Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Arsenal: Phoenix, The Plan

When Ratchet got the Hyperion back to where the Starship Phoenix was stationed, and they had boarded the ship, he had to wonder what sort of plan Qwark had come up with while he and his family had been watching Angela tear the gladiators in Annihilation Nation apart. On their way back to the Phoenix they had all shared their ideas on what Qwark might want them to do in the fight against Dr. Nefarous, though they all shared their concerns that it might actually involve him asking if they could unleash the power of Searing upon their enemy. His plan in the Bogon Galaxy had been smart until he thought that he could remove Sunset's powers, which had eventually led to him suffering a massive wound that should have, by all rights, killed him after the attack had struck him.

Ratchet had always wondered what had happened to the captain after he ran away from the hospital a year ago, though it seemed that they had eventually gotten their answer. They assumed that one of the ships that had been at the hospital had been stolen by Qwark, though it wasn't hard for them to assume that his injury made it impossible for him to actually get very far before the ship was switched to autopilot. They guessed that Qwark must have accidentally picked a ship that could get him back to the Solana Galaxy, or it could have been on purpose considering who they were talking about, and had managed to crash land on Florana. From there they guessed that the natives must have hailed him as a fallen god of sorts, as it appeared that they had done their best to heal the captain's injuries and allowed him to seize control over the clan with little effort.

They were all curious as to how the captain could already be up and about as if nothing had happened to him, though Starlight told the others that Qwark might have some natural ability to rapid recover from whatever he's been doing. Ratchet knew that Qwark had no magical abilities, like what Sunset and Starlight had, so he knew that this was likely all they were going to come up with at the moment.

When they actually walked down the ship, towards the bridge where Qwark and Sasha were waiting for them, Angela spotted the armor vendor and looked down at her own armor. There were plenty of cuts and torn fabric everywhere on the armor she had worn when she had been trying to get Ratchet and his family out of Bogon, though she seemed a little sad to see it go. She then sighed for a moment before she approached the vendor, to which she activated the menu and spotted that there was actually something that she could get to replace what she was currently wearing. After a few seconds she pressed a few buttons and the vendor engaged itself, raising a metal cylinder that surrounded her and started switching her old armor with the new armor that was available.

When the cylinder lowered back into the floor she found that she was wearing a blue suit of armor, tailored to fit the style of her old armor no less, and that the vendor had even left her cape alone.

"So that's the new Magnaplate Armor," Starlight commented, eying the armor that Angela was now wearing, nodding her head as she looked at the armor, "I must say, it looks exactly like what Sunset and I designed. I hope that armor serves you well Angela."

Angela nodded and let Ratchet get the new armor as well, not so they could match in how they looked, but so he could be better protected when they were sent to whatever planet Qwark wanted them to visit in their quest to stop Nefarious. Once they were both wearing matching armor sets, and given Starlight's stamp of approval, the group continued their march to the bridge, as they were eager to hear what Qwark's master plan was supposed to be. As they walked into the bridge they found the familiar faces of Big Al, Helga, and Skid waiting for them, including the monkey that had accompanied Qwark from Florana.

Even Sasha was there, which was understandable considering that this was her starship, but she definitely looked pissed off about something, which Ratchet assumed was because she was basically having to give up command to Qwark.

"About time the five of you showed up," Qwark said, turning to the group as they walked down to where he and the others were waiting, "I was beginning to wonder if if any of you were going to bother coming to our first meeting."

"We stopped to pick up some armor, which I actually needed if I'm going to continue adventuring with my boyfriend," Angela replied, frowning at the man as they all came to a stop in front of him, "but now we're ready to hear whatever your plan is so we can deal with Dr. Nefarious and his army."

"Very well then. Welcome ladies and gentlemen..." Qwark began, before he remembered that Helga was standing before him as well and hastily spoke again, "oh, and Helga... Welcome to the Q Force! You have been assembled here because each of you is an expert in your particular fields. From Al's mastery of electronics, to Skid's nerves of steel, to Helga's sensual powers of seduction! And let's not forget that Ratchet has prior experience in exploring two different galaxies and Clank has his own technical advantages, while Angela is a master scientist and seasoned adventurer in her own right. And, I will freely admit it, but my vocabulary isn't large enough to tell you everything that Starlight is capable of doing and bring justice to the skills that she possesses."

