Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Commando: Veldin, Transit, Aranos

Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn and Clank moved some chairs into position so they could be ready for the next interview that they would be sitting through, one that would likely be covering the last year of their lives, since the defeat of Drek and going all the way to their sixteenth birthday, as Wendell had arranged for all of them to be on a show called 'Behind the Hero', one that Qwark had been on before they took him down. Given that many interviewers liked to talk to them at their own home, a shed to be exact, Autumn had set up a secondary structure for them to use when something like this happened, while also adding some systems to their place so it could be safe in case she and her siblings had to leave in a hurry, such as when Clank crashed on Veldin and spoke to them about Drek's plans. Since they were gathering for another interview Autumn did activate the defenses to make sure their house was safe and sound, even if she and her siblings weren't planning on being out here long, but she figured it was better to be safe than sorry, but once that was done she sat down in her chair and pulled out her tablet once more, figuring she could get some work done before the interview started. At the same time her brothers did the same thing as Clank joined them, making it look like they were relaxed and ready for whatever questions the interviewer had for them, even though Autumn did chuckle when she got a message from Wendell, causing the others to glance at her for a moment.

"You remember that Personal Hygienator, with Qwark in it?" Autumn asked, as she had gotten over her anger over the fact that the man was alive, after blasting his ship down when they were above Oltanis, and that Ratchet had said nothing, as he had met Qwark on Oltanis while he was on his own, allowing her to focus on her job and whatever she and her brothers did with their spare time, causing Starswirl and Ratchet to nod their heads, "Well, he claimed it was a Gadgetron product, and it is... one that was cancelled and discontinued, since it continued to have problems and Wendell deemed it was easier to focus on separate devices for each purpose. Wendell has confirmed that they are in the process of investigating Qwark for stealing and selling discontinued goods, which will likely end in Qwark spending time in jail, unless he saves Solana from another villain, which is unlikely."

"Still glad you convinced us not to buy it." Ratchet remarked, as while the device in question seemed promising, and they were sure it could be if given enough time and resources to make it work, he believed his sister when she told him about all of the problems that it had and some of the side effects that it also possessed, though at the same time he took his place on one of the four chairs, as they were arranged two to the left and two to the right, with his being the first right as Clank's was the first left, leaving Autumn to his left and Starswirl to the right.

Starswirl nodded his head as he noticed the interview crew approaching them, a male Rilgarian being the head of the team since he was dressed as someone who spoke to others, meaning it was time for him and his siblings to answer a number of questions before they went on with whatever they wanted to do with the rest of their day, though it didn't take them all that long to get things set up before the announcer turned towards them.

"Welcome back to Behind the Hero." the Rilgarian stated, informing them that it was definitely time for the interview to start, hence why Autumn made sure to turn off her tablet after sending one last plan to Gadgetron and Starswirl simply closed his tome before focusing on the cameras as Ratchet and Clank did the same, "Tonight's heroes are the group who recently restored peace and order to our galaxy, by defeating Chairman Drek's plans: Ratchet, Autumn Blaze, Clank, and Starswirl. So gentlemen, lady, tell us about your latest, incredible adventures... oh, and no magical talk, as I'm afraid that most of our viewers won't be able to understand what you mean."

"Well as you can image, we've been pretty busy." Ratchet replied, though he let out a little chuckle, as it was interesting to see that people didn't like to hear about what Starswirl and Autumn were up to, one focusing on magic while the other did everything to make more weapons, far more powerful than the last set she had made, even though Autumn had her own magical vault that she stored her arsenal in, an every expanding place like her brother's library, "After Drek's defeat there were parades, press conferences, fancy dress balls..."

"Autumn and I are sure that our people had their fair share of the last one," Starswirl added, something that surprised him and his sister more than they were willing to admit, as part of him had to wonder if they might have experienced one such event before being sent off world, before he shrugged for a moment as they thought about it for a time, "not sure why, as we've only experienced one such event so far."

"Not to mention that there was the Weenie Roast at Al's," Clank said, referring to an event that was designed to draw more people to his shop so he could get some business, though he had seen a bit of a business boost since most knew that he had been the only to give Clank the first of his upgrades, so it was a ploy that mostly failed, since most of the visitors had been more interested in the siblings.

