Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Commando: Transit, Aranos

Six months passed after Ratchet and his sisters appeared on the Chaotic Nature for their interview, though Clank had inquired as to why he had been included as a member of the family on the show and why he hadn't been informed about it. Starlight admitted that she actually had no idea where that had come from and determined that it was merely Discord's attempt to tell the people of Solana that a family of four had saved their galaxy. Clank truly didn't seem to mind the fact at all, though it made him curious as to how none of his friends, or family members he later reflected, could have missed the rumors that their host had mentioned.

Ratchet didn't mind the addition to the family either, though as he looked around their small home he began to wonder if it was time for them to move to a larger location. Both he, Starlight, and Sunset were all thirteen at this point, though they were all some years away from when they wanted to start dating, roughly sixteen they had all decided, so he wouldn't have to worry about that part of life just yet. He chuckled as he moved Starlight's special chair, the custom one made to fit her body, into position near his and Clank's own chairs, as they had been selected for yet another interview. This one was called 'Behind the Hero' and, from what he could gather, the four of them would be answering some simple questions about what they have been doing since their last interview.

"Think she's going to be late again?" Starlight asked, straightening her mane as she stepped out of her room, which she covered up seconds later so the film crew didn't capture anything private on accident.

"The interview won't start for another half an hour," Clank commented, sitting in his chair as he looked over a holoplan that Starlight had finished working on and had sent to Mr. Gadget, something that she had dubbed the RYNO II, "I'm sure that Sunset's busy studying the Raritanium Core that we found and likely hasn't noticed the time yet, though I am willing to bet that she'll be here in a few minutes."

Starlight still couldn't believe that they had found one of the legendary Raritanium Cores locked in a Invico-Vault on Quartu, as if Chairman Drek had been keeping it there until he had discovered the other five crystals. She was also annoyed with that fact, because she had spent a good two to three months scouring every planet they had been to during their adventure to stop Drek, but had found nothing on the whereabouts of the other crystals. Even the representatives of the planets that they hadn't visited during that time reported that they knew nothing of the five crystals, making Starlight wonder if they weren't in Solana at all and were actually on a planet that they didn't know about yet.

She also reflected on the fact that Sunset had, as of two months ago, started calling the purple crystal they had recovered by a new name, as she had taken to calling it 'Generosity', which Starlight assumed meant the opposite of Chairman Drek's greed.

"She'll be here before the start of the interview." Ratchet replied, cutting into Starlight's thoughts as she finally set her brush down on the counter, "And there, all four chairs are in place for the big event... now all we have to do is wait."

As Ratchet finally took his seat and relaxed a bit, which he knew wouldn't last too long, Starlight heard her tablet go off and found a message from Mr. Gadget. Apparently he was quite pleased with how she had constructed the second RYNO weapon, as she was now the sole person who could work on the weapons thanks to what had happened with Professor Nova half a year ago, and he promised to have the weapon fully developed in time for their next adventure... whenever that happened to be. Starlight smiled and powered off her tablet, before moving to her chair and taking a seat so she could be ready for whatever the people wanted to ask them this time.

Ten minutes passed before Sunset returned to the house, wearing the same shinigami robes that she had worn during their interview on the Chaotic Nature, though that was before Starlight noticed that she wasn't carrying the box that contained the Core.

"So, where's Generosity?" Starlight asked, using Sunset's pet name for the crystal, knowing it got her sister a little excited, "Please don't tell me you decided to lose it after all this time."

"Maker forbid that I lose something like the Core," Sunset replied, looking at her sister for a moment, only to determine that she was pulling her leg once more, "Generosity is safely locked inside the vault that I specifically created to keep it safe from harm, and any of the other missing crystals if we happen to find any of them."

"That's good to know," Starlight commented, allowing her sister to take her seat at long last, "I'm glad that the crystal is safe from those that would sell it on the Black Market and try to make a profit off of it. I assume that you have the keys or the combinations to open the vault, so that you can check on it whenever you like?"

"Of course I have the keys to open the vault," Sunset said, though she made not motion to show her sister where the items were located, because she didn't want someone to find them and steal the Core while they were busy, "but enough about that for now; we've got an interview to get through."

The four of them then spent fifteen minutes watching the camera crew move around the outside of their house, as it had been decided to do this simple interview in their home instead of at a studio, before the announcer was ready to get underway. The lights that pointed at the four of them turned on, telling them that the show was starting and that anything they had to say to each other had better wait until the end of the interview.

