//------------------------------// // Commando: Todano // Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Ratchet and his sisters didn't stay on Planet Joba for long, because the moment they had the gadgets they had come for they departed from the planet and began their short journey to their next destination. Ratchet flew the ship into the Ship Shack and gently landed in the indicated area that was available for them, not that there were any other customers around at the moment. Starlight and Sunset moved to the side to share their notes on the Deep Space Disposal Facility that they would soon be visiting, determining how strong the defenses were so they could tell Ratchet what they needed. As it turned out the price for the upgrades was a fair amount of raritanium, though they were fortunate enough to collect quite a large amount of it when they were attacked outside the Maktar Resort and when they ambushed the Thugs in the Feltzin System. The first thing they purchased as additional shielding, so that way Sunset and Starlight wouldn't need to use their magic to empower the shields anymore, before they discovered that there was a third layer of shields they could acquire. Clank determined that they would require more raritanium in order to purchase the third layer of shielding, but that didn't stop Ratchet from buying some additional weapons that he planned on using against whoever their enemy happened to be. He knew that, at some point in the future, he was going to need the additional firepower to overcome whatever opponent they came across, so he was choosing to be prepared this time around. "The ship is as prepared as we can get it at the moment," Ratchet commented, walking away from the terminal with Clank following behind him, "We should be able to deal with the majority of our enemies without having to risk either of you anymore, unless someone manages to kill our shields that is." "Please don't even mention something like that," Starlight said, sighing as she closed the program she had open on her tablet and stowed it away, "I'd rather not jinx ourselves this time around." What she didn't tell either of her siblings was that she had been reviewing something other than the ship upgrades, something that she knew would become important in the future. She had been keeping an eye on what was happening with Sunset's magic, because there were times where her readings said that everything was normal and then she would spot a tiny spike in the data. It also lined up perfectly with the day she spotted the crack in the bracelet that her sister wore, which told her more than it would have told anyone else who was studying magic. Little by little Searing was chipping away at the bracelet, weakening the metal until the day came where she could shatter it from the inside and release all of her power. She knew Sunset was aware of the danger, more than she or Ratchet could ever be, but she didn't want to alarm them that their brilliant plan to seal the crack by wrapping both of their magic around it had basically slowed down the deterioration of the bracelet. One day Searing would be back in control, Starlight knew that it was bound to happen, but the infuriating part was that she couldn't figure out when it was supposed to happen. So she kept her mouth shut on the matter, because if she was wrong about this, and she seriously hoped that she was, then she would be causing unnecessary panic for no reason. Starlight decided that it was better to wait for the moment, because she wanted to get better data and readings before she could determine whether or not she needed to warn her siblings of the danger. Once Ratchet and Clank had determined that they had definitely purchased all of the upgrades that they could afford, as Ratchet wanted to double check before they left, the group climbed into their ship. Ratchet then set the coordinates for the Deep Space Disposal Facility, where they intended on meeting their employer and seeing if they couldn't convince him to get rid of the experiment. When they arrived at the Deep Space Disposal Facility they all noticed how quiet the place seemed, as it appeared that none of the machines were actually working at the moment. Ratchet managed to maneuver their ship inside the facility before coming to a near stop, because he had gotten them as close to the core of the facility as he could before they had been asked for the password. "Input the password whenever your ready Clank," Ratchet said, though he flipped the switched that powered up the ship's shields and weapons, just to be on the safe side in case the word they had been given was wrong. "Check," Clank replied, leaning forward to press the keys that would allow him to transmit the password to the facility's computer, "Here goes nothing." They waited a few seconds, to be sure that the computer had accepted the password, before the defenses turned on them and started firing at their ship. "Great, now we have to hold off the defenses until Mr. Fizzwidget arrives," Ratchet said, a grin appearing on his face as he turned the ship to the first defense mechanism, "Time to see how well these upgrades perform." Ratchet fired at the first defense station he came to, dealing some damage to the machine before he was forced to move out of the way and head towards the second one. Starlight noticed that the damage had caused some sort of blue energy to admit from the machine after they had departed from it, leading her to assume that they had actually done quite a bit of damage to it. Ratchet circled around the six machines twice, the first time to make them all assume the same weakened state as the first one he had targeted, though the second time was when he laid on each turret and broke them into pieces for real. To