"Yeah, that." Ratchet stated, as while it had been a rather boring event, not to speak poorly of Al's cooking skills, as he was rather good at that as it turned out and the food had been good, he and his siblings had been swarmed by tourists and all sorts of fans, something that sort of killed any excitement they might have felt, before he considered something else as he faced the cameras again, "After all of that, things started to slow down... we've been repairing and updating the colony, so what happened during Drek's assault doesn't repeat itself, if Veldin comes under attack again."

"Starswirl and I have been practicing with our magic as well, and I've been working on some new weapons," Autumn said, which was the truth of the matter, Starswirl wanted to work on their list of spells and make sure their bases were covered at all times, in case either one of them ran out of mana, while at the same time she had been building a brand new set of weapons that utilized a new system that improved the power of said weapon, "oh, and we raided Drek's cache on Quartu, a locked chamber that opened to a Codebot we recovered, and recovered a Codex fragment... a shattered artifact from Old Earth, containing all sorts of knowledge... to be studied in great detail."

"Plus there was the grand opening at Groovy Lube." Clank added, referring to a brand new station that had been built on the border of both this galaxy and the Bogon Galaxy, or at least that was what they were told even though there was still a great distance between the two galaxies, though it had been a fun time and all of them had, for the first time in a while, had fun without worrying about anything else.

"I think that was, last week." Ratchet commented, though it had been a while since they had been there and given all of the things they had done since defeating Drek, for both Veldin and the rest of the galaxy, it was easy to see that someone could forget about certain things, before he considered something, "Sadly we were forced to leave early, as some of the Blarg decided to attack Kerwan to get revenge for Drek's defeat... they're in prison now, while the rest of their kind are in the middle of electing a new Chairman to lead them."

"Ratchet, that was six months ago." Clank corrected, even if part of him had to wonder if that was deliberate so Ratchet didn't have to talk about his search for the missing Lombaxes and his own sister, as part of his friend's free time had been spent on that, trying to figure out what might have happened to all of his people and why he came to the Solana Galaxy, which meant he was trying to buy time to avoid that question.

"Other than that, we've been pretty busy," Autumn said, returning to the matter at hand, even though she also understood what was going on with her brother and why he was hoping to avoid a very specific question, hence why her focus was on making sure the announcer couldn't ask questions and just focused on what they had to tell him, "but in a more domestic sense, given what's been going on all over Veldin."

"Yesterday, I flushed out my radiator core." Clank pointed out, though they were running out of things to say, before the inevitable question was asked and Ratchet went deep into thought about what he had been doing in his spare time, where he even made a show of it by opening his center compartment for a few seconds, though based on the looks they were getting it looked like it was time for the question segment of this interview.

"I guess... no one needs a hero right now..." Ratchet stated, though while it was another way to put the pressure off of him and his free time spending, even if it bought them a few more seconds, he was actually a little sad about it, because he and his siblings were actually at their best when saving the galaxy and it seemed like most of the villains were either in prison or hiding for the most part.

In the following moment, as the group glanced at each other while considering what sort of questions would be coming their way, a blue light enveloped all of them and suddenly they disappeared from where they had been sitting, causing the interviewer and his team to look around in shock as each one wondered what had happened to their heroes.

---

One second Ratchet, his siblings, and Clank had been staring at the interviewer and his team, thinking about what sort of questions they were going to be asked, the next they disappeared from where they were sitting and reappeared in what looked like the inside of a ship, a space ship that seemed pretty big from the size of the room they were now in, and each found that their lounge chairs had come with them, before finding a hologram of a fat humanoid figure in front of them, who who seemed incredibly happy.

"Welcome!" the hologram stated, though as the siblings reached for their weapons, since they carried their wrenches with them at all times, as Autumn had discovered that her sword could return to being a wrench whenever she wanted, they all came to a stop once they realized that this might not be the best course of action and sat back down, "I'm Abercrombie Fizzwidget, founder of the Megacorp company in the Bogon Galaxy."

"Bogon Galaxy?" Ratchet asked, as he wasn't too familiar with the star charts that were used to map out the universe, or a galaxy for that matter, so he was afraid that he was a little lost when they heard where they were, causing him to glance over to his siblings for a moment as he wanted for them to say something.

"It's the next star cluster, closer to the Polaris Galaxy and the supposed center of the universe." Autumn explained, where she was interested in the fact that she and her siblings had been brought to a place like this, hence why they were staring at the hologram of Fizzwidget, even though it appeared that they were in a training area and a screen of some sort was off to the right of where they were sitting.

