• Published 7th May 2016
  • 4,660 Views, 1,953 Comments

Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana - Blackdrag-rose



Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer grow up alongside Ratchet on Veldin, where they begin an epic journey to save the galaxy.

  • ...
28
 1,953
 4,660

PreviousChapters Next
Commando: Snivelak

After breaking free of the poorly constructed prison that the Thugs had built into Angela's ship, and receiving her message that ended in her being captured by the Thug Leader no less, Ratchet and his sisters climbed into their ship and took off for their next destination. Ratchet actually flew much faster than what he normally did, because he knew that Sunset wanted to get back at the Thug Leader for everything that he had put them all through. That decision was also added by the fact that Ratchet actually wanted to save Angela, because he was convinced that there was something that she wanted to tell him and hadn't had the opportunity to do so thanks to all the madness they were going through at the moment.

Clank, on the other hand, was making sure that their defenses were at the ready, because they all knew that the Thugs would be waiting for their arrival at Planet Gorn. He assumed that this was all a trap so the Thugs could finally eliminate them, but he also knew that it would be impossible to do so thanks to Sunset and Starlight's magical powers. One thing that he was worried about, and Starlight agreed with him, was that Searing seemed to be appearing more frequently in Sunset's eyes, which spoke volumes on how angry the Thug Leader was making her. He secretly hoped that this would be the last time they ever saw the Thug Leader, because this time he knew that Sunset wouldn't hold back when it came time to fight him.

Sunset remained silent as she tried to meditate and calm herself down, but it continued to be a losing battle, because Searing had been riled up and seriously wanted something to kill, which was why she was pouring into Sunset's body at the moment. She was sure that her eyes had the coloration that Searing had, but she decided not to worry about it too much as they rapidly approached their destination.

When they arrived at Planet Gorn, where the Thugs fleet had been located, several ships flew passed by where their ship was at the moment and fired at them, to which Ratchet was thankful that Clank had activated the shields before their arrival.

"I detect Thugs-4-Less ships all around us," Clank commented, beckoning to the radar that had come with their ship, "and there are four larger ships around this immediate area. My bio-scans indicate that Angela is not aboard any of the larger ships, but I do believe that we may be able to figure out where they have taken her if we destroy the entire fleet."

"I'll take the two larger ships on our right," Sunset replied, surrounding herself with her magic before she teleported outside the ship, "I'm going to rip them a new one."

Ratchet sighed as he flew forward and started firing at the Thugs that were flying around him, blowing them up with some well placed shots as his shields took whatever they could dish out. Starlight assisted her brother as he flew around, as she grabbed some unfortunate Thugs as their ships passed by them and either threw them into another ship or into the mountains around them. Her actions seemed to piss the Thugs off more than they already were, because more of the smaller fighters started to swarm around them in an effort to get rid of them. That just made Ratchet want to target the larger ships even more, because while he tore into his intended target, and ripped sections off of it, Starlight used her magic to toss their enemies around like they were nothing.

That was seconds before Ratchet tore a massive hole in the ship he was targeting, by hitting a certain section of the ship that caused the explosion, but he grinned as he realized how he could beat the Thugs in record time. With the first of his targets taken care of Ratchet turned his attention to the second ship, which he had to spend a few seconds searching for, though it was easier than he was expecting because he found the swarm of smaller ships protecting it. He and Starlight smashed the smaller ships as they flew towards the larger ship, though Starlight focused on using her magic to toss the smaller ships around and throw them into each other.

They fought through the large swarm of enemies, cutting them down before they could tear their own ships to pieces, before Ratchet managed to get shot at the larger ship's weakness and tore a massive hole in it, causing it to explode before the pieces rained on the ground below them.

"That will show them that they shouldn't mess with us," Ratchet said with a grin on his face, to which he briefly turned to Clank, "How's Sunset doing with the Thugs that she wanted to take care of?"

As soon as the words left his mouth he heard an explosion, which was followed by a large number of burning ships being scattered all around them. Ratchet didn't need to know that Sunset was tearing her enemies to pieces, though he had to admit that he was curious as to what she was doing to them. He maneuvered their ship into a position that would allow them to watch their sister, where they watched her fly around a set of smaller ships and tear their wings off of them, all without touching any of them. It was almost as if the wind itself was bending to her will, because every time she swung her sword at one of the ships she cut off their wings without touching the ship, and she wasn't even using the whip function she had installed in the weapon.

