Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Rating: everyone
Tags: Crossover, Autumn Blaze, Anthro, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Starswirl the Bearded, Adventure
Length: 422137

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.

Starswirl and Autumn Blaze, both seeking adventure and understanding, find themselves transported to Veldin, a planet located in a remote corner of the Solana Galaxy, as infants, with no memories at all, and happen to arrive at the same time that Ratchet crash lands into the planet. Together the three siblings grow and experience all sorts of things during their time on their home world, but eventually it grows boring and they set their sight on the stars, imagining what sort of adventures would await them once they left Veldin behind and started to explore their galaxy... unaware that fate was going to bring all of them into contact with someone who would set their lives in motion and allow them to truly discover their places in their vast universe.

(Ratchet and Clank/MLP Crossover)
(Part of the Demon War series, but doesn't require reading the others)

Timeline
Ratchet and Clank: Complete
Going Commando: Complete
Up Your Arsenal: Complete
Deadlocked: Complete
Size Matters: Complete
Tools of Destruction: Complete
A Crack in Time: Complete
All 4 One: Complete
Into the Nexus: Complete
Rift Apart: Complete

Published 2021-10-28 14:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2022-11-28 14:00:04 UTC

Interlude: The Colony

Brook and the others were able to get back to the colony within a matter of minutes, as Kyzil Plateau was near the border of the colony and there was a bridge connecting both of them, though most of the residents happened to be working on whatever tasks that needed to be completed, so no one was around to see them return. As such the first thing she did was make sure Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were quickly placed in the care of the Helper Bots that ran and maintained the orphanage, where some were humanoid shaped and others were just spheres that floated in the air, doing whatever each of them were programmed to do, sometimes even developing personalities overtime. They were truly helpful robots, as a fair number of them were able to help the colony become stabilized, among other things, and it made her wish that they had more Helper Bots on hand, but for now she and the others were able to make due with what they had. Once Ratchet and the others were in more capable hands, and were still asleep by the looks of it, she departed from the orphanage and made her way back to her office, leaving the Mining Director and the Captain of the Guard to return to what they had been doing before they investigated the sudden crash.

Given the size of their colony it didn't take her all that long to return to where her office was located, as the building she was heading towards happened to be just across from the orphanage, though she closed the door behind her and took a seat in the chair that was resting on the other side of her desk.

The investigation into what had crashed into Kyzil Plateau had raised a lot of questions in her mind, especially since they had found a Lombax resting in a pod designed for two, given that there were rumors about something happening to the race in their home galaxy, the Polaris Galaxy to be exact. Most assumed that the Lombaxes had been wiped out, likely taken out by a race that didn't like them or something, though given the position of their planet it was hard for them to get information on what was happening to the rest of the universe, or even their own galaxy for that matter. As she thought about that she considered the other two, who she assumed were Unicorns based on their horns, and their sudden arrival with Ratchet, either a mere coincidence or maybe it was fate that they arrived on Veldin at the same time, hence why she kept them together. She considered the Helper Bot's report on what happened, about Ratchet's pod having flown through a crack in reality, or an opening of some kind, while Starswirl and Autumn seemed to arrive in a flash of light, though she had to assume that the 'flash' was their pods bringing them to a stop before harm came to those that were resting inside them, causing her to sigh for a moment.

As of right now there was no problems with taking in three more orphans, as they had more than enough supplies and the Helper Bots could handle anything thrown at them, though she did have to consider the abilities of the Lombaxes, as they were said to be some of the greatest inventors and warriors in their galaxy. It was why she found it so hard to believe that someone or something had wiped them out, not without the Lombaxes fighting back to save themselves, but that didn't change the fact that Ratchet had arrived on Veldin, in a pod that she and the others had found him in. On the other hand she had no idea what sort of skills or abilities the two Unicorns had, even though stories claimed that they had access to all sorts of magical powers, making her wonder if there was some truth to those tales, or if their horns were for defense and contained no energy inside them. Part of her considered using her tablet to search for more information, since there had to be something out there that would help all of them understand who they had found on Kyzil Plateau and what sort of skills they had, before she shook her head and turned her chair so she could glance out at the colony.

She and the others had built the colony on the edge of several canyons, carefully crafting areas for farms to be built in, all while installing an electric fence to keep themselves safe from the dangers of this world, though there wasn't much they could do to personalize anything, so they were stuck with the village look for the time being. Brook knew that many of the buildings were a single story tall, save for ones like the orphanage, which had been built with two stories, and her office was one of the smaller ones, as she didn't need that much room to do her job, especially since some days she was out in the field, working with the others to provide for their people. The shed on Kyzil Plateau was one of the larger structures, all of them were since there was so much that needed to be stored inside them, though the one that Ratchet and the others had landed in front of happened to be one they didn't use all that often, making her wonder if it was another sign, before shaking her head again. She did consider the possibility of moving the pods into the shed so they would remain safe and sound, since there was something inside Ratchet's pod, a compartment she couldn't open, and it made her curious as to what might be inside it, though she was going to have to ask the others about the pods before making a decision, just to see what everyone else thought about the situation.

An hour later, after getting some work done, Brooke got up and departed from her office so she could head over to the orphanage, where she found a number of kids hanging around it, those who were here due to being part of the daycare, though sure enough they were gathered around the area that Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were in. She quietly joined everyone that was watching the trio and quickly discovered something interesting, Ratchet was the first to wake up and he was staring at the area with shock on his face, possibly even fear when she thought about it, before his siblings stirred. It took Starswirl and Autumn a few moments to get up and glance around the area, where they seemed confused and scared as well, though that was when the trio spotted each other for the first time, even though none of them seemed ready to cry over this situation. Brook had to wonder if the Blaze Siblings, as she had taken to calling the trio despite the fact that only one of them had a last name, were more mature than she originally believed, but she said nothing as she glanced at all of the children, seeing that many of them were happy to have new children to play with, putting a smile on her face as she thought about it.

While Brooke was thinking about what to do next the Helper Bots did their job and one of the robots flew off to the side before returning with a few bottles of milk, a few strips of meat, and some small clothing so Autumn and her brothers could wear something other than the bundles they had been wrapped in. It's memory logs informed it of how similar the Lombaxes were to the Cazares, hence why it focused on Ratchet first and found that he was more than happy to accept both the milk bottle and a few torn strips of meat, confirming what it was being told right now, before it focused on both Autumn and Starswirl. This presented a problem to the Helper Bot, given their equine nature, though it didn't have much to fear as the pair carefully ate what was offered to them before sipping on the milk like Ratchet had done, meaning that their appearances didn't affect their diets. With that done the Helper Bot hovered in the air for a moment before heading to another part of the orphanage, as it was seeking an area to place them in, leaving Ratchet and his sisters behind to do whatever it was that they wanted to do, not that there was much for them to do since they were only two years old and all of the stuff in the room was out of reach.

As the Helper Bot did that Ratchet glanced around the room once more and found that Brook was escorting the children outside, leaving them to take in their surroundings before trying to stand up, where each of them struggled with it since none of them had much experience with this sort of thing. Of course they fell every now and then, which was common for children of their age, but it wasn't long before they were able to get onto their feet and actually stand for a time, as their tails had to be aiding them, before the trio moved to look at the room they were in. Ratchet found nothing of interest, as a child was more interested in toys, though that didn't stop Starswirl from finding something of interest, as on one wall there were a couple of books on a shelf that happened to be just out of reach, meaning they wouldn't be reading anytime soon. In that moment Starswirl paused as his horn started to glow and an aura wrapped around one of the books, where it just shook for a moment before being pulled off the shelf, as if something was moving it, even though nothing was there, and not a few seconds later it came to a stop in front of the siblings.

As it turned out the book was about the heroes of their galaxy, opening to the page of a tall bulky male with a green suit over his body, with a blue marking on his chest, though the siblings were too young to truly understand what was inside the book he had picked out, which meant they were just staring at the pictures of the man and nothing else.

While they were doing that Brooke stood on the other side of the door, as she had decided to come and check on the trio before doing anything else, and had seen Starswirl's horn glowing, not to mention the book moving on it's own, which did make her wonder if the tales from Old Earth, about magic, were true in some manner. As she thought about that she took a moment to take a look at the book that had been picked out, finding that the siblings were staring at a few pictures of Captain Qwark, a well known hero in Solana, causing her to chuckle for a moment, as many looked up to him and he might be a good role model for them. After looking at that for a few minutes Autumn got up and resumed exploring, finding her way to a door that lead outside before discovering one of the Helper Bots opening the way for her, which caused both of her brothers to follow after her out into the outside play space. There were about ten children and two orphans on Veldin right now, mostly humanoids like the Captain, so Ratchet and his siblings wouldn't have to worry about being lonely, and sure enough the others were happy to have some new faces to play with.

Brook smiled as the siblings were embraced by the children of the colony, even though they were wearing simple brown clothing, something that could be switched out at some point in time, meaning they wouldn't have to worry all that much about Ratchet, Starswirl, or Autumn as they headed outside, as this would allow them to form bonds and learn things from the other children. She had no idea what the future might hold for them, not after the siblings landed near her colony, but she had a feeling that things were going to get interesting from this point forward and hoped that the siblings were able to grow well before facing whatever the future had in store.

Interlude: Moving Out

What Brooke discovered was that nothing truly important happened for about four years, not counting the times when Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn said their first words, when they walked without actually falling or needing assistance, or the day when they started talking in fuller sentences, which gave the siblings time to learn all sorts of things, or at least try to do such a thing since the colony did come under assault at one point and they ended up losing most of the Helper Bots that worked for the orphanage. There was only so much Brooke and her fellow leaders could do when pirates came calling, no doubt looking for scrap or treasure to take for all the Bolts they were worth, the currency of their galaxy, especially once the Captain went down and the Mining Director was torn apart, as he ended up losing his right arm, his left leg had been broken, part of his chest had been caved in, and he also had some damage to his head, hence why they had to take him offline while he was fixed, just to preserve him before something bad happened. Brooke was used to dealing with pirate attacks, even if they were annoying and really damaged the colony, especially with some of the buildings being damaged in the assault and a fair number of the adults being harmed as well, though her real concern was for the children, all of them, since there was no telling if these pirates would kidnap children and hold them for ransom, which would force their Investor to either fold his hand and pay the bounty or do nothing and possibly sentence them to a life of slavery. That was why Brooke did her best to stand her ground in front of the orphanage, as she refused to let any of the children be taken and have their lives utterly ruined by pirates, even if she ended up with blast markings on her arms and legs, from the blasters the pirates used, or the couple of cuts that came from the blades that some of the melee pirates preferred to use while their allies backed them up, but she ignored her wounds as she focused on protecting all of the children.

When she fell to her knees, however, something moved by her as the pirates that were advancing on the orphanage were knocked back by a sudden gust of wind, or many they were yanked backwards, as Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn walked out to meet the pirates in battle, something she was totally against and paused when she noticed something interesting, Starswirl's horn had a faint glow around it and his hand was extended towards the three pirates that had been advancing on where Brooke was standing. That reminded her that Starswirl and Autumn had access to magic, something they must have been practicing in secret since she had no idea their abilities had improved since the first time she saw them lift that book, though as that happened Autumn's horn glowed as small balls of fire, which were roughly the size of her fist, formed around her while all of them stared at the pirates, all while Ratchet found a pipe that had been left on the ground and just picked it up, as while he didn't have magical abilities he showed the others that he was ready for a fight. The pirates were surprised by this turn of events, especially since they weren't expecting to find children standing up to them, though that was when Autumn knocked the robotic pirates backwards with her fireballs, who freaked out and retreated to their ships, as if they were afraid of melting or something, while Starswirl threw his hand backwards and sent his targets flying even further backwards, all the way to their ship so they landed on the deck. While his siblings did that Ratchet showed them all how a Lombax who was following his instincts fought, as he spun his pipe around like it was a staff or something, like what he and his siblings discovered in some of the stories they had read over the years, while using his feline grace to move like a warrior, or at least that was what Brooke assumed she was seeing right now, allowing him to figure out where their foes were and smack them with the edge of his makeshift weapon, knocking the pirates to the ground in confusion, which put a smile on Brooke's face as their uninvited guests were pushed back by three children.

Of course there was a consequence of this unwelcome event, one that she saw when she glanced back at the orphanage that the rest of their colony's children had been hiding in while their parents joined the fight against the pirates, as it was easy for her to see that the others were afraid of Ratchet and his siblings, especially since Starswirl picked up one of the shards of a pirate ship and sent it flying into the main ship, doing enough damage to knock it back while not taking it out, all with his magic, and she knew that once this was all over she was going to have to make a hard decision, even if she had no desire to do such a thing.

Sure enough once the pirates were taken care of, as Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn actually pushed the pirates back with their abilities, even with Ratchet's pipe being dented to the point of not being usable at all, the parents came to Brooke not a few minutes after the battle was over with some concerns, with how their children might not be safe due to the danger that the Blaze Siblings posed to everyone in the colony, especially when one took the powers of Starswirl and Autumn into consideration as well. Brooke, of course, argued that they were in their debt, for without the siblings she was sure that the pirates would have done far more damage to their home, maybe even reaching the point where they stole the children to sell at some point in the future, and that exiling them to Kyzil Plateau, the outskirts of their colony, seemed far too much for the three six year olds, especially after risking their lives to save her own and keep all of the other children safe, as she was sure that this might sour their opinions on performing heroic deeds. Of course only a few agreed with her thoughts on this manner, as they agreed that the siblings had saved them from something truly terrible, though the majority vote, as Brooke soon discovered, was not to exile Ratchet and his siblings, rather they were going to be moved out to the shed on Kyzil Plateau, where Ratchet's pod was resting since none of them felt like moving it, that way their children could be safe while making sure to keep the siblings away from the main section of the colony. Sure, she felt like they were simply exiling them while not acknowledging that they were doing that, but with most of the people voting for it there was next to nothing she could do to stop it from happening, so it was with a heavy heart that she approved of their actions and, with all of her wounds patched up, marched out to escort the siblings to their new home, even if they hated her for it, but there was one thing she took with her since it was time to return it.

Brooke found Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn standing outside the orphanage once the meeting was over, where it looked like all three of them had known that their display had upset some of the colonists and had prepared themselves for the event that they were exiled, though it was possible that they had seen what was on the faces of the other children and had known this was coming their way, so they had their meager belongings resting in a box that Autumn was carrying, where she sighed for a moment as all four of them started to leave the orphanage.

"Did we do something wrong? Is that why everyone is so wary of us?" Starswirl asked, reminding Brooke that he was, in the eyes of her and the other adults, the older sibling among the trio, as he seemed to be smarter than the others, while they knew that Autumn was the youngest of them all, as while she had been serious in battle she was also naive at times, or at least she acted like that, which left Ratchet as the middle child, who seemed to be interested in trying his hand at messing with devices, like a normal Lombax she assumed.

"Don't be mad at the colonists, they're only worried about their children... if I weren't outnumbered, I would have made it so this wouldn't be happening at all," Brooke replied, though she could see that all three of them seemed to be upset with something, no doubt what happened back at the orphanage, to which she turned her head towards the path that would bring them to Kyzil Plateau, "For now we've agreed that none of you are to be exiled from the colony, as you did save us from those pirates, but the others would feel safer knowing that their children aren't in danger of being hit by your magic, Autumn's magic, or by whatever weapon Ratchet uses if he gets upset with someone... so Kyzil Plateau, where we found you guys four years ago, will be your home for now, though hopefully I can convince the others to cancel this decision in due time."

"I can't believe that Billy and the others looked at us like we were complete strangers," Ratchet commented, referring to what he and his siblings had found when they returned to the orphanage after the pirates had been taken care of, that all of the other children had seemed fearful of him, Starswirl, and Autumn and he had to guess that the sudden showing of what they were capable of had caused the children to rethink how they viewed the three of them, which caused him to growl for a moment as he felt his anger boil.

"They probably didn't understand what you did for them, and I'm sure they'll be by to apologize once everyone has taken some time to calm down," Brooke stated, though to be fair she really had no idea if that was the truth or not, since some of the other children might take after their parents, which could be a bad thing at times, but before she could say anything else they came to a stop at the edge of the walkway that was connected to Kyzil Plateau and she stared at the shed that the siblings would be living in for some time, though as Starswirl and Autumn started to move forward she made sure to stop Ratchet for a few seconds, "Ratchet, I've been holding onto this since the day we found you three in this area, as I had a feeling that it might be important and I didn't want it to be stolen by someone, and I think it's time that it was returned to you."

Ratchet paused for a few seconds as Brooke reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace, one that had a flat orb at the end of it, an orb that was half the size of her palm based on what he was seeing, with the orb split diagonally in half as well, though it seemed to be made out of some durable metal or material, since it looked pristine and hadn't aged at all in the four years they had been living in the orphanage, and as he took it from her he studied it, finding that the necklace and design seemed to be perfect with no errors, making him wonder what purpose it served.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what that is, besides a necklace, but it was resting next to you in your pod, so it has to be of some importance to you," Brooke continued, as she knew why Ratchet seemed shocked and surprised by this item, because it had been a shock to her as well and had caused her to take it so she could study it, but her limited knowledge of Lombax technology gave her no ideas on what it might be and she had given up on trying to figure out it's secrets after the first year, "maybe it's a charm, to help you calm down or center yourself, or maybe it might be a key to something and you need to find the other half first... whatever purpose it serves, I'm sure that you'll find out what it is in due time."

Ratchet nodded for a moment as he slipped the necklace over his head, allowing the fractured orb to rest near his neck, though once that was done Brooke wished all three of them well, promising that food would be brought twice a week so they didn't starve, before she turned and left them to do whatever they wanted to do, though while Ratchet was still mad at the colonists he found that the Mayor was sad, to which he focused on the necklace for a few seconds and found that it allowed him to calm down. With that done, and he made sure that his new treasure was secured, Ratchet joined Starswirl and Autumn in studying their new home so they could figure out what they were going to do now that they weren't under the care of the colonists and surviving Helper Bots, where they found that three beds, large enough for all three of them to grow into, were resting in the middle of what looked like an old hanger, which had been turned into a storage shed by the colonists at some point, so having the three of them move out here meant the colonists had to clear out whatever had been in this place. While they did that, however, Ratchet found the pod that Brooke had described to him and both of his siblings a few times in the past, one that looked nothing like what was found on Veldin, and, surprisingly enough, both of the smaller containers, which Starswirl and Autumn had arrived in, were near it as well and made him wonder how they had reached this world in the first place, before he sighed as he ran his hand over the side of the pod, which offered him no answers at the moment. The only thing it made him wonder about was why it was built for two individuals, like he had another sibling who was missing at the moment, and he found the inscription that held his name, according to what they were told in the past, though as he did that part of the pod's exterior shuddered and a compartment opened, revealing a large wrench that looked like it was designed for both combat and as a tool, something he assumed was unique to the Lombaxes as he picked the wrench up and held it in his right hand.

"Is that... an Omniwrench?" Autumn asked, as she had read stories and heard tales of the types of weapons that the rest of the Lombaxes were said to have used while they fought their enemies, even if there was no way for anyone to confirm or deny such a thing since no one knew what had happened to Ratchet's race, and many agreed that this type of weapon was one that the Lombaxes used, or one of them anyway.

"Yeah... I guess my parents, or whoever was watching over me, wanted me to be able to defend myself," Ratchet said, as it seemed like the most reasonable explanation for why there was a weapon in the pod he had arrived in all those years ago, all while determining that the pod only responded to his kind, hence why the Mayor and the others failed to get anything out of it after they were admitted to the orphanage, though as he considered that he turned and swung the wrench a few times, finding that it almost seemed like it was made for him, before he stopped and glanced at the pod, "or maybe keep myself and my sibling safe... I wonder what happened to them, to prevent us from arriving on Veldin together."

"We'll figure it out in due time, of that I'm sure," Starswirl replied, though to be honest he had no clues on how to help his brother right now, since the pod didn't come with anything that might help them figure out what might have happened to the other Lombax that was supposed to be contained inside it, save for the writing on the side that had been damaged by some sort of attack, so all he could assume about this was that Ratchet's sibling had been forced to take another pod and was out there, somewhere, "Come on, let's get everything set up so we can call this place home."

Ratchet and Autumn nodded as they took their meager belongings into the hanger and stared at it for a few moments, as they all knew that they would have to divide what was in front of them so each of them had a sleeping area, leaving what was left as a living area of sorts, though Ratchet took the wall to the left of the entrance and figured that Starswirl could be placed on the same side that he was taking, leaving Autumn to take the other side, or part of it, leaving the area that was across from Starswirl for their appliances, which the Mayor had provided for them. His siblings considered that and came to the decision that it was the best, especially since they had some screens that would shield them from the eyes of the others, for some privacy, something that would be perfect for when they grew up and became teenagers, though Ratchet put his poster of Captain Qwark up in the common area, Autumn pulled out her schematics and put them away in a small container in her chamber, and Starswirl set a few books up in his area. It wasn't much in Ratchet's eyes, not when he took a moment to consider everything that the orphans had, but it was better than nothing, to which he sighed as he pulled out a few food containers and slipped them into their fridge before breaking the box down in seconds, as the Helper Bot had given them some food to make sure all three of them had something until their first shipment arrived from the colony, in a few days time. As he thought about that he walked outside as Starswirl lifted all three beds and moved them into position as Autumn set up the privacy screens, where Ratchet glanced at the stars for a moment as he wondered how the three of them were going to live with next to nothing to do, especially after losing access to the Helper Bots and the colony itself, as he was sure some people would have a problem with them being there, before he grasped his necklace for a time, all for a bit of courage to make it through whatever the future held for them.

Nothing happened that evening and the siblings went to bed with what was considered a light meal, as they had to ration what they had and make sure they had enough food to last them until the next shipment arrived from Mayor Brooke, who seemed to be the only one who actually trusted them enough to want to keep them in the colony, though when morning arrived he and his siblings discovered something terrible, a horde of Horny Toads were advancing on the farms, using one of the holes that had been left behind by the pirate's attack.

In response to such a thing happening Ratchet grabbed his new wrench and headed outside, though as he moved towards the entrance, however, Starswirl stepped up and stopped him for a few seconds, where he held a hand out and Ratchet quickly figured out what his brother was doing as he handed over the weapon, as Starswirl's horn glowed for a moment as the wrench pulsed with energy before two new copies appeared, though one had a flame design on it, which he passed to Autumn, while the other had a swirling star, one that Starswirl took as he returned the ordinary one to Ratchet, who wasn't even upset since this allowed them to figure out whose each was. With that done he and his siblings head out and quickly made their way to where the farms were located, where it took them no time to locate the horde of orange skinned toads who stood on two legs and hopped around, using their front legs to balance themselves, though they were aggressive little things and seemed to enjoy doing anything and everything to mess with the colonists, as this was one of the problems that the warriors of the colony dealt with on a daily bases. Since most of the adults were hurt from the pirate invasion, and the rest were still recovering from what had happened so far, there weren't a lot of people left who could do anything to save everything that the farmers had worked for, especially since Horny Toads, so named due to the horns on their backs, also liked to eat everything that was grown on this planet, hence why they targeted the farms, but due to the lack of protectors Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn moved in and did everything in their power to protect the colony. As such Ratchet jumped around and dodged attacks, where Starswirl discovered that Lombaxes had a double jump of sorts, like they could do one and then kick off the air or something to perform a second one, which was rather interesting, though he turned his eyes back to the Horny Toads as Ratchet used his wrench to smack several foes out of the way, which Autumn replicated with her own tool, causing Starswirl to nod, since using fire magic wasn't a good idea right now, before he used his magic to pull several foes towards him before knocking them out with his own weapon.

Brooke and the others watched as Ratchet and his siblings came to their rescue, even though they had thrown them out after what happened with the pirates, though as that happened she recalled what was supposed to happen today as one of the Gadgetron ships neared her colony and the spokesperson for the company, who sold all sorts of weapons and a variety of gadgets, came out of the vehicle to speak with them about an offer that her Investor seemed eager to accept, all to keep the colony safe from future danger. That allowed him to see what she and the others were seeing, witnessing the siblings beat back the Horny Toads like they were nothing, though since there were far more on the other side he took a step forward once Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn dealt with the first wave of intruders, where he produced three items for them to take, which just so happened to be the weapon that he was here to sell to the colonists, which would serve as the start of a new line of Gadgetron weapons. What it was, as the siblings soon discovered, was a glove that fit over their right hand and allowed one to hurl small bombs at their enemies, and they were free for first time Gadgetron customers, where the siblings glanced at each other for a few seconds as they studied the weapons, as it was odd for them to be given such a thing and Starswirl figured it would help convince the colony to go with whatever Brooke and the Investor had discussed in the past, but decided that they might be better off not knowing all the details. Ratchet found that after he hurled one of his bombs at some of the Horny Toads, which knocked out a fair number at a time, there was a bit of recoil that could hurt anyone who used it, especially six year olds if they were given a weapon like this, something that caused Autumn to turn her attention to the spokesperson and asked about the schematics, as she might be able to figure out the problem and fix it for future Bomb Gloves, or maybe they could send out technicians to fix whatever was causing the recoil.

The spokesperson turned over his uplink a few seconds later, after speaking with his boss for a few seconds, and Autumn pulled up the official schematics while Ratchet and Starswirl focused on taking care of the remaining Horny Toads without using a weapon that might take their arms off or break something, though it didn't take her long to figure out where the weapon designers had gone wrong and corrected the schematics accordingly, but to make sure it worked she pulled her Bomb Glove off. Brooke and the others watched as she engaged her magic and the Bomb Glove seemed to break apart in a matter of seconds, as if her magic had dismantled the weapon, allowing her to see exactly what she was looking for and moved one of the components a little, just like she had done in the schematic, before bringing it all back together as the others watched as every piece slipped into place like nothing was wrong, where she called out to Ratchet for a moment, so she could switch his glove for the one she had been holding onto. With the switch made, and her brother had put on the modified Bomb Glove over his right hand, Ratchet headed out and flexed his fingers to summon a bomb, one that he was able to hurl at some of the Horny Toads without any sort of recoil or backlash, much to the surprise of the spokesperson who was watching them, especially since it worked like it was supposed to, something that was followed by the return of his uplink as Autumn fixed Ratchet and Starswirl's Bomb Gloves. As soon as her modifications were complete, and all three of them had working weapons that wouldn't hurt them when they used it, they went to work dispatching the remaining horde of Horny Toads with their wrenches, their new weapons, and their innate abilities, protecting the colony from them so they didn't have to worry about another attack in the near future, before finding that the Horny Toads that were left just departed from the area and went back to the part of Veldin that they lived in.

What they weren't expecting, however, was for them to be approached by the spokesperson not a few minutes later, while the three of them were resting after saving the colony from the horde, where they discovered that he had been speaking with his boss as all of this was going down and both of them were interested in Autumn's skills, as she was smart enough to find the flaw and had a way to correct it, all while appearing to be a schematic creator in her own right, so they had an offer for all of them. Autumn was being presented with an opportunity to join Gadgetron as a weapon designer, as in her schematics could be turned into weapons that everyone in the galaxy, who bought from the company, would use in their everyday lives, all while all three of them were going to be given memberships as well, both to Gadgetron, which earned them discounts on weapons and gadgets, and to the Guild, which seemed to be something akin to a bounty hunter when he explained it to them. The gist of the second offer was that they could take enemies down, such as the Horny Toads that they had just taken down or the pirates that attacked yesterday, and a member of the Guild would earn Bolts for doing it, so, for example, if they were to take down a group of attackers they would gain Bolts to buy all sorts of things, essentials and other things like candy, which instantly interested the siblings since it was something they needed, and the person in front of them confirmed that they would have their cards, for both organizations, in no time at all if they accepted what they were offering. In the end it took Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn no time in accepting the offer, even if it meant taking a bit of time signing a few places of the tablet that the person held out a few minutes later, legal documents that Brooke came over to look at so they didn't get cheated, not that she was going to accuse Gadgetron of cheating two powerful kids and their amazing warrior of a brother, but she found it to be acceptable and it convinced the siblings to agree, which she knew would provide them with the Bolts they needed to survive, and with their showing all of the colonists might have realized that befriending the siblings was the right way to go.

Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn smiled as they headed back to the center of the colony, as it seemed like things had turned in their favor all of a sudden, though they knew to keep an open mind as each of them kept their eyes on what the future had in store for them and the rest of their planet, even though they were setting their sights on eventually leaving Veldin, now that they had confirmation that other worlds existed, and exploring the galaxy, but for now they focused on growing up until all three of them were ready for such a thing.

Interlude: Growing Up

After the untimely pirate attack on the colony, and the timely assault of the horde of Horny Toads the morning after, the siblings spent the next day or two waiting for the arrival of their membership cards from Gadgetron and the Guild that none of them had known about until the second assault, since it would allow them to get started on their work protecting Brooke and the rest of the colony from whatever dangers might be waiting to attack this place, because with the three membership cards from the Guild all three of them would be allowed to earn Bolts for any enemies they took down. Of course Autumn had a number of schematics to work on while they were waiting, as some of the more senior members of Gadgetron actually sent her a copy of whatever they happened to be working on at the time, mostly to test her skills and confirm what the worker had seen when he came to Veldin earlier, where she found that some were weapon plans that they wanted to build at some point in the future, when they had the technology to do so, or gadgets that could make ordinary life easier. Even if she found no errors or flaws with what she was sent she found ways to improve upon what was presented to her, something that came as a surprise to the people she worked with, though as she did that Ratchet found Mayor Brooke coming to the shed he and his siblings lived in, with what appeared to be the food delivery she promised them, which would keep them going until they were ready to purchase things on their own. Such a thing reminded him that all of the colonists apologized for what happened after the pirate assault, where they pretty much exiled the three of them to this part of the colony, but after he thought about it for some time, all while focusing on his necklace to keep himself calm, he determined that such a thing was fine, as it allowed Starswirl and Autumn to practice their magic in peace, without having to worry about freaking out any of the colonists, before he turned his head and focused on the Mayor once more.

The reason Ratchet assumed it was the food delivery was because there were two humanoid Helper Bots walking behind Brooke, even though it was possible that one might be the food they were expecting and the other could be something else entirely, to make up for what happened to them after the pirate assault, but for now he focused on what was going on right now as the Mayor came to a stop in front of him while both of her Helper Bots set the containers down near him, which was followed by them leaving without saying a single word.

"As we promised, the first of the food shipments to help you guys settle into your new home," Brooke said, though she had a feeling that nothing she did would convince the siblings to move back into the colony, but this was the best for them and for the others, as it allowed the siblings to do whatever they wanted without drawing too much attention to them while also giving them a good route to get to the rest of the colony, so if more assaults happened they could quickly reach where an attack was happening, before she pulled out an envelope and held it out towards Ratchet, "though this arrived earlier, and I know you guys have been eager to get your hands on them."

"Gadgetron must really want Autumn on their team if they sped up the process this much," Ratchet replied, where he took the envelope and opened it, finding three membership cards for Gadgetron, one for him, Starswirl, and Autumn, while also finding three cards that belonged to the Guild, so they could get Bolts for every enemy they took down, before discovering a set of Bolt Cards, which would allow them to manage their accounts and purchase things, where he knew it was a tad bit complicated and would take some time getting used to, but this was good news, "not to mention Starswirl and I are going to be her combat weapon testers, so Gadgetron can understand how each weapon and gadget fares on the battlefield... or that's the plan, not that I'm expecting to be involved in so many fights."

"Still, you three have done well, and you are only six years old," Brooke pointed out, as she found herself thinking about all of the supposed abilities of the Lombaxes once more, be it combat related or technology focused, and the powers that she had seen when Starswirl and Autumn took to the battlefield, meaning the three of them could be fine heroes if they ever decided to do such a thing, something that brought a smile to Ratchet's face, as he appreciated someone saying that he and his siblings had done well in some regard, before she beckoned to the second container, "the others also wanted to apologize to you, but some of them are still scared about the powers your siblings have, so I volunteered to bring it to you guys... it contains some new clothing that the others think you might like, to replace what you've been wearing for some time, but if you don't like it you'll have a way to buy new things."

Ratchet nodded his head to that, because with the Gadgetron Card, the Guild Card, and the Bolt Card he and his siblings would be able to gather Bolts and buy things to improve their living situation, as he knew that there were a great number of things that they needed to purchase and get used to, as in all of the essentials, but for now he was going to tell both of his siblings the good news about the arrival of the cards and then see what was inside the clothing container, as he really wasn't expecting any of the colonists to buy stuff for them, though it was a nice gesture. Brooke, seeing that he wanted some time alone with his siblings, bid him farewell before heading for the colony, allowing Ratchet to turn his attention to the shed and called for Starswirl and Autumn to join him, where his siblings emerged from the shed not a few seconds later, both showing interest in what he was calling them out for, before discovering the second container that Brooke and her Helper Bots had brought to them. Of course both of his siblings were surprised to find that clothing had come from all of the colonists, especially after what happened once the pirate raid was over, where Ratchet found what appeared to be a dark green pair of pants, a decent belt, some gloves that a mechanic could wear, and what seemed like a harness that went over one's chest, with an odd hexagon on the back, meaning that something could be attached to it and be worn like a backpack, though he didn't see any shirts that interested him. Autumn found a pair of blue shorts that needed a hole cut into them so her tail could fit through, unlike the pair Ratchet found that came with the opening in place, and a faded red shirt, where she shrugged and figured she could buy something more fitting later, while Starswirl found a blue shirt that went with a dark gray pair of pants, though none of them found any shoes to go with their new attire, something for later they suspected, though Autumn found matching gloves so each of them could have a set.

With that done, and all of them had changed into their new attire and nodded, Ratchet moved the clothing box into part of the living area of their shed, so it was out of the way, while his siblings moved the food container inside as well and made sure to transfer what had been delivered into their fridge so none of it went bad, otherwise they would have a hard time surviving until either the next shipment arrived or they had enough Bolts to buy food on their own, though that lead to the next important thing in Ratchet's eyes. In that moment he drew out the envelope and quickly handed his siblings their set of cards, which put a smile on their faces since it meant all of them could get to work defending the colony from the rest of the threats that were out there, even though the colonists were outfitted with their own Bomb Gloves as well, a decision that was made when they realized that they couldn't rely on the siblings to save them all the time, so this was in case they were attacked while Ratchet and his siblings were doing something else. With that done Autumn got to work making some modifications to their wrenches, as while Ratchet was perfectly find with his wrench, especially since it likely came from his parents and he didn't feel like breaking it apart, she knew that Starswirl seemed to prefer using longer weapons and that caused her to make a schematic that showed his wrench becoming a wrench-staff combination, though the head would be much smaller than before, growing and opening when he used it on a Bolt Crank, while extending the handle to the point where it looked like a walking staff. As for herself, well, she hadn't totally decided on what she wanted to do, but one of her ideas was to add a feature to her wrench so the pieces of the head could be linked together, forming a guard in her eyes, before a blade could extend from an area that was hidden inside the handle, though time would tell if she stuck to that idea or if she changed it to something else, as there were all sorts of melee weapons out there for her to pick from and she knew that a decision would be made in due time.

While they were doing that, however, it appeared that some of the pirates decided to return for another raid and caused the siblings to depart immediately, especially since facing these enemies wasn't something the colonists could do after all of the things they had been through this week, and when they arrived Ratchet switched to his Bomb Glove and hurled a bomb right into the face of the pirate he had picked out, pushing him backwards while the rest turned their attention on him and his siblings. That was what they wanted, as it meant that they wouldn't have to worry about Brooke or the rest of the colonists being hurt by the pirates, which caused Starswirl to weave his magic through the air and yanked a number of pirates off of their vehicles before slamming them into the ground, allowing him to spin his newly modified weapon and smack his foes upside their heads, all while tossing a bomb over to one of the pirates and blew it up, likely annoying the rest of the pirates in the process. Autumn focused on dodging the incoming attacks as she found that some pirates had a few interesting weapons, one looking like a blaster of some kind, so while she took down her targets, hitting them with her yet to be modified wrench and some of her magic, yanking them around with her telekinesis so they could be in the way of her weapon, before claiming all of the new weapons for herself, as she was sure that this might inspire her to make all sorts of new tools for Gadgetron, who would be grateful for her hard work. This time around the siblings only let one of the pirates go, hopefully sending a message to the others that Veldin wasn't worth the damages they were suffering right now, if they were smart enough to do something like that, before Autumn started to dismantle what was left over from all of their enemies and vehicles, figuring that all of it would be useful in some manner, all while the colonists cheered for the three of them, showing their gratitude towards Ratchet and his siblings saving them from the assault.

Ratchet, of course, took a moment to check his Bolt Card and found that he did have some money inside his account, all from the pirates they had taken out, though when his siblings came over the three of them discovered that their amounts were exactly the same, something that made him realize they were going to have to read up on the Guild rules, which both of his siblings agreed with once they checked their accounts, though with that done they returned to their shed as each of them focused on what the future held for them.

After the downfall of the pirates Ratchet and his siblings found a package addressed to them when Autumn went into the colony just after the sun rose, as she decided to do it before breakfast, though inside it happened to be three items none of them were expecting, uplinks that connected them to the Gadgetron Helpdesk and could be attached to their gloves if they wanted to do so, though they were basically what the spokesperson used before offering them the contract that they had signed earlier. Such a thing gave Autumn more freedom while she created her schematics, not to mention chatting with anyone she needed to talk to, and would aid Ratchet and Starswirl in purchasing what they needed, though they were clients 91802, 91803, and 91804 respectively, since they had their own accounts and everything, though there was a lot of stuff for them to learn about and they knew that having the Helpdesk uplinks would be useful for the future, with all of the features these were supposed to have. As such Autumn uploaded all of her schematics to her official Gadgetron account and got to work figuring out what needed to be done to make sure everything that was on the site was ready to be made, be it the gadgets or weapons, while Ratchet focused on buying the essential stuff and keeping an eye on the colony from where their home rested, just in case more troublemakers showed up, leaving Starswirl to make a list of tomes that he had his eyes on, as there were a number of books on magical theory, all from Old Earth, he wanted to look at and buying them was the only way he could get his hands on them. Ratchet understood why his brother was so interested in the books, as he knew there was a chance that he might prove or disprove the theories that the inhabitants of Old Earth used and wrote about, not to mention learn more spells in the process, though Old Earth no longer existed since some force destroyed it, but the information that had survived it's destruction was scattered around the galaxy, possibly even the other ones when he thought about what Brooke told him at one point, but that was a thought for another time.

From that point onward Ratchet and his siblings got used to life on Kyzil Plateau, where they got to work doing everything in their power to protect the colony from some of the major threats, like pirate raids for example, fixing up the electric fence that was installed to deal with a fair number of Horny Toads that were bothering them, and any other forces that felt it was right to attack and steal from a colony that was working on a desert planet, even though Brooke was making this work for all of them. Starswirl set up an observation deck for them to use, which was located at the edge of their property and allowed one to climb up and take a look at the surrounding area that the colonists lived in, basically giving the three of them an easier way to determine whether or not Veldin was under attack, with Autumn coming up with more advanced methods to figure out such a thing, just in case a day came when they were no longer on the planet, so the colonists had a chance to prepare for an invasion without having to depend on them. Of course part of that meant that, at some point in time, they would have to find a way off planet, which was why Autumn salvaged all sorts of parts from the pirate vessels she and her siblings blew up, forming a set of schematics for a vessel that would contain four people, because technology right now made it so that the Robotic Ignition System were incredibly expensive and huge in some instances, so it would be them and a robot, but she was sure that she would find a way to make it work at some point. So for now Ratchet set his sights on protecting the colony from whatever dangers might be coming their way and knew that his siblings would do the same if something came to bother their home planet, as none of them had any idea what planet they originally came from and calling Veldin their home made them feel much better about that, something they would have to figure out at some point in the distant future.

That was what they did for a number of years, defending the colonists from pirates of all sorts, which gave them all sorts of Bolts so each of them could buy whatever they wanted, and sure enough Starswirl found a way to purchase a number of old books from Old Earth, allowing him to learn more spells when he confirmed whether or not the theories worked or if they were totally fake, though one thing he did while reading those books was create an opening that looked like a circle of magic that connected to an area full of bookshelves. Starswirl called it a 'portal', a two way gateway of sorts that he was able to make with his magic, though so far he was only able to make it to an area that he called the 'Library', as it was the area that he kept all of his books in when he finished them and it came with a list of ever book he got his hands on, but he was planning on expanding it into something bigger, so the Library would be one wing of whatever he was making his way towards, which Ratchet didn't even try to understand since it was outside his set of skills. In addition to all of that he also found something else to keep himself distracted over the years, he would do into the colony and repair things, like a real mechanic would, hence why he went ahead and bought some books on the matter so he would know how to repair all of the vessels that could enter and leave a planet, especially since he knew about Autumn's plans and agreed, he wanted to explore the galaxy at some point and this seemed to be the best thing for them. Other than that there was nothing for all of them to do, save for continuing their actions to save Mayor Brooke and all of the colonists from the major threats, him working on all of the mechanical items that were scattered throughout the colony, Starswirl continuing to work on learning new spells and adding books to his collection, and Autumn doing everything in her power to learn a few more spells while focusing on her schematics, which was an added boost for her account.

Eventually the siblings grew older, taller, and looked less like children, as they were teenagers, celebrating their fifteenth birthday, which they celebrated on the day they arrived on Veldin, when Ratchet revealed a surprise to his siblings that he soon discovered wasn't much of a surprise at all, despite all of his attempts to hide it from them, he had been working on a spaceship, following the schematics Autumn created for the four person vessel, and it was close to completion, in fact in a day or two he was sure it would be done, save for a single piece.

"The only thing I'm missing is the Robotic Ignition System," Ratchet explained, where he pulled the door of a side section open and revealed the blue colored ship he had been working on for some amount of time, which he was proud of since it had been a single person endeavor, since Starswirl had been busy with his spells and Autumn had been busy working on her schematics, to which he sighed as he stared at the four seats for a few seconds, "and, last I checked, they're still far too expensive for us to afford, even if we applied the Gadgetron discount that we have, so we're not buying one anytime soon, no matter how much we want to explore the rest of the galaxy."

Of course that wasn't counting a ship falling out of the sky, containing the object that they needed, but he wasn't about to think about such a thing and noticed that Autumn went to look at his work, no doubt checking to make sure he had been truthful in his words, that he followed her schematics to the letter and built it like she designed, while Starswirl glanced up at the sky, knowing that, in some way, change was coming to their lives and that they had to be ready for whatever might be coming.

R/C: Veldin

The day after their fifteenth birthday, where they had some cake and enjoyed a day off at long last, Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn gathered outside as they worked on Ratchet's ship, making sure it was ready for whenever they got their hands on a Robotics Ignition System, when something in the sky caught their attention, a dark and red ship, which looked like it might have been attacked in the last few minutes, raced across the sky and crashed into part of the outskirts of the colony, in an area that had no one in it.

"I don't think that's good news," Ratchet commented, especially since it looked like a few other ships, of the same design, were currently moving towards where the first one crashed, though it also appeared that there were a few robots that were being deployed along the path, who looked like they were getting ready to smash parts of the electrical fence and several of the buildings that were on the way to the area in question, "Nope, definitely not good news. Looks like someone is trying to attack Veldin again."

"We shouldn't be surprised at this point," Starswirl said, where he stepped forward as he waved his hand towards the edge of their shed and his staff rushed over to where he was standing, allowing him to close his hand around it as he tapped the bottom on the ground, though it wasn't magic this time, as Autumn had made a few changes to their right gloves, as each of them used that hand for their weapons, and made it so that each of them were capable of throwing and recalling their weapons, made with a crystal she found while exploring part of Veldin, before he focused on what was happening right in front of them, "though it didn't look like they were piloted by actual pilots, so I'd say we're dealing with drones this time around... might be an advance invasion force."

"Either way, whatever we find will fall under the finders keepers rule," Autumn added, though she quickly replicated what her siblings had done and called over her wrench as well, as Ratchet had his in his right hand right now, since he had been using his to make the ship they were standing near, but this was her way of telling them that they could take whatever was at the crash site, even if they were hoping for the last piece of the puzzle so they could explore their galaxy and see what else was out there, "I'm hoping to find a Robotic Ignition System, but we should be able to get a decent number of Bolts for this, since I'm sure these guys have a bounty on their heads, and some of the scrap might be worth something if we sell it to someone on another world."

Ratchet nodded his head as they started to walk away from their home, finding that there were some Horny Toads right in front of them, on a path that lead to where the ship had crashed, meaning they must have found a way around the fence, something that would require one of them to check on it before they found a way to leave Veldin behind, though not a few seconds later Autumn smacked some of the Horny Toads and knocked them down, all while Ratchet and Starswirl headed down the rest of the path. One thing they discovered was that there were a number of light brown crates, about the size of a head without any ears, as one of the children in the orphanage loved describing them in that manner for some reason, lining the path as well and that meant each of them contained a number of Bolts inside them, where the rules of the Guild concerning them was that whoever broke a crate earned the Bolts in question, so it was worth smashing each one as they were found, transferring the Bolts into their accounts for later. As they smashed them Ratchet could have sworn that all of the crates this time came from the ships that were here for the crashed vessel they had seen, or maybe another ship that belonged to the same organization that was planning on attacking Veldin, one he and his siblings must have missed during the night, though to be honest he really didn't care who dropped the crates since none of them looked like what Brooke and all of the colonists used in their daily lives, so he wasn't worried about stealing from everyone else. One reason for the three of them to be gathering more Bolts was because Autumn had been told that some of her weapons were about to be sent out and, while they might have a discount on all services, it was best to have some savings so they didn't go bankrupt at some point in the future, especially since they had no idea what sort of prices Gadgetron might be asking for the various weapons Autumn had created so far.

It didn't take them more than a few seconds to reach the bridge that allowed them to walk along the outskirts, the outer edge of the colony, where they found a few more Horny Toads gathering in one spot and Autumn took them out with one of her bombs, allowing them to progress towards a set of stone steps that would likely bring them to a curved path that would bring them to their destination, to which each of them climbed up the first set, jumped to the second, and repeated the movement to reach some Horny Toads. Starswirl took care of them by knocking them backwards with a burst of wind, which allowed him to smash through some crates that were behind his targets, before they found that the next area was a bit larger than the last one and it allowed them to spread out and collect anything that might interest one of them, where Ratchet found a glass case that was full of a blue energy substance, Nanotech, an element that would allow someone to heal if they were wounded. Basically if Starswirl were to be blasted by something in the chest, like with a rocket or a blast from a gun, using this element would allow him to mend his wounds and be returned to full health, or at least part way depending on how much damage he took, though it applied to all of them, even though it was also used in robotics, how he had no idea and would have to ask Autumn about, as she was already trying to find new ways to improve all sorts of gadgets and tools, even robotics if she was allowed to get that far. For now, however, none of them had been harmed by the Horny Toads and that meant none of them needed to worry about the crate of Nanotech, not that it stopped Autumn from snatching it with her magic, no doubt thinking if she studied it she might figure out a key to improving her next set of blueprints, as Ratchet knew that she wouldn't stop until someone figured it out, be it her or someone else who had more experience in robotics and Nanotech, and if they were in need of it, with no crates around, it would serve as emergency healing for one of them.

After thinking about that Ratchet found that the path forward was basically a tunnel that had been carved out of a tower that had fallen at some point in the past, which Brooke and the others hadn't fixed yet before there were more important things for them to worry about, hence why he and his siblings had stayed their hands and didn't fix it for them, especially since none of the parts were available in the colony, though as they started to walk down it they found a turquoise colored robot who seemed to be an upper body that connected to a white orb that seemed to be their feet.

"An Electroid? What's one of the Blarg's machines doing on Veldin?" Autumn inquired, naming the robot that was firing at some of the Horny Toads right now, with a small beam of electrical energy, which caused her to make a few notes about what she was seeing, as she might have a way to use it in the future, while allowing Ratchet and Starswirl to know what to call this robot and the others that were like it, though what happened next was that the Electroid turned and fired at the three of them, causing them to jump back a little, "Well, at least we know they're hostile to anyone who calls Veldin home, as annoying as that is."

"Let's take them out before they bring harm to the colonists, though we can warn Brooke once we visit the crash site and see what's left," Ratchet said, where he primed one of his bombs and knocked the Electroid that was in front of them into the ground, breaking it into pieces with a single strike, while Starswirl found another one standing a few steps to the left of where the first one stood, so he took it out in seconds as well, allowing them to walk along the edge of the peak that the path was connected to.

