Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

R/C: Aridia, Eudora

It took some time for Ratchet to reach Aridia, a planet that looked more like Veldin from space, though as he directed the ship to the landing pad he found that Starswirl and Autumn were looking out at the outpost that they were heading to, as it was where Skid and his agent were supposed to have landed after being blasted out of the air by something, or at least it sure looked that way from the Infobot, where they found that it wasn't a desert planet and that all sorts of equipment were in the area around them.

"Outpost X11, where Skid and his agent crashed," Ratchet commented, where he took a moment to make sure that the ship was just fine before turning off the controls and Clank removed himself from the ship, allowing Starswirl and Autumn to do the same thing not a few seconds later, before he did replicated the movement and stared out at the area they had landed in for a few seconds, allowing Clank to take his position on his back once more.

"It would seem that there are two directions for us to travel in, an area off to our left and the tower in front of us," Clank said, as he took a few moments to study the readings that were in this part of Aridia and determined that those were the main targets for them to worry about, even though he was sure that the tower was where they might find a gadget of some kind that would aid all of them in their mission to stop Chairman Drek.

"We should stay together, just in case some of Drek's people are here, bothering the locals," Starswirl said, because while it might be easier and quicker for them to deal with the two paths by splitting up, since there were three of them and each of them were more than capable in their own right, this was still their first adventure and he wanted to be sure that they did well on their first outing, even though he was sure they were already making a name for themselves, thanks to helping the Novalis Chairman and his people.

"Good idea, though it doesn't look like there are any new items in the Vendor," Autumn added, as she had taken a couple of seconds to speak with the Gadgetron Vendor and found that it held nothing new for them to purchase, though he did tell her that some new weapons would be coming soon, meaning on Eudora or whatever planet was after it they might be lucky and add another of her creations to their growing arsenal.

Ratchet wasn't sure that they needed any new weapons right now, as with the magical powers that his siblings had access to he knew that the three of them would be able to overcome a good majority of what was sent at them, though instead of saying anything he walked out and headed through the opening in the rock to their left, where it was easy for them to see a crashed ship that had a slim green skinned humanoid figure standing in front of it, who wore a Hawaiian shirt, a pair of shorts, sandals, and a red necklace.

"Hey, it's Skid McMarx!" Ratchet said, as he recognized the person as the one they had seen in the Infobot for this planet, or at least one of them since it looked like the agent was somewhere else, though as he uttered his statement the figure stopped for a moment and glanced at them, looking like he might be afraid of something that was in the area his pod had crashed into, "We saw the Infobot with your distress beacon."

"In the flesh little dudes and dudette. Did you see that epic space battle I was in?" Skid replied, where it sounded like he was trying to make light of the situation or something, to make sure they didn't suspect him of being afraid of whatever he had seen in this part of Aridia, even though they knew that it wasn't a battle that had happened and said nothing about it as Skid kept talking, "I used my war cry and everything... anyway, my agent and I were ambushed on our way to one of my hoverboard practices, and I sprained my ankle recently, so I've been having trouble getting back to my ship. Tell you what: if you clear the way to my ship, I'll give you one of my spare boards as a reward... I'll even sign it, since you look like big fans of mine."

Ratchet was surprised by the sudden offer, that Skid was more than willing to let go of one of his boards as a reward for such a thing, though he agreed to it because having a hoverboard, one of Skid's no less, might be useful in the future, as it might allow them to get closer to Captain Qwark in some way and he could see that his siblings agreed with him, to which they left Skid to tend to his 'sprained ankle' before turning to the area that was in front of them. What they discovered was that there were a fair number of enemies for them to take out, as there were red skinned creatures that were small like all of the Horny Toads they had taken out on Veldin, though they looked similar to sharks and seemed to enjoy swimming through the sand before popping up when near their targets, hence why they were called Sandsharks according to what Autumn figured out. With that information in hand Ratchet used his Pyrociter on some of their enemies as Starlight used some of his magic to burn them and Autumn blasted some plant-like creatures that seemed to be where more enemies were coming from, though any foes who got close to them were smacked with their melee weapons and knocked out in a matter of seconds so they didn't have to worry about being attacked from behind, before finding a large ship that they had missed when they landed earlier, the same that Skid and his agent had been in earlier. Autumn climbed up a rock pillar for a few seconds and found a pair of spawners up there, where she burned them to ash and made sure they didn't let out any additional enemies for them to worry about, while Ratchet and Starswirl burned the area that was in front of Skid's ship, which happened to have a lot more Sandsharks than the rest of the area they had discovered, though with the added bonus of Starswirl's magic there was nothing that could stop them from clearing out the area.

