Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Commando: Boldan

Sunset remained silent as Ratchet flew their ship towards Planet Boldan, preferring to keep her thoughts to herself this time and not bother either of her siblings. She was still thinking about the young man she had encountered at the facility, who happened to have a device that almost appeared to be made by Megacorp, almost as if they were trying to develop ways to siphon the energy of creatures and then use it for their own purposes. She was sure that there was something that she had overlooked when she shattered the young man's 'Hammer of Power', but despite all the time she spent thinking about that encounter she couldn't figure out what she might have missed. She only stopped thinking about then encounter when Starlight asked her to take a look at the holoplan she had been working on in her spare time when they were between planets.

Apparently her sister was trying to make another RYNO weapon, the RYNO III according to the title of the schematic, but they could both tell that the weapon was far from complete... though that didn't stop her from assigning a password to the holoplan.

Clank, during their journey, tried a few times to dissuade Ratchet from their current course of action, insisting that there had to be a trap somewhere in the city that was waiting for them. After determining what Angela had paid the Thugs a lot of bolts to get them to work for her, which had taken some time considering she didn't tell them how much her price had been, he had crunched the numbers and determined that there was only one group that could have bought them out from under her; Megacorp themselves. What he could not determine was what the company wanted with the group of mercenaries, which added to the worry he felt when he had insisted that they had to be walking into a trap.

When they arrived outside the Silver City, where Mr. Fizzwidget was supposed to be giving away samples of the Protopet, they found that the path leading into the city was blocked by an electric fence... something that both Sunset and Starlight could easily bypass with their magic. Unfortunately, before either of them could open a small portal to the other side, Ratchet commented that he was going to go through the tunnel that a none magic user would use to get around the barrier. Starlight sighed and simply nodded her head, telling their brother that they would patiently wait until he deactivated the shield before they into the city.

Sunset, on the other hand, merely sat on one of the nearby curbs as Ratchet moved to the entrance of the tunnel he intended to travel through, appearing to meditate while she waited for her siblings to tell her it was time to move on.

---

Ratchet sighed as he and Clank rode the elevator down into the tunnel that would allow him to get around the shield that was in front of where he landed their ship. He knew that his sisters could easily get around the barrier with their magic, and he halfway expected them to do so as he was heading to this tunnel, though he was somewhat surprised when Sunset had started to meditate as he headed to this area. He was worried that Searing might be trying to resurface again, considering that they hadn't seen the creature since they defeated Chairman Drek, though he was glad to see that Sunset was making sure that he and Starlight were safe from the wrath of her inner creature.

"Are you worried about Sunset again?" Clank asked, noticing that Ratchet didn't move forward when the elevator reached its destination, despite the fact that he had prepared his new wings ahead of time.

"I'm worried that Searing might be closer to escaping than we originally thought," Ratchet admitted, approaching the pad that would allow him to use the wings he had grafted into Clank's body, "She just found out that Qwark is still alive, something that I have been trying to keep her from discovering after I found him back on Oltanis, when he was trying to sell me a Gadgetron gadget that I assume he stole. I didn't want Sunset to find out that he was still alive, because she easily gets mad whenever someone mentions him in her vicinity and could potentially release some of that creature's power. We were lucky that Searing didn't try to break through back on Dobbo, but it is only a matter of time until something, or someone, forces Sunset's hand and lets that creature back into existence."

Clank opened his mouth to say something about Searing and the sealing method that Sunset and Starlight had used, and his worries that they might have failed in that regard, but he decided not to say anything and let Ratchet get started on flying through the tunnel. Ratchet engaged the wings and leapt into the air, though as he approached the first spinning gear in front of him he slowed down a bit and moved between two of the sections when the opportunity presented itself. He then moved passed the next spinning piece, which happened to be a small triangle piece of metal with the middle missing, but it was easy to get around and allowed him to approach a circular door that opened and closed every now and then.

Once he had passed through the circular door he made sure to maneuver through the next spinning gear area before he descended down towards a platform that would allow him to restock the fuel in Clank's wings. He took a moment to take stock of what was around him, including the rush hour traffic that was happening at the moment, before he let out a sigh and reengaged the wings. The moment he took off he had quite the effort to make sure that none of the vehicles touched him, because he was sure that even being touched would make his wings retract and make him fall to the ground.

