Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Commando: Oozla

Planet Oozla was, according to all the maps they had access to and the various searches they did before, a planet that was covered in swamps and had a Megacorp building that was supposed to be protected by some sort of defense system. According to the video they had been given, so they could see what the Thief had done before departing from the planet, they determined that their enemy had hired a group of mercenaries by the name of Thugs-4-Less. Apparently when the Thief said that he needed to update his security forces, after Ratchet and his sisters had trashed them, that meant that he was buying some mercenaries that would be better than what he already had. One of the Thugs had been behind the shutdown of the perimeter defenses of the facility on Oozla, though judging from the lack of replies the three of them could easily determine that the place had been overrun.

When they landed their ship on the landing pad they got a decent look at what was around them, to which they immediately noticed that there were two paths for them to take. As they took note of what was around them, and the enemies that they might encounter, they also restocked their weapons, pausing to purchase the newest weapons; the Chopper and the Blitz Gun. Starlight looked at the weapons as she purchased them, carefully handling them as she determined how to use them, during which Ratchet got his own weapons as well. Sunset looked at the weapons, nodding as she looked at the scans her sister had taken on them, but made no attempt to purchase some for herself.

"So, what's the plan?" Ratchet asked, priming his new weapons as he glanced at the two paths that rested before them, "Should we separate and go down both paths, or should we stay together and clear one of them out before doing the second path?"

"We should cover more ground," Starlight replied, glancing at the path that rested to the left of where the ship had landed, "Ratchet, you and I should head to the Megacorp building and see what we can find inside. Sunset, you don't mind clearing out the other path, do you?"

"I don't mind at all," Sunset answered, knowing that it gave her a chance to test any of her spells if she so desired, though there were a few she had in mind if she found a decent enemy to use them on, "Hopefully I'll find something in the swamp that we can use to track down the Thief and recover the experiment."

Sunset then turned towards the other path and walked forward, knowing that she'd find something to deal with that will occupy her time before they had to leave the planet. Starlight watched her sister leave the landing pad, though after a few seconds she and Ratchet turned down the path that she had picked for them. Not a few seconds later they found some sort of mutant snail creature that was definitely aggressive, as they snapped at each other with claws that were attached to them. Starlight grinned and pulled out the Lancer for a moment, to which both she and Ratchet opened fire on the mutants in an attempt to clear the path that they wanted to take.

The instant they cleared the first area of enemies they followed the path forward, though as they turned the corner they spotted a few glowing bugs that were flying in the air in front of them. It took the bugs a moment to notice that they were there, but instead of wasting ammo on them Starlight pulled out her staff and swung it through the air, smacking the bugs in the head with her weapon and disposing of them in seconds. She then spotted someone moving in the swamp ahead of them, making the motions of someone who needed assistance, but before she could engage her magic and latch onto him the person was dragged under the swamp, disappearing from their view altogether.

"That's... not normal," Ratchet commented, seeing the man get pulled under the swampy water, though he wondered what was currently swimming in the water around them.

"No, and something tells me we'll be seeing whatever pulled that man under soon." Starlight replied, holding her Blitz Gun out as she continued the path, "Keep an eye on the swamp... there's no telling what that creature is going to do before we figure out a way to take it out."

She spotted a platform sitting on top of the water, allowing them to cross to the next part of their path without having to worry about using Starlight's own magical bridge to cross the gap. The moment they touched the ground of the next rocky area another mutant leapt out to attack them, but it was accompanied by some strange red creature that looked like it liked to hop around and bite its enemies. Another mutant and a hopper joined the pair in front of them, to which Starlight heaved her weapon up and started blasting at them until they were all taken care of. As they prepared to advance onward they spotted a log that was laying on its side, though not a few seconds later Ratchet noticed another employee under attack by the hopper mutants.

He palmed a few Chopper stars as he leapt over the log, spinning his hand and throwing them at his chosen targets, to which they spun around and tore into his enemies. Despite his effort to save the Megacorp employee the red mutants gathered around him and killed him with their sheer numbers, though Ratchet growled as he switched to the Blitz Gun and blew them to pieces. There was nothing left of the poor employee, so he returned to Starlight and the two of them returned to the direction they had been heading towards.

The next walkway happened to be broken into pieces of floating stones, though before either of them could touch the first stone they watched more of the mutants pop out of the water and land on several of the stones they needed to cross. Ratchet decided not to waste time as he laid into the mutants that were blocking their way, taking advantage of the Blitz Gun's function to fire in succession with little pause to his advantage. The instant they touched the other side of the stone walkway they were assaulted by more of the red mutants, which was followed by Starlight throwing several Chopper stars of her own.