With that done, and they climbed up to the ship's side to make sure the path was clear, Ratchet retraced their steps and called for Skid to join them by his crashed vessel, where they found that he walked just fine, and sure enough he was true to his word by removing one of his spare boards from his ship, or the only spare based on what Autumn saw, before he handed it over to Ratchet, who discovered, with a bit of surprise and glee, that it was a Z-3000, the newest board that was coming out, which wasn't even available in stores yet. That meant that Skid had access to multiple versions of the same board, to the point where he didn't seem to care about giving away such an expensive board, since Autumn knew that it was supposed to be between five thousand to ten thousand Bolts for such a thing, and to make sure they knew how to use the board Skid even got his out and simply stood on it while showing off how one moved while using it, that way all three of them could use it in the future. As soon as they were done practicing with the board, as Ratchet watched to make sure Starswirl and Autumn knew how to use it in case one of them figured out how to get their hands on some more, they just walked through the downed ship and used a lift that lead back to where their ship was located, to which they headed for the path that would bring them to the construction site that was ahead of them, where they were sure Skid's agent might have landed after they were ejected from their ship. What they found was that there was another type of enemy waiting for them, or at least Ratchet and his siblings hoped that the robots in question wouldn't be seeking to bring ruin to them, though what actually happened was that the yellow colored construction bots jumped down from the posts they were working on and tried to flame them with their tools, causing the siblings to dodge the flames while burning a number of Sandsharks that attempted to attack all of them at the same time, while focusing on the construction bots.

"We're not here to interrupt your work, we're just looking for someone who crashed into the nearby area," Autumn said, as she wanted to see if she could reason with the construction bots, because they were likely made by Gadgetron, as they made pretty much everything and anything that people could use and bots who constructed things was one of them, all so the inhabitants of a planet or city could relax and do other things, though that didn't stop the bots from staring at her and her brothers before loosing a blast of flames from their flamethrowers.

"Sorry Autumn, but it doesn't seem like anyone besides the workers are allowed in their eyes," Starswirl stated, where he stepped in front of his siblings for a moment and spun his staff as he channeled his magic for a moment, creating a shield of magical energy that stopped the flames from touching anyone, though once the construction bots were done he loosed a bit of lightning at them and shocked them into submission, not destroying them since they were needed to finish up all of the work they had been designed to do.

From that point Ratchet and his siblings did the reasonable thing, which was knock out the construction bots while burning all of the Sandsharks that dared to attack them, something that allowed them to reach what appeared to be the entrance of the compound the robots had been working on before their arrival, which they had assumed was a tower and was more like a business complex of some kind, even if the entrance was actually a lift. After the lift they found a split in the path, as there was the path forward that seemed to lead even deeper into the complex and another to their right that seemed to head away from the compound, to which Ratchet and his siblings decided to take the main path that was in front of them and used their Swingshots to move onto the next part of the structure, which involved smashing crates and collecting Bolts for whatever the future held for them. As they used the second Swingshot target to progress the siblings found what had to be a large lift that would bring someone back to this part of the structure, meaning once whatever they were looking for had been found they could use the lift to cut back over to this part and move through the exterior while looking for Skid's agent and seeing if he was okay, even though Skid had been just fine and that meant his agent had to be fine. One thing all of them discovered was that there were a number of Swingshot targets, breakable crates, and conveyor belts that seemed to form a path forward, so Ratchet started things off by using his gadget to move forwards before Starswirl and Autumn followed after him without delay, allowing them to break the crates and collect Bolts, but what came as a surprise was the fact that there were no construction bots or any other enemies inside the structure they were traveling through, allowing them to reach what appeared to be the peak.