There was another type of crate that they had to keep their eyes on, dark brown containers with a red G on them, which meant they were Gadgetron ammunition crates, something they smashed since it allowed them to pick up more ammo for their Bomb Gloves, which they desperately needed since all three of them had been stuck at ten bombs before that ship came racing through the air and drew their attention, though once that was done Ratchet continued down the path as Starswirl and Autumn followed after him. After that they found three more Electroids that seemed to be guarding the way to the area that the crash site was in, all separated from each other from what they could see, so the siblings stopped for a few seconds and hurled a bomb at their targets, wiping all three of them out so they could move along the path and see what was so special about the crashed ship that would require the Blarg to send some forces after it. After that they found four more Electroids guarding the actual crash site, where it was easy for them to see that the ship had been totally ruined by crashing into the ground, though neither of the ships they had seen earlier seemed to be nearby, meaning they had either returned to whatever ship they had come from or were circling around to get a better look at this area for any other forces that might be coming to Veldin, though Ratchet and his siblings wasted no time in lashing out at the robots that were in front of them, who seemed eager to take them down. What surprised Autumn was just how weak the couple of Electroids were, as she expected something that the Blarg made to be more like a tank, as in taking more than one hit from those they happened to be fighting, though she wasn't about to complain as each of them stepped into the crash site and lashed out at the couple of Electroids for a few seconds, this time choosing to use their melee weapons and not use their bombs, where something else surprised them as a single swing was more than enough to smash the robots apart, leaving a pile of parts behind.

With that done, and the area was cleared of enemies for the most part, Ratchet and his siblings walked towards the crash site and studied what was left of the ship they had seen, where he was sure it wasn't enough to help them out, though as Starswirl and Autumn studied a few of the fragments, and were likely salvaging the area of materials, he found something of interest, a small silver robot that seemed to be condensed into a backpack form, like it could rest on one's back, and as he picked it up he found a small hexagon on it's back that was identical to what was on the back of his harness, and out of curiosity he carefully connected it to his back, finding he could carry it like that.

"There's a decent bit of salvage here," Autumn commented, where Ratchet could see that she and Starswirl were lifting a bunch of the material in this area with their magic, which he expected since it would be hard, if not impossible, for all of them to move everything without bothering to use the powers that his siblings could use, before they glanced at Ratchet for a few seconds and found that he had discovered something as well, "and it seems that you found something as well, though nothing like what I was expecting."

"Not sure what it is, but I think taking it with us is the correct path," Ratchet said, though as he said that he walked over to a small bit of wreckage, one that his siblings had decided to ignore for some odd reason, and picked it up, meaning they were taking everything with them and he was hoping that they might get something good out of this, like him hoping that the little robot had the device they needed to power his ship, before he beckoned for his siblings to follow as he started to head back to their shed.

"Sounds reasonable, since it might have the Robotic Ignition System we need for your ship," Starswirl added, voicing the thought that Ratchet had when he considered the small robot for a few seconds, though that was all he said for now as he and Autumn followed their brother as he headed back towards their home, which was rather easy since they had cleared all of the enemies out of the way and all of the crates had been smashed as well, meaning there was nothing to stop them from reaching their shed.

As their returned to their home, where Starswirl and Autumn placed the salvage down outside the building as Ratchet set the little robot down on a small ledge that rested near the ship, though before he got started on anything he noticed that a familiar figure, Brooke, was walking over to where he and his siblings were standing, where Autumn stepped forward and intercepted her as Ratchet got to work making sure everything on his ship was right and that the only thing missing was the system he hoped was inside the little robot. Autumn explained what happened to the Mayor, that a ship had been shot out of the sky and that the Blarg had attacked them, not to mention all of the Horny Toads that had been nearby, so Brooke had a good idea of what was going on and informed the three of them that she would be sending a message to their Investor, to warn him about the potential danger the colony was in if the Blarg were to return, hopefully to the point where Captain Qwark was made aware of it as well and dealt with whoever was behind this attack. With that done Brooke stared at their ship for a moment, understanding that the three of them wanted to explore the galaxy and find their place in it, since living in the colony didn't seem to be for all of them, to which she wished them luck, instead of trying to stop all of them like some of the other colonists would if they heard this bit of news, before she turned around and headed back to her office, to tell her fellow leaders the news about the attack and keep them away from Kyzil Plateau until she was sure that the siblings had departed from Veldin. After she left Ratchet took a moment and opened the engine compartment of his ship, where he studied some of the components and slipped his wrench into part of it so he could tighten something that he felt was a little loose, leaving Starswirl and Autumn to check everything that they collected, in case there was an item or two inside it that might help them with their endeavor, though after the crash Ratchet's wasn't betting on the two finding anything else besides scrap.

Starswirl, while they were working, found that the robot Ratchet had placed nearby started to stir, as it seemed to shake for a few seconds before he assumed it's eyes opened, followed by it unfolding from it's sides, revealing slots for them that disappeared when it was in standby mode, that had two fingers and a thumb, while at the same time it's legs emerged as well, making it look like it might be a small child of sorts as it climbed down to the area that Ratchet was standing in, even if he was standing on a crate while he worked, before it raised a finger to it's mouth.

"Interesting." the little robot said, speaking in a male voice, which causing Ratchet to pause for a moment as he glanced at the area behind him and found that the robot was awake all of a sudden, instead of stuck in standby mode, where he just finished tightening the bolt he was working on and turned towards the robot as he closed the hatch on the compartment, all while Starswirl and Autumn stopped what they were doing and approached their brother for a few moments, as they were curious about the little robot, "You appear to be quite handy with that wrench."

"You bet I am, since I built this ship on my own, and my siblings are just as skilled as I am," Ratchet replied, though while he was curious as to why the robot would make a comment like that, out of all the things he could talk about or make an observation on, he assumed that there was a reason behind why the robot talked about his weapon first, even though the robot glanced at Starswirl and Autumn for a few seconds, taking in their modified wrenches for a time, "So, tell us, why were you being chased by some of the Blarg's Electroids?"

"Currently I am searching for someone who can be of assistance in saving the galaxy," the robot answered, which caused all three of them to raise their eyebrows for a moment, as they weren't expecting him to actually have an answer that was of some interest to them, especially since none of them were aware of any dangers that might be bothering the rest of the planets in the Solana Galaxy, though then again Mayor Brooke didn't share that stuff with them since they were still far too young to worry about that sort of thing.

"Like Captain Qwark?" Autumn inquired, causing the little robot to glance at her for a few seconds as she beckoned to the poster that they had in the living area of their home, where he turned his eyes towards the poster for a few seconds as he thought about something, though not a few seconds later the robot nodded his head and confirmed that he was looking for someone like the famous hero that saved people and planets all the time, before she took a moment to consider what he had said so far, "Why would you need someone like him?"

Instead of responding the little robot opened a compartment on his chest, which looked like a grate of some kind, and the siblings watched as another bot, who was about the same size as the one in front of them, floated out and came to a stop near Ratchet, causing Autumn and Starswirl to walk over so they could see what was going on as they found that the bot in question looked like a humanoid with no lower body, so it floated nearby as they stared at it's blue eyes and bronze metal skin, before it's head opened and revealed a screen for them to watch. That allowed them to witness a broadcast of some kind from an alien who had a pale complexion, paler than most people to be exact, and wore a business suit, though they recognized him as a Blarg, which made sense given what they had seen earlier when the ship crashed into the outskirts of the colony, who started talking as soon as the video started, causing them to just listen to what he had to say, due to the fact that the little robot wanted help with it. The first thing they learned was that this was addressed to the planet known as Novalis, which was close to Veldin based on Autumn's studies of the galaxy map, and, more importantly, that the Blarg's planet had become too toxic and polluted for them to live on, before he revealed that he and his people were building a brand new planet for them to live on, using choice pieces and fragments from the existing planets that existed all over the Solana Galaxy, something that really drew their attention when they heard it. The Blarg, who identified himself at the start of the recording as Chairman Drek, informed the people of Novalis that a large portion of their planet would be extracted at some point, to be added to the 'super planet', and that with the fragment missing Novalis would spiral out of control for a time until it collided with a sun, exploding in a ball of gas, though he sounded indifferent to the fact that he was damning an entire planet to death for his own people.

As the Infobot closed, as that was what the other bronze robot was called, and the silver robot collected it Ratchet took a moment to think about the information that he and his siblings had just been given, as while it sounded like the people of Novalis were hosed, doomed to face Drek's invasion force, they now knew why the little robot was interested in finding out where Captain Qwark was positioned so he could be informed of this disaster and react accordingly, before he glanced at the ship he had built as an idea came to him.

"We'd love to help you, but we can't go anywhere with our ship, as we're missing a vital component," Ratchet said, though as he said that his siblings seemed ready for anything, since there was no telling if more enemies might show up while all of them were talking, and the little robot seemed to understand what he was saying, hence the reason he continued with the next part of the idea he had considered, "however, if we had that component, we would be packing our bags before heading out to explore the rest of the galaxy... in fact, we could stop by Novalis and gather more information for Captain Qwark, so he had a better idea as to what was going on."

"Would it help that I happen to be equipped with the latest in Robotic Ignition Systems, and that I can start any ship that I want to?" the little robot asked, which confirmed something that Ratchet and his siblings had considered on their walk back to their shed, that he must have had some sort of version of the component they needed to start the ship, though his statement was followed by Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn nodding their heads, showing him that it would help them out if they had access to the system that seemed to be built into his body, "Very well, if you take me to Novalis, so I can scout it out and search for more information, I will start up your ship so you three can explore more of the galaxy."

"Sounds like a deal to me. My name is Starswirl, this is Autumn Blaze and you are speaking to Ratchet," Starswirl said, as it appeared that they were going to be leaving soon and caused him to make sure everything they needed was ready so they could leave without being stopped, even though he found the two Blarg ships closing in and weaved his magic through the air for a moment, blasting them apart with bolts of lightning that shattered them into burning fragments, causing the little robot to pause for a moment, "So, what's your name?"

"My designation is XJ0461, serial number B5429671." the robot answered, where he paused for a moment as he noticed that the siblings froze for a few seconds, likely thinking about his response to the question and what it meant for them, though while they did that he considered what he had just seen and classified it under the unknown for now, something he would have to think about in due time.

"Yeah, that's not going to work in the long run. We'll have to give you a proper name," Ratchet said, as he was sure that if they were older they would be able to remember the string of letters and numbers that the robot had just given them, but as he considered that he also took into account what he had seen with the Blarg ships, meaning that it was only a matter of time until more showed up looking for the little robot, to which he beckoned to the others to join him as he opened the hatch of his ship and climbed into the pilot seat, "Come on, let's get going."

Starlight and Autumn nodded as they made sure they had some small packs for the journey, and that the shed was locked down so no one could mess with all of their belongings, before climbing into the back seats Ratchet had installed for them when he built this, causing the little robot to pause before jumping into the ship and took his seat to the right of the one that Ratchet was sitting in, causing them to lower and seal the hatch before he started the ship and they took off, starting a grand adventure to find Captain Qwark and see the rest of their large galaxy.

R/C: Kerwan

Thanks to the new ship that had been loaned to them, for a time anyway since Starswil was certain that the Chairman of Novalis would want it back when they found their own ship to take as their own, Ratchet, Clank, Autumn, and Starswirl were able to reach Kerwan with ease, where Ratchet found that he didn't have to worry about activating the landing gear himself, rather the ship had a system that did that for him and allowed them to reach the landing pad that was outside the main part of Metropolis that Al's Roboshack was located in.

"So, this is where Captain Qwark made that commercial," Ratchet commented, where he and Clank made sure that all of the systems for the ship were good to go before opening the hatch, allowing them to climb out and step down onto a rather nice bit grass that lead to a metallic walkway, one that lead right to a split path and a Gadgetron Vendor, who had another of Autumn's weapons in stock, a Blaster that loosed small bits of energy to take down foes, "Okay, which way do we go? If we go to the left it looks like we'll be dealing with a course of some kind, while to the right we have a path that seems to be just fine and might lead to Al's place."

"We should check out both places, just in case we find some gadgets to help us out," Autumn replied, as she had a feeling that if they were to tackle the course they might gain a new toy or some information that might be able to assist them in their question, something that caused Starswirl to nod his head for a moment, even though he had nothing to say this time and simply stared at the large city that the Infobot had brought them to, one that was full of buildings and vehicles, the latter containing citizens who were going about their days.

Ratchet, seeing that Starswirl didn't seem to have an opinion on the matter, decided to follow their sister's idea and turned towards the path on the left, something that brought them to what appeared to be an automaton that looked identical to Captain Qwark, only this was made out of metal and had a spring that replaced the Captain's lower legs, though as they approached the automaton Clank disconnected from Ratchet's back and stared at the area they were currently in.

Welcome to the Captain Qwark fitness course! the automaton stated, no doubt outfitted with a device that allowed it to know when people came here to access whatever was in this area, a fitness course apparently, though Clank frowned as he heard that, as he had been hoping to find the Captain and complete his mission, or at least part of it, and not a robot that looked like him, before it started to move its arms, If you're strong enough, fast enough, and clever enough to beat my fitness challenge, you will receive a reward from my head trainer! Simply make your way to the third island to complete the course. Good luck! Qwark enterprises is not responsible for sprains, broken bones, snapped tendons, bruised egos, or accidental death incurred while taking the challenge.

Ratchet and his siblings glanced at each other as Clank returned to his spot on Ratchet's back, though with that done they started to jump up the couple of stone platforms to reach the upper section of the island that they were on, though that allowed them to discover two new things, the first being two metallic vertical walls that they could jump off of and propel themselves higher, a Wall Jump that impressed his siblings when they saw it, while the second was a set of red crates that had an explosive label on them. Such a thing told them that if they whacked them or stuck them in some manner, like with a weapon or projectile, they would explode, so Starswirl decided to trigger all of the red crates from afar and save them some trouble in the future, finding another set of metallic walls that allowed them to reach the uppermost part of the first island, which had a zipline leading down to the start of the second island. With that information in hand the siblings used the handles of their melee weapons to grind down to where this zipline ended, allowing them to jump over to the main body of the second island and found that it was mostly a tower that was far higher than what the first island was like, and they found that a fair number of moving platforms that seemed to be obstacles for them to overcome, something that did excite them since new was always interesting. Of course the first thing they did was make sure that there were no enemies in the area, of which it seemed like there were none around where the start of the tower was, so Ratchet started first as Starswirl followed after him and Autumn brought up the rear of their group, each jumping on the platforms when they moved out of their hidden areas while making sure to keep some distance between them, before finding a set of walls that allowed them to reach an area with another set, the second reaching the top.

At the top of the tower they found another zipline that lead down to the third and final island, where they found that it did have another zipline leading back to the first island, though as they headed down the new zipline the siblings found a pair of spherical objects that would bring someone to the start of Qwark's course, one small and green with one that was more like a pair and was yellow colored, before they landed in front of a large feminine robot who looked like she was currently in the middle of exercising, only she stopped as she focused on that.

"Listen up, you lardballs! That was the most pathetic display I have ever seen on that obstacle course!" the robot declared, making sure to point at the course they had just cleared, to make them realize why she was so annoyed with them and not just assume what she was talking about, though they found that she was wearing a black shirt and blue pants, though as she said that the siblings just stood there as Clank touched the ground, "You, Lombax, what sort of excuse do you have for not using your feline grace? And you, unicorns, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"To be fair, I have no idea what sort of training a Lombax goes through," Ratchet replied, though he had thought they had done a good job tackling the rather simple course, making him wonder where the true course Captain Qwark used might be located, since this certainly wasn't it, though he could also understand the robot's desire to make sure those who ran her course did their best to overcome her obstacles, something she seemed to take pride in, sort of like how he had taken pride in the ship he had made and whatever other gadgets he had worked on.

"And we could have used our magic, but that would have been cheating." Starswirl stated, because he could have used his power to bypass the obstacles by teleporting them over to this island, which would have really annoyed the robot that was in front of them and he felt that such a thing was a bad idea, especially if their thought about her having some gadget for their adventure was true, something that caused the robot to pause for a moment as she listened to them, meaning she might have been expecting them to make some excuses on the matter.

"Maybe I misjudged you three... I am Helga, and I have something from Captain Qwark," the robot said, her tone revealing that she might not be happy about something she had been told to do, where she pulled out three objects that looked like attachments for their gloves, with a device that looked like it fired a grapple hook, though she sighed for a moment as she gazed at Starswirl and Autumn, no doubt thinking about what had been said, "apparently he was impressed by what you three did, so he said to give you these Swingshots, which will aid you in swaying to and fro like little insects... normally, for those who disgrace my course, I would force you to pay or drill until I was sure you were ready to receive them, but, due to your honesty, I will look the other way this time... but if I catch you disgracing my courses again, I will make you pay in Bolts and in sweat!"

"I heard about these, but didn't realize that they were in production," Autumn commented, where she took hers and just slipped it onto her right wrist, where it would fold into itself and hide when not in use and if someone needed it for one of the targets they were connected to it would come out when necessary, though she had a smile on her face as she studied it for a time, no doubt already coming up with new ideas on how to improve it, but that was when she pointed it right at the green target and fired the hook at it.

Ratchet and Starswirl found that Autumn went flying not a few seconds later, as the hook connected to the target and she was dragged through the air, allowing her to swing from their platform to the next and she found that she could cut the connection with ease, allowing her to progress towards the zipline as her siblings followed after her, though Helga took a moment to nod her head before using a taxi to depart for another part of the city, even though they suspected that they would see her again. A few moments later they reached the first island and retraced their steps back to the start of this part of the city, where they found a tall red skinned alien who seemed to be a commander, a Blarg Commander, while he had a Robomutt with him, a robotic mutt who attacked anything the owner was fighting, meaning Drek's forces had to be interested in stealing something from this planet. Sure enough he and his forces, consisting of a number of Blarg that just so happened to attacking the city, something they had missed when they first arrived and had walked down the path that allowed them to see the fitness course, meaning it must have happened after they started Helga's course, but that didn't stop Ratchet or his siblings from attacking their enemies like they had done back on Novalis, swinging their wrenches at their enemies while using weapons for those who were further away. Ratchet found that the Blaster was a nice addition to what they had purchased so far, as it allowed one to blast a foe from afar without having to worry about getting too close to them, especially since it allowed them to take down the pack of Robomutts that were nearby, before they cleared out the enemies that were in front of a bridge and continued to progress towards where they assumed Al's shop was located, as there was a building with a large icon standing on top of it, which had to be their destination.

As they walked across the bridge they found a helicopter moving in and that it fired at them, where Autumn weaved some of her power for a few seconds and blasted the Blarg vessel with a fireball, sending it over the edge and removing it from their path, before finding a pair of escalators leading down to another level for them to explore, one that was connected to yet another bridge and happened to lead right to the building they had been looking for, even though they had to take out a few more Robomutts and a Blarg before reaching their destination.

"Hey, you're that robot guy, right? Al, was it?" Ratchet asked, speaking to the yellowish colored person that was standing on the other side of the counter that he and his siblings approached, all while Clank hopped down to see who they were going to be talking to, while noting the figure was wearing a white lab coat over a green shirt with the name of his shop on it, but as he did that Autumn glanced around, likely looking for inspiration.

"No, actually I build robots. I myself am not a robot guy per se." the figure, Al, replied, where he let out a chuckle after he said that, as if finding something funny about his comment, before he focused on the fact that he had customers and that they might be buying a few items from him, even if one of them seemed to be focused on something else right now, which meant leaving the conversation to Ratchet and Starswirl, possibly Clank as well, "So, now that we've cleared that up, what can I do for the four of you?"

"Well, we saw your infobot announcement, the one with Captain Qwark." Clank explained, cutting right to the heart of the reason they were here, something that caused Al to raise an eyebrow for a moment as he recalled the commercial that he was talking about, before Clank gestured to himself and his companions, "We're trying to find Captain Qwark and thought you could help us."

"Your logic is commendable, however, I haven't seen Captain Qwark since we shot that commercial." Al stated, which was a piece of information they weren't expecting to hear, as they had been hoping to learn where Qwark might be heading next or where they might be able to wait for him so they could take a few days to see the galaxy before heading there, before he finally noticed who was standing in his shop, "Say, you wouldn't happen to be Autumn Blaze, would you? The one who has been making most of Gadgetron's weapons and is rumored to be the one who make the RYNO?"

"I am her, but I didn't make the RYNO... I build the blueprints, before the project was cancelled," Autumn replied, though as she said that, and caused her siblings and Clank to think about something for a few seconds, she thought about what she had said and the fact that the weapon that had been her ultimate creation, or at least for the time being, something that annoyed her to no end since she had ideas on how to improve it, though that was when she found a book being slid over the top of the counter, an autograph book, showing her what Al wanted.

Autumn figured that it wouldn't hurt to sign it, since it seemed like Al was a fan and had no idea what he wanted to say to someone like her, though she did so by using her telekinesis to lift the pen for a few second before signing the area that Al wanted it to be placed in, something that caused him to smile for a time as he looked at it, but as he did that Clank turned to speak with Ratchet about leaving, which drew Al's attention to him.

"I haven't seen a robot with your model before," Al commented, which was a surprise to Ratchet, since he assumed that whatever had made Clank had already made hundreds of copies of him, though with that statement they learned some new information, that there was a chance that Clank might be more unique than they originally thought, all while Al took a moment to study their companion with his goggles, "do you run on standard XP-18 sisterboards?"

"Version 7.66." Clank answered, though while they had planned on coming here to talk with Al, to find Qwark, neither he or his companions had been expecting to find someone interested in the specifics that went into his make, but this did make him interested in what the man might say to his response, since there might be a chance that Al might be of assistance to all of them and their quest to find Captain Qwark.

As it turned out Al was able to help them, because Clank was a Version 7.66 he was eligible for an upgrade that happened to be a Helipack upgrade, something that would end up giving their companion propellers that would replace his hands as Ratchet performed a number of movements, which he would have to be told about ahead of time so he would know what to do in any given situation, but in the end Clank was quite pleased, Autumn and Starswirl learned a bit more about their new friend, and Al was happy to be of assistance, so much so that he waved the fee for them. Of course Clank didn't lose his original arms, as all he had to do was pull his hands in and a few seconds later they were back to normal, meaning he could react according to the situation that Ratchet happened to be in, though with that done Al opened the other door to his shop and allowed them to continue deeper into Metropolis, which was when the siblings found some large crates that were too tall for anyone to use their double jump ability on. Ratchet, having an idea, crouched for a moment and then leapt up while using Clank's new propellers, something that allowed him to reach the top of the first boxes before he did it again to reach the top of this area, though of course Starswirl and Autumn just walked up some magical steps to reach the area he and Clank were in, but he said nothing as he threw himself over the edge in front of them and used the Helipack to reach the area in front of a lift, causing him to smile for a moment as he thought of the uses this had. Starswirl used his magic to form a small walkway for him and Autumn to use before they accessed the lift, which brought them to the top of a small tower before Ratchet glided down to an area that had a few Blarg in it, even if his siblings teleported down to the area he landed in, since they didn't have someone like Clank to aid them, though as soon as they were together again all three of them opened fire on their enemies so they could figure out what sort of information they would find in this part of the city.

What they discovered was that the first group of Blarg were guarding a lift that brought them up to a bridge, one that did have a pair of escalators for Ratchet and his siblings to use, which brought them to what appeared to be a station for one of the grav-trains, trains that used specialized rails to move from place to place, though they did blast and smash their way through several more Blarg and their Robomutts, before finding that there was a grav-train resting nearby and that it did have an Infobot on it. As such they found their way onto the train, even if it happened to be at the end, and when they did that the train actually started moving towards the next station that was on the route it was following right now, before all of them found a few Blarg guarding the path that would bring them to the Infobot, to which Ratchet and his siblings took the fight to their enemies and started to clear out the area, working their way over to the front of the ship. When the last of the Blarg fell, not a few minutes after they started fighting them, Ratchet found that the train came to a stop in an area that looked like it was right above where he parked their new ship earlier, which was when he and his siblings found that the Infobot started to move out of the area it had been in, though Starswirl stopped it by summoning a sphere of magic around it. With that done the three of them regrouped near where the little robot was and Clank joined them in watching what sort of information it held, where it took them no time to see that Chairman Drek happened to be talking to a robot who looked like he was a commander or leader of some kind, where they were discussing the harvest of Eudora, as they were cutting down trees and were likely clearing out an area to be extracted at a later date, all while learning that the new robot was a Lieutenant.

"Chairman Drek is destroying another planet, but his help seems to be lacking," Autumn commented, as based on what the Infobot had recorded it sounded like the Lieutenant was behind schedule and might be that way for some time, so if he maintained the course he was using, and stayed on Eudora for a time, they would have enough time to check out what had happened to Skid and his agent before heading to the new planet that was under attack.

"Yeah, which means we have enough time to check Aridia before heading to Eudora," Ratchet said, because while he knew that Clank wanted to head over to the new planet, to confront the Lieutenant and get some information from him, he had a feeling that heading to the planet Skid crashed on would be best for them, since there was no telling what they might discover while they were looking for the pro hoverboarder and his agent, "so let's go help Skid, get some new items that will help us out, and then we can tackle the Lieutenant."

Clank, despite his desire to face off against Drek's forces, found himself agreeing with Ratchet and his siblings, to which all of them used a nearby lift to head back down to where they found the Gadgetron Vendor earlier, before returning to their ship once more, where they climbed inside it and got comfortable as Ratchet set their course for Aridia, as it was time to help Skid and see what sort of gadgets were waiting for them, before heading to Eudora to confront the Lieutenant.

R/C: Nebula G34

As Ratchet flew towards Nebula G34, which was close to where Eudora was located, he made a stop on Kerwan and found that it was nighttime, though when Clank spoke up to complain about them wasting time, since he wanted to stop Drek at all costs, he shook his head and flipped a few controls, mostly to make sure none of them cooked while they rested, where he informed Clank that they had been through a lot the last couple of days and had only rested a tiny bit during the time they spent traveling from planet to planet, as it had been a few days since leaving their home. He also mentioned that they had eaten everything that had been placed in the ship by the Novalis Chairman, to make sure they had some supplies, so he and his siblings needed some food before they did anything else, hence why he, Starswirl, and Autumn were putting in an order to one of the local food joints, a delivery that would be brought to them once it was ready, so this would allow all of them to have some food and some rest before they did anything else, and Ratchet made sure to include something for Clank, since robots did need their own fuel as well. Clank, despite his desire to continue with their mission, realized that there were limits to what Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn could do at the moment, since he was a robot and they weren't, eventually nodded his head and entered what could be his own sleep cycle for a time, as Ratchet would wake him up once he and his siblings were ready to depart for Nebula G34 and the information it contained, or rather when the food arrived so he could get some additional energy as well. With that done Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn waited for a time, allowing their food to be delivered to their location and transferred the Bolts needed to pay for what all of them ordered not that long ago, before he activated Clank and they dug into their meal, though once everyone was done eating they spread out and got some well deserved rest, so they could be well rested for whatever was waiting for them in the station that the new Infobot had revealed to them.

Sometime later, when it was closer to morning and everyone had a fair number of hours to rest, Ratchet tapped some of the controls as Clank did his part to get things started, allowing them to depart from Kerwan and head for Nebula G34 at long last, though upon their arrival they discovered that the Blarg research station was actually connected to several large asteroids by tubes and other components, where Clank pointed out the landing zone and Ratchet flew inside the station, making sure to wait for the door to close before powering down the ship.

"It would seem that we have two paths to pick from, one that leads outside and one that cuts through the station, while the latter might activate the shuttle over there," Clank commented, taking a look at the area they were in right now while Ratchet took a moment to stare out though the large glass window that was in front of them, giving them a good view of the station, all while Autumn chuckled for a moment as she purchased a new weapon from the Vendor, one that looked like a modified microphone of some kind, "Autumn, what is that?"

"A joke weapon I created, the Taunter, which is designed to pull enemies closer to you and make them activate traps, all to help clear areas out," Autumn said, though she really hadn't expected Gadgetron to produce the weapon in the first place, but since it required no ammunition to use, making it cost far less than the other weapons she had created, she had an idea as to why her superiors would have decided to create it for her and whoever else purchased the various weapons she had created so far.

"Anyway, the door leading outside is locked," Ratchet added, where he walked over to the Invinco-lock and pulled out the Trespasser again, something that he slipped into the lock and fiddled with it for a few seconds, though once he was done the door in front of them opened and revealed a small passage that lead to another door, one that would head outside, into an area that neither he or his siblings could walk in since they didn't have any masks or anything that would allow them to survive in space, "Okay Clank, this is all yours."

Clank wasted no time in walking through the opening as the door closed behind him, an airlock of sorts Ratchet guessed, though while their companion was figuring out what might be outside the ship he and his siblings sat around the door for a time, mostly since they didn't want to head deeper into the station without Clank, even if they could take down anything and everything that was thrown at them, given the magical powers that Starswirl and Autumn possessed and their ever growing arsenal of weaponry. Based on what he was seeing Autumn had pulled out the Suck Cannon and was studying it so she could improve upon the initial design, which she seemed to be disappointed with, and deliver a new product to her superiors, even though they probably had a backlog of weapons and gadgets coming from her at this point, given that she had a large amount of ideas and did her best to write all of them down for the future, when the technology caught up with her ideas, as he knew there was a whip of some kind and a lava gun she wanted to make. Starswirl, on the other hand, did what he usually did whenever they were waiting for something to happen, he opened the tome he was working on so he could learn more about magic, since there was no telling what they might face in the future and he wanted to be ready for the planets that would be coming up after this, causing Ratchet to mentally chuckle, as his brother loved to gather all sorts of knowledge, not just the magical kind, and he usually lost himself until someone brought him back. Ratchet, for the most part, simply rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes, figuring that he should simply sit and rest as Clank worked outside the station, though the sound of the door opening a few minutes later informed him that Clank had returned to their location and he opened his eyes accordingly, finding that his siblings were ready to see what their little friend had found outside the Blarg station.

"I am back," Clank stated, walking through the doorway not a few seconds later and came to a stop when he found Ratchet and his siblings staring at him, where he opened his compartment for a moment before pulling something out, a gadget that looked like a water bottle of some kind, something that caused Ratchet to raise his eyebrow for a second as Starswirl and Autumn stared at it, "and I found this while I was outside."

"Thanks... um, what it is?" Ratchet asked, because while he had a good idea as to what each gadget was, since Autumn had made most of them and told him whenever she was making something, there were all sorts of items that he didn't know about and would have to rely on her knowledge to figure out what a new item might be, hence why he was glancing from Clank to Autumn as he waited for one of them to tell him what was going on.

"A Hydrodisplacer, which is a gadget capable of holding and carrying fifty thousand liters of water thanks to the quantum compression technology installed inside it," Autumn explained, where she studied the device for a few seconds and pulled up some schematics on it, showing Ratchet that it was one of the Gadgetron gadgets and that there was a chance that his sister had made it, before she decided to use an easier explanation for them, "basically, it can hold a lot of water and carry it so we can move it to a new location, like draining a pool or container of water to fill up an area to reach another section of whatever planet we're visiting... I doubt we're going to find a socket for it on the station, but it will be useful in the next few worlds, or at least I hope so."

Ratchet nodded his head in understanding, as the simplified explanation of the gadget's abilities allowed him to figure out what Autumn meant, before stashing the gadget away as they headed for one of the other path Clank had spotted, only to find that there was an airlock that had a shuttle attached to it, one that the controls seemed to indicate would bring them to a warship that happened to be sitting in orbit nearby. Instead of wasting time thinking about it Starswirl informed both of his siblings of his intentions, that he was going to use the small vessel to travel to the warship and see what might be on it, since it would be nice to find an Infobot for another world, and while he did that Ratchet and Autumn could tackle what was left of the station, even though they had to smash a small glowing orb that powered the laser barrier, so with the item destroyed Clank found the siblings moving forward once more. From the opening they made their way down a passage that had a few vents that were spewing poisonous gas into the tunnel, moving like each of them were targeting whoever walked down this area, so Ratchet and Autumn jumped over both bursts of gas before opening the door into another part of the tunnel, one that had some odd toad-like creatures hanging on the ceiling and coming from some of the vents that had no gas coming from them. The green skinned Swarmers, as Autumn called them, were incredibly easy to take down, as in a single swing of their melee weapons was enough to wipe them out and if using a wide swing they could eliminate a good number of them in the process, before finding a small chamber with one of the Blarg, wearing a spacesuit, who took one look at Ratchet and Autumn before loosing a burst of fire at the ground, using a weapon that had been designed by the scientists in this place, though the pair easily took him down before moving forward.

As Ratchet smashed two more orbs Clank found that Autumn's magic was washing over the chamber and it tugged on all sorts of items, such as the weapons and attire of the Blarg they had taken down, the orbs before Ratchet smashed them, and whatever else she was interested in, where he had to assume she was scanning them for later, so she could make new weapons and gadgets for them and whoever else used Gadgetron merchandise.

There were more Swarmers in the next passage and one of the Blarg happened to be there as well, not that Ratchet and Autumn cared all that much and took him down with the other enemies, though after that Ratchet found another lock that needed the Trespasser and he unlocked the door in a matter of seconds so they could see what was inside, even if it was a lot of crates that allowed them to gain more Bolts for later, even if the pair also smashed some Swarmers before they had a chance to jump out at him or his sister. With that done they entered the chamber that was to the left of the door, which was a decent sized area that had a few poison vents that needed to be avoided, though the pair were able to avoid them and use their Swingshots to move even deeper into the station, but as Ratchet dealt with a Blarg soldier that was blocking the way forward Autumn turned and stared at the missile they had passed by, a large thing that filled the whole asteroid she and Ratchet had just passed through. One of the spells she had learned and mastered over the years was Starswirl's duplication spell, which he had used to make two copies of Ratchet's wrench, though she didn't think that using it on the missile was a smart idea, so she moved onto the next best thing and used another spell, one that she had asked about and learned from her brother in the past, where she weaved her magic and dismantled the missile as best as she could, as in without causing something to blow up on them. With the way clear Ratchet and Autumn marched through the next tunnel and came to a chamber that had two odd shaped aliens resting in cages, a creature that was four legged, hardened hides, sharp talons for feet, and heads that looked like they could snap the Blarg in half, so what the siblings did was smash the pair of power orbs that were in the chamber and then moved out of the way as the Snappers burst out of their cages and started to advance on some Blarg soldiers that were coming from the next tunnel.

Basically, instead of fighting the Snappers themselves, they were allowing them to take down the Blarg and the Swarmers that were in their way, so Ratchet and Autumn could conserve ammunition in case there was something stronger deeper in the station, before it brought them to an area they had to jump up to move further and it meant taking down the now exhausted Snappers, even though the chamber it brought them to had a number of Snappers and Swarmers standing all over the area. This time around Autumn had a good idea as she pulled out the Taunter and set up a magical shield around her as she activated the device, drawing the attention of the enemies that were inside this chamber and watched as they started to move in on her location in a matter of seconds, allowing Ratchet to slip by her before loosing a few bombs that tore all of their foes apart, a rather effective method in Clanks eyes since it played to their strengths when Starswirl wasn't in the area with them. With that done they smashed a couple of crates that were around this chamber, collecting Bolts as they found ammunition crates and gathered more resources for their weapons, before breaking some power orbs to head into the next chamber, which had a few more electrical fences for them to get around, if they wanted to find out what else was in this station, but Autumn saved them some ammunition by using the Taunter to cause the Snappers to attack the fences in front of them and caused each of her targets to fall off the edge so they could easily make their way through his particular area. That brought them to a massive chamber that just so happened to have a massive foe, a Queen Snapper, waiting for them or for intruders, though the moment it saw them it attacked them without remorse or hesitation, causing the pair to split up and open fire on the Queen as they attempted to outmaneuver the creature, who seemed to be much tougher than those they had faced previously and had a longer reach due to her size, so they had to be careful while also making sure to use whatever openings they could find to deal damage to their foe.

The part that made the fight hard was when the Queen called in the last of the Swarmers and Snappers to fight them, as it forced them to divide their attention as well, but in the end they toppled their foe and opened the door to the left of the one they used to enter this chamber, finding a small chamber that had a small scientist, which might be one from the bot that brought them here, being attacked by a pair of Swarmers, who Ratchet took down with ease.

"Whew, I thought I was a goner this time... some nano-wit in genetics must have left the cages open again." the scientist commented, though his tone suggested that he was pleased with them arriving to save him from the pair of Swarmers he had been hiding from, by standing on a stool that put him above his enemies, before he sighed as he climbed down to the floor, so he could relax and get over what had happened to him, "Honestly, a gadget engineer deserves a bit more respect if you ask me!"

"It doesn't seem like the Blarg treat their scientists very well, if you ask me," Autumn said, because right now it looked like Drek might have gotten everything he wanted out of his research station and gave the order to have the defenses lowered at some point, to cause all of the experiments to break free and attack the scientists and gadget engineers that were here, especially since some soldiers had been left behind for some reason, "Maybe you would be better off quitting this job, as it is dangerous for your health, and go work somewhere else, maybe Gadgetron or a company that would actually do good things with what you make?"

"You... you're Autumn Blaze, aren't you?" the scientist asked, recognizing Autumn like Al had done when they found him in Metropolis, meaning she was more well known than what she and her siblings originally thought she was, though when she nodded her head he pulled out a pair of boots that looked rather interesting, as they were red colored and seemed to be made out of metal, "D... Do you think you can look over these Grindboots that I developed? I was thinking about leaving my current employment and seeking a job working for Gadgetron, to make gadgets for them and the heroes who ended up using them, and was hoping to offer these to them as a starting point."

"Understandable. Here, sign this," Autumn replied, as she already liked the look of the Grindboots and could see that her brother was wondering if he could get his hands on them at some point, hence why she produced her Gadgetron uplink for a moment and made sure to reveal the form that would include the engineer's name and a few pieces of information he needed to provide, like what she, Ratchet, and Starswirl had done when she first joined up as a weapon and gadget creator, where the engineer eagerly looked it over and signed it, "and I'll have some of my product testers go over them, before we write up a review and send it along to Gadgetron... Mr. Lumos is always looking for new employees, be they the inventor type or tester type, so he might even hire you after reading the review."

The engineer, so named Fred according to the form he signed, something that also gave her the blueprints for the boots so it could be included with the review, bounced for joy for a few seconds after hearing that, though once he was done he handed Ratchet the Grindboots before walking into the nearby shuttle and headed for what Autumn assumed had to be the docking area for employees, meaning he was leaving before the Blarg realized that the small brown haired engineer had changed companies. Once he was gone Ratchet slipped on both of the Grindboots and found that they fit him rather well, better than what he was assuming and it made him guess that those these had been made for were the same shoe size that he was, or they adapted to the size of whoever happened to be wearing them, making Autumn wonder if they might work for her hooves or Starswirl's, before they turned towards the glass tube that lead back to where their ship was resting and Ratchet smiled. Autumn found that he was focused on a rail that seemed to be in the middle of the entire tube and seemed to be the only thing someone could stand on, to which Ratchet made sure the rest of this room was cleared of crates before jumping onto the rail, where they found that he was able to grind on the rail, hence why Fred called them Grindboots, though since there was only one pair of them Autumn was forced to surround herself with her magic and just float down the tube as she followed her brother, taking note of what he was able to do with the boots. While they did that they heard an explosion and found that the warship that was resting near the station had blown up rather suddenly, as if Starswirl had struck something accidentally, though before either of them had a chance to worry about their brother they found that he was standing near their ship and seemed to be enjoying the fireworks that came from the warship being torn apart by whatever explosives or magic he had left aboard it.

"It seems like you were successful," Starswirl commented, seeing the new boots that Ratchet was wearing, while noting the fact that being away from Autumn seemed to have caused her to use a few new spells, meaning they had been successful in searching the rest of the station for clues and objects that might be able to help them in the future, before he held out what he discovered aboard the now destroyed warship, "I found this on the warship, though claiming it activated the self destruct sequence... a clever trap that would have worked if I hadn't teleported back to the shuttle as soon as I claimed the Infobot... though I was waiting for you to arrive before I watched it."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow for a moment as Starswirl revealed what the Infobot had to say, where they watched as one of the reporters for Blackwater City, located on Rilgar, was talking about the Intergalactic Hoverboard Championship that was going to be held in a few days, and would likely be ending when they arrived on the planet, that Captain Qwark would be attending as the person who gave out the prize to the winner, something that immediately caused them to rush over to their ship, quickly take their seats, and depart from Drek's research station as they headed for Rilgar, as they might be able to get some headway in Clank's mission at long last.

R/C: Rilgar

It took them some time to get to planet Rilgar, not that they were surprised by this point since their ship seemed to be one of the more slower ones, though when they reached their destination Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn quickly discovered that Blackwater City was a massive place that was full of buildings, plus a sewer system that seemed to be infected with Amoeboids, green slime creatures that were hostile towards everything and everyone, so they had an idea of what to expect during their time in the city, in addition to the locals that might not like them either. Unfortunately Ratchet found that they had to land some distance from the city, on some rocks he assumed were the outskirts, though there were some platforms leading right in the direction of their true destination, and there happened to be a landing pad for him to use, so he targeted that area and let the ship touch down in no time, causing him and his siblings to jump out before Clank joined them. This was a stroke of good luck for them, as they had been chasing both Captain Qwark and Chairman Drek since they saw the message that told them about the attack on Novalis, but this was the first time they had a true idea as to where either person might be and it just so happened to be Qwark, the one Clank happened to be looking for, so if they could find him they would be one step closer to ending his mission and focusing on their adventure. While he thought about that Autumn found another weapon in the Vendor for them to claim, another glove weapon known as the Mine Glove, designed to be used in combination with the Taunter or with all sorts of curves to lay traps for enemies, though she claimed it since there might be a time where such a weapon might be needed, but once that was done they stared at the city and knew that it would be an interesting place to explore, once they were done with their mission.

"Okay, let's get in there so we can win the Hoverboard Championship and speak with Captain Qwark," Ratchet said, as while he really wanted to be more casual while he and his siblings were here, since this city was supposed to be the life of the party, especially since Skid was rumored to have been born in this place or called it home in his later years, he knew that right now they needed to focus on the mission and nothing else.

"With any luck he won't be called off planet before we get up there," Autumn added, though she moved over a very short walkway and a floating metallic boat before jumping up onto a raise rocky area that had a structure on it, where Ratchet and Starswirl joined her as she activated the button on the ground and opened the door that was in front of them, which revealed that some of the locals were wearing suits that likely helped with fighting the Amoeboids and a tank that seemed out of place.

"And if not, we'll likely find an Infobot telling us where he went," Starswirl finished, where he loosed a bit of magic that was in the shape of a ball of energy and let it slam into the tank, blowing it apart since it turned it's turret towards them the moment the door was opened, while Ratchet knocked down the exterminator that got in their way, something that was followed by Autumn stealing the armor for a moment as she used her magic to inspect it and carefully break it apart for a few seconds, "Got something on your mind?"

"I want to see if I can issue an update to the helmets that these guys are using." Autumn replied, taking a moment to break the helmet apart with her magic, something that never got old and was incredibly helpful in some instances, before using a bit more to push some pieces into place and move others out of the way, something that was followed by her snapping it all back together without leaving anything behind, to which she tapped into the controls of the helmet and sent out what she hoped was the update she had mentioned.

Ratchet hoped that Autumn's tinkering worked like a charm, since it meant they would have less enemies to worry about and could get through the city a lot quicker, though he knew that time would tell as he focused on what they had to do to get to the outermost section of Blackwater City, where they quickly discovered that they had to glide over to the next boat before repeating the movement to reach the next building, one that had a button to open the door. On the other side of the door they found a number of exterminators fighting a pair of Amoeboids, which happened to give Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn some information on their enemies, as the slime creatures came in three sizes, a small one that was just as tall as Clank, a tall one that was twice as tall as the small ones, and a large one that was nearly as tall as the exterminators, where the large ones could split into two medium foes and the mediums did the same to make smaller ones. That meant they were going to be far more annoying than all of the other enemies they had faced so far, since killing a big one made it turn into smaller ones, though the good thing was that none of the exterminators seemed interested in them, though that did open the way for the siblings to move in and find openings to hit all of the Amoeboids, allowing their new friends to clear this area and opened the way for them to move forward. While they did that one of the exterminators mentioned the new software update that really cleared things up and meant that Autumn's tampering had worked, though it also meant that the various exterminators wouldn't harm the citizens of Blackwater City and would focus on clearing out the terrible Amoeboids, before trying to figure out where all of them had come from, as someone must have made them and it meant someone might be attempting to bring the city down, even if it would fail in due time.

On the other side of the building they found an opening that held a button, one that raised a bridge of sorts for them to walk on and happened to bring them right over to where a large group of exterminators were resting, though it appeared that they were waiting for the elevator and took it when it arrived, a small one that could only take three to five at a time, though one of them mentioned that they weren't heading into the city, as there were too many of them inside Blackwater City, rather they were heading down into the sewers with a special access code.

Once more Ratchet found that Autumn's inventions and updates seemed to work wonders for them, as making sure the exterminators could differentiate from innocents and enemies, so they didn't attack him and his siblings while they stood there, waiting for their turn with the elevator, though while they stood there she messed with some blueprints again, as messing with the armor likely gave her some ideas for the future, no doubt to help keep them safe if there was anything after Drek's downfall. After a few minutes the exterminators were gone and had made sure that the elevator had been set back to heading into the city, allowing Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn to head up into the outermost section of the city so they could deal with some of the remaining enemies, where they joined the exterminators in breaking down and taking out all of the Amoeboids that were in the area, earning some nods from their new allies before they continued to hunt for any additional slime creatures. Of course the siblings made sure to check the area and collect any Bolts that were on the ground, left from the destruction of the Amoeboids, before finding a taxi that took them to the downtown section of Skid's city, where they joined all of the exterminators in clearing out the force of Amoeboids that were assaulting the area, while Ratchet found that the nearby tank ignored them and focused on the enemies the others happened to be fighting at the moment, which he was happy to see since it meant they didn't have to worry about it turning on them. With the area now cleared of enemies the exterminators headed over towards an opening that likely lead into a section of the massive sewer system that existed below the city, showing that they were totally planning a massive invasion on the sewer system so they could clear out the Amoeboids and protect the citizens of the city from the danger they were in, even though everyone seemed to be in their houses right now.

Before following them down into the sewers, to see if they needed assistance, Ratchet spotted someone off to their right who was the same species as Skid and his agent, so a Rilgarian, who appeared to be wearing a red visor over his eyes, with a dark gray shirt, black pants with a black trench coat, a yellow belt, and a black strap going from his left shoulder over to the right side of his waist, though he seemed rather shady looking as he glanced around, like he was worried that some officers might be coming to get him, before glancing at them.

"RYNO for your robot... trade ya." the shady individual said, where he glanced at Clank for a moment before speaking his mind, though while Ratchet knew that Clank was a rare robot he wasn't about to trade in their friend, as he considered the little robot more than just their Robotic Ignition System at this point, but before he could say anything Autumn stepped up and asked to see the weapon, just to verify that it existed, causing the Rilgarian to pull out a square shaped nine barreled rocket launcher that looked like it could really do some damage, which was when Autumn snapped her magic into the area around him and chained him to the ground while catching the weapon.

"You, sir, are under arrest for stealing and attempting to sell a RYNO on the black market," Autumn stated, as this was the weapon she had created the blueprints for, which Gadgetron decided not to make since there were flaws in the design, all of which Autumn had found and fixed in her copy of the schematic, and while they were at Drek's research station Fred had, unknowingly or knowingly, handed over everything the Blarg had on the weapon, as an attachment for the boots that Ratchet was wearing, meaning the Blarg had created a Gadgetron weapon and they were lucky to have taken it before it could be sold to someone else, "you'll be spilling your guts to the officials in no time, so expect a lengthy prison sentence for trying to do this."

The Shady Salesman, as Ratchet decided to call him, said nothing as he admitted defeat and remained there, allowing the siblings to wait in the area as Autumn made her modifications to the powerful weapon, even if she didn't intend on firing it at all and was mostly making it ready in case one of them needed to wield it at some point in the future, before finding the authorities were quick to arrive and accepted the criminal they had just caught, and while that happened Autumn made sure to send Wendell Lumos, the boss of Gadgetron, an update on the RYNO while making sure he filed away the updated plans for the weapon. She was just covering her bases by making sure he was aware of the fact that they had claimed the weapon, even if she wasn't planning on using it, save for only the most dire of situations anyway, and once she was done they headed through the opening that the exterminators had gone through and found that all sorts of slime rested on the walls, meaning the Amoeboids had been slain by those that were hunting them, even though it looked like the rest of the exterminators were moving deeper into the sewers to make sure no nests were forming. The elevator they found brought the siblings up into an area that had a number of electrical fences blocking the way forward, though Ratchet discovered a fair number of exterminators were trapped up here as well and there were a few Amoeboids scattered around as well, to which he and Autumn moved forward, pressing the buttons that happened to be on the ground to power down the fence in front of them at the time, while Starswirl teleported above them and glanced down at the path they were forming, that way he could press some of the untouched buttons to free the rest of the exterminators. Starswirl also had to admit what he knew Ratchet had admitted earlier, Autumn's ability to rapidly study items and make corrections, such as figuring out the error in the exterminator suit and sending an update to fix it, made things much more simple for them, in fact he knew that some of those they had passed by were using Pyrociters, showing them to be fans of Autumn's work, and it only made him wonder what the future held for his sister and her career.

