Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Deadlocked: Kronos

The following day Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were on their way to the planet of Kronos, where this time they found that it was the home of an advanced metropolis and, if the other episodes were to be believed, it was Shellshock's domain, or at least an area known as the Dark Cathedral. Supposedly the place took on a dark appearance, almost sinister, due to the dark atmosphere and the frequent storms that the planet had, which told them that some of their challenges might be tied to one of the storms, or maybe the machines tied to the event. It was odd to be heading to the home of an Exterminator, so soon into the season no less, and yet none of them said anything about that, as Vox wanted to challenge them and they were more than willing to face whatever he threw their way, especially since they would break everything he tried to bring them down. If such a thing brought them face to face with an Exterminator, well, none of them were going to back down, as it would show him that nothing could stand between them and whatever they were working towards, especially since it would allow them to take down one of Vox's henchmen.

As they traveled to Kronos they got a replay of what happened while Ratchet and Starswirl were on Sarathos, where they learned that Shellshock had done in someone called Plutonium Jones, a hero they had never heard of, and it marked the fourth hero to fall to him, as they were counting the Omega Twins as two people, as they should.

"Its no wonder that Solana is constantly in trouble... Vox is kidnapping the heroes and getting them killed." Ratchet said, as it was easy for him and his siblings to see what was going on right now, and connect the dots without needing to be told all sorts of information, but this just annoyed him.

"All of the Exterminators are killing heroes, without any regard for the lives they are taking." Autumn replied, where she felt angry over what she had seen yesterday and just reviewing it annoyed her to no end, just like how her brothers didn't like what they were seeing either, before she thought about the one bit of good news that had been covered, "Oh, and the announcers made a new announcement: Courtney Gears is producing new music, after recalling that one song that would have landed her in hot water."

Ratchet and Starswirl nodded their heads, as it was the 'Death to Squishies' song, which would have made many assume she was an ally of Nefarious, something she had been until they came along and convinced her to betray him, but at least it seemed like it had been the right thing to do, as she was putting an effort into her career and not depending on how she looked to attract her fans. It was actually rather interesting that a villain they had faced would transform themselves in such a way, in such a short period of time, but part of it had to be due to Nefarious not really caring about her, which had to strike one of her nerves, and they were glad to see that she was trying to be better. Of course the same could be said for Qwark, as he had changed from when the siblings first met him, though once more they didn't mention him since that would give Vox more information to use against someone, be it them or the idiot captain himself, so for now his attention was on them and the other kidnapped heroes. It made them wonder what sort of villains they would encounter during all of their other adventures, since they knew that no one would be falling to Vox's schemes anytime soon and that meant they would be taking down a new villain in due time, before deciding to focus on the upcoming planet.

When they reached Kronos, and the transport ship came to a stop above the area that they would be starting in, Ratchet and Autumn teleported down to the planet's surface, the walkway that would taken them directly to a massive structure that had to be the Dark Cathedral, leaving Starswirl behind to watch and wait.

Folks, we're live tonight from the planet of Kronos where Commander Shellshock and his army have taken over the city and don't like visitors. Ratchet and Autumn will fight to keep Team Darkstar alive while Klink tries not to get them lost and... Dallas said, though it seemed like someone was interrupting him, which made sense due to the fact that he had gotten Clank's name wrong, but to be honest the siblings didn't care that much, not when he didn't care about them and all of the other heroes that were dragged into this event, What? Klink? Clank? oh Clank, that's what I said. Well, yeah it doesn't matter because Team Darkstar is about to become team dead-star. Will they survive long enough to enter the foreboding Dark Cathedral? If so, Shellshock will be there to finish them off for good! Place your bets everybody! Because we're going straight to the action!

The first thing the siblings did was check out the Vendor, finding a new rifle, the Fusion Rifle, was available and it took the pair only a few seconds to acquire it, adding another powerful weapon to their new arsenal of weapons, before blasting the incoming gladiators that had been stationed on the first part of the walkway. As they moved Clank informed them that he had discovered a weakness in the cathedral's defenses, as there were two giant spotlights that could be activated with the intent of opening the main door, meaning they would be their main objectives, and he would help them reach both of them, to the best of his ability anyway. While some snappers jumped up to fight them the siblings discovered a new foe to do battle with, flying spinning robots that really didn't seem to do much, or at least Autumn assumed they were mostly for show and blasted the cycloids out of the air so they could move forward. One thing they discovered was that a small turret had been placed on part of the walkway, but due to the skill that both of them possessed it was almost worthless as they blasted their way through all of the gladiators and snappers Vox dropped in their way, showing him that nothing he sent at them would be enough to slow them down.

