• Published 28th Oct 2021
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Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes - Blackdrag-rose



Starswirl and Autumn Blaze grow up on Veldin with a Lombax called Ratchet, where they'll begin an epic journey to save their galaxy from the dangers that plague it, unaware of the dangers that exist in their universe.

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Arsenal: Aquatos

Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank spent a good bit of time in Annihilation Nation, challenging the courses and all of the arena fights that were being offered, and sometimes even two of them were allowed in there at the same time, just to add some amusement to the fight. There were certain challenges that involved using specific weapons, some they had and others they would have to obtain before coming back to earn some additional Bolts, while others had some interesting effects, like how they had to cycle weapons, with limited ammunition for each one. It was clear that the people who came up with the concept of Annihilation Nation had some interesting ideas for what the contestants had to tackle, something that caused everyone in the stands to cheer when they watched them tackle everything thrown at them. In addition to that they had to deal with some obstacle courses, much like the first one Starswirl tackled on his own, which involved a variety of new alterations to what they had seen so far and each one had their own challenges to overcome, but, as the announcer and the crowd discovered, none of them were to be denied.

In addition to that Autumn set up a side account for all the Bolts they were acquiring right now, as she intended on making a number of changes to the Galactic Rangers, so they would be able to do their jobs and not rely on them all the time, though a portion was going to her siblings, to cover the cost of the Agents of Doom.

The boss gladiator they had to fight a couple of times were two giant robotic twins called the 'Terrible Two', even though their names were Gary and Helen, where the former used a machine gun and shoulder mounted rockets while the later had a whip that was similar to the Plasma Whip. They were interesting foes to fight again, especially when one came to the other's aid after a certain amount of time, but such a thing didn't really matter since Ratchet was able to knock them down, with his siblings and Angela repeating his efforts. There was even a twenty-four round arena battle that they took apart, something that ended with the robotic pair being the last warriors they had to fight, and in the end the group won it as well, even if it took some time to do that, earning a fair number of Bolts and causing the crowd to cheer. After clearing that out the announcer informed them that they had cleared everything that was available right now, meaning they could either continue for more Bolts or come back once they had some new challenges to offer them, causing the group to nod their heads, make sure they had their winnings, and departed.

A few moments later Ratchet and the others docked with their starship, Clank found that they were being called and had a display come out so they could chat with whoever happened to be on the other side, which turned out to be Sasha, likely curious about their progress.

"Ratchet, report. Have you, your siblings, and Angela acquired the Tyhrra-Guise?" Sasha asked, as they had been done for quite some time and, while she knew that they were trying to stay away from Qwark, she was eager for a progress report, and whether or not they could use the gadget in the future.

"We have, Sasha, and Autumn has determined that it works just fine." Ratchet replied, where he stepped out of the way for a few seconds as his sister stepped forward, as she tapped the device on her belt and transformed into the small one eyed Tyhrranoid they had fought, before making a number of gestures and noises, speaking the language of the species, and reverted back without a scratch on her, "We also tackled a few challenges inside the arena, to give Qwark some time to get back in shape and understand the situation that we're currently in... hopefully he has something on Nefarious we can use, but I'm not holding my breath."

"To be fair, his plans in Bogon were actually rather good, despite the fact that we broke them to pieces," Autumn stated, as that was a fact that she couldn't overlook, in fact she was sure that if they hadn't acted like they had his plans would have had dangerous consequences for the galaxy they had been called to, "so there's a chance that he might have some good ideas on how to move forward, and if not, well, then we can help him figure out what to do."

"Well, I have to admit that the Tyhrra-Guise is convincing... though it's funny that you would mention Qwark," Sasha said, where she transferred a file over to them and revealed that it was a journal log of sorts, one that happened to detail what Qwark had been doing in the time they had been in Annihilation Nation, between learning from Al, being made into taffy by Helga, or hanging out with his monkey companion, "My... the President has made Qwark the leader of our fight against Nefarious, and our new leader has called his first team meeting, insisting that we wait for you five to arrive. You had better get back here, so we can see what he has to say."