"I'm sorry to incapacitate you, but our entire galaxy is in a very precocious situation." Fizzwidget's hologram continued, to which Autumn realized that this hologram might actually be more advanced than what they had back in Solana, as it was able to pause and speak like they were actually talking to someone in real time, and it meant they might very well be doing such a thing, "I must humbly request your sustenance, on a mission of dire urgitude. A mission of superfluous peril. A mission of unequizzical imperitude."

"Inconvenience, precarious, support or assistance... urgitude isn't a word... and I'm not touching the last statement, given what's been said so far." Starswirl remarked, as he let the figure speak for some time before bothering to make his own thoughts known to his siblings and Clank, though he had a feeling that Fizzwidget might be incapable of pronouncing a fair number of words, before he glanced over to Ratchet and the others, "Basically, he wants us to become heroes for this galaxy and take on a rather dangerous mission."

"Indubitably." Fizzwidget said, to which he gestured to a holodisplay, which was a screen that looked like a television that floated above the ground and acted like a television, something that revealed a small blue puff ball that looked like a pet of some kind, causing them to raise an eyebrow for a few seconds, before showing a humanoid figure who seemed to be a criminal of some kind, given the attire, even though Autumn could tell that it looked like a female figure, "A few days ago this, top secret, biological experiment was stolen from our testing lavatory, by this dupliferous criminal mastermind and I need you three to get the experiment back."

"What about me?" Clank inquired, because it sounded like this was mostly going to involve Ratchet and his siblings, even if he could just ride on Ratchet's back the entire time and take in the sights, leaving the fighting to them once more as they tracked down the thief, though something told him that his friends would be quite busy if they decided to accept the mission, which would bring them all sorts of excitement.

"Crank, I have precipitated your recalcitrance and made special improvisations for you." Fizzwidget replied, as if he might have been expecting Clank to say something different, like he might have been against it or something, but they remained silent as they watched the holodisplay reveal images of what had to be the headquarters of Megacorp, a suite house in a rather advanced city, and a female robot that Clank showed some interest in, "We're prepared to give you a job as the head accountant for Megacorp, plus a penthouse suite in lovely Megapolis, and our state of the art robotic masseuse."

"Sounds like we've got a deal." Autumn remarked, as it seemed like her brothers were interested in the mission, one for a bit of excitement and the other eager to learn more about this galaxy, where she shared Starswirl's opinions on the matter as she stared at Fizzwidget's hologram for a time.

"As for you Ratchet, I need you and your siblings in superlatory shape." Fizzwidget remarked, where the holodisplay took a moment to change to an imagine of the three of them tackling a number of things to get into shape for the mission, some of them looked interesting and some were kind of weird when they thought about it, but all of them remained silent while they listened to their employer, "While in transit to the Bogon galaxy, you will undergo heavy training and conditioning including: martial arts, heavy weaponry, survival skills, stealth, macramé, ballroom dance, and origami."

Once again Autumn had to wonder how some of those things even related to the mission in general, or if they were part of what made a hero in the Bogon Galaxy, though in the end she decided that it didn't matter and that this was basically free training in some things that would make them far more deadly.

---

It took two weeks for them to get through the training that Fizzwidget put them through, where Starswirl was sure that all three of them were capable of adapting to new situations and experiences, though when they were done they were given a few things, the first being a new ship for their time in the Bogon Galaxy, one that Autumn looked at before expanding so it could fit all three of them, and Clank if he joined them at some point. The other thing they were given, and would make their mission somewhat easier, was a set of armor that was green colored in places, some being silver, while the rest were black colored, which came with two weapons, a Blaster like weapon called the Lancer and a bomb launcher known as the Gravity Bomb. While they studied their new gear the hologram of Fizzwidget revealed that they had finally tracked down the thief to a flying base in Sector Seven, to a planet called Aranos based on what Autumn had discovered in her studies of this galaxy, before he wished them well and the trio departed in their new ship, leaving Clank to head to Megapolis, so he could relax for a time and then start his job, even if they doubted that he would be given such a thing. Aranos itself was a planet with ice capped mountains, to the point where it looked like an ice planet from space, and they found that the ship they had been given flew with the same speed as the one that they had left behind in the Solana Galaxy, though Ratchet did make sure Fizzwidget knew that they were approaching their target before silencing their ship, so they could sneak up on the Thief's ship.