Ratchet and Autumn found some of the insect gladiators coming at them as well, though they still weren't strong enough to stand a chance against their might, allowing the pair to make their way over to an arena that was off to the left, though they had to blast the gladiators and snappers to reach it. Upon entering the structure the gate raised behind them and a larger gladiator dropped into the arena to face them, which was joined by waves of smaller enemies that seemed to have been placed to make them waste their ammunition before the main event arrived. As such Autumn gathered some wind in her open hand and loosed small crescent waves at her targets and took out all of the smaller enemies, opening the way for Ratchet to blast down the larger gladiator, without having to worry about being overwhelmed. One it fell the gate that was in front of them lowered and they made their way to the end of the walkway, discovering a small floor terminal which had a cable icon on it, to which Autumn used the Cable Launcher and formed a path for Ratchet to use, and as he came to a stop on the other side she pulled herself to him and brought the device with her.

The area they had been brought to contained the controls for the first spotlight, which they had walked by earlier, and it was guarded by a number of gladiators and snappers, to which the siblings blasted their way through their enemies and hacked into the control orbs, activating the first spotlight.

With that done, much to the continued amazement of Dallas, Juanita, and the viewers, they returned to the arena that was behind them and found that Shellshock, a large green warbot that had been turned into an Exterminator, landed right in the center of the structure and declared war on them. His attacks were rather straightforward, making them wonder how in the world he had been chosen to become an Exterminator, as he stood still and fired a volley of small missiles into the air, which rained down on them, and fired his gun at whoever his target happened to be at the time. As such all Autumn had to do was shield themselves with magic and rendered his missile rain ineffective, while dodging the gun blasts were all too easy for them, thanks to their commando training and everything they had learned during their past adventures, a fact Vox didn't seem to know about at all. If he had another attack he didn't use it, either to save it for later or knew that it was useless to use it with her magical barrier up, though once he took enough punishment the warbot took to the air and fled for another part of the exterior, leaving them to deal with some gladiators, insect warriors, and snappers, which they did so without wasting too much time.

Once the arena was cleared Dallas informed them that they would have to traverse a grind rail system to continue, and he also mentioned that it wasn't safe since this was DreadZone, causing the pair to blast their way through some cycloids so they could use a lift to move up to the start of the grind rail, even though they had to tear down some gladiators and swing across a gap to reach their target.

As they reached the grind rail Ratchet let Autumn take the lead as they headed down it, where she lashed out with bursts of magical energy and destroyed the enemies that happened to be on a couple of platforms on the left and right of the rail system, all while they jumped over all of the blast rings that were on the rail, hazards designed to hurt contestants. While Autumn did that she spotted what looked like a purple crack in reality, where she spotted a lady like her, only with amber fur, walking through the hazards of DreadZone, and she was able to see her attire, baggy pants and some Egyptian shirt with a collar, and as she blasted the gladiators into submission the crack sealed itself. Thanks to the slight change in how they tackled the grind rail, as Ratchet usually went first when they explored the planets they found their way to, it didn't take them long to reach the end and land in a small structure, giving them a few seconds to get ready for whatever challenges were ahead of them. According to Dallas it was roughly the same as before, facing the gladiators as they made their way to the controls for the second spotlight, so they made sure to restock their ammunition and then stepped out to track down their next objective, even if it meant blasting snappers and gladiators out of the way.

Ratchet found that the new rifle was great at eliminating enemies that were a decent distance away from the area that they were moving through, as it took out the gladiators in a single hit, allowing them to cross over a Swingshot gap and move further along the path that was in front of them.

It brought them to a second arena that was identical to the first, where they fought and eliminated the gladiators that had been positioned inside it, opening the way to where the control orbs were resting, even though they had to smash the rest of the guards to reach their destination. Not a few moments later the pair had completed the next part of the challenge and found that they were being directed back to the arena, where Shellshock, in all his glory, landed and attacked them for a second time, causing them to move on the defensive once more. Ratchet and Autumn were expecting something to be different from their last encounter with him, a new move or something to show them that he respected their ability to make it this far, but all they found was that he fought them with the same moves, so it wasn't long before they forced him to retreat from the arena. Even though neither of them cared to be part of DreadZone, just as Starswirl didn't care, both of them had to admit that it was disappointing when a major foe didn't live up to the hype that the announcers gave him, a fact that made both of them wonder if the other Exterminators would be the same when they reached their level.

In the end Ratchet and Autumn sighed as they restocked their weapons and smashed through a couple of gladiators that were in front of them, opening the way to use another grind rail system, so by utilizing the method they used earlier it was an easy ride that, eventually, resulted in them reaching the area near the Dark Cathedral's entrance, and with no foes in front of the structure they were able to enter Shellshock's domain.