When Qwark paused for a moment Ratchet noticed it immediately, along with the fact that the captain made no effort to mention everything that Sunset was capable of doing on her own, so he had to wonder what was coming next.

"Though I'm not going to lie to you, the Q Force was really my back up plan in case the first plan fell apart," Qwark admitted, causing most of the people that had been brought to the bridge to look at each other in confusion, though Ratchet noticed that Sunset was one of the few that weren't confused.

"They're your BACKUP PLAN?!" Sasha asked, anger filling her voice now, "Then tell us, oh brave and noble captain, what's the plan that you had thought of before deciding to assemble a team that we may or may not need?"

"Well, I had Al track some of Nefarious' previous purchases and found that he has a secret base on Planet Aquatos!" Qwark explained, to which the screen turned on and revealed a projected image of what the compound looked like, which Ratchet assumed that Al had a hand in creating as well considering that the images they saw weren't made by crayon, "It was... painfully easy to track him down, which is all thanks to the fact that he left his name on all of the orders and even gives the deliverers special times to arrive. Al managed to get a copy of the next order, which revealed that our enemy has a delivery coming tomorrow afternoon, so we know that he'll be at the base at that time and that he won't leave until its arrived.

My plan of attack was simple; we blow the planet to pieces and end his evil reign once and for all... without harming any innocent civilians in the process."

"Then its a good thing you assembled the 'Q Force', because that plan was stupid," Angela said, beating Ratchet to the punch, who had been getting ready to say something the moment he learned what the captain had been thinking, "The only known planet ending weapons were created by Chairman Drek and his Head Scientist, though the both of them are dead and their secrets were erased shortly after their deaths. Even if we had one of those weapons, which would take months to build, we'd never have the opportunity to use them as I'm sure our enemy would discover them and blow them to pieces before they were complete. Yes, we could try and lower the scale of such an explosion to the compound itself, but we'd never be able to sneak in all of the explosives necessary to pull it off.

We're just going to have to do things the old fashioned way and infiltrate his secret base... though ideally we would want to do it when Nefarious was away so we wouldn't risk being detected by him."

"What? I didn't mean those old fashioned weapons," Qwark said, waving his hands as if he was trying to dismiss what Angela had said, "I meant that we could use the Goddess of Destruction's powers to cause a cataclysm that would completely wipe Nefarious' base off of the face of Aquatos."

"Oh for the love of..." Sasha angrily growled, before shaking her head in an attempt to calm herself down as she faced the captain, "Even if we had the help of such a being, which we don't, we can't just go around destroying planets on a whim. It would turn us into the very thing we swore to destroy."

"Come on Sunset, help me out here." Qwark said, turning to Sunset for a moment, who turned her gaze away from the captain, "You know that we can end this before Nefarious does something that might not be reversible."

"Don't you look away from me." Sasha snapped, causing Qwark to turn back to her for a second, "I know that Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer have potent magical abilities that could turn the tide of our fight with Nefarious, I will admit that right now, but even the power of magic itself isn't enough to simply do what your asking."

Ratchet had the feeling that someone, be it Qwark or Sunset herself, was going to bring up the Yeedil Incident, which would show everyone just what Sunset was capable of doing when she was pissed off and possessed by Searing. Personally he and his family had grown tired of speaking of the event, so they stopped mentioning it completely about five months before they heard that Veldin was under attack, but it almost seemed like someone was going to mention it soon.

"That's actually not entirely accurate," Al commented, causing both Qwark and Sasha to turn to him for a moment, "I spoke to a friend of mine, who happens to be from the Bogon Galaxy, at a convention I went to a few months back and he told me about something everyone called the 'Yeedil Incident'. It used to be called the Yeedil Episode, but then people decided that it would be better to call it an Incident instead of an Episode, though I think you'll be interested in hearing what actually happened during the Incident. According to what I heard from my friend, and I have no reason to believe that he lied to me, there was a massive earthquake that struck the planet of Yeedil, eventually creating a cataclysm that destroyed much of the civilization that called that planet home."

"I'm still not seeing how magic is involved in all of this," Sasha said, looking more confused once she heard what Al had said, which meant that she didn't believe that the power that Sunset and Starlight wielded could be responsible for what Qwark was suggesting.