As it turned out the ship in question was large, almost a starship based on what they were seeing, and Ratchet was able to direct them to what had to be an opening in the bottom, maybe a trash chute or something that was never used, before he activated the autopilot as he and his siblings entered the ship, pulling out their wrenches and Lancers, even if they did find a platform that allowed them to head deeper into the Thief's domain.

What they discovered was that the first enemy of this place was a spider bot, as it walked on four legs and had saw arms to deal damage to whoever happened to invade the area that they were supposed to be guarding, but even though there were two of them Ratchet and his siblings made short work of them before clearing out a few crates that had a decent number of Bolts inside them. One thing Autumn noted was the fact that the weapons in Bogon gained nanomites, which existed in every creature and meant that Megacorp had found a way to utilize that function to evolve their weapons after using them in battle for some time, but it also gave her a way to figure out the system and incorporate it into her other weapon designs, to make even stronger weapons for Gadgetron. After that they passed through a short passage that did look like it might be in the mechanical section of the ship and they opened fire on the pair of Chainsaw Bots that dropped onto the walkway to stop them, including a red bot that seemed to be a flamethrower version of what they had faced so far, before finding a room with some glass windows behind some bots, to which they cleared out the room and made their way outside for a few seconds. That brought them to an area that had a Chainsaw Bot who had a number of spheres near it, which looked like they would split open and extend blades as they spun at their target, to which Ratchet switched to the Gravity Bomb for a moment and blasted his way through their enemies, allowing him and his siblings to reenter the ship and used an elevator to reach an upper level, giving Autumn a moment to fire a bomb at a group of Chainsaw Bots and let it open the way by wiping out the enemies that were in their way.

Following that the siblings found a door that lead to a chamber that just so happened to have the Experiment resting in a cage, which was on top of a pedestal, though it looked like there was nothing here and the wall behind the pedestal looked like a door that would open once something was moved, and when Ratchet moved to collect their target, however, the wall behind them opened and sure enough they found the Thief, who wore a red chest piece, blue pants, a red cap, and a dark blue mask, on the other side of the wall with two Chainsaw Bots.

"I see it's time to update my security forces." the Thief remarked, where she walked forward and claimed the cage that the Experiment was in, though in that moment Ratchet and his siblings noticed something that they hadn't noticed before this point, both she and the Experiment were actually holograms, realistic ones that could surprise anyone who looked at them for some time, meaning this was a ploy to waste their time and that the Thief was actually somewhere else.

"She's good, I'll give her that," Ratchet stated, speaking to his siblings for a moment, as they agreed with his statement, all while the hologram seemed to continue playing while they stood there, meaning she must have recorded all of this as a message for them, even if she did bump her head on what appeared to be the lid of her escape route, though once the rest of the recording was done the other door opened and revealed more bots for them to face.

As such Ratchet and his siblings opened fire on the Chainsaw and Flame Bots that were in front of them, as while the new enemies they were fighting were tougher than those in the Solana Galaxy, as it took a few hits to take the bots out, none of them lasted against three opponents tearing into them, and once the chamber was cleared out they found a hatch that lead to part of the ship's exterior. It appeared that it lead to a wing like structure and it had some Flame Bots on it, which Starswirl knocked over the edge with a wave of his magic, allowing them to walk over to another opening and climbed back into the ship, only to blast apart some more Chainsaw Bots that decided to get in their way, allowing them to use a lift to reach a passage that had to lead towards an exit point, or so they hoped. Sure enough they had to blast their way through a number of Chainsaw and Flame Bots that happened to be along the path in question, not that the siblings expected to get out of here easily, since the Thief wanted to gain as much time as she could so they wouldn't catch up with her, at least for a time, hence why they focused on tearing their way through the enemies in front of them. They even tore through one last chamber, which had two doors that were blasted down by a number of enemy bots who immediately advanced on the area they were standing in, though it wasn't long before the siblings tore the robots apart and headed for an opening that seemed to be yet another dead end, like the Thief had designed part of this ship to mess with intruders, before finding two more bots trying to approach them from behind, to which the siblings jumped over the edge without delay.

Ratchet, knowing that they would be leaving in due time, had called their ship back to them and they settled inside each of their seats before the hatch closed, where he informed Mr. Fizzwidget that they failed to obtain the Experiment, in fact it was never here to begin with, before they received information that the Thief, who most assumed were male despite how easy it was to see the feminine side, had been seen on Oozla, hence why Ratchet set a course for it immediately, as while they wouldn't catch the Thief there it was a good starting point for their new adventure.