Despite the large number of enemies that were flying around her, and trying to shoot her down, Sunset didn't seem to care how many ships she had to take out to reach her target. At one point she broke through the swarm of enemies that were gathering around her and landed on one of the larger ships, to which she released a wave of energy into the top of the ship and cut it right in half. As the first ship exploded Sunset reappeared in the middle of the smaller ships, cutting them to pieces as she searched for her second target, though it didn't take her long to discover that it was trying to flee the planet's surface. She released a gust of wind energy that tore into the ships that were around her, though while that happened she burst through the air and flew after the ship that was trying to leave the battlefield.

In the end Sunset reached the ship before it could leave the planet's surface and repeated the process she had used to take out the first one, though when it was a burning wreck, and the smaller ships had fled while she was distracted, she returned to where Ratchet had parked their ship.

"Do we have any idea where the Thugs might have moved Angela to?" Sunset asked, teleporting back into her seat before Ratchet got their ship started again.

Before Ratchet or Starlight could say anything Clank managed to pick up something on one the Deep Space Channels, though as he pulled up the transmission everyone noticed that it was the Thugs-4-Less Leader that had sent the message. The Leader was clearly pissed off that Ratchet and his family were in the Bogon Galaxy, making it harder for him and his employees to make an actual living. He continued to tell them to hightail it back to their own system before he trashed the daylights out of them, while also saying that they better not try to search for him because he was as unpredictable like the wind. When the transmission was over the four of them had to resist the urge to face palm, because the Leader had done something incredibly stupid that made Qwark look smarter by comparison.

"Does he realize that he had transmitted his exact location?" Clank asked, though he was secretly wishing that they were dealing with Qwark again, because even the former captain didn't do something like this when they were trying to track him down.

"If not then he's about to find out," Ratchet replied, though he looked back to see Sunset grinning from ear to ear, but he couldn't blame her for being excited about the idea of finally removing the Thugs Leader from their lives.

Clank downloaded the new coordinates and Ratchet got them underway, knowing that this time they could finally bring an end to some of the madness that the Leader had brought to their lives... all while finally saving Angela from whatever she had gotten herself into.


When they finally reached the coordinates that the Thugs Leader had unknowingly sent them, which happened to be Planet Snivelak, Ratchet and his family discovered that there was definitely a base of some kind, no doubt built by the Thugs themselves at some point in time. It almost seemed as if this was the place that the Thugs lived in, as it appeared to be their main base of operations, though they also assumed that the larger building, the more sinister looking one in the distance, was where all the meetings were held and what not. The Thugs Leader was hiding somewhere in the base, though it was up to Ratchet and his family to fight their way through the Thugs that remained so they could figure out where he was hiding.

After they landed their ship they climbed out and surveyed the surrounding area, though while they did so Starlight turned to her sister for a brief moment.

"You should stay behind us until we find the Thugs-4-Less Leader," Starlight said, taking a brief note of the fact that Sunset was a little tired from the fight on Gorn, "Let Ratchet and I deal with the soldiers that we come across... and we'll let you have the Leader when he reveals himself."

Her statement was also directed to Searing, because she knew, from her last experience with Sunset's inner creature, that if someone promised her something then she would likely hold back until she got what she was promised. She knew that if Searing went ahead and fought everything that was in their path, and shattered everything around them, then she might drive the Thugs Leader away... and take Angela with him.

"I understand," Sunset replied, sighing as she looked at the main area of the base that they had flown over, wondering if that was where they would find their target, "I'll stay out of your way unless one of you asks me to assist you."

Ratchet sighed as he equipped his Swingshot and latched onto the targets that were hanging in front of them, to which he swung from where he had landed their ship until he reached the building that they brought him to. He waited a few seconds until his siblings had appeared behind him before they swung over the second set of Swingshot targets, which allowed them to drop down on a walkway of sorts. There was a door that was blocking their way into the main area of the base, so they were forced to lower the nearby rail into place before they could use the rail system to get around the blockade. Once the rail was back in place Ratchet leapt onto it, knowing that his sisters would teleport to him the moment he reached the end of the rail system.