"Welcome back to Behind the Hero," the announcer said, clearly reading from a script as the cameras turned to the four of them, "Tonight's heroes are the family of four who recently restored peace and order to our galaxy: Ratchet, Clank, Sunset Shimmer, and Starlight Glimmer. So ladies and gentlemen, tell us about your latest adventures... though you'll have to keep it in simple terms for the viewers."

"Well, as you can imagine, we've been pretty busy." Ratchet commented, recalling everything that had happened after they had appeared on the Chaotic Nature, "After Drek's defeat there were parades, press conferences, fancy dress balls..."

"I felt a little sick after one of those," Sunset admitted, remembering when she shivered when one of the balls, the Fall Formal she recalled, had ended on them, "Don't know why though. None of us have ever been to one in our entire lives."

"There was also the Weenie Roast at Al's." Clank added, trying to keep them on track, though he suspected that something would break the train of thought eventually.

"Oh yeah, there was that." Ratchet confirmed, relaxing once more as he stared at the cameras, knowing that the exciting parts were pretty much past them at this point, "And then... things started to slow down a bit."

"There was the Grand Opening at Groovy Lube!" Starlight threw in, before a smile crossed her face for a moment, "I also got promoted to the sole developer of the RYNO weapons, in addition to producing other weapons along side them."

"I think those were... last week," Ratchet commented, though from the look on Clank's face he knew he had gotten something wrong.

"More like six months ago!" Clank replied, somewhat annoyed that Ratchet would have forgotten that Starlight's promotion had happened shortly after they had appeared on the Chaotic Nature.

"We also celebrated all of our thirteenth birthdays, considering we were tracking down Drek when they occurred." Sunset cut in, also pointing out something that Ratchet had forgotten, "We just had a simple party and called it good... there's always the following year to get presents and plan something spectacular."

"So we're still pretty busy," Ratchet explained, looking at his hand for a moment, before turning back to the cameras around them, "but in a more... domestic sense."

"Yesterday, I flushed out my radiator core," Clank pointed out, opening the cavity in the middle of his body to prove his point.

"Which is good for all of us," Ratchet said, nodding his head before leaning back in his chair to relax, "It's just... no one needs a hero right now..."

Sunset opened her mouth to add something to the conversation, so they could reach the end of the interview, but before she could say anything the four of them disappeared in a flash of light.

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

When the four of them reappeared in some unknown area, along with the chairs they had been sitting in when the light had overtaken them, they were greeted by a rather fat humanoid that had sparse hair and with what could only be described as an excessively happy expression on his face. It took both Starlight and Sunset all of ten seconds to determine that the figure before them was actually a hologram, because it was completely blue and its image seemed to shimmer as it phased into existence.

"Welcome!" the hologram happily said, looking at the four of them as they took him in.

"What the?" Ratchet demanded, though while he was taken by surprise his right hand touched the handle of his wrench, something that he always carried with him, while his sisters carefully touched their own handheld weapons.

"I'm Abercrombie Fizzwidget," the hologram continued, as if it had completely ignored what Ratchet had said, "founder of the Megacorp company in the Bogon Galaxy."

"Bogon?" Ratchet asked in confusion, turning to his sisters for a moment, knowing that one of them had to know exactly what the hologram was talking about.

"It's the next star cluster over from Solana," Sunset replied, tapping her chin in thought for a moment, "which means we're closer to the unexplored Polaris Galaxy."

"And the hypothesized center of the universe," Starlight added, as she had read some of the items that Sunset had gone through in their attempt to find the other Raritanium Cores.

"I'm sorry to incapacitate you," Abercrombie continued, causing both Starlight and Sunset to look at the hologram for a moment, "but our entire galaxy is in a very precocious situation."

"Would you like the honors, or should I do it?" Starlight asked, referring to the poor choice of words that the man was using.

Sunset shook her head, telling her sister that it wasn't worth correcting the hologram and that they should just let the person play the message so they could figure out why they were here. She didn't like the words that the man was using incorrectly, but she could guess what he actually meant and decided to let him get to the point.

"I must humbly request your sustenance on a mission of dire urgitude," the hologram said, though when it used a word that didn't exist Starlight immediately growled, "A mission of superfluous peril. A mission of unequizacle imperitude."