be sure that none of the facility's defenses came back online both Starlight and Sunset kept their eyes peeled for any repair bots that might come out, though when they found one they merely crushed them with their magic. It wasn't long before all six of the defense turrets, and the mass of repair bots that had come to fix them, were taken care of, which was swiftly followed by Mr. Fizzwidget appearing on their screen. "Come in gentlemen, can you hear me?" Mr. Fizzwidget asked, once again ignoring the fact that he had also hired Starlight and Sunset to aid their brother, though neither of them were about to correct the man. "Sir, you gave us an erroneous password." Clank replied immediately, though the others could tell that he was definitely not amused by the fact that they had been fired upon. "Implausible," Mr. Fizzwidget said, though that was followed by his left hand moving to his chin, as if he was thinking about something, "unless, is this Tuesday or Wednesday? Anyway, sorry to have missed our meeting, but I was called away to film a commercial for our weapons facilitory." "But sir," Ratchet cut in, hoping to get back to the matter at hand, "what about the..." "...the commercial?" Mr. Fizzwidget replied, wrongly assuming what Ratchet was going to say, "Here, watch this." The four of them were then subjected to the commercial that Mr'Fizzwidget was supposed to have been filmed in, though it was clear that he had barely been filmed at all. There was a robotic lookalike that appeared to be doing the entire tour, though during the tour it was giving it lost every single robot that had come to tour the facility. The robot seemed confused when it left the facility alone, though that was where the commercial ended and Mr. Fizzwidget hung up on them before any of them could say anything. "Perhaps we can still find him at the weapons facility," Clank commented, which actually managed to cool Ratchet down enough before they set their new coordinates and left the Disposal Facility behind... before they got fired at some more. They arrived at their next destination, Planet Todano, they actually arrived at the same time as another tour bus, though while the robots were climbing out of their vehicle Ratchet and Starlight restocked all of their weapons. Ratchet spotted a new weapon that had recently become available, something that was called a Hoverbomb Gun, which apparently loosed a floating mine of some kind and only exploded when the trigger was pulled again. He found that the weapon might be good if he was forced to fight alone for once, which had happened many times in the past, so he acquired the weapon and grinned as he finished restocking his weapons. Sunset, for the most part, merely looked ahead of them and took in the sights, which included four large missiles and what appeared to be mutated squirrel creatures. They finished stocking their weapons at the same moment that the tour started, but as Starlight followed them she quickly discovered that there was no information to be gained from the robotic Mr. Fizzwidget, as he and the other robots didn't speak at all. The moment Starlight figured that out she fell back in with Ratchet and Sunset, which was quickly followed by the squirrel mutants coming at them all at once. This time none of them bothered wasting their ammo on their enemies, because as it turned out the mutated squirrels could be killed in one hit of their handheld weapons. Once they discovered this fact they followed the path that the tour would be taking until they reached the end of it, being sure to remove every mutated squirrel that happened to be in their way. The moment they reached the end of the trail Ratchet spotted a terminal that used his newest hacking device, so he activated the terminal and, after a few seconds, the elevator lowered itself until it was were they could get on it. They rode the elevator to the top of the dam, giving them the opportunity to see exactly what they were up against and what they needed to do before they figured out where they needed to go next. From what they could see there were two paths that they could take, one that apparently lead into a missile silo while the second went right into the weapon facility itself. "I volunteer to go through the weapon facility," Sunset immediately said, not even bothering to waste a second before informing her siblings of which path she wanted. "Are you sure you want to go alone?" Ratchet asked, though he knew that the answer would be yes considering the power that his sister was able to call upon, "You sure that you don't want Starlight to follow you?" "You could use her assistance more than I would," Sunset replied, though she tapped her sword for a moment, "besides, I'm sure that there's going to be more security in the missile silo than in the factory... something tells me that they might be more interested in keeping that missile safe than whatever is in the factory." "Then be safe," Ratchet said, sighing for a moment as he tapped the hacking device, "and don't go overboard with the magic." Sunset smiled as she walked towards the entrance of the weapon facility, her sword in motion as she approached a group of mutated squirrels, which rapidly cleared them out of her way. When she actually entered the facility she noticed a security wall that would likely block her way, though when she noticed a movable cylinder to her right she knew what needed to be done. She activated her magic for a moment and moved the cylinder into the security wall, cutting it in half and providing her with a way around it without hurting herself. She knew that she could have just teleported to the other side, but it was much easier to open the way with whatever happened to be around her at any given moment. She walked down