Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Plans

Gleeman Vox was dead, the shadowy empire he had built was falling apart the moment following his death, and the heroes that he had captured and forced to play his games had been freed at long last. Many of the heroes had removed the armor that Vox had forced them to wear, so Starlight or someone else could break them apart and reuse them in some manner. Ratchet and Sasha helped some of the heroes and innocent people back to their home planets, where they could pick up the pieces of their broken lives and return to what they had been doing before Vox had grabbed them. Ratchet was glad that many of the heroes that they had saved were still planning on being heroes, using this experience to validate the need for more than one hero in the known galaxies, though Ratchet was also sure that he heard one of them mention starting up a hero association or something like that.

Angela, on the other hand, was busy dealing with quite a large number of the heroes that they had saved, as it appeared that many of them, including Ace Hardlight, desired to train under her and the other members of her order, effectively doubling the number of Jedi that the galaxies would have. The Mystic, the head of Angela's order, had flown his own spaceship from their base in Metropolis to the fleet where everyone was stationed at the moment, as he was eager to meet the heroes that wanted to join them. Even Maul, the usually silent man that generally only spoke to either Angela or the Mystic, had expressed some desire to meet the possible recruits, as if he was actually looking to take some on himself.

Despite all of this there was only one person missing from the gathering of Jedi, heroes, and civilians, though it was the one person that many people wanted to talk to now that they were free once more; Sunset.

Normally Ratchet would have asked what was wrong with their elder sister, but Starlight knew what was wrong the moment their sister had joined them aboard the ship, before shaking her head and heading to the room where the Cores were kept. Searing and Hatred had been forced to fuse back together with Sunset, likely to save her from whatever Vox had done to her, though that meant that the demon they had come to treat as the youngest member of their was gone, taken from them. Sunset had been quick in dealing the death blow to Vox, though Starlight knew that if anyone aboard the fleet had been in her shoes they would have likely tortured the man until finally granting him the release he would have been begging for.

One other thing Starlight had noticed was that she couldn't sense Sunset's magical energy anymore, which she guessed made sense considering that she had ascended to being an actual Goddess of Destruction, or God of Destruction as she had told them before going to the room with the Cores. Sunset had even given Starlight a Codex fragment before heading into the room, indicating that a friend had given it to her and that she wanted her sister to have the information that it had given her. Still, it unnerved her that she couldn't feel her sister's energy anymore, something that she had gotten used to the moment she had started practicing with her abilities. It was almost like they were back at the start of their first adventure, where she was the only one that could use magic, but the difference was that Sunset had full control over all of her potential.

Starlight flashed back to the destruction of PX-17 for a moment, remembering how quickly Sunset had blown the planet to pieces, before letting out a sigh, because she knew that at some point Sunset would explain things to her and Ratchet.

Eventually she, Ratchet, Clank, Sasha, and Angela found themselves back in the main room of the Hyperion, though this time they were finally alone as all the heroes and Jedi decided to leave them alone. Starlight was thankful to finally be alone with her family again, and with their best friend as well, because that meant that they could get whatever was bugging them out in the open.

"So, I guess the title Qwark gave Sunset is officially what she is now," Sasha said, though she was rubbing her forehead, as if the thought of a real God walking among them hurt her brain, "Of all the times that the idiot captain had to be right about something, and not have it blow up horribly in his face, is when he labels someone with a name that happens to be what she becomes."

"Yet she is devastated by her own powers," Angela commented, knowing what they were all thinking and decided to voice it anyway, "Searing and Hatred, her emotions given life, are basically dead at this point, though it seems that Searing's death has hurt Sunset more than any of us could possibly know. You all saw the outcome of her anger; she simply destroyed Vox right then and there, before blowing up the planet and his space station in a matter of seconds. We already knew that she was strong on her own, but in this state, where she has all one hundred percent of her power, she's on a completely different level than before."

"So what do we do now?" Sasha asked, though it was clear that she had no idea what to do now that they had rescued their friends and the other heroes from Dreadzone.

Starlight had been thinking the same thing, but after some time she had come to the conclusion that she and the rest of her family needed a break from saving the galaxy, something that might help Sunset down the road. It would allow them to take some time off and help Sunset with whatever she was feeling, because an unstable God of Destruction had to be bad for the universe as a whole. She still hated the idea that her sister was a god that specialized in destroying things, but she couldn't fight it at this point, not when Searing and Hatred had given their lives to save Sunset. She was just going to have to roll with it and hope that they didn't need Sunset's new powers further down the line, because she worried what might happen to the next person that enraged her sister.

"We take a short vacation," Starlight said, causing everyone to look at her for a moment, "Look, the events of Dreadzone are weighing down Sunset at the moment, so maybe if we can take her mind off of the past she can get over it and move on with her life. Besides, the Solana and Bogon Galaxies wont be needing us for a while, not when you've got a small force of Jedi and the possibility for some sort of Hero Association backing the Galactic Rangers."

"She raises a point Sasha," Angela commented, causing the cazar to turn to her, "Between our order, the improved Galactic Rangers, and the heroes creating their own association, we can deal with anything major for the foreseeable future. The galaxies won't have to rely solely on Ratchet and his sisters to save them and how we have the manpower to undo a lot of the damage that Nefarious left behind. Ratchet and his sisters deserve some sort of break from everything they've done lately... though if you seriously need them then you could always contact me."