At the peak rested a circular chamber that had a device that looked like it had three prongs that interacted with some sort of device, a Trespasser based on what Autumn knew since it was another Gadgetron gadget and she knew that it had been designed to interact with Invinco-locks, which were locks that were supposed to be impossible to unlock, another item that was made by Gadgetron, which meant that the company sold 'invincible' locks and a key to get passed them, though as he heard that Ratchet slipped the Trespasser into the lock ahead of them and unlocked it in a matter of seconds.

With that done the door in front of them opened and revealed the lift that brought them back down to the area that was just beyond the split in the path, where not a few moments later Ratchet and his siblings reached the other path and did what they had done before, which was shock the construction bots into submission before carefully following the couple of conveyor belts that brought them to a lift and allowed them to access a lower level of the structure. There they found a number of Sandsharks that were in their way, even if they were easily removed thanks to Autumn using both her magic and her Pyrociter to set them on fire, with Starswirl shocking another construction bot into going offline like the others all of them had seen so far, before finding that they could climb up the sides of the area to move closer to their target, as in where the agent was resting. They then passed through a pair of large steel tubes, which happened to have a single enemy in each of them, a Sandshark to be exact, before they found a construction bot that Ratchet whacked upside the head with his wrench, knocking it out in a matter of seconds, which brought them to another area that they had to climb up to move forward and reach the outer reaches of the structure, though after climbing up the second section Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn found a path leading away from where they were standing. It was then that they found someone who looked like Skid, which made sense due to the fact that Skid and this person, his agent, had to be of the same species, though he wore a purple business shirt over his white shirt and had black pants with black shades, though he was clearly annoyed about something as he held out what appeared to be one of the phones the siblings had heard about, a device that connected all sorts of people together and was growing more popular as time went by.

"Is something wrong sir?" Clank asked, as he had been silent for the most part, leaving the heroics to Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn, since they seemed to know more about being heroes than what he originally thought, though after finding Skid earlier he was eager to do a bit of talking before they headed for another planet, while noticing that the siblings were interested in what they might learn next.

"Yes, something is wrong! I'm stranded on this backwater planet and my star client is nowhere to be found!" Skid's agent replied, his tone revealing that he was annoyed with the fact that he had crashed into this planet and that he had no idea where Skid was located, even though he might think his client was dead at this point since they had no idea how long it had been since they had been forced to crash on this planet, "I'm not even sure he's alive, so I guess I was Skid McMarx's agent... say, you three look like some athletic kids. Tell you what, if you can bring back the championship prize from the hoverboard races in Blackwater City, I'll make you my next star!"

While Ratchet was sort of interested in what the agent had to say, since there was no telling what they would do after they explored the rest of the Solana Galaxy and he felt that having a backup plan would be a good thing, the agent had no new Infobots for them, meaning this trip was mostly a waste of time, save for the Trespasser, though as soon as they were done talking to Skid's agent, who didn't seem interested in what they had to say without the prize from the race he wanted them to win, they left the area. With that done they returned to their ship, using a device that surrounded them and acted like a drill to get them back to the platform near their ship, causing Ratchet and his siblings to sigh as they jumped into their ship and set a course for Eudora, so they could deal with the Lieutenant, stop his mission, and maybe get an Infobot for a few new planets to explore.

---

It took them a while to reach Eudora, though when they arrived Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn found that the robots that were working for Chairman Drek were actually destroying everything around them at the moment, which meant they must have completed their quota for trees and now Drek wanted to terminate the planet before moving onto the next one that was on his list, to which Ratchet set them down in the landing area before everyone jumped out and took stock of what happened to be in front of them.

"Okay, maybe making a quick stop at Aridia was a bad idea," Ratchet admitted, since it looked like they had failed to stop Drek's forces from gathering the trees that they were interested in claiming for his twisted planet, even though they knew that he would have been better served to move to another world and not tear all the others apart for his own goals, before he glanced around the area they were in, "and I don't see the Lieutenant anywhere... we might have missed him, and the information that he might have given us if we confronted him."

"Still, we should tear our enemies down and see what we can learn." Autumn replied, though as she said that she quickly looked at what the Gadgetron Vendor had for sale and found another weapon that was available, the Glove of Doom, a glove based weapon designed to throw out 'eggs', the containers that were bomb-like, that deployed a group of tiny little robots that were described as 'ankle bitters', vicious little critters according to the schematics, causing her to grin as she made sure to purchase one for her and Ratchet, since Starswirl didn't seem to need weapons.