Luck was with him, because his constant moving and dodging the vehicles allowed him to reach the middle of the tunnel and land before another station that would allow him to recharge the wings. He then got back into the air and continued forward, ducking or rising over electric cables that were in his way before he managed to reach the very end of the tunnel. When he landed he found that he was standing before what appeared to be a second elevator, so he retracted the wings into Clank's body and rode the elevator to the top. The moment he reached the top he found himself on the other side of the barrier that his sisters were standing behind, though he immediately pressed the button that would open the way for them to join him.

"Did you have fun in there?" Starlight asked as she joined him, though Sunset wasn't too far behind her after she had shaken herself out of her meditation.

"Nothing but flying and dodging obstacles," Ratchet replied, letting out a sigh as he pulled out his Minirocket Tube, "I guess I should have just let you open a portal and skip the entire thing. Now then, shall we get to the main event and teach the Thugs a lesson?"

"Of course," Starlight answered, a grin appearing on her face as she pulled out her Pulse Rifle, "I thought that you would never ask."

The three of them turned towards the walkway that was in front of them, keeping an eye on the two Thugs that were clearly ignoring their presence and appeared to be playing some sort of game with each other. Starlight sighed as she leveled her rifle with the Thug on the left and pulled the trigger, clearly disliking how easy some of her enemies were to take out as the Thug fell to the ground. The second Thug turned towards them and then pressed the button that was near where he was standing, opening the door and allowing three more of his comrades to join the fight. That was followed by a rocket colliding with the Thug after he pressed the button, blowing him into the wall behind him as the other three got into position.

Before any of them could fire a shot in return Sunset appeared behind the one that was more armored than the others, her sword in motion as she cut into the bracer on his right arm. She grinned as she realized that she finally found something that didn't die from one swing of her sword, though as she leapt back she noticed that the Thug had his own sword to use against her. Their weapons clashed and sparks flew, though Sunset was pleased to have someone that she could actually fight against while her siblings tore into the other Thugs. She and the Thug remained in the constant struggle for sometime, neither of them giving the other any ground as more sparks flew, before Sunset disarmed her opponent and slew him where he stood.

"I haven't had an opponent like that in a long time," she said, turning to her siblings for a moment, "Sorry about that, I guess I got carried away at the fact that someone managed to live through a single swing of my sword. We had better move on."

Starlight knew that her sister liked to research the various stories that she got her attacks from, and even further develop her reserve of tricks, though sometimes it almost looked like she took on an aspect of one of those people who had been recorded. She had, as a way to keep up on what her sister could do, also researched those stories and memorized several of the people that she found interesting. As such she had to wonder if the sudden desire to find a worthy enemy that could keep up with her was something that Searing had passed onto her, or if it was something she had picked up from one of the people she read about... such as someone called Kenpachi Zaraki, someone who enjoyed fighting too much.

She settled on believing that it was all Searing's fault, because it was much easier to blame someone that they all knew about and not someone who was long dead.

Once they had finished the area they had been standing in they turned to the left and walked out into an area that had a fountain, which also included at least ten more Thugs and a large number of red robotic chickens. The Plasma Coil proved to be the best weapon to use at the moment, because while Sunset put up a shield to protect them from being hit her siblings used their weapons to tear into their enemies. One charge was more than enough to take out four enemies at the same time, if properly timed that was, so between the two of them they managed to clear the entire area of their enemies. They then spent a minute collecting the bolts from the various crates that had been resting around the area, adding to the total amount that the three of them had, before they turned around to head in the opposite direction of where they currently were.

When they entered the second area they found a force that equaled the one that they had just finished getting rid of, to which Sunset sighed and repeated the process they had done in the previous area. The Thugs constantly attacked the shield while their robotic chickens tried to get around them, but neither Starlight or Ratchet allowed them to get close as they used their Plasma Coils to cut their enemies down. As they reached the end of the number of enemies that they had Sunset lowered the shield and grabbed an enemy with her magic, before throwing him into the wall near where she was standing and then into the ground in the middle of the area. When the Thug struggled to get out of her magical aura she merely sighed and tossed him off the edge of the area they were on, all while her siblings cleared up the rest of their enemies.