"Did any of you catch what he just said?" Clank asked, because he had the feeling he knew what the man had meant, but he wanted to be sure before saying anything.

"He wants us to be heroes to the people of the Bogon Galaxy," Sunset explained, sighing as she looked at the hologram, "though I'm pretty sure that there are some English professors that are rolling in their graves at the moment."

"Indubitably!" Abercrombie proclaimed, before an image of a creature appeared on the screen next to him, "A few days ago, this top secret biological experiment was stolen from our testing lavatory."

Starlight looked at the creature for a moment, though while she knew that the exterior of the creature was definitely cute she knew that looks could be deceiving. She decided to keep that to herself until there was a moment where she could express her thoughts to her siblings, though she suspected that she'd have to wait to do that.

"It was stolen by this dupliferous criminal mastermind!" Abercrombie continued, the screen shifting to reveal someone dressed up in some light armor and wearing a mask over their face, "I need you to get the experiment back."

"We'll do it!" Ratchet proclaimed, which was added to by both Starlight and Sunset nodding.

"We will?" Clank asked, as if he was shocked that Ratchet would even want to save a small experiment, but then thought better of that because of who he was living with.

"Crank I have precipitated your recalcitrance and have prepared this counter offer," Abercrombie stated, rubbing his chin as the screen started to show them a few items, "We are prepared to give you a job as the head accountant for Megacorp, plus a penthouse suite in lovely Megapolis, and our state of the art robotic masseuse."

"Deal." Clank agreed, though there were a few sparks to show that he liked the look of the masseuse he was going to be given.

"What about Starlight and Sunset?" Ratchet asked, knowing that the fat man was likely looking for him and him alone, but he had also taken his sisters as well.

"Sunshine and Starlit, I was not expecting to incapacitate either of you," the man admitted, as if the fact that the two of them were there threw off whatever he had been leading up to with Ratchet and Clank, "but I am sure that Ratchet could use the assistance. We'll need to get the three of you in superlatory shape! While in transit to the Bogon Galaxy, you will all undergo heavy training and conditioning, including martial arts, heavy weaponry, survival skills, stealth, macrame, ballroom dance, and origami!"

"Awesome!" Ratchet exclaimed, more excited than his sisters were, though he knew that they were wicked powerful without having to go through commando training as well.

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

Two weeks passed before the three of them were ready to leave the ship that Abercrombie had beamed them up onto, where they had spent their time training in the various categories that he had assigned to them. Ratchet was now fully decked out in the commando armor that Megacorp had provided him, though while he was admiring his new armor he caught a glimpse of Starlight wearing her custom made suit of armor. Megacorp had taken the armor that they had given Ratchet and had, with come measurements from Starlight, carefully configured one of the suits until she could comfortably wear one of them.

Sunset, on the other hand, had tried to stick with the armor she had handcrafted for herself, but Megacorp had insisted that she wear the suit that they provided her. After some back and forth Sunset finally switched out of the robes she had crafted, muttering that she was missing out on the perfect opportunity to field test the armor, and slipped into the green suit of armor they had given her. Once she was ready she joined her siblings by the screen that Abercrombie spoke to them through, which was preparing to tell the three of them where the Thief had taken the experiment to.

"Your looking like a real commando now," Starlight commented, noticing their sister join them, along with the annoyed expression that disappeared moments later, "Don't worry, you'll have time to field test those robes when we're done with the task that Megacorp hired us to take care of."

Sunset nodded as the screen lit up to show them their destination, though not a few seconds later the hologram of Mr. Fizzwidget phased into existence to explain the situation.

"We've used bipolar vector regurgitation to track the thief's location to a flying base in Sector Seven." the hologram explained, earning two moans once more, "Infiltribulate the base, and retrieve the experiment."

Ratchet had been very specific about the ship that the three of them would need to have during their stay in the Bogon Galaxy, one that had four seats, in case Clank ended up joining them later, and some firepower in case they ended up taking the fight to the Thief while they were in space. The standard ship that would have been given to them was a little longer than the standard issue, easily allowing enough room for all three of them to comfortably sit down when they traveled between planets. He smiled as he looked at the ship, knowing that they would be able to track the Thief down and recover the experiment in no time.

"Sir, ready for launch," Ratchet said, throwing in a salute for their employer, which his sisters mimicked.