He eventually reached the base of the tower that the rail wrapped around a few times, to which he immediately started climbing and used the Dynamo to activate more of the walkways that he needed to use to reach the top. It was easy for him to reach the top of the tower, though then he had to walk over to where a couple of helicopters were taking off, to which he had to duck and weave his way through their blades before he reached the base of the platform they were using to take off. He then walked across the walkway that happened to be to the right of him, where he found a jump pad that allowed him to reach the other side of the blockade that he had passed by.

When he landed on the ground he turned to the blockade and watched as his sisters merely teleported to where he was standing, bypassing everything that he had gone through, though he had been expecting that to happen anyway.

Sunset stood back as Ratchet and Starlight moved forward, each of them pulling out a weapon as they noticed that an army of Thugs was moving across the bridge and were heading right towards where they were standing. Starlight was expecting a large number of soldiers to be in their way, though she was impressed that the Thugs were smart enough to bring out a few tanks to try and take the two of them down. Starlight snapped up a shield as the tank fired their first shots at them, though she noticed a few cracks that appeared in her magic, telling her that the tanks were more powerful than what she had been expecting. When the second volley came their way both Ratchet and Starlight broke apart from each other, before they turned their weapons on the tanks and started firing at them.

Their Minirocket Tubes proved to be quite useful in taking out all three of the tanks that the Thugs had brought out, though their enemies then used the wreckage as cover before they started firing at them. Ratchet and Starlight noticed that the soldiers were using the ruins tanks as cover, though when they did so they cycled to their Plasma Coils and loosed a charge each at their targets. It was fortunate that the Plasma Coils' charges hit multiple enemies, though they knew that with the large number of foes standing in front of them they were going to need to be precise with each of their attacks. With this being the headquarters of the Thugs they knew that they were going to have a really rough fight ahead of them, though they also had to be careful at the same time.

Once the bridge was cleared of enemies they walked towards the entrance of the base, though as they did so they kept their eyes peeled for anything that might want to do them harm. They spotted a moving laser on the ground in front of them, but before they could move over it they noticed a group of enemies move into position as they leveled their weapons at them. A few plasma charges were enough to put the group of soldiers down, but before they took another step a second group appeared and took the place of the first one. Ratchet and Starlight returned fire until they were sure that there were no more Thugs near the entrance, though once they knew that the way was clear they moved over the laser with ease and then continued their search for the Thug Leader.

The instant they turned to their left they spotted a large number of Thugs coming at them, which made Ratchet wonder if the two of them had enough ammunition to make it through the base without having to resort to letting Searing out early.

"Don't worry, we'll reach the end without having to resort to anything dangerous," Starlight said, leveling her Pulse Rifle with a tank in the distance and placing a decent shot in the one place that would cause the most damage, as it exploded and caused the soldiers around it to look at it in surprise.

The distraction proved to be useful, because the moment the Thugs looked away from them, for that brief instant, Ratchet and Starlight started firing at them, using whichever weapon they desired to cut their way through them. It proved to be difficult to actually cut down everyone in one shot like they had back in Solana, as it appeared that the Thugs were wearing some decent armor that made them much harder to take down. As they made the Thugs back up, making them lose the ground they were defending, Starlight noticed a chopper enter the area and turn towards where they were standing. Instead of letting it get close she grabbed it out of the air and dragged it towards the ground, breaking it into a large number of pieces as it exploded in a ball of fire.

They turned another corner and came to an area that was clearly set up for a battle between two forces, because the moment they entered the area a force field appeared in front of them and behind them. Once the force fields were in place the Thugs teleported into the area, though this time Starlight and Ratchet loosed a storm of Chopper blades at everyone that was standing in their path. That proved to be more effective than what the two of them were expecting, because by the time that they had both emptied their Choppers the immediate area around them happened to be cleared of all their enemies. The instant the area was clear the force fields were deactivated, giving them the opportunity to move on, but they stayed back for a moment to check their ammunition.

"I'm still worried that we might not have enough ammo to last us until we reach the Leader," Ratchet commented, checking his main weapons and discovered that they were mostly dry, to which Starlight nodded the same thing.

"Then I might as well give you mine," Sunset replied, removing the ammunition packs from all the weapons that she had and passed them to her siblings, knowing that they would be able to use all of it get to the end, "I don't think I'll be needing any of it anymore... not with you know who backing me up."

