C: Veldin; Confrontation

It didn't take Ratchet or his sisters long to land their ships outside their house, though as Ratchet landed near the shed he had built his first ship in, and had blown up on Novalis, Starlight and Sunset landed their ship near the shed that held Sunset's hoverbike. Once the ships had landed the three of them leapt out of their ships and approached the front of their house, where Clank walked behind Ratchet the entire time. Their house was pretty much untouched, which made Starlight wonder if Drek even knew that he had stood in front of their house when he shot that commercial.

As her siblings made sure that their house was the same as they had left it, which she was sure that nothing had been moved since they were last here, Sunset pulled up her map of the region of the Kyzil Plateau and discovered that the electric fence she had repaired had been completely broken.

"And now I have another reason to hate Chairman Drek," Ratchet commented, just as he and Starlight approached Sunset, "that poster of Qwark I had is missing."

"I still don't understand why you'd want to keep it after what happened on Umbris." Clank replied, having connected himself to Ratchet's back so they could get underway with ease.

"It was a Limited Edition Captain Qwark Collectable Poster from when he first started his 'adventures'." Ratchet stated, putting some emphasis on the word adventures, now that they knew that not everything about the Captain was actually true, "I figured that I could keep the poster until I found something to trade it for, but it seems that Chairman Drek ripped it right off the wall and ruined it... such a shame too, there were only six of them left when I found that one."

"Oh for the love of..." Sunset moaned, priming her weapon as she stopped near the weapon vendor, eying the toads that had invaded the area thanks to Drek's forces, "Look, we can worry about finding one of the other posters when we've finished off Chairman Drek and stopped his planet ending schemes... though it appears that we'll have to cut through the rest of his forces to reach him."

Starlight nodded and restocked her weapons until they were all full on ammo, to which Ratchet sighed and followed suit, seeing how they had spent quite a fair amount of their arsenal against Drek's fleets. Once the three of them had their ammunition replenished they turned to the path in front of them and switched to their hand held weapons, as they had no reason to waste ammo on the toads. As the three of them removed the toads they noticed that some of the soldiers took to the air and aimed their weapons at them, though before the closest one could get a missile off Starlight loosed one of her own and took it out. Sunset took the opportunity to do the same with the soldier floating above the bridge, clearing the immediate area of enemies so they could see what was waiting in front of them.

As they reached the middle of the bridge they spotted a ship fly overhead and come to a stop nearby, to which three more soldiers appeared in their path as the ship disappeared. Sunset switched to her hand held weapon for a moment as she assaulted the toads at the end of the bridge, allowing Ratchet to pull out the Visibomb Gun and take out the soldiers from afar. Considering how many enemies were in their way, and the amount of firepower Chairman Drek had assembled to take them out, removing enemies from afar was fair game at this point. The moment the soldiers were taken care of the three of them continued forward, leaping from platform to platform as they neared the tunnel that their enemies had been dropped off in front of.

A large group of toads greeted them as they approached the small tunnel, though as they eliminated their enemies Sunset spotted another soldier at the end of the tunnel. She beckoned to the nearby cliff and then to the enemies that she assumed would be in their way on the other side of the walkway, to which her siblings nodded their understanding before they moved into position. As they split up Sunset called on her magic and formed a fireball in her right hand, to which she ducked under the soldier that was in her way and blasted him in the back, blowing him to pieces in seconds. Before she relaxed she spotted a ship move into position, aimed right at the area where her siblings were at the moment, so she pulled out her Devastator and blew the ship to pieces before it could fire any missiles.

"You guys okay?" Sunset asked, using a speech function of their helmets that she had painstakingly rebuilt, as the original Pilot's Helmet systems were all focused on controlling ships and nothing else.

"Yeah, we're fine." Starlight said through her helmet, indicating that the function worked at long last, "We weren't expecting that ship to appear at all, so I'm glad you took it out before it could fire on us."

"Can we focus on taking them out?" Ratchet cut in, though Sunset could hear the sound of him readying the next missile in his Devastator, "If we take too long Drek might decide to activate that laser of his and blow Veldin to pieces... with us along with it."