The moment they were sure that they had, once again, cleared the area they climbed onto the elevator that the Thugs were guarding and rode it to the top of the building it was attached to. When they reached the top of the building they spotted another group of five Thugs waiting for them, though when Starlight noticed that they were all standing near each other she let out a sigh. She and Ratchet fired the last of their Plasma Coil charges, which tore the group of Thugs to pieces and allowed them to round the corner that their enemies had been guarding. That was when they found five more Thugs standing guard over what appeared to be the elevator that would take them to the ground floor once more, only these ones were prepared for a fight unlike all the previous groups they had fought.

Ratchet and Starlight cycled to their Minirocket Tubes and started loosing rockets at the Thugs, where those that were actually paying attention to their arrival were fortunate enough to dodge their attacks. As two of the Thugs fell to the rockets Sunset appeared behind one of them and struck him down with her sword, before surrounding herself in a small shield as the remaining two fell to her siblings' rockets. When the smoke cleared the three of them rode the elevator down to their next destination, though as they did so they spotted several more enemies gathering to fight against them.

"They must have brought most of their forces to the Silver City," Ratchet commented, counting the enemies that were standing between them and the next elevator, "which means we're going to need someplace to restock our ammunition soon."

Sunset sighed and pulled out her Chopper, something that she hadn't used in quite a long time, but instead of slipping it on and using it she merely removed the ammunition container and opened it up. She then thrust her hand forward and tossed the stars into the air in front of her, but before they touched the ground she ignited her magic and caught all of them. She spun the stars in the air for a few seconds, merely to make the Thugs tilt their heads in confusion, before she sent them flying towards their targets. Several of her enemies happened to survive the hail of stars that she threw at them, while the majority died within the first few hits, though she merely moved to the side as Starlight and Ratchet used their Minirocket Tubes to clean up those that were alive.

"There, now we should be able to reach the next weapon vendor without having to worry about using all our ammo," Sunset said, just as the elevator came down and a red Thug soldier stepped off of it, "Well then, I guess we know what to do now."

Her words were followed by two more rockets that flew through the air and barreled into the Thug's chest, blowing him onto the wall on his right and opening the way for them once more. Ironically enough when they reached the top of the tower they found another weapon vendor and an armor vendor, though this time Ratchet sprung for some additional armor in case he came to a point where he was separated from either of his sisters. Once they had all of their ammunition restocked they approached the walkway that was on the other side of the entrance they had passed through, to which it lowered into position and allowed them to walk on the side of the tower.

As they started walking down the side of the tower they noticed that six of the doors in front of them opened and one Thug stepped out of each one of them, to which Starlight and Ratchet took turns firing a rocket at them. It didn't take them long to reach the bottom of the tower, where they found a passage that allowed them pass through the tower and come to a stop on a new platform that had a bunch of Thugs waiting for them. It was definitely living up to Ratchet's assumption that they had brought a massive amount of soldiers to fight against them, though the unfortunate thing was that they were grouped up enough for their Plasma Coils to tear into their numbers.

This time the Thugs had the opportunity to fight back, as they were loosing missiles and blasts at where they were standing, which forced Sunset to summon a shield to block them from hitting any of them. She kept the shield up for some time, allowing it to constantly get hit by her enemies, but as the seconds passed by she noticed that her magic was starting to crack and put a strain on her. She was surprised that the Thugs were packing so much force at the moment, but instead of letting them get the better of her she brought her magic together and threw the shield at the enemies on the platform in front of them. She then turned towards the ones on the lower level and used the rest of the magic to burn them until she was sure that they had been taken care of.

When that was done she fell to one knee and took a few deeps breaths, wondering why she always felt so tired whenever she preformed a powerful spell when she knew that she had the ability to use at least four of them before she even got this tired.

"Your anger must be draining your magic a lot faster than what it normally does," Starlight commented, as she had determined that her sister's anger had a massive effect on her abilities and sometimes happened to take more than they originally believed it did, "You should rest up and stay near the back... I don't think that we'll run into anything that will require too much magic at this point in time."

Sunset sighed and got back onto her feet, though this time she pulled out her Lancer and checked it for a few seconds, as it had been some time since she had actually used the weapon and was pleased to find that it was fully stocked on ammo. It wasn't as powerful as the weapons that her siblings were currently using, but it was better than doing absolutely nothing while Ratchet and Starlight took care of all their enemies.