the passage that was behind the security wall and entered another area that happened to have two more cylinders leaning against a wall, which told her that there were two more security walls for her to get through. She also spotted what appeared to be a robot inspector of sorts, though she could easily determine that it was necessary to open a door or two that was ahead of where she currently was at the moment. She moved the smaller of the two cylinders into position in the first security wall, though she immediately followed that by moving the larger cylinder into the second wall. Once that was done she grabbed the robot inspector and dragged it over to the door that had been covered by the security walls, though the instant it touched the pad on the floor the door opened for her to move on. Before she ventured deeper into the facility she noticed a ledge in the room she was in, one that lead outside, so she decided to take a look and teleported herself up to the walkway that happened to be up there. As she walked across the bridge that she discovered she spotted what appeared to be one of the security robots that had been built to protect the facility, though she immediately knew that it had to pack quite the punch. The robot noticed her and started firing at her, so she summoned a shield to protect herself and noticed that the weapon the robot used left small dents in her shield. She studied the robot for a few seconds, blocking all of the attacks with her shield as she waited for the moment it had to reload its weapon, though when it happened she teleported behind it and used her wind powers to cut the robot in half. Once that was taken care of she walked up the path that she had discovered and found what appeared to be a makeshift stand of some kind, with what appeared to be a young adult of some race standing on the other side. The odd thing about the young man happened to be the fact that he was dressed in a costume that resembled the one that Qwark wore all the time, which made her wonder how so many people in Bogon knew about the former Captain. "Captain Qwark completing quality control on super electro gadget," the young man said, flipping a gadget in his left hand while holding a larger than normal hammer in his right hand, "Hammer of Power detecting no defects..." That was before the young man noticed that Sunset was even standing there, watching everything he had done for the last minute at most, though he seemed shocked and surprised at the same time. "Sunset Shimmer of Veldin," the young man said, holding his hammer at the ready, almost as if he was going to attack her, "I knew this day would come. Draw your weapon, enemy mine, for I shall smite you in the name of Captain Qwark!" "And why would I want to fight you?" Sunset asked, wondering what she had done to enrage the young man so much, though she suspected that it had to do with the defeat of Qwark half a year ago. "You and your family shamed the greatest superhero who ever lived!" the young man exclaimed, as if he couldn't believe that she was asking him that question, "I shall restore his honor by dispatching all three of you... starting with you if necessary." "Fine, I'll play along," Sunset replied, swinging her sword and locking it back into his normal blade mode, because she assumed that using the whip would be too much for the young man to handle, "So, what's your name?" "Kevin," the young man answered, a grin appearing on his face as he held his hammer at the ready, "Let us dance, enemy mine!" Sunset sighed again and beckoned the young man forward, though every time he swung his hammer at her she merely blocked his attacks with her sword, as she was unsure if he was actually an enemy or a pissed off fanboy. He appeared to be nothing more than a pissed off fanboy in Sunset's eyes, so she didn't get very angry at the few instances where he mentioned Qwark. She found that there was no need to actually use her powers against the young man, because it would be a waste to shatter the young man, when he was only mad that his hero had been disgraced. At one point she managed to get the blade of her sword under the head of the young man's hammer, effectively stopping his weapon in its tracks when she twisted the blade and the whip trapped the weapon. However, just as Sunset was about to disarm her opponent and proclaim victory, the young man twisted the handle of his weapon and it pulsed with energy, knocking her sword out of her hand. The young man then brought the hammer down on where she was standing, though this time Sunset merely summoned a shield to stop the attack dead in its tracks. That was when Sunset noticed that the hammer had glowing veins in its head, though as the weapon came into contact with the shield she watched as some of her own energy was absorbed into the weapon's core. "Hammer of Power, Reflection Mode," Kevin shouted, pulling his arm back and swinging his hammer at the shield again, "Have a taste of your own medicine!" The hammer managed to shatter her shield, somehow, but before it came any closer Sunset ducked out of the way and punched the young man in the chest, though she took the hammer before her opponent tried to attack her again. She also made sure to pin him to the ground with her magic, so she could study the weapon and figure out what he had done to it to give it the ability to absorb and reflect magic like it had done. "Give the Hammer of Power back!" Kevin growled, though Sunset found it hard to take his seriously now that he had been disarmed and pinned to the ground, "It has an experimental energy core that's supposed to absorb different types of energy and use it for its own purposes... your magic was one that I wasn't expecting." "So you aren't planning on trying to kill me or my sister