A few moments later, after Clank wished them luck on their mission, the three of them boarded their new ship and took off, leaving the massive ship behind and descending to the planet that the Thief was supposed to be located on. It didn't take them long to find the flying lab that their target was supposed to be located on, though as they flew into the area near it Ratchet turned their radio off so they didn't get detected by a radar. As they approached the ship he turned it on autopilot and allowed the system to get them close to the hatch that would allow them access to the ship, knowing that something would be waiting for them.

The moment the three of them were aboard the Thief's ship Ratchet allowed the ship to fall back for the moment, though as he pulled out his newest weapon, the Lancer, he knew that he could call upon it at a moment's notice. Starlight also had her weapon at the ready, but Sunset was holding the gun in her left hand while she carried her sword in her right, though Ratchet had no idea if the weapon would be effective against the enemies they were bound to find across the ship. They spotted what appeared to be an elevator in front of them and, upon finding that it was the only thing besides their entry point, they climbed onto it and took it up to the top of the shaft.

Once they reached the top they found a door that opened the moment they approached it, though as it opened to allow them to continue forward Ratchet immediately spotted some sentries hanging from the ceiling, just waiting for enemies to come near them. The three of them loosed a few shots from their Lancers, knocking the robots from where they were hanging and forcing them to land on the walkway in front of them. Sunset moved to the side and swung her arm, releasing her sword with enough force that, when it struck the robot on the fight in the chest, it knocked her target into the wall behind it. The second robot started to move towards her, but it failed to account for Ratchet and Starlight as they burned it into the ground, breaking it into pieces as they finally took care of it.

"So, everything takes longer to kill in the Bogon Galaxy than in the Solana Galaxy," Ratchet commented, watching Sunset pull out her sword before spotting the ladder that would allow them to continue, "going to have to keep reminding myself of that fact."

After they climbed the ladder, and had entered the small room it came to, they found a passage that appeared to take them near the exterior of the ship. With it being the only way they could advance the three of them moved towards it, to which two more of the spider like sentry bots descended from the ceiling and turned towards them. As they quickly took care of those two Sunset noticed that another had dropped down behind their enemies, though this one was red in color and had a flamethrower instead of saws on its arms. The instant they cleared the trio of them, and entered the next room, they found three more of the robots waiting for them, to which they promptly shot them to pieces so they could move on.

They walked out onto what appeared to be an exterior walkway, though within a few seconds of them stepping outside they found a large number of metallic spheres pour out of two holes that appeared to be spawn points for them. There were also two more of the spider robots standing on the walkway, though Ratchet decided that, with the amount of enemies standing in their way, to switch to the second weapon they had been given; the Gravity Bomb. Starlight and Sunset backed up as Ratchet pointed the weapon at the group of enemies, though the instant he discharged one of the bombs the entirety of their enemies were blown to pieces.

"Dang... that's powerful," Starlight commented, eying the weapon for a moment, wondering how powerful the other Megacorp weapons that hadn't been released were, "I guess they weren't kidding when they said they wanted the experiment back. Its almost like we're going to fight an army again, only this time we'll have much more powerful weapons in our arsenal."

Ratchet smirked as they approached the next door that was along their path, to which they found another spider bot sitting on what appeared to be another elevator. The combined power of their Lancers took the robot out within seconds, allowing them to climb onto the platform and ride it up to the next walkway it was attached to. Once the elevator stopped they found four more of the saw blade spider bots patrolling a door, to which Starlight pulled out her own Gravity Bomb and mopped the floor with the robots. The moment the robots were taken care of they approached the door, though as it opened they found the experiment locked up in a cage and sitting on a pedestal in the middle of a seemingly small chamber.

Ratchet shared a look with his sisters, as they all knew that the seemingly small chamber was merely a trap waiting to be sprung, but considering that they didn't have any other option they walked into the chamber and stayed away from the pedestal. Starlight engaged her magic and lifted the cage off of the pedestal, though the moment it was off of where it had been resting the wall opened to reveal the Thief standing with a group of spider bots. It took Starlight all of five seconds to spot the cage that the Thief was holding in his left hand, one that looked similar to the one she was levitating and forced her to discover that they had been played with a decoy.

"I see its time to update my security forces," the Thief commented, moving to the wall on his left just a bit, where the three of them noticed what appeared to be an exit of some kind, "Nice try though. Give my regards to Megacorp."