"Should have seen that one coming." Sasha groaned, before letting out a sigh and pulling herself out of her chair, "Fine, we can give the five of you, that includes you as well Clank, some time off from helping to protect the galaxies. The Mystic and Maul will be able to cover the Jedi order while your gone, and I can deal with the Galactic Rangers, so you shouldn't have to worry about us too much. Of course I'll send you small notices everyday, just so you know what's going on in the universe, but I will try my hardest to not interrupt you guys... wherever you decide to go for vacation."

"I was thinking Pokitaru," Starlight said, a smile appearing on her face, "from what I've heard the manager has updated his entire resort since we helped save it from Chairman Drek. It shouldn't be too difficult to request a private suite for a week or two, while making sure that no one outside our inner circle knows that we're even there... and then once we're ready we'll return to active duty and pick up where we left off."

"Sounds like you already have everything planned out," Sasha commented, looking at the people around her for a moment, "Well then, I'll let you guys get your arrangements settled with the manager and enjoy your vacation... I'm going to go make sure that Qwark stays away from that planet until you return."

Ratchet nodded his thanks to Sasha as she walked away from the table, because at the moment the last thing that Sunset needed was Qwark messing with her. There was no telling what their sister would do to Qwark if he pestered her, considering that they had no idea what she could do with one hundred percent of her power backing her. The destruction of PX-17 and the Dreadzone station had been a simple warm up, though Ratchet had to worry about what might happen the next time someone angered Sunset. He was sure that it would be a repeat of what happened in the Bogon Galaxy, where she merely caused earthquakes, but there was no way of knowing until something happened... though he seriously hoped that nothing would anger Sunset in the future.

Once Sasha was no longer on the Hyperion, and reported that the fleet would be returning to Metropolis, Ratchet took control of the Hyperion and directed them to Pokitaru, while Starlight messaged the manager with the details of their request. He knew that the manager would love to have them back, considering that they had saved his place from Chairman Drek, so he left Starlight to her work as he and Clank made sure that they would reach their destination without delay. Angela stood beside Ratchet's chair as they broke away from the fleet, knowing that in a few weeks they would be putting what happened in Dreadzone behind them and return to a normal life... until the next villain decided to break their peace and quiet.

Though for some reason Angela couldn't help but feel like the next villain was literally right around the corner, but she merely shook her head and decided to focus on the people around her for now... there would be time to worry about villains once they finished their vacation.

Comments

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

Just a small filler chapter before we start the next game. Though I must say this; first the Jedi (from Star Wars) came into the picture, then the Gods of Destruction (from Dragon Ball Z) are mentioned, and now we've got a possible Heroes Association (from One Punch Man if memory serves).
I'm going to say it... Ratchet's part of the universe is definitely strange.

[Aria Blitz]

So Ratchet and his family save a bunch of heroes from Vox... and the first thing said heroes do is immediately band together to create an association of sorts. This universe gets weirder and weirder.

[Sonata Blaze]

Yay, more potential heroes to take away from the work that Ratchet and his sisters need to do.
At least they'll be able to relax and enjoy themselves... until the opening events of Size Matters catches up with them anyway.

[Nova Blaze]

7934929 I give it two days tops.

7934927
7934922 Seems about par for the course if you ask me.

[Aria Blitz]

7935263 I guess all the heroes felt like they needed to do something after being saved... and creating their own association appears to be the best course of action for them.
Well, I know the first villain of the Future games will be in for quite a surprise when we finally get around to that.

[Nova Blaze]

7935268 The entire known universe will be armed and ready to fight. It'll be another TFS scene.

[Aria Blitz]

7935294 The only question is will Sunset be present when the villain arrives, because I have the feeling that she's going to do what Sonata said and drop out of sight for some time.

[Nova Blaze]

7935334 Most likely. She does have a lot to think about, but at the same time, she does need to be present to collect the cores to restore her memory.

[Aria Blitz]

7935343 Searing, at one point, implied that she knew everything about their past lives... so if Sunset has been brought back to normal, thanks to Searing and Hatred fusing with her, does that mean that she'd already have full access to her original memories?

[Nova Blaze]

7935354 Hmmm, maybe. That's definitely an author question.

[Soluna Eclipse]

7935343 its possible they just won't run into the last couple cores for a while. after all we DO still have quite a few games left.

Size Matters
Secret Agent Clank
Tools of Destruction
Quest for Booty
Crack in Time
All 4 One
Full Frontal Assault

out of that line up, I could easily see the next core being in the Great Clock with the final one being in ether of the games after that.

[Nova Blaze]

7935637 I don't think the author is going through all of them, but if they are, I agree with where the cores might be.

[Soluna Eclipse]

7935711 true, at the very least I can see Secret Agent Clank and Full Frontal Assault being derailed or glanced over and maybe Quest for Booty due to how short that one was. other than that though I'm not sure what could be cut out. Tools of Destruction leads directly into Crack in Time making the timing of finding the last 2 cores like that strange. assuming the entire Future Trilogy gets a single core that means one other core would remain. and considering that Sunset seems to be able to sense and easily locate the cores now the last 2 have to be hidden somewhere not easily accessed or detected. conveniently I could see a method of hiding it for each game after Crack in Time

A4O: the planets already in a rather dubious state that prevents ships from entering it directly. not sure how well this would deter Sunset though so probably the least likely.

FFA: Main villain has already proven himself to be able to counteract Sunsets powers back in GC so I could easily see him developing a device to hide away the core.

Into the Nexus (admittedly I forgot this one in the list): entirely separate plain of the universe to hide it in. course this is also the very end of the series so it may just be too late if the author has a trick up his sleeve for when all six are gathered.

[Nova Blaze]

7936921 Good ideas all. I bet one or two of those are gonna show up when we get there.