Once the area had been cleared of enemies, and the flames had died down, they crossed to the other platform and rode the elevator the Thugs had been guarding to the top of its tower. When they arrived at their destination they spotted more of their enemies coming their way on the platform that was opposite of where they were at the moment, so they faced their enemies and started firing at them. Sunset's Lancer shots were mere distractions that the Thugs clearly hated, though it gave her siblings time to figure out who to hit before they used their Minirocket Tubes to blow their targets backwards. When the platform was cleared they walked over Starlight's magical bridge and took up defensive positions as more Thugs came their way from the circular walkway.

As the number of Thugs increased on the walkway, further validating Ratchet's guess about how many soldiers the Thugs had brought to the city, Starlight growled and switched to her Hoverbomb Gun, but instead of firing the bombs she tore them out and floated them into orbit around their enemies. With a small surge of magic she ignited all of them at once, blowing literally every Thug to pieces and scattering their bodies into the water below the walkway. Once the way was clear once more they walked to the other side of the circular walkway, where they found yet another elevator that they took to the top of the next tower.

The moment they reached the top they found a last defense point that the Thugs must have set up in advance, though the three that were standing guard were definitely ready for a fight. This time Starlight threw up a shield as the attacks came their way, but as soon as the shield started getting hit she pulled out one of the Spiderbot drones and sent it up the ramp that was right beside them. A few seconds passed as she maneuvered the spider into position, where she marveled that none of the Thugs noticed the white spider robot moving on the wall, but she grinned as she detonated the spider and got rid of the Thugs.

"I swear, sometimes our enemies make this too easy for me," Starlight commented, lowering her shield and walking through the remains of the defenses as she approached the next walkway.

The three of them then walked down the side of the tower they had reached the end of, though as they descended towards the bottom both Ratchet and Starlight shot down every enemy that showed their faces with their Minirocket Tubes. Once they reached the bottom, and had used the passage to enter the building the tower was attached to, they immediately noticed that Mr. Fizzwidget was not there, but rather a robotic version of him was in the middle of an open area.

"Seriously?" Ratchet asked as they walked into the area, glaring at the robot the entire time, "All that time and effort, and the only thing we have to show for it all is a visit to a robotic version of Mr. Fizzwidget..."

"Freeze knuckleheads!" a voice behind them shouted, to which they looked back and found the Leader of Thugs-4-Less standing there with two of his goons, though Sunset grinned for a moment, "The lot of you are under arrest for attempting to bump off Mr. Fizzwidget, which had just earned all of you a trip to our new prison."

The video that he showed them happened to be the research ship that had been Angela's, which they had been told had been stolen some time ago by the Thugs, and a bunch of 'experts' that would make their 'stay' enjoyable. Both Starlight and Sunset found it amusing that the Thugs believed that they would detain either of them, considering that they had potent magical powers that would make it impossible for them to be captured.

"So I get to finish you at long last," Sunset said, grinning as she faced the Leader and flexed her right hand for a moment, a sphere phasing into existence before disappearing, "because you'll need more than two soldiers to detain the four of us."

The Leader smiled and pulled out a switch, though as he did so Sunset noticed that he and his goons were standing in the passage that they had taken to reach the open chamber. That was when her eyes opened as she realized that they had walked into a trap, one that the Thugs must have set up when Megacorp aired that commercial that Angela showed them. The Leader flipped the switch and the area became active with electricity, meant to shock them into submission or until they passed out from how many volts they were using. Considering that none of them were expecting the electricity at all Ratchet and Clank were the first to fall down, though that was quickly followed by Starlight falling as well.

Sunset tried to resist the electricity that was coursing through her body, and succeeded in doing so for a few more seconds than her siblings, but in the end she fell to the floor as well and let the darkness claim her.

Comments

[Sonata Blaze]

This makes much more sense than Ratchet and Clank simply giving into what the Thug Leader says in the actual game. It makes sense that they had to do something that the group wasn't expecting if they wanted to throw them in prison.

[Aria Blitz]

This is definitely better than what they did in the game... merely making Ratchet give into the Leader's demands and go to prison, with no fight back or anything.
That Thug Leader is in for it when Sunset gets to him again.

[Nova Blaze]

Someone's getting ripped limb from limb when Sunset wakes up.

[Sonata Blaze]

7502646 I agree with that opinion, though we'll have to wait a chapter or two before they meet back up with the Thug Leader. Oh I cannot wait for that part to come...

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

Great, now the Thugs have captured the heroes. At least its better than Ratchet giving up like he did in the actual game.