Starlight ignited her magic and slammed the exit shut before the Thief could even enter the tube, but as she did so she took another look at the Thief and noticed something odd. The Thief appeared to be floating above the floor by an inch or two, though it didn't take he long to figure out that the Thief was using a hologram on them, which meant that the experiment wasn't even on the ship to begin with. It had all been a ploy, a ruse that the Thief had used to lure them to the ship so he could escape without anyone detecting where he was heading next.

"I'd make a witty remark about something, but it would only be wasted." Ratchet said, pulling out his Lancer as the second wall in front of them opened and revealed more spider bots, "so let's just get out of here and see if we can't find a lead or two on where that Thief took the experiment... for real this time."

Starlight grinned as she loosed another Gravity Bomb at the approaching enemies, taking out the front wave and opening the way for her brother and sister to follow through. Ratchet wasted no time in shooting the robots that came close to him, making sure that they were actually dead before moving onto another target. Sunset, on the other hand, ducked and dodged the saw blades that came her way, before spinning her sword around and severing one of the robot's arms. She then removed the other arm before planting her blade in the robot's chest, though as she did so she noticed that more were coming her way and she pulled out the Lancer to provide some addition fire.

Their combined power was enough to decimate the entirety of the robots that had been assembled against them, to which they noticed that there was another exit that was on the other side of the door they had entered through. The moment the other exit was open, and they determined that there was no other way out of the chamber, they leapt into the tube and slid down to the exterior. They landed on a wing that had a large group of flamethrower spider bots, but before any of them could reach the three of them Starlight loosed a Gravity Bomb and tore all of them to pieces. Ratchet looked around and found an entrance they could use to get back inside the ship, so they climbed through the opening and approached the next elevator shaft that rested at the end of the room they were in.

When the platform lowered into position they spotted one flamethrower bot and four saw bots, though at that point Ratchet pulled out his Gravity Bomb and took the five of them out in a single instant. They rode the platform up a little bit and passed through the door that they found, though they started shooting at the spider bots that happened to be sitting on the other side. They followed the passage to another room, to which they spotted four more robots waiting for them, though as they started fighting they spotted a few spawn points on the wall as more spheres came out to fight them.

It didn't take them long to clear the room of enemies, to which they passed through the door and climbed up into the middle of the following room, though that was followed by the doors opening and more enemies coming out to fight them. The spider bots came at them in the form of a wave, but Sunset noticed that there was an opening that they could use to get off the ship and get back to their ship. She pushed several of the enemies out of their way and beckoned her siblings to follow her, though as she neared the edge she had spotted she turned around and started blasting at their enemies. She provided cover fire with Starlight as Ratchet called in their ship, though the moment it arrived they abandoned the fight and boarded their ship.

Once they were all aboard the ship Ratchet closed the hatch and they took off, where he then radioed in to Mr. Fizzwidget to inform him of the bad news. Apparently their employer didn't seem to mind the fact that they didn't recover the experiment, but he did inform them of a situation on Planet Oozla, where the Thief had been spotted. Ratchet knew that the Thief wouldn't be there when they arrived, but he knew that they would eventually catch up with their target and recover the experiment.

Their adventure in the Bogon Galaxy was only just beginning, to which he smiled as he set their course for the planet they had been told about by their employer.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

and now...what Star shall we find here? in time, that answer will become clear...

[Nova Blaze]

Looks like we were right about the cores being this dimension's elements of harmony.

[Aria Blitz]

7395645 Considering what happens in this game (won't say anything in case of spoilers) I'd wager that the Core they'll find is Honesty.

7395756 Oddly enough, we were. And, to be honest, I think that it'll be Honesty we'll find... but you never know with the author.

[Aria Blitz]

And Abercromie... he was funny to listen to when the game came out, or all the incorrect words that he used. Fun to read him doing the same thing, and screwing up the main character's names.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

Sunshine and Starlit

Of course he couldn't get their names right, considering how he was in the actual game.

Also, there's an error that the author might want to fix;

Crank's

Should be Crank and not Crank's.

[Sonata Blaze]

So, now we start the second game; Going Commando. Kind of sad that Sunset couldn't test the armor she designed, but at least she's willing to accept what she's given... after some back and forth of course.

[Blackdrag-rose]

7395964 I have taken care of the error. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

[zalla661]

Aw so you're following the games in order for this. I like it!