Ratchet nodded as he accepted the ammunition, though he still wished that whatever had happened to release Searing into the world had never happened to being with... though he suspected that it was linked to what happened at Umbris so long ago. They were going to have to deal with the consequences of letting Searing out to fight with the Thug Leader, whatever those consequences happened to be.

Once they had all of their ammunition back, or half of it anyway, they advanced forward again, though as they did so two more choppers came into the area in front of them and started firing at them. Starlight sighed and summoned a shield to protect them from the first wave of attacks, though before the choppers could fire another wave she grabbed them both with her magic and slammed them together hard enough to destroy the both of them. With the choppers taken care of they turned to the right and entered another area that had two defensible positions, though the moment they approached the one closest to them the Thugs started firing at them. Only three enemies actually stood in their way, so Ratchet used his Pulse Rifle and took them out in rapid succession, allowing them to advance through another laser area.

The instant they passed by where the Thugs had been defending themselves a force field sprung up around them, trapping in the area they were currently in as two gates opened to reveal a large group of enemies waiting for them. Starlight grinned as the Thugs foolishly revealed themselves, because this time she took a page from Sunset's book and emptied her Chopper of all its ammunition, throwing the blades around as they sought her targets. Ratchet joined in as well, facing the second door so they could make sure that none of the Thugs managed to get around them and hit them from behind, though he knew that Sunset would take care of them if that ever happened. Their strategy took some time, but in the end they managed to clear the area of their enemies and opened the door that was to the south of where they were standing.

Ratchet was sure that they had reached their destination, because in front of them stood the legs of a rather large mech that he was positive that the Thug Leader was going to use to try and crush them with. It turned out that he was right in thinking that it was the Thug Leader that was standing before them, because the moment they approached the mech they spotted him near the end, only he was laughing his head off.

"What's so funny?" Ratchet asked, taking note that Angela happened to be trapped in the middle of the mech's chest, though he was sure that Starlight could easily rescue her now that they knew where she was being kept.

"The four of you!" the Thug Leader exclaimed, staring down at them as if he was better than them, "I laid the perfect trap for the lot of you, and I even gave it the perfect bait, and you came right into my hands as if you were a pack of dogs chasing a ball! Now that you're all here I can get rid of you and get on with my life. Prepare to die morons!"

"Just a second, I'm not finished yet." Starlight said, stopping the Thug Leader before he could bring down the mech's arm on where they were standing, though her horn stopped glowing as she finished carving a glowing doorway into one of the buildings, "Come on Angela, let's get you out of there."

The Thugs-4-Less Leader watched as Angela Cross, his own prisoner, disappeared from the chest piece of his mech and appeared beside the lombax and his annoying sisters. His master plan may have been broken a little bit, but he had been planning on getting rid of Angela the moment he was finished with Ratchet and his sisters. After all there was only three of them, five if he counted Angela and the small robot, and he had a large mech that could easily level the entire base if he wasn't careful, so he wasn't worried about a fight between the lot of them.

"It will be much more fun killing her with the rest of you instead of letting her watch you all die," the Leader shouted down at them, a smile appearing on his face, "I know that you won't be able to kill me, not when you failed to kill me the last few times that we encountered each other... and that's also taking into consideration that you didn't kill Captain Qwark the first time you fought him."

"Seriously, would you stop pressing the Qwark Button?" Ratchet shouted up at the madman, because he could already tell that Sunset was getting angry, "You're only making this worse for yourself."

"Oh, is the commando going to send his pathetic sister to fight me all by herself?" the Thug Leader mocked, glaring down at Sunset as he noticed that her head was facing the ground, "See, even she's given up before the fight has even started. Better I kill the lot of you now and get this mess over with."

"Suit yourself," Ratchet replied, turning to Starlight and Angela for a moment, "Come on, let's get out of here before Searing blows this entire area to pieces... or does anything worse considering how many times that man has pressed her buttons."