After making their way through all of the electrical fences, and freeing the exterminators so they could terminate the rest of the Amoeboids in the area, Ratchet and his siblings passed by two more tanks, which seemed to be getting ready to join what was happening in the sewers, before using an elevator to reach an area that seemed to be where one signed up for the Hoverboard Championship, along with a slim green skinned Rilgarian, a female one to be exact who happened to be wearing a purple suit, standing under a floating display for the races.

"This must be where we sign up for the championship." Starswirl commented, as some of the area looked like it was ready for the sport, given some banners and signs that indicated it was for the race they had learned about earlier, which meant that Captain Qwark had to be somewhere nearby, where he spotted a glass door that looked like it lead somewhere, only it had no button on this side to use, so he figured that he could teleport over to the other side and unlock it.

"That's right! I'm Starlene, and welcome to the Hovercon Intergalactic Hoverboard Competition!" the Rilgarian replied, her tone revealing that she was happy to see some newcomers for the sport, even if they seemed like they had no idea what was going on, simply because of how they looked around the area, though she figured that it was due to this being their first time visiting a competition like this, "Captain Qwark's giving away a brand new Platinum Zoomerator to the winner of this competition!"

"Hm, perhaps that is the proof Skid's agent asked us to present to him." Clank stated, reminding the siblings of what they had learned back on Aridia, as while he didn't care much for the sport and the prize that came with it, since he felt both of them were a waste of their time, he did know that Ratchet, at the very least, was interested in the sport and he was fine with allowing him to spend some of their precious time racing, since it meant they could speak with Captain Qwark at long last and let him know about Drek's quest.

"Wait, you guys know Skid McMarx?" Starlene asked, where she stared at the four of them for a time as the siblings quickly nodded their heads to confirm that they were telling the truth, something that caused her to smile for a moment, likely thinking about the fact that they might be skilled enough to take the championship, to which she beckoned to a pad that would teleport one of them over to the start of the race, "Well, now I'm interested in seeing what skills you have."

Ratchet smiled as he pulled out the board Skid had given them earlier and stepped onto the pad as his siblings remained in the area they had found Starlene in, where it wasn't long before they found their brother on the screen and watched as his follow racers felt they could win since this was Ratchet's first race, causing a pair of smiles to appear on their faces as he started to overcome them when the race started, kept pace with the first place holder, and then, just before they hit the finish line, he pulled ahead and claimed first place, much to Starlene's shock as Ratchet returned to them.

Hi folks, Captain Qwark here. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce this year's Hovercon Intergalactic Champions! Let's give it up for newcomers... the screens stated, revealing a recording from Captain Qwark and not the man himself, meaning they had either missed him or he was resting somewhere else, before it cut to a picture of Ratchet with Clank looking out at the track they were on and said their names, in a bored robotic tone, and then cut back to the Captain, as he had more to say for them to hear, Today's winners will take home a brand new professional grade Model T-15 Platinum Zoomerator! Manufactured by Gadgetron, this hoverboard drive delivers more lift, speed and maneuverability than any other anti-grav device on the market! Well folks, that's all the time we have. Tonight, remember to set your Infobots to the Qwark Classic Channel for tonight's episode of Dogfight Over Death Canyon, starring yours truly. Thank you and have a Qwarktastic day!

"Is... is that it?" Ratchet asked, where he and his siblings stared up at the screen as they watched the recording, though he did accept the prize for winning the race from Starlene, which happened to be a tube shaped gadget of some kind, but it was easy for anyone to tell that he and the others were kind of disappointed in the fact that Qwark didn't bother to come to personally deliver the prize, but figured that, as a galactic hero, something must have come up, "I get it, he's busy... still, it would have been nice to talk to him for a few moments, ask him questions about how he became a hero, before letting him go about his business."

"You guys really wanted to met him, huh?" Starlene commented, as she had been watching them after delivering the prize for the race and noticed that all of them seemed a little disappointed in not being able to meet Captain Qwark, it was even true for the small robot, though as she said that she glanced over at Starswirl for a few seconds as an idea came to mind, given her vastly limited knowledge of Unicorns and their powers, "Tell you what, I can help you guys out... I just need a little something from you guys."

"Let me guess, we'll have to pay a bribe to get the information we need?" Autumn asked, because that seemed to be what was common on the other planets, when someone had an Infobot or a useful piece of information, which might lead them to either Drek or something of importance, it usually came at a cost to them, figuring that heroes would pay any price so they could get on with their quest.

"Yes and no. Yes, you'll be offering me something to get the information you need, but no, while I'd like the Bolts there is something else I want." Starlene replied, causing them to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they heard that, because all of the other people who offered them information usually asked for Bolts to make the exchange, where she beckoned to Starswirl for a moment, which only confused them even more, "I've heard a few tales of what Unicorns can do, some of which are unreal when you think about them, and, well, I've always wanted a bigger chest..."

Starswirl stared at her for a moment, mostly to see if she was being serious about this, since they could work out a better arrangement if she changed her mind on them, but Starlene didn't back down and he sighed as he ignited his horn, as he had read some Old Earth books about this, an odd spell that no one could get to work, and he guessed he was getting a chance to test it, to which they watched as her chest shook for a few seconds before pushing out, doubling in size by the time he was done with his spell.

"Wow, that was intense..." Starlene said, where the look on her face told them that she was pleased with the spell, though Starswirl really had no idea if she was going to stay like this or go back to normal in due time, so this served as a test for all of them, and her sports attire had expanded with her chest as well, so she didn't need to replace anything, though once he was done she leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "Thanks sweetie... I'm going to have some fun later. Oh, before I forget, Captain Qwark is still here, and he's resting just beyond that glass door... if you move now, you might be able to catch him before he leaves."

Autumn and Ratchet smiled as they heard that, especially since Autumn was already using her magic to open the way to where Captain Qwark was resting, even if they were weirded out by her request, like their brother was, though what they found on the other side of the opening was a bodyguard who was standing outside a studio, but when he noticed them, and the RYNO in Autumn's magical grasp, he jumped onto a taxi and departed without delay, allowing the four of them to enter the studio Qwark was resting in.

"Well, if it isn't Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank." Qwark commented, speaking the moment they entered his trailer, as he had been sitting before they stepped into his resting place and had only stood up when he heard the sound of his bodyguard running away, even though at this point Autumn had put her RYNO away, before he chuckled for a moment as he looked at them, "I was wondering when you would arrive, though I was expecting you to move through the other part of the sewers, given that the doors near Starlene were locked."

"I bypassed them with magic," Starswirl replied, though this was a good thing, that the Captain knew who they were and was able to name them with ease, despite the fact that they were all famous for one thing or another, because it meant all of them could save some time and get onto Drek's plans, before he considered what the man had said and realized that his magic allowed him to bypass an area that would have been filled with Amoeboids, or total war between them and the remaining exterminators, "You were expecting us to find you?"

"Oh yes, I have been waiting for you to arrive." Qwark answered, where he turned for a moment and grabbed an Infobot that was resting nearby, one that also happened to have a message about Drek's plot to attack Novalis, before he quickly returned it to where it had been resting and glanced at them again, looking like he was trying to stop someone from even hearing what he had to say, "There's an awful plot being hatched to destroy our planets!"

"Wait, you knew about this?" Ratchet asked, as that was a shock, especially since it meant they might have wasted a good portion of their time to seeking him out if he knew about Drek's plans to harm the planets of their galaxy, though Autumn and Starswirl considered the information as well, even if Clank was pleased to hear that Qwark was aware of the threat he had learned about, since it meant they could move to the next step at last.

"I only recently learned about it, and knew that I would need help taking Drek down," Qwark replied, where he grabbed a second Infobot and held it out towards them, meaning it likely held information for them to act on in some manner, which revealed the location of a secret training ground that he used, on planet Umbris, meaning it had to be one final test for all of them to prove themselves to him, "you four are heroes in the making, I can see that talent as clear as day, and I have one last test I want to put you through before we get to work tearing Chairman Drek down."

The siblings had to admit that being 'Captains' at one point was exciting, even though none of them had considered being heroes until Qwark mentioned it, and made them excited for whatever his secret base on Umbris held for them, to which he bid them farewell as he departed for his own vehicle, leaving them to find a taxi that would return to their ship and use it to head to the new planet, though they were happy to be getting one step closer to beating Drek and bringing peace to the rest of their galaxy.

Author's Note

For those who don't know, there was a glitch in the first Ratchet and Clank game where if you did sideways flips in front of Starlene, the Hoverboard Girl, you would cause her chest to expand, so I decided to use the glitch in a more creative manner.
Please be aware that this will be the only time something like this happens in the story.

R/C: Umbris

It took Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank some time to reach the planet that Qwark had given them an Infobot for, all so they could prove themselves to the Captain before tackling whatever forces Drek had for the remaining planets he was going after, though they found that Umbris was a dry and muddy place, one that looked a little hot from space, and when they landed on the pad that Qwark had provided, where they found that the Captain was on a helicopter, staring down at all of them as they turn in their surroundings.

"Welcome to my challenge course. Now is your chance to prove yourself strong and brave, like me!" Qwark stated, where he let out a chuckle for a moment, though they found that he was using a microphone, which looked like a Taunter that had been modified to some extend based on what Autumn could see, to speak with them from where he was flying, but as soon as he was done with his chuckle he glanced down at them once more as he beckoned to the course, "Conquer it and you'll join in my fight against evil!"

"Haven't we done enough already?" Ratchet replied, because while they were interested in proving themselves to Captain Qwark, so they could begin their work in stopping Drek before he could damage any additional planets, part of him really didn't want to run another obstacle course and wanted the Captain to know that, especially since he knew about them and what they had done since leaving Veldin, which might mean that Drek might know about them as well.

"What? I can't hear you!" Qwark said, acting like he hadn't heard them at all, which was understandable given that the noise of his vehicle prevented him from really hearing the response that was directed at him, where Ratchet tried, in vain, to convince him that they had done enough, leading to Qwark informing them that he knew they would do him proud and that he would be waiting at the end of the course to speak with them, leading to him flying off and leaving the siblings to glance at each other.

"So, this is Captain Qwark's hideout... it doesn't look too bad," Autumn commented, where she glanced at out the area in front of them, finding what appeared to be a number of turrets that lined a path leading right to the massive structure the Captain was flying towards, though she did share Ratchet's thoughts on the matter and felt that everyone would be better off if they had been allowed to skip straight to the end.

"We had best be careful, as he has some knowledge of our skills and has likely tweaked the course accordingly, to prepare for our arrival," Starswirl said, because the way Qwark reacted to their presence back in Blackwater City meant that this had been something he must have prepared once he heard about them, likely through the Novalis Chairman, all to make sure they were true heroes and that they could help him take down Chairman Drek's foul plans for their galaxy and bring peace to everything.

Ratchet sighed as they made a quick check at the Gadgetron Vendor, finding that nothing new had arrived, before they used their Swingshots to latch onto the targets in front of them and swung down to the start of Qwark's course, where it took them no time to see that there were some defenses set up to stop them, like a machine that threw out bombs at the area it was in, though a few blasts from Ratchet's Blaster took it down. After that they found a bridge that allowed them to reach a rocky platform that had a bomb turret, some floating mines, and a gun turret for them to get by, so as Starswirl loosed a small burst of magic to take out the first target his siblings moved by him and gunned down the bombs and the turret that was further beyond, allowing them to carefully move forward as they kept their eyes open for any tricks that might have been prepared for them. Such a thing brought them to another bridge, which was slightly higher than the first one since they had to climb up a pair of small rock platforms to head in the opposite direction, where they opened fire on several mines as Starswirl blasted two more bomb turrets, opening the way for them to walk up some metallic steps and take down a number of mines that were resting between them and their next destination, where a single Blaster blast was enough to take each one down. With that done they carefully moved across the bridge that the mines had been guarding and found that it brought them right to a curved wall that had a thick locked door in the middle of it, though they didn't have to question how to open it since there were three buttons on the ground in front of it, so all they did was step on all three of them and it opened the door in question.

On the other side of the door they found four of the bomb turrets waiting for them, to which Ratchet and Autumn blasted one each as Starswirl used his magic to knock out both of the remaining ones, though it showed them that Qwark might be pulling out all the stops and was trying to test all of their abilities, or whatever he was trying to test, before they found three more buttons that needed to be pressed and it opened another door that brought them to a pair of bridges that had been designed to have parts collapse and meant they had to jump over the new gaps. That brought the siblings to a new area that had a bunch of posts that had barbed wire linking them together, meaning there was one path and it seemed like they would have to also jump over the bullet trail that was being left by a gun turret, though Starswirl saved them a bit of energy by snapping up a shield in front of the turret, meaning it couldn't touch them as they moved deeper into the course that had been prepared for them. After getting around the barbed wire, and bypassing the turret in question, and found a few more Swingshot targets that would bring them even closer to the edge of the massive structure that was their final destination, once they cleared out the rest of the challenges and figured out where Qwark had wandered off to, but none of them said anything as they swung over to a walkway that brought them to what appeared to be a maze of sorts, or at least it would have been that if the walls were arranged differently. That allowed Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to see that there was another metallic door in their way, again locked like all of the other ones they had seen so far, to which they glanced at each other for a few seconds before nodding their heads and separated for the time being, as they knew that there were three buttons and had no idea where they would be resting, so this allowed them to cover more ground and waste less time looking for their targets.

As it turned out the three buttons were really close to each other, almost within sight of each other since one was slightly behind a wall, though that allowed the siblings to open the door they had seen earlier and let them walk into what had to be the outskirts of the main structure, where they climbed up some metallic steps and found an open area that had a fair number of floating mines that were moving around the area, plus it had a golden statue of Qwark for some reason, but all of them decided to ignore the statue.

Taking out the mines proved to be easy for them, as Starswirl used a bit of his magic to channel some lightning for a few seconds, which struck one of his targets and branched off to take down all of the others, something Autumn noted down for later on, as it might make an interesting weapon design at some point, before they activated the buttons and opened another door, one that seemed to have a number of posts attached to a wall that was designed to be a ladder for them to climb up, to reach another level of this massive structure. That brought them to an area that had a pool in it, an area that held a number of crates, and no way for them to actually move forward, though while such a thing would have caused the siblings to look around for a time and think about this, since there were buttons to press to activate the previous metallic doors, Autumn spotted a socket that the Hydrodisplacer could be connected to and the pieces fell into place, for both her and her siblings. As such Ratchet produced the gadget that interacted with it without delay and connected it to the socket, where they watched as he drained the vast majority of pool and made it safe for them to pass through, revealing a rather vicious looking shark fish of some kind had been swimming inside it, so using the gadget allowed them to see the danger that would have nibbled at them if they entered the water, to which Ratchet whacked it with his wrench as Starswirl and Autumn moved through a short tube that linked up with another pool. They found two more Sharkigators, which was the official name of the species when Autumn scanned one and checked what was in the databases she had access to, resting in the next pool and she burned them with her Pyrociter, opening the way for them to climb up a set of steps that lead to a walkway and, more importantly, another Hydrodisplacer socket, but before using it Ratchet decided to check the next pool for any Sharkigators or other enemies.

With the pool cleared of enemies Ratchet connected the gadget to the socket and pilled the pool in front of them, allowing him to swim over to the other side, even though Starswirl formed a slightly curved walkway for him and Autumn to walk on, before finding another socket that allowed him to drain the third pool that was in their way, giving them a way to clear out all of the Sharkigators that were in it, and once that was done he returned the water to where it rested, even though he knew that Starswirl would have teleported himself and Autumn to the next part of the path. Sure enough he found his siblings standing in front of a curved pool of water that had some Swingshot targets for them to use, so Ratchet accessed the socket that was resting near the edge of the area and drained the pool, allowing him, Starswirl, and Autumn to swing through the partially drained passage so they could reach the next part of Qwark's test. It brought them to a chamber that had a number of the angry Sharkigators hanging around, in a pool of nearly drained water to be exact, but instead of even worrying about that Ratchet and his siblings opened fire on them from above, clearing the area so they didn't have to head down and deal with them while wading through the water, though once that was done Ratchet used the Hydrodisplacer to fill the chamber and found that the buttons that needed to be pressed were on the pillar in the middle of this area, which were connected to the door across from them. It took them no time at all to reach those buttons, as Starswirl had created with his magic, nor did it take them long to reach the now opened doorway, before finding a passage that looked like it might lead into the heart of the entire fortress, meaning they had to be close to where Qwark was waiting for them, or at least they hoped so since Ratchet and his siblings wanted to focus on taking Drek down and finishing their exploration of their entire galaxy, or part of it anyway.

As they thought about that they found a path leading to what appeared to be a platform that rested far above the heart of a volcano, or maybe the side chamber of such a place, where Qwark happened to be standing in the middle of a ring while a single person platform rested behind him, meaning when the time came he would jump onto it and speak with them for some time, though Ratchet tapped Clank and let the little robot know that it was okay to jump off his back, allowing all four of them to approach the Captain.

"Captain Qwark, we've beaten your course!" Autumn stated, just in the off chance that the Captain had no idea that they were even approaching him, though he did seem slightly surprised to see them, like he was expecting them to be delayed by the obstacles they had faced to reach this point, meaning he had been under the impression the obstacles would have forced them to slow down and not get here as quickly as they had done.

"Indeed, and you have set a new record in the process." Qwark replied, where he pulled out a tablet and noted that they hadn't wrecked his course with their magical abilities, like he was worried of Starswirl or Autumn blasting through some of the walls to reach this part of the structure, something that caused him to chuckle for a moment as he stashed the tablet back in the pouch it came from, before leaping back onto the floating platform, "Well, well, you four continue to surprise me... step into the Ring of Heroes and I will finally give what you deserve."

As soon as he said that, and he was out of the way, Clank was the first one to run forward and came to a stop in the center of the platform Qwark wanted them to stand in, the Ring of Heroes as the man called it, though it wasn't long before they found Autumn joining him in the Ring, though what surprised Qwark was that Ratchet and Starswirl were hanging back, as if they suspected foul play, which worried him despite his attempts to hide it.

"Ratchet, Starswirl, this is no time for you to become cautious!" Clank loudly said, making sure that his companions knew his opinion on the matter, especially since this meant they were going to become heroes and take the fight to Chairman Drek, all to stop him from tearing more planets apart in his mad quest to make the perfect world for the Blarg, while he found that Autumn glanced back at her brothers for a moment, "We have reached our goal!"

"...something fishy is going on here." Ratchet commented, speaking to himself for a time as he touched the area that his necklace rested in, all while noticing that Starswirl mentioned that someone was watching them, though not a couple of seconds later he and his brother stepped forward and walked up to where Clank and Autumn were standing, as while he felt that being cautious about this was a smart move, given how the Captain had been acting, neither of them were going to leave Autumn alone, before they came to a stop in the Ring and glanced up at Qwark.

What they discovered was that Qwark stood there for a few moments, like he was mentally coming to a decision on what was going on right now, in fact Ratchet was sure that he spotted a look of indecision for a moment, before he heard a faint click and found that the platform they were standing on collapsed not a few seconds later, dropping them into the depths of the stronghold, though they safely landed on the ground thanks to Starswirl surrounding them with his magic, forming a barrier around them, before all four of them glared up at Qwark.

"Captain, what is the meaning of this?" Starswirl asked, though as he said that he knew that he and his siblings were angry at being dropped in here, where if they were far younger, like say six or seven, all of them would have assumed that this would have been his way of deeming them of being unworthy of being heroes, or at least for the time being, but while he said that Ratchet readied his weapons, and Clank stood there with a confused look on his face, Autumn seemed to be in the middle of struggling with her anger, even though a dark mist appeared around his eyes.

"I'm the spokesman for Drek's new planet... that means I have certain responsibilities, like making sure nothing gets in the way of his planet being completed." Qwark explained, something that caused them to think less of the man once he told them this piece of information, though as he said that he sighed for a moment as he focused on the siblings, as if he had been telling the truth about them having the potential to be heroes and didn't want to do this to them, despite his contract with Chairman Drek, "Unfortunately, that means that I can't have the lot of you getting in the way."

"You won't get away with this, Qwark." Ratchet growled, as right now he was angry and ready to bash his wrench into the side of the Captain's head, to vent his anger and whatnot for a time, even though he could see that the anger that both he and Starswirl felt was nothing compared to Autumn's, as it seemed like her magic was catching on fire, something that did cause all of them to pause, even though a large monstrous being, the one from Al's commercial, broke free of its bindings and started to march on their location.

As Qwark opened his mouth, however, Autumn's anger ignited as it surrounded her, causing her siblings to back off for a moment, though what happened was that her body took on a black coloration, with red flames wrapped around both her wrists and ankles, while her eyebrows transformed into blue flames, her eyes went white, her horn turned black right at the base and transitioned to white at the tip, and her mane and tail transformed into flames as well, the outer part being red, followed by purple, and ending with blue as the core. The Blargian Snagglebeast, the creature that was marching over to where they were standing, didn't seem stunned or surprised by what was going on and swung it's right fist straight at the area that Autumn was standing in, where she stood there and simply raised her left hand in response, catching the fist before it could smash her into the ground they were standing on, as she had moved in front of Ratchet and Starswirl just seconds before that happening. Ratchet was surprised by this turn of events, that his sister's anger state, whatever they were going to call it, was strong enough to stop the fist of a creature that was as tall and as strong as the Snagglebeast that was in front of them right now, before she raising her right hand for a moment and gathered her magical energy for a few seconds, meaning she must have some sort of plan in mind or her anger was burning too hot for her right now, before she loosed a burst of red energy right into the Snagglebeast's chest. The blast sent the beast flying through the air for a time, as it smashed through the side of the mountain that Qwark had built this base on top of, allowing them to watch as it flew out over the water and disappeared under the weight of Autumn's fury, though in the chaos Qwark was smart enough to activate a teleportation device to get himself out of the area before he was came under fire from the enraged individuals who were below him, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl to calm their sister down.

In the following moments Autumn, or whatever their sister was, turned and stared at them as she growled, which made Ratchet wonder if this was more of a feral beast or if Autumn might be trapped inside this form, where she pulled out her wrench and they watched as her anger washed over it, the magic transforming it into a broadsword that was on fire, one that looked like it was partly charred by her terrifying wrath, though before she could do anything Starswirl stepped up for a moment and stood his ground, giving the elemental a sad but patient smile... something that caused the creature to let out a shriek before disappearing, leaving Autumn resting on the ground with a normal blade, all while Ratchet noticed that the dark mist around Starswirl's eyes disappeared as well.

"Come on Clank, let's go see if Qwark left us anything." Ratchet said, where he focused on seeing whether or not the foul Captain had left for them to find, stuff to act on when Drek's planet was complete and there was no reason for them to head to the coordinates in question, leaving Starswirl to tend to Autumn, since he was the more magical member of their family and would know what to do about Autumn's change.

"Ratchet... how are you not overwhelmed with rage?" Clank asked, because while he was impressed by Ratchet's ability to control most of his emotions, which was incredibly impressive at his age, what Qwark had done to them should have done something to Ratchet, even though he could see that the Lombax was already thinking about what he was going to do the moment they found the man, but before he could say anything else they found a loading area with a large red ship that he could see was much faster than the one they had been given earlier, even if Ratchet glared at the mark of Qwark that was on the side of it.

"Because of this." Ratchet replied, where he turned for a moment and reached up towards his neck for a second, which Clank recognized since he had done the movement earlier, before they had been dumped into the Snagglebeast's lair like a bunch of trash, though Clank paused as Ratchet pulled out a necklace that was unlike anything he had seen before, one that was split diagonally in half, meaning it had a counterpart, somewhere in the vastness of their universe, "Clank, do you remember what the Plumber told us back on Novalis?"

"Yes. He mentioned a 'she' and that you 'weren't ready' for the information he had." Clank answered, though he failed to see the connection between the mysterious figure that caused Ratchet to act like this and the necklace he wore, despite the fact that this would give him some understanding as to how his friend worked and might allow him to know far more about him, or at least those were his thoughts on the matter.

"He was referring to my sister... not Autumn, mind you, but a twin sister whose lost... and this is the only thing I have, save for the pod I was in, that confirms her existence," Ratchet said, though that was basically the basics of the information that Clank needed to know so he would understand why this was so important to him, where he stared at it for a few seconds and felt his anger cool off as that happened, which he had done several times since it had been returned to him, before he glanced at Clank once more, "I'm honestly not sure what this is, a charm or a key of some kind, but it helps me think about my twin sister, wherever she is, and when I grasp it and focus on it I find that I'm able to calm down and not be burdened by my rage or anger... thinking about finding my sister, and not focusing on the cause of my anger or rage, allows me to calm down. That's why I'm not overwhelmed by rage right now."

Clank didn't see anything special about the necklace, save for it being a reminder of someone Ratchet wanted to find at all costs, but before he could say anything he and his companion found that Starswirl was walking over to them with Autumn in his arms, who was still unconscious and caused Ratchet to run over immediately, where they quickly carried her over to their new vehicle, because they were totally taking this, and found that there was a ramp located in the back that lead into a small living area of some kind, so while Ratchet and Clank piloted the ship Starswirl and Autumn could rest. While they did that, however, Clank also found an Infobot resting nearby, one that happened to have the coordinates for Batalia, a planet that appeared to be under attack at the moment, no doubt due to Drek's forces, and that there was a commando who was in need of assistance, causing the little robot to glance at Ratchet as he climbed out of the ship and returned to where he had been standing earlier.

"While I commend you for finding a way to not be consumed by rage, we still have work to do," Clank said, because at this point he felt there wasn't a need for them to talk about the necklace anymore, not when Ratchet had done a good job in explaining his reasoning, to which he gestured to the Infobot for a moment as his companion glanced at it, even though Clank was sure his mind was elsewhere right now, "Batalia is under attack, and a commando is calling for aid. What are you going to do about it?"

"Honestly? I have no idea... I mean, Qwark made it clear what happens to 'heroes'," Ratchet stated, because while there had been times where he felt that the stories about the Captain were far too good to be true, as one of them had to be the more grounded sibling of them all and it seemed like that was his job, he and his siblings had enjoyed his tales and he said nothing about them, though now he wished he had, before what happened today had come to pass, "you either perish in the fight against all of the villains, like some of the other heroes who have vanished over the years, or you live long enough to become a villain yourself... just look at what happened to Qwark."

"So what? You, Autumn, and Starswirl are just going to give up and go back to Veldin?" Clank inquired, as that was what he was determining from how Ratchet was acting, the necklace allowed him to not be blinded by rage and might make him do all sorts of foolish actions, such as possibly allowing the man who betrayed the siblings to get away with his actions, not to mention his employer for that matter, before he sighed for a moment, "Ratchet, I know the Captain's betrayal stings more than anything you have encountered so far, and I know that I am partly at fault for blindly trusting him to be the man I had hoped he would be, but there is a reason it stings so much: you and your siblings, despite this turn of events, know what it means to be true heroes, what it takes to be true heroes, and that is why it hurts so much."

Ratchet stared at Clank for a time, wanting to lash out at him and say some of the things that were on his mind, where he had a few hurtful ones as well, though as he considered all of that he realized something, Clank knew that he was far more mature than his siblings, to some degree, and that he wasn't going to take them back to Veldin, nor was he going to take them on a quest for vengeance, to tear down Qwark for his crimes, rather his mind was set, that he and his siblings were going to tear down Drek and bring closure to everyone who had been harmed by his quest... to which Ratchet sighed and simply nodded his head as he and Clank climbed into the ship and departed for Batalia.

R/C: Batalia

After setting course for Batalia, and leaving both the Novalis Chairman's courier ship and Umbris behind, Clank found that his companions were either deep in thought about what had happened or were exhausted from what had happened due to Qwark's treachery, and after what he had learned from Ratchet he understood why two of them were thinking about things that weren't what happened to them back on Umbris. Autumn was clearly exhausted from having burned through all of her magical energy, as Starswirl confirmed that the sudden transformation had used up all of her magic and left her in the state that she was in right now, resting on one of the benches in the lower section of their new ship, one that was actually faster than the one they had been granted earlier, meaning they could now fly from planet to planet at a faster speed, so there was no way for them to know if she was going to be able to join when them they reached Batalia. Starswirl, on the other hand, was worried about his sister and wanted to make sure that she was fine, even though he had to be thinking of spells that might be able to help her out, or at least Clank assumed such a thing since he was still coming to terms with the powers he and Autumn had access to, especially that enraged form from earlier, though Autumn's transformation likely stopped her brother from doing something similar, but the unicorn said nothing as he kept his eyes on his sister. Ratchet, however, was the one Clank was more concerned about right now, as the sudden shock of what happened to Autumn had caused him to grasp his necklace again, causing the Lombax to remember that he was missing his own twin sister, who must have been separated from him at birth he guessed, or around that point, and his desire to find her at some point in time, before he turned his thoughts towards what they were going to do next.

Even with the faster ship it did take them some time to reach Batalia, where they found that Autumn was awake and was more than ready to join them, even though Ratchet insisted that she take it easy this time, as her magic, according to their brother, was still close to empty and that it would be some time before she was back to normal, causing her to nod as they climbed out of the ship a few seconds after it landed on the landing pad, finding the Commando from the Infobot staring up at the ships that were up in the sky.

"At attention, you deserting maggots! The next time you soldiers try to..." the Commando started to say, having turned the instant he heard a ship behind him and revealed that he assumed whoever it was had to be those who had served under him before the Infobot was made, though before he could get too far Autumn, despite Starswirl's warning, raised her hand and sealed his mouth shut with magic, much to the surprise of Ratchet and Clank, since this was the first time all of them had seen such a thing.

"We aren't your troops, rather we're combat trained civilians that are responding to your distress call," Autumn said, even if it was a little cold of her when her siblings heard her speak, revealing that she was still angry over what happened back in Umbris, while she managed to keep her dark side from surging forward and freaking all of them out, as that was what Ratchet was calling that flaming creature.

"So you can either treat us with the proper respect," Ratchet added, knowing that Autumn was still annoyed and that she would cool off in due time, hopefully before they encountered Drek or Qwark, the latter he really didn't want to see again and had a feeling that they would find him in due time, before be beckoned to the ships that were above them, "or we'll leave you to face the rest of this bombardment."

"Right..." the Commando replied, where Autumn let go of him when she saw him nod his understanding, granting him the ability to speak once more, before he gestured to the scene that was unfolding right now, with the ships raining down on everything that was below them and all of the troopers attacking the nearby settlement, "there is a turret across the way that needs to be repaired, so it can be used to shoot down the bombers that are attacking this planet... I'll scout out the area and give you further instructions when we meet back up."

"Is that all there is to do here?" Clank inquired, speaking once he was sure that the Commando was gone, as the man in question started to walk away once he was done talking to Ratchet and his siblings, allowing them some time to study the surrounding area and see if there was more to do besides simply smashing Drek's forces, something he was fine with if that was the case, since they still needed to track Drek down and put a stop to his plans.

"No, according to our uplinks there is someone out on the water who is in need of assistance, meaning it has to be one of the Command's troopers," Starswirl answered, to which he and his siblings glanced out over the area in question, as it was to the right of the area that was right in front of them, and found a number of grind rails that seemed to lead the way over to where the signal was coming from, before he glanced at the others again, "we might get an Infobot if we go over there, but that might be the only thing of importance over there."

"Until Autumn makes more of these boots, I'm the only one that can go over there," Ratchet commented, referring to the new boots that they had acquired back in Drek's station, the one that allowed someone to use rails like this to traverse a great distance, or maybe even a small distance in some instances, something that caused Autumn to nod her head, as she knew that making more of them would benefit the three of them at some point in time, before he thought about what he had seen so far, "unless you want to levitate over there, Starswirl... so we can either wait near the grind rail until I figure out what's out there, or you two can tackle Drek's forces and I'll catch up in due time."

Autumn, instead of saying anything in response to that, pulled out her weapons for a moment and paused as she took a moment to check out the Vendor, finding that the Devastator, basically a rocket launcher, was available and purchased it without delay, making sure that her siblings had it as well, before she waged war on the enemies that were in front of her, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl standing there, watching as she yanked the small little robots out of the air with her magic and cut some down with her blade. The others fell to her blaster, a single shot being more than enough to take them out before she noticed more enemies ahead of her, though as she did that Starswirl found a machine that sent out small balls that unfolded into the new white floating enemies and he smashed it with a blast from his weapons, not even bothering to check which one it was since he was more interested in keeping an eye on Autumn and her magic right now, as there was no telling how the transformation would affect her. While they were moving one of the bombers flew close by and loosed a missile that tore apart the walkway in front of them, leaving a ring for them to walk on to reach the next part of the path they were following, where it was easy for Autumn and Starswirl to find that there were a number of white robots, soldiers, and a few hidden bombers waiting for enemies in the next section they were exploring, hence why they opened fire on all of their enemies as they spotted a Bolt Crank being guarded by Drek's forces. Based on what Starswirl could see it looked like the Bolt Crank would extend a bridge for them to use, to make their way around this area and approach the area that happened to hold the turret the Commando wanted one of them to use on the Blarg bombers that were currently all over the city the Infobot had brought them to, and he was sure that there was a tank up on the other side of the bridge as well, one that would become focus on him and Autumn if they got close enough.

Of course Autumn was thinking the same thing as she stared up at the area that was beyond where they started, though a few seconds later she sighed as she raised her weapon and found something interesting, if she turned the base of her new blade towards the Bolt Crank it transformed into a wrench head, even though she wasn't using her magic to do it, before she quickly turned this device and caused the bridge to extend so they could move forward, though since they were below the bridge the tank couldn't target them at all.

"When this adventure is over, I'm going to have to take a while to think about things," Autumn commented, referring to the anger she had felt back during their time in Umbris, as it was the first time, in a long time, that she had felt such a surge of emotion, though the surprising part was that her magic had responded in such a shocking way, transforming her into what she assumed was a beast of pure rage who reacted to Qwark's betrayal, before she sighed and glanced at the weapon in her right hand, "and figure out why my other side picked a blade, of all things."

Of course Starswirl was surprised by that change as well, though before he could say anything Autumn did something he never expected her to do, she jumped up to where the tank was located, no doubt using her magic to boost her jumping ability for a short period of time, though what he was referring to was the fact that she pulled out the RYNO and loosed a small volley at the tank, tearing it apart in seconds, and when she landed they found Ratchet catching up to them, but for the time being he said nothing about what he had uncovered. With that done the siblings, now reunited, crossed the now extended bridge and used a small flow of water to direct themselves down into an area that had all sorts of enemies, as in a number of soldiers, a few hidden bombers, and a tank, all of which weren't happy to see the siblings and opened fire on them as soon as they were able to, something that caused Starswirl to surround them with a magical barrier for a time so Ratchet and Autumn could spread themselves out before retaliating on their opponents. Sure enough it didn't take them all that long to smash their way through the enemies that were in front of them, even without Autumn using the RYNO to clear out some of their foes, though Drek's forces did put up a good fight before they were taken out, but as soon as all of their foes were taken out the siblings stepped forward and two of them activated a pair of Bolt Cranks that caused a long bridge, broken into two segments, to be linked back together. With that done they walked up some steps and then quickly crossed the bridge in question, allowing them to find the Commando standing next to a magnetic surface that looked like they would need some special shoes to walk on, though as the man opened his mouth to say something, since there was a gap between them and the Bolt Crank outside the structure that held the turret, Starswirl used his magic to send his own wrench staff over to it and turned it without delay.

Such a thing caused the Commando to acknowledge their strength and bravery before handing over an Infobot, one that was for the planet that Drew and the Blarg came from, Orxon, and then departed from this area so he could go find those who had been part of his battalion, though once he was gone Ratchet informed them that he and Clank found a soldier at the end of the grind rail area and that they had acquired the Infobot for Gaspar, where he was sure they could find a new helmet gadget and maybe get some information on Drek's location.

With those two Infobots in hand the siblings crossed the bridge that Starswirl extended with his wrench, where they found that the area was covered in soldiers, tanks, and all sorts of enemies, something that caused them to separated from each other before firing on Drek's forces once more, while making sure to use their melee weapons on whoever got close, but it just showed them that their true foe was trying to take down every planet that existed in their galaxy, basically confirming what Clank suspected at this point in time. None of them knew why this particular outpost was so important to Drek, as it didn't seem like he was here for the trees, or the water, or for a chunk of the planet, rather it seemed like he was attacking it simply to keep the three of them busy for the time being, as with Qwark under his thumb he didn't have to worry about the authorities coming after him and his army, but with a trio of heroes in training, which is what they could be considered at this point, he had to make sure they were stalled as much as possible. Even with that thought in mind there really didn't seem to be much of a point of Drek attacking Batalia, because it seemed like the military here was planet based, as in the Commando and his people focused on defending this city and the surrounding area from the other continents that rested all over this planet, armies trying to take control of the planet, so it meant they were already distracted and didn't need a common enemy to unite against, but in the end Ratchet and his siblings decided not to worry about this, since there was no telling why Drek had decided to attack this planet. The only thing they needed to focus on was the fact that Drek did want to tear this planet down, maybe determining that it held no worth for his people and wanted to get it out of the way, hence why they blasted through the remaining enemies, the pair of tanks, before finding a Bolt Crank that went to a gate in front of them, which Ratchet opened and caused him to grin as they found that the path that brought them right to the turret the Commando had mentioned, along with someone working on it.

"If it isn't the Plumber," Ratchet commented, causing the man to finish his maintenance on the turret before turning and hopping down to where they were currently standing, though while Ratchet wanted to ask him about his twin, now that the events of Umbris had brought his thoughts about her back to the surface, he suspected that now wasn't the time to ask about his lost sister, that would come at some point in the future, "What are you doing here, on another planet that Chairman Drek is assaulting?"

"Maintenance on this planet's useless defense turret, which I just finished fixing." the Plumber replied, revealing that he knew far more than fixing pipes and other toilet related items, if where they found him the first time was any indication of things, but Ratchet was far more interested in his knowledge of other things, even if he knew that none of them were at all ready for the information he had to share with them, before he chuckled as he pulled out a gadget that looked like an old metal detector, "This is for you, Autumn, to have some fun with later, to help with recent events... though I'm afraid that I don't have much to offer the two of you at this point."

Ratchet shrugged, as he had been expecting such a response to his unasked question, before climbing into the turret and opened fire on Drek's bombers, where Starswirl watched as his brother blasted the vessels out of the air, even though he used his magic to blast any missiles out of the air, so Ratchet didn't have to worry about them, all while Autumn studied her new toy for a time, as she had a feeling she'd mess with it later, though it wasn't long before Ratchet was done, the Plumber confirmed that he was as skilled as he thought he was, and the siblings returned to their new ship, as it was time for them to head to a new planet and see what happened next.

R/C: Gaspar, Orxon

Ratchet found that the lower area of their new ship definitely had enough space for two of them to sleep at any time while the third sibling could sit up with Clank in the cockpit, which was great since everyone wanted to be ready for whatever the future held for them, though he insisted on stopping a few hours after leaving Batalia, meaning they were halfway to either Gaspar or Orxon, which happened to be the two planets they had acquired Infobots for earlier, and right now he and his siblings were focused on Gaspar. According to the Infobot what they were looking for was one of the helmets that Drek had his scientists working on, one that had a neural interface that allowed the user to interact with certain things, like bombers and flyers, hence why Drek wanted more pilots so he could lay waste to all of the planets that he either didn't want or those who opposed his quest to build the perfect planet for his people. There was also slim a chance he and his siblings might find a scientist or two on the planet, who might be able to give them more information on Drek's location or a planet that might be under assault, hence their decision to head to Gaspar and not Orxon, the latter being a practically empty world since Drek and the Blarg left it so they could build a new world for themselves, but given all of the poison and toxic in the air none of them, save for Clank, could survive on Orxon, so they were also looking for gadgets that might help them out in that regard. Ratchet also insisted on them resting for a few hours, that way everyone would be ready for what would be waiting for them on the planet in question, though Autumn mentioned an interest in acquiring one of the Pilot's Helmets, as that was what they were looking for, so she could use her power to break it apart, study it, and possibly improve it, through the use of the spell Starswirl had used in the past, the duplication spell that gave them their weapons in the first place.

Despite the stop and everything it didn't take them too long to reach their destination, where they found that Gaspar was a planet covered in lava, with vents blowing hot air into the atmosphere and volcanoes scattered everywhere, though one thing they discovered was that there was a weapon's depot in the area that the coordinates lead them to, which meant it was one of the areas that Drek had to be getting his weapons from, to which Ratchet landed on the landing pad before he and his siblings climbed out, with Clank attaching to his back.

"Well, the Walloper is in stock now," Autumn commented, where she bought and produced the weapon in question, which turned out to be a metallic glove that fit over her right hand and seemed to be the size of a boxing glove, though that was when Ratchet watched as she punched the air a few times, something that caused a blue aura to surround the weapon as it was used and even caused her to move forward somewhat faster than before, before she stopped and walked over to a lift that would take them towards the depot, "Come on, we've got fools to wreck and stuff to find."

Ratchet nodded as he purchased his own Walloper before he and Starswirl joined Autumn on the lift, where they headed down to an area that happened to have a number of Sandshark sized metallic critters who seemed to be eager to chomp anything and everything that was an intruder, to which he and Autumn used their new weapons to punch their way right through the group of Chompers that were in front of them, while Starswirl blasted the dispenser and the soldier that were near an oddly placed turret. The only reason it was weird was because it just felt out of place, especially given the metallic gate that rested to their right, so it didn't make much sense for there to be something that could smash through one of the depot's defenses resting in front of the gate in question, though that didn't stop Ratchet from climbing into the weapon in question and firing upon the gate, blasting it to pieces and opening the way for them to advance further through this part of the planet. On the other side of the ruined gate the siblings found what appeared to be a black sphere bot of some kind, which seemed similar to the mines that had been scattered around Qwark's course, though Autumn found that she was more than able to slice her target apart with her blade, either meaning her weapon was far stronger than it had been just before Qwark's betrayal or the Seekerbot was weaker than what they initially believed, given that it seemed to be a mobile explosive that locked onto enemies. Of course there were several more Seekerbots further beyond the first one, which her siblings opened fire on as soon as they spotted them, though none of them were surprised to find a number of Blarg, as in the soldiers, protecting the path that was on the other side of the ruined gate, a path that lead right to a building that had to be where they would discover one of the Pilot's Helmets, maybe more if they were lucky, plus there was a turret nearby for them to use to blast open the gate.

Autumn and her brothers found a few more Seekerbots waiting for them, which they smashed to pieces, before arriving at the turret that allowed them to smash their way through the next metallic gate, something that revealed a lift that allowed them to enter the main facility that was on this planet, where a number of Chompers were waiting for them, even though a fair number of them fell thanks to the Pyrociter in Ratchet's hands, allowing them to head inside. Of course there were a fair number of Seekerbots as well, which were taken out with the combined power of Ratchet and Starswirl, though as her brothers did that Autumn scanned the walls and found all sorts of parts, robotic and otherwise, lining the walls, to which she grinned for a moment as she tapped into her power and replicated another of Starswirl's spells, opening a portal of some kind to a storage space that she could store components inside. As such it became a matter of her brothers taking out all of the enemies that happened to be guarding the facility that they had discovered, with Autumn taking her time in claiming Drek's leftover materials so they could be used against him and his forces at some point in time, though she did blast a soldier that got too close to her before catching up to her brothers, who happened to be at the end of a passage that had a number of tanks inside it. Her magic washed over all of the tanks and shattered them into piles of metal, which she claimed like the rest of the materials she had claimed so far, though when they reached a larger chamber, one that had a lot of soldiers ready to do battle with them, Autumn chuckled before loosing a volley from the RYNO, wiping out all of their enemies so her brothers could move forward with ease, which also reminded Ratchet that his sister was also very dangerous, more in the weapons department and less in the magical aspect, before he returned his focus to the rest of their enemies as he and Starswirl continued to move through the facility.

After that chamber, and Ratchet used a turret to smash through yet another metallic gate that was in their way, Autumn quickly discovered the testing area that was shown on the Infobot that brought them to this planet, including a ship that was used by the Blarg to test the Pilot's Helmet, before she found an intact helmet resting near the test ship, though after a few seconds of searching it didn't look like the Blarg had left anything else for them to take, to which Autumn weaved a bit of her magic over the helmet and created two more, showing Starswirl that she had mastered the duplication spell in a short period of time.

"Well, our primary mission on this planet is complete. Shall we go, or should we deal with the bombers that are currently refueling nearby?" Ratchet asked, because there was no telling what might happen if they allowed a number of bombers to depart from this planet at some point in time, though that was when he watched as Starswirl glanced out at the area all of their potential targets were resting in and gathered his magic for a few seconds, sending small missiles made out of magical energy at the bombers and took them all out, causing him to sigh, "Okay, never mind. Guess we're heading over to Orxon and seeing what we might find in Drek's former backyard."

Autumn chuckled for a moment as she, Ratchet, and Starswirl made their way back to their new ship, which was easy due to all of the enemies being taken care of thanks to their actions, and when they reached it Ratchet and Clank returned to the pilot's area while Autumn and Starswirl returned to the lower section, though once everyone was in place Ratchet set a course for Orxon, so they could see what was waiting for all of them on Drek's twisted home planet, and what they were going to do once the ship reached their next destination.

It took a bit of time for them to reach Orxon, though upon their descend to the planet's surface, or the landing pad that the Infobot was leading Ratchet to, Clank confirmed what Drek had said about this world, that it was far too polluted for him and the Blarg to call it home anymore, where Starswirl weaved his magic around their ship to create a pocket of air, though he targeted most of the breathable air when it made it, that way no one would be harmed when Clank climbed out to go exploring for gadgets.

"I will try to make this as quick as possible." Clank stated, as he knew that there wasn't much the siblings could do during this visit to Orxon, and even with Starswirl's powers he suspected the transformed unicorn wouldn't be able to hold the spell in a protective bubble around his head, Autumn's head, and Ratchet's head for the length of time it would take for all of them to explore this planet and discover whatever Drek left behind, to which he headed for the ramp and departed from the ship as the siblings watched him head out into the poisonous environment.

"At least we'll be able to get some rest before we head to whatever planet is next," Ratchet commented, though he was a little happy he had convinced Clank to take his Guild Card before he departed from the ship, that way any enemies he had to fight would contribute to one of their bank accounts, to give them more Bolts to use against Drek and his followers, to which he turned towards his siblings for a moment once the ramp had been closed and none of them had to worry about the poison for the time being.

Autumn nodded as she pulled out her tools and started to fiddle with the Pilot's Helmet that was in front of her, as there was one thing that needed to be done before she focused on anything else, hers needed to be resized so it could fit over her head, especially since she had a horn and that required an opening that would open and close accordingly, since her horn was a little thicker than Starswirl's, not to mention it had a different shape, all while she debated what coloration she should make it, before deciding on a flame design. The other thing she had to do was make sure the helmet was able to interact with her magic, because if that was possible she could make the same modification to Starswirl's, though for the most part there wasn't much she had to do to Ratchet's, since he didn't have magic and there were no horns on his head for them to worry about, but she did find that a slight alteration would need to be made to the ear areas, since Ratchet's were far larger than hers and Starswirl's, not to mention the placement when she thought about it. Starswirl, on the other hand, pulled out one of his tomes and continued reading from where he had left off, to see if there were any other spells or knowledge that could be put to use in their current adventure, but right now he wasn't finding much and knew that he would have to acquire more tomes once Drek was no longer a threat to the galaxy, though it allowed him to pass the time while they waited for Clank to return to the ship. Ratchet remained nearby, watching Autumn work on her helm and make all sorts of modifications so it could fit over her head, once more showing him why she was the brains of their group, as in the weapons and science since their brother was the magical one, though what was impressive was that when her helmet was complete Autumn slipped it over her head and her power interacted with it, allowing her to magically break apart the Metal Detector so she could study it in greater detail.

The interesting thing was that she was able to return it to how it had been a few moments ago, though once she was done with her helmet she made some of the same modifications to Starswirl's, mostly so it could fit over his head and horn with ease, though in the end all he could do was sit there and watch his sister work while their brother focused on his books, each gaining new tools that they might be able to turn against Drek's forces, though it was some time before he heard a tap on the side of their ship and opened the ramp as Starswirl made sure the atmosphere bubble was intact.