with our own magic?" Sunset asked, though she had half a mind to shatter the hammer and be done with it. "Well, I still want you to suffer for what you did to Captain Qwark," Kevin replied, "but killing all three of you was never my goal to begin with... I want to be a hero for the people of Bogon, not a villain bent on domination." Sunset stared at the young man for a moment, wondering if he was telling the truth or not, but then she sighed and pulled her sword back to her with her magic, before she sheathed her weapon. She tossed the hammer into the air with her magic and caught it in midair, before she called on her intense magic and crushed the hammer under the intensity of her power. She made sure that it, and the power core, were in a thousand pieces... because she didn't want the technology the young man created to fall into the hands of someone that actually wanted to kill her and her siblings. "I'll let you go for now," Sunset said, snatching the device the young man had been working on and dropping it on his chest as she released the magic that had pinned him down, "Don't mention that type of technology to anyone..." She didn't wait to see if the young man agreed to not share the information or if he was planning on reconstructing the device and selling it to someone. She was running behind her siblings and she wanted to get off this planet more than when she arrived, which she assumed was because of what the young man had done and said. Ratchet let out a sigh as he hacked into the terminal as Sunset ventured into the facility, though Starlight stood guard in case there were any surprises for them. When the security wall was open they pulled out their rifles and took out the robot sentry that was apparently waiting for enemies to come its way. The mutated squirrels in the area ahead of them seemed surprised when the robot was destroyed, but they allowed the mutants to kill themselves by accidentally activating all of the mines around them. Ratchet let out a chuckle as he and Starlight moved into the area in front of them, as he was actually amused that the mutated squirrels had done their job for them. They eventually reached the entrance of the silo and rode the elevator they found to the bottom of the shaft, where they both knew they could encounter enemies that would try to hinder their progress. As they left the elevator they found at least five robot soldier enemies standing in their way, guarding the passage that would allow them to progress through the silo. They both switched to their Minirocket Tubes and loosed a set of missiles at the closest robots soldiers, blowing them to pieces and alerting the rest of their forces that they had company to deal with. Ratchet smiled as he cycled to his new Plasma Coil and let a charge out of the weapon, tearing into the enemies that were running out to face him and his sister. As he forced the robot soldiers into the passage they were guarding Starlight loosed missiles at them, blowing them up one at a time until she was sure that they had been taken care of. When they entered the next room they discovered that there were some spawning pads for the robot soldiers to use, because the moment they walked into the area at least three instantly appeared before them. Starlight threw up a shield before any of the robots could attack them, though moments later she was glad to be proven right as several small missiles hit the shield. "You ready to take them out?" Starlight asked her brother, though she immediately knew the answer because Ratchet was always ready for a fight, even if he lacked the proper weapons to win one. "Oh yeah, I'm ready for this," Ratchet replied, priming the Plasma Coil and his Minirocket Tube, as he wanted to be prepared in case one of his weapons ran out, "Let's show them that we mean business." Starlight threw the barrier at the enemies that had gathered before them, to daze them for a moment, before she and Ratchet separated and started loosing their own offensive. Ratchet's Plasma Coil took care of the larger majority of their current enemies, even those that spawned in to continue the fight, though Starlight tore several of the soldiers to pieces with her rockets. When Ratchet's main weapon ran dry he switched to the Minirocket Tube as well, blasting whatever enemies were still there as Starlight made sure that there were no more teleporting in behind them. Once they were sure that there were no more enemies in the immediate area they gently moved forward, just in case there were a lot more enemies waiting ahead of them that they didn't know about. Unfortunately they had been right about worrying about there being additional enemies waiting for them, because the moment they turned the corner they spotted what appeared to be at least ten of the robotic soldiers standing guard over the next gap. Starlight sighed and pulled out the RYNO II, though she had hoped to avoid using it for some time after the last time she pulled it out, but with Ratchet's most powerful weapons out of ammo they needed a better way to clear out their enemies. "I'll shield you while you rip them a new one," Starlight said, levitating the weapon over to her brother, though the moment he had it she threw up a shield with a small opening that he could shoot through. "If you say so," Ratchet said, a grin appearing on his face as he pointed the large weapon at the enemies through the opening, "Oh this is going to be interesting." Ratchet pulled the trigger and the enemies standing in front of them disappeared in a cloud of smoke, though he also wrecked the area that happened to be behind the robotic soldiers. The excitement at using the RYNO was there, but he seemed surprised by the amount of power that it packed, as if he believed that it wouldn't