With the new weapon in hand the siblings started to move before Ratchet found a door that seemed to be locked by one of the Invinco-locks, something that caused him to smile since it meant their trip to Aridia wasn't totally a waste, and that allowed him to unlock the door in a matter of seconds, revealing a path that lead through the small structure and just so happened to lead to someplace that seemed like a command center, making them take a moment to wonder if they could still find their target. Of course this time around they had to glide jump over some gaps to reach other sections of the area, not to mention a Bolt Crank, something that Gadgetron made by reverse engineering some of the few existing pieces of Lombax tech that was in the Solana Galaxy, of which there were two or three pieces to be exact, which their wrenches could interact with, so Ratchet attached his to the device and started to turn it, causing a few Swingshot targets to fly down into the chasm that was in front of them. With that done they used their Swingshots to move forward, finding another Bolt Crank that allowed Autumn to move some platforms down into position so they could continue through the area, which brought them to yet another Bolt Crank that Starswirl used to lower some more targets into position so he and his siblings could reach a sealed off structure, allowing Ratchet to step forward and use the Trespasser to unlock the door. Not a few seconds later they were allowed to enter the structure, where they found a rather large robot, with a green metallic vest over his chest and green pants, while smoking a metallic cigar of some kind, who appeared to be exercising before he took a walk outside, before pausing as he noticed Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank standing there, all posed and ready to do battle with the Lieutenant, since he looked like the robot Drek talked to.

What surprised the siblings was that the Lieutenant dropped an Infobot and promptly fled with what seemed to be a look of fear on his far, suggesting his model had been built for managing others or something and not for combat, though as soon as they were sure the Lieutenant was gone they watched the message that was stored on the robot and found that it was for a place called BTS, the Blarg Technical Research Station, which held all sorts of weapons, gadgets, and who knew what else that were made by their enemies.

"Oh I cannot wait to go there... just think about what we can do with their technology." Autumn commented, where she did find that Ratchet and Starswirl agreed with her, since they had no idea what they might find during their trek through the BTS, especially since an Infobot might be found there and might point them towards Drek's next move, though after Clank claimed the new robot, and they had the coordinates for Nebula G34, the location of the BTS, the siblings headed through the door that had been opened and found that they were near their ship.

With that done the siblings went to war with the yellow spinning saw robots who were trying to cut into the trees and blue axe swinging robots that were assisting them, mostly because they felt that leaving them to destroy Eudora was another bad move and it might earn them something in the process, though as the first group fell Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank and it raised a bridge that allowed him and his siblings to move forward. That brought them to a more open area that had all sorts of enemies for them to take down, a number of saw bots and axe bots to be exact, causing the siblings to lash out at the robots that were trying to destroy this world, even though Autumn was clearly thinking about new weapons that she could make for the future, which they would likely laugh about once they were on their way to their next destination, even if Clank would have no idea that all of them were discussing. Once this part of Eudora was cleared out Starswirl used his staff to turn the next Bolt Crank and fixed the bridge that was in front of them, allowing him and his siblings to continue their mission to stop the invasion that was going on, which involved taking down some skinny Blarg who happened to get in the way, and they even smashed a camp of Blarg as well before making their way over to an area that had a large red axe robot who seemed more dangerous than the others they had fought so far. Of course such a foe didn't stop Starswirl and Autumn from combining their magic together into a Lombax sized ball of energy that knocked it down, blowing it to pieces as they moved forward once more, before finding another red axe robot in the building in front of them, where a new tactic was used as Autumn deployed the Glove of Doom and they watched as the four little robots tore their target down in a matter of seconds, surprising Ratchet in the process.

Once that was done they glided down to a building that was close to the landing zone and tore their foes down, though it allowed them to find a cannon-like weapon that was known as the Suck Cannon, something the Blarg created apparently, so Autumn claimed it with the intent to figure out how it worked and how to make it better for Gadgetron, before she and her siblings returned to their ship so they could make their way to Nebula G34 and see what sort of secrets and gear they could take from Drek.