Sunset sighed and closed her eyes, though she opened her wings for a moment and tapped Starlight with her left wing, before she closed them once more. Starlight shook her head and pulled out her tablet, easily connecting to the screen that they were apparently using and scrolled through her videos before she found the one she was looking for. She had no desire to see this video again, and she knew that Sunset didn't need to see it again either, but she guessed it was necessary so their allies knew exactly what Qwark was asking them to do.

"What all of you are about to see is what the people of Bogon call the Yeedil Incident," Starlight said, starting the video on the screen as she lowered her tablet.

Searing, in all of her corrupted glory, appeared on the main screen, causing Al, Helga, Skid, and Sasha to jump back in surprise as they gazed upon the demon for the first time, while Qwark, on the other hand, touched his chest as if he was remembering something. There were a seconds delay before the video showed the fight between Qwark and Searing, allowing the rest of the Q Force to watch as the demon survived Qwark's barrage of attacks and emerged unharmed. It even showed the energy attack that Qwark had prepared in case Searing was more powerful than he had originally thought, but then it got to the part that Starlight wanted to show all of them. They reached the part of the video where Searing grabbed Qwark, tossed him into the air, and used her potent magic to crack the air in front of his chest.

The Q Force watched as the facility the two combatants were standing in was split into two halves, struck by the very earthquake that Al had mentioned, until the video was over.

"What Qwark wants is for Sunset to unleash that level of power on Aquatos," Starlight explained, removing the video from the main screen before putting her tablet away, "Personally, I would recommend that you all ignore that plan altogether and plan for an infiltration in a few days."

"We can end this is a single go," Qwark replied, turning to Sunset again, who was trying her best to ignore the captain completely, "One area of Aquatos is all that needs to be destroyed, not the entire planet. We can get rid of Nefarious and save the galaxy from whatever foul plans he's currently planning... all I ask is that you use the power you were given and erase his secret base."

"The consequences of even doing that are unacceptable," Sunset growled, trying her hardest to keep her anger in check, because she feared that she might relapse into Searing if she gave into her anger, "Innocent people will get hurt in the end, regardless if they were close to where the secret base is located or if they were further away from it, and the entire planet will either shake or do something else in response to whatever attack I unleashed. Or maybe something else might happen, something that none of us were expecting, and cause even more destruction that what your asking of me. Honestly Qwark, you're stupid to even consider that using my power in such a manner would have no consequences at all..."

Ratchet, along with everyone else in the room, noticed that Sunset stopped in what appeared to be the middle of her rant, though he noticed something different that appeared to be happening. His sister moved one of her hooves to her chest as she started to cough, though that was seconds before she moaned in pain as she briefly opened her left eye, which Ratchet noticed had changed to Searing's eye color. Ratchet's worst fears were being realized; Qwark's idiotic plan to use Sunset's power to basically destroy Aquatos had risen her anger to the point where Searing was trying to reassert herself again. It was the relapse that they had all feared was coming one day, but at least they had measures in place to stop the demon from resurfacing once more.

"I... won't... let her... OUT!" Sunset struggled to say, clearly fighting against Searing the entire time as her magic surrounded her, before she disappeared from the bridge completely.

"I had better go with her," Starlight commented, engaging her magic as she followed after her sister, to which she disappeared from the bridge and teleported over to the Hyperion.

"What... just happened?" Sasha asked, turning to Ratchet and Angela for a moment, because they were more familiar with what was happening and could provide her with the answers to the questions that were running through her mind at the moment.

"Qwark's stupid plan almost let Searing out into the universe again," Angela said, letting out a sigh as she turned to the rest of the Q Force, "Apparently the Raritanium Cores have the power to force Searing back whenever she takes over, so Sunset, Starlight, and I devised a cell that Sunset can stay in whenever this happens. The cell will ensure that the demon doesn't escape, while draining Sunset of her energy... so she'll be out for a few days at most. What we should do is plan our infiltration of Nefarious' secret base, because blowing it up simply isn't the answer."

Everyone else voiced their agreement, leaving Qwark to admit defeat on the matter and bow to Angela's wisdom, something that would have made Angela smile if she wasn't worried about Sunset.