Angela clearly wanted to tell him something, or wanted to ask him another thing, but at the moment she knew that they needed to get away before they were caught in the crossfire. Instead she merely nodded and the four of them faded as Starlight teleported them to a safe distance that was away from the base, leaving Sunset alone with the Thug Leader. At least three of them had an idea of what was coming, as they had traveled with Sunset and knew what her power was like, though Angela was beginning to understand that making Sunset angry wasn't the best idea in the world. They were eager to see what happened next, though Ratchet made sure that Starlight was ready to teleport them to their ship in case the destruction that was to come reached the platform they were currently standing on.

"So, what name should I put on your tombstone?" Sunset asked, not bothering to lift her head at the moment.

"You won't be needing my name," the Leader replied, glaring down at her as he wondered where the rest of her group went, though he knew that he would have time to hunt them down once he was finished with her, "Remember this fact; you failed the kill Captain Qwark the first time you fought him, so you stand no chance of defeating me with whatever 'abilities' that you happen to possess. Now, I think its time that you and your annoying family bit the dust."

With that said the Leader raised the mech's right arm into the air, where it stayed for a few seconds, before he lowered it towards where Sunset was standing, intending to smash her into the ground without giving her the chance to defend herself. The moment the arm hit the ground it produced a bit of smoke that covered Sunset for a moment, leaving the Leader to wait until it had cleared before he could be certain that he had struck his target.

"You know, I'm going to enjoy this a lot more than I should," Sunset said as the smoke cleared, revealing that she had sidestepped to the right quite a bit to avoid the arm.

The Leader didn't think it was strange that she had avoided his attack, because she and her sister were well known for doing that several times during a fight, but what he thought was odd was the fact that her voice had become a little bit demonic. The other thing that he had noticed was that she was suddenly wearing half of a mask on the left side of her face, a bone white one that added to the demonic look with the flame details that were on it. He had no idea what she actually was, or what her abilities actually were, but he decided not to let her show him anything and started the attack once more as he used the other arm to hit her.

This time Sunset burst out of the smoke and sailed towards the chest area of his mech, to which he hastily made the large robot turn before she managed to reach her target. That proved to be a worthless move, because as the mech moved out of the way Sunset spun around in midair and slammed her fist into the chest of his mech, shattering the cage that had held Angela. The mech staggered backwards for a moment before the Leader swung at Sunset once more, who merely moved out of the way and let the arm slam into the building behind her, smashing the top of it as he followed Sunset through the entire base. Sunset dodged all of the attacks that came her way with the greatest of ease, though she wasn't surprised that the large mech was too slow to hit her in her current state.

Eventually the Leader got a lucky swing and the mech's right fist connected with Sunset, sending her flying into the side of one of the buildings and created a small crater where she landed. She guessed that she deserved this for being too careless when she noticed that the Leader couldn't touch her, but all that told her was that she still needed to improve her skills. As she started to pry herself out of the hole she was in she noticed that there was a barrage of missiles heading her way, so she merely extended a hand and summoned a barrier to protect herself from the blast.

As the smoke cleared Sunset appeared in front of the mech, as she had teleported out before the Leader had a chance to use another attack, though she remained still as one of the mech's arms came right at her, but this time she used her magic to stop it before it could even touch her. She then swung her arm at the joint that connected the right arm to the mech's body, destroying it completely and severing the arm, to which she tossed it at the ground behind her as the Leader backed the mech up a bit. Sunset burst through the air and followed the mech, going on the offensive as she swung her fists at the mech, allowing the magical pressure behind each of her attacks to crack or shatter every piece of metal she ended up touching.

At one point the Leader swung the mech's other arm at her, but this time she spun around and released a wave of energy that cleaved the entirety of its arm in half, all without using her sword this time. As the mech backed up even further Sunset gathered some of her energy into a small sphere and threw it at the mech, though she waited until it was right in the cage where Angela had been held before detonating it. The Leader seemed to know what was coming next, because he engaged what appeared to be a jetpack of some kind and got off of the mech as an explosion tore the robot to pieces... leaving only the legs behind.

"That mech cost me one million bolts!" the Leader shouted, though once he landed on the top of a building he pulled his guns out and turned them on Sunset, "I'm going to make you pay for that!"