"You were right, Clank, you were certainly fast," Ratchet said, speaking as soon as the little robot entered the ship and let him close the ramp, something that allowed his brother to release his spell, because with their first exploration done they knew that it was time for them to head to another planet, hence why he was hoping that Clank found an Infobot while he was exploring the facility they had landed outside, otherwise they were going to have to backtrack to a planet they had been to already and that left him with no ideas on where to go.

"Yes, and I found a few things that we can put to use," Clank replied, where he pulled out a pair of metallic boots from his central storage area that he kept all of the Infobots they had found so far, though when he offered them up they seemed to activate and stick to his chest, their bases sticking to his body like how the bottom of the Grindboots stuck to the grind rails that they had seen so far.

"Magneboots, capable of allowing someone to walk on certain metallic surfaces," Autumn explained, though as she said that Ratchet walked over to Clank and helped remove the boots from his chest, meaning she was going to have to fix the pair so they didn't do something like that again, and with her modified helmet she would be able to study it and combine what Clank had found with the Grindboots they had found so far, making her wonder what else they might find that could be placed over one's feet or hooves, "Gadgetron made them, since I saw them in one of the reports, so the Blarg must have stolen them to reverse engineer them for their own purposes."

"I have also detected an area that we might want to explore later, but I also found this," Clank continued, where he made sure to produce the Infobot he had discovered and showed it to the siblings, where they watched a commercial for the resort planet Pokitaru, even though it was clear that the planet was both under attack and was being used as a dumping ground by Drek, "it would seem like an ideal place for us to relax and unwind, and to get over what has happened to all of us so far, though for now we should focus on the O2 Mask that they're offering to visitors."

"We would have to take care of the toxic waste dumping before using it as a vacation spot," Starswirl added, which was a fact that the others had chosen to either ignore or had overlooked while they were watching the Infobot, before he took a moment to think about what they had learned so far, since there wasn't much else they could do with Orxon, not without the O2 Masks that were being offered on Pokitaru.

Ratchet nodded his understanding as he and Clank returned to the cockpit once more, this time setting their course for the resort planet that was known as Pokitaru, as it was better than having no leads and would grant them a useful gadget for whatever the future had for them, especially if Autumn found a way to link it together with the Pilot's Helmet so both functions could be used, but for now their focus was on Drek's people and the damage they were currently doing to yet another planet in their galaxy.

R/C: Pokitaru

What they discovered as they flew through the atmosphere of Pokitaru was that it was a rather pleasant place, filled with a number of vast beaches and islands for people to relax on, blue oceans which appeared to go on forever, a bright sun that wasn't covered by clouds at the moment, and all sorts of grand looking buildings that were common in a resort setting, something that made Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank wonder when they would be able to come here for a rest or just to relax... and the scene was ruined when they found some dark Blarg ships flying through the air, with Drek's logo on the side of each one.

"Sure enough, Drek's ships are bothering this planet as well." Clank remarked, though while he didn't have the systems that someone like Ratchet or his siblings might have, like a stomach and everything linked to it, he felt sick just staring at what was happening right now, that there was someone who could be so cruel to all of the planets in his galaxy, not just the one that he and his people used to call home.

"He's an annoying one... why couldn't he have dumped all his waste somewhere else?" Autumn asked, staring at the ships as well, as that was what everyone was doing right now as Ratchet found the landing pad that was designed for visitors, so the tour guide could determine where to send them next, before she sighed as she thought about what could have been done to all of the waste that the Blarg had created, "It makes me mad that he's going around, ruining planets with pieces that he wants and despoiling those he has no interest in, when he could be dumping all this waste, say, in a black hole or on one of the asteroids that aren't orbiting a planet... would certainly save him some Bolts if he did it that way, not that he seems at all concerned about Bolts right now."

"Don't worry, we'll stop him at some point." Ratchet promised, as he had a feeling that, despite their thoughts and what had been done to try and stop them from getting to this point in their quest, he and his siblings would find out where Drek was located, and where he was planning on moving his twisted planet, for a final confrontation with the greedy Blarg, no doubt ending in his defeat, before he sighed as he parked their ship on the landing pad, "Though for now we should focus on tearing down everything he sent to ruin this world."

Autumn and Starswirl nodded as they followed Ratchet and Clank in climbing out of their ship, where they found the green skinned man from the Infobot, wearing the same Hawaiian styled shirt, waiting at the end of the ramp that was attached to where they landed, though before that Autumn discovered that her Visibomb Gun and the Decoy Glove were available for purchase, and with their discounts she was able to buy one for all of them, though she had a feeling that in a few years Starswirl would have no need for guns, before they headed down to where the man was standing.

"Hey, you four are the first friendly faces I have seen in weeks," the man stated, where it looked like he was pleased to see people who weren't trying to harm his resort or those who were still working in the other parts of this place, though that was when he pulled back a little, like he had another thought about them and wanted to be careful in case they proved to be enemies of his resort, "you are friendly... right?"

"To you, yes." Starswirl responded instantly, though as he said that he glanced out at the area that they would have to go through to get to whatever weapon was designed to protect the resort from harm, something he was sure was offline at the moment and that they would be turning it back on at some point in the very near future, if the other planets were any indication for them to go on.

"To them, no." Autumn growled, gesturing towards the toxic dumpers that were currently bothering the resort and the rest of the planet, where she was curious as to whether or not she could fire a RYNO volley and blow one of Drek's ships out of the air, before deciding that it would only cause more harm than good when she thought about the power that was inside her weapon.

"Well that's wonderful," the man said, where it was clear that he was looking over them and must have seen how Ratchet had piloted their ship down onto the landing pad that was behind them, before glancing at the horns that were on both Starswirl and Autumn's heads, meaning he either knew the stories about unicorns or he had no idea what they meant, to which Ratchet assumed the latter, before the man spoke again, "at the other end of the resort we have a jet fighter that, I hope, can be used to take down those waste dumpers that have changed our local wildlife into the ravenous mutants we have been dealing with for some time. If you can escort me over there, I'll help you get to the jet and you can take out the toxic dropships that are assaulting my resort, not to mention the rest of the planet, and if you do that I'll throw in the last couple of O2 Masks that we have... I might have three of them stashed away."

Ratchet didn't bother to ask if Starswirl or Autumn were capable of teleporting all of them over to the area that the man had mentioned, since he had to assume there was a good distance between this art of the resort and where they needed to go, meaning that his siblings likely couldn't use their magic to get over there in a matter of seconds, hence why he just nodded his head as Clank informed the man that they would escort him to the jet fighter. With that done he pulled out his Pyrociter and started down the rest of the ramp, where he started to set fire to a number of mutated puffer fish that were in his way, something Autumn joined him in as she pulled out her Blaster, though Starswirl found that there was an odd creature that looked like a hybrid between an octopus, a squid, and something else, so he wasn't sure what to call it, even if he discovered it was capable of firing energy balls from it's head. As such he focused on blasting those targets while his siblings focused on clearing out all of the puffer fish mutants, leaving the man to follow behind them with a shocked look on his face, like he wasn't expecting to receive three skilled individuals that might be able to take down all of the attackers that were assaulting his resort, but he said nothing as they made their way across the first little patch of land and came to a stop at what appeared to be one of the tour boats for this place. Not a few seconds later everyone jumped over to the tour boat in question and took up their positions as the man took his place at the front of the boat, where they stared to move towards the next part of this resort and found a number of mutated puffer fish jumped out of the water to attack all of them, where Starswirl swung his staff to knock some out of the air, Autumn blasted those coming up from behind with a few bits of her magic, and Ratchet either used his wrench to take out some of their enemies or the Pyrociter when they got close to him and wouldn't put his siblings at risk.

When the man reached their destination the boat floated up and allowed them to jump over to a walkway that lead to a pair of waterfalls, to which Ratchet and Autumn opened fire on the mutated puffer fish that were in front of them as their brother opened fire on the Psy-tcopus, a name that was still a work in progress according to Starswirl, even though once all of the pollution was taken care of they should revert back to normal, meaning naming them really didn't matter, but neither of them decided to say anything as they worked on taking their foes down. The next group of puffer fish were in the water that fed into the waterfalls, meaning to hurt them Ratchet and his siblings either used their weapons to take all of them down or used one of their other weapons, since the Pyrociter flames would be put out without any harm being done to any of their enemies, though there were no more Psy-tcopus in the area and allowed them to move towards the other end of the river. Sure enough they found another path and discovered a number of puffer fish that were waiting to do harm to those who came to this planet to relax, though they didn't last very long as the siblings burned and smashed their way through all of them, something that allowed Ratchet to see that they had reached another boat, where he and his siblings took up their positions as the man took control of the boat. As such he got them moving and the siblings took out all of the mutated puffer fish that dared to jump out of the water, allowing them to reach another platform that had to be the path that would bring them to the location that the jet fighter was resting in, though they waited for a few seconds as the boat raised up to where it was supposed to be and then jumped over to the platform in question, before they were able to find a new security measure, platforms that were contained in posts and extended when someone approached, no doubt staying in place when people were here all day.

On the other side of the walkway they found a number of mutant puffer fish attacking the buildings that were part of the resort, allowing Ratchet and his siblings to take them out since they were distracted, though once the group was taken care of they headed up the stairs to their right and moved closer to where they assumed the man was heading toward, an area that was infested with an army of puffer fish who seemed to be resting at the moment, surprising the man when he saw how many were up here. Sure enough the sound of the man gasping, purely because of how many enemies were in front of them, caused the mutant force to awaken and turned on where they were standing, though the siblings weren't even annoyed since it allowed all of their enemies to gather into a tighter area before they used their Pyrociters to burn all of them, something that opened the way for them to move forward. That brought them to a button that, when pressed as soon as the siblings discovered it, extended another walkway that was actually two and they moved to form a figure eight for some reason, or maybe it was supposed to be the infinity sign as Autumn stared at it, but once it was in place she and her brothers continued down the path that was in front of them and found more mutant puffer fish guarding the way to a pair of buildings, where Ratchet assumed the one that was in front of them was the jet fighter hanger and the one to the left appeared to be a mechanic shop. Based on how the man was acting it looked like this was where they were supposed to escort him to, so the first thing they did was repeat what they had done in the past, meaning tearing down the force of puffer fish that were blocking the way forward, something that seemed to impress the man behind them, before Ratchet and his siblings finished clearing out the area and discovered no more enemies that needed to be taken out and allowed them to approach the building in question.

"You know, you guys are pretty good at this," the man stated, showing that he approved of their skills and that he was very happy to have encountered them before they tried to take down the Blarg dropships that were currently in the sky, since he had a feeling that being on their bad side was a terrible idea, before he gestured to the clearly locked hanger that held the jet fighter they were here to use to destroy Drek's toxic dumping ships, and the large button that was in front of it, an item that Autumn quickly recognized, "now, don't be mad with me, but I don't actually know how to open the garage that the jet fighter is rest..."

"Don't worry, it's very simple," Autumn replied, where her horn glowed and she surrounded the large button with some of her magic, where she paused for a few seconds before forcing it into the ground and quickly unlocked the door, revealing the jet fighter as Ratchet grinned, as it looked like a useful ship in his eyes, though Autumn shrugged for a moment as the man stared at her with a look of shock in his eyes, "I originally designed that as a joke, fully intending for it to not be taken seriously, especially since one had to generate a very specific amount of force to unlock it... seems like Gadgetron liked it enough that they scaled it to where the force was harder to generate, as my original design was quite small. Anyway, I've been thinking about the toxic problem that you've been having, and I might have an idea on how we can counter what is happening to this planet... you wouldn't happen to have a sample of the sea water, from before the dumping started, on hand or stored away somewhere safe, would you?"

Ratchet and Starswirl glanced at each other for a moment, as it appeared that more had happened to their sister after her episode on Umbris, like unleashing all that magic and anger had awakened a part of her that they had only seen a small fraction of, while the man was sure they had such a sample, to which he beckoned to the Roboshack and she found a man who seemed a lot like Al, only he was skinnier and seemed far smarter in some aspects, though when he found Autumn in his shop he practically handed everything over to watch her work. In that moment Autumn sighed as her magic formed a circle around her, where Starswirl watched as she gathered a sample of the sludge that was being dropped from the fleet Drek had send to tarnish this world, a sample of the tainted water that was causing the mutations in the creatures they had faced to reach this point, and the third piece of the puzzle, the sample of pure water she claimed from Bob, who was the owner of the nearby Roboshack. As she did that Ratchet walked over to the jet fighter so he could tear apart the ships that were trying to pollute this world in Drek's name, where he and Clank discovered why the garage had been locked and why the man didn't have the key, as apparently he didn't trust tourists and the Board of Directors didn't trust him, but as soon as they knew that Ratchet and Clank climbed into the jet and flew off, where they opened fire on the dropships that were hanging in the air. In that moment Autumn really got to work, pulling items from her own storage area out and let all of them float around her, while pulling some items out of Bob's shack, not to mention gathering the pieces of one of the ships that Ratchet blew out of the air, before the parts broke apart as she worked her magic, something that showed her brother a level of control he had never seen in her before and wasn't sure if it was just her power at work or it combined with her modified helmet, but he remained silent as he watched her work.

The end construct, when Autumn was done working her magic over the area, was a centipede-like machine, about the size of the hanger that the jet fighter had been resting in, and it was a reddish orange color with silver stripes added to it, the colors chosen due to what was on the jet Ratchet was flying around, though as Ratchet landed, having finished off the rest of Drek's ships, she set in the three required samples and sent her device off, allowing them to watch as it went to work and started to reverse what Drek had done.

"There... it'll take some time, two months at most, but that should deal with the pollution and the mutants," Autumn said, to which she let go of the magic she had been using and staggered for a moment, something that caused Starswirl to rush over to her and catch her before her body gave out on her, while at the same time Ratchet ran over to check up on her as well, even though they could see that Bob and the Manager were surprised by this turn of events, causing her to let out a weak chuckle, "so... about those O2 Masks..."

Bob, deciding to thank her for showing him and his Manager how she worked in the field, pulled Clank to the side and did something interesting, he added a Thruster-Pack to the little robot, which gave him wing shaped arms and thrusters that were pointed towards the ground, away from whoever happened to be wearing Clank, while the Manager not only found the three O2 Masks, he offered the siblings what he called Lifetime VIP passes to the resort, as thanks for saving his resort from being closed down permanently. Autumn made sure to record what she had done with her helmet, since she had a feeling that it might open some doors in the future and it would be nice to have the schematics, which was a nice function of her modified Pilot's Helmet, though as she and her brothers were given their new masks, red colored helmets that had a breathing function in the front of it, Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank found that she used a bit of magic and combined both the helmet with the mask. It was more of an Omnihelm at this point in time, in Ratchet's eyes anyway, something that he knew would be true if they found anything else to add to, though given her new nature to fix and improve things he had a feeling that by the time he and his siblings got to got back to Orxon they would have the same modifications, though as he thought about such a thing he made sure that Clank had secured all of their Passes for the future, so they didn't lose them during their adventures. With that done, and Autumn was sure there was nothing else she needed to do for Pokitaru, the siblings used a teleporter to return to where the landing pad that their ship had been left on, though while they could use another to head into the sewers, for whatever might be down there, none of them felt like it was necessary and climbed back into their ship, as it was time to head back to Orxon.

While they started to leave Pokitaru, however, Autumn reminded Ratchet that they needed to speak with Skid's agent at some point, since he had done well with the tournament back on Rilgar, though once that was done she returned to the area that she worked in and decided to take a nap, because she had burned a lot of her energy making that machine and needed to rest before they did anything else.

R/C: Orxon

Sure enough Ratchet headed back to Aridia and found that Skid's agent was having no luck in leaving the planet, same with Skid for that matter, to which he showed the former the trophy and scored him and his siblings a contract for the future, all while scoring some sort of summoning helmet of some kind, which he handed over to Autumn before offering Skid and his agent a ride back to Rilgar, who took it and were quickly dropped off without too much delay, leading to the racer heading back to his sport with the agent heading off to do who knew what. With that done the siblings headed back to Orxon, as it was time to see what else Drek might have left for them to take and use against him, though while they did that Autumn did what Ratchet expected, she studied the Sonic Summoner, which was the name of the gadget that allowed the user to call forth a small creature to aid them in battle, though she was sure that, at some point, she would find a way to make it useful to them. Other than that she took out some of the materials she had claimed from Gaspar and made sure to have both the Grindboots and the Magneboots on hand as well, where Starswirl stopped his studying to watch as she melded the two into a single pair of boots, one that could change according to the situation and still had room for improvement, depending on whether or not they found anything else in the future, so in addition to the Onmihelm she had Onmiboots and started to do the same for Ratchet and Starswirl. It was her way of making sure they were ready for whatever the future held for them as well, without having to constantly switch boots whenever one needed something, or do the same with their helmets, but it gave her something to do while they traveled to their next destination, as it was time for them to explore the rest of Orxon and hope there was another Infobot waiting for them.

When they reached their destination Ratchet landed in the same area that he had landed in earlier, as there wasn't much else for him to pick from, though once the ship was parked, and Clank had turned off the systems for the time being, the siblings made sure to active their O2 functions before walking out of their ship, which meant using the ramp system again, before they stared out at the ruined world that was Orxon.

"This place... its just awful to think that Chairman Drek and the Blarg did this to their home planet," Ratchet said, where he and his siblings glanced out over the area that they had landed in and found that all sorts of toxins rested in the air, or at least that was what Clank had said and he totally believed him at this point in time, while the remaining plants and trees looked like they might be poisoned to the point where they would die in a matter of weeks, and even the rivers were full of toxin, as every source of water seemed to have been twisted into a sickly green mess, "Hey, Autumn, do you think that new machine of yours can fix up this planet?"

"Even if we find and recover the samples of what Orxon used to be, before the Blarg tainted it, it would take years, maybe even decades, to reverse all of their damage," Autumn replied, as she understood what Ratchet was asking about and she agreed with it as she thought about it, reversing the intense damage done to this world would make it inhabitable again, and since Drek was interested in making a planet for his people it meant he had to have the pristine samples of the water, air, and everything else to remake the conditions of a pure Orxon, "though there's also a chance that they might not have the samples, given how they treated this planet for so long, so the Blarg might have created some data to replicate the exact conditions for Drek and his people... we would have to find that data and take it, though according to my schematics I also made the pollution device capable of receiving data as well."

"Which means that you just created a device that can purify any world and keep it pristine," Starswirl commented, though at the same time he wasn't all that surprised by such a thing, since it was his sister they were talking about, before he took a moment to glance out at the planet that was in front of them and the twisted hazards that would need to be avoided so they could reach whatever weapons or gadgets might have been left here, "I'm sure the people who rule over the planets would be willing to pay for such a device, to keep their planets clean and reverse whatever damage they have done since their civilizations developed to the point where they can travel through space."

Autumn said nothing to that, as she wanted to think about the device and what she should do with it, as her brothers took a step forward and started to explore the twisted planet that Drek had left behind, where they found that they had to do a small jump over to a lone platform, which had some crates they had to smash their way through, before discovering that a glide was necessary, to which Starswirl and Autumn weaved their magic over themselves before gliding down to the patch of ground that Ratchet was heading towards. It was in that moment that they found a crab like creature that looked like it had a hard and spiked shell on it's back and had large pincers, making it look far more dangerous than a normal crab, but it was sleeping in front of an electric barrier, though Ratchet blasted it out of the way with a Devastator rocket, allowing his siblings to investigate the edges of the oddly placed barrier and Autumn discovered a Power Orb off to the side that she let Starswirl smash. With it broken Ratchet and his siblings found that there were odd red bird creatures that didn't seem to like them either, like they were part of the problem or something, to which Starswirl focused on blasting them out of the air with his magic while his siblings moved forward, even if it brought them to an area that had a few Toxic Crabs and what appeared to be a sleeping blue creature that seemed to be mostly a mouth, a body, the eyes and wings, a creature that woke up and screamed as it noticed them coming, waking up all of the Toxic Crabs. Such a thing told the siblings that they had to take out each and every Screamer that was in their path, as that was what Autumn was going to call these beasts, though as he thought about it Ratchet decided that it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, as with his siblings they had more than enough firepower to take down anything and anyone that was in their way, especially when they opened fire on the enemies that were in front of them and wiped out the area of the mutated creatures.

After that they smashed two more Power Orbs and brought down another barrier, one that revealed a split in the path, as one went off to their left and another did the same to their right, though since they had no idea what was down each one the siblings decided to head off to their left first, where it took them only a few seconds to find a Blarg attack ship, as in a small one for a single person to sit in, though Starswirl wasted no time in using his magic to raise the couple of explosive crates that were in front of them and destroyed the ship with them. From there they found their way into a building that had a pair of Blarg soldiers guarding it, who weren't expecting intruders to suddenly show up and attack them, so Ratchet was able to take the first one out as his siblings took out the second, allowing them to clear out the rest of this building as they searched for anything of use, though sure enough it didn't take them very long to find an opening that headed back outside and discovered a Blarg soldier surrounded by a number of Darters, the red birds. The soldier was rather easy for them to take down, as a well placed blast took him down, while taking out his companions didn't take too much longer, as a single blast from their Blasters took down the couple of Darters, before another small ship came out and tried to fire at all of them, to which Autumn raised her magic and sent them back at the ship, taking it out with it's own volley of attacks, allowing her and her brothers to continue their advance over some circular pillars. Those brought them to an area that a number of Toxic Crabs and a Screamer happened to be resting in, where Ratchet used his guns to take his foes down, all while Starswirl used magic for those further away and weapons for those nearby as Autumn used her arsenal to take her targets down, which resulted in two more Power Orbs failing since they were able to smash them as well, which brought the siblings to what appeared to be a loading zone for one of the Blarg's ships, one that Starswirl set off as they moved by a pair of soldiers, allowing the ship and ammunition to explode a few moments later.

From there they found a lift that brought them up to a chamber that seemed to have a barrier that kept the toxic air out of it, meaning Ratchet and his siblings didn't have to use their masks in this area, before they found a machine that looked like it was a dispenser, though Autumn grinned as she used her power on it and dismantled it in seconds, allowing them to claim three cans of Premium Nanotech and three cans of Ultra Nanotech, allowing them to down them in seconds, which held a minty flavor, and boost their maximum Nanotech.

"It seems the Blarg actually invented something useful," Autumn said, though she wasn't counting the RYNO, since it was her weapon and Gadgetron owned the rights to it, making this one of the few Blarg inventions she and her brothers would be using against Drek, though she hesitated to count the Grindboots since they had been signed over to Gadgetron due to Fred's actions in the research station.

"Not that it matters, since we never take a hit anyway." Ratchet remarked, as despite their lack of skill in the art of battle, something they had trained themselves in by facing the dangers that plagued their colony on Veldin, he and his siblings were able to avoid taking damage, though he could also blame the magic that Autumn and Starswirl had access to, since it allowed them to get through some situations they might have taken damage in.

Starswirl, on the other hand, said nothing as he and his siblings finished their drinks before donning their helmets again, to which they dropped down an opening and found themselves in an area that Clank had walked through earlier, when he did this alone, so they returned to their ship before retracing their steps back to where the split in the path happened to be, this time allowing them to head down the other path. Sure enough they found a number of Toxic Crabs and a couple of Screamers standing between them and where an Infobot was resting, though when Starswirl raised his hand the bot, as if sensing what he was doing, started to flee along a metallic path, causing the siblings to open fire on their foes and take all of them out in a matter of moments, allowing them to move forward without wasting time. With those enemies taken care of Ratchet and his siblings continued forward and started to walk along the metallic surface in question, where it only took a few seconds for Ratchet to find that Autumn had modified the boots to allow someone to move faster than slowly moving forward, allowing them to bypass the flaming traps and follow after the Infobot, before arriving at an electric fence that caused Autumn to use her Taunter to force all of the Toxic Crabs to attack the fence. Such a thing took out all of their enemies and allowed them to use a few Swingshot targets as they followed their target, finding that the Infobot moved on a path that took it through a number of Toxic Crabs, Darters, another electric fence, and a Blarg ship before finding what looked like an opening into a building that Clank might have passed through on his own, even though they had to follow it up to the top of the metallic passage. What they discovered was that there were no enemies inside the passage and it let them walk up to where the Infobot was resting without wasting too much time, though before it could flee again Starswirl sealed the opening behind it and forced it to be accepted by Ratchet, where it opened and revealed something that was quite a shock to all of them, that Drek was planning on using a planet destroying bomb to clear out the orbit that had been deemed as 'perfect' for his new planet.

No one said anything, as they all agreed that they couldn't allow Drek to get away with his plans, so after Clank claimed the Infobot for Hoven, which was where the bomb was resting before it was moved, Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl jumped down the center of the passage, headed outside, and returned to their ship, allowing them to enter through the ramp and make sure none of Orxon's toxic air had stuck to them, but once that was done they took their seats before departing for the next planet on their growing list.

R/C: Hoven

It took some time for Ratchet to reach the ice planet known as Hoven, though when he reached it he and Clank set their ship down on the landing pad before powering it down once more, where they and his siblings climbed out of the vehicle and took a look at everything that was around them, even though the first thing all of them found was the massive missile that was hanging in the air, a planet destroying weapon built by Drek and his scientists to wipe out whatever world they were interested in blowing up for their new planet.

"There it is, the Planetbuster Maximus," Clank commented, where they found that the missile was already attached to the ship that would no doubt be taking it off planet in the very near future, though based on what he and the others could see it looked like it was in the middle of fueling up, which meant there was time for them to find a way to destroy it before Drek's bomb was taken off of Hoven and sent it towards the planet they wanted to blow up, "We must take out that ship, before it leaves this planet."

"That's the plan," Ratchet replied, though as he thought about that he had to wonder what sort of weapon would be capable of taking out the ship from down here, something that would save them a lot of time and might grant them a chance to catch up with Drek, because if they took him out the Blarg might stop their plans to wipe out the rest of the galaxy, but that was a thought for the future, once he and his siblings were done with this adventure.

"Of course taking it out is the problem, since our weapons can't reach it," Autumn added, something that made her take a moment to wonder if the RYNO would reach it, before discarding the idea entirely, because while the weapon did have the power to take something like this down it didn't have the range necessary to hit their target, meaning any shot she fired would be wasted and meant they had to explore the rest of Hoven to find a weapon to take the ship out.

"I'm sure that we'll find something here that will allow us to tear that ship down," Starswirl said, as he was sure there was a turret or something nearby that they might be able to use against Drek's ship and the bomb it was carrying, though that made him wonder if hitting the Planetbuster Maximus would cause it to go off, taking Hoven with it, but figured he and his siblings would figure that out soon enough, even if he hoped it wouldn't explode when they dealt with it.

Ratchet nodded as he stepped forward, causing Autumn and Starswirl to follow after him without much delay, where they found a new weapon, one called the Drone Device, a defensive weapon that summoned six drones that absorbed bits of damage to protect whoever was using it, though while they bought it Autumn had a feeling that it would be used once or twice before being put aside, as it was one of her weaker weapons and she already knew what was coming. With all three of them maxing out their ammunition the siblings headed down the path that was in front of them, where they found a pair of grayish furred creatures that seemed to be eager to bite whoever got near them, though as they discovered those enemies Ratchet noted that the structures around here matched what they found on Orxon and Gaspar, Blargian design to be exact, before pushing that thought to the side as they moved forward. The little Anklebiters, which did look like small yetis upon inspection, were easy to take care of, even if Ratchet found that they were coming in groups between two to six as he and his siblings progressed, though Autumn did collect a few samples of the fur that wasn't damaged by any of their weapons, just because it have her something to study in the future and might come with a new weapon being added to what Gadgetron was producing right now. The other thing Ratchet discovered was that a good number of Blarg bombers, as in the stealthy ones that they had faced back on Batalia, were hanging out in the open and opened fire on him and his siblings as soon as they spotted them, causing Starswirl to summoned a barrier for a few seconds, blocking the wave of attacks, which allowed Ratchet and Autumn to lash out with their own weapons, though it wasn't long before all of their current foes were taken care of and allowed them to move forward.

That allowed them to reach another area that had four of the bombers, who fell within a matter of seconds, before they found a decision, either they head across some platforms and ascend to a higher position or they use a lift to head into a mountain wall for whatever reason, to which Ratchet decided to check that out later as he and his siblings smashed the rest of the nearby crates and then used a platform to cross over an icy river, as there was ice forming all over it, which let them reach a platform. Given all of the enemies they had faced so far the siblings figured that the platform would have a lot more enemies waiting for intruders while Drek's bomb was being built, though what they discovered was that there were no guards and that it only had a few mines guarding it, which was unexpected, and even a Blarg chopper, which did come in after all of the mines were taken care of, didn't do much in the grand scheme of things, given that Starswirl just used his magic to blast it apart. Such a thing allowed them to use a lift that brought them up to the next section of Drek's bomb factory, where a number of Blarg bombers were waiting to defend their boss' bomb, not that it mattered since the siblings threw a trio of bombs into their midst and took them out, something that opened the way for them to discover another chopper was moving towards their position, where a combined Devastator barrage took it out before it even had a chance to fire at them. From there Ratchet found a pair of pillars for him to use the Wall Jump on and he did so as soon as they were sure all of their enemies had been taken care of, though at the top of it he found a small tunnel that lead to a conveyor belt and a mine dispenser, the enemy machine being taken out in seconds and allowed them to use another set of walls to ascend even higher, which was good since it looked like they were drawing closer and closer to where the large bomb was resting.

Sure enough they whacked their way through another small passage, with a few Anklebiters blocking the way, before they found a ledge that just so happened to have three small platforms floating in the air between it and another part of this somewhat small factory, as all of them expected more from a place that made bombs like the one that was hanging in the air, or just bombs that all of the Blarg used against Drek's foes, but since no enemies seemed to be standing in their way Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl crossed all three platforms with ease. From there they approached a building that had to be part of the control center for the ship, even if all of the machines that happened to be inside it seemed to be offline and it looked like nothing could be done to reactivate them, though they did have to deal with a large group of Blarg bombers that seemed to be guarding the area, though upon inspection Starswirl was sure that these guys were more like troopers, since none of them used bombs.

"We're too late! The ship is leaving!" Clank stated, as he turned his head to see what the siblings were doing, allowing him to speak once Ratchet stepped outside with his siblings behind him, though that just so happened to be when the large ship started to leave the area that it had been resting in, meaning the refueling process must have been completed and a scientist, or whoever was in control of it, had started to move once that was done.

"That might be true, but there's an old defense turret nearby." Autumn replied, where she beckoned to the weapon for a moment and found that her brothers were thinking the same thing that she was thinking about, they were going to use it to take down the ship before it could either leave Hoven or arm the Planetbuster Maximus, hence why all three of them rushed over to where the turret rested and got to work.

What that meant was that Ratchet, being the greatest shooter among them when it came to turrets, climbed onto the old weapon as Autumn quickly scanned it and performed maintenance to make sure everything was fully operational, though as they did that Starswirl opened fire on the incoming choppers that were here to protect the ship, and once Autumn was done she joined him by adding her own magic and RYNO missiles into the mix as Ratchet focused on blasting their target, intending on blasting it out of the air and dropping the inactive bomb into the icy water. Of course Ratchet and his siblings discovered why there had been so few defenders between where they landed and where the turret rested, as there was a force of choppers to defend the ship's takeoff, though with the combined firepower of his siblings, plus their magic added to the mix, the Blarg stood no chance in defending the ship, allowing him to blast through the shattered defenses and hit his target before it was able to leave the planet behind. With their combined efforts sections of the carrier ship collapsed and fell into the water below it, meaning it was a mistake for it to sit there and try to take down whoever was attacking it, a mistake that whoever was piloting it wouldn't be able to make in the future, before Ratchet dealt the finishing blow to the carrier ship and sent the ruined ship, with the Planetbuster Maximus, straight down into the icy water below it, something that caused the siblings to cheer as they heard the sound of the remaining Blarg cry out in despair.

"Good shooting, Ratchet. Now we've set Drek's plans back quite a bit." Starswirl commented, where he and his siblings, not to mention Clank for that matter, grinned as they watched the dangerous bomb fall into the wall and become inert, or at least he hoped so since it was a dangerous object and seriously hoped that the icy water of Hoven ruined the machinery and components that were inside the missile.

Before anyone could say anything else an Infobot showed up, one that Autumn found on one of the choppers before they blew it up, that had Drek talking to his troops about a force that was being assembled on a moon base, one that would be attacking Gorda City, which was part of the planet Oltanis, before revealing that they were going to be attacking a planet that had no defenders and would be stealing their power generators, to which Ratchet and his siblings glanced at each other for a few seconds.

"At this point I'm not even surprised by Drek's actions." Ratchet said, to which he sighed for a moment, because all of this was far more than what he was expecting when he and his siblings wanted to explore the galaxy and leave Veldin for some time, as he honestly didn't think they would be involved in a fight for their galaxy, though he found that Autumn nodded her head in agreement and Starswirl seemed focused on what they might find at the moon base.

With that done the siblings decided to glide down to where their ship was located, figuring that they could come back once Drek was defeated to see what was down the other path they had seen, though once everyone was ready, and no more enemies were coming out to stop them, Ratchet and Clank activated their ship and departed from Hoven with all haste, as they might be able to stop the assault on Oltanis if they got there fast enough, even if they were hoping to take Drek down as well so they could stop his pointless and incredibly dangerous quest.

R/C: Gemlik Base

Despite their desire to get to Gemlik Base and assault Chairman Drek, before he was able to escape them again, their ship could only go so fast, leading Ratchet to wonder how long he and his siblings were going to remain one step behind him and his plans, though with the destruction of the Planetbuster Maximus he, Autumn, and Starswirl had bought some time for the planet he was planning on blowing up, though his thoughts turned towards their target as he landed on a landing pad that had to be on the outskirts of the base.

"I do not see Drek's ship anywhere," Clank commented, speaking as Ratchet and his siblings climbed out of their ship, all while making sure to have their masks on so they could survive outside their ship, where he glanced at his companions as they took in the dark gray metallic nature of this place, which had all sorts of towers and defenses to make sure the base was safe, "We must have missed him."

"If he was here in the first place... honestly, he doesn't seem like the type to dirty his own hands," Starswirl stated, as that was something he had come up with from recalling everything he and his siblings had learned about the Blarg who was in control of his entire race, showing that he had been thinking about it for some time and this was the first time he spoke his mind on a topic or individual, "plus he was ordering his forces to come here and prepare for an attack, so there was never a guarantee that he would personally come here and oversee what his soldiers were doing."

"As much as I like this ship, save for the Qwark logos, we can't keep doing this," Ratchet added, something that caused all three of them to sigh for a moment, as each of them were still angry with the Captain and taking him out would have done wonders for them, as closure would have allowed him and his siblings to put that event behind them, before he glanced out at the base once more, "we're going to need a faster ship if we want to catch Drek."

"Perhaps we can find one here," Autumn said, causing her brothers and Clank to glance at her for a few seconds, though it took them a few seconds to understand what she was talking about, even if she was thinking of using her power to meld this ship with whatever they found in this place, sort of like what she did back on Pokitaru, before she sighed and took a step forward at long last, "Come on, let's see what sort of dangers are waiting for us in this base."

As they headed down the pillar that was in front of them, which connected their landing area to the rest of the base, one thing Ratchet and his siblings discovered in a matter of seconds was that to move forward they had to tear down some of the towers that lined the path they were following, towers that were easily destroyed by sending either a Devastator blast or Visibomb missile into the side of them, though in addition to those they found some metallic enemies guarding the way forward, little robotic birds. These robots weren't the same ones that they had seen back on Novalis, rather they seemed to be orange colored and appeared to travel in packs of six, at the very least, though while some of their recent foes took more than a single hit to take down these ones fell in seconds as a single swing of their melee weapons took them out, a fact that allowed them to move up some steps and let them approach an area that used to have a force field blocking the way forward. After that they discovered a few more robotic birds and a Blarg soldier guarding the way to the next tower, something that caused Ratchet and his siblings to lash out at them, allowing them to clear out all of the enemies that were in their way and even lead to them smashing some crates for all of the Bolts that were inside them, though as Ratchet took down the tower Starswirl discovered that some of his magic was nullified due to the space that was around them, so both he and Autumn had to stick with more energy based spells, like missiles made of magic or something. With that done they found a more open area that had a turret, one that fired in their direction as soon as they stepped down into the area it was stationed in, which lead Autumn and Starswirl to use magical barriers to defend themselves while giving Ratchet a few seconds to get behind the turret so he could take out the Blarg controlling it, allowing his siblings to catch up with him as he focused on a locked gate in front of them.

Of course one would have assumed that such a thing would have been the end of their exploration of this place, but that was when Ratchet pulled out the Trespasser and forced open the lock, which was followed by the gate opening not a few seconds later, revealing an area with another turret goon and some of the robotic birds, so Ratchet acted as bait as both of his siblings took care of their enemies, Autumn blasting the robotic birds out of the way as Starswirl used a Visibomb to take out the turret goon. With that done they found another locked gate and allowed Ratchet to step forward so he could unlock it, revealing another area with a turret goon, plus a lower side passage that held a pair of soldiers, though instead of wasting time Ratchet used his own Visibomb Gun to take out the turret goon, allowing his siblings to move forward and blast their enemies into the walls behind them, opening the way for them to head off to the right and move deeper into the base, with some robotic birds to take out. One thing Autumn found was that there were a number of barrels that had poison or toxic gas inside them, items they had to ignore since they could be dangerous to all of them, so she did the next best thing and hurled whatever containers were in front of them into the area they had just passed through, eliminating the danger before it could harm them, before finding a tower that was behind a barrier, meaning it was somewhat safer and harder to hit. Of course that didn't mean anything to the siblings since a single Visibomb missile could take it out and bring down the barrier, where they found a jet waiting right in the middle of the circular chamber the path had brought all of them to, causing Ratchet and his siblings to open fire on it before it could fire at them, though with it taken out the door on the other side opened and revealed two more jets, where Autumn and Starswirl lifted some of the toxic containers and hurled them right into the jets, taking them out in seconds.

On the other side of the door they found a Blarg soldier guarding some toxic containers, a foolish move since it allowed Ratchet to use a single Blaster shot to take him and the containers out, opening the way for them to reach a doorway that was actually an elevator that moved down a little, revealing a way into the insides of this base, which had toxic rivers for some reason, maybe pure waste given Drek's previous ventures, and some robotic birds, though it was easy for them to clear out the area of enemies.

After that they found their way over to a circular passage that lead to an area that was full of rising and lowering waste, a hazardous area for sure, so what they had to do was make their way to the middle of the passage before stopping on the highest platform that was just above all of the waste, though a few seconds later they were able to move forward again as they reached an area that they had to use their Swingshots in, to reach the other side and take down a number of soldiers to ope the way forward. With those enemies taken care of they found another metallic surface to walk on and walked on it without delay, finding that they had to be careful here since it also had rising and lowering levels of toxic waste, colored red this time around, even if it brought them to another area that had a soldier defending the way forward, but due to the toxic containers around him Ratchet targeted the nearest container and took their foe out. After that the siblings noticed the area in front of them and discovered it required them to glide down to a lower area, something they did without much delay, where they were able to use an elevator to rise up and head to another part of the exterior of this base, though as the door opened Ratchet found a pack of robotic birds waiting for them, who he and his siblings took out rather quickly so each of them could see what was coming next. Sure enough they found another barrier blocking the way forward, so that meant blasting apart the tower that was on the other side of it, though there was a jet on the other side of the barrier and Starswirl lifted a container before hurling it at their foe, wiping out the jet before it could fire at them, which allowed them to find some more robotic birds hanging out near a few toxic containers, allowing Starswirl to detonate it and cleared out the area within a matter of seconds.

Autumn stepped forward after that was done and found that there was another lock for Ratchet to use the Trespasser on, one that happened to lead to where a few turret goons were preparing to open fire on anyone who made it this far, so he quickly unlocked the door and let Autumn blast the toxic containers that were behind the three turrets, taking out their enemies in a matter of seconds before heading down the main path, allowing them to see their ship from afar, though it lead to an area that had a fair number of robotic birds and a pair of soldiers. As such she and her brothers opened fire on their enemies, her focusing on those who were up in the air while Ratchet dealt with the pair of soldiers, though Starswirl focused on taking down two more jets that were waiting on the other side of a moveable wall that pulled into the side of the base, opening the way for them to move forward. One thing they walked by was a trio of openings that lead up to the area that three more turret goons were waiting, causing Autumn to focus on blasting them down so they didn't have to worry about them, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl to follow the path that the jets had been protecting, before finding that no more enemies were in front of them, allowing them to reach another elevator that brought them down into another part of the base, even though this one spun around and required the use of the magnetic function of their boots. Such a thing allowed them to enter a massive chamber that had an army of robotic birds and some soldiers, something that caused the siblings to divide up the area as they dropped down into the area in question, though neither Ratchet or Starswirl were at all surprised to find Autumn firing a volley of RYNO missiles into her section of the chamber, wiping out her targets in no time, leaving them to deal with the remaining enemies, who seemed surprised that intruders had gotten to this point and tried to take them down, only to fail in due time.

With the chamber cleared out Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl gathered near the elevator that would take them outside, as that seemed to be how this placed had been designed, which brought them to a set of stairs and came to a stop at what had to be the other end of the base, where they found Captain Qwark standing in the middle of the platform, looking like he was the superior one out of everyone who was here... though after seeing the flames of Autumn's white hot anger, as it appeared as soon as she laid eyes on him, he jumped back and climbed into a large ship that flew off into space.

"After him!" Ratchet called out, though he instantly found a problem, there was only one ship and three of them, meaning they would have to decide on who got the pleasure of taking Qwark out and bringing justice to the corrupt hero that many looked up to, but before he could say anything about that Starswirl and Autumn weaved their magic over the ship and he found that they duplicated it, creating two more ships, to which he decided not to bother as he and Clank climbed into the closest one, leaving Autumn and Starswirl to follow after him.

Qwark, of course, seemed surprised by that fact, that they were capable of duplicating the lone ship into three ships so all of them could fly after him, and it wasn't long before Ratchet and his siblings tore apart one of his engines, causing him to press a button and send the damaged fragment off into space so he could keep moving without dealing more damage to his space ship, a smart move in Clank's eyes, though it didn't stop Ratchet, Autumn, or Starswirl from firing upon his ship in an effort to take him down and make him pay for his crimes.

"Listen to me, I'm doing this for your own good." Qwark stated, speaking over the communications system so the siblings could hear him speak, not that it mattered since they were ignoring him and everything he had to say, but that didn't stop him from trying to get through to them, all while Ratchet and his siblings dodged his attacks and fired at him in return, a fact that informed him that they were trying to kill him for what he did, "You four have no idea what you're getting into, as Drek will stop at nothing to make sure everyone either bows to him or is left in ruin, and right now I can tell you that he's focused on the latter for you guys."

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl ignored his comments as they continued to fire upon his fighter, tearing into the backside of it while seeking out the rest of the engines, though it wasn't long before they shattered the second one and forced the corrupt Captain to eject it as well, something that was swiftly followed by another being destroyed and caused Qwark to activate a force field while calling in allies to aid him, even if the siblings tore them apart before they could do anything to their ships, allowing them to focus on Qwark once more.

"Come on, aren't you guys overreacting?" Qwark asked, though it was clear that he was worried about his chances of even surviving this battle, as they were tearing apart his ship without him being able to do anything in return, showing him that the siblings were quite skilled in the art of piloting vehicles like this, even if they were far younger than him since he had to be in his middle thirties to early forties at this point, "Ratchet, surely we can talk about this?"

"You and Drek have to be stopped... that's all we're doing right now." Ratchet replied, where Clank found that he was just as calm as he had been when the two of them talked after Qwark's betrayal, while Starswirl had tended to Autumn, and it made him turn his head for a few seconds, finding that Ratchet was in the process of letting go of the necklace before he refocused on what their foe was doing, even if he continued to deal damage to the fighter.

"For the future of our galaxy, you two have to be taken down and punished for your crimes," Starswirl added, though once this battle was over they would be able to check one name off the list, leaving Drek and those who served as commanders in his corrupt group, though after saying that he resumed firing on Qwark's fighter for a few moments and tore off one of the remaining engines that it had.

"Autumn... surely you know that I never wanted to harm you guys..." Qwark pleaded, which was a shock since none of the siblings, not even Clank, expected the man to do something like this while they tore his fighter apart, though they waited for a few seconds, just to make sure he wasn't trying to make them stop and lure them into a trap that would take all of them out, even though it didn't look like any additional enemies were coming to Qwark's aid, "please, you have to believe me... the Blargian Snagglebeast wasn't supposed to break out of the restraints and attack you guys, it was supposed to mind it's own business... please, I never meant to hurt any of you!"

"I want to believe you... I really want to... but I'm not a naive child anymore," Autumn said, though while she was angry at Qwark, enough to nearly make her burst into the flaming form she had taken back during their time on Umbris, there was a part of her that felt like crying as she continued to blast into the fighter that she and her siblings were focused on right now, even if no tears came from feeling that way, "I want to believe that you were a hero, fighting to protect those who looked up to you, instead of being corrupted to the point where you would side with someone like Drek... that's why this hurts, because we know you could have been a hero... but you made your bed, and now you must lay in it."

In that moment Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn opened fire on the fighter, tearing through what seemed to be the last of the engines that powered the large ship, where they watched as what was left of the ship, containing Qwark no doubt, just spun out of control and descended towards Oltanis, before eventually exploding during reentry, something that caused everyone to breathe a sigh of relief as they returned to the area that they had found the man on earlier, landing their ships near the hanger before climbing out, but before they could do anything an Infobot revealed itself and revealed that Drek's forces were already attacking Oltanis.

"I was hoping that we'd stop the invasion, but it seems that we were too late to stop that from happening," Ratchet said, though as he said that, and Clank claimed the Infobot like all of the others they had recovered over the course of this long adventure, he and his siblings stared at what was resting nearby, as there was a slim black starship that seemed far more advanced than any of the ships they had used so far, "though it looks like we might be in luck, since it seems that Qwark left us a little present before he shot him down... only it looks big enough for one of us, and Clank, so that's going to be a bit of a problem."

Of course Ratchet forgot who was with him for a moment as Starswirl used his magic to lift their previous ship over to the area that they were standing in, and when it arrived Autumn took a deep breath, since she was a little burned out thanks to her anger for Qwark rising again, before using her power to study both ships and dismantled them, though it wasn't too long before she combined the two ships together, into one that looked like the slim ship that had red stripes added to the black paint. Another thing Ratchet noticed was that it seemed to be somewhat bigger on the inside, which meant that she must added some of her magic to the mix, or Starswirl had done that when he wasn't looking, meaning all of them could sit inside the ship without having to worry about space, to which Ratchet chuckled as they climbed into the ship, finding it also had a ramp and rest area in the back, before heading down to Oltanis to assault Drek's forces and see what could be done to save the planet.

R/C: Oltanis

Despite the fact that they didn't have to fly too far, since Gemlik Base was hanging up in the asteroid field that was close to where Oltanis rested, Ratchet found that the speed of the new ship happened to be everything they needed, as it would let them get from one side of the galaxy to another in record time, possibly hours instead of a day, and it allowed him to land on the landing pad that was right in the middle of the city that Drek's forces had been assaulting while they dealt with Qwark, but based on what they were seeing it was also in the middle of a massive storm.

"Clank, I'm afraid that you'll have to sit this one out," Ratchet said, as while their ship was able to slip through the storm, with no harm coming to it since he was sure that it had been outfitted with some sort of device or coating that protected it from the storms that this planet experienced, or at least that was his thoughts on the matter since he wasn't an expert in the art of science like Autumn was, he knew that Clank wasn't outfitted with the same defenses and that meant that the lightning would likely shock him into submission.

"I agree. I would not want to endanger you by riding on your back during this." Clank replied, where he waited for Ratchet to land the ship before he walked over to the ramp and tapped a button, allowing the ramp to descend so the siblings could head out and see what they could do to aid the people of Oltanis, where he found that Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn took a moment to ready their melee weapons before heading over to the ramp, "I will keep the ship safe while you three explore the city."

Ratchet nodded as he and his siblings walked down the ramp and stepped out onto the landing pad, where they found that the city was definitely in the middle of a massive lightning storm, one that didn't seem like it would end anytime soon, which wasn't counting the fact that all of the generators were either stolen or damaged by the Blarg's assault, though not a few seconds later the siblings approached a Vendor and found that a new weapon was available, the Tesla Claw, one that was able to loose a beam of electrical energy, which they claimed without delay. With that done Ratchet and his siblings stepped onto a metallic pad and let it take them down into what appeared to be the former center of the city, which had a golden statue in the middle, a metallic walkway to their left, a path across from where the pad ended up, and a taxi off to their right that seemed to head into the upper part of the ruined city. As such the first thing all of them did was head over to the taxi and climbed onto it, where it took them over to where they wanted to explore first and Ratchet found that they flew over a large body of water that seemed to cut through the entire city, like the city was built on an ocean or something like that, and sure enough there were all sorts of ships attacking Oltanis right now, which told them that some of Drek's forces were still present. Once the taxi came to a stop the siblings discovered that they would be following a path that had been built into the city at one point in time, though it appeared that there were a number of gun turrets, small white zap robots, and a number of scouter ships that had search lights attached to them, meaning that if the last ones found one of them they would be fired upon, though such a thing didn't stop Ratchet or his siblings from firing upon the enemies that were in front of them.