Ratchet confirmed the orders before Clank closed the screen, allowing them to head to the bridge and start up the ship so they could reach where the Phoenix was resting, though with their modifications it really didn't take them too long to get back to where the rest of their allies were currently waiting. Of course they kept their own starship some distance away from the Phoenix, just to make sure they didn't give Nefarious two objectives to attack, before using the smaller ship to dock, just like they had done during their first visit to this impressive ship. Upon their return to the bridge they found that Qwark was wearing his hero attire once more, no doubt made ahead of time and prepared for his return, and he was now standing on a platform that was built into the bridge of the Phoenix, allowing him to stand over everyone else. They then found that Al, Helga, and Skidd were standing nearby as well, each one wearing new attire that almost matched Qwark's own set and was colored differently, as Al had yellow, Skidd had red, and Helga had blue, while the monkey was wearing a set like Qwark's.

None of them had an idea why Qwark had called on all three of them to join them aboard the Phoenix, especially given all of the skills that the group possessed, but no one said anything as they walked down to where Sasha was standing, which was staring up at Qwark, who seemed to be waiting for their eventual arrival.

"What took you so long?" Qwark asked, speaking to Ratchet's group as they entered the area that everyone was gathered in right now, though it was odd to see that he was more focused on Nefarious than they originally thought he'd be, which was a good sign for the rest of their operations.

"We got here as fast as we could, and didn't stop for autographs," Ratchet replied, where he silently gestured to Qwark for a few seconds, with his eyes, causing the man to glance down at himself before recalling the past for a moment, though in that moment he coughed and regained himself.

"Fair point. Now then, ladies and gentlemen... oh, and Helga... welcome to the Q-Force!" Qwark stated, beckoning to all of them for a few seconds as he said that, something that made them wonder why he picked Skidd and Helga, though none of them were surprised to find that he had named the unit after himself, "You have been assembled here because each of you is an expert in your particular field. From Al's mastery of electronics, to Skidd's nerves of steel, to Helga's sensual powers of seduction... and I'm not going to bother going into detail or try to explain the abilities of the Blaze Family. Each of you has shown that you are worthy, and in some cases overly qualified, to wear the Q!"

Ratchet had to admit that while Qwark seemed to be a mix of who he was in the past and who they were trying, indirectly, to mold him into, it was odd to hear that he was willing to admit such a thing to them, making everyone wonder what he might have come up with in the short period of time.

"Years ago, I single-handedly defeated Dr. Nefarious and stopped his plans, but like a rash on the galaxy's backside he has flared up again." Qwark stated, causing many of them to shake their heads about his choice of words, but said nothing, as they were interested in his plan of attack, hence why he had an image of a watery planet appear on the screen, which had to be their first target, "Our first mission will be to infiltrate the doctor's top-secret base on planet Aquatos. Now I know a few of you might be wondering how we know about his 'secret' base, but Al and I did a little bit of research and infiltrated one of his... um, not sure what Al called it earlier, but he said it was like an Old Earth invention called 'Twitter'... feeds. We pretended to be an obsolete robot that wanted to join up with Nefarious' forces and, well, we learned way too much in a short period of time, even the location of his base on Aquatos... I know, it might be a trap for us, but I feel that we should send a small force to see if it's true and act accordingly."

In that moment Qwark detailed his 'brilliant plan' to them, where Ratchet's family would trek through the sewers and use them to infiltrate the base, though once that was done they would split into three teams, as Ratchet would use the new gadget to mingle with the Tyhrranoids, Clank would make his way through the upper levels as his partner rendered help as needed, while the others remained on standby. What they were looking for was Nefarious' personal office, where he kept all of his plans and anything of importance, which was where Autumn's duplication spell would come in handy, as it would allow them to copy all of Nefarious' stuff and leave without leaving any evidence that they had been there, which he knew would confuse their foe. The only one who would be joining them in this mission was Skidd, as he was in possession of a Hacker, one of Autumn's newest gadgets that she had designed back in Bogon, an improvement in hacking devices after witnessing the others in action, so his mission was to get them to an area that would allow them to invade the heart of the base. It seemed so simple, yet based on what Ratchet and his siblings knew these kinds of missions, which were too good to be true, often held dangerous consequences, though with Angela joining them they knew that there was no way that someone was going to get the drop of them this time around.