They turned the corner and found three more of the larger mutants waiting before another platform that floated on the water, though Ratchet and Starlight wasted no time in attacking them. As they felled the first of the mutants two more leapt out of the water and joined the attack, causing the two of them to frown as they focused on clearing out the enemies that were standing before them. The combination of their newest weapons actually proved to be of use, because they were able to clear the area with some well placed attacks and a few Chopper stars.

As they leapt onto the metal platform they noticed that there were two more in front of them, connecting them to the next part of the area, though they knew that they had missed the two other sections was because of the enemies that were standing in their way. As the two of them made their way across the metal platforms Starlight threw several more stars at the enemies that leapt onto the walkway, taking care of them before they were forced to stop and fight. The moment they reached the end of the metal platforms Ratchet leapt up and beckoned for Starlight to join him, to which she engaged her magical stairs and followed after him.

They then came to another area that had a host of the red mutants waiting for them, as the moment the two of them arrived the mutants stopped what they were doing and came right at them. Starlight wasted no time in pulling out the Gravity Bomb and loosed a charge at the enemies that were coming their way, blowing the small mutants to pieces and clearing the way for them to advance once more. She then changed to the Lancer and took out the flying bugs that were moving around the stones that rested at the end of the area they were standing on, allowing them to advance to another stone area that rested on the outskirts of the Megacorp building.

It was there that Starlight spotted what she assumed was the creature that had taken the employee under the water earlier, though the moment it's eye noticed them two large vine like arms erupted from the water. It was painfully clear that the creature wanted to get rid of them, so that meant that they were going to have to fight it before they could get into the actual building.

"Don't let those vines touch you!" Ratchet shouted, loosing a series of Chopper stars at the creature's eye, as he assumed that it was the only thing that they could hurt at the moment.

Starlight glanced at her brother for a moment, as if she couldn't believe that he might have thought that she didn't know the basics of fighting enemies, but as she did so she noticed one of the vines came at her. She activated her magic and threw up a shield around her, though she was surprised by the force of the attack as there was a crack in the barrier that rested around her. It was a sign that she needed to take her opponents more seriously and not play around, though it was also clear that this enemy wasn't being serious because it was hiding the majority of its body under the water around them.

The next vine that came towards her missed her, but this time Starlight engaged her magic and set the vine on fire, causing the creature to swing it around wildly and opening it to her brother's attacks. Ratchet wasted no time in using up what he had left in his Blitz Gun, targeting the eye the entire time, though when the weapon was drained he palmed more of the Chopper stars and started loosing them at his target. Starlight joined in the assault, adding her stars to the onslaught that Ratchet was performing on the creature, while also using up the entirety of what she had in her Lancer.

Eventually the creature let out a roar of pain and sunk beneath the water, though after a minute or two of waiting both Ratchet and Starlight determined that they had seen the last of the creature... for the time being.

"A shame we couldn't get rid of it," Starlight commented, almost moaning when she realized that she had used up most of the ammo in her four weapons, which was the same with her brother's weapons, "I have the feeling that the creature might wait until its recovered before doing anything else, so it should give us some time to figure out a way to track it down and, finally, defeat it."

"We'll get around to it... in the future," Ratchet replied, leaping across the stones that had risen from the water after the creature had disappeared, allowing them to finally reach their destination, "This place has definitely seen better days."

Ratchet spotted a few more of the larger mutants moving around the entrance of the building, so he pulled out the Gravity Bomb and blew them all to pieces so they could move on. They had barely taken a few steps before Starlight spotted something resting above a pedestal of some kind, which appeared to be a Megacorp gadget. Their HelpDesk, now containing several files from Megacorp, recognized the gadget as the Dynamo, something that activated certain pieces of machinery with well position switches. She passed it to Ratchet, who slipped it over his right wrist and pointing it at the switch that rested near where they were standing, activating the machine and causing a little elevator to rise.

"I'm going to admit it, but that's disappointing," Starlight said, taking the elevator with Ratchet before they approached the buildings entrance, "Seriously, I could have done that with my magic."

"And now I can do it too," Ratchet replied, not really upset with the gadget, because now he could at least keep up with his siblings when they used their magic to cross gaps and build bridges, "Come on, let's see if we can't find anything that tells us where the Thief went and then see if Sunset found anything on her end of the swamp."

When they entered the Megacorp building they spotted more of the glowing flies buzzing around their heads, though instead of wasting what little ammunition they had left they switched to their handheld weapons and bashed the bugs over their heads. As the first set of bugs was dealt with Ratchet activated the next Dynamo switch and revealed another elevator, before they activated a platform that took them over to the other side of the room. The instant they reached the other side of the room they leapt off the platform and bashed the bugs that were flying around, before Ratchet activated the next three walkways that allowed them to cross another gap.