"Drek's certainly done some damage to this place," Autumn commented, where she used the Devastator to blast a scout out of the air, opening the way for her brothers to take down all of the turrets that had been attached to the ground, but all of this just made her angry, seeing everything that Drek had done to the planets he either wanted a piece of or those he felt were garbage in comparison to the others, but it wasn't enough to actually call forth her twisted form.

"We'll get to him in due time, we just have to be patient," Starswirl replied, though he understood his sister's feeling on the matter, because he didn't like Drek at this point in time and he was getting tired of seeing all the destruction that the Blarg had caused to every planet they found an Infobot for, but as that happened he and Ratchet smashed their way though the group of zap robots that happened to be in front of them, including a few spawners that had been left out to make more of them, in case the maximum number of little robots decreased.

With the first set of enemies taken care of the siblings found an area that had a Swingshot target above it, one of the ones that pulled someone to it, and as such they used their gadget to reach the next area that they had to clear of enemies, an area that had a pair of turrets firing at whoever came to their area and a few little robots, though this time around Autumn summoned a few small fireballs before firing them at her targets, clearing out the area so that her brothers could catch up with her and continue moving forward. Starswirl found that there was a ledge ladder in front of them, so they had to use a few outcroppings to reach an upper area that seemed to head deeper into the ruined section of Gorda City, where he and his siblings found three scout ships flying through the area and an idea came to mind as he lifted his staff towards the sky for a moment, calling on his magic as he connected with a small portion of the storm, knowing that if he drew in too much power he could really ruin this part of the city, more than it already was. Ratchet and Autumn watched as he tapped into a new power and sent three lightning bolts down from the storm, blasting the scout ships out of the air with ease, allowing them to move forward without having to worry about dodging those enemies for a time, where it didn't take them long to find that there was a fourth scout ship flying around another section of the path and it was followed by Autumn blasting it with the Devastator, allowing them to continue forward. After that it became clear that to move forward they would have to use their Swingshots on another target, this one attached to a moving vehicle, which was big enough for all of them to stand on and seemed to be going around in a circle, so they had to be patient and fire at the target once it came into view, allowing them to land on the vehicle and move around a destroyed generator before using another Swingshot target that brought Ratchet and his siblings into the next building that was along the path they were following.

Sure enough they found a number of scout ships, four to be exact, so Ratchet let Starswirl and Autumn blast them out of the air as he collected some Bolts from the nearby crates, which brought them to an area that had a few pipes that they had to use to reach a lone turret and where another Swingshot target happened to be moving through, so Ratchet used his Blaster to take the target down before they used the gadget to move forward, even if they had to use it again to reach another moving platform. From there Ratchet and his siblings rode around a little more before swinging over to a third Swingshot target that was circling a decent sized platform, one that they jumped down to as soon as they crossed over to the moving platform in question, though they found that there was a single scout ship and a few zap robots blocking the way forward, so they glanced at each other before taking down their foes. The other thing they had to worry about and deal with were a few turrets that popped out around the structure they were fighting on, something the siblings were able to do with ease, though once all of the enemies had been cleared out, and each of them were sure of that, Ratchet found a ledge ladder leading up to the top of the pillar that happened to be in the center of the structure, so they took turns climbing up the side of it for a time, which would give them a good view over this portion of the city and see if they could see anything else before returning to their ship. What Autumn discovered, however, was that there was a weapon resting in the center of the pillar's peak, a gun that kind of looked like the Taunter had been mixed with something else, though she knew what it was within a matter of seconds, it was the Morph-o-ray, a gun designed to turn enemies into chickens in a few seconds, or at least that was what the tech was supposed to do.

"Hey, Starswirl, do you think you or Autumn could make a spell similar to this?" Ratchet inquired, as he knew that if such a thing was said there was a good chance that his brother would consider it and likely do something about it, to the point where he would likely add a spell to his growing arsenal, making him more dangerous for whatever they might face in the future, though he made sure to listen to his sister's explanation of the weapon in question.

"Hm, it should be possible, but I would have to experiment with some of the enemies to figure it out," Starswirl replied, as he figured that it was Ratchet's attempt to lighten the mood and made him and Autumn stop thinking about Qwark, even if blowing the corrupt Captain out of the air was supposed to give them closure, something he wasn't sure they had gotten during that space battle.

Ratchet nodded, happy to have done something, anything really, to help one of his siblings not worry about Qwark, as he knew that neither Starswirl or Autumn had an item like his necklace to aid them in calming down, though with the newest weapon added to their arsenal he found a short grind rail nearby and used it to return to the landing pad their ship was on, where it wasn't long before his siblings landed behind him. Once that was done they headed back over to the platform that had brought them down to where the statue rested and used it once more, before heading down a path that looked like it was heading into the main part of Gorda City, given the ruined path that rested all around them, and it gave Ratchet a chance to test the Morph-o-ray out, as he turned two zap robots into normal sized chickens in a second as the beam the weapon fired hit his targets. Autumn explained that it was that way because the zap robots didn't have a lot of mass, due to their small size, so the process was essentially instant for them, while if this was used on one of the Blarg, for example, it would take somewhat longer since Drek's forces were taller than the zap robots and had more mass to work with, so it might be best to use the new weapon to clear out smaller enemies and save their ammunition for the rest. Ratchet took a moment to think about that idea, especially when he knew that there were a lot of smaller enemies attacking the city, and found that he agreed with what his sister had suggested, to which her magic washed over it and she made two copies of it, giving one to Starswirl so he could study the method of it transforming mass into something else, to make spells similar to what the weapon could do, while she carried the second.

As they moved forward Autumn also made sure to copy the Suck Cannon, just so they each had one, even if it seemed to be one of the lesser used weapons in their arsenal, though after that they found an area that happened to have a device that enemies popped out of, robots that seemed to be able to shoot beams of electrical energy, just like the Tesla Claw as she thought about it. Of course she and her brothers were able to jump over the attacks that the Plasmabots used to try and take them down, allowing them to deal some damage to their foes before taking the four robots down, though while Ratchet and Starswirl moved forward Autumn discovered a familiar icon on their back, one that revealed that these robots were another creation of Drek's, meaning they didn't have to go easy on them. After that they found a bomber ship that was loosing bombs on the path that happened to be the one they were following right now, why they had no idea since it seemed to be doing nothing to further the goal that Drek gave it, but Starswirl crushed it with some of his magic and they continued further down the path, where each of them kept their eyes open for anything else that might be useful in their quest to take down Drek. The next group of enemies happened to be more Plasmabots with a few zap robots mixed in, all to be a distraction, but Ratchet and his siblings wasted no time in blasting their way through them as well, as none of them had any patience for Drek's followers and would tear apart his army accordingly, before breaking through another group of Plasmabots that had a bomber ship guarding this section of the city and used a grind rail to travel to a new section of Gorda City, even if it involved smashing a few more Plasmabots when they reached the platform below the end, meaning they had no way back and could only continue forward, without using magic anyway.

After that they continued down a somewhat raised path that was guarded by a bomber ship, one that Starswirl crushed as Ratchet and Autumn opened fire on some Plasmabots who were resting on a higher point at the end of the walkway, so it took them no time to break their enemies down and move through this section of Gorda City, which eventually ended in a path that had a turret that rested near three grind rails. With the three of them it took no time for the turret to be taken out and they stepped onto the rails, though as that happened Autumn heard something open and knew that three of the Plasmabots were like following after them, hunting down enemies of Chairman Drek no doubt, though they smiled for a moment, since this provided a challenge of sorts before they reached the end of the track. As such Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were happy to have staggered themselves, as one was first, another was a bit behind the first, and the third was behind both of them, that way they could jump without having to worry about getting in the way of each other, as all three of their enemies happened to be loosing beams at them at random. The only other thing that got in their way were some smaller bots that seemed to be placing mines along each of the grind rails, something Autumn and Starswirl took out with their magic, while they avoided the electrical fences and allowed all of their foes to run into them, something that ended with them reaching the end with no enemies chasing after them, even if they landed in an area that seemed to be above where Ratchet landed earlier.

What they discovered was a deaf man who seemed to be running a robotics shop of some kind, though anything they said was translated as something else, like when Ratchet mentioned Drek and the man spoke about stuff on sale, something that lead to them buying an Infobot from him that held the coordinates for Quartu, where Drek seemed to be building his own battle mechs or something, before they pressed a button and opened the way to the statue once more, to which they returned to their ship, before taking notice of the other path nearby.

After a few seconds Ratchet decided to check out a metallic ramp that seemed like it might go somewhere, even if it was large enough for a single person to use, causing Starswirl and Autumn to inform him that they would be back at the ship, which allowed him to connect with the platform that took him over to the part of the city he and his siblings hadn't explored yet, one that happened to have a number of ice covered platforms he would have to be careful of. Sure enough he found that the ice was slippery and that he had to be mindful of how he went about moving from one part of the area to the next, all while dealing with some strong gusts of wind that could push him back to the start of the particular section he happened to be on, all while finding some metallic walkways leading to the next section he had to move through. This lead Ratchet to wonder if he might convince Autumn to make a gadget that allowed one to walk on ice without slipping, which would deal with the wind problem as well, though he did have to take out a few mines that were rotating around the platforms, likely left by Drek's soldiers, and there were some electrical lines he had to jump over as well, but for the most part it looked like there was nothing else for him to worry about, as all the enemies in Gorda City had been wiped out. It was a peaceful and uneventful series of events, allowing him to think about things without having to worry about his siblings or Clank cutting into his thoughts, before he found something that nearly stopped him in his tracks, as at the end of the path he happened to be following was a rather crude looking wooden stand, with the name and emblem of Gadgetron plastered on it, but it was the person on the other side of the stand that stopped him.

"Captain Qwark?" Ratchet asked, mostly in shock, since he was sure that they had blasted him out of the air and the ship he had been in had blown up after passing through the atmosphere, before he found what appeared to be an escape pod resting in the water below them, meaning he must have pulled himself up here before setting up this stand, but he kept his wrench at his side in case the man made a move.

"Where?" Qwark demanded in surprise, like he wasn't expecting someone to recognize him or something, as if his life had been ruined to the point where he was trying to reinvent himself, and it was possible since he claimed Drek wanted them taken out and likely ordered the corrupt man to take him and his siblings out, not that Ratchet cared since he was far more interested in his former sponsor.

"Come on, Qwark, I know it's you. Now, where is Drek and where is he going next?" Ratchet inquired, because the man had to know something important, save for the fact that he had been a sponsor for the new world that was being built, due to the fact that this had to be more like him hiding and less about starting a new life, though in response to that Qwark just turned his head to his clipboard, like he was looking for something, to which Ratchet sighed, "Let me guess, you won't tell me anything until I buy something?"

"I have for you, today only, the Gadgetron PDA, the Personal Delivery Assistant," Qwark stated, holding out a gadget that looked a lot like a calculator of some kind, one Ratchet recognized from one of Autumn's numerous blueprints, where he went on about how it worked and what could be done with it, purchasing ammunition that was instantly transferred into the weapons of those who bought it, though in the end Ratchet purchased it and figured he could give it to Autumn, so she could mess with it some more, to the point where he ignored the 'Qwarktastic day' comment.

"...Qwark, you were a total idiot when we were on Umbris, as you could have arranged it for us to take turns in the 'Ring of Heroes' and could have dropped Clank while leaving us alone," Ratchet commented, figuring that he might as well talk for a bit, to give Starswirl and Autumn a few more moments to make sure everything was ready, especially since he had taken some time to think about how Drek's pawn could have twisted the three of them into tools to further his own goals, which was why he was so grateful that Qwark had been so stupid when revealing his plan, "I mean, we're only fifteen, orphans no less, and I'm sure that Drek would have seen the value in possibly creating a family of heroes or something... or maybe he would have ignored us, since we hurt his operations... I don't know, but you could have gone about that better, instead of just revealing your hand like that. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say while I was here..."

Ratchet sighed as he walked over to a metallic walkway and used the platform at the end of it to return to the area that his siblings were waiting in, where he handed Autumn the PDA as soon as he arrived and climbed into his seat, where Clank stared at him for a few seconds, likely assuming that something had happened, but no one said anything as they gathered inside the ship and departed for their next destination.

R/C: Quartu, Kalebo III

It took some time for Ratchet, Clank, Starswirl, and Autumn to reach Quartu, a green planet where Drek was building the Ultra-Mechs that had been on the Infobot that they recovered from the merchant in Gorda City, a scrap seller as Autumn claimed after thinking about it for some time, though as the ship descended towards a landing pad Clank recognized the facility that they were landing near.

"Ratchet... this is the facility I was made in..." Clank commented, looking out the window as they landed and stared out at the rest of the area, where it looked like there might be an aqueducts of some kind resting nearby, a large facility that had to be producing pieces of machinery for Drek's forces, and an area that seemed to be a testing arena for the Ultra-Mechs and the other items that were produced here.

"Geez, they sure chased you for a long time," Ratchet replied, referring to the fact that Veldin was a good distance from where Quartu rested, so it was possible that the robots had chased after Clank for a few days before he was gunned down and crashed on their planet, though as he thought about that he turned off their ship as soon as it landed, and he was sure that nothing was attacking them, allowing them to climb out and stare at the planet.

"Well, we should focus on tearing down Drek's Ultra-Mechs, before worrying about the facility," Autumn said, where she took a moment to walk over to the nearby Vendor and found that nothing new had been added to the store, as she knew there were more weapons she had created and had been expecting a few more to have come out at some point in time, but their current arsenal was more than enough in her eyes.

With her done looking for new weapons, and they made sure to restock before doing anything else, the siblings started to move as Starswirl noticed something above where they had landed, it was an opening into the aqueducts and he quickly teleported up to the opening, leaving Ratchet and Autumn standing there as they waited for him to come back, though it took him no time to jump back down before rejoining him. What he discovered was an item that could be attached to the belt of whoever happened to own it, where the gadget was called the Bolt Grabber, something Autumn knew since it was another item that Gadgetron had created and produced, and that it was designed to attract bolts to those who used it, as the name implied, so she wasted no time in duplicating it for her and Starswirl so they could join Ratchet in attaching the devices to their belts. With that done they headed down the path that was in front of them and quickly found a large black robot guarding the facility's entrance, along with a trio of smaller bitter bots, so Ratchet blasted the larger target apart as Starswirl swung his staff and knocked the smaller ones out, allowing Autumn to see that there was an electrical barrier on the other side of the door, meaning none of them could deal with it, so they focused on what the other path had in store for all of them. Sure enough there were a few more Plasmabots for the siblings to take out before using their Swingshots to reach an outer ring of the arena, for things to walk on before coming to a stop inside the arena, though as they walked down the outer edge Ratchet found more of the smaller robots and they simply swung their melee weapons at their foes, saving all of their ammunition for the Plasmabots that happened to be in front of them.

They ended up making their way over to a building which seemed important, one that had a locked section nearby, which might be important at some point during their quest to stop Drek, before they found a scientist who was a lot like Fred in front of a machine that also appeared to be important, something that caused the siblings to come to a stop as they heard him talking about something.

"Hey, you wouldn't know anything about the Ultra-Mech project, would you?" Ratchet asked, because he seemed like one who might know where they might be able to find their current target, while at the same time Autumn studied the device in question, no doubt imagining what it might be capable of, where he decided to add something else that might convince the scientist to speak with them, "We might be able to help you fix that."

"Actually, I'm planning on destroying it... and you're looking at the project." the scientist replied, gesturing to the device for a few seconds, even though he did glance back to see who was standing nearby and seemed surprised by Autumn being in the same area that he was in, especially since she was the greatest mind in Gadgetron right now, "I was commissioned to use my enlarging machine to make huge, heavily armed mechs, which I fought were for safety... had I known that Drek was behind this, I never would have agreed to do it. However, I cannot leave my machine here, where he can use it, so I need to destroy it before I leave Quartu..."

"Well, why don't you tweak it so that it only works with a specific type of robot?" Autumn inquired, because while it might have been designed to work with whatever machines Drek wanted she was sure that the creator of the device could make it so that it was coded to something different and then lock it, preventing their enemies from using it, causing the scientist to raise an eyebrow for a moment, "From what we've seen, most of Drek's people don't have the knowledge or know how to even begin to reverse engineer something as complicated like this... even if they can build planet destroying bombs and planet destroying machines... but if we coded it to, say, Clank here, we can prevent Drek from using it and you can blame all of their problems on their incompetence, and with me here we can make it so he can grow and shrink on these pads, making our own Ultra-Mech in a sense."

The scientist stared at her for a few moments, clearly wondering if she was brilliant or insane, before deciding it was the former, especially after recalling who he was dealing with, before they tweaked the machine a little and Clank, having no need to be told anything, stepped on it, allowing him to enlarge into a massive warbot that was armed with some weapons to defend himself. With that done he set out and smashed his way through the path Ratchet and his siblings had walked through to get to the scientist's location, which also allowed him to crush several more robots before he reached the arena that had been unlocked for him, where Clank opened fire on some of the giant Ultra-Mechs that were coming at him and punched those that got close to him as well. Ratchet and his siblings watched as Clank tore apart the robots that Drek had ordered, no doubt to bring down all sorts of planets so the Blarg could be the dominate force in this galaxy, though at the same time this was a good chance for them to just relax before heading off world to find a gadget or something that would allow them to invade the facility that Clank was made in. Still, it was a fun display to watch, especially since it seemed like Clank's inner weapons had been brought to the surface as he smashed his foes, though he also seemed unlike everything else Drek had made, meaning someone else must have influenced his design before he was made, something they would figure out after they dealt with Drek and saved the galaxy from the Blarg.

Once all of the Ultra-Mechs were taken care of, and both Clank and the scientist confirmed that, Clank returned to where the device rested and reverted back to his original size, something that lead to their new friend gifting them an Infobot for all that had been done to stop Drek, one that happened to have the coordinates for Kalebo III, the planet Gadgetron was built on, and that it had a Hologuise device, to which the siblings returned to their ship and blasted off so they could get their hands on the gadget in question.

What the siblings discovered when they flew down to Kalebo III, a planet filled with lush islands and vast oceans, was that Gadgetron Headquarters happened to be under attack by Drek's forces, meaning the mad Blarg was trying to take out the people supplying Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn with weapons and ammunition, though none of them had to worry about being attacked since Autumn had sent the signature of their ship to Mr. Lumos and they were allowed to pass through the defenses with ease. It was interesting to see that Drek even had elite soldiers, given everything Ratchet and his siblings had faced off against during their time exploring the galaxy, and each of them wondered if fighting them would be more interesting than some of the fights they had been in since Clank landed on Veldin, but he decided not to worry about the Blarg, as Gadgetron's defenses were tearing them apart with ease. Ratchet was sure that Autumn had a hand in creating some of the weapons that happened to be tearing Drek's forces to shreds before they could even damage the structures in question, given her knowledge and ability to make some rather interesting weapons, which only made him curious as to what the future held for her in terms of creating new weapons, before he landed in the employee docking area and turned off their ship. With that done they climbed out and glanced around the area, finding that all of the other Gadgetron people were just talking and working like nothing was going on right now, which made sense given everything that Mr. Lumos had added after looking at Autumn's blueprints for weapons and defenses for this place, and sure enough they spotted Fred off in the distance, likely talking to his new boss or something.

Autumn, on the other hand, climbed out with her tablet at the ready, already downloading all of the new schematics she had created since their adventure had started, weapons and devices that could be used by soldiers or the public, there was even a schematic for a robotic guardian to be the defenders of the galaxy, a prototype right now, before she walked into the building and made her way to her destination... a chamber that had a reptilian male, with green scales, standing near a desk, though he was wearing brown clothing and had glasses over his eyes.

"Mr. Lumos!" Autumn said, where Ratchet and Starswirl smiled as they found that her earlier happiness had returned to her, that she was no longer down or enraged by what happened back on Umbris, even if it would leave a nasty scar in her memories that would never go away, though her words caused the man to turn and look in the direction they had come from, as he set his secondary office near the docking bay, more to greet people whenever he wanted to, though his main one was somewhere else inside the facility.

"Autumn, now what have I told you about being less formal with me?" Mr. Lumos replied, where a smile appeared on his face as he noticed her and her brothers walking into the area he happened to be standing in at the moment, even though he did glance at Clank for a moment, since this was his first time seeing the little robot in question, even if Autumn likely sent him a notice about their new friend at some point in time, "I'm not about to make my number one designer, the best of the best I might add, be weighed down by formalities... those are for everyone else, such as customers and investors. Now, what brings you, your brothers, and your new friend to my office?"

"Oh, you know, saving the galaxy, finding or receiving new patents, discovering new gadgets to work with, finding a couple of scientists to add to Gadgetron, blowing stuff up... oh, and recovered the RYNO." Autumn answered, going through the list of things that had happened since they left Veldin, even though she was more interested in the weapons, gadgets, and her RYNO, but Ratchet was happy to see that she had returned to normal, or as normal as she could be, before she took a moment to shrug, "You know, the usual for heroes."

"Yes, I can see that." Wendell said, where he glanced at the helmet that she was wearing and could already imagine the alterations Autumn might have made to the device, especially since he only knew of a few helmet gadgets and there was no way for him to tell which ones she had acquired over the course of her adventure, even though he was tempted to take away the RYNO, something he eventually decided not to do, "We've also heard of the depollution machine you made, back on Pokitaru, and believe it or not we have been receiving orders from other planets... people want your device, especially if you're able to make certain modifications to them. However, knowing you, I have a feeling that you'll only give us the plans if we sell them at a cost to the planetary governments... personally, I would agree, since most of them are inefficient and get on my nerves... so here's what we'll do: we'll come up with a more permanent agreement on what your demands are, exactly what you need from us to hand over the Pollution Blitzer blueprints... that's what the reports called it, not what we decided on."

"The manager probably came up with it." Autumn replied, where she resisted the urge to sigh when she thought about it, as he was the only person who might come up with a name like that, but for now she felt that naming the machine was the last thing that she and Wendell needed to talk about, as there were far more important matters for her and her employer to talk about, especially the gadget she and her brothers needed for the facility on Quartu.

"Now, what's this about you winning the hoverboard race in Blackwater City?" Wendell asked, as that was a story that was a surprise for him and the others sometime ago, when they heard the tale in question for the first time, especially since he was sure that neither Autumn or her brothers had such a skill, though he figured that if it was true they could have learned how to use a board and won the race.

"That was Ratchet's doing, as neither Starswirl or I stepped on the track... though I have a feeling that you made a track to test our skills on," Autumn said, as that seemed like something that her boss would do when he heard something like this, even though she had to blame Starlene for spreading rumors about all of them, especially untrue ones, and she could see that Wendell was nodding his head, meaning that he really wanted to test her skills and might have included her brothers in it as well, before an idea came to her, "How about we tackle whatever you have set up on the track, likely make a brand new commercial once that's over, and we take one of those Hologuises... I'd love to test it out in the field, where we can see if it has any problems or bugs that need to be fixed."

That was how Ratchet and Starswirl found themselves on the track, as their boss seemed to like the idea, something that lead to Autumn making duplicates of the Z300 and the prize that had been earned back in Blackwater City some time ago, giving each of them a board to use, where he made sure his siblings knew how to use the boards in question before they bothered to face Wendell's test. With that done they found a number of robotic test dummies that had been designed to race against each other, or people like them, to which Ratchet and his siblings took to the track as their boss watched all of them from where his second office rested, since he was in for a show, or at least they hoped so since most of them didn't have the skills that Ratchet had when using the board. As it turned out Autumn and Starswirl, both masters in their own fields, were able to match his skills on the track, even if this was the first time they were using them and racing against a fair number of enemies, and Wendell found something interesting as he watched his rising stars, they were skilled, likely far more than Skid McMarx if they put for the time and effort to learn how to use this new skill of theirs. None of the bots that were racing against them seemed to do much, despite the skills that had been installed inside each and every one of them, hence why he thought they were more skilled than Skid McMarx, since the bots had his skills, to some degree, and it looked like Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were going to come out on top, to the point where they were going to circle the test bots in no time at all.

When it came time for the commercial, since they beat the test bots with ease, Autumn gave a few statements about the boards that Gadgetron was coming out with, which happened to be the ones they had raced against, and Wendell found it was a good thing her brothers were showing off since her words and expressions would have convince him, but once the commercial was over he handed over a Hologuise and the siblings departed, causing him to smile as he watched them go, as his rising stars were the heroes this galaxy needed right now.

It took a bit of time to double back to Quartu, though while they did that Autumn explained that the Hologuise had been designed to emit an electrical wave that would convince robots that the user was a robot and not someone in disguise, all while the catroonish look happened to be so organics wouldn't be fooled by what they were seeing, not that Ratchet was even surprised since his sister likely worked on the device. Once they arrived on Quartu again they walked down the path and pulled out their devices, as Autumn had duplicated it as well, and put on their disguises, allowing the siblings to walk down to the facility's entrance and found that the robotic guard didn't seem worried about them walking in, it even took a moment to lower the barrier for them to enter. Instead of causing an alarm to sound Ratchet and his siblings made sure to keep their disguises up, only changing when they were sure that none of the robots were looking in their direction, but all of them found that it required some patience on their part, even if Starswirl found that he could form magical walkways in this form, which didn't draw the attention of the robotic guards, no doubt because it was hidden thanks to the abilities of the new gadget. Even with that fact the siblings had to be careful of the guards that were patrolling along every section of Drek's factory, though there were times where Autumn had to weave her magic around some guards, just a tiny bit, which was designed to temporarily turn off their vision sensors, effectively blinding them for a time, allowing them to switch out of their disguises and get by the troublemakers before using the devices once all three of them happened to be in the clear, allowing the robots to continue as if nothing had happened at all.

One thing that made all of them angry was all of the poisonous waste that was leaving the factory, no doubt meaning that Drek intended to make Quartu like Orxon at some point in time, especially when they found a few areas that had mechs being put together, though for now they continued down along the path and explored everything that the factory had to offer, since it had to have a clue as to where Drek had gone next. None of them were surprised by discovering a number of chambers that were making mechs, no doubt the ones that became Drek's Ultra-Mechs, though since they didn't want to draw attention to them Ratchet and his siblings continued to remain silent and did nothing but walk through the sections of the factory that were in front of them, even though Starswirl was keeping a note of where things were, as he was getting ready to blast everything apart with his magic, once they found the information they were after. Ratchet was interested in the fact that all he had to do was wave in his robotic form and any guard nearby happened to stop and wave, something all of them used to alter the patterns of the patrolling robots so they could make their way through an area much quicker, saving some time as they reached an area that Autumn opened with her magic, as it was another lock like what they found during their visit to Pokitaru. Autumn was still surprised that the Hologuise worked so well, especially since she was sure it hadn't been designed to work so well and knew that it would need some tweaking before it was sold to the public, or the people that Wendell planned on selling them to, before they found a chamber that seemed to be leading back to the area that was in front of the factory, an area that Clank recognized.

"This... is where I was made," Clank explained, referring to the room this time around, as they knew that the factory was his birthplace and where he had escaped from after a few moments of being born, no doubt where he found the Infobot he first shared with them, though as everyone dropped their disguises he landed on the floor and glanced around for a few seconds, before Ratchet found a machine that seemed to be waiting for something.

In that moment the machine, which was connected to a conveyor belt, revealed the word 'son' when Clank stared at it, the fact surprising him for a moment as he realized that this was his mother, something that caused Ratchet to wrap his arms around Starswirl and Autumn's necks, because none of them knew their parents and it was nice to help Clank find one of his parents, though they guessed that meant Drek was his father, given everything else. The machine went on to tell Clank that he had done well, something which would have brought a tear to his eyes and he even made the motions, as if he was organic, before moving onto the fact that they had more work to do before Drek was stopped, something all of them, not just Clank, confirmed as she said it, though once that was done the machine revealed that it had been hiding an Infobot, a second one based on what they had learned so far. This one also contained a message from Drek, where he was pleased to tell his people that his 'perfect world' had been completed, even if it looked like a mess to the siblings, and that his team of scientists had figured out where to place it, as the 'perfect orbit' happened to be where Veldin was resting, something that enraged all four of them, even if the siblings were far more enraged since Brook and the colonists were still there, no doubt unaware of the danger that was coming their way. After that Drek went on to explain that to remove the offending planet he had to use a new device called the Deplanetizer, a large platform sized device he claimed could fire a super laser that was capable of wiping out whole planets, meaning he was planning on wiping out Veldin, in its entirety, and replace it with his artificial world, and Drek even confirmed that he would be on planet to destroy it, likely with a suit or teleporter to get off Veldin before it was wiped out.

"How dare he!" Autumn growled, where it was easy for Clank to see that the siblings were pissed, enraged to the point that they wanted to strangle Drek and take him out, as it was one thing for him to tackle other worlds that the siblings had no connections to, but for him to target their home world, the one they had grown up on and called home for all these years, it struck them harder than normal.

"He's going to pay for this!" Starswirl stated, where Clank found that the dark mist had returned to his eyes, just like what he and Ratchet had seen back during their time in Umbris, something he suspected was tied to either rage or hate, it was hard to tell with magical beings since this adventure was still the first time he had faced such power, though it did confirm that the siblings were angry.

"And we'll make him pay, for everything he's done." Ratchet replied, though this time around, while Ratchet was angry over everything they had discovered over the course of their journey to see more of the galaxy, Clank found that his friend just stood there, not touching his necklace like he had done back during the events of Umbris and when they found Qwark on the station above Oltanis, before Ratchet noticed it as well and calmed himself, with hints of anger lingering in his eyes, to show that he wasn't totally over this.

As the siblings headed for the passage that would take them back to their ship, to head for Drek's fleet, Clank promised his mother that he would make her proud, though when he turned to join his friends he missed the message that came up, as she was already proud of him, before they returned to their ship and departed for the fleet, as it was time to declare war on Drek's forces and stop his plans at long last.

R/C: Dealing with Drek

It took Ratchet and his siblings some time to catch up with Drek's fleet, since their target had a head start on them, but that didn't stop them from tracking down the fleet and spotted the twisted planet he had created, which was being pulled by one of the ships, though Clank located which ship they were supposed to land in and Ratchet headed for it immediately, while his siblings got ready for the battle that was going to unfold. The reason they didn't just blast the entire fleet apart was due to the fact that their ship, despite the modifications Autumn had made to it, had no weapons and no defenses, it was purely for travel between planets and stations, which would have left both systems to her and Starswirl, though there was no telling how much power they could pour out before collapsing from exhaustion. As such they had to land in one of the ships, find a way to jump from ship to ship, and just tear their way through the obstacles that were in front of them until they either found Drek or some information as to where he and the Deplanetizer happened to be resting, plus take any gadgets that might be lingering on the fleet, since they had found a few while exploring in the past. The only downside was that they had to hurry, as they were fast approaching Veldin and that meant they likely had a few hours, two to three at the most, before the laser was fired and the planet was wiped out, which would take out everyone that the siblings knew and everything they had grown up knowing, something that annoyed them a little as they climbed out of their ship and got ready for whatever was in front of them.

Before they got moving, however, Ratchet found a path in the water and noticed that it went backwards in the ship they had landed in, to which he took a minute to swim through it, as Autumn timed him while she and Starswirl studied what was left of the fleet, before he returned with a yellow bot, one who no legs and some prongs on it's head, which Autumn confirmed was a Codebot, something that would likely unlock the door back on Quartu if they wanted to see what Drek was trying to hide.

"Time to see what else Drek's fleet has in store for us." Ratchet remarked, taking a moment to dry off, as they didn't have much time to spare since they were rapidly approaching Veldin, even if it was possible that Drek was already on the planet as he positioned the laser, though as he said that he pulled out his Devastator and faced a teleporter that would likely take them to another ship, "Come on, let's take them down... stealth isn't necessary, as Drek likely knows we're here."

Autumn and Starswirl nodded their heads in agreement as they walked over to the teleporter, as one happened to be off to the side of where they landed, something that allowed all three of them to warp over to the next ship in the fleet, one that had a few robots that the Hologuise could be used on, where Ratchet took out the first one with a missile and left the fooling to his siblings, who opened the way to take out the second target after it lowered it's barrier for them. Of course it had been thanks to Autumn using her gadget to fool it, but her actions allowed them to move deeper into this ship, which was when they dealt with some of the robotic mutts that could actually see through a Hologuise's disguise, hence why they focused on simply lashing out at everything that was in front of them as they sought out the information they were after, or maybe Drek if he was resting up here. From there they found a teleporter that allowed Ratchet and his siblings to warp over to the next ship, where this time Starswirl stepped up with his magic when they raised the alarm, allowing him to use his magic as a shield so he could catch the incoming attacks as Ratchet and Autumn focused on clearing out every robot that happened to be in their way, before clearing out another room with mutts and a few guards. Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn weren't worried about that as they blasted and smashed their way through their enemies with ease, before they found their way to another teleporter that brought them to yet another ship in the fleet, this one needing the Swingshot to move through, so while Ratchet crossed over a gap his siblings provided cover fire that took out their enemies, giving him a chance to secure the area as they followed after him.

After that the siblings smashed and blasted their way the next room, just like they had done to the ones before this one, before finding another pad that took them over to what had to be the flagship, or at least they hoped so, to which they just stepped out through an air barrier and walked on a metallic platform, one that spun around and allowed them to walk on the outside of the ship, with another one firing at them, even though they found a chamber they could slip inside, one that had a fighter inside it. This time around Autumn and Starswirl didn't touch the ship in question, rather both allowed their brother and Clank to climb into the fighter before heading out to deal with all of the enemies that happened to be flying in the area around the fleet, hence why the pair stood on the metallic walkway outside and watched him deal with those who stood in his way. His main targets were a set of large turrets that happened to be firing at the rest of the walkway that they needed to walk down so they could enter the rest of the flagship, though he also gunned down every fighter in his way, all to eliminate potential problems before they were fired at once they had the information they needed, and not a couple of minutes later Ratchet returned to the hanger, with all of his targets taken out. With that done he caught up with Autumn and Starswirl before they headed down what was left of the path they were following and used a rotating platform to get inside the rest of the ship, before walking down a hallway, on a metallic path no less, that brought them to a chamber that was, without a doubt, the command center for the fleet.

What they discovered was that Drek, rather predictably, wasn't sitting in the chair that they approached, with the intent of smashing if he had been there, rather they found an Infobot that showed Drek just outside their home on Kyzil Plateau, a fact that annoyed them even more as Clank claimed the little robot and added it to their list, though with that done they found a warp pad and warped back to their ship, allowing them to take off and return to Veldin at long last... to the point where they landed just outside their shed, finding it unharmed, even if they were annoyed by the damage done to the rest of the colony.

"I hope Mayor Brook and the others are okay... I'd love to check on them, but we're on a time limit." Ratchet said, as he and his siblings really wanted to make sure the colonists were fine, given that Veldin was under attack and the last time Drek's forces had been here they had been planning on attacking the colony anyway, but right now both Autumn and Starswirl knew that Drek had to be dealt with first.

"Indeed. I wish we could have flown over this place, to find the laser, but this is for the best," Autumn added, given that she and the others were sure that Drek had defenses in place to make sure flyers were taken down before getting close to the weapon, though as she spoke some of her inner rage came to the surface, causing her to growl as she imagined finding their target and taking Drek down.

Starswirl, instead of saying anything else, headed down the path that they had taken when they tracked down Clank's ship, where they found a Gadgetron Vendor had been dropped near their shed and a number of toads were blocking the path again, something that caused Autumn to realize that some damage had been done to the barriers of the colony and that it was possible Brook and the others were under attack. Such a thing brought the rage out as her tail twisted into the flaming tail of her rage form, showing her brothers just how angry she really was, even if they shared most of her thoughts, where they found their way to the path and opened fire on their enemies, using their melee weapons on all of the toads so they could blast all of the Blarg soldiers with their guns, as there were many between them and their true target. One thing all of them discovered was that there were new dropships that were bringing in more enemies to deal with, though Starswirl saw to that as he extended his hand and crushed the vessels before they could depart from the area, or shattered those who still had enemies inside them, allowing them to open fire on the surprised soldiers before any of them had a chance to react to what happened. Normally Ratchet would be taken aback by what he was seeing, though based on what he had witnessed back in Umbris, and the awakening of a deeper power and advanced knowledge in Autumn, he knew this was nothing compared to what happened back then and that he didn't have to be worried about it this time around, but if the rage form showed up, well, that was another matter entirely.

The surprising thing was in what the Blarg brought with them, they deposited Bolt crates that they took great pleasure in seizing as soon as they discovered each and every one that had been brought with them, before Ratchet found a tank on the path that lead to Clank's crash site, where Autumn wasted no time in unleashing a volley from the RYNO and blew it apart so they could move forward.

As such they were able to reach the area that Clank crashed in, which Ratchet pointed out for a few seconds since the little robot didn't remember where he landed, before they moved further along the path that had to lead to Chairman Drek, or at least they hoped so since the twisted planet was getting closer and closer as time went on, before they found a brand new fence that looked like it had been installed by Drek's people. None of them asked why Drek bothered with this, since it needed a Trespasser to pass through it, hence why Starswirl and Autumn focused on wrecking their enemies as Ratchet used the gadget to open the way for them to move forward, though once that was done they struck down the foes on the other side, surprising the Blarg soldiers in the process. After that they found their way to a metallic surface that had been added to a structure Ratchet and his siblings had seen in the past, almost like Drek was expecting them to come home and search for him, so maybe they were walking into a trap when they finally found where he happened to be hiding, before all three of them made their way into the water reserve and found that it must have been modified by someone, as there was a button right in the bottom of it. Autumn pressed it as Ratchet drained the area with the Hydrodisplacer, opening the way for them to move down to the exit, even if Starlight had him replace what he had taken before teleporting them outside, allowing them to resume moving further along the path as they opened fire on their enemies, much to the surprise of the Blarg soldiers, like they assumed that the siblings would be taken out by the forces that had been overcome already, but it took them no time to clear out the next group before pressing forward.

Even if Drek had been expecting them to arrive, to try and stop him from blasting Veldin to pieces, it was odd for him to have an army waiting for intruders, especially since he was planning on removing this world in the next hour or so, though as they thought about that Ratchet noticed something odd, the twisted planet was far closer than before, as it was resting near Veldin, so once their planet was destroyed it could take it's place in no time.

"He must have received word of our arrival and had his forces speed things up," Starlight commented, seeing the planet as well, though it was annoying since it meant the time they had was now far less than what they had before this point, since they had been planning on saving their world before Drek's arrived, but there was nothing that any of them could do and it meant taking their frustrations out on all of the enemies in front of them.

Ratchet and Autumn nodded as they smashed and blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them, only to reach some Swingshot targets that brought them to another locked barrier, to which Ratchet unlocked it within seconds and allowed them to move onward, though in Ratchet's eyes the elite forces of the Blarg weren't that great, since he and his siblings were able to take them out in due time. One thing that all of them were happy to see was that this part of the colony hadn't been damaged yet, even if new additions had been made in anticipation for their arrival, though they used a Swingshot to reach a pipe that brought them to some more enemies, an area with a lot of dropships and soldiers waiting for intruders to show up, just like their boss had told them to do most likely. As such Autumn stepped forward and pulled out the RYNO again, where she opened fire and struck down the enemies that were in front of them, where Ratchet noted that she was still pleased with the power of the potent weapon, one her boss let her keep despite the fact that it was one of the more dangerous ones, before they resumed moving once she was sure that all of their enemies were taken care of, for the time being anyway. After that Ratchet found a newly added expansion platform for Clank, not that they needed it since Autumn had taken care of their enemies with ease, and made their way through an empty section of Veldin, in terms of people since it looked like Brook and the colonists had been chased out before Drek set his forces up, before they found their way to a bowl shaped arena that seemed important in some manner.

It was in that moment that they discovered that Drek had been waiting for them, as he descended towards them in what looked like a battle mech, one sized to match Clank's giant size, and it was black colored, like his heart no doubt, while also having a large blaster as it's right hand, meaning he had been expecting them to arrive and wanted to fight them before he blasted their world to pieces.

"You imbeciles!" Drek stated, where he seemed to find the situation they were in funny, as he chuckled as his mech came to a stop so he could stare down at them, though Ratchet, despite his anger, knew that Drek was in trouble, given what he would soon be dealing with, but all four of them remained silent for a time as they let their foe speak, "After all the trouble you've gone through you're about to die right where you started! It's... it's so poetic."

"Shut up, Drek." Starswirl snapped, where he snapped his fingers and his energy, manifesting as darkness this time, where Ratchet assumed it was due to the mist around his eyes, that formed chains that restrained the mech and brought it down to where they were standing, chest against the ground with the hands pointed off in the distance, meaning Drek was now facing him and his siblings with what might be a look of fear in his eyes, "Thanks to you and your schemes, my siblings and I have been rushing across the galaxy for some time, where we have had our fantasies destroyed and have seen the worst of what the galaxy has to offer... and right now, we're far too angry to let you off the hook... especially since you could have taken a barren world, of which there are plenty across our galaxy, and terraformed it to match a world for your people, if you actually cared about them anyway."

In that moment Ratchet discovered something, Autumn, with no warning, had shifted into her rage form and stood behind him, though she seemed to be in control somewhat as she had formed what appeared to be a bow of magical energy, one that had a red energy arrow attached to it, though in that moment the beast also seemed to be crying, like she was in pain for the planets that had suffered due to Drek's cruelty. Starswirl noticed that as well and walked over to his sister, where he placed a hand on her right shoulder and the arrow became infused with a bit of darkness and his own magical power, or at least that was what Ratchet and Clank thought as they noticed what was going on, something that caused them both to walk over as well and join the pair. Sure, neither of them had magic like Starswirl and Autumn had, but this allowed the pair to support whatever was going on right now, though as that happened a rush of energy surrounded the arrow as it took on a rainbow coloration, but this time Ratchet wasn't about to question it as they focused on Drek, who was trying to flee his mech and appeared to be failing thanks to a bit of damage it had taken. Not a few seconds later Autumn, ready for what she had planned, loosed the arrow and they watched as it raced through the air, smashing through the glass dome of the battle mech like it was nothing as it pierced Drek and enveloped him in a cloud of smoke for a time, one that Ratchet and Clank couldn't see through, before disappearing in a few seconds, revealing a white sheep with Drek's clothing resting around the floor of the mech.

Ratchet found it to be highly amusing that such a thing happened to Drek, though as soon as that was done Autumn and Starswirl made their way over some rock platforms as they spotted the Deplanetizer resting some distance away, to which he and Clank followed after them, though while they did that he found that Autumn seemed to be asserting herself over the rage that was left in her heart.

"So, what are we going to do with this and the twisted planet?" Ratchet asked, because they couldn't just leave the key to activating the Deplanetizer alone, nor could they leave the planet that Drek had created in Veldin's orbit, the latter having the potential to knock their world out of alignment and send them into the sun, or maybe something else would happen, hence why he was looking at his siblings.

"Hm, with some rewiring and a few modifications, plus one or two of Starswirl's spells, we might be able to do something wonderful with this weapon," Autumn replied, where she glanced over the platform in question and realized that to do a bit of work they needed to flip the weapon around so that the laser was pointed at the sky, to which she sighed and had Starswirl take Clank over to the enlarging platform, who returned moments later after bypassing the fallen mech that they had left Drek in, before their giant friend did his part to help them, "Now then, let's see what sort of systems we have to work with and what we need to add to make this work... or if it's even possible in the first place."

Ratchet watched as Autumn went to work, even though her rage form seemed to be on pause to boost her power, or that was his thoughts on the matter, opening a panel to see what was inside so she could scan it and come up with a plan of some sort, though it wasn't long before she found a way to do whatever was on her mind, where she modified the laser to shatter Drek's planet. What that means wasn't that they were going to blow the planet up and wipe out the fragments that had been stolen from the other planets of their galaxy, rather she was redesigning it to blast the twisted planet apart so all of the fragments would be separated from each other once the beam hit it, though of course that also posed a problem, as she knew that the fragments could fall to Veldin as meteorites and do some serious damage to their home. To counter that particular problem she needed a few things, namely the gyroscopic stabilizer, which was a component of Clank's new giant form, and two spells from Starswirl, where the first spell was his strongest teleportation spell and the seconds was his reconstruction spell, the latter used to fix things that were broken in their home, since for a time none of them had the Bolts to pay for new stuff and such a spell had been needed to keep things together. Her plan was simple, they were going to hook Clank up to the laser, giving the beam a supercharge from his gyroscopic stabilizer that would combine with both of her brother's spells, creating an attack that would break the twisted planet back into the pieces that formed it, which, if her math and estimates were correct, and they generally were when it mattered, would send each fragment back to the planet it had come from, since none of them had destabilized yet, and put each one back where they belonged.

At this point in time Clank wasn't even surprised by Autumn's intelligence, though it wasn't long before they had set up all of the components and activated the Deplanetizer, where the beam tore into the twisted planet and shattered it, granting them a chance to see the fragments disappear as they were claimed by the teleportation spell, until nothing was left of the twisted planet... of course the force of the blast destroyed the Deplanetizer platform and powered down Clank, though Autumn smiled as they observed her work, each feeling pleased with themselves as they headed back to their home, so they could rest before seeing the effects of their hard work, with Clank joining them.

Interlude: Changes

With Drek's twisted planet taken care of, and the Deplanetizer platform was utterly destroyed, Ratchet and his siblings started to head for their shed so they could get some well deserved sleep, though not even a few moments later all three of them changed course and headed for the heart of the colony, something that surprised Clank since he figured that the plan was to head home, but he remained silent as he waited to see what was going on. Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn quickly made their way to the colony and found that it had been attacked by Drek's forces upon their arrival on Veldin, as they could see that the orphanage was damaged, some of the buildings had burning roofs, and there were some blast holes that told them that a fight had gone on, before a smile graced their faces before they even drew their weapons. They quickly found Mayor Brook standing over some fallen Blarg, who had been restrained so she could hand them out to whoever came to collect them, while most of the adults seemed to be fine, save for some cuts and bruises from whatever fight had taken place, though it told them that they didn't have to worry about anything, as the adults had everything under control. In the next few moments Brook noticed them and rushed over to where they were standing, where she threw her arms over each of them, showing that she had been worried about them, especially since the Blarg had set up shop right outside their home and formed the path Ratchet and his siblings had followed earlier, before she pulled back and smiled.

"Thank the Maker you three are alright," Brook said, confirming that she had been worried about them, might have been since the day they disappeared from Veldin and started to explore the galaxy, and that meant she might have some choice words for them once again, as sometimes she lectured people when they did something she didn't approve of, but this time around she didn't seem to be in the mood for that, "We saw you fighting the Blarg as you tracked down Drek... where in the galaxy did you learn how to fight like that?"

"We've had a lot of practice, taking down Drek's forces," Ratchet replied, which was basically the truth of the matter, as the vast majority of their enemies had been those who were in Drek's pocket or created by his scientists, who would now be out of a job and likely imprisoned if they had a hand in damaging the planets of the galaxy, before he focused on the rest of the colony, "Is anyone hurt?"

"No, we managed to get by with only minor injuries. I assume they were toying with us while they waited for you to arrive, and we captured some," Brook stated, though as she said that she noticed that all three of the siblings, including the little robot that Ratchet had on his back at the moment, one they likely found during their adventure and convinced to join up with them, seemed tired and exhausted, both physically and magically in the case of Starswirl and Autumn, to which she sighed and beckoned to their shed, "Go on, go home and get some rest. We'll take care of the Blarg and round them up so the authorities can arrest them when they arrive... and Drek, if he's still around."

The siblings chuckled for a moment before doing exactly that, they wished Brook farewell for now before heading back to their shed, where Ratchet told Clank that they wanted to make sure the colonists were safe and sound, since they had no idea what the Blarg had done before their arrival, before heading home, where their new friend informed them that he understood and said nothing more on the matter. When they reached their shed Clank found that it was enough for three people of Ratchet's size, maybe four if his friends really pushed it, with dividers set up so everyone had a 'room' of sorts so they could sleep with ease and not have to worry about anyone peeping on them, though he could tell that the siblings did want a more realistic house, one with actual rooms for them to rest in. The last time he had been here he hadn't given his friends enough time to get anything they wanted before leaving for Novalis, though while each of them seemed to have all sorts of items the shed really didn't look like a home, it looked like a place that a ship could have been stored in and they altered it into what he was seeing right now, but even then he was sure Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl would figure out a way to make this place even better. In the end, however, Clank had no desire for a room or even a corner of the place that they called home, rather he sat outside Ratchet's compartment and sat down in front of it, where he could slip into his rest mode and get some rest as well, since he had been powering their ships since the start of their adventure and really hadn't had a chance to pause, even on Oltanis he just stared out and watched the storm, waiting for his friends to return with a bit of news before they left the planet.