Sunset looked across the gap in front of her and spotted a tank moving around the area, though not a few seconds later a duo of Devastator missiles flew through the air and tore it to pieces. She then moved out into the open area and worked her way around the pathway, taking care of the toads that she found before she came to the area that she and Ratchet found Clank in so long ago. She also noticed that there was quite a number of enemies blocking her path, but she smiled as she threw up a shield in front of her, to which the soldiers in front of her looked confused for a moment.

Seconds later four devastator missiles entered the area in front of her, tearing the four soldiers to pieces as the tank behind them zeroed in on where Sunset was standing. Sunset, on the other hand, used that opportunity to to create a sphere made completely of wind in her left hand, so that once it was ready she lowered her shield and charged forward. The tank loosed its missiles at her as she approached it, but she used the shadows around her to avoid the missiles as she crossed over to where the tank was resting, allowing the missiles to take out the toads that had been waiting in front of the tank. The instant she reached her target she leapt onto its body and slammed the sphere into its power source, allowing the magic to tear the tank into a shower of pieces as she landed behind it.

"Impressive," Starlight said, crossing the gap with her magical steps as she and Ratchet joined their sister, "I guess that's one more spell that we can add to our growing list of spells that we can use to wreck Chairman Drek and his soldiers.... which reminds me."

Starlight turned towards the electric fence that was blocking their way, zeroed in on the ship that was floating above the fence, and tore it out of the sky with her magic, slamming it into the ground until it was completely destroyed. Once the ship was taken care of they approached the fence, where Ratchet pulled out the Trespasser and activated the interface that was waiting for them. As Ratchet took care of the fence Sunset stared at it, realizing that everything that Drek had used to build his blockade had been ripped from the fence she had created to keep the toads away. Their enemy was using what she had created against them, though she was sure that Drek had no idea that she had built the fence he had torn to pieces.

Sunset made a mental note to come back to any fence they found once they had finished off Drek, so that she could see if it was possible to rebuild the fence after what their enemy had done to it.

The instant the fence went down they spotted six toads hopping around the area, so they switched to their Blasters and shot them down so they could move on. Starlight stared at the metallic walkway in front of them and conjured a moving platform, to which the three of them climbed onto it and let it carry them to the end of the line. When they reached the top they found another Gadgetron vendor sitting nearby, but seeing how they weren't stressed for ammunition at the moment the three of them walked to the Hydrodisplacer pipe. Ratchet pulled out the gadget that they needed and inserted it into the pipe, draining the water below them and opening the way for them to move forward once again.

They spotted a button blocking their way, another one that looked like the ones on Pokitaru, so Starlight gripped it with her magic and forced it into the floor, opening the large pipe in front of them that had been sealed a moment ago. They entered the pipe and found an area that they could climb up, so they carefully climbed the ladder and leapt up to the platform above them... only to find that there were more soldiers waiting for them. As the soldiers trained their weapons on them Sunset threw up a shield in time to intercept the first volley of attacks, giving the three of them time to prepare their own weapons.

When the shield came down the three of them separated from each other, though Ratchet moved to the left of where they had been standing and loosed a Devastator missile at the soldier flying in front of him. Starlight and Sunset did the same thing, where the three of them moved forward and rained destruction on the soldiers that were currently in their path at the moment. The tank at the end of the tunnel turned towards them as they took out the rest of the enemies, but before it could fire a missile at them Starlight's horn lit up and she picked the machine up.

"Its... heavier than I was expecting it to be," Starlight moaned, as she had actually never lifted something like a tank before today, "but I do have a way to dispose of it without wasting any ammunition on it."

As she approached where the tank was waiting she spotted several soldiers dropping out of their ships and turning to face the tunnel that the three of them were leaving. She grunted as she ignited more of her magic, lifting the tank into the air for a second before she threw it at the soldiers in front of them, crushing them under the weight of the tank. Then, to be sure that neither the soldiers or the tank survived, she conjured a lightning bolt into existence and blew the tank up from afar, erasing it and whoever she had crushed. The other soldiers, distracted by Starlight tossing the tank around like a toy, failed to notice the Devastator missiles flying their way, so they were removed without even noticing that they were under attack.

