Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Arsenal: Thran Asteroid Belt

It took a while for them to get to the icy planet of Thran, along with tracking down a suitable area to land the smaller ship, as Ratchet made sure not to leave any clues for anyone, be it Nefarious or someone else, to track down Qwark, and when his sister found a small outpost they headed down to see what was going on.

"Someone is definitely living here." Angela commented, speaking once they reached the outpost that Autumn had spotted, as there were a number of structures and one large one that had to be what they were looking for, especially since a fair amount of power was being drawn into it.

"If its Qwark, we give him a lecture and drag him into the light... if not, we either apologize or beat up whoever is here and head back to the Phoenix," Autumn said, as there was a chance that the Vid-Comic lied about the hideout, given that it was an unofficial addition to the series, even though it looked like the narrator had signed on for five and only did four, before she glanced to their right for a second, "and there's another path we can explore, if we want to see what else is in this place."

"We could find some useful gadgets, if the past is anything to go by," Ratchet added, because when this happened during their last two adventures it often ended in new gadgets, hence why he was debating heading to the right and seeing what it gave them, before tackling the main path in front of them, "since we have no idea what Nefarious is planning, or what we might need to bring him down, we might want to explore the side path before doing anything else."

The others glanced at each other for a moment before deciding to go with his idea, hence why they headed up a few stone steps and ended up in front of a metallic hole that required their Omniboots to walk on, which all four of them did as their other companion, Skrunch, remained at the ship. The tunnel brought them to a metallic walkway that had electrical lines that danced from point to point, a sure sign that someone was guarding something, so the family avoided the defenses as they moved deeper into the section of the asteroid that the outpost had been built on. One thing that confirmed that this had to be Qwark's hideaway was a number of Qwark-Bots that were defending part of the passage, in addition to several Lawn Ninjas, which caused them to open fire on them so they could move even deeper into the area. Angela was annoyed by this particular discovery, as Megacorp had recalled all existing Lawn Ninjas and here she was, finding that Qwark must have stolen them from where they had been stored and shipped them out here without anyone realizing it had been done in the first place, but she took great pleasure in breaking them.

Other than that they didn't find anything else that was a challenge to them, allowing Ratchet and his family to reach the end of the passage, where they found a vendor like device that contained a number of items, one being the foul Personal Hygienator, before Autumn spotted the PDA and smashed the device to claim it.

"We really don't need this, but its best not to leave it behind." Autumn explained, where she stashed it away for now, as it would be something she looked into once they had time to rest, while Ratchet and the others made sure that was the only item of importance, only to find nothing else in the now smashed container.

With that done they used a nearby teleport pad and returned to their ship, allowing them to quickly restock their weapons before turning towards the main path that was in front of them, finding a moving bridge that brought them to the start of the path. One thing Ratchet found was a pad that seemed to be connected to the new Warp Pad device that a Ranger had sent to them after taking down Nefarious' forces on Aridia, which Autumn didn't need to duplicate this time since she and Starswirl could teleport to each other, hence why she carried it and her brother would bring the others to her. They found more Lawn Ninjas guarding the path in front of them, which were no match for the Quack-o-Ray, and she set up the new device by attaching it to her right hand and set her warp point on the pad, before stepping on a button to raise a platform up to the next level. Sure, they didn't need the device to warp up there, but it was better to have some experience in the devices that were made in case she or Starswirl weren't present, though once her family caught up with them they waged war on the guardians that happened to be in front of them.

Such a thing brought them to more of the Qwark-Bots, a vast number of them that seemed to be the main guardians of the path, though, as Ratchet and Angela soon discovered, even the sheer force of them couldn't stand between them and their target. The reason for that was because Autumn blasted her targets apart and blasted a few with her weapons, as it was her current strategy, while Starswirl mostly focused on wielding magic to blast or smash his foes, where the elements smashed into them and broke them apart in no time. In addition to that his combat skills, combined with Angela's, let the two of them keep up with the magic users as they slashed and blasted their way through the remaining enemies that were standing in their way, all while breaking the cameras to prevent whoever owned this place from seeing who was coming towards the final building. If this was Qwark's hideout he had to know that none of his defenses would be able to stand up to them, not given everything he had seen so far, though that thought kept them moving with all the vigor they had when they started exploring this place, as the thought of meeting the man again pushed all of them onward.