---

Sunset appeared in the room that contained the Cores they had collected, which were beginning to glow now that Searing was trying to break free once more. She was fortunate that she and her family had devised a way to push Searing back, which involved using the Cores to create a barrier that would trap her inside a cell, one that was designed to make sure the demon failed to escape. The potent magical energies of the Cores happened to be powerful enough to prevent Searing from going anywhere, which meant that the cell Sunset and her family had created would be able to use that power to bind the demon once more.

She barely had time to take a step towards the cell when another wave of Searing's energy struck her hard, sending her right to the floor as she felt the demon fighting to get out again.

"Celestia!" a voice behind her said, one that she immediately recognized as Starlight's voice, though that was followed by Starlight's magic wrapping around Sunset and pulling her off the floor.

"I am here Starlight," the white alicorn said as she phased into the room they were in, before her sensors detected something off about Sunset's energies, "I detect that Searing is making another attempt to escape... shall I begin the Containment Protocol?"

"Yes," Starlight replied, gently pulling Sunset into the cell they had constructed and lowered her onto the bed, before backing out of the cell and closing the door behind her, "Don't worry Sunset, we'll make sure that Searing doesn't escape or hurt anyone."

Sunset groaned as she lifted her head up to face her sister, taking a moment to nod her head before she closed her eyes so she could let the Cores work their magic. Starlight watched as the container that the Cores were held in started to glow, which was followed by the barrier phasing into existence around the entire cell. The seemingly ancient magic of the Cores moved from the barrier and wrapped around Sunset, aiding her in her fight against Searing once more, just like when Starlight had used Honesty back on Yeedil.

"She'll be out for at least two days, maybe three," Celestia commented, looking at the sleeping form of Sunset for a few seconds, before turning her attention to Starlight, "Go. Be with the rest of your family. The others and I will watch over the ship and make sure that nothing happens to Sunset while you're gone."

Starlight didn't want to leave Sunset alone, especially during a time like this when Searing was stopped from taking over and Sunset had to recover from the ordeal, because her sister would be vulnerable until she recovered. As she thought about all the safety measures that she and the others had placed in this room, to keep both the Cores and Sunset, whenever she needed to use the cell, safe from whoever attempted to steal them, she had to wonder if it might be best to stay here for the first time that Sunset used the room. Once that idea crossed her mind she shook her head and turned to the hologram, which had been patiently standing near her the entire time.

"I'm sure that Sunset will be fine... just keep me updated on her condition while I'm gone." Starlight said, to which the hologram nodded her head once she had made up her mind.

With the decision made Starlight summoned her magic once more and teleported back to the Phoenix, though she was eager to hear what the back up plan was for dealing with Nefarious. When she reappeared on the bridge, and walked up to where the others were busy planning the plan that they would actually use, she was happy to hear that their plan of attack was to infiltrate the secret base and see if their enemy was foolish enough to leave his secrets out in the open. Apparently they had come up with the idea that Ratchet, Starlight, and Angela would lead the assault through the tunnels at the edge of the base, where they would meet up with Skid and hack their way to a certain portion of the base.

Starlight was sure that they didn't need five of them to infiltrate the secret base, as it would raise their chances of being detected, but she decided to roll with it this time. It was definitely better than trying to blow the base up and cause consequences to the surrounding area around where it had been built by their enemy. She hoped that Qwark didn't try anything funny while they were gone, as she wasn't sure what he would do now that Sunset was locked in a cell, but she also hoped that Sasha kept the captain on the Phoenix until they were done with Nefarious.

Comments

[Nova Blaze]

nothing happens to Sunset while your gone

*you're
That kinda stood out to me. Otherwise, things are getting interesting.

[Crescent Glaive]

Qwarks idea had some merit but it would have been too dangerous for it to be viable

[Sonata Blaze]

Oh goddammit Qwark... Sunset's powers are not to be used for destruction.

7614752 I think more than just his chest might have been damaged back on Yeedil.

[HB_DS2013]

I'm not surprised that Qwark's idiocy would be enough to summon Searing.

[Aria Blitz]

Really Qwark? Your first plan was to use Searing, who hates your guts, to destroy Nefarious, who also hates you.
Idiot... he's still a freaking idiot

[HeartfireFirebrand]

7617381
Yeah you get used to that.

[dvdspires]

Honesty Qwark, your stupid to even consider

Honestly. You’re.

nothing happens to Sunset while your gone

You’re.