They waited for a few minutes, to give Starlight some time to recharge a bit from the amount of magic she spent on the tank, before they started for the next platform. They encountered several more soldiers that had come off of another ship, which meant that none of them were even aware of what had happened before they arrived. Sunset, deciding to take a different approach this time, summoned another shield and intercepted a volley of missiles before they could touch the three of them, but this time Ratchet didn't need to be told what to do next. He pulled out the Visibomb Gun and started loosing missiles out into the open area, turning them so he could strike every enemy that was in their path... and that included the ship that had brought more soldiers into the area.

When he was sure that the coast was clear he nodded his head and switched to his Devastator, while Sunset lowered the shield and the three of them continued to march through the obstacles that Drek had put in their path.

-----------------------------

"And she can throw tanks around like toys!" Drek fumed, walking around his platform as he looked at his tablet, keeping track of where the troublemakers were so he would know if he needed to suit up or not, "I guess its a good thing I planned on expecting all three of them to reach me, because at the rate their going I'm going to need my battle mech to finish them off."

He paused for a moment and looked at the mech that was floating in the air behind him, taking in the weapons that were designed to get rid of both Starlight and Sunset. He had painstakingly created this suit of armor to combat their potent magical abilities, though based on the black crystals of Batalia and the destabilization of Gaspar he was beginning to wonder if he hadn't bitten off more than he could chew. He also considered jumping into the suit before his enemies arrived and just press the button that would end this mud ball of a planet, so that way he could be rid of two birds with one stone.

He then turned back to the tablet for a moment, rewatching the scene where Starlight lifted the tank into the air and threw it like it had been a toy for her to play with... to which he sighed and turned to the battle mech.

"It cannot be helped," Drek said, not liking the idea of having to dirty his own hands in this matter, "I'll give them the true meaning of despair before I destroy this pitiful planet."

-----------------------------

The three of them moved onto a platform that had only toads on it, so Ratchet moved towards the edge while Starlight and Sunset got rid of the pests that Drek had allowed to enter the area once more. There seemed to be no end to the amount of soldiers that Drek had to throw at them, or the ships that brought more in, and they were definitely running low on Devastator missiles. It was fortunate that they had more weapons to use against their enemies, because at the rate they were going they were going to have to switch at some point. To prove the point Ratchet used the last Visibomb Gun missile he had to scout the area in front of them, finding another electric fence blocking their way with more soldiers standing guard.

"Drek's definitely giving us a run for our bolts this time," Ratchet commented, turning to his sisters as he switched to the Tesla Claw, "So, how are we going to get to the end if we run out of our main weapons halfway there?"

"Okay, no more games," Starlight replied, pulling out the RYNO and jumping onto the platform above them, to which she obliterated everything in front of her with one press of the button, "At the rate we're going Drek is going to activate the Deplanetizer and blow Veldin to pieces before we even reach him. I'm going to eliminate everything that's standing in our path."

Sunset sighed as Starlight ran forward, using the powerful RYNO missiles to tear down everything and everyone that happened to be standing in their path. She and Ratchet followed their sister, swinging on the Swingshots and landing where they assumed their sister would be, only to find that she had torn the electric fence to pieces. They followed the path of destruction that was in front of them, though after a few seconds they found that Starlight was waiting behind a stone pillar, as if she was surveying the enemy in front of her before she moved in. Ratchet spotted a large amount of enemies standing between them and where he suspected that they were supposed to go next, though he knew what was coming.

Once the three of them were together again Starlight moved forward, taking down everything that dared to stand against her and her siblings, though Sunset suspected that many of their enemies were starting to clear out thanks to the power that her sister was pouring out at the moment with the RYNO. The moment the area was clear of enemies they engaged their Swingshots once more and swung across the gap in front of them, landing in another pipe that had a ladder they immediately climbed, where they got a glance at what remained in their way. Sunset stared at their enemies for a moment, counting at least another ten shuttle ships and fifty soldiers blocking their way, but she knew that it was only a matter of time until they were cleared out... either by Starlight's RYNO or a direct order from Drek.

They then entered another chamber that had a Hydrodisplacer pipe, to which Ratchet pulled out the gadget and deposited the water he had taken from the first pipe they had encountered. Once that was done they leapt into the water and submerged themselves, where they swam to the other chamber that was connected to the one they were currently in and climbed out onto the railing around them. They followed the small pipe for a moment and appeared outside the water tanks, to which they discovered a platform that they had seen on Quartu... the one that turned small robots big an vise versa.