In no time they reached a barrier and Autumn got them around it, allowing them to use a zip line that brought them down to a structure that seemed to be the path forward, given the robotic guards that they were getting used to tearing apart, where the only challenge was a bit of ice that served as the ground. One thing they could determine was that whoever had set up this place had put a lot of defenses up to keep this hideout safe from invaders, even though they knew that it was Qwark at this point since no one else bothered to use robots in his likeness. Such a thing didn't stop the family from just laying waste to the defenses that were standing in their way, breaking both Qwark-Bots, to vent their anger from the past, and tearing apart the Lawn Ninjas, which brought a smile to Angela's face as she swung her weapon at them, while making sure to break the cameras that lined the path they were following. Another thing they discovered was that this place had been set up like an obstacle course of sorts, meaning Qwark must have been inspired from his sessions with Helga, but it left them with a few questions, like how he funded and built this place without anyone discovering its existence, though in the end Ratchet decided not to worry about it, which the others did as well.

Eventually they found a large door that looked like it blocked the way to the main building they were looking for, which did lower as Ratchet, Angela, Starswirl, and Autumn smashed through the Qwark-Bots that happened to be in the way, but as the door started to rise they had a way around it as Starswirl teleported them into the chamber, surprising the person that was inside it, Qwark, with their swift arrival.

"Oh, um... hello." Qwark said, though before they had bypassed the door Ratchet had seen something interesting, the man had taken off most of his hero costume, which was now resting on the floor in front of him and exposed the red shirt and pants that he wore underneath, or maybe it was a pajama suit, while his gloves and mask were still on, the latter he had been getting ready to remove before their arrival, "I... well, to be honest, I wasn't expecting to see any of you again. I can hazard a guess as to how you found me."

"Well, we found out you survived the Leviathan's destruction and located the escape pod... and the data disc, the message you left, and the secret Vid-Comic," Ratchet replied, something that caused Qwark to lower his hands for a moment as he thought about all of the clues he had left behind for them to find, meaning he had to be thankful Nefarious hadn't found any of them, before he sighed as he faced the bed the man was sitting on, "Qwark, I know we got off to a rocky start, and your plan in Bogon was horrible, but why do this? You seemed to be making fair progress with the others..."

"Oh, you all know why... I'm nothing but a coward." Qwark answered, though while that was true, given what the siblings and Angela had seen so far, they also knew that the man could be brave and face whatever stood between him and what he wanted, just like the plan to take a villain down, them anyway, to become a hero again, "I realized that I wouldn't be able to stand up to Nefarious... I got lucky the first time and embellished the tale, and given his ego he never bothered to fact check my claims. If I stayed as the leader of the Q-Force, well, I already know I would have crumbled at some point, no doubt at a critical moment, and would have fled to save myself, so that why, despite the risk to my life, I decided to perish with the Leviathan and come here, leaving the data disc for you to find."

"Wait, does this mean what I think it means?" Angela inquired, because while this was unusual for them to see, in fact it could even be heartbreaking to see Qwark like this, she had a feeling that she understood what he was saying right now, given the clues that were around him.

"To be honest, when the escape pod landed I was terrified... I ended up throwing up and huddled in the pod for a couple of hours, before coming up with that message you saw," Qwark continued, which meant that he must have more to tell before he reached the answer to Autumn's question, causing him to sigh for a few seconds as he considered the rest of the thoughts that had crossed his mind, "I knew that if I called the Phoenix, and you guys came to rescue me, I would have been shoved back into the leadership position and, more importantly, that I would have failed you, and the galaxy, at the wrong moment. That's why I fled, deciding that it was better if I just removed myself from the equation entirely, and, to be sure it was permanent, I decided to shed my persona and return to who I was before I became 'Captain'... only its been far harder than I could have ever imagined, hence why the mask is still on. Plus, after seeing how you guys took out Drek and my plans in Bogon, I realized that I didn't have the power or ability to save the galaxy from Nefarious, only you guys have the ability to pull something of that magnitude off without any problems."

"Qwark, you don't have to put yourself down like this... if you put your mind to it, I'm sure you can do anything," Autumn said, as she had been studying the various exploits that the man had done and knew that there was something odd about the man, especially when one considered that he held his breath while clinging to one of Nefarious' ships, before she took a moment to think about something, "besides, Nefarious thinks he's won, even though we're tearing through his forces... if you return now, well, it might break his resolve and end his plans. We won't force you to do anything, but know that there are many in the galaxy hoping that you'll swoop in and save the day once more."

