Arsenal: Gemini, Blackwater, Draco
When the trio first arrived in the Obani Moons system on the first of the Gemini Moons, they discovered that the satellite network - which would have told them everything they needed to know about the freighter they knew had passed through - had been disabled and in need of repair. Thankfully, said repair only required redirecting the laser communication network between the satellites, which was both easy and safe despite the many enemies that attacked them, due to the Refractor circuitry being built into their armor.
"Great thinking with this design, Twi!" Ratchet said happily. "Makes the laser work a lot smoother."
Twilight giggled happily, pleased with herself.
Twilight found part of the job rather enjoyable. The jump pads used to access the floating platforms sent her flying much higher than Ratchet, and she always went up it with a loud, "Yahoooo~!" Ratchet would merely roll his eyes at this, letting her have her fun.
Once the laser network was finished, an energy field fell, opening a teleporter to the second of the Gemini Moons.
On the second moon, there were more enemies and a great many jump pads. The small stun bots were easily dealt with using a single strike from any weapon, or even a backwing from Twilight. The soldier type robots were tougher, but not by much, and still went down easily. The flying robots with arm mounted auto-plasma-cannons, however, were much more difficult to deal with, especially as there was little warning before they showed up and began to fire. After the first one kept them pinned down for an entire volley before it had to reload, Twilight got frustrated and took them out with her RY3NO.
This was enough nanotech acquired to upgrade the weapon to the Rynocerator. After one test fire shot of the weapon, Twilight began her report on it.
"RY3NO version 5, aka the Rynocerator, is the stupidest 'upgrade' I have ever seen!" she complained into the recorder. "Rather than a weapon with multiple shots to take out a large number of targets, it is now a barely controlled wave of destructive force that does a set amount of damage. Anything that can be taken out with that amount of damage is instantly vaporized. Anything that can't be destroyed by that amount, however, is unharmed unless the energy is shot through them before the explosion goes off! Not only that, the wave is directional, and doesn't go past the original weapon, so enemies who are behind the user or out of sight are unharmed. The Rynocerator is a serious downgrade from the RY3NO V4, and I strongly recommend that this model be scrapped, and funding put towards a new style of RYNO, one that does not become a useless pile of overpriced scrap once fully upgraded!"
After taking a deep breath, she continued. "Note to self: prune all RY3NO audio reports to be professional before sending them off to Gadgetron HQ."(1)
Ratchet stared at her. "Remind me not to buy a RY3NO," he murmured.
Meanwhile, at a presently unknown location, Nefarious whistled in appreciation. "Sparks has quite a fire in her, and an inventor's passion for a well made machine. I had not expected that. A true child genius, as well as a cybernetic star." He glanced at her bio. "Hmm...nearly 11 years old...well, I can be patient-"
From his place in his cage, Clank grabbed hold of the bars. "You keep your dirty metal claws away from her!" he snarled, his voice synthesizer sparking and erroring as it tried to convey the full force of his rage.
Nefarious blinked, turning to face him. "Well now, Agent Clank," he said softly, approaching the cage, "I truly never expected such passion from you...let alone on behalf of a half-squishy..." He leaned over. "But then again, she is your ward-"
Despite the electrical field keeping Clank contained, his right hand seized Nefarious by the throat and slammed his face against the cage. "Harm one hair or circuit on her, and I will kill you...even if I have to make you choke to death on my last functioning servo to do so." Clank's voice was absolutely calm, no visible emotion in it...but his eyes were narrowed to crimson slits that bored into Nefarious' mind like a demon reaching from hell to tear what was left of his soul to pieces.
Nefarious stared into those eyes for as long as he could without breaking...exactly 0.68 seconds. He then turned away. "Duly noted," he whimpered.
Clank released him, his right arm scorched from the electricity till it was barely functional, dropping limp at his side as he sat back.
Nefarious quickly scooted back to his chair as he struggled to get himself under control.
"A fair warning," Clank then said, before Nefarious completely recovered his calm. "Should you ignore my words, I will not be the only one hunting you."
"Y-you think I fear the squishies?" Nefarious stammered defensively.
Clank said nothing for a time. However, as Nefarious turned back to the screen, he answered, "You should."
Before long, Ratchet, Clank, and Twilight reached the end of the available paths, coming to a stop at a massive locked generator powering an Omega Class disintegration field that had Obani Draco completely sealed off.
"Cover me!" Skidd shouted as he charged in from out of nowhere. He promptly tripped over an uneven floor tile. "Man down!" he screamed in panic.