As he did that Ratchet and his siblings did the same thing, they returned to their compartments and set their weapons down, where Clank found that all of them truly seemed exhausted from everything that had happened since they started their adventure to save the galaxy, though Autumn also put her gadgets on a shelf, which her brothers did as well, before she pulled the curtain over her room and closed it so she could get some sleep, where Clank found that the same was true for Ratchet and Starswirl, they blocked off their sides as well, before he slipped into his rest mode while wondering what the future might have for them.

What Ratchet and his siblings discovered the following morning was that the galactic authorities, those who worked for all the Chairmen who sided against Drek, even if none of them had been able to do much in the face of Drek's forces, arrived with some ships that were more like prisoner transports, where the captured Blarg were escorted into the ships as most of their weapons and armor were confiscated. Of course they were surprised by the battle mech that was resting nearby, as Drek's suit was rather large and very powerful in it's own right, though Autumn joined them as she dismantled the suit so they could get to Drek, where Ratchet and Starswirl explained that magic had turned him into a sheep and that this wasn't a ploy, even though what they were told surprised the siblings. It appeared that Drek, fully thinking that he could beat the three of them in battle, had commanded one of his Helper Bots to fly around the areas that he would have fought them in and record everything that happened, so the bot who recorded everything caught them chaining the mech and punishing Drek with the sheep transformation he was stuck with, along with using the Deplanetizer to shatter his twisted planet and send each fragment back to the planet they came from. Given that information Ratchet sighed as he realized what this information meant, Drek had broadcast this event to every corner of the galaxy, to spread fear when he brought about the downfall of heroes who had been dealing with his forces, but in the end this meant that every planet in the Solana Galaxy would know about their deeds and that their names would no doubt be in the news for some time, as heroes that would replace Qwark as this galaxy's saviors.

The first thing that changed after that was that Brook officially made it so the siblings were welcome in the colony, and that all of the adults saw them as inhabitants of their fair colony, instead of people who were basically exiled until a better way to punish them came around, plus the others finally opened up to them again, showing excitement and interest in what all of them were capable of. After that things got weird and interesting in no time at all, as Wendell informed them that a fair number of planets wanted to hold parades, feasts, conventions, festivals, and all sorts of parties in their honor, most being the very planets that they had visited during their adventure, and they found that people like Skid and Starlene were also hanging out with them from time to time. Autumn also found that her Pollution Blitzers, all versions of it since she made sure to include every type of the machine that could be made, made her a big name as well and only boosted their status as heroes, though that was only the start of things since they knew that interviews were being planned and Wendell was likely planing some interviews, since they were going to have to do some to get back some peace and quite. People wanted to thank them for saving their planets and taking down Drek's forces, which was understandable given everything that had happened to some of the worlds they had been to, and the siblings accepted the honors that came with the events, even if it was far more than what any of them might have been expecting, even Clank was surprised after he determined what had happened in the past.

In fact, to make sure the siblings weren't swarmed when they were trying to relax, Kyzil Plateau was considered off limits to visitors and tourists, save for those who went through Wendell to get here, like interviewers for example, but the rest of the planet was open to people and it allowed some to see where the Deplanetizer had been resting before Autumn got her hands on the device.

Eventually the siblings found themselves on one of the interview shows, one that Wendell claimed was a good balance so no new scars were added to what they had gained so far and gave the audience exactly what they were looking for, while leaving some craving for more, and the opening statement of said show went over the events everyone knew about or had heard about after the fact, Drek's damage to the Solana Galaxy and the planets that called it home. Since it was their true first time on television, not counting the commercial that they had gone for Wendell back during their visit to Kalebo III, Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were all nervous, even Clank was, though he was more prepared than the siblings were in some cases, before they got to the questions that people wanted to know about, the first thing being that people wanted to learn more about them, which could be checked out on the personal bios that had been published. After that came the question of actually saving the galaxy and how they felt, where Ratchet and his siblings admitted that they were still trying to wrap their heads around it since when the three of them originally left Veldin it was to see the galaxy, which eventually became saving it in due time, and Clank admitted that he set out to find heroes, like Captain Qwark, before saying that he was pleased to have played a part in stopping Drek. The other part about it was that they had been exhausted after the end of their adventure, as they had worked themselves too much and hadn't really rested as much as they should have, a fact they would take to heart for the future, in case there were more adventures after this point in time, especially since all of them had slept for a few days without doing anything interesting or exciting, besides making sure the Blarg were caught and delivered to the transport.

Eventually they came to a question that everyone was expecting, about the fact that each of them seemed to be the last of their respective species, as Ratchet was a Lombax, Starswirl was a Unicorn, and, after some researching, Clank had found out that Autumn was a Kirin, causing the siblings to glance at each other for a time as they considered how best to answer the question, especially given the fact that none of them had any answers.

"Starswirl and I have been talking about it, and we're certain that we're survivors of a planetary event that wiped out our home world... like Superman, for instance," Autumn said, because according to all of the readings she and Starswirl had run so far there were only two magical signatures in the Solana Galaxy, hers and her brother's, meaning they didn't come from this galaxy and there was no telling when they would visit the others that everyone knew about, "plus if we were able to escape the destruction of our home planet, surely others would have been able to do the same thing and escape to the other galaxies... that is our hope, that we aren't the last of our species."

"I've... been thinking about it, and I'm afraid that I don't have an answer," Ratchet admitted, though at the same time, while he spoke his mind, Clank and his siblings found that his fingers lingered on the necklace that he always wore, a reminder of the pod that rested back in their shed on Veldin, a pod that showed there was another Lombax out there, his sister, and if two of them were alive he was sure that more were in hiding as well, he just had to find them.

In the end most of the questions were things that could be answered with their bios, which made things easier for them, and those that weren't were easily answered in no time, one was even about Clank and he explained that the records that detailed his construction were corrupt, why no one knew, but after that there wasn't much else for them to answer and it allowed them to continue with the rest of their day as they waited to tackle whatever the future held for them.

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.

Commando: Oozla

While they traveled to Oozla, so they could obtain more information on what the Thief was doing, Autumn pulled out her tablet, which had been updated to include everything in the Bogon Galaxy, and learned that their target had been telling the truth when she said that she would be 'updating her security', as she went and hired Thugs-4-Less, who were a group of mercenaries who apparently sold their services to the highest bidder and were only interested in profit. According to the footage that Mr. Fizzwidget sent them, which was why Ratchet was heading towards Oozla, the Thief had been looking for a map of this quadrant of the galaxy and the humanoid person she had talked to, who was a Megacorp employee, proceeded to give her a number of items to choose from, such as galactic maps, 3D maps, fold-outs, cut-outs, and maps to the stars and their homes, before she selected the first option. The footage ended after one of the Thugs, who happened to be reptilian creatures with a purple coloration to their bodies, and some also seemed to be a little buff based on what she saw in the video, picked up the employee and hurled him at a big red button that deactivated the perimeter defenses of the facility that she had been visiting, meaning that they would be dealing with the native creatures this time around and not any of the Thugs. Ratchet admitted that this was still good for them, as knowing more about their enemies meant they might gain an upper hand on them at some point, especially since it looked like the Thugs liked to stay back and shoot their targets from a safe distance, so this would give them a chance to study their enemies and plan for whenever they might encounter the Thugs, even though he knew it would be some time before that happened.

Fortunately it appeared that Oozla was close to Aranos, or at least it sure felt that way since the ship Mr. Fizzwidget had given them was one of the faster ones, discovering that it was a swamp planet, which seemed to be overrun with all sorts of weeds and other growth, where the massive outlet building rested off in the distance, though once they landed Ratchet and his siblings climbed out of the ship and stared at the area around them, including the odd triangle shaped Vendor that was near one of the paths.

"So, facility first or wilderness first?" Ratchet asked, because those were the paths that were available to them right now, a path that likely lead to the main building and another that seemed to head out into part of the swamp, where he asked the question because of the fact that they usually found new items, weapons or gadgets, on optional paths that were useful in their adventures.

"Personally, we should check out the wilderness path first, in case we need the item it gives us in the facility," Autumn said, as she understood the question and that was her answer to it, that they head out into what might seem like an optional path and see if they found anything useful, though she was eager to get her hands on some of Megacorp's gadgets, just so she could modify them while they flew between planets.

Starswirl didn't really care which path they took, since in the end they would be heading down both of them at some point in time, before they found two new weapons for sale, one being the Chopper, which rested on the back of one's wrist and allowed the user to throw metallic discs at whoever their target was, while the other was the Blitz Gun, which fired with the spread of a shotgun. They were fortunate that Mr. Fizzwidget opened the channels for them to use their Bolts from Solana to purchase things in Bogon, as it would make their mission that much easier, to which Autumn purchased one of each as they headed down the wilderness path, though once they were out of range of the Vendor she smiled as she duplicated both weapons, a trick that Megacorp didn't know about and meant they would be able to conserve their funds for some of the more expensive weapons, despite her bank account being far larger than one realized. Ratchet, however, knew that in time this trick would fade away entirely, that Autumn would reach the point where she made far more than what she was able to spend and then she would buy all of their weapons, without duplicating anything, before he turned his attention to the area in front of them as they moved away from where he landed the ship. They discovered that part of the path just so happened to be made out of stone, either growing out of the swamp or cut to this size by Megacorp, and found some new enemies to deal with, some red skinned creatures that looked rather innocent and hopped around to move, along with a few crab like enemies that reminded them of what they found on Orxon, except these ones seemed like they resembled snails more in some way.

As it turned out both creatures were hostile towards people and attacked the siblings when they got close, hence why they opened fire on their new enemies and moved through the path that was in front of them, where Ratchet discovered that the Chopper made quick work of the smaller enemies while Starswirl rounded up all of the tougher foes so Autumn could take them out with a Gravity Bomb. After that they discovered a few swamp creatures that looked like they could be used to travel over the swamp, some munching on whatever grass was growing out of the water, though by jumping onto their backs it allowed Ratchet and his siblings to cross over to the other side and continue exploring the rest of the wilderness part of the planet, which revealed a passage for them to head through. That brought them to a few snail mutants and a fair number of fireflies that seemed to have been altered in some manner, though it didn't take them long to blast their way through the enemies who were guarding the rocky chamber and found a platform to jump up to reach the area that was on the outside, even though it looked like a venus fly trap, a large one at that. As such they had to be careful jumping on it before leaving the rocky room in question, though since none of them were caught by it, as each of them had been very careful in their movements, the siblings found another section of Oozla's swamp in front of them and a number of the dragonoid boat creatures, whatever they were called, that allowed them to reach a ruined building, one that looked like it had been that way for some time and not recently damaged by the Thief's actions.

After that they had to fight some more enemies in the ruined building, along with riding on a few more boat creatures so they could cross over some deadly fly traps, but after a few moments they reached a set of fly traps that lead up to a pipe, one that happened to bring them down into an area that seemed like a testing area of sorts, complete with a Megacorp employee standing near where Ratchet landed, even though Starswirl and Autumn landed near him while Ratchet ended up on a platform with a new marking on it.

"Welcome, welcome! If everyone could take their seats we can proceed with today's demonstration. First I'll need someone to volunteer. Anyone?" the employee said, speaking as if they were someone else that he was expecting to see, though due to the defenses being turned offline Autumn was sure that any visits had been cancelled, before he looked for someone so he could get things underway, to which Ratchet offered himself up and the man used the device on his right hand, which all of them found looked like a weird box of sorts, to move the platform he was on before knocking Ratchet onto his back for a few seconds, "And there you have it, the Megacorp Tractor Beam in action... let's give it up for our volunteer. Sir, how about taking advantage of our show special?"

Ratchet, despite being a little annoyed with the employee, simply purchased the item and made sure the man was away before handing it to Autumn so she could duplicate it for all of them, to which he used the Tractor Beam to move one of the two nearby platforms into position, which used an orange beam to connect with something that had the icon they had noticed on it, and as he did that Starswirl moved the other so they could climb up to an area above their ship, allowing him to activate a button and open the way for them to jump down. With that done they walked over to where they had found the Vendor and quickly headed down the path that would bring them to the outlet building, where the siblings found a fair number of snail mutants wandering around, who turned to face Ratchet as he, Starswirl and Autumn approached them, so since they were clearly hostile the trio opened fire on their enemies and cleared out the area as they moved forward once more. From there they found a number of mutant fireflies blocking the way to a metallic platform that would allow one to move closer to where the outlet building was resting, so what they did was take down their enemies and continued across the platform, though as that happened they spotted an employee off in the swamp being dragged into the water, too fast for either Starswirl or Autumn to do anything with their magic. In fact there was a side area where they found an employee who was resting on the ground, with no nanotech based on what they could see, though they did remove the hoppers that were around him before moving forward, that way when Megacorp came to investigate what had happened here, and no doubt clean up, it would be easy to identify some of the workers, where they blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them and focused on the facility that was their destination.

Part of the path they walked by just so happened to be within range of the start of the other path, which was interesting despite the fact that all of the enemies had been taken care of, before Ratchet blasted all of the enemies that emerged from the water so he and his siblings could cross over another metallic walkway, this time allowing Starswirl and Autumn to blast their way through any enemies that were in front of them. Of course there were three platforms that were apart from each other, instead of just one like they assumed, which brought them to an area with a fair number of enemies that wanted to eat them and cut them apart, so Ratchet, Autumn and Starswirl blasted through their foes and included a few mutant fireflies that were beyond where they stopped for a few moments. After that they found something interesting, a platform that had two large tendril appendages, not to mention a single eye which popped out of the water a few seconds later, no doubt reacting to the sound of them walking on the rocky platform in front of it, before it started to swing both of its tendrils at them, meaning a fight was breaking out as Ratchet and his siblings dodged the attack and opened fire on the swamp creature that wanted to smash them. With three targets to choose from it was hard for the creature to actually crush them into the ground, which they were fine with since it allowed them to keep firing at it while dodging the attacks, something that eventually caused the creature to roar in pain, or at least it seemed like that, before descending into the depths, allowing them to make their way across a few more platforms before coming to a stop in front of the building that was their destination.

What the siblings discovered was that there was no easy way for them to get up to the entrance, as it was raised above the walkway they were currently standing on, and there was a spherical device that seemed like it interacted with something, to which Autumn wandered over to a pedestal that had a device with a pointer on it, one that powered up the device she had noticed and created a platform for one to ride to get up to the door.

"Interesting. This is called the Dynamo, and it interacts with objects like that to form platforms and walkways for people to use, or move things into position," Autumn said, reading the information on Megacorp's site once more, though as she did that she duplicated the gadget in question and handed one to her brothers, even though she was planning on coming up with a new way to handle this item and the Tractor Beam, plus whatever else they might find while they explored the other planets of this galaxy.

Ratchet didn't need to be told exactly what this did, as the demonstration was more than enough as they stood on the pad in question and he used it, forming the platform once more and allowed them to enter the outlet store, where a number of mutant fireflies and snail mutants happened to be wandering around, to which the siblings opened fire on them while also using the Dynamo to move forward. Autumn found that the device was rather wonderful, as it allowed one to create moving elevators to go from one level and reach another, conjured platforms for them to ride on, pulled walkways out of the walls for people to walk on, and a number of other things that they hadn't discovered yet, making her wonder what it could do and if there was a way for her to make a device to contain it, the Tractor Beam, and a few other things that they had recovered during their first adventure. Sure enough the outlet store had all sorts of everyday displays, like clothing for example, though based on what they could see there weren't any employees anywhere, as in all of them must have been dragged out into the swamp by a fair number of creatures that they had faced since arriving on this planet, especially after all of the employees they had seen during their time exploring this planet, before crossing over a gap so they could enter the backside of the building, away from where any customers shopped. From there they made their way over a couple of platforms created by their Dynamos, allowing them to make their way over to what seemed to be the end of the building, one that had a metallic walkway that they ignored for the time being, before Autumn found a path leading into the heart of the structure and they used their newest gadget to activate it, even if it meant dodging crates to reach a chamber that had a holodisplay near one of the walls.

"Ratchet?" a voice said, where they found Mr. Fizzwidget on the other side of the line, meaning they must have triggered something and caused him to link up with it to see what was going on, even though it looked like he was coming online and was curious if they could hear him, "Come in. Are you three there?"

"Copy Mr. Fizzwidget." Ratchet replied, as the commando training had taught him and his siblings a few things and meant they had matured to some degree, which everyone back on Veldin would be surprised by if they learned what they were doing, while his siblings remained at the ready so they could learn what needed to be done next.

"Listen, I have some new inflammation on our Experiment's wherewithal." Mr. Fizzwidget continued, which caused them to raise their eyebrows for a moment, before remembering that Megacorp was in control of most of the Bogon Galaxy, or at least in some manner, before he revealed a space station of sorts to them, one that wasn't all indoors, so they would be walking on platforms as they explored the place, "The thief was indemnified at Megacorp's Maktar Resort. Also, the Thugs have towed a moon-sized jamming array into Maktar Resort orbit."

"Do you want us to take it out?" Starswirl asked, though he knew that even if Mr. Fizzwidget said no to this, and wanted all of them to focus on something else to track down the Thief, they were going to find the jamming array and ruin it anyway, just to make sure the Thugs didn't get their way and bring harm to the resort, or whatever it was they might be doing while they were at the station.

"Affirmulous! It's disconfrabulating our annual Galactic Gladiators broadcast. See for yourself." Mr. Fizzwidget said, a fact that surprised them, since they were having a hard time understanding when he wanted something done and when he felt that they had best focus on something else, but this was good for them since it was a confirmation of sorts, before revealing the commercial he had mentioned.

As it turned out Galactic Gladiators was an arena style event that was broadcast to those who paid for it, a television show, and it had a few warriors, such as Chainblade and the B2 Brawler, who might be rather hard for someone to face, to which Ratchet smiled as he informed their boss that they would check it out and the link was severed, to which they discovered a teleportation pad nearby and used it to return to their ship, before departing for the Maktar Resort.

Commando: Endako

It took some time for Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to reach Endako, where they discovered that the coordinates were for Megapolis, the very city that Mr. Fizzwidget had said that Clank's apartment was located in, where Clank had taken Ratchet's Swingshot and Omniboots, since they weren't standard issue for a commando, something Autumn was planning on fixing in the near future, but they landed outside the city in due time. Megapolis was a very futuristic city, with pristine modern buildings, which seemed to be circling two large towers, and happened to be the hub for Megacorp, though that was all they were able to figure out since it didn't seem like a lot of information was written about the city, but they weren't planning on being here for too long and would be chasing the Thief once this was over. Such a thing made the three of them realize that with the Thief being here there was a chance that some Thugs might be here as well, enemies that needed to be taken out to improve their chances in recovering the Experiment, though after thinking about that Ratchet landed and turned off the ship so he and his siblings could climb out and begin their search of this planet. Of course, like a lot of planets they had visited so far, there seemed to be two paths for them to take, the left one appearing to be more dangerous, and required the use of the Electrolyzer to get through, while Ratchet found that the right one seemed to head into an area that seemed more like where people lived, so it might lead to Clank's place at some point.

"Let's not waste any time, we're heading to the left." Ratchet stated, because their first order of business was to find Clank and save him from the Thief, or whatever trap she had left for him and his siblings, as while the mistake of pressing the red button instead of the green one might make them feel that their earlier judgement of her abilities were wrong, and needed to be rethought, she was still ahead of them and that meant there might be a trap ahead of them.

"Hopefully the Thief is still here, as I'd love to catch her with my magic," Autumn remarked, as it would make the mission that much shorter for them, though after seeing Clank get zapped like that she was more than willing to shorten the time of this mission, especially since capturing the Thief would give them a way to track down the Experiment, which had to be moving in some manner right now.

Starswirl said nothing as he checked out the Vendor and found a few new weapons for them to purchase, the Pulse Rifle, a long ranged weapon that allowed them to snipe enemies, and the Miniturret Glove, which dispensed turrets that could fire at their enemies for a time before breaking, to which he bought one of each as Ratchet opened fire on a tall orange robot that seemed to be cylindrical shaped. The interesting thing about the robot was that it was capable of firing lasers, which were aimed at the ground and only extended a certain distance from where the new foe's position, though it was spinning as it moved and fell apart when Ratchet blasted it with the Blast Gun, allowing him and his siblings to find that the path in front of them seemed to head through a Megacorp facility, given the logo. He wasted no time in using the Electrolyzer to bypass the defenses of the terminal in front of him and quickly opened the door so they could head inside, where Autumn blasted some while spinning bots that were in the next chamber, who instantly regarded them as enemies and moved to hit them with their legs, not that it mattered since she took them all out. From there it was a simple matter to head down a passage that rested on their left, which was guarded by two of the Laser Bots and had a few Spinner Bots appear from a doorway, one that opened as they got near it, meaning the Thief must have hacked into the system and made it so that all of the Megacorp robots in this area saw them as enemies.

After wiping out those enemies the siblings discovered a small room with some controls, to which Autumn messed with all of them for a moment and found that she was able to move a crane that happened to be in this part of the building, even though to use it Ratchet had to use the Electrolyzer on a terminal, and it wasn't long before she used a block of metal to crush some Spinner Bots before forming a way for them to leave.

Once they were on the path she had found, which did head outside, Starswirl blasted a pair of Laser Bots out of the way, finding that it brought them to another part of the city and that they had to jump over some platform cars to continue on the path in question, though Ratchet used the Pulse Rifle to blast a Laser Bot out of the way, allowing them to reach the other side safely. The was when they found a larger security bot, this one with no legs and two blasters for it's hands, that regarded them as enemies as well and opened fire on them as soon as they got close to it, causing the siblings to open fire on it and a couple of Spinner Bots that appeared behind it, where it took Ratchet and his siblings a few moments to clear out the area before moving forward. After that they found another gap that they had to jump over, which required taking down yet another Laser Bot and one of the Blaster Bots, though once Autumn was sure the area was cleared they crossed over to the next part of the Megacorp building that they had been in not a few moments ago, where Starswirl swung his staff and knocked out all of the Spinner Bots who happened to be in the area. Such a thing allowed Ratchet to hack into another terminal so Autumn could mess with the controls, where she smashed the enemies that were along the way with a metallic cube and then used an explosive cube to take down the locked door that was in their way, to which she and her brothers walked forward, collecting the Bolts from their fallen foes as they made their way over to the last chamber of this portion of the facility.

That brought them to an area that had a pair of Blaster Bots, a few Spinner Bots, and a lift that lead to a passageway, to which the siblings quickly removed the enemies that were in their way before accessing the small platform they seemed to be guarding, something that brought them right to where Clank was being held, instantly causing Autumn and Starswirl to jump down into the chamber so they could investigate... only for Ratchet, who was keeping an eye out for the Thief, to be pushed off the ledge by the Thief, who fled before either magic user could catch her.

"Son of a Qwark!" Ratchet remarked, using a phrase that he only said every now and then, mostly when he was annoyed by something or someone, and right now, while they were impressed by how well the Thief was able to stay a step ahead of them, even if some of her actions made one think less of her, he was annoyed that he had fallen for such an obvious trap, as she had been lurking in the shadows and only emerged when he was alone, "She's good, I'll give her that... it's a shame she's a villain, as having her as an ally would have been rather interesting..."

"Well, unless something major happens, like discovering that we're on the wrong side, we should focus," Starswirl said, as while they shared some of the same thoughts on the matter, especially since the Thief was far more skilled than what Mr. Fizzwidget had told them, which was hard to believe since Megacorp had more information on everyone and they felt that he might know who she might be, to which he focused on Clank.

Ratchet did the same thing as he pulled out the Electrolyzer and started to mess with the terminal, where Autumn kept an eye out for any problems that might come from this while Starswirl stared at the passage they had used to get here, just in case the Thief sent some robotic minions to take them out, but in the end Ratchet was able to bypass the defenses of the terminal and sent a light shock into Clank's body, jolting him awake, even if he seemed to be talking about the final digit of Pi before he realized that they were there.

"Clank, are you alright?" Autumn asked, mostly because it seemed like Clank was dazed and confused about things, which made sense due to the fact that he had been shocked by an unknown amount of volts earlier, though for the most part it looked like he was just fine and the shock that had been sent into his system hadn't done any true damage to him, or at least that was what she discovered in the first few moments of her checkup.

"Despite the shock, I feel fine... the Thief is crafty, I'll give her that." Clank replied, showing that he also agreed with them, that he felt that the Thief was rather skilled and more dangerous than what they had been told previously, before he took a few seconds to look at the area they were in before spotting that there was no way out, not unless Autumn or Starswirl teleported them up to what he assumed was the walkway that brought them here, before finding a vent, "If you'll excuse me, I'll open the way for us to leave this place and continue with our mission."

Ratchet chuckled for a moment, telling Clank that it was nice to have him back, before he and his siblings watched as their friend climbed into the nearby vent and disappeared, allowing them to spend a few minutes resting before having to do anything else, as all three of them had faith in their friend's abilities, and sure enough it didn't take Clank long to open the door that lead outside. With that done Ratchet and his siblings told Clank that he was awesome, and he was, before Clank returned to his place on Ratchet's back, allowing them to head through the opening before Ratchet used the Helipack to reach the highest point of the exterior and his siblings used magical platforms to catch up with him, before leaping over a gap and discovering that to move further they would have to glide down to a tower platform in the middle of the city, one they hoped would have a way back to the other path. Clank found that Autumn and Starswirl used a spell that he felt the latter might have created, a levitation spell that allowed them to replicate what Ratchet did, where they landed not a few seconds later and found a large circular device, a teleporter, that took them back to the Vendor, to which the took a couple of seconds to buy some ammunition before heading down the other path. An interesting fact about this path was that the siblings discovered a barrier blocking the way forward, even if Ratchet was sure his siblings might be able to teleport over to the other side with their magic, before Clank informed them that if they knocked out the nearby trashcan it would lower the barrier and send out a few cleaner bots, which turned out to be some Spinner Bots.

It was an odd thing, sending out robots who could hurt people to clean up a mess, though Autumn assumed that they had been designed with two functions in mind, in case the city was under attack, but that didn't stop the siblings from wiping their enemies out before smashing a second trashcan and taking out a Laser Bot to move forward, which brought them to a set of platforms to climb up before heading into another building. That gave them a chance to see that Megacorp loved their trashcan barriers, especially since the next one deployed some Spinner Bots and a pair of Laser Bots, though once all of them were taken out the way was unlocked and they headed back outside as they followed the path, where they found a single person fighter jet, or maybe a helicopter, appear some distance in front of them. The one in control of it happened to be one of the Thugs, possibly the Leader, though before they could blast him he headed off into the distance while he laughed, like he was in control of what was going on, causing the siblings to glance at each other before continuing along the path in front of them, crossing over some platforms and blasting some Laser Bots as they did so. After that they just jumped down into another area, with yet another trashcan barrier, to which they sighed before knocking it down and then opened fire on the enemies that came out to face them, though since the siblings took down their enemies with ease they were able to pass through the lowered barrier with ease and found two new paths, one that required the items in Clank's place while the other was a lift.

As such they focused on the lift and found that it brought them to another chamber, where the Thug Leader laughed at all of them as he flew around this part of the city, meaning he would be fighting them in due time, hence why the siblings just focused on blasting their way through all of the robotic enemies that were in front of them, especially those that happened to be inside the building, before they were able to leave it and found a circular area that could pass as an arena, which was when their foe revealed himself once more.

"Greetings morons." the Thug Leader stated, showing that he wanted to talk for a few seconds before bothering to blast all of them into submission, or whatever it was that his employer desired, though they let him talk since it meant he wouldn't be focusing on what they were doing, which happened to be getting their weapons out as Autumn and Starswirl took a few seconds to ready their magic as well, "Since my employees did such a lousy job of takin' care of yous, I thought I'd come and handle things myself."

"Really? You think you can take us on?" Ratchet remarked, where he blasted the chopper's right wing with the Pulse Rifle, tearing through the metal with ease as he grinned, especially since they found a look of shock on the Thug Leader's face as he noticed the damage, all while Autumn and Starswirl readied themselves for the battle that was about to break out, due to the fact that their foe didn't seem like the type to flee in this situation, "Come and try."

Sure enough the Thug Leader seemed to have a hard time hitting them, both due to the fact that there were three of them and one of him, a major factor since he had to determine who was more important and it stalled his movements, while the damage to his chopper seemed to have more of an impact than what they originally thought it might, eventually causing him to descend into the depths with his chopper on fire.

"He's not dead, so we'll see him later," Starswirl commented, where he watched as their foe ejected himself from the now ruined chopper and used a parachute to move to safety, something that would allow him to call a ship to him so he could leave the world, though with him defeated they found a teleport pad appearing in front of them, one that caused them to glance at each other before using it.

Interestingly enough it brought them right to Clank's apartment, why they had no idea and none of them cared enough to ask the question, where they found that it was still open from when Clank was abducted and headed inside, where Clank made sure to close the door behind them as Ratchet found his Swingshot and Omniboots, which he claimed instantly and found that Autumn was already thinking of ways to merge them with their armor. With that done the siblings found a back door resting nearby, one that lead to an area for them to use the newly reacquired Swingshot in, to which Ratchet did that after Clank locked the rest of his apartment up, with his siblings following after him without much delay, before they found another teleport pad that brought them back to their ship. After that they decided to head back to the area with rails that they had seen previously, just to check it out and see what might be waiting at the very end of it, where Ratchet and both of his siblings found that it had a few Swingshots for them to use, which was nice since it had been some time since any of them had actually used the gadget in question, which Autumn was going to fix with an obstacle course that would remind her and her brothers of whatever gear they recovered in the future. At the end of the track they found a landing that had a teleport pad nearby, a landing that had a button platform attached to it, one that called a ship down to them and the three of them discovered a guy who only revealed his eyes and opened a slot for them to slip weapons into, meaning he was an illegal weapon modifier, though he asked a lot to mess with their weapons.

In the end the siblings decided not to purchase his services and used the teleport pad to return to their ship, though as all of them walked up to the ship Autumn informed Clank of their other mission, to Barlow, that just so happened to be their only lead right now, and it wasn't long before they climbed into the ship, she and Starswirl slipping into the seats in back while both Ratchet and Clank took the front two seats, before setting a course for Barlow.

Commando: Barlow

Barlow, according to Autumn's research, happened to be a desert planet that was the home of the Vukovar Tribe, a race of blue skinned humanoid creatures who seemed similar to pirates, or at least the information she found said such a thing, so it was possible it was wrong, hence why their destination was known as the Vukovar Canyon, which just so happened to be where they would find the Desert Riders. What Autumn found to be far more interesting was the fact that Barlow had an old Gadgetron outpost, back when they tried to expand into the Bogon Galaxy and were kicked out by Megacorp, even if she heard rumors that a branch of Gadgetron might exist in Polaris, before she returned to the topic at hand, where she had a feeling that she and her brothers might be able to find something interesting if they found the outpost. Still, their main objective was to track down where the Desert Riders might be operating, participate in a race or two using the card that Mr. Fizzwidget had obtained for someone to use, and see if whoever they found might have some information on the Thugs, so they could move on and continue with their mission to track down the Thief, to recover the Experiment and take it back to their boss. To help them accomplish that goal Autumn made sure to incorporate their Omniboots with the armor they had been given after training to become commandos, not to mention attaching her Swingshot to the unnamed bracer gadget she had created, but since they were constantly moving she hadn't had the time to update either of her brothers' armor, so for now they were going to have to deal with separate items.

It didn't take Ratchet long to track down a landing pad for them to land on, though once he did they climbed out as soon as he turned the ship off and discovered that some of Autumn's information was correct, Gadgetron had tried to build an outpost in this galaxy, as there was a sign version of their name off in the distance that happened to be falling apart, but as they took that in Autumn found a new weapon when she checked out what the Vendor had, the Seeker Gun, which fired a seeker missile that locked onto a target.

"I see we have two paths, the one to our right and one behind the ship," Autumn commented, where she purchased the new weapon and duplicated it, along with those that had been purchased on Endako, as here Megacorp likely had no way of knowing that she had done such a thing, though at the same time the path to their ship's right seemed to wrap around to a build to their left and the back path appeared to head further into the wastes, or at least she assumed so.

"Well, we might as well check both of them, see what we can find." Ratchet replied, though as he said that he lifted the rest of the weapons and checked each out, just to get a feel for them before they got into a fight, before he decided to make his way over to the path behind them and see what might be at the end of it, where Autumn and Starswirl shrugged before following after him.

The first thing they discovered was that there were a number of Swingshot targets in front of them, where they still found it odd that Bogon even had them to begin with, unless they stole the technology from Solana, especially since Swingshots were still fairly new in their home galaxy, which allowed Ratchet and his siblings to cross over a few gaps before finding a new target to latch onto, a blue one like the one near Clank's place. Such a thing told Autumn that someone in Megacorp had stolen the technology and had distributed the targets to certain planets in the Bogon Galaxy, why she had no idea, but she kept it to herself as they reached a device that was rotating with four containers of rock facing the four directions, so they used it to reach what had to be the next part of the area they were moving through. After that Autumn discovered a group of small orange creatures that looked like a dog of some kind, which seemed to be ankle biters of some kind, while each of them could be taken out in a single hit, just like the smaller foes they had faced since coming to Bogon, telling her and her brothers that all of the smaller enemies were easy to take out and all the larger ones were tougher. Of course the siblings wasted no time in wiping out the Hounds, as Autumn was going to call these foes, before pulling a container over to them so they could enter a small building and found a tunnel filled of water for them to swim through, though that was when Clank switched to the Hydropack as Ratchet got into the water, leaving his siblings to use their magic to follow after him as he swam through a tunnel.

The Hydropack was a gift from a lady on Hoven, Edwina as she called herself and who happened to be the sister of both Al and Bob, as a way of thanking them for saving the galaxy from Drek's schemes, even though Gadgetron only allowed her to do so once Autumn had a look at it, where she approved it in no time, as it met every requirement that her boss had set for her to find, hence why Clank had such a thing installed in his body.

On the other side of the tunnel Ratchet and his siblings found another rotating tower that brought them to some targets, Swingshot targets that brought them to yet another metallic tunnel that was filled with water, something that brought the three of them to yet another set of targets and a rotating tower, causing them to realize that this might be a path with next to no enemies. Still, it was good practice with the Swingshot and timing so none of them fell into the depths of this part of Barlow, especially since there appeared to be a massive fall around each tower and structure, like Megacorp had dug out massive portions of the planet to use the rock and sand elsewhere, and whatever materials they found along the way, but in the end the siblings just focused on moving through the area. The path in question brought them to another area that had a fair number of Hounds wandering around, where it made all of them wonder how the enemies had gotten up here since there were no paths leading to this section of the planet, though Ratchet and Autumn blasted them as Starswirl used his staff to whack a few of their foes as well. They discovered that it took no time for them to clear out all of the Hounds, as they were very easy to take care of, where Ratchet quickly found that the path in front of them included a few Swingshots that brought them to the building that he had landed in front of, where they found a scientist trapped in ice, a blocked off lift, and a tunnel that was frozen, so there was no way for them to move forward, not without using magic.

In that moment Ratchet glanced at his siblings for a moment, who shrugged and loosed a bit of flames at the ice, where it took only a few seconds for the ice to shatter and freed the scientist from his prison, who stood there for a few seconds, as if he was unaware of what had happened to him, before he started moving and glanced down at the machine that was in his hands, a gadget that resembled a gun of some kind.

"It works! My invention works!" the scientist exclaimed, like he had been in the middle of a presentation and, instead of a coworker freeing him, had been frozen in the block of ice for some time, though why someone didn't break him out when they were leaving the galaxy the siblings had no idea, but they could tell that he was surprised to see them standing there, instead of those he was familiar with.

"Your gadget seems interesting. What's it called?" Autumn asked, because it seemed like something that could fire bits of ice to freeze something, based on what they had seen when they walked into the building, and there was no telling what else it might be capable of without any demonstrations, even though there was a frozen bit of water nearby that he could test it on for them.

"It's called the Thermanator. It fires charged thermal pellets that can thaw a ice block," the scientist replied, where he took a second to spot the frozen tunnel in question and fired the device at it, where it seemed to scan the area before firing red flaming pellets that quickly unfroze the passage, turning it into water, before he scanned it again and fired white freezing pellets that looked like snowballs, which refrozen the passage, "or, as you can see, freeze a body of water. Gadgetron will pay me millions!"

"Hey, I have no how long you've been frozen, since we just got here, but Gadgetron was forced out of this galaxy and left this outpost behind," Ratchet said, as it seemed like the scientist was from the era when their first employers tried to make a name for themselves in Bogon and sell to people, meaning he must have spent a few years trapped in ice, before he and his siblings came to free him while looking for the Desert Riders, "in fact, everyone buys Megacorp products these days... but we'll gladly buy the Thermanator from you."

The scientist seemed to take in that information for a few moments, shocked by the sudden fact that his boss had left him behind when the others left, but he took Ratchet's offer and sold it to them for a thousand Bolts, meaning he must have been stuck in what was the early stages of Gadgetron's prices, before departing from the building that they were in, even if he had to remember how to get out. While he did that Autumn took the gadget and studied it, as she was going to use her power on it later, once they were no longer near the scientist, before she used it to unfreeze the tunnel so she and both of her brothers could head through it, finding that it brought them to another room of the chamber and that they had to step on a platform. Once all three of them were on the platform she refroze the water and created a surface for them to stand on for a time, which also included using a set of walls for them to jump up so they could reach the upper walkway, where they found that it happened to unlock the lift so the scientist could leave the building at some point, before they headed for another lift that returned them to where Ratchet landed the ship. As Ratchet and his siblings did that it was easy to see a few Hounds hanging out around their ship, hence why they opened fire on them before heading into the passage that they had seen earlier, which was also full of Hounds and a few turrets took care of the problem, even though the three of them were sure that there were more of them somewhere in the canyon they were exploring.

That brought them to an area where some of the Vukovar Warriors, since these humanoid creatures preferred to use what appeared to be swords and shields for the most part, happened to be standing, talking about things no doubt, along with a large purple beast that could be a beast of burden or even war, a Saur Beast since it was reptilian, though when the three of them entered the area they found the individuals turn towards them.

As the reports stated the Vukovar Warriors were aggressive and wanted to kill them, hence why the siblings opened fire as soon as one of their foes tried to swing at them, even though Starswirl focused on using his power to burn down the Saur Beast, since it seemed like the type to charge at whoever happened to be it's target, where this did give them a chance to test out the Seeker Gun, which targeted the warriors and zeroed in on them in seconds. After that they entered a building that looked like it might have been an old power generator that was long dead, or at least Autumn was sure of that as both of her brothers blasted their way through the warriors who tried to stop them from moving forward, bringing them to an area that was full of Hounds and a Saur Beast, who happened to have a gun wielding Vukovar on it's back as a rider, which was rather interesting. Of course none of it mattered since the siblings could blast their way through them, not to mention taking down the rider and the beast he had been riding on, before crossing over a decent sized metallic bridge that let the three of them access the other side of the canyon, where they found a number of warriors rushing towards them, but that wasn't much of a threat with three Blitz Guns pointed at them. After that they found three more Saur Beasts, a couple of warriors, and a rider that was across another bridge, causing the siblings to sigh as they opened fire on them as well, as it took them no time to clear out the path in front of them and reach another building, this one leading to an area that had to be a campsite of some kind for a number of warriors.

A quick Gravity Bomb took them out and they dropped down into the area to enter the next building, one that brought the three of them to an arena of sorts, where a fence quickly rose up behind them and an army of warriors rushed at them in a matter of seconds, though the fifteen enemies fell in no time and the siblings headed across the walkway that brought them to an old Gadgetron building, with an old female robot who was likely an old Helpdesk agent before being assigned to the Bogon Galaxy, though she was shocked awake by something inside her breaking.

"Ooh! Excuse me... I think I just blew another vacuum tube." the Matron said, as if expecting no one to be nearby and this was her way of passing time while she waited for her systems to go offline for the last time, since it appeared no one was coming to repair her or collect her, before noticing that the three of them were standing in front of her.

"Do you want one of us to take a look?" Ratchet asked, because he and Autumn were good at fixing things, especially when he considered that Autumn was getting more skilled in robotics, thanks to working on Clank for some time so they could put the new pack in him, though while he said that his siblings glanced around the building and found that it held several pictures of Autumn's first generation of weapons.

"My word! You young people are so fresh these days!" the Matron replied, where it sounded like she was speaking about one of them trying to date her or something, or trying to skip the date and move onto the next step, before she noticed a look of annoyance, before she frowned a little as she considered what to say to them, "Oh, don't feel bad. I guess I'm just old-fashioned about that sort of thing. Did you know that I've that been with Gadgetron from the beginning?"

"We would if you told us your serial number and everything." Autumn remarked, as that was part of what Clank had told all three of them back when they first met him, though as she said that she noticed something interesting, there was a very long container that seemed to be the size of the RYNO, making her wonder if Wendell had succeeded in producing what she had sent him before they were brought to the Bogon Galaxy, "Tell me, is that..."

"Oh, it arrived just yesterday... the RYNO II," the Matron answered, where she pulled the container over and opened it not a few seconds later, revealing a cylindrical weapon that had red and blue paint, as opposed to the square shaped weapon that was mostly blue colored, with eight barrels arranged in a circular manner this time, instead of in a three by three cube like the last version, to which Autumn grinned as she lifted it out with her magic and pressed it into her hands, "I was told you might be coming by... hopefully they don't forget about me this time..."

Ratchet decided that they wouldn't forget about the Matron and ask Wendell to send for her, once they finished the task that Mr. Fizzwidget had set for them, though once that was done they headed outside and Autumn blew up the Hounds in a test of the RYNO II's power, even if it was purely overkill on her part, though with that done they found a gap between the area they were in and an area that a Desert Rider was in, to which they jumped over it and approached the man, not to mention his red hoverbike.

"Easy, I don't want any trouble." the Desert Rider said, showing them that he had seen the damage that the weapon had done and that he didn't want to be on the receiving end of a volley, something he was sure would end him if he annoyed the siblings, though at the same time it made them wonder about the image of the Desert Riders, as they were starting to be more of a bunch of misfits who didn't belong in Bogon's society.

Clank explained that they weren't here to hurt the man, for they were his fellow Desert Riders and they understood that all of the riders had certain sensitivities, not to mention personalities, before mentioning that the reason they were here was to race, where the man allowed them to use his hoverbike, Bluebell as he called it, causing Ratchet to walk over to a terminal and took a few seconds with the Electrolyzer to do some repairs. Once that was done the man, joined by Autumn and Starswirl since there was only one bike and neither of them wanted to annoy him by duplicating his pride and joy, just stood by the side and watched as Ratchet followed the coordinates to the track they would be racing on, finding a decent number of racers for him to challenge. Of course neither of his siblings were surprised to see that he overcame the rest of the Desert Riders in due time, even if all he could do was boost his way through the track since it seemed that weapons weren't allowed right now, and it wasn't long before Ratchet claimed first place and returned to them, earning them a new helmet, one with flame designs on it and some horns. In that moment the Desert Rider received a message from his boss, the Thug Leader, who informed his people that he was tired of someone eating all the choochy bars, that the company picnic was this Sunday, and that they were moving their rendezvous point to the Feltzin System, in Sector 1-2-3-4-5, maybe ffiteen if they needed to add the numbers together, before he shouted at someone for turning on the lights.

With that information in hand, and the coordinates downloaded without the Thug Leader realizing his error, the siblings pocketed the helmet, just in case it was needed in the future, before heading back to their ship, as it was time to get one step closer to tracking down the Thief and the Experiment, hence why they blasted off without delay and made their way to the Feltzin System to see what might be waiting for them this time around.

Commando: Feltzin System, Notak

It took a while for them to get to the Feltzin System, which turned out to be a large asteroid belt that looked like someone, no doubt Megacorp based on everything Ratchet and his siblings had seen so far, had been drilling into the larger stones at some point in time, likely looking for Raritanium and whatever other rare metals might be located in this galaxy, but as Ratchet got close they discovered a large station on one of the large rocks. It confirmed that this might be a mining facility of some kind, one that Megacorp had clearly abandoned since Thugs-4-Less had set up a base of operations here, which was why Ratchet carefully made sure their ship was undetected as he landed on another asteroid and turned off most of the ship's systems, allowing his siblings to cloak themselves with their magic, hiding them from view as he kept the oxygen online. They were here to gain information on the Thugs, to see if maybe, just maybe, the Thief might slip up and send her guards a message about their failure to stop those that Mr. Fizzwidget had called upon to get the Experiment back, which was still missing since neither Ratchet or his siblings had seen it in the recordings so far, since a transmission would give them an idea on where to go next, hopefully before the Thief left again. Other than that the only thing they could do was wait and rest in their ship, Ratchet keeping his hands resting near the controls, in case one of the Thugs noticed them, all while Clank continued to scan for transmissions that might be entering or leaving the station, leaving Autumn to woke on her plans as Starswirl continued his reading.

Eventually, however, one of the Thug ships was sent out and seemed to blast several of the smaller asteroids to avoid the station from being damaged in the near future, where the first one happened to be theirs, so Autumn used her magic to catch the blast and returned it within a few seconds, causing Ratchet to move as the enemy ship was taken out, though it did cause an alarm to sound as more enemies came out of the station. Sure enough none of the Thugs were happy with them interrupting their meeting, or maybe it was due to Ratchet and his siblings beating up so many of their number, all after being hired by the Thief to stop them in their tracks, though that didn't stop Ratchet from opening fire on them as his siblings used their magic to ensure that none of the incoming blasts hurt them. One might consider barrier magic to be a foul move, cheating in some cases, but when it was one against twenty to twenty-five, like what happened whenever they faced off against the Thugs in space like this, Ratchet was fine with evening the odds with the best thing in their arsenal, as in the magic that his siblings were capable of using, allowing him to deal with every ship that came at him. Of course they found that a second wave came after the first one not a few seconds after the first wave fell, reminding them of what had happened near Maktar Resort, so once Ratchet took care of the first one he turned his attention to the second wave as all of their enemies flew out of the station and converged on where he happened to be flying at the moment.

As Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank expected it didn't take long for Ratchet to clear out the remaining ships, which also gave him a chance to reduce the Thugs' numbers, before finding that no more enemies came out to see what was going on, as it meant that either there were more in hiding or this was all there was, causing Ratchet to return to the asteroid he had landed on earlier and focused on the station once more.

"It was an interesting challenge," Ratchet said, when he stopped and considered how many Thugs had come out to blast him to pieces, and take into account the fact that both of his siblings had helped him out, as without them he was sure it would have been a different story and his ship would have likely taken some additional damage, "but one that a trained commando..."

"Hold on, I'm intercepting a transmission." Clank stated, as while he knew that Ratchet would likely speak about the skill of his enemies and his newly honed skills as a trained commando, showing some respect for those he had beaten, which was mature of him to do after something like this, they were interested in recovering any and all transmissions to this place, as it would tell them where to go next, and he pulled it up to see what they would learn next.

The transmission in question was of the Thug Leader receiving a call from someone, who turned out to be the Thief, who proceeded to chew him out for a few things, like the fact that the Thugs she had ordered were off on some picnic and not where she wanted them, before she gave him an ultimatum, that if her hired help wasn't at the pick up point pronto both the Thugs and their Leader could kiss the contract goodbye. Such a thing was funny, especially since it caused the Thug Leader to pause as he considered the information, which gave the Thief time to disconnect the line as he considered what he felt was a witty remake, due to it being that she could kiss her something goodbye, even if Ratchet and his siblings felt it was rather weak, if non existent, before the transmission was terminated. Fortunately Clank acquired the coordinates that they were here to gather, to figure out where to go next, hence why Ratchet removed the ship from where he had parked it and set off for the planet the Thief was calling from, as there was a chance that they might catch up with her and put an end to part of their mission, even if they were hoping that it would bring them to Megacorp's Experiment as well. While the four of them flew through space, however, Clank found an episode of Behind the Hero, one that detailed Gadgetron's investigation into Qwark for selling 'bogus' merchandise and that authorities would be dealing with him in due time, which caused them to chuckle as they flew towards the planet the Thief was calling from.

When they reached the planet that the transmission had come from, Notak as it turned out, which happened to be a dark colored planet that was full of water and scattered islands, hence why it had all sorts of canals and boat related items all over the plane, didn't come as a surprise to the siblings as they landed, as they found the Thief flying off in a small ship, no doubt done with whatever she had come to do.