None of them questioned how one of them showed up on Veldin, but rather they approached the machine and Clank leapt onto it, growing into his giant state so they could finally reach their target's location.

Clank smashed through all the obstacles that had been placed in his path, swinging his fists at the enemy soldiers, shuttle ships, and the walls that had been placed at what appeared to be the end of the road. Ratchet, Starlight, and Sunset rode on Clank's shoulders, making sure that their friend got every enemy that tried to fight them and smashed every ship into pieces. As they broke the second wall down Sunset noticed that they were getting close to one of Chairman Drek's structures, which told her that they might have reached the location that their target had been waiting in. The instant Clank stepped into the ringed area a black battle mech, this one designed to float around and fire attacks from afar, lowered itself into the area.

What was when the four of them noticed that Chairman Drek was in control of the mech, which told them that it was time to end this game once and forever.

"Imbeciles!" Drek shouted at them, "After all the trouble you've gone through, after all the terrors you've witnessed, you're about to die right where you started. Its actually kind of... poetic... when you think about it. Don't look so surprised to see my battle mech, I knew that once you had finished off that idiot Qwark it would only be a matter of time until we fought. I had this beauty prepared for the event that you managed to survive my gauntlet of soldiers, crafted by the greatest scientist to ever grace the Blarg, but instead of me explaining how this mech works I'll just show you instead."

Clank charged forward and swung his fist at the Chairman, but Drek seemed to have been expecting that attack and moved his mech backwards, escaping through an opening in the structure around them and heading to the plateau that was closest to where they were standing at the moment. Before any of them could get prepared for the fight with Drek, and restock their ammo at the vendor that happened to be there, Sunset noticed something strange about the mech's left arm, as part of it seemed to be glowing. A few seconds later Sunset was lifting into the air, which surprised all of them because neither she nor Starlight were using magic at the moment, before she was dragged through the air by some unseen force that tugged at her bracelet.

"I could easily beat that lost Lomax and the defective war bot on my own," Drek said, staring at Sunset as she floated in front of him, "I could even beat him if he was allied with that unicorn. Two magic users, on the other hand, would have been much more difficult for me to defeat, especially when you're at least five times more powerful than your sister. My head scientist designed this addition to the mech, so that I could lock onto that pure gold bracelet that you've been wearing and drag you away from your pathetic family... all so that I could eliminate you with the greatest of ease."

Before Sunset could say anything she spotted a charge forming in the left arm of Drek's mech, though as she took into account that her siblings were directly behind her, and thus in the way of whatever Drek was planning, she decided that she could take whatever he was doing and used her magic to summon a barrier in front of her family. That was before a burst of energy erupted from the mech's left arm and barreled into her, forcing Sunset to take the full force of whatever attack he had been preparing. When the smoke cleared Drek grinned at the limb body that his mech's newest ability was holding, though by his scans he knew that there was no nanotech left in his target.

He had been expecting more of a challenge from someone as powerful as Sunset Shimmer, but it appeared that his head scientist might have gone overboard with the readings and videos in the effort to excite him.

"Worthless trash," Drek growled, tossing the still body to the ground as he turned towards the remaining enemies, who were finally getting a look at what had happened as the barrier fell, "I guess its about time that I bring an end to this pitiful world."

"Sun... Sunset?" Starlight said, engaging her magic and appearing beside her sister, but she got no response and her scans got nothing on her nanotech levels, "No... this cannot be happening... not after everything we've been through."

Drek glanced at the unicorn as she laid next to her fallen sister, merely because his scans had indicated a rise in magical energy, another item his head scientist had created for this fight, before turning to the massive robot coming his way. Then the energy in the area spiked for a moment, to which he turned back to the fallen cazar and her sister, though as he looked at them again he noticed that the pony had dark mist rolling off of her eyes. The darkness surged around the cazar's body, as if the unicorn was trying to bring back her fallen sister with some unnatural means, though Drek would have none of that as he pointed his mech's left arm their way once again. He'd obliterate both of them in an instant, so that way he could focus on taking care of the robot that was approaching him and then get to destroying this planet.