Twilight did her best not to giggle as Ratchet shook his head. "It's alright Skidd," he assured him. "Fight's over."
Skidd nodded, deciding to neither feign bravado or reveal cowardice as he stood and brushed himself off. "Sorry I'm late. I encountered...heavy resistance."
At this, Twilight snorted in amusement. "At the drive thru?" she asked, gesturing to the ketchup stain on his uniform and the 'Galaxy Burger' wrapper stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
Skidd blushed brightly. "So...what's the situation?"
"We need to find some way to unseal this," Twilight stated, gesturing to the massive barrier before them. "If we can disable the generator, the field will drop."
"I'll take care of it!" Skidd proclaimed. "Got just the right equipment with me!" He pulled out a crowbar. "Might take me a while, though."
"Take your time, but stay hidden," Ratchet instructed. "We never know when-"
"Sarge! Come in Sarge!" an urgent communication interrupted.
Clank opened the comm, revealing Ironhead on the other end. "Sarge, we have a problem here on Blackwater City," he explained. "The 'Noids are coming in hot. Nothing we couldn't handle normally...but we've got civilians caught in the crossfire. We have to choose between taking out the 'Noids or protecting the civs. We've set up a protected base, but the 'Noids have called in backup. We need back up to take out the 'Noids before the heavy artillery gets here!"
"We're on our way, Ironhead!" Twilight replied quickly. "Hang on till we get there! That's an order!"
"Sir, yes Ma'am!" Ironhead replied, saluting. The communication cut out.
"Let's go!" Ratchet said, heading for the warp pad nearby for the quick path back to the ship.
Once at Blackwater City, Ratchet, Clank, and Twilight air dropped in to where the Sparkle Squad had set up, quickly coming to their aid to push the 'Noids back.
"Nice timing, Sarge," Eagle said softly. "With you here, we can show these 'Noids what for."
"And what five, too!" Boom Boom proclaimed before laughing maniacally.
"Right!" Twilight agreed. "My RY3NO has recently become useless, so we're going to need to be more careful with our weapons and ammo."
"Leeeeroy~ Jeeeeenkins!" Madd shouted out as he charged across the bridge.
"...or not," Twilight allowed.
The bridge was cleared rapidly, and after that a few well launched explosives from Boom Boom took out the 'Noid base defense turrets. Eagle was able to take out the saucers and dropships before they could be a problem. With the city secure, Ratchet, Clank, and Twilight made their way back to the ship.
On the ship, a message had been left from Skidd, informing them that Courtney Gears had been witnessed at the generator on Obani Gemini II. It also stated that the disintegration field was down. However, the message was cut off half way through.
"That's not a good sign," Twilight worried as Ratchet punched in the coordinates for Obani Draco.
The inside of Obani Draco was reminiscent of the ventilation shafts back on Gemlik, where they had to cross through various chambers at odd gravitational angles while hazardous liquids raised and lowered. This was made much easier than it had been back then, first by Ratchet's Magnegrind Boots - which functioned so well with magnetized surfaces, amongst others, that the planned Gravity Boots gadget had been canceled as being obsolete - and Twilight's flight. The circular passages with partially electrified walls proved even less of a challenge for the group.
It wasn't long before the trio reached the center of the moon base. "This is the testing laboratory for the Bio-bliterator," Clank explained.
"Let's see what Nefarious has been up to," Ratchet said, playing the security camera feed.
The group stared in shock as the video showed Skidd getting converted into a robot by a ray gun.
"They turned Skidd into a robot?" Ratchet asked in disbelief. "That's...impossible!"
"Not necessarily," Twilight countered. "In theory, there is no measurable difference between biological brain wave activity and that of a positronic brain. The only real difficulty would be the encoding process, which had never been perfected. The problem had always been the brainwaves resisting the transfer, but converting the physical body into a robotic one and the physical brain into a positronic one at the same time, encoding DNA and brain wave patterns into data simultaneously would step over that issue. From the looks of it, he's using a massive energy source to stabilize the conversion process and utilizing a basic control program to suppress the personality matrix until the adjustment is complete, which would prevent the expected conversion trauma. That's actually rather brilliant!"
Ratchet and Clank stared at Twilight, their jaws hanging.
Their jaws weren't the only ones hanging, though the only ones there. "Did...did she just completely reverse engineer the theory behind my Bio-bliterator just from seeing it used once?" Nefarious demanded breathlessly.
"It...does seem that way, sir," Lawrence replied gently.
"Are...are you a little frightened of her now, too?" Nefarious asked nervously.