be much stronger than the original weapon. "You can have it back," Ratchet commented, returning the RYNO II to his sister, who put the weapon away the moment she had it back, "I think I'll stick to my weapons for now." They walked across the gap, thanks to the small magical bridge that Starlight summoned, before they rounded a corner and spotted a door that was currently blocked off. Ratchet smiled and accessed the terminal beside it with his new hacking device, though the moment it was open they found a heavily armed robot patrolling the area. The combined power of their rockets tore the robot to pieces in a matter of seconds, allowing them to access an elevator that took them to another area of the silo. When they walked into what appeared to be the last room of the silo they spotted a screen that rested on the wall to their left, though it was currently in the process of receiving a message. Ratchet was pleased to find that Angela was sending them a message, no doubt to inform them that she had discovered something, though he had to wonder how she knew that they were there to begin with. "Angela calling Ratchet on secure band seven echo foxtrot," Angela said, apparently trying to get it to connect all the way, but Ratchet could see what the problem was. "Ratchet here," Ratchet replied, allowing the connection to be secured, "Did you find out something on the experiment and what Mr. Fizzwidget plans on doing with it?" "You mean besides the Thugs taking over my flying lab?" Angela commented, annoyance flashing through her voice for a moment, "Apparently someone made them a better offer than what I had given them. Also, Megacorp has finally given a name to the experiment; they're called the Protopet now. And, to top it off, Ivan has found a rumor that Mr. Fizzwidget is going to the Silver City, on Planet Boldan, to distribute a free batch of the clones... which will only start the panic I was hoping to avoid." "Then my sisters and I will go there and talk some sense into Mr. Fizzwidget," Ratchet replied, though he lifted one of his weapons up for a moment, "by force if necessary." Angela sighed and wished them luck in their endeavor, saying that she was going to try and get some information from the Leader of the Thugs himself, which meant that she'd be sneaking aboard their main ship and looking for the information by herself. Once they were done talking the screen powered down, leaving Ratchet and Starlight to climb out of the area they were in and return to the top of the bridge they had walked across. They found Sunset standing on the bridge... surrounded by sheep and holding a weapon that had to be responsible for the amount of animals around her. Sunset mentioned that she found a weapon called the Sheepinator inside the facility, though she determined that she had no use for it after testing it out and handed it to Ratchet. They, in turn, told her about their brief talk with Angela, informing her of the fact that the Protopet was going to be distributed to a city in a matter of hours. The four of them were in agreement that they needed to head to the city, if only to fight against the Thugs and, if they could do it, have a discussion with their employer. Once they had determined their next course of action they rode a rail from the top of the dam all the way down to their ship, where they could begin their journey to Boldan. Kevin watched Sunset Shimmer as she rejoined her siblings and they, as a group, climbed into their ship before they departed from the weapons facility. He had been warned in advance of her potent magical powers and the possibility that her attitude might change if someone mentioned Qwark or if something happened to her magic. He had even been warned that she might break his hammer, and the experimental core, and in the end it was broken and cast aside like a piece of trash. The only fortunate thing was that he had managed to record his findings, something that he knew his employer would find interesting now that he knew what the device was capable of doing. He pulled out his communicator, counted his blessings that it actually hadn't been damaged from the encounter, and slipped it on, before placing a call to his employer. "I'm here," a voice on the other end said, though it was obvious that he was using a device to change his voice at the moment, "Do you have something to report?" "I have good news and bad news," Kevin replied, pulling up a schematic of the other device he had been working on along side the Hammer of Power, "The bad news is that Sunset Shimmer broke the Hammer of Power when she saw what it was capable of doing. The good news, however, is that the technology works... and that I can continue work on the Power Gauntlet." "How much time do you need to complete the Gauntlet?" his employer asked, though it was clear that he also went to great effort to not sound pleased or annoyed. "At least five days if you want to have it at the capacity I mentioned earlier," Kevin replied, knowing that it would take some time to complete the Gauntlet, which made him fortunate considering he had already started it when his employer requested this test, "then you'll be able to use it for whatever you desire, my Captain." The voice made no effort to acknowledge the last bit of the sentence, though he did authorize the work be resumed on the Gauntlet and that he take all the time he needed on fixing up the device. Kevin was excited to be fixing up the Gauntlet once more, because at the moment Sunset Shimmer had no idea that there was another device that could bring harm to their magic. She and her siblings would rue the day that they shamed the greatest superhero in the entire Solana Galaxy, if not the entire universe... and he was glad to be a part of bringing them down.