That was seconds before the darkness around Starlight was snatched from her eyes, bending around Sunset's body as the magic in the area created a storm of energy around the cazar. When the smoke cleared Drek, Ratchet, Clank, and Starlight stared at sunset in confusion, because instead of a normal cazar standing there they saw a feral fox like creature standing there, with all four of her limbs touching the ground. Sunset's body had turned pure white, her hands and feet had turned into sharpened claws designed to deal massive damage, and there was even a white mask that completely covered her face, though there were two horns attached to it. Starlight noticed that there were red markings on her sister's body, though where her heart was supposed to be there was a hole they could all see through.

The creature that Sunset had become on the moon base, even for a few hours, had returned once again, but this time it had taken on the form of a hollow, something that Starlight and Sunset had researched when they were looking for more spells to use against their enemies in the future.

"Impossible! You can't be alive!" Drek shouted, turning his entire mech towards Sunset, while he wondered how such a change could have occurred, "Just who are you? How have you taken on that form?"

The hollow raised its right hand for a moment, almost as if it was studying it for a second, before it brought it down hard on the ground in front of her, shattering the area around it as Starlight teleported to where Ratchet and Clank were. Starlight was surprised by what was happening, because both she and Sunset had been sure that the feral creature had been a once in a lifetime occurrence, but now she was being proven wrong once more. Ratchet was also shaking, as if he couldn't believe what was happening and refused to believe that their sister had been cut down in front of them.

"Did you hear what I said?" Drek shouted, his anger rising as he wondered if she should just end this before something else happened, "I want to know who I'm about to kill."

The hollow gripped the ground it was standing on and roared with all its might, releasing enough magical pressure to shake the entire plateau that it was standing on. Starlight's eyes widened as she heard the creature roar, because it sounded like a monster was actually standing before them and not their sister.

"I see that you cannot understand me," Drekc commented, holding his mech's left hand towards the hollow once more, just as energy finished gathering in it, "I will end this here and now."

The hollow leveled its head with the left arm of Drek's mech, though when an eerie red energy gathered between its horns everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Drek sweated for a moment before releasing the energy he had gathered, though as he did so the hollow did the same thing and the two energies collided and produced a massive explosion. Starlight threw up a barrier as the smoke reached her and Ratchet, though she was more surprised that the creature was able to produce a cero, something that she and Sunset had agreed that they would be impossible to replicate. Drek's mech leapt out of the smoke and instantly started moving towards the next plateau, though that was when Starlight noticed that the left arm was missing.

Impossible, Drek thought as he moved away from the ruined plateau, I was promised that this cannon would rival the power of the RYNO, but it seems that my enemies had another trump card to use against me.

Before he could reach the second plateau he noticed a flash ripple through the air before the creature appeared in front of him, gathering more energy between her horns. He growled as he moved his right arm towards the creature, knowing that the cannon in the right arm was weaker than the left one and knowing that he had no choice in the matter. The collision of the two attacks produced another explosion that decimated the second plateau, though Drek emerged from the smoke and made his way toward the Deplanetizer... though his mech was missing its other arm.

As he entered the area that the Deplanetizer was in something collided with the side of his mech and smashed him into the side of a nearby mountain, where he discovered that the creature had followed him once more. There was a massive gash on his mech's front, telling him that the creature had cut through the plated armor with nothing more than the claws that it had. The creature had ruined his mech and had forced him to start its self destruct sequence, though as he set the mech to move away from the cannon, so he could take out the creature, he prepared his own flying suit. It was equipped with a remote to activate the laser, which had been a precaution in case the mech had been heavily damaged, but he was glad to have created the suit in the end.

As the mech headed in the opposite direction of the Deplanetizer he disengaged from it, hiding behind a rock as the creature followed the suit into the distance and was consumed by the explosion. He smiled and used his suit to reach the laser, reaching for the button that would bring an end to this pitiful planet, but before his hand could touch it his entire right hand went flying over the edge as if it had been cut off. Then the creature appeared in front of him, growling as it stared at him and forced him to back up, cursing his luck that even the explosion couldn't take care of this monstrosity.