Once they had done that they found that there were several more of the larger mutants patrolling what appeared to be an area that connected to the outside of the building. Starlight, annoyed with the fact that they were low on ammo, ignited her magic and burned the mutants that were in front of them to pieces, making sure to get all of them before they walked towards the door they had spotted. As they followed the path around the exterior of the building they leapt over another gap, this one much smaller than the other ones, before entering the building from another door.

When they reentered the building they found another gap waiting for them, but then Ratchet spotted more of the switches lining the wall on their left and started activating them. As several platforms lowered themselves the two of them quickly crossed the gap, making sure they were on the other side before the machines deactivated. Once they were on the other side they found a walkway that looked like it lead underneath the building, but they knew that they weren't prepare for whatever they might find down that path. Ratchet turned around and spotted another switch, to which he activated a moving crate section that they had to run through before they reached the other side.

As they walked into the room they found a communication screen, though as they approached the screen it snapped on and Mr. Fizzwidget appeared before them.

"Ratchet?! Come in." Mr. Fizzwidget said, though Ratchet was surprised that their employer remembered his name, as he had gotten Clank's, Sunset's, and Starlight's wrong the entire time, "Are you there?"

"Copy Mr. Fizzwidget," Ratchet replied, saluting the screen for a moment, though Starlight merely rolled her eyes as she waited to see what their employer wanted of them this time.

"Listen, I have some new inflammation on our experiment's wherewithal." Mr. Fizzwidget said, the screen changing to show a resort and than an image of a moon, "The Thief was indemnified at Megacorp's Maktar Resort. Also, the Thugs have towed a moon sized jamming array into Maktar Resort orbit."

"Should we take it out?" Ratchet asked, wondering what else there would be to do at the resort besides fighting the enemies that the Thief had hired to fight them.

"Affirmulious!" Mr. Fizzwidget replied, "Its disconfrabulating our annual Galactic Gladiators broadcast. See for yourself."

The screen changed to reveal what appeared to be an arena that was attached to the resort, where people could enter the arena and fight against the gladiators that called the place home. It revealed that there were two serious gladiators that were considered to be the best of their own divisions; Chainblade of the Bio Division and the B2 Brawler of the Robotics Division. Once the commercial was over Ratchet informed their employer that he had the coordinates, to which their connection to Mr. Fizzwidget was cut until they contacted him at a later date in the future.

"I wonder how Sunset's doing on her path," Ratchet asked, activating a elevator that they rode to where a teleportation pad was waiting for someone to use it.

"She's doing okay," Starlight commented, because she knew that, if Sunset was actually in trouble, there would be warnings going off in her helmet, as she had designed it to watch out for excessive magical spikes, "otherwise we'd be seeing, or feeling, destruction like what occurred on Gaspar when she was untrained in her magical capabilities."

Ratchet nodded, knowing that Sunset would only truly tap into her magical potential if she was truly desperate, where the both of them would have noticed if something like that had happened.

---

Sunset sighed as she moved along the path she had been given, finding a shattered stone walkway that had clearly been broken in the last couple of days. She spotted her enemies standing on the other side of the walkway, red mutants and larger snail like mutants, but she made no move to pull out either of her guns as she tapped the end of her sword on the ground. As teleported to the other side of the walkway and approached her enemies, swinging her sword around and allowing it to extend like a whip, slicing through the mutants like they were made of butter.

After she had been released from the hospital, after recovering from the wounds that her hollow hadn't healed when it gave her body back to her, she had delved into learning and perfecting her magical abilities. She was still far from that level, but she had modified her sword to include a whip like motion, so that with one flick of her wrist she could change it from a single blade and form a whip. The edge had been sharpened as well, as she had determined that she might face enemies that didn't fall after a single hit and might need something stronger. She had prepared for another adventure, so now that it was actually happening she was glad that she had the opportunity to see how her modifications worked out... and if they needed tweaking later on.

Once she had cleared the immediate area of enemies she moved forward, though as she turned around the corner she spotted more of the larger mutants sitting in front of a mutant that she assumed would move if she jumped on it. One of the mutants came at her and snapped its claws in her direction, but she merely stepped back just a bit and severed its claws from its body, before moving to the side and driving her sword into the creature's heart. Sunset then repeated the process with the rest of the large mutants, swiftly clearing the area and causing the swamp mutant to stare at her the entire time.