"Target acquired, terminating with extreme prejudice." Shellshock stated, speaking to them as they entered his domain, as he could see them from where he was standing, though based on what they were seeing it looked like contestants needed to turn some Bolt Cranks to access him, despite the fact that he jumped down into the area in front of them.

"Yeah, how about no?" Autumn replied, where she ignited her magic and seized him with her Telekinesis, something that surprised him and the announcers for a few moments, before waving her hand and using Shellshock as a projectile as she smashed all of the incoming gladiators that were supposed to aid the Exterminator she was toying with.

Ratchet smiled as he watched this happen, as it would show Vox that they weren't to be underestimated, and when his sister brought Shellshock down to her position he found that she had prepared an orb of magical energy in his open hand, which passed into her target's chest before blasting him to pieces from the inside. Such a thing caused the two of them to leave the Dark Cathedral with their heads held high and knowing that this would show everyone, be it Vox or those paying to watch DreadZone, that they weren't messing around. Sure enough Dallas declared them the winner and that they had earned two items, another Green Medal and a pair of Charge Boots, which Autumn would have fun with when everyone got back to the containment area and had a chance to rest. Once they were outside the siblings let themselves be warped over to an area where they could access the Dread Challenges and get some extra points for their team, not that the pair felt they needed to since beating Shellshock should have given a lot of points, given that he was an Exterminator, but, in the end, decided to just get it over with.

The first challenge was called Night Flight, where they took the hovership out, a flying ship that reminded them of the one that was used with the Rangers, to fly out around this area and destroy all of the turrets, so Ratchet took over the main controls while Autumn seized the secondary weapon system. The turrets were far too easy for them to destroy, as it only took a few blasts from the missile system to wipe it out, so Ratchet and Autumn were able to succeed in dominating the course and returned as Dallas declared them the winner of another challenge. The second one was known as Inverted Action, where they were transferred to an area with four passageways to cover and a pair of control orbs to hack into to keep themselves save as they faced waves of enemies, a challenge that was nothing compared to their might, thanks to all of Autumn's magic overwhelming her foes. The last was Dark City Arenas, where they had to fight wave upon wave of foes in one of the arenas they had moved through to get to Shellshock, once more coming from four directions, so they split up the openings and opened fire on the gladiators and snappers that came at them.

It didn't take them long to conquer the challenge and receive their reward for overcoming it, more Dread Points and some Bolts for future weapons, causing Ratchet and Autumn to return to the transport ship and join up with Starswirl so they could head back to the containment area for their next big challenge.

---

As Ratchet and Autumn did that, and used the transport ship to head back to their containment area, Vox growled while observing the footage of what happened to Shellshock, all while Ace Hardlight stood nearby, only his 'star' was currently deep in thought about something.

"Look at those idiots cheering!" Vox remarked, zeroing in on the audience that had been stationed near Shellshock's large domain, so they could cheer for the Exterminator ending another hero, only to find them cheering for the siblings, a fact that annoyed him greatly, "Six million bolts of hardware down the drain and those ingrates are celebrating like, like they won the freaking lottery! Ugh... remind me why I put up with these morons."

"Who else would watch Vox News?" Ace commented, though he also watched the network so he could be informed of how each of the heroes fought in specific situations, that way if they appeared on his list he'd know what to do, before taking a moment to think of some of the other networks and shows that were out there, "Temptation Asteroid? Galaxy's Funniest Decapitations? Queer Eye for the Tyhrranoid?!"

"I get it!" Vox snapped, as there were times where he was fine with Ace's actions and right now he was being annoying, not a good sign when he considered his future for a few moments, before he glanced at the screen once more, "Still, it seems that we've underestimated our Lombax friend... especially his siblings."

"He got lucky. Shellshock was too slow and too stupid to be an Exterminator... though there's no way he could have even countered Autumn's power." Ace said, showing that he was capable of thinking things through and not rushing towards a train of thought, though his inner thoughts were on how he might be in trouble if he had to face the magic users in battle, a fact he knew that Vox knew, "The Warbot should have retired years ago, especially after that one battle he nearly lost to one of the greater heroes I took down."

"Well, he's retired now! Ratchet, however, he or his siblings just may be useful." Vox remarked, glancing at a tab that let him see the popularity ratings for the current heroes and the three siblings were rising far faster than Ace had, even back during his first year as a contestant, "They're even more popular than you were back in your heroic youth! Come to think of it, Ratchet even reminds me of you."

Ace said nothing as he glanced at the still picture of the siblings, knowing that they were the key to everything and that, if he was patient enough, they would bring great change to Vox's empire, to which he let his boss go on about things while he waited for Ratchet and his siblings to tackle the rest of what DreadZone had to offer, before worrying about his plans and their consequences.