That was before the creature carved open the front of his suit, dealing a wound that he knew was to be fatal, which was followed by the creature tossing him into the side of the mountain he had hid behind to use the mech as a decoy. This time he didn't bother to move, because he knew that he was going to end up dead from the loss of blood, from the creature's own powers, or the laser that he was going to activate just to end this madness. As he reached for the button that would trigger the laser he looked up for a moment, to which he spotted another beam of energy coming his way and accepted his fate.

The hollow roared as the explosion took care of Chairman Drek, though as the smoke cleared the creature looked at the laser in front of it before staring at the planet above Veldin, as if it wondered if it could remove the planet with its own powers. After a second it moved to one end of the laser and gripped the section that it was connected to, though it used all its strength to force the laser to turn around and face upwards. It then touched a panel and opened the controls, though before it could do anything it heard the sound of something touching the floor behind it, to which it turned and looked at Starlight.

"You can stop rampaging now," Starlight told the hollow, hoping that it was relinquish control over her sister and not destroy the planet above them, though she had no way of understanding what had happened to make this even occur.

The hollow growled at her and turned its horns on her, but as it gathered energy Starlight had the feeling that it wasn't going to attack her or the others. Starlight watched as the energy turned into an orb that floated over to her, before the hollow roared once more and crashed onto the floor around it. The energy that had created the hollow seemed to expire, because the color returned to Sunset's body, her hands and feet lost their claws, the mask shattered and turned to dust, and the hole seemed to restore itself. Starlight was amazed when she saw her sister laying there, in the form she had worn before Drek attacked her, and wondered how powerful her sister's magic had to be to reverse such a wound.

She also breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed that Sunset was breathing again, to which she gently deposited her sister inside Clank's giant chest until they were done with the planet looming over their heads. She then turned her attention to the sphere of energy that was floating nearby, but when she decided to scan it she found something that she wasn't expecting.

"A translocation spell," Starlight commented, staring that the laser as she figured out why the hollow had given her the energy to begin with, "Of course, that hollow somehow figured out that the only way to safely remove Drek's planet is to send the pieces back where they originally belong, hence the sphere. Clank, do you think I can hook up your gyroscopic stabilizer to the laser? With that, the power of this sphere, and the laser itself we might actually be able to safely reverse the damage that Chairman Drek has caused to the galaxy."

Clank was eager to reverse the damage that his maker had caused to the galaxy, so with a little tinkering Starlight had connected his stabilizer to the laser, safely inserted the sphere into the main power generator, and fired it up without delay. The three of them watched as the chunks of the various planets separated from each other, only to disappear in a flash of light and leave Veldin behind. Once the deed was done Starlight had Clank move away from the laser before she tore the power core out of it, which only made it explode shortly after.

"So, do you think that actually worked?" Ratchet asked, staring at the place where the planet had been resting for a few minutes.

"We'll see if we succeeded in the news tomorrow," Starlight replied, letting out a yawn as Clank walked in the direction of their house, "but we should see that Sunset is taken care of before getting some sleep... this hero work is exhausting."

Ratchet smiled as they neared their house, pleased with himself considering that the four of them had left Veldin and, despite the horrors and trials they had endured, had managed to save the galaxy from total destruction. He was sure that there would be some celebrating in the future, but at the moment he wanted to head home and get some well deserved sleep before another adventure came knocking at their door.

2,207 views

131

Previous Chapters Next

Comments ( 6 )

Viewing 1 - 50 of 6
- Newest First
- Oldest First

Aria Blitz

Aria Blitz #1 · Jul 6th, 2016 · 1 · ·

So, Sunset's inner creature was a hollow. And it not only eliminated Chairman Drek, copying the same pattern that Ichigo's used to wreck Ulquiorra, but it also figured out how to remove the planet that was resting above Veldin.

Strange, but I guess its better than raining death upon the people of Veldin.

Sonata Blaze

Sonata Blaze #2 · Jul 7th, 2016 · · ·

7369969 Yes, we understand that you were right when you guessed that Sunset's inner creature was a hollow... one that can fire a cero without a problem.

On the off note, we've got a few other chapters to go before we start up the Commando game.

Starlight Nova