Sunset sighed and summoned a gust of wind that knocked the Leader to the ground behind him, though he was lucky to escape without any real damage as his jetpack had taken the entirely of her attack. She then landed on the ground not too far from where the Leader had landed, though she was giving him a chance to use his weapons against her if he so desired. The Leader decided to go out guns blazing, because he got onto his feet and loosed every piece of ammunition that he had in his weapons, creating a screen of smoke around where Sunset had been standing. The moment he emptied both of his weapons he backed up to study his work, taking note that he had charred some of the walls around them in the process, but decided it was something he would have to deal with.

When the smoke cleared he discovered that Sunset was still standing there, though he noticed a shimmering shield disappear as she started to approach him. He turned tail to run away, but before he could move an inch Sunset appeared behind him and grabbed him by the collar of his armor with her magic, lifting him into the air without having to touch him. He could see energy gathering around Sunset's left hand, something that he remembered seeing back on Dobbo's moon... where she had shattered the ground with one swing of her arm. Before he had a chance to consider what she was going to do to him she released the magic that was holding him, though as he fell towards the ground Sunset swung her arm and let the sphere of energy connect with his chest.

The instant her left hand was close to his chest he could feel several of his ribs cracking under the pressure of her attack, though he coughed up some blood as the air in front of his cracked as well. The ground around them cracked and shattered as Sunset released all of her anger in the one attack, causing sections of the base to heave upwards while many of the buildings collapsed under her destructive power. The earth itself moaned as the earthquake moved throughout the entire area, tearing into the structures that the Thugs had built as the main base suffered the most of the damage. The ground surrounding the legs of the mech collapsed under the pressure and fell into the lava beneath them, which was followed by several sections of the base following it.

The large building behind the base shattered under the intensity of Sunset's power, its pieces falling into the lave all around the base as the earthquake moved even further from the main base.

Once the attack was finished Sunset let the Leader fall to the floor, where she let him moan as the ground around them shattered and buckled under the intensity of the earthquake. She looked around for a moment and had to admit something to herself, but she hadn't expected the damage to be this severe when he decided on which attack to use to end this fight. She glanced back at the Leader for a moment, trying to find some pity for him, but in the end all she felt was relief that his idiocy would never return to bother her or her family anymore. As she started to turn away she noticed that the Leader was getting back up, making her wonder how he could even more after her attack had broken many of his ribs.

"I... told you before..." the Leader huffed, getting back onto his feet despite the pain he was feeling, "... you cannot... kill me..."

"You should have stayed down... you would have lived longer," Sunset growled, energy gathering around her as she faced the Leader once more, "Now I'm going to hurt you some more."

Sunset dashed forward and slammed her fist into his chest again, breaking his already cracked ribs as the pressure of her attack cracked the ground around them once more. This time Sunset went on the offensive, slamming both of her fists into the Leader in rapid succession as she broke him, and the surrounding area, into more pieces than they previously were. When she ended her barrage she slammed the Leader into the ground, where he coughed up more blood and remained where he was laying. She took note of the fact that most of the base had been ruined under the intensity of her attacks, though the earthquakes were still tearing the surrounding areas apart.

She sighed as she levitated herself into the air, but before she could go very far she glanced down at the Leader once more and noticed that, despite the fact that he was broken beyond repair this time, he was still getting up. Instead of saying anything this time she levitated herself until she was above where the tallest building in the base had been, before she brought her hands close to each other and gathered what energy remained into one last attack. A large sphere of flaming energy, roughly the size of the chest of the mech she destroyed, formed in front of her, to which she threw it down at where the Leader was standing and let it descend towards her target. The explosion that followed tore a massive crater into the center of the base, though she knew that it would leave no trace of her enemy behind.

When the smoke cleared she was pleased to discover that the Leader was no longer there, so while she returned to where the ship was located she felt the mask she was wearing break apart as Searing's power finally dissipated. The moment she reached her destination, and she found her family waiting for her, she smiled and opened her mouth to tell them the news, but then she fell forward as she succumbed to how tired she suddenly felt.

"Let's get out of here," Ratchet said, after he and Starlight had caught their sister, "We can discuss our next move when the world around us isn't falling apart at the seams."

He was glad that the Thug Leader had been dealt with, but he hated the fact that Sunset worked herself to exhaustion in order to rid them all of someone that was as annoying as Qwark. They still needed to stop Megacorp, so he didn't dwell on the fact as they climbed into the ship and departed from the planet as the ground fell apart all around them.

PreviousChapters Next