"Too late again." Ratchet remarked, where he touched down on the landing pad that was in the city that happened to have a Megacorp chemical factory, which happened to be where the Thief had come from, before he powered down the ship as his siblings focused on the Thief's ship, no doubt trying to guess which planet she was heading to next, even though they lost her ship in due time.

"We always seem to be a bit late. Why is that?" Clank inquired, as he had been thinking about that for some time, in fact he had done it a few times when they were back in Solana, because it seemed odd that no matter what they did they were always behind their targets, at least until the point where they stopped to confront them, like how Drek had done when he reached the end of his quest.

"Well, we are chasing someone who knows the galaxy better than we do," Starswirl pointed out, reminding them that they were newcomers in the Bogon Galaxy and that the Thief knew more about the galaxy than they did, even though the first thing they had learned after raiding her factory had been her tracking down a building to get a map of this quadrant of the galaxy she called home, "but we'll catch up to her in due time, that I'm sure of."

Autumn nodded her head as she headed down to the Vendor that was below where they landed, where she discovered a new weapon was available, the Synthenoid, a tiny device that one could press and deploy four defender bots, which was similar to her Hover Drone weapon, only these robots fired at enemies, so they were far more advanced than her creation, which already gave her new ideas on what to make in the future. After that Ratchet and his siblings glanced around for a few seconds and discovered that there were two paths to take, one leading into a shopping center of some kind, which just so happened to be heading in the opposite direction of the building the Thief had come from, while the other seemed to head directly for the chemical factory. Even though they knew that heading over into the shopping section of the city was designed to be a distraction, as heroes made sure to protect innocents and save settlements, just like they had done back in Solana, Ratchet and his siblings headed to their left and opened fire on all of the enemies that were in front of them, a number of robotic ankle biters and a fair number of Thugs. One other thing Ratchet discovered was a dispenser that sent out more enemies, as in the small and annoying ankle biters, even though the path they were following did bring them to an area with a few metallic moons circling a metallic planet that looked like Notak, even though it couldn't be since there were a number of rings flowing around it, though they ignored it as they opened fire on the Thugs.

It really didn't seem like there was anything of importance in the shopping section of the city, except for Thugs that wanted a piece of them, plus a few fighter jets that came in and tried to blast all three of them into submission so their boss could pay the Thugs for completing their mission, before they reached the end of the path and discovered that no gadget was at the end of it, to which they used a teleport pad to return to their ship.

From there they headed across a bridge and headed for the chemical factory, as it seemed like the best course now that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl had checked out the other path that they had discovered, finding more ankle biters and an army of Thugs that seemed to be guarding the way forward, hence why all three of them opened fire on their foes without wasting any time. Based on what it looked like their foe wanted to simply stall the three of them, four counting Clank, all so she could carry out whatever plan she was trying to complete, given that they had no idea what her plans for the innocent looking Experiment were, though if they caught her they might be able to ask her some questions and talk for some time, to either talk some sense into her or have her do it to them. One thing the siblings discovered was that the main path was blocked by a barrier, an electrical one that seemed to have a power source on the other side, similar to what they taken out during their quest to take Drek down, so they doubled back to a building that seemed to be open and Autumn found a small body of water for her to freeze so she and her brothers could continue forward. From there they blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them, mostly ankle biters and a dispenser, before reaching an area that looked like it was just a few walkways leading up to an upper area, with a number of Thugs and a fighter jet waiting for them, so it was a trap on their part, hence why Ratchet wasted no time blasting them and his siblings followed his lead.

It took them a few moments to clear out the area that they were in, knocking down all of the Thugs that were in their way, while avoiding being harmed by several explosive containers that happened to be stored all over the place, before using a lift to reach an area that would allow them to glide down to the backside of the barrier they had seen not a few minutes ago, even though Starswirl crushed a fighter jet with his magic before they discovered a holodisplay. What they discovered was that the speaker was someone called Slim Cognito, who just so happened to be the same person that had been back on Endako, the weapon modifier, though this time it seemed like he was talking about ship upgrades, be it weapons and shielding, or even modules that allowed a ship to go faster. The downside of the commercial was that it all illegal, as Slim claimed that they were 'legally ambiguous', meaning Megacorp wouldn't approve of anything they might obtain for their ship, since Ratchet was sure that they might come to a point where they needed some reinforcement and advantages over the Thugs, in case such a thing happened, but he was sure that Autumn could do something about it. Despite that fact he had Clank download the coordinates for the area that Slim would be doing the upgrades in, just in case they felt like they needed to go behind Megacorp's back and upgrade their ship to deal with some of the tactics that the Thugs might use on them in the future.

"Slim's sounds like a neat place to go, but we should focus on the chemical factory," Ratchet commented, speaking once Clank was done collecting the coordinates for the location of Slim's shop, which seemed to be stationed inside an asteroid that had been modified in some manner, though once their friend was done, and was back on his back, he turned towards the large structure off in the distance, "someone inside might know where the Thief went."

"Someone should know where to find her, or a terminal might have some information on her," Autumn said, showing that she agreed with her brother, there had to be something inside the factory that would give them an idea on where their target might be headed, which, at some point in time, had to be where she was keeping Megacorp's Experiment, while at the same time Starswirl nodded his head as well.

With them in agreement the siblings jumped over the edge and glided down to the platform that was below them, over a canal to be exact, where Starswirl swung his staff and loosed a burst of magical energy, in the form of purple blasts that rushed through the space between them and struck his foes down, allowing them to land with ease before quickly making their way over to where the barrier was resting. Like they expected there was a spherical power source that they smashed in seconds, something that powered down the barrier, before the three of them headed over the bridge and focused on the enemies in front of them, ankle biters and a dispenser that was sending out more as time went on, though they were able to crush the robotic enemies with ease before reaching the front of the building. What Ratchet discovered was one of the Bolt Cranks and activated it without delay, something that happened to be connected to the front of the building and his siblings watched as the main door opened without delay, allowing them to head down a passage before discovering a set of walls that allowed them to enter the actual factory. After that they discovered a fair number of machines that were scattered around the area that happened to be the inside of this factory, which seemed to be designed to move chemicals and create more, so hitting some of the containers would be the wrong move, so for the time being they focused on their melee weapons as they smashed some ankle biters apart, even though Autumn also discovered a body of water that had to be frozen with what they acquired on Barlow.

Truth be told Autumn was still excited by how quickly the Thermanator froze the water, because it was new technology she could use to make all sorts of weather based weaponry, possibly even gadgets if she found a way to do it, though using it allowed her brothers to move over to a ledge that allowed them to reach a raised platform that was level with where she happened to be standing. The Bolt Crank her brothers discovered revealed a walkway that connected to the other side of the chamber that they happened to be moving through, to which she formed some platforms to jump over to where both of her siblings were moving, discovering a frozen pool of ice that Autumn quickly thawed so they could swim through it, all to reach another part of the building. Of course there happened to be a lower area that had a Bolt Crank, to which Ratchet jumped down as Autumn and Starswirl stayed back, where he turned the crank and moved a walkway into position, one his siblings could walk across as a set of magical platforms formed in the air for him to use, allowing him to catch up with them as they moved deeper into the factory, deciding that this time using magic to get ahead was necessary. After that the three of them found a few sections of water that happened to be raising and lowering as they were used to make all sorts of chemicals, some even having dangerous looking sharks inside them, before Autumn discovered that she could freeze the pools and create platforms for them to use to advance through what was left of the factory.

What the siblings discovered at the end of the path they had been following was a trio of small robots, almost like the ones that came from the Glove of Doom, except with glasses and no temper to devour everything, standing in front of another holodisplay, though as Ratchet and his siblings came to a stop, with Clank detaching from his back so he could walk, they found that the robots turned for a moment and looked at them.

"Clank, do you think you can communicate with them?" Ratchet asked, figuring that their friend might be able to tell these robots why they were trespassing in the chemical factory and what they were looking for, though if they had nothing to tell them this would be the end of their mission, not unless they found a transmission waiting for them when they returned to their ship.

Clank nodded and made a few noises for a few seconds, where it came out as beeps and whatnot, even a few sounds that they weren't sure what they were supposed to be, before the robotic trio glanced at each other before saying something in the same language that Clank had just used, causing him to say something else that sounded like he was asking a question and they replied in due time.

"They said that a masked customer picked up an order not long ago." Clank replied, informing the siblings as to what the robots had said, who seemed pleased to have repeated the information to someone who worked for Megacorp, or at least Ratchet hoped that was the case, before he got onto what he felt was more important, especially since they hadn't found anything useful on this planet, "Recently they received a new transmission from 'him' and they are willing to show it to us, for a small price."

Ratchet still had no idea why everyone in Bogon referred to the Thief as a male, as her body was clearly female and he felt that it had to be the voice changing device she was using, before paying the six thousand Bolt price that the robots were asking, something that caused the little robots to turn and press a button, which revealed the Thief, in all her glory, while she was holding onto the Experiment. What they discovered was that the Experiment was far more aggressive than what Mr. Fizzwidget had told and shown them when everyone agreed to take on this mission, especially when it tried to eat the Thief's right hand and she ended up sending it straight down into the ground, smashing some crates that seemed to be a few items she needed, though as she said what she needed the violent Experiment jumped up and tried to devour both her mask and her face. From there it evolved into her trying to tell the workers of this factory what she needed and they watched as the Experiment tried to eat her at every turn, making Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank wonder if this was common and that Megacorp had been in the middle of fixing it before it was stolen by the unfortunate Thief, or maybe this was why it had been stolen in the first place, to prevent a violent thing from being released to the masses. In the end they found that the Thief eventually gave up on trying to do two things at the same time, especially since her body seemed to be off balance for some reason, and the Experiment stopped when it tried to much on her head, which failed since they knew that she was fine, before she mentioned where the supplies were to be delivered.

As the little robots laughed, sharing a joke that only they and Clank knew, Ratchet and his siblings quickly downloaded the coordinates for the planet in question, Siberius to be exact, before gathering their friend and used a taxi to return to their ship, where they climbed back into their ship and blasted off for the next planet, as there was a chance that they might be able to catch up to their target and secure the Experiment, and maybe learn more about what was going on.

Commando: Siberius

Siberius, as Autumn discovered in her research, was a cold planet that was covered in a decent amount of ice and snow, or at least that was what the records seemed to suggest, with tall mountains that Megacorp had built a base into at one point in time, either an abandoned one or one that wasn't used a lot at this point in time, it was hard to tell with them after what they had seen and learned so far, but the siblings were sure it was the former. It served as a good place for someone to set up shop, without the prying eyes of Megacorp watching over them, meaning whatever the Thief was doing wouldn't be interrupted until it was too late, though her slip up in transmitted from the planet might bring about the end of her plans, depending on what happened when they reached the icy planet, which happened to be near Notak. Ratchet also voiced his opinion that this could be a trap, that she was waiting for them to arrive before revealing her plan to them, since they did work for Megacorp and would report their failure to Mr. Fizzwidget if she was successful in overcoming all three of them, and succeeded in her mission, causing Autumn and Starswirl to glance at each other for a second. Even Clank agreed that there was a possibility that this was a trap of some kind, especially after seeing everything that the Thief was capable of, since the moment they arrived in Bogon to this point in time, meaning they would have to be careful as they explored the base in question, since there was no telling what the Thief might do next.

When they reached the planet in question Ratchet powered down the ship before climbing out of it, leaving Starswirl to use a bit of his magic to protect it, just in the off chance that the Thief lured them here so she could blow up their ship and escape to her true base of operations to fulfill her mission, though Autumn found no new weapons inside the Vendor, so the siblings moved forward and kept their guard up.

Sure enough they found that the first part of the path had a number of Bladeballs, which happened to be the official name of the spheres that had spinning blades, and some of the Flame Bots guarding the area, causing the siblings to open fire on all of them without delay, finding that there were more enemies in this place than what they were expecting to find, so it told Ratchet that the Thief was definitely waiting for them. Of course there was also a walkway that connected to the side of the base, or part of it anyway, which had a number of Chainsaw Bots and a few more Flame Bots, causing them to turn and throw a few of the Miniturrets out to block the incoming enemies that they had spotted, allowing the siblings to focus on the first set of enemies and not divide their attention when they were outnumbered. Fortunately Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn cleared out the robotic enemies without being harmed, though each of them had come close to it happening two or three times, before Starswirl stepped up first and kept an eye out for more enemies as Ratchet and Autumn followed a few steps behind him, mostly because his magic would allow him to throw a barrier up in case more foes showed up, as it would give his siblings a chance to react without being harmed. Sure enough they found a number of Chainsaw Bots in the area near an elevator that would take them downwards a little, to connect with what had to be the next part of the path the Thief was resting at the end of, so Ratchet and his siblings took care of their enemies before using the lift to reach the lower section of the base, which involved taking out a pair of Flame Bots who were guarding the area.

After that they found a platform to jump across, which deployed Bladeballs for them to take out, before discovering one of the dropships had arrived and was starting to deploy all sorts of robots, to which Autumn pulled out the RYNO II and just wasted all of the enemies that were in front of them, allowing her and her brothers to collect the Bolts before reaching the end of what appeared to be a transport that had to be heading to where the Thief was working.

"This just screams 'trap'... we might have overestimated her villain skills and status," Autumn replied, as it felt like the Thief wasn't even trying at this point, rather it felt like she really wanted to rub their defeat in their faces or something, to which she sighed for a moment, as she was expecting more after everything else she and her brothers had seen, though it didn't stop them from restocking their ammunition.

"Even so, we had best be careful," Ratchet said, because while he sort of shared Autumn's feelings on the matter, since the scene in front of them was against everything that they had seen so far, at least where the Thief was concerned when he thought about it, he also had a feeling that this was intentional, to lure them into a false sense of security so she could no doubt beat them that much easier.

Starswirl and Autumn nodded as the three of them climbed into the back of the vehicle, which was beckoning for them to climb into it, and sure enough Ratchet found that the door closed behind them as the convoy started to move, though as that happened a door in front of them opened and a number of enemies emerged to do battle with them, Chainsaw Bots by the look of things. It was rather interesting for them to see that the Thief was going so far to defeat even one of them in battle, or even punish them enough to where they took her hint and returned to Solana with their tail between their legs, but it didn't stop the siblings from firing upon all of their enemies, as they were going to do everything possible to secure the Experiment, all so they could figure out what to do next. A few moments later, when they were sure that their enemies were taken care of, another door opened and revealed that to move forward they had to use their Swingshots, which was what they did as they landed on top of the next vehicle, something that was followed by the Thief flying out of wherever she had been hiding and revealed that she was using a Megacorp hoverboard to move around. What Autumn discovered was that while the Thief really wanted them to get out of here, just like she claimed when she shocked Clank earlier, none of the attacks that were aimed at Ratchet even got close to their brother, almost like the Thief had grown attached to him and didn't want him to be harmed in some manner, making her wonder if there was more to their foe than what they were seeing right now.

After taking a few hits, or as best as they could do since their foe was good with a hoverboard, the Thief pulled out and it forced the siblings to move forward once more, swinging to another vehicle that happened to open it's back door so they could assault the enemies that happened to be inside it, more Chainsaw and Flame Bots with a few Bladeballs, though all of them fell in due time and they used another Swingshot target to catch up with the Thief. Autumn and Starswirl glanced at each other for a moment as both they and Ratchet resumed fighting their foe, both of them finding that the Thief still had no desire to actually hurt their brother, in fact it almost seemed like Ratchet might be catching onto it as well, but for now none of them said anything as they chased her off once more. As that happened the Thief tried something else in an attempt to make Ratchet and his siblings back off, she shot out one of the tires of the vehicle they were on and it quickly upturned, as in it twisted for a few moments and lifted off the ground, or at least part of it anyway, something that caused Autumn and Starswirl to weave their magic into a barrier protecting them, Ratchet, and Clank from harm, even if the poor vehicle ended up crashing and blocking the road. From there they found a rocket platform and started to make their way around it, finding that it had been built on a frozen lake and had crystals growing out of certain spots, and the enemies on the walkway fell without offering much resistance, allowing them to reach a walkway that linked up to where their foe had decided to stop, with the Experiment strapped to a missile that was almost ready to launch.

"Ha! You've lost, Megacorp!" the Thief stated, where she pulled out a device and showed that she was going to send off the Experiment with them watching everything happen, even though she clearly had no idea who in the three galaxies she was dealing with, especially since Autumn and Starswirl were capable of magical feats beyond what they have shown their foes during their time in Bogon, "Take your imperialistic eco-fascism to..."

Autumn wasted no time in engaging her magic, where she yanked the Thief off her hoverboard and brought her down to where they were standing, making sure to summon chains that quickly wrapped around her arms, to stop the Thief from doing anything that might interrupt what they were about to do. At the same time Starswirl removed the Experiment from where it was resting, allowing Autumn to dismantle the missile so it couldn't be used, even though she was careful not to harm any of the components since she might be able to use them later. While she did that, and Starswirl made sure that the Experiment was safe, Ratchet stepped forward and removed both the Thief's hood and mask, revealing a female feline creature that looked a lot like him, where her hair color matched her fur and was styled in a ponytail.

"No way... another Lombax..." Ratchet said, which came as a surprise to both Autumn and Starswirl as well, as while they had been expecting to find a race that might be similar to their brother's, like a Cazar for example, finding another Lombax was something they weren't expecting, though while the Thief was surprised by them revealing her secret, no doubt due to the fact that she had been planning on leaving once her task had been complete or had failed, Ratchet was stunned, likely thinking back to his pod on Veldin, where he carefully pulled his necklace out, "...do you... do you have a necklace that is similar to this one?"

The Thief continued to be surprised by what was going on, no doubt having expected that this would go differently, which Autumn and Starswirl shared while Clank climbed off of Ratchet's back, though once she determined that things had, for the time being, calmed down Autumn released the Lombax as Starswirl caged the Experiment in a case of magic, making sure it couldn't escape, causing the lady to rub her wrists before she gently held up Ratchet's necklace.

"It... is similar to several Lombax artifacts, I even have a few hidden in storage... but no, I don't have something like this on my person, or in my collection," the Lombax replied, as she wasted no time in studying the necklace and determining what it might be, which quickly confirmed that it was something that came from their species, though as she let go of it she noticed something that stalled her for a moment, Ratchet, despite all the commando training they had gone through, was devastated when he heard the answer, to which he sighed as he turned to the side and faced another part of the area they were in, "um... did I say something wrong?"

"Not really. Ratchet's, well, been looking for his sister for some time," Clank said, causing the Lombax to glance at him for a moment before glancing over to Autumn, clearly thinking that they were siblings after everything she had seen so far, due to the fact that the three of them acted like siblings who had grown up together, before he sighed as well, "what I mean is that Ratchet arrived on Veldin in a pod that was designed for two small Lombaxes, only he arrived by himself, and during our first adventure we found someone who told us that his twin sister was safe... he was hoping that, since you two look so similar with your fur color, you might be his sister, who has the other half of his necklace."

The Lombax paused for a moment, no doubt feeling guilty about giving Ratchet hope, especially since he was looking for another member of their race and she was likely the first one he had encountered since his first adventure had started, to which she sighed for a moment as she considered something, which eventually causing her to mess with her belt for a few seconds, causing Autumn and Starswirl to watch as a more fox like Lombax tail appeared behind her, meaning she must have been hiding it from everyone.

"Listen, there are a few things we need to discuss, the first being that my name is Angela Cross, so no more 'Thief' this or 'Thief' that," the Lombax stated, which was something that all of them were glad to have, because previously they had no name to give her and this meant they didn't have to worry about it, while at the same time Ratchet said nothing as he put his necklace back where he kept it, on him at all times, before facing her once more, "secondly, yes, I am a Lombax, and I have been keeping that secret from everyone in Bogon for as long as I can remember, as someone is looking for us, as in someone evil, so I've been trying to keep a low profile... now that you guys are here, that might not be possible. Third, the Experiment, or Subject 13 as it was previously called, is a genetically modified creature Megacorp designed to be, in the words of Mr. Fizzwidget, the 'perfect pet', even though it still has a number of errors and flaws that I was working on and would have succeeded in fixing had I been given the time."

"If you knew about the problems, why not just take it to a lab and fix them?" Starswirl asked, because it seemed far better than blowing the creature up, putting whatever plans Megacorp had back in the process, but since things were different in Bogon he figured that there was a way to do things, hence why he and his siblings were listening to what Angela said, who was currently walking to a teleporter, which took them back to where their ship rested, before heading into a building so they could talk.

"There were too many to fix in the time I was given," Angela replied, where she opened a door they had missed and found that she had brought them to an old meeting room for the base she had claimed as her own, though once everyone was inside the room she closed the door and sealed it so none of them were bothered by the cold wind, to which she sat down in a chair and set her mask in front of her, "my only option, to get more time, was to devise this plan and use my limited resources to gather everything I needed to blast the Experiment to pieces... then my boss had a great idea and called the heroes of another galaxy to track me down. Oh, and if you think the Experiment is bad now, remind me to show you one of the videos for Dobbo, as it has information about the creature that you might be disturbed by... or maybe you'll see why I was so set on making sure the Experiment wasn't produced with all these flaws."

"Well, we have to return the creature to Mr. Fizzwidget, maybe you can... no, that's a dumb idea, as you would have tried to talk some sense into him before putting this plan into motion," Ratchet said, showing that he had definitely grown since the start of their first adventure and that he understood what they were being told right now, even the parts that hadn't been said yet, even though none of them were even surprised by Angela having been a Megacorp employee, given what she had told them so far, before he considered something, "well, since we've messed up your plans, maybe you'll consider joining up with us as we try to talk some sense into Mr. Fizzwidget... and, failing that, maybe taking matters into our own hands to make sure this galaxy is safe from harm."

"Ratchet... I'm not sure that's a good idea. Two Lombaxes working together might draw unwanted attention, namely the one whose looking for us." Angela stated, though Autumn and Starswirl noticed the look on her face, as she seemed torn at the moment, part of her wanted to work alongside Ratchet, possibly even grow attached to him in due time, while the other part wanted to run and hide so she could avoid drawing attention to both herself and him.

"Angela, if there is a threat to the Lombaxes out there, and I'm willing to believe you on that matter, than we'll take care of it at some point in the future," Ratchet replied, where his siblings and Clank said nothing, choosing to listen, because they could see that he was trying to persuade Angela to join them, instead of disappearing and returning to the shadows once more, and it seemed like Angela was warming up to the idea of teaming up with them, "and I mean it, as we learned about Drek's plans and dealt with him, and I'm sure we'll discover all of the truth behind the Experiment and deal with the one responsible for you having to do all of this... so, with that in mind, we'll track down whoever is hunting us down and deal with him in due time."

Autumn wasn't sure if her brother had some hidden charisma, or something similar to it, but it was enough to convince Angela that nothing he had told her was a lie, that he would track down whoever the threat was and deal with them, with all of them at his side no less, causing the other Lombax to admit defeat and accept that his plan might be better that what she had come up with. With Angela deciding to join them on their adventure, something that excited them a little since it meant adding some new skills to their team, Ratchet actually came up with an interesting plan so they could explain her traveling with them, as with them having recovered the Experiment, which was trying to chew through Starswirl's magical cage, in vain to be exact, Mr. Fizzwidget might expect them to have the Thief in custody. If that was the case it would make sense for them to report that they had captured her, or 'him' since everyone else seemed to think Angela's disguise was a male humanoid, so they could figure out where he wanted to meet so they could hand over the Experiment, no doubt also making a stop at another world to drop Angela off, or maybe he'd wait until they were back at Megacorp's Headquarters before worrying about the Thief. Of course if things turned south, and Mr. Fizzwidget tried to off Angela at the coordinates he would be giving them, Starswirl or Autumn could 'free' her and she could escape without the Experiment, so they could meet up later and compare what happened after the separation, causing their new friend to take a moment to think about it before nodding, showing that she agreed with it, hence why she collected her mask, which had a hologuise module on it, which explained how she was able to hide her Lombax ears and everything else.

They also found that Angela's weapon was a cylindrical device, like the handle of something without a blade or head piece, so it wasn't a wrench or something else, though once they were ready to go, and Angela carefully hid her tail, using a small device that safely condensed it into a belt and make it impossible to tell what it truly was, before returning her mask and hood to their proper places, the group returned to their ship before contacting their employer.

"Cratchet, Spank, is that you?" Mr. Fizzwidget inquired, the man appearing on the holodisplay that they were using to send him this message in the first place, though it looked like he was looking for good news and not news that the Thief, and the Experiment, had evaded them once more, clearly ignoring both Autumn and Starswirl, while not seeing who was standing with them right now.

"We've accomplished our mission, sir. The Experiment is safe and in our possession." Ratchet replied, where he held out the magical cage that Starswirl had created, allowing their employer to see what they had done, even though they knew that this adventure was far from over, if what Angela had told them was true, before he gestured to her for a moment, as it was the other part of their plan, "We even captured the Thief."

"Why that's cutaneous. Absolutely munificent!" Mr. Fizzwidget stated, showing them that he was totally focused on staring at the violent creature that they had recovered from Angela, not even thinking about the fact that they had mentioned that they had caught the one responsible for stealing the Experiment, before he focused on them for a time, "You four are a galluptious team."

"We were glad to assist, sir." Clank said, which would have been true had they not known about the danger that the small creature posed to the galaxy if it was released to the public, even if Angela hadn't given them every piece of information they needed to figure things out, he even considered that it was possible that she might not know everything either, but he continued to think about things before speaking again, "We just need coordinates to our next rendezvous point, so we can hand over the Experiment."

"Of course, I'm on my way to give a tour of Megacorp's historical mining site." Mr. Fizzwidget replied, something that was followed by Angela pausing for a moment, meaning she must know about the planet in question, before the man tapped a few keys before pulling something up on his side of the holodisplay, no doubt a message about the planet in question, just like he had done previously, "Here's a little backtalk on the fragility."

What they discovered was a commercial about Megacorp Manufacturing and Mining, a tireless drum major that apparently lead the galaxy on its march of progress, even though it claimed that their most precious product was their history, before it went into what happened when they came to the world of Tabora, naming the next planet that they would be visiting as they listened to the rest of the message. Apparently the corporation found a planet that was basically a massive rain forest and that no signs of civilization could be seen, though to complete their mission they transformed the impassable jungle into a wasteland that was easily navigable, terraforming the planet in what had to be the worst way possible, which had to explain why Angela froze when she heard the mention of Tabora.

"Is that facility still operational, sir?" Autumn inquired, because if it was, and they were still tearing the planet apart for all of the resources that happened to be trapped below the ground, she might just blow up and start tearing things apart with her magic, before figuring out a way to restore a portion of the jungle that had been on this planet before Megacorp came here, looking for whatever they had been looking for.

"Alas no... but it's steeped in hysterics. I've offloaded the condiments to your naval computer." Mr. Fizzwidget replied, but as he said that he seemed to be done talking to them and let them think about the information that he had shared with all of them, including the fact that Angela seemed unhappy about which planet they would be visiting next, meaning it was either the one she had landed on or had some connection to, or maybe she just didn't like what happened to it, before he disconnected the link between them.

With that done the siblings paused for a moment, as Autumn made sure the ship could contain Angela and the Experiment as well, using magic to extend and strengthen their ship, before climbing into it as Angela removed the mask, allowing her to breath and focus on their mission, though once everyone was ready to go Ratchet blasted off and headed for Tabora, to see what they might learn during their visit to the vast desert planet.

Commando: Tabora

During their flight to Tabora, which was just a few hours, Angela told Ratchet and the others that she had nothing to do with what happened to the planet they were currently flying towards, as it had happened during the early days of her time with Megacorp, so she was busy with her work, both to keep Mr. Fizzwidget happy while making sure not to make a name for herself, after finding a way to hide both her tail and true race. She had learned about the terraforming after the fact, once all of the work was said and done to be exact, but she was still ashamed by the fact that an entire world had been ruined during her time with Megacorp, even though it seemed like none of the other worlds had suffered the same fate, meaning her boss must have figured out that doing such a thing was wrong. One interesting piece of information that surprised the siblings was that the Fizzwidget she knew could speak just fine and didn't mispronounce names, where she suspected that what all of them had seen so far, with his odd speech patterns, had to be his old age catching up with him and was making him far more confused than what she remembered, to the point where she wondered if he was even the same man anymore, as some of his recent actions made her think otherwise. The siblings agreed that old age could be a factor in part of what was happening, though based on what she had told them his actions seemed to suggest that something else was going on, as if someone was pulling his strings and was forcing him to do everything that Angela opposed, though for now they listened to her tales about when she worked for Megacorp, just to learn more about the corporation.

Eventually they reached the planet in question and found their way to the mining site that Mr. Fizzwidget had pointed out in the coordinates he had sent them, though what was interesting was where he wanted them to meet up, in the wastes, as if he were taking out the trash, and Angela put on her Thief mask before returned to her 'cuffed' position as everyone climbed out of the ship... though as they walked a fair distance away from the ship they found a rather large black ship that just landed on top of their own, causing Mr. Fizzwidget to climb out of it.

"Everything's fine! There was just a bit of debris on the landing pad." Mr. Fizzwidget said, appearing to not care about the fact that he had crushed their ship with his own, in fact he might not know about the fact that they had parked their ship in the very area that he intended on landing in when he planned on bringing them to this planet, so it might be their fault if one thought about it another way.

"Fine?! That was our ship!" Clank stated, because if this was the end of their mission, and they couldn't do anything to help Angela with the Experiment mess, they would need a way to get back to Solana, in the off chance that Megacorp didn't just warp them back to their own galaxy once everything was said and done, hence why the ship seemed like a good idea, or at least it had been one.

"Don't worry about it, little fella. It's insured! But, ugh, do you have the, uh, delivery?" Mr. Fizzwidget inquired, deciding to ignore Clank's comments on the matter while focusing on why he had asked them to come to this planet in the first place, even though it didn't seem like any tours would be happening on this planet anytime soon, though Starswirl nodded as he undid his magic and the Experiment jumped forward, like a pet reunited with it's master and not the violent machine they had seen earlier, "Terrifulous! Come gentlemen, there is precious little time."

What they discovered was that Mr. Fizzwidget either didn't care about the fact that Angela was there, or he was planning on disposing of the Thief once they were off world, though as he moved his ship, however, their boss asked if they wanted to listen to some flying music and pressed a button near his controls, which launched Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela out of the ship and caused them to fall into a hole in a nearby rock formation, something that caused Ratchet to grab onto Angela and positioned himself so he collided with the sandy ground first and acted like a cushion.

"Ratchet! Are you alright?" Angela asked, the 'bindings' disappearing as she removed her mask and moved to aid him, as while they had landed on a large pile of sand it still had to be painful, especially since he had used his body as a cushion to make sure no harm came to her, which was a sweet gesture when she thought about it, though she was impressed that he had moved faster than his siblings, who used magic to protect themselves.

"Yeah... though I'll be feeling that for a few days." Ratchet replied, where he picked himself up and dusted himself off as he made sure his body was just fine, especially since Angela had landed with her face facing his, meaning her chest had been pushed against his for a few moments, though he made sure to hide any blushes that might have shown up as he looked around the underground area that they had landed in.

"I know we were willing to believe that he's easily distracted in his old age, but he did that on purpose." Clank said, taking a moment to speak to Autumn and Starswirl, deciding to leave Ratchet and Angela alone for the time being so they could talk to each other, especially after noticing what had happened when his friend moved his body between Angela and the ground a few moments ago.

"He wants us out of the way... meaning he knows more than what he told us." Starswirl remarked, because that had to be the only explanation for what happened over the last few minutes, that their boss had lied to them about something and wanted to remove all of them before they did something that put his plans in jeopardy, something that confirmed what Angela had told him and his siblings earlier, "Though I'm afraid that we won't be able to leave the way we entered, as that is a little too far for either of us to teleport out of here... we'll have to find another way out."

Ratchet nodded his head as Angela pulled her hood back and undid her tail, as it appeared that being in the presence of another Lombax had convinced her to stop hiding and embrace her true form again, even though they could see that part of her was still hesitant to do this, a small part anyway. With that done they walked over to a nearby Vendor, which must have fallen down here at some point in time, and discovered that it had two new weapons for them to add to their arsenal, which made the siblings smile as they discovered more about their new tools. The first one was known as the Lava Gun, a weapon that allowed the user to fire a thin stream of lava at their enemies, though Autumn assumed that the insides had been designed to safely hold a condensed form of the dangerous element in question, otherwise it would have wrecked the gun at some point. After that the group glanced at the second weapon on the screen, which was the Bouncer and fired a decent sized spherical bomb that split into smaller bombs, ones that stuck everything that happened to be around the initial impact area, meaning it could be quite dangerous for their enemies.

"What is she doing?" Angela asked, as Autumn purchased both weapons and made some notes about them for the next generation of weapons that Gadgetron would be producing, though her question was more directed to what came after all of her notes were made, where she watched as the Lava Gun was duplicated into four identical weapons, one for each of the siblings and the fourth seemed to be for her, which she quickly replicated with the Bouncer.

"Item Duplication... makes it easier for us to have the weapons to defend the galaxy from harm," Starswirl said, where he checked out the weapons for a few seconds and nodded his head, as he was pleased with them and knew that his sister's spell would have replicated it perfectly, even though Angela was starting to understand why it had been so hard for all of the Thugs to take them down, not counting their magical powers.

Angela barely had time to come to terms with how the siblings had gotten away with cheating Megacorp, something she understood since some of their products were expensive, before Autumn made a quick copy of Ratchet's arsenal to fill in all of the weapons they had obtained so far, giving Angela everything from the Lancer to the Miniturret Glove, and both of the newer ones that Ratchet had just obtained, before they opened fire on all of the enemies that were in the tunnel they needed to head through. Sure, she had seen their skills several times before this point in time, receiving reports from the Thugs as the siblings smashed and blasted through whoever and whatever happened to be in their way, but seeing it from this side of things was another thing entirely, each of them were graceful in their own way, Autumn being graceful despite the fact that she switched between magic and weapons, all while Starswirl focused on using magic to blast his targets, no doubt saving his weapons for when enemies got close to him. Ratchet, on the other hand, was able to display his innate Lombax abilities as he struck his opponents and dodged attacks with far more grace than what his sister used, even if this was only their second adventure based on what they had told her, and it wasn't long before they discovered the knee sized Crawlers, red scaled quadrupedal creatures who changed as Megacorp terraformed Tabora, and a few mutant flies were loved to live in the sands. It was impressive to watch them take down the pack of enemies, all without actually breaking a sweat to do so, and she had to imagine that Ratchet was just fine, that her falling on top of him had done nothing to his body or skills, but Angela could tell that he seemed a little more skilled than before, meaning he and his siblings had to be growing the more they fought their enemies.

In that moment she found herself agreeing with what Ratchet had said earlier, that if the threat that was looking for them actually did find them, and she was sure that it would happen in due time, Ratchet and his siblings would be able to take care of their foe, making her wonder if she could gain the same skills that the siblings possessed, by traveling with them for a time, just to improve her chances if things didn't work out.

"Angela, is something wrong?" Ratchet asked, pausing for a moment as his siblings moved forward, jumping over a small gap to deal with some additional Crawlers and a Spawner of some kind, as Clank had pointed out that their new friend had stalled for a moment, which he understood since he counted three blasts and not four whenever one of them used their weapons, hence why he turned back and found that Angela was still standing near the Vendor.

"No, just... lost in thought." Angela replied, which was basically the truth of the matter, she had been caught up in thinking about everything that was going on right now and what it meant for her future, especially since she was distracted by the fact that she was in the company of a male Lombax, something she refused to admit right now, as most of her wanted to focus on her mission, before she sighed and collected her new arsenal before catching up to Ratchet and his siblings, as it would seem weird if she just stayed behind them the entire time.

This time Angela joined the siblings in firing upon both the Crawlers and Desert Flies, which she told the others what they were called so they knew about them, where Ratchet found that her movements had vastly improved and weren't as bad as when she was the Thief, even though some of those movements could have been blamed on the Experiment attacking her, but he suspected that having her tail out in the open, instead of contained in her belt, happened to be the cause for what they were seeing. One thing they discovered was that there happened to be a new type of Nanotech, purple colored this time, which Angela explained was supposed to be far stronger than the normal blue that everyone was familiar with, meaning that it healed far more than what they were used to, an interesting thing for them to keep in mind as they dealt with all of the enemies that were in the next chamber. Another thing the siblings discovered was that their new weapons did some good damage to the enemies that happened to be in the chamber in question, the Lava Gun burning everything that the stream came into contact with while the Bouncer bombs zeroed in one an enemy and blasted it several times in a matter of seconds, making them wonder what else Megacorp might have up their sleeves. After that they passed through an area that was just a few platforms, small ones that were created from the cave itself and weren't made by Megacorp, so they had to jump across a few gaps to move deeper into the cave system, even though Ratchet made sure that Angela had no trouble with it and found that she was more than capable of traversing the gaps.

It brought them to another chamber that happened to have a Vendor inside it, though it was then that they discovered an odd sight, two glass cases that had writing on the bases of them, one being smaller and having a rock inside it while they found that the other was larger and had a wrench inside it, which seemed to be blue colored and not that much different than what Ratchet was carrying right now.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting to find this here," Ratchet said, where Clank was reading the puzzle written on the bases, as it said that in case of emergency use wrench to break the glass and then went into a line about using said wrench to get the rock to get the wrench, though he bypassed it by smashing the container that the wrench was in, though with it in hand he and his siblings glanced at Angela for a moment, "You want it?"

"No, I have my own weapon," Angela replied, where she pulled out the cylindrical weapon she had shown them earlier, as Autumn expected it to be a staff or pole of some kind, before she sighed for a moment, knowing that if she didn't show it off one of the siblings was bound to bug her until she decided to show them, to which she pressed a button and a beam on either side of the base emerged, stopping at the same length of the blade on Autumn's sword, only they seemed to be made out of purple energy, "this is a saber made of magnetically contained plasma, so called a 'Lightsaber' according to a bit of information from the Codex fragment that I recovered, though I've stayed away from traditional Lombax weapons to avoid drawing attention to myself."

"Very interesting... I might have to study it later." Autumn remarked, showing Angela that she was interested in what she had chosen as her weapon, especially since the information about it seemed to come from a Codex fragment, though as she said that part of her magic washed over both wrenches that Ratchet was holding as she merged his with the second, turning it a shade of blue, molding the head to be a cross between the two, and making his wrench even stronger than it had been before this point, even though she made three copies of Tabora's wrench, two to upgrade hers and Starswirl's, keeping the last as a reminder of what they found.

With that done, and everyone was ready to go, Ratchet and Angela moved forward and swung their melee weapons at the Crawlers that were in front of them, finding that the upgraded wrench was far stronger than it had been before, just like Autumn had told him, while Angela's weapon cut through her foes like butter, allowing Autumn to study it in use while she and Starswirl brought up the rear. The interesting thing that Autumn found was that Angela must have made a couple of modifications to the saber, making it so that her tail and her attire, which could be in the way of the blades, depending on her movements, weren't harmed by the intense beams of the strange weapon, so no one had to worry about her cutting either her tail or the cape she was wearing, though a few seconds later she removed the cape, showing them that she was done with resembling her Thief persona. Another thing they discovered was that there were a few pools of lava, which did make sense due to the fact that they were below ground and that it might have been caused by all the terraforming that had gone on during Megacorp's time on this planet, that happened to be nearby as they moved through the cave system Mr. Fizzwidget had launched them into before he departed from the planet. After a while Ratchet found a few Swingshots that seemed to head outside, or at least the downward sloped passage that was in front of them suggested that, where he carried both himself and Angela across a few gaps before holding onto her as he glanced down to a path of ground with Clank's helipack, even though his siblings just used their magic to follow after him.

When they landed two things happened, they discovered a lift that would take them up to the desert, maybe even to the area that their ship had been resting in before it was smashed, and Angela's ship landed some distance in front of her, as she had set it to follow them and track them down when Mr. Fizzwidget ejected them, where she pulled out a holodisplay and showed them a message about the Megacorp Testing Facility on planet Dobbo.

"Some of those things looked like of dangerous," Ratchet commented, referring to the Nuclear Mousetrap and the Lawn Ninja, items that had apparently been made by Megacorp before being rejected, among a few other items they had seen on the screen, but as he considered that information Angela messed with the rest of her former disguise and the sections covering her arms came off, like bits of a hologuise, revealing more fur that looked like his, "it gives us another good idea on why you wanted to take the Experiment."

"I have a reliable source in Megacorp who said that there should be more information on the Experiment in the facility, it just needs to be found," Angela replied, though she was happy to see that Ratchet and his siblings were willing to listen to what she had to say, as they were keeping an open mind about things and it seemed like they understood that they might have been tricked by the man who hired them, regardless of whether or not someone was pulling the strings, "we can try convincing Mr. Fizzwidget of the danger, but after everything that's happened I'm not sure he'll even listen to anything we have to say on the matter... and no, Davin would never turn me in, otherwise you four wouldn't have been brought in to take the Experiment back."

Autumn and Starswirl said nothing as they walked over to the lift and stepped on it, allowing it to take them up to what seemed to be an old mining camp that was, despite the claims of it being abandoned by Megacorp, still in good condition, like someone happened to be calling this place home, and sure enough they found their ship on a landing pad, with an old blue skinned man who seemed to be meditating in front of the ship, while dressed in brown robes.

"Thanks for moving our ship out of the desert... certainly saves us the trouble of tracking it down," Autumn said, as none of them had been looking forward to a trek through the wastes that were all around them, since it would take some time to track down where the ship had been before it had been smashed, though for the most part it looked like the man was deep in his meditation, or at least he was until he opened his eyes.

"Possession is an illusion. Do not all things belong to the cosmos?" the man, a mystic of some kind, replied, showing them that he saw the ship in a different light, though it did look like he was sort of with them and not with them right now, like he was stuck between two different states, before he turned his head and regarded their ship for a few seconds, "This vessel suffers from wounded chi. Only the power of the crystals can hope to heal it."

"Crystals, sir?" Clank asked, because they had seen no crystals on this planet, not since their arrival, and he suspected that if any remained it was either due to Megacorp missing them or they might have grown since the company left, though he failed to see the logic of needing crystals to mend the ship, not when Autumn and Starswirl could use their magic to put it back together in no time at all.

"Crystals, like those found in the desert, beyond." the Mystic answered, though instead of giving them anything else to go on, other than the fact that what he needed was around them, he closed his eyes and continued his meditation, as if they hadn't disturbed him in the first place, causing the group to glance at each other before shrugging, as it seemed like he wasn't about to let them do anything with their own ship.

The first thing they did was check out the rest of the settlement, finding that it was incredibly small and had two buildings, not counting a bridge that crossed over a gap, where one building seemed to have been made into a little house, given the chair that could double as a bed, and another seemed to head downward, no doubt into a passage that Megacorp had built before they left Tabora. Autumn decided to check the other path out and see what it held, though Starswirl stayed in the area that Ratchet and Angela were in, only he crossed over the bridge before finding a number of Crawlers and Desert Flies waiting for enemies to arrive, giving the two Lombaxes time to speak, without being worried about someone hearing something they shouldn't hear. What Angela discovered was that despite the fact that Autumn was the main weapons and gadget designer of the three, to the point that she was the top rising star of Gadgetron and didn't seem like she was going to be stopping anytime in the near future, Ratchet still tried his hand at making his own items, as he knew that Lombaxes were both great warriors and inventors, or at least the people of the planet he landed on told him what stories they had on them and Angela even confirmed a few for him, or at least what she could. Angela shared the fact that she was, for the time being, focusing on the inventive side of her own heritage, as the limited records she had been given before being sent to Bogon indicated that both her parents had been inventors and her father had been a warrior, hence her mixed heritage and skills, where she suspected that Ratchet was the same way, that both had been inventors and one of them must have been a skilled warrior, given his skills.

While they talked with each other Starswirl blasted through the enemies that were around them, breaking a purple crystal out of whatever it was stuck in, one that happened to have sort of energy to it, though before he could study it he found a new sight, Autumn flew up from the gap they had walked over, by using the bridge, and he discovered that she must have found a glider of some kind, given a pair of red wings, before she loosed a burst of magic that wiped out a group of foes, including a large sand creature, and then landed nearby.

"All I found was this glider, nothing more," Autumn said, where she weaved her magic over it for a few seconds and made a few copies of it, allowing Ratchet, Starswirl, and Angela to have their own, something Angela was still coming to terms with since she wasn't used to dealing with their magical abilities and her duplicating spell, before they put them away and she stared at the crystals that had been claimed so far, as Starswirl had found a few of them, which caused her to have an idea that might save them some time, "Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Angela had no idea if she wanted to know what Autumn was talking about, though that was when the pair focused their magic on the crystal, where a wave of magic rolled over the entire desert and she heard the screams of what she had to assume were the large sand creatures, allowing the pair to gather what looked like a hundred or so crystals in total, even if Autumn duplicated one and stashed it in her pocket, just to have something to study later on... only to find that the Mystic needed ten to reform the ship, which he did as soon as they handed over the crystals.

"Okay, that wasn't magic... still pretty cool though," Starswirl remarked, because what he said was true, that wasn't magic, rather it seemed like some sort of cosmic force had been used to put the ship back together, and everyone else agreed with his statement, though after everything was said and done he and Autumn made a quick check of the Star Explorer, as in checking it out for a few seconds, before revealing that everything was fine.

With that done the Mystic informed them that he would be willing to pay for any and all crystals that they found, to which Ratchet handed over all ninety of the true crystals they had recovered, leaving Autumn with her duplicated one for later, earning them ninety thousand Bolts, but with that done the group climbed into the ship, and Angela decided to join them while leaving her ship in the tracking mode in case she needed it, before they headed for Dobbo.

Commando: Dobbo

It took some time for Ratchet to get them to Dobbo, though along the way Clank found another Behind the Hero episode for them to watch, telling about how the Galactic Court fined Quark a grand total of six billion Bolts in damages to those who bought the Personal Hygienator, an impressive amount given everything he had done, and maybe he could have paid it had he not been bought off by Drek and all his money had been tied to the Blarg. What the siblings found to be very hilarious was that he actually tried to escape to Pokitaru, where people loved to visit and where he would be recognized far too easily, especially when the authorities had found that he intended on hiding out for a time before making his escape to one of the lesser known planets in Solana, where he wouldn't be recognized. After that he was placed in custody and that he was awaiting trial, no doubt to be forced to work to pay expenses for those he had wronged, or just jailed entirely, for the rest of his life or for a time, but what surprised them was that he apparently escaped by flushing himself down the toilet of his cell, allowing him to escape to freedom as the authorities resumed searching for him. As the video ended Angela asked what sort of connection they had to Qwark, where Ratchet told her that he had been a hero in Solana, but decided to throw his lot in with Drek and that he tried to imprison them in the same place as a violent creature that wanted to kill them, so it was like he wanted them to die, and they got revenge on him later, both by blasting him out of the air and informing the Galactic authorities of his crimes

As Ratchet said that Autumn thought about some of the odd things that Qwark had been able to do in his adventures, the facts that many deemed as additions to make things more exciting and fun, such as holding his breath in space and being able to survive a journey between planets, making her wonder if he might have the latent power to believe certain things were possible and have those events succeed, like flushing himself to freedom, before she figured that they would have time to think about it once this mission was done.

Dobbo, as it turned out, was a planet that reminded the siblings of Orxon, only it wasn't polluted by toxins and whatnot, as it had all sorts of factories, buildings, pipes leading between one part of the planet to another, large smoke stacks, and no doubt had some defenses that would activate in the event that some invaders came to bother Megacorp, though given the luck they've been having lately they would fall under attack in no time. It would mean either Mr. Fizzwidget didn't want any of them to bother his plans, or whatever plans the one in control of everything had, or maybe an error might have struck all of the Megacorp machines and caused them to attack those that were employed by the corporation, but they were sure the former was right this time around.

"Okay, the structure to our left is the facility in question... I'm honestly surprised that we were able to land so close to it, as I heard it was supposed to be heavily guarded," Angela commented, speaking once they touched down on the landing pad that Ratchet had spotted when he flew through the atmosphere, giving him a chance to turn off the ship as she and the others climbed out, walking on the platform that lead to a teleport pad that should, according to her information, take the lot of them into the structure, before she glanced at the other path.

"We might want to split up this time around, cover our bases and make sure we leave nothing behind," Ratchet said, as all of the planets they had been on before seemed to have multiple paths, for the most part, and that meant there was a fair chance the other path might have something useful for them, a gadget for Autumn to tinker with, a weapon to add to their growing arsenal, or even the coordinates for another planet that might have useful items for them to obtain, though he did glance back for a moment, "unless we want to stick to the pattern and stay together."