With their orders received, as Qwark was staying back with the others to plan the next potential operations, Ratchet and the others returned to their quarters to check out the second Qwark Vid-Comic, finding that it was set of planet Rilgar, but Autumn took some notes as Ratchet played, simply getting to the end before they departed for Aquatos.


This time around they approached the planet they would be visiting at a slower pace, allowing Ratchet to study the Tyhrra-Guise and all of it's functions, as well as the language the creatures spoke, making sure he was ready for what waited for all of them on the watery planet. On their way to the planet they discovered that Clank's director wanted them to come in for another episode, or maybe a film, to which Autumn reminded him that they had signed a deal stating that they were free to pause their show to save the galaxies, as in either Solana or Bogon, as while no one had been expecting to return to Solana it had been put in just in case. Of course he wasn't too happy and even hoped that they found a reason to come back to Holostar Studios, where they were filming the show, before cutting off the call as Autumn wondered what might bring them to the location in question. In addition to all of that Qwark sent them a message explaining his reasoning for not being directly involved in their operations just yet, as keeping Nefarious in the dark allowed them to prepare for the big battle with him, to which everyone nodded and let him do as he wanted.

When they reached Aquatos, sending the smaller ship down after leaving the big one further away, they punched through the atmosphere and went underwater, making their way to what appeared to be a maintenance area for Nefarious' forces to use, which happened to be where Skidd landed.

Once everyone was ready they used a nearby lift to head down into the depths of the base, finding a Vendor that had the Flux Rifle for sale, another of Autumn's toys, which they collected before turning on all of the Amoeboids that happened to be in front of them. After that they found some flying robots that seemed to be cleaners, tasked with clearing out the area of Amoeboids, though since they worked for Nefarious, and would raise the alarm if they noticed them, Angela fired at the first pair with the new weapon, taking them out while the others cleared out the remaining enemies. As they worked Skidd used his Hacker to move a few platforms for them, so they could move deeper into the secret base and see what sort of information Nefarious had for them to steal, even though it included swimming under the water a little, since there were locked doors they had to pass by. Such a thing brought them into contact with a King Amoeboid, two of them to be exact, a species of Amoeboid that was far larger than the small ones they were used to dealing with, but with four people it was an easy fight for them to win, and in the end Autumn collected two Amoeboid crystals, figuring they would be able to trade them in at some point in time.

Eventually they reached a chamber that had a lone pillar inside it, where Skidd got freaked out by someone whispering, a scene that caused him to use a teleporter to depart, only for the group to find that Slim was in Solana, not that it mattered since they didn't need any old weapons from Bogon to take down Nefarious.

With that done they used the nearby craft to head to the main section of the secret base, where Clank quickly discovered the ventilation shaft he was supposed to use while Ratchet got ready to use the Tyhrra-Guise, which left Starswirl, Autumn, and Angela standing near the vessel. Their plan was to let the pair get to Nefarious' office and then have Ratchet tap a gem Starswirl handed him, a small one that would go undetected and would allow him to teleport them all to his side, which would allow them to check out the office before copying everything. With their plan fresh in their minds the duo departed as the others remained where they were standing, watching Clank head up the ventilation shaft as Ratchet, now a small Tyhrranoid, walked forward and disappeared as he started to interact with all of the guards of this place. The trio couldn't do much right now, not without giving away their position, so Autumn pulled up a map of the base, which her brother and Clank were forming in their exploration, before putting it away, since it didn't help them out as they waited for something to happen.

After some time Starswirl felt the activation of the small gem and teleported them to their destination, a circular room that definitely looked like a control center of some kind, one that had literally every episode and film of the Secret Agent Clank series, meaning Nefarious was a fan as well. Once they were inside the chamber Autumn weaved her magic around all of it and made sure to copy everything, all while storing it somewhere safe, until she had made an exact copy of everything and anything that was inside the chamber, including the computer's contents, just to be safe. With that done the group walked over to the nearby pipe and found that it was a garbage chute, one that lead directly to the rest of the sewers, where they waited for a moment, so Starswirl could make a magical platform for them to stand on, before they made their descent, as it would get them away from the Tyhrranoids. As it turned out the chute went on for a long time, or at least it sure felt like it, before eventually reaching an old chasm that had been converted into a massive sewer system, large enough for many King Amoeboid to reside in, before finding a broken grate to slip through, one that brought them to what seemed to be a secondary maintenance area.