She looked at the mutant before engaging her magic, teleporting to the other side of the area she was in, to which she spotted that she would have to cross through a cavern to continue forward. Two of the larger mutants moved out of the cavern, though they swiftly fell to the same method that she had used, before she spotted a small fly like mutant that was flying around in a swarm. She sighed and gathered her magic into her for a moment, steadying herself for a few seconds, before blowing out a stream of fire and burning the swarm of bugs to ashes. Once that was taken care of she noticed that she would have to leap onto fly traps to reach the area that would allow her to leave the chamber she was in, but she merely teleported up to it and left the chamber behind.

She realized that she had come to a massive swamp area, with a large number of the ugly swamp mutants that rested in the water, but she knew that there was only one way forward. She immediately spotted the way she needed to go through and engaged her magic, teleporting over to the collapsed building that she assumed had to be the correct path. As she walked into the area she spotted at least eight of the snail mutants patrolling the area, though the moment she wanted into the ruined area they turned towards her and started snapping their claws at her.

She sighed and called on her magic once more, causing a whirlwind of energy that pushed her enemies back for a moment, giving her time to whip her sword around and take some of them out. Several of them recovered before she could touch them, so she had to sever their claws before ending their existence, which proved more difficult when the bug mutants decided to interfere. Once she was sure that she was done with the area she was in, and that there weren't anymore enemies standing in her way, she exited the ruined area and found another swamp area blocking her path.

Within a few seconds she spotted where she was supposed to go next, so she expanded some more of her magic and teleported to the base of where she needed to go. She paused for a moment before she flashed to the top of where the fly traps were supposed to lead her, to which she found a large pipe that she assumed lead to something important. She also spotted what she assumed was a platform of some kind at the end of the pipe, so she warped down to the end of the pipe and appeared before a scientist that appeared to be waiting for someone to show up, though he was carrying a gadget in his right hand.

"Welcome, welcome!" the scientist said, moving his head in all the directions around them, as if there was actually a crowd around them, "If everyone can take their seats we can proceed with today's demonstration. First, I'll need a volunteer."

Sunset decided to humor the scientist, because she was interested in seeing what his gadget was capable of doing, so she merely raised her hand and got the show on the road.

"Excellent," the scientist continued, still ignoring the fact that there wasn't a crowd around them, "Your name miss?"

"Sunset Shimmer," Sunset answered, before the scientist engaged the gadget and moved the platform she was standing on for a few seconds, before turning off his gadget and holding it up in success.

"And there you have it! The Megacorp Tractor Beam in action!" the scientist exclaimed, clearly impressed with the gadget's performance, "Let's give it up for our volunteer. Miss, how about taking advantage of our show special?"

Sunset considered the usefulness of the actual gadget, and what she and her sister were capable of performing on their own, but then decided that they might actually need the gadget in case she or Starlight ran low on magic. She gave the scientist the thousand bolts he was asking for, as she had enough in her bank account to afford several large purchases, before she collected the gadget and moved on. She could practice with the gadget if she desired, but she didn't want to waste anymore time than she already had and spotted the way she was supposed to go next. She teleported to the top of the ledge that rested above where she was currently standing and moved along the path, before she found a switch and opened the way back to the ship.

She spotted her siblings waiting by the ship, which told her that they must have moved much faster than she had, even with her jumping from place to place with her magic. They quickly shared what they had found with each other, showing the Dynamo and Tractor Beam to each other, before Ratchet made a comment about their next destination and what they needed to do there. Once they were done filling each other in they returned to their ship and set off for the Maktar Resort, where they would stop the Thugs and see if they couldn't figure out where to go from there.

Sunset had the feeling that they were going to be in for a fight when they arrived at their destination, but she was very confident in their ability to overcome whatever the Thugs could throw at them.

Comments

[Aria Blitz]

So, Starlight prefers to play by the runs and use the guns given to her to make her way through her obstacles.
Sunset, on the other hand, appears to be throwing her magic around as if she has an endless store of magic to use.

Huh... we'll see where this goes.

[Sonata Blaze]

Sunset doesn't seem to really care about reserving her magicka at the moment... she appears to be more interested in getting to the end of the mission and going home.

[Night_Moon60606]

thought i should mention that its impossible to 'burn X to pieces', burn them to ash? that works. burn to pieces doesnt even make sense....one can use excessive firepower to blow X to pieces, implying directed explosive force on the various parts that used to be X, but flame on its own would not do that unless X was wearing a lot of explosives already...

[Blackdrag-rose]

7405761 It was supposed to be ashes and not pieces... how did I miss something that stupid...
Nonetheless, you found an error and helped me fix it, so you have my thanks.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

Basically, Sunset's getting into the habit of using her magic and burning her enemies to cinders... or ashes, whatever people prefer.