"Lubricating my pants in terror, sir," Lawrence replied with his normal calm, cool, collected voice.
"Don't be afraid Ratchet," Courtney Gears' voice echoed through the testing lab. "The transformation doesn't hurt...much-"
"Actually, given the control program, even if the transformation does hurt, the memory of the pain would be completely suppressed, and could then easily be deleted to avoid trauma-"
"Don't you ever shut up?" Courtney demanded.
"Only after I've tracked down the self destruct device Nefarious planted on you to keep you from spilling the beans on him once you realized he'd been using you," Twilight replied. There was a click over the comms as an innocuous device disconnected from Courtney's back. "Done."
"You...you're kidding," Courtney replied. "My Neffy-weffy would never do that to me..." She tried to sound certain, but her voice quavered.
"But you doubt," Twilight replied. "It's far too believable that Nefarious was using you. You've read and watched too many dramas - holo or otherwise - to not imagine the evil genius using and casting aside the lovely damsel with connections, her being little more than a tool and toy, to use and discard...and destroy if you became a liability."
There was silence for a time. "...if I turn myself in and tell you everything I know...can you..."
"I've got some pull," Twilight replied. "It'll be easy for me to tell the higher ups that you were actually a double agent working for our side all along, and I can keep you safe from Nefarious trying to get revenge on you. Just head back to Holostar. Derek has a safehouse already prepared."
"Alright," Courtney replied. "Thanks, Sparks." The communication ended.
"Wow," Ratchet said into the silence. "I...never imagined Nefarious would go that far."
Twilight was silent. "Let's get Skidd back to the Phoenix," she said quietly. "Al might be able to figure out how the Bio-bliterator works by examining Skidd, and figure out how to reverse it."
As they headed back to the ship, Twilight teleported the device she'd remotely removed from Courtney Gears to herself. Courtney really was as dumb as they came as far as pop stars went. Nefarious wasn't smart enough to think to do something like this to keep Courtney from talking, no matter how believable it was for him to have done so.
Which was why Twilight had put the 'explosive' on Courtney herself back on Holostar. Courtney never even noticed the Holostar Logo on the device.
(1) Before anyone says anything about my representation of the Rynocerator here, it is based in my personal experience using the weapon in the PS2 version. Please no 'corrections' based on anything they did with it in the PS3 version, or your own experience. I'm just using Twilight here to vent my own frustrations with the 'upgrade'.
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Indeed, Most of my new playthoughs came from wanting to use that weapon when it was actually useful.
Wait, how did Nefarious have Clank captured, yet he was with Ratchet and Twilight immediately after? Did I miss something?
figured
once
inventor's
Duly
though? (maybe rephrase a bit, "though they were"?)
you
wow, twilights character got a little dark at the end there. me like.
Clever girl...
6053748 Yea I liked the older version, I wish I could have kept it at level 4 then super powered the damage from that stage. Buck the mass detonation, it's useless in boss battles, unless you actually hit the boss, and even then it makes more sense to use the heavy bouncer, especially on ground bound bosses. For areal enemy's I prefer using the Rockets.
.... Which one plays the 1812 as it fires again? cause the novelty of that alone makes it my favorite... and despite not playing the game myself, most of the LP's i have watched agree with you on how stupid that 'upgrade' was....
I am still wondering how you will work twilight into Deadlocked as i can not see anyway that can work and still be believable/readable.
6053768 Yes. The Clank with Twi and Ratchet is in fact Klunk, an imposter
6053882 Simple, Vox has the explosive collars around more than just them. One of them takes it off and all of them go boom. As for their capture, Twilight is repairing the engines and gets knocked out.
6053882
That was the one from Crack in Time that played the music. Still missed the fire ability of the one from Tools of Destruction myself, but the music was a nice touch.
does not become a useless pile of overpriced scrap one fully upgraded
as Ratchet shook hid head
SKidd proclaimed
but converting the physical body
intointo a robotic one1. Once.
2. His.
3. Extra capitalisation.
4. Extra Into.
You can never hate Lawrence, he's too good of a character even if underutilised a little.
6053768
There are currently two Clanks.
One is held captive by Nefarious.
One is with Ratchet and Twilight.
Details beyond that are spoilers.
Well, that was intense. You know what else is intense?
But, only the part of the clip that it starts at.
Not that the rest isn't, but it doesn't make sense with the quote from the chapter...
"Wow," Ratchet said into the silence.  "I...never imagined Nefarious would go that far."