Working on one of the smaller pipes was a familiar face, as the Plumber was currently working on something, though the sound of their feet hitting the ground, after Starswirl dismissed his platform, caused the man to quickly raise his head and hit the pipe that was above him, before he smiled as he noticed who was standing near him.

"Oh, it's you five again... right on schedule to boot." the Plumber said, where Angela didn't even bother to question some of his words, as Ratchet had told her that this guy was more than he seemed and it wasn't worth the headache trying to figure out who or what he was, before he gestured to the area they were in, "This here's one of the nastiest, smelliest, sewers in the galaxy. Most guys wouldn't set foot in a place like this. But me, well, I just can't get enough."

"So out of curiosity, what are you working on this time?" Starswirl asked, because whenever they found him he was on the clock, either working on plumbing related problems or working on something to counter an invasion, usually the former to be exact, and he was interested in what he might be fixing this time.

"Oh, I'm looking for Sewer Crystals," the Plumber replied, where he held out a hand and revealed the same stone they had taken from the two King Amoeboids that had gotten in their war earlier, meaning he had either taken one down before they arrived or it was one from his last visit, before opening his other hand and showed them a gleaming stone that was far smaller than the original, like a third the size, but was beautiful to look at, "I'm making something special for the Missus and my son, and I'll pay you for any raw stones you can find..."

Before he could finish his statement Autumn pulled out both of the crystals they had recovered so far and channeled her magic for a couple of seconds, where they heard the sounds of many King Amoeboids dying and items breaking, which reminded Ratchet and Starswirl of what happened back in Bogon.

"There, a grand total of one hundred and one crystals, everything that is available for harvest right now," Autumn stated, to which the Plumber and the others watched as the crystals in question warped into the area and she dropped them in a pile off to her left, including the pair that they had claimed earlier.

"Equestrians... you never do anything by halves, do you?" the Plumber remarked, though while Starswirl and Autumn now had several things they wanted to ask him, as it seemed like he knew about their species, and possibly their planet, they knew he didn't like to answer questions that they weren't ready for, before he transferred the Bolts into Autumn's account a few seconds later, a good chunk since he was paying two thousand per crystal.

"Well, we had best get doing." Angela said, as while it was nice to help the man out, and earn something in the process, she didn't want to spend too much longer in this place and could tell that everyone else was thinking the same thing, not to mention they had to figure out what Nefarious was planning for the galaxy.

"Ratchet, you've been awfully silent. Aren't you going to ask me something?" the Plumber inquired, showing that he had been expecting a question or two from the Lombax, especially when he took their last two encounters into consideration, but showed no signs of being surprised by his actions.

"I have a lot of questions, but you won't answer the most important one." Ratchet replied, as this was the only person he knew that had an idea of where his missing sibling was located, and possibly knew how to get to her since he could travel between galaxies with too much ease, before he let out a sigh, "She's safe, right?"

"She is, all while being a hero to her home," the Plumber stated, as that was all he could give the Lombax without causing some major disruptions to the universe, even though it pained him to hurt Ratchet in this way, as he desperately wanted to find his missing sister, but now wasn't the time for him to know how to find her.

"Then I have no reason to worry. I'll keep searching for a way to reach her and you'll tell me what I need to know when it's time to." Ratchet said, showing that he had matured since the start of their first adventure, where he demanded to know all of the information the Plumber knew, before he bid the man farewell and rejoined the others so they could use the transport ship to get back to their own ship.

Ratchet and the others said nothing as they returned to their ship and took off, as it was time to dock with their starship and head back to the Phoenix, so Qwark and the others could figure out what in the world Nefarious was planning and what they needed to do to stop him from completing his goals.

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