doom, speaking with each other, though the conversation stopped as they approached them.
"Excuse me, have you seen any masked weirdos?" Ratchet asked, going through some silly movements to convey his message to the robots, who merely laughed in their own manner.
Clank, knowing that Ratchet would only delay them at this rate, acted on the groups behalf and spoke to the robots, determining that they had a transmission from someone fitting Ratchet's description of the Thief and they were willing to show it to them... for a small price. The message was an order for some chemicals that would allow someone to fire a large rocket or missile of some kind, though the message also contained the exact coordinates where the chemicals were supposed to be delivered.
"Let's go show that Thief that we mean business," Starlight said, smiling as they all knew that the time to fight the Thief had come at last, though as also pulled out the RYNO II for a moment, "and take back that experiment."