Ratchet, there is not a "to far" for villeins or evil in general. they do what ever they can to win, well only the smart ones that is.
I didn't know there was a new version of the RY3NO in the Ps3 version. What was it like?
6054352
I honestly don't know if there is or not. I've never played the PS3 version. But changing the Rynocerator is an update that would make sense.
Nice chapter, good way of dealing with Courtney. I love Clank's threat to Nefarious about hurting Twilight. Scary little robot. Looks like Rachet isn't the only one who will go Papa Wolf, though Clank might be more a Knight Templar Big Brother
6054363
Well if it was a thing that ever did exist, then clearly was changed after Twilight sent in her report.
true i hated it against "nefary"
I was displeased with the Rynocerator too, but for different reasons. While I do actually like the whole, 'up close' aspect on the not-one-shot enemies (my favourite Ratchet 1 weapon was the walloper) I don't like one-shot weapons in platformers because it makes the game too easy, and the Rynocerator removed the need and, by extension, desire to upgrade all the other weapons.
PS2 version
Twilight and Rachet beta test Gagetron products, so you can always argue it was the prototype version.
6053779 It had the Holostar logo on it, so maybe it was a prop? She'd probably wave it in Nefarious' face later and get him to 'overload' again when he starts to monologue.
6054957
Yup. It was a prop. It wasn't even a real explosive. That's why 'explosive' was in air quotes when she was examining it.
6054853well i do agree on that but it really was a piece of crap when upgraded to V5.
The other models are awesome but what is the best of them all?
6053975
could also add magic blocking or sensing abilities so that if she tries to teleport it would go off. Though considering how well she owned the annilation nation courses, that story ark might not be as long as others, lets just wait and see how it turns out after it's written.
Dude vent away a gun thats rubbish should be noted
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6054111 WHAT!?
Was…Nefarious actually considering…EWWWW
Oh, Courtney. You so dumb.
Yeah you know, I honestly stopped buying the RYNO weapons after this game, for the exact reasons you mention. That upgrade SUCKS!!!!
Hmm... so, Twilight implanted a bomb inside of Courtney, for the sole purpose of staging a 'betrayal' later.
Damn... Twilight is one good manipulator... is it even more creepy that because of this, she is more fit to be Dr Nefariouss love interest?
6060842
She planted a prop that she claimed was a bomb.
Dang. None of my readers should play Poker with this Twilight.
A fan of Psych now are we? Me too. I watched that episode your referencing from over a dozen times already and it still hasn't gotten old
6061727
...I'm referencing an episode of Psych? Where?
6060851
Dammit! And there goes the villain potential... Moony and her could have had so much to talk about.
Still a manipulator tho.
If it makes u feel any better, I saw through her bluff with Courtney Gears. It was, after all, the only logical action for her to have taken. Although Twi has been vindictive in the past, that has only been toward those who gave her reason to be. Miss Gears did not, so planting an actual explosive device was against her nature
About the Rynocerator upgrade. There were no changes in the ps3 version, as it essentially fires in the same manner, and is ineffective against bosses. Personally, I really never used the RYNO anyway, as I could never get enough bolts to get it, and it's low ammo never really made it a useful weapon. There's better ones.
Something that I want to ask; is there going to be any crossover chapters for Size Matters, or are you skipping that particular game? I'm only asking this as it's the only one besides the first 3 that I've played so far, and I kinda like what they did for that one.
6053768
Do you remember that Twilight requested stunt double for Clank? Secretly.
6061782 When you had one of the soldiers yelling the name Leroy Jenkins. That same name was yelled in the same way in the episode Last Night Gus
6100723
...actually, I was referencing the original World of Warcraft event that was the origin of that meme...
Your right about RY3NO v5.
Wait, I'm confused. Clank is currently captured by nefarious while also fighting with ratchet and twilight?
6210536 nefarious replaced clank with a doppleganger in the game so it could lead ratchet into a trap.
lol I needed that.
I seem to remember that the Rynocerator did the exact same thing in the ps3 re-master, as nothing was changed in the game.
All they really did is port it over and cleaned the graphics up a bit. I'll have to confirm though, as it's been awhile since I played Arsenal.
6412799 I was expecting Ratchet or Eagle to say, "...he just ran in!"
Also, the fact Madd ran in was awesome! ...because he's the chicken of the group!
Yeah... I freaking hated that thing when I got it to V5. IT WAS SOOOOOO BAAAADDDD!
7125080 and what in hell is Leroy Jenkins a reference to? I'm at a loss at this point.