That wasn't a complete lie on her part, as there were people praying for Qwark to return, those who refused to believe all the tales about how he was allied with Drek and used that money to fund his lifestyle, so he could take down Nefarious and restore peace to the galaxy. Qwark seemed to think about that for a moment as she and her family departed, due to the fact that he just sat there as she and Starswirl teleported them back to the ship, so they could leave the asteroid belt and tell Sasha that their lead turned up nothing. It was hard to lie to Sasha and everyone else, given that everyone was working towards saving the galaxy from Nefarious, but it had to be done, as only he could reveal himself to everyone else, even if Ratchet and Angela were thinking of telling Sasha anyway, since she seemed far more trustworthy than the rest of the team. Once they were standing near the ship again, and found that Qwark hadn't done anything yet, the family took a moment to restock their weapons before climbing into the smaller ship once more, as it was time for them to return to the Phoenix and the others.

What they weren't expecting to find was a message coming from the ship in question, to which Ratchet accepted it, due to the fact that it was an active call and not what they were originally expecting, where he found that Sasha was on the other end and there were all sorts of sounds in the background, battle sounds to be exact.

"Ratchet! Where have you guys been?" Sasha asked, her tone telling them that she must have found the note and had to be a little annoyed that they didn't tell her anything about their next destination, before she held a hand up to stop them from saying anything, "Never mind. The Phoenix is under attack... Nefarious must have timed it for when the Rangers were away, so we'd be defenseless. Out shields are... to 40%. Life support systems are... I think they're... Whatever's on that disc has Nefarious worried... do anything to get it back. Hey hotshot, if I don't get to see you again, I just want to say..."

In that moment the signal was lost and Ratchet returned them to their starship, where once they were docked he moved to the bridge and activated the Gravimetric Warp Drive, where they surged off into space and quickly burst into the space near where the Phoenix was resting. With that done he and his family transferred to the smaller ship and flew over to the ship, something that was followed by Ratchet docking so they could see what was going on, finding a few Rangers, which were the ones who hadn't been upgraded yet, trying to defend the ship. The attackers were the ninja robots they fought in the past, either on Annihilation Nation or in places that Nefarious ruled, though since the family knew that these enemies were easy to take down they wasted no time in waging war on them, tearing through each and every robotic foe that was in their way. One thing everyone found out was that the hover platform had been knocked offline and downed as well, to cripple reinforcements to the bridge, though the only real challenge was a large red robot that fell with ease, allowing the four of them to make their way around to their true destination.

Sure enough they found that Sasha and the others were hiding out in the bridge, though it looked like Sasha had used her weapon to cut down a few enemies before sealing the chamber so none of their enemies could get to them, and when the family walked down none of them were surprised to find that Sasha ran up and hugged Ratchet, once more showing them that she had feelings for him.

"I'm glad that you guys are alright... though I'm guessing that the attack happened because you did something with that data disc we found." Starswirl remarked, as he knew why this attack had occurred in the first place, just like how the rest of his family knew the same thing, and they were hoping Al had learned something.

"Al cracked the encryption... the data disc contains a full copy of Nefarious' battle plan," Sasha replied, which was the sort of news they wanted to discover, because if they knew what was going on they would be able to cripple Nefarious' plans and bring him down before he conquered the entire galaxy, "He's going to attack planet after planet, leaving nothing but robots in his wake... according to the information we've gathered, the Biobliterator is so well guarded he believes that no one can touch it. Our only saving grace is that the device is designed to recharge its power cells after each attack, which means we have a place to attack, a base on Koros... and guys... his next target is Veldin."

"Why? Why do all of the villains want to take down our planet?" Ratchet said, though this did give them more motivation to deal with Nefarious and his plans, even though they were planning on doing that anyway, where he found that his family shrugged, meaning they had some ideas but no answers.

After that Ratchet and his family decided that it was time to take the fight to Nefarious, hence why they were going to take the fight to Koros and deal with the Biobliterator, though as they departed Sasha joined them, as she wasn't about to sit on the sidelines this time around, causing them to smile as they prepared for whatever defenses were waiting for them on Nefarious' protected base.