"Given the danger of the Experiment, splitting up to save time might be the better course of action," Starswirl replied, due to the fact that they had no idea what Mr. Fizzwidget was planning, regardless if there was a puppeteer pulling the strings or not, something that caused Autumn to nod her head for a few seconds, hence why he focused on the two paths that were in front of them, "Ratchet, why don't you, Angela, and Clank see what's inside the facility? If Mr. Fizzwidget thinks we are stuck on Tabora, and haven't left yet, he might leave our employee status alone, meaning the devices inside the large facility should recognize us and not attack on sight... Angela, he might not be aware that you left either, so you might be able to convince the machines without any alarms being sounded."

"And if you run into trouble... well, you know what to do." Autumn stated, where she handed over the new weapon she had found inside the Vendor, a rocket launcher called the Minirocket Tube and happened to be just like her Devastator in terms of how to use it, already duplicated so everyone could have one, this time showing that she didn't care that she and her siblings were near potential Megacorp cameras, before tossing Angela a duplicate of her other device, which held the combined gadgets they had found in Bogon so far.

Once Ratchet was sure that Angela was outfitted, and Autumn made sure she had an idea of what the gadget could do, a bit of information which came as a surprise to her when she heard that it had the Tractor Beam, Dynamo, and Swingshot inside it, but once she was sure that she was ready to go, or at least as good as she could be given the situation, she and Ratchet used the teleporter to head inside the facility. The first thing they discovered was a trio of Sentries, flying drones that made sure an area was secure and opened fire on anything that was caught in their searchlights, which were moving around the part of the path that was in front of them, not to mention some green Bladeballs beyond them, to which the pair had to be careful as they moved forward, Clank keeping an eye on what was behind them. Of course that happened to be the first plan of action, bypass the Sentries so they could silently move forward, though all three of them sensed that they had intruders and turned on both Ratchet and Angela, causing the pair to open fire on them and several enemies, as in those that happened to be further along the path, even if it meant that the defenses became active. Ratchet told Angela not to worry about it, as sometimes the best plans that he and his siblings had come up with, and those refined by Clank, had chances of going up in smoke and this appeared to be one of those instances, though he opened fire on the rest of the enemies that were in front of them as Angela joined him.

Of course during their trek through the facility, which included bypassing the electricity that a defensive measure had and smashing it to pieces, Ratchet found some large humanoid red colored robots that had yellow eyes, Troopers according to the information that Angela had for him, though while he blasted his foes into the walls Angela used her saber to cut down a duo that happened to be coming after her, allowing her to emerge unscathed.

"I know you prefer the inventor side of things, but I think the warrior side is showing right now," Ratchet remarked, where he blasted a Trooper to pieces as he and Clank watched as Angela avoided the attacks of another foe, before she swung her saber and slashed through it's body, the energy blades separating it into pieces and left it in a pile on the floor, but he was telling the truth, she was skilled in fighting and could make a great hero if she decided to make a chance to her life, as in joining him and his siblings for example.

"Sorry, just... venting some of my frustrations." Angela replied, though she had a feeling that Ratchet knew she was lying at the moment, as she wasn't angry anymore, due to the fact that she had vented her anger over the Experiment before she even set the plan in motion, nor was she annoyed that it was back in Mr. Fizzwidget's hands, something she felt was due to being in Autumn and Starswirl's presence, rather she was just following her instincts a little as she focused on saving the galaxy from the danger it was in.

"Relax, Angela, we will deal with the Experiment," Clank said, as he knew that Angela was thinking about her failed mission, in some manner anyway, and he knew that Ratchet understood what the other Lombax had to be thinking about, she had gotten lost in the moment of battle, meaning the warrior gene might be more prominent in her, like Ratchet based on all he had seen so far.

Angela nodded for a moment before heading forward, deciding not to speak on the matter anymore, before they used a lift to head down into the lower section of the facility and opened fire on some enemies that were down there, namely the Troopers and some Sentries, before finding another lift that brought them to an area where a few Dynamo devices were located, allowing them to reach a platform of sorts that had a holodisplay at the end of it, one that caused Clank to climb off of Ratchet's back as he and the Lombaxes approached it.

"It appears that the power is out in this part of the facility," Clank commented, as Ratchet had approached the holodisplay and they discovered that the device wasn't even online or even functional, something that caused Angela to sigh as she thought about something, no doubt thinking of ways to make everything work far better so something like this wouldn't happen in the future.

"Well, let's call the maintenance bot and see what the problem is," Angela said, since it seemed odd that everything that was beyond this platform seemed to be functioning well and this was the only thing that wasn't on, to which Ratchet just nodded his head, as he had been thinking the same thing, as he pressed the button in question and they waited for a few seconds, to which a floating humanoid bot flew up and smashed into the device, before it hit itself and retreated, causing them to look disappointed in in, as she pulled her hand from her face, "okay... let's follow it and see if we can fix whatever the problem is."

As it turned out the way to follow the maintenance bot was to use the Glider that Autumn found back on Tabora, where Ratchet and Angela kept up with their target as they flew above everything they had passed so far, before heading into a section of the facility that they hadn't been in before, one that brought them right to a terminal that they landed in front of, allowing the pair to use Ratchet's Electrolyzer to bypass whatever the problem was, before using a teleport pad to head back to the terminal, where Clank was standing.

"Whatever you did worked, the power is back in this part of the facility," Clank said, meaning that they were successful in their mission, that now all that needed to be done was figure out what sort of information the holodisplay had for them, as it would influence the next stage of their mission, before he sighed for a moment and beckoned to the device that he had been staring at as his friend left him to find the problem.

"What the?! Now even the computers are charging us?!" Ratchet exclaimed, seeing the ten thousand price tag that was resting right on the front of the screen, meaning it, an inanimate object that would be stuck here until Megacorp tore this place down, was demanding that they pay Bolts to see whatever piece of information might be on it, and even Angela was taken aback by this knowledge, "That's it, this galaxy, for the most part, blows worse than Qwark... the only good thing that has happened is us meeting Angela..."

Angela seemed to blush for a moment, like she was surprised to hear Ratchet say that, before the three of them sighed as he pulled out his Bolt Card and paid off the computer, silently wishing that Autumn was here so she could have hacked into the terminal to bypass this, before he and the others watched the most recent file that was related to the Experiment, one that was older than they expected. Not a few moments later they watched a report from a Megacorp scientist, who was called James T. Fullbladder, an odd name for sure, who mentioned that anyone watching this was fired, a stupid thing to say depending on how dangerous the Experiment was, before going into something that worried them more than they originally thought when they came here for information. The Experiment had some rather violent tendencies and those who came before Angela had been trying to make sure it didn't attack whoever harmed or threatened it, only their strange tests, like stabbing it with swords for example, only seemed to make it angrier as time went on and it eventually lead to a number of odd chances, like growing and becoming more aggressive as time went on. It even ate the handlers that were in charge of it, though this explained why Angela was never harmed by the creature, save for what she had been through as she prepared the rocket, as she had been rather kind to the Experiment and it took it until Siberius to figure out that she was trying to destroy it before something happened, and the scientist even mentioned that the Experiment should be taken to a disposal facility in space.

With that information in hand, and they were the first ones to view it so not even Angela had known how dangerous the Experiment had been, Ratchet decided to call Mr. Fizzwidget and tried to explain the situation to him, even though Angela found that their boss was more interested in his coffee, didn't care about how dangerous the Experiment was, and clearly had no idea that the deep space disposal facility even existed, going so far as to claim that 'Qwarktastic' was the password, even if she had no knowledge on the place. After speaking to Mr. Fizzwidget, and downloading the coordinates for the area that the facility was located in, Clank climbed back onto Ratchet's back as the Lombaxes headed for a teleporter that had appeared behind them, one that took them outside, giving them time to talk and discuss their next move while waiting for Autumn and Starswirl to return with whatever they found on their path.

While Ratchet and Angela were busy inside the facility, Autumn and Starswirl opened fire on the red colored ankle biters and a number of robotic guards who happened to be in front of them, the latter appearing to be far more armored than the enemies they had faced since coming to this galaxy, meaning things were about to become much harder for them, not to mention Ratchet and Angela. It took a few moments to clear out their enemies before Autumn used the Dynamo on a pair of devices, revealing a set of circular platforms for them to jump on as they moved forward, which included blasting a few more ankle biters to pieces as they followed the path, even if it brought both of them to some Troopers, who also fired at them within a few seconds of seeing Autumn approach them. Starswirl opened fire on all of their enemies as Autumn focused on a tank that happened to be in the area as well, where they broke all of their targets, even though it seemed like the Troopers had some reinforcements that warped into the containers that happened to be along the path in question, to which they hoped that it was helping Ratchet and Angela in their own mission. After breaking the tank, which had been a little tougher until Autumn used the Minirocket Tube to blast it to pieces, allowing them to quickly use the Swingshot for a few seconds and enter a new structure, one that happened to be more like a passage between one part of the area to the next, even though they seemed to be heading away from where the facility was resting.

"You know, I expected such a heavy resistance inside the facility, and in the immediate area around it," Autumn remarked, though at the same time she and Starswirl ducked behind some metallic containers that happened to double as shields, so they could stay safe for a time and not be blasted to pieces, especially since there were a fair number of enemies that were in the area that they had discovered, "but you have to admit that this is ridiculous."

What she meant by that was that the first couple of groups they had dealt with had been rather small, like four ankle biters and two to eight Troopers, though this area seemed to have an army of Troopers and a few tanks guarding the area, as if they were waiting for the two of them to arrive, or maybe all four of them considering that Ratchet and Angela had been with them earlier, so she and her brother had to fight an army to reach whatever was at the end of this path.

"I know what you mean," Starswirl replied, where he turned for a moment and launched a bit of magic with the rocket that he fired as well, blasting a hole into the force that was trying to stop them from advancing down this path, though he had to pull back for a moment to avoid being blasted by some of the Troopers, but as that happened he glanced at his sister for a second, "still, this seems like the best time for our secret weapon."

Autumn nodded as Starswirl blasted a pair of tanks that happened to move into the area behind them, to fire at the two of them while they were distracted by the larger force, before she switched weapons and pulled out her RYNO II, where she opened fire on the force that was guarding the way forward and wiped them out, though they remained still for a time as she made sure that no more Troopers were coming. Once she was sure that this area was cleared they made their way up a ladder before reaching the next building that happened to be in their way, to which the pair opened fire on some more Troopers and a few ankle biters, even though Autumn focused on crushing a tank that was further ahead of them, just to make sure nothing stopped them from reaching the end of this path. After that the pair found some more Troopers after they swung over to another structure, a force that was somewhat larger than what they had faced so far, but happened to be nowhere near the level of the army they had faced earlier, so they were able to smash their way through their enemies and didn't have to slow down this time around. Other than that there wasn't much for either of them to worry about, as both of them had Autumn's modified wrist gadget, which she made sure everyone had after some time, so all they had to do was use a Swingshot target, take out two more Troopers, and then create some Dynamo platforms before reaching what had to be the end of the platform of the structure, before finding a set of targets.

The targets in question just so happened to be of the Swingshot variety and it allowed them to get to an island of sorts, an odd thing when they considered everything that was around the facility, before discovering a buff man standing near what looked like a giantification pad, though he was wearing a torn set of attire that had a few numerical symbols on it, causing them to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they approached him.

"Nobody, I mean nobody gets by the Mathematician!" the strange man stated, pounding his chest for a moment while he held what appeared to be a calculator and some other item, while also allowing them to see that he had a tie on, which the pair felt was rather weird since it was out of place with the rest of his math related attire, especially since it didn't have any math symbols on it.

"Really? That's your name?" Starswirl inquired, mostly because he was curious, since it wasn't very intimidating and didn't inspire fear in him, as it seemed like the man might be someone who went to arena matches or something, so it was like he was trying to show off another persona of his, something Autumn seemed to guess as well, "I guess all the good names were taken."

"Watch your mouth, zero, before the Mathematician subtracts your head from your shoulders!" the Mathematician said, showing them that he didn't like people making fun of his name, even though it was just a comment and wasn't an insult at all, though Starswirl simply shrugged and readied himself, because if a fight brought out he was going to be ready for it and not back down.

"Listen, as someone who crunches numbers when making weapons and gadgets, can I ask what this is all about?" Autumn asked, figuring that she could cut to the heart of the matter and get this over with, before something bad happened, but if this was for another arena it seemed to be the weirdest way to go about showing it off to others, especially with the stand that was nearby.

"That moon's where we divide losers from winners," the Mathematician replied, pointing up at Dobbo's moon, which had a small city resting all over it and was likely where the inhabitants of Dobbo went after Megacorp built their facility on this planet, before he turned his focus on them once more, "before adding 'em to the Megacorp Games, there's a challenger up there ready to reduce you to nothing!"

Starswirl chuckled as he weaved his magic over him and his sister before launched themselves up to the moon, where he found the Thug Leader piloting what appeared to be a large mech, though he paused when he noticed both of them not a few steps away from where he was standing, meaning he had to be killing time while he waited for his 'boss' to call him for more of his forces. Without wasting any time the pair rushed forward and let loose with their magic, blasting the mech as their foe opened fire on them, which was followed by the two of them moving away from each other while hurling fireballs and throwing lightning bolts at their target, who turned around and threw punches at everything that was around him, as he smashed buildings and damaged overs as he tired to break them. Autumn wasted no time in channeling her inner fire, which wrapped around her once more in an aura and didn't alter her body at all, where the fireballs were far larger than a few of the others she had thrown and they seemed to knock their foe backwards for a time, opening the way for Starswirl to slash at the metal with the wind. Other than that the Thug Leader didn't seem to have any tricks up his sleeves, save for calling on Thugs in choppers to fire at them, which Autumn dealt with quickly by waving her hand at them and used a wave of magic to take them down, before she and her brother broke the mech with ease, causing the Thug Leader to declare that he would have his revenge as his machine shattered, allowing them to return to the Mathematician with news of their success over the 'challenger'.

As it turned out the Megacorp Games were being held on planet Joba, where it said they would be dealing with all sorts of 'mega' stuff, like a cage match and a large spider robot, and that the place in question also had races that could be done, a fact that meant they might gain something new from taking on whoever was racing, but after that Autumn and Starswirl, now having the coordinates for the next world, returned to their ship and joined Ratchet, Angela, and Clank, to which they blasted off and traded information before deciding on where to go next.

Commando: Joba

In the end Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, and Clank came to the decision that they would head to the Hrugis Cloud first, which was where Megacorp's Deep Space Disposal Facility happened to be located, because all five of them agreed that the Experiment was too dangerous to leave near Mr. Fizzwidget and they hoped that he was telling the truth about the password, as this might be the way to get ahead of whoever was pulling the strings. Autumn had a bad feeling when she heard what the password was, as 'Qwarktastic' was something that Qwark would have come up with, and while most of them could buy that their boss had been influenced by the heroes in Solana, since they had been called to Bogon after he viewed their episode on Behind the Hero, even if it had been a live episode. Her brothers agreed with her, that the password seemed too good to be true, too made up for someone like Mr. Fizzwidget, where Clank voiced his agreement as well, and even Angela, who was only getting used to being a hero and not staying in the shadows, found herself agreeing after listening to what the man had done to the siblings and his own galaxy, all in the name of money. Of course none of them were trying to influence her opinions on Qwark, since she hadn't met him yet and likely never would, given that he was currently running from everyone in Solana and didn't want to be seen by anyone, meaning they could focus on this mission before worrying about how they were going to fix the Experiment.

When they neared the spherical disposal facility, which was moon sized based on what they were seeing, Ratchet readied himself for what might happen next, and when they entered the structure he had Clank input the password as soon as he reached the core of the facility, to which Clank nodded before doing just that, something that was followed by the turrets and defense mechanisms attacking them. As such Autumn and Starswirl channeled their magic into the ship, creating a barrier around them so they didn't take too much damage from the defenses, while Angela recalled any and all useful information about this place, or the defenses that had been installed at one point in time, just in case she had seen some of them before they came here to protect this place. Ratchet, of course, flew around the inside of the sphere and found that there were six turrets that happened to be firing at their ship right now, and it seemed like those were the only things he had to worry about at the moment, where Angela told him that there should be some repair bots who would come out if they broke one of the turrets, so to cripple the defenses, for a time anyway, they would need to take down all six turrets to make progress. As such Ratchet devised a plan of attack that should work to their advantage, where he flew around and targeted all six turrets, damaging them to the point where blue sparks seemed to be coming off of them, before moving onto the next one and repeating his actions on it, and once all six were weakened he returned to the start of the path he had carved out and dealt more damage to each turret, this time breaking them apart until nothing remained, save for a bit of pieces that floated around the facility.

With that done Ratchet made sure that the defenses were down for the time being, as he and his siblings had a feeling all of the systems here preparing for another round of fighting if they were still here in the next few moments, though before anything else happened they received a call from their employer, hence why Clank opened the connection so they could speak with him and hopefully get through his thick skull.

"Come in, gentlemen. Can you hear me?" Mr. Fizzwidget asked, as if expecting them to have been waiting somewhere that was outside the facility, or maybe he figured they would have flown inside before he even arrived, though given what had happened on Tabora it was possible that he had done this as an attempt to take them down and eliminate a dangerous threat to his mission.

"Sir, you gave us an erroneous password." Clank stated, once more acting like they were working for Megacorp, despite the fact that Mr. Fizzwidget had tried to get rid of them twice now, even though all four of them had joined Angela in her quest to uncover the truth and stop the Experiment, and whoever happened to be the puppeteer in this situation, as there had to be one somewhere.

"Implausible! Unless, uh, is this Tuesday or Wednesday?" Mr. Fizzwidget replied, first appearing to be scatterbrained like all of them had seen since coming to Bogon, even Angela was seeing the differences in her employer, as he wasn't the same person who had hired her some time ago and it worried her, before he considered something else that he deemed to be far more important than meeting them at the facility, "Anyway, sorry to have missed our meeting but I was called away to film a commercial for our weapons facilitory."

As Ratchet and his siblings tried to convince him to listen, to speak on the Experiment and why it had to be destroyed, as he clearly had no idea what sort of danger he was in, Mr. Fizzwidget thought they were talking about the commercial and showed it to them, which confirmed what he had been talking about, it was for the Weapons Facility on Todano, an area that they might want to explore for additional gear. What they discovered by watching it was that Mr. Fizzwidget was just a speaker while a robotic version of him seem to be taking tourists through the facility, even though the group in question ended up blown to pieces by a guard's blaster malfunctioning, one tapping a warhead that tore it apart, and one was given a balloon that blew up in her face, meaning it was a horrible commercial that might not convince people to come see what was inside it. Of course that wasn't taking into consideration the fact that there was a path a fair distance from the main facility and might be were the tours were being held, so they would have to make their way through the tour area before making their way to the facility, which should have either a weapon to add to their arsenal or some information on the next planet that needed to be explored. Mr. Fizzwidget, on the other hand, seemed pleased with the commercial and just cut off the link between them, where the group sat there in silence as Ratchet flew out of the sphere, since he didn't want the defenses to attack him or his siblings again, before they agreed that it was unlikely that Mr. Fizzwidget would be on Todano, hence why Ratchet set a course for Joba, as obtaining some new gear sounded like a good move, before making their way to the Weapons Facility.

Joba, as they quickly learned upon approaching the planet, was one that had a fair number of forests and it also appeared to have a harsh climate, or at least the information Autumn found seemed to indicate that fact, though there was a fair bit of civilization that was built on this planet, a path that seemed to be leading right to where the arena was resting, so they would have to cut their way through the Tribesmen before reaching their true destination.

"So, this is Joba. I've read about the Megacorp Games, but I never watched or participated in them," Angela remarked, as she was more familiar with Bogon and must have heard about these events from time to time, or at least Ratchet had to assume that such a thing was the case, given that she had worked for Megacorp for quite some time, before turning her attention to Autumn as she stopped shopping at the Vendor.

As it turned out the newest weapon that was available was the Spiderbot Glove, which basically allowed the user to throw out a little white spider bot that could be controlled by a device that came with the purchase of the weapon, one that also had a screen so the user could see what they were doing at any given moment, meaning it was more like a scout bot and would allow them to check an area out before engaging their enemies, and it also came with a self destruct function, all to harm the enemies it was used again. The other weapon that was available was something called the Plasma Coil, a blaster like weapon that fired a ball of plasma at their enemies, something that Ratchet found to be interesting when he thought about Angela's Lightsaber, making him wonder if she might have found a way to use that technology to make this brand new weapon, but it was nice to have a new pair of weapons to use. Once she was done duplicating the new weapons, and everyone was ready to go, the group moved along the path in front of them and opened fire on the Jobian Warriors that were in front of them, who happened to be wearing red armor and seemed to be just as aggressive as the Vukovar they had faced back on Barlow, meaning there had to be some Saur Beasts around here somewhere. Sure enough Ratchet and the others found a passage that lead through a building and happened to have some more Warriors on the other side of a gap, one that required the use of the Dynamo to form a walkway for them to use, and it happened to have a Saur Beast at the end, where they opened fire on their enemies as they crossed over the gap.

After that the siblings and Angela found a ladder that each one climbed up before opening fire on the Jobian Warriors that were guarding what appeared to be a turret and a door leading even deeper into the settlement that they had discovered, blasting them into the walls as Starswirl climbed onto the turret and fired at the door to break it down, allowing everyone else to tear down a few more Warriors and a Saur Beast. From there they made their way up to a higher level and found a walkway leading to yet another turret, hence why the siblings blasted and slashed at all of the enemies that were in front of them, finding that the majority of the enemies right now happened to be just the Jobian Warriors and their Saur Beasts, with no ankle biters for once, which was just odd when they considered things. The interesting thing was that a number of Warriors were more advanced than the Vukovar Warriors, as these ones happened to be capable of using guns and turrets to fight their enemies, no doubt opening doors and utilizing other types of technology to their advantage, though for the most part it didn't matter to Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl as they blasted their way through their enemies and opened the way to move forward. Another thing that was interesting, at least in Angela's eyes, was that Ratchet and his siblings were capable of reading the situation they were in and acting accordingly, as in the magic users could either form shields to protect themselves or take down attackers before they hit someone from behind, and with Clank on Ratchet's back it provided him with another set of eyes, so if Clank saw something he would tell his friends and they reacted based on what the information was.

Once this part of Joba was cleared out, and they were sure that there were no more Warriors or Saur Beasts in the area, Ratchet found his way to a wall that seemed rather flat, save for some indents that seemed to have items that might come out and a line that seemed to snake around the metallic surface, to which he sighed as he engaged the Dynamo device off on his left and formed a platform in front of him. With that done he and the others jumped onto it and waited for a couple of seconds, where it started to move and the indents started to move out, revealing obstacles that they had to jump over and bypass so they could reach the uppermost part of the wall, so they just observed what sort of patterns the indents had for them and reacted accordingly, even if Angela was still getting used to replicating Ratchet's movements to make sure she wasn't a burden to the siblings. At the top of the path they found a room guarded by a number of Warriors, which meant that some Saur Beasts had to be lurking nearby, before spotting two turrets that could be trained on the opening that they were standing in, to which Autumn pulled out her Pulse Rifle and opened fire on the Warriors that were manning the turrets, allowing Ratchet, Angela, and Starswirl to rush into the room before their enemies reacted to their gunners being taken out. Even with Autumn doing that it took them no time to clear out this room and made sure that the few side passages were cleared out, even though they didn't lead anywhere, before they climbed up to a ledge that seemed to go around the exterior of the building the group had just passed through, finding that it had a zip line for them to use, which seemed to head right for a dead end, though the siblings shrugged and headed down there, to which Angela sighed before she did the same thing.

When they landed, however, Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank found someone they recognized standing nearby, the Salesman from Blackwater City, who had been trying to sell the first RYNO, happened to be standing in front of them and, as Angela landed, the man in question paled as he recognized all of them as well, as he took a step back as Autumn took a moment to frown at him, especially since she had the RYNO II out a little.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble." the Salesman said, where he turned for a moment and pulled out a set of metallic wings, which Autumn recognized as the Levitator gadget that was said to have been made by the Blarg, at least according to a few of the reports that she had read, meaning he had stolen something else before leaving Solana behind, something that he gently rested on the ground between them, complete with instructions that allowed one to install it into a machine, which was Clank as Ratchet noticed the size of the gadget in question, before the Rilgarian fled.

This time around Autumn simply stuck a tracker on the man, that way the authorities could catch him once this mission was over and the galaxy was safe from danger, before Ratchet walked over to where the Levitator was resting and read the instructions for a few seconds, where he pulled Clank to the side and attached the device to his back before moving slots and shifting certain parts, following the instructions with ease before pulling back and allowing the others to see that he had successfully installed the gadget. Clank, impressed that Ratchet could read and understand Blargian, along with being able to incorporate some new hardware into his body without needing Autumn to help him, which impressed Angela since it seemed like his inventor side was showing, praised his friend before shifting the wings for his main arms, finding that he now had four sets to use now, where he returned to Ratchet's back. With that done Ratchet found that if he activated the Levitator on a platform designed for it he could lift up into the air and move towards whatever was in front of him, where he headed for a building that seemed to be the arena that the Megacorp Games was being held in, though as he did that Starswirl weaved his magic around himself, Autumn, and Angela before lifting them into the air so they could follow after Ratchet and Clank. A few moments later the group landed in front of the arena, which was nothing like Maktar Resort's, as this one seemed to be just an opening and nothing more, similar to one of those containers they had seen enemies come from when they were in the arena, though none of them wasted time and entered the arena, allowing the device to warp them straight into the building.

What they discovered was that the announcer this time around knew who they were, he even used their names and that even included Angela's, which caused her to moan since this wasn't what she had been expecting when she decided to travel with Ratchet and his siblings, before they were hailed as the greatest gladiators in the galaxy and were thrust right into the main event, causing Saur Beasts, little black spider bots, Chainsaw Bots, Flame Bots, green Bladeballs, and more brutish green skinned warriors to come out and attack them.

As such Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl opened fire on their enemies, this time splitting the arena into four parts so each one of them had a specific area to watch over, and with Clank watching the area he was able to call out to one of the others when someone was about to be overwhelmed by opponents, or at least he would have if Autumn and Starswirl were ordinary people, as their magic allowed them to do some wonderful things. In the end the eight waves didn't stand a chance against their combined skills and abilities, allowing Ratchet to claim a silver and blue colored set of boots, which were called Gravity Boots and allowed one to walk on certain surfaces, similar to the Magneboots that Autumn had used with the Grind Boots to make her Omniboots, though it only took Autumn about three minutes to duplicate, study, and incorporate the new boots into their own. With that done they restocked their ammunition before facing the challenges of the next match, where the four of them used their new additions to launch themselves into the air and land on the side of a large glass area that seemed to be a cage of some kind, though just like before they opened fire on the enemies that were teleported up to where they were standing, revealing that this was a cage match. The interesting thing they had to worry about were the meteors that happened to be launched from the lava that was below them, as it covered the floor of the arena after they launched themselves up into the air, though it didn't stop them from taking care of their enemies and winning the match, earning them a device that was similar to the Electrolyzer, only it had three prongs instead of two, to which Angela revealed that it was the Infiltrator, another hacking device that might be useful in the future, especially since they had no idea what was waiting for them on the other planets.

Angela then discovered that they spent a good bit of time in the arena, facing off against both of the powerful foes that were here, a large spider bot called the Arachnoid and a centipede bot that was called Megapede, where the former was from the planet of Tarantia, possibly a planet of robotic spiders, and the former happened to be from Vaknar III, filled with all sorts of creatures she recalled, meaning this was to earn Bolts for whatever the future held for them.

Once they were done with the arena, however, Ratchet found a device in the chamber that they were warped to and that he had to use the Infiltrator to bypass the defenses it possessed, allowing him to power down an electric wall before they used a taxi to head back to where their ship rested, though during that time Autumn spotted an area they hadn't been to yet and Ratchet nodded. It happened to be off to the right from where they landed, so they didn't see it and passed right by it as they focused on the Jobian Warriors, and using the Swingshot allowed them to lower some walkways that allowed them to reach another Desert Rider, who seemed out of place given that this was a forest planet and not a desert, but all that did was cause Ratchet to pull out the helmet as they talked to him. What they discovered was that the rider was under the impression that Clank was either a backpack or something else, maybe even a hoverbike, and had been surprised to find that Clank was an actual person, revealing that he needed glasses to see properly and that meant that his helmet had to have something like them so he didn't need to wear them all the time, before he allowed them to enter the race, as it seemed like there was another pair of boots they could win. Angela, however, knew what was going to happen before the siblings even said anything, Ratchet joined the race without delay, faced off against the rest of the Desert Riders that were on this planet, and eventually returned to everyone with a smile on his face as he handed over a red pair of boots, which were known as the Charge Boots, designed to allow someone to rush forward like they were flying.

It gave Autumn something else to study as they climbed back into their ship and set a course for the next planet that they had to explore, hopefully to learn more about the Experiment and why it was so dangerous, even though they trusted all of the information that Angela had given them, all while hoping to figure out Mr. Fizzwidget's part in all this, be it as the foul mastermind or the innocent bystander, before all was said and done with this adventure.

Commando: Todano

Todano, as Angela told them and Autumn confirmed with her own research, was a mountainous world, with forests and grassy areas resting on told of large plateaus, though after Tabora she had no way of knowing if this planet was naturally made or if Megacorp had modified it to suit their desires, that happened to be where the Armory rested, an area that they had been told about my Mr. Fizzwidget when he showed off the commercial for the place. She wasn't entirely sure what all of them would discover when they reached the Armory, since she hadn't been to it before and hadn't been involved with the weapons side of things, save for when she got her hands on the guards that had been on her flying lab and those that had been guarding the base she set up, so they were in the dark about certain things. Ratchet was fine with that and made sure to tel Angela that it was alright, as he and his siblings had faced this sort of thing in the past, that they went to planets with no real idea on what might be waiting for them, so facing the unknown was part of being a hero, or at least it was for them, something that caused Angela to nod as she said nothing else on the matter. The siblings and Clank knew that she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that this was happening, that she was fighting with heroes and was putting her name out there, if they were successful in saving the galaxy, especially with the threat that happened to be lurking somewhere in the universe, but all of them meant what had been said previously, they would deal with the threat when it showed up to take them down.

The area near the landing pad happened to have a path that went from one side of the plateau to the next, where it looked like there were four missiles resting along the way between where they started and where the ending had to be resting, before discovering a new weapon in the Vendor, the Hoverbomb Gun, which basically fired bombs that floated forward for a time before exploding, to which Autumn collected and duplicated it for all of them, before they found a red ship fly into the area and deposited a number of robotic citizens.

"A tour must be starting," Starswirl commented, remembering what happened when they watched the message that they had been shown, about the commercial about this place and the family of robots had been torn apart by all of the hazards that were in this place, to which he glanced at the others for a moment and could see that they were gearing up for what might be waiting for them in this place, "well, might as well make sure that this group survives their visit, before worrying about the Armory and whatever else is on this planet."

Ratchet shrugged as he stepped forward, as right now it seemed like a good thing to do, facing the seemingly innocent red furred squirrel creatures that were scattered around the area that the tour path happened to cut through, hence why the four of them fell in with the robots and stayed close to a robotic Mr. Fizzwidget, who welcomed them to the Armory before moving down the path it had been programmed to follow. Sure enough when they got close to where some of the mutant squirrels were resting the group in question turned and rushed towards the tourists, which caused the group to lash out at the enemies that were coming at them, making sure to use the weaker weapons while wiping them out, as none of them wanted to harm the tourists, who seemed fascinated by all of the missiles they stopped at. What Autumn discovered was that the first missile seemed to be one that happened to be intergalactic and had facial recognition, though why they had designed it that way none of them knew, even Angela was partly confused by it and assumed it was to make sure that only Megacorp employees or trusted allies could use the missile, while the second one, slightly bigger and thinner than the first one, was faster and he forgot the name of it. After that the robot Mr. Fizzwidget talked about the third missile, the Z-X9 galaxy cruise rocket, that was used to transport a test squirrel to a black hole, with neither returning from that mission as they soon discovered as the group beat back more of their enemies, before he got to the fourth rocket, the Triple B, which had been used to take Gadgetron out so everyone would only by from Megacorp, even if the robot hadn't given the name of the other company when describing the last missile.

What was surprising was that it seemed like there wasn't a lot outside the Armory for the group to explore, which was odd since they expected the tour to be far longer than a few minutes, but since there was no changing what they were seeing, not without altering everything that was around them and making a true tour of the area, Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl watched as the tour ended before the robotic Mr. Fizzwidget disappeared, allowing them to walk over to where a platform rested and discovered an Electrolyzer terminal.

"This should give us a good view of everything else that's in this area," Autumn remarked, because it seemed like the lift was currently resting just out of reach, thus it had to provide a good view of this area of the planet, and Ratchet wasted no time in hacking into the terminal with the gadget in question, allowing him to remove whatever defenses it had before he lowered the lift, allowing all of them to climb on it before heading to the top of a new walkway, causing her to chuckle for a few seconds, "well, I was right about there being a good view."

It appeared that the top of the lift was connected to the top of a dam, one that they had spotted while walking through the tour grounds and seemed to be blocking a lake that was off to the right of the structure, between them and the Armory to be exact, though across from where they were standing the group found what appeared to be a large missile silo, one that had an electrical barrier blocking the way forward.

"You know, while I think the silo might be our main destination, I still want to check out the Armory for any new weapons or gadgets that might help us," Ratchet stated, knowing that the others had to be thinking about what was in front of them and which path they might end up taking, though Angela nodded her head first, showing that she understood adding new gear to their arsenals would improve their chances of success, especially since they had no idea what might be lurking in the missile silo.

Of course as they headed down the steps in front of them, so they could head for the Armory's entrance, they found one of the large robotic guards from Mr. Fizzwidget's commercial happened to be guarding the electric fence right now, where Angela informed them that they were called Laser Guards, based on the blasters that were used to attack any intruders in the areas that these were supposed to be patrolling, and they were built to be tanks. The interesting thing was that they were supposed to be guarding the more important facilities that Megacorp owned, such as this place, the Headquaters on Yeedil, and a few others that she could name off the top of her head, but she didn't since it didn't have anything to do with their current mission, though it allowed the siblings to know they might find more Laser Guards at some point. What they discovered was that the Laser Guard turned and fired upon them when they stepped down into the area that lead to both the Armory entrance and the electric fence, where Starswirl weaved his magic into a protective barrier while the others did what came naturally, they opened fire on the machine as Angela used her speed to get close to where it was floating, since it had no legs and floated from place to place. They found that she was able to slice off one of their foe's arms, once more thanks to her lightsaber, and as it was distracted Ratchet opened fire on it, tearing it apart so Angela could get out of there without being harmed by either the robot or his own attacks, though with the area cleared out the four of them regrouped near the thin walkway that would bring them to the Armory's entrance.

What they discovered outside the building were more of the mutant squirrels, who seemed to be just fine until the group got close to the structure, hence why Starswirl swung his staff and knocked them out, allowing the others to head inside the Armory as he caught up with them, where they discovered a security fence that required someone to pull a cylinder container into the path. It gave Angela a chance to test out the other function of the gadget Autumn had created, the one that contained both the Tractor Beam and the Dynamo, allowing her to fire a beam of tractor energy and move her target into the path, even though she positioned it near the left wall so everyone could move forward, but she found that she was enjoying Autumn's toys and even admitted that Autumn could have passed as a Lombax in some instances. After that they found their way to another chamber that happened to have two more movable cylinders, an exit that could be reached if one moved both into position, and an Inspector Bot that went to the locked door on the other side of the chamber, hence why Ratchet and Starswirl moved everything into position as Autumn moved the robot over to the door. As she unlocked the door, however, Ratchet found some sheep wandering around the chamber before they moved up to the higher exit, a path that brought them to a walkway that lead to the side of a mountain, where a Laser Guard moved into position before Angela slashed into it so the siblings could take it down.

With that done they followed the path in front of them and discovered that it was very short, that it brought them over to a small structure of some kind and that there happened to be a makeshift stand near the small building, where a man stood with a costume that made him look like a fan of Qwark, though he was wearing glasses and seemed focused on a gadget in his left hand, with a metallic hammer in his right.

"Captain Qwark, completing quality control on super electro-gadget... Hammer of Power detecting no defects." the rather thin man said, caught in whatever fantasy he happened to be playing right now, before he noticed them and gasped for a few seconds as he stared at them, like he knew exactly who they were and what they had done, especially since he took a moment to point his hammer at Ratchet and his siblings, "The Blaze Family of Veldin, I knew this day would come! Draw your weapons, my mortal enemies, for I smite you in the name of Captain Qwark!"

As he said that last word the man leapt out of the area behind his stand and launched himself at them, where Autumn just weaved some of her magic into a barrier that would stop him in his tracks, not to mention knock him backwards without doing any harm to his body, though such a thing lead to the man activating something on his hammer as he swung it down on the magical barrier, breaking it in seconds as the now glowing hammer seemed to suck in the magical fragments, but as they saw that Starswirl knocked him backwards before seizing the weapon.

"Stuart?! What is the meaning of this?" Angela asked, meaning that the man in front of them, who happened to be resting in front of his stand with five unimpressed figures staring at him, had to be an employee of Megacorp and that she knew him, even though Ratchet figured out that she wasn't too happy with him, meaning this had to be his behavior in the past and that he hadn't improved over time.

"I told you, I prefer to use my last name, Zurgo!" the fan boy, Zurgo as he preferred to be called, stated, showing them that he was more interested in making sure Angela got his name correct, even though the dislike in his eyes returned when he focused on Ratchet and his siblings, who seemed to be waiting for him to do something while Autumn took his hammer from Starswirl and studied it, "And as I said, I was going to smite the Blaze Family for shaming the greatest hero that both Solana and Bogon has ever known... though it would appear that my Hammer of Power has reacted to your magic in an interesting way, despite the fact that it wasn't supposed to do such a thing."

"Now why don't I believe you?" Autumn inquired, where she called forth her own magic for a moment and quickly crushed the hammer like it was nothing at all, as whatever system was inside it didn't do much to save the weapon from breaking into a thousand pieces, though as Zurgo stared at her she also yanked the gadget out of his hand, catching it so she could check on it before they left the planet, "Oh, and you would be better served to stop focusing your attention on Qwark, as he isn't the hero you think he is, since all the tales you've heard about his evil deeds are true, and it will save you a lot of headache in the future."

Zurgo growled for a moment but didn't do anything as the siblings and Angela walked back to the Armory, where Autumn took a moment to study the gadget and found that it was something that attracted Bolts, like the Bolt Grabber, so she just duplicated it before making sure each of them had one resting on their belts, allowing them to return to the structure and use an elevator to head down to another floor, unaware of the dark smile that appeared on Zurgo's face. That was when Ratchet found some red ankle biters, which happened to be the same ones from Dobbo when he recalled what his siblings had told him, that seemed to be guards for this area, but it made no difference as he, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela blasted and smashed their way through their enemies, all before finding a sealed door that required a cylinder carrying a missile to open it. As such Angela used Autumn's gadget to move it into position before blasting the door down, revealing a tunnel that brought them to an area with a number of ankle biters and some of the Troopers that had been back on Dobbo as well, causing a battle to break out as they opened fire on the guards who were supposed to be on Megacorp's side, so they should have stood down when noticing Angela, but that just told them that someone had messed with her credentials. It took a few minutes for them to clear out the chamber, as the Troopers had teleport pads that brought more in until they depleted those that were supposed to come to this area if it came under attack, before Autumn found another pad for the Inspector Bot as Ratchet moved a cylinder into position, as it revealed a lift that allowed them to reach the uppermost part of this part of the Armory.

Sure enough they found an area that had room for two different sized missiles, where Autumn and Angela moved them as Ratchet and Starswirl kept watch for enemies, even if there didn't seem to be any for this area, before they blasted down the wall and revealed a passage full of floor lasers that required one to use another cylinder to safely move across the rest of the area, to which Starswirl lifted them with his magic and dropped them on the other side. As he did that the others did open fire on some ankle biters that happened to be in their way, allowing Ratchet to walk into another chamber that had three missiles for them to move, to which he and his siblings simply activated their Tractor Beams and rearranged them to blast the door down. That let them see another laser floor that needed a cylinder platform to traverse it, where Starswirl lifted everyone to the passage and entered another chamber, one that was just as heavily guarded as the last one they had passed through, with a fair number of Troopers who teleported in to deal with them, from both the ground level and the tunnel that seemed to lead to what appeared to be the end of this path. As such Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl repeated what they had done before, they opened fire on their enemies and smashed them with their melee weapons, as a few got close for some reason and whoever was close to them took them out, before wiping out all of the defenders and opened the way for them to reach the teleport pad that was at the end of the path.

"Interesting, they left a Sheepinator behind," Angela commented, naming the weapon that was right in front of them, one that reminded Ratchet and his siblings of the Morph-o-Ray, though she stepped to the side and let Autumn take it like the weapons they had gained so far, who studied it for a few seconds before duplicating it, something she was still wrapping her head around since there weren't a lot of magic users in their universe, "basically, you fire it at something and it will be turned into a sheep, with larger enemies taking more time than the smaller enemies... or at least that is what I was told on the day I discovered the weapon existed."

"Sounds a lot like my Morph-o-Ray... wonder if it's a coincidence, or if they stole the idea from us," Autumn said, where she was more than willing to bet that it was a coincidence that both she and Megacorp's head weapon makers created nearly identical weapons, though she only offered the other idea in case there was some truth to it, given the fact that Gadgetron had been forced out of Bogon by Megacorp, before she shrugged, "oh well, it'll be fun to see how good of a weapon this is and now it compares to mine."

Angela said nothing to that as they teleported back to the dam's wall, where they found some mutant squirrels waiting in the area near it and fired their Sheepinators at them, transforming them into wandering sheep, just like the ones that had been in the Armory, though once all of the squirrels were taken care of Ratchet headed over to the Infiltrator terminal and hacked into it with the gadget as the others stood behind him. Once the electrical wall was disabled they found another Laser Guard guarding an area that happened to have a lot of mines between them and the opening of the missile silo, to which Autumn and Starswirl shared a glance for a moment before they lifted all of the mines and wrapped them around their main target, not to mention a second Laser Guard they spotted a few seconds later. As his siblings took care of their large enemies in style, Ratchet used the new weapon to sheep all of the squirrels that were in their way, allowing Angela to take a moment to watch them once more, seeing the damage that all three of them did to Megacorp's defenses, which she knew were the best in all of Bogon, and made her wonder if her other plan to stop the Experiment might be successful if they decided to go along with it, or alter it in some manner. Once all of the enemies were taken care of they made their way over to the silo's opening and used an elevator to reach the lowermost level of the structure, which allowed them to walk on a platform that was near the rocket's thruster, even though they found a couple of Troopers guarding this place as well, hence why the group opened fire on them without delay.

Of course Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela made sure to aim away from the massive rocket, just in case one of their attacks accidentally set it off and set it to whatever area it happened to be targeting, in case Megacorp had it pointed at an enemy or something, but it wasn't long before they entered a new passage that lead away from the missile and lead them to another chamber. They then opened fire on some Troopers who teleported into the area in question, repeating what had happened in the Armory earlier, and it wasn't long before their enemies were taken care of and this part of the Silo was cleared, allowing them to head down a passage that brought them to an area with two defensive walls and a number of Troopers guarding it, causing them to shake their heads as they continued their assault. Getting across the short gap in front of them was rather easy, as Starswirl formed a walkway for him and the others to use as they tore down the group of Troopers guarding this part of the missile silo, before they found another Infiltrator terminal and Ratchet hacked into it, a fact that was quickly followed by him opening the door and they discovered a Laser Guard on the other side. Their foe fell in moments, totally caught off guard by the fact that enemies were here and that they had beaten everything else that was in this place, though with the Laser Guard taken care of the siblings broke some ammunition containers before finding an elevator that took them back towards the surface, to a chamber with a holodisplay in it.

The holodisplay happened to be a message left by Davin, Angela's coworker who also seemed to be working against their boss to stop the Experiment, who revealed two things that were rather shocking, the first being that Thugs-4-Less have taken over Angela's lab and were no longer working for her, meaning someone must have made them a better deal than what she gave them, and second Megacorp was planning on selling the 'Protopet', the name of the Experiment, where it seemed like Mr. Fizzwidget would be on Boldan.

"I know Megacorp was planning this, given what you said, but isn't this a little too fast for them?" Ratchet asked, as it just seemed odd for the company to have made leaps and bounds considering the fact that they just got the Experiment back, especially since it had seemed like they were in the early stages of this plan when he and his siblings were called to Bogon to retrieve it, and even if one assumed that Megacorp had resumed operations after bringing them here it still didn't make sense for them to already be distributing the Protopet.

"Yes, it is... even if they had been planning this, they should have been forced to delay things when I stole the Experiment from the facility," Angela replied, though she was worried about this piece of information, as it seemed like things had moved too fast in the last couple of days, faster than what she and Davin had thought when she decided to put this plan into action, before she considered something else, "We might not find the real Mr. Fizzwidget on Boldan, but we might be able to gain some information from whatever he and Megacorp left behind."

"Then we're heading for Boldan." Autumn said, to which the four of them headed for the opening and jumped out of it not a few seconds later, landing in the now empty mine field, where Ratchet started to walk over to where the zip line back to their ship rested and the others followed after him, even though she did consider something, "Hey Angela, is Davin a love interest or something?"

"No! He's a coworker who wants to stop the violent Experiment, I mean Protopet, from being released into the galaxy, a plan we failed to stop," Angela replied, where Ratchet said nothing as he listened to what she had to say, since she had a lot more experience in certain fields than he and his siblings did, though she did sigh for a moment as she considered the information that would allow her to answer the question, "Listen, Davin's a sweet guy, and a great inventor, but neither of us are romantically interested in the other, especially given Megacorp's strict rules when it comes to employees dating each other. Anyway, one of the artifacts my mother left with me mentioned that we, as in the Lombaxes, are compatible with a few of the other species of our universe, those being the Cazares and the Markazians... I'm not really sure why she gave me that information, but I don't think it's necessary anymore."

Autumn smiled as they used the zip line to travel down to their ship, as it seemed like Angela was in love with Ratchet, to the point where she disregarded her mother's information on potential races that could likely produce Lombax children, as that was her thought on the matter, before they restocked their ammunition and climbed into the ship, allowing them to blast off and resume their mission to stop Megacorp and the incredibly dangerous Protopets... and as they did that a lone figure on Todano watched them depart before turning to a communicator that he knelt towards.

"My Captain, the experiment was a success," Zurgo said, speaking to the figure who was on the other side of the line, who was simply listening to what he had to say as he talked about the item he had been developing, even though everything he had on him was gone, save for a secured blueprint he could copy his findings to once he left the planet, "you will have your gadget by week's end."

The figure congratulated him on a job well done, that he was doing his part to keep the galaxy safe, and that once this was done, and he was successful, they could tackle the dangers that existed in both Bogon and Solana together, which caused Zurgo to bow his head as he imagined what they future held for them, as he eagerly awaited the day that his Captain told him the news that their revenge had been obtained at long last and that he could join him in saving the galaxies from all of the dangers that plagued them.

Commando: Boldan

Boldan, as Angela informed the siblings, was a planet with a yellow colored atmosphere, which was due to the vast amount of thick yellow clouds that happened to be close to that part of the planet, and that it contained a great deal of vegetation and mountains, though what they were interested in was Silver City, where Davin had said Mr. Fizzwidget had been seen earlier, handing out Protopets no less, a city that had been built on an archipelago of islands and mountains, the size being due to it's importance as one of Bogon's busiest places.

"I would like to point out that there is a good chance that this is a trap," Clank commented, as while he knew there wasn't much that could stop Ratchet and his siblings, after seeing all of the magic that Autumn and Starswirl had access to during their first adventure, powers that were still growing based on what he had seen, it didn't stop him from recalling the fact that someone had bought out Thugs-4-Less, "we still do not know who gave the Thugs a better offer, nor what they are having them do at this very moment."

"I'm inclined to believe you, Clank, but this is our only lead right now." Ratchet replied, where he breached the atmosphere and followed the directions that were bringing him down to the outermost area of Silver City, to a landing pad rested, but as he did that he knew that his friend might be right, that there was a good chance they might be walking into a trap, though his fact was true as well, this was their only lead at the moment, "We need to find Mr. Fizzwidget and try to convince him of the danger he's in, or at the very least find something that will allow us to figure out where he or the Protopets might be heading next."

"I'm convinced that we're not dealing with Mr. Fizzwidget, as he's acting totally different from the man who hired me and put me in the genetics division," Angela said, though as she said that Ratchet landed on the landing pad and turned off the ship, allowing her and the others to climb out before they glanced out at the city that Davin had informed them about, as it did seem like a good place to catch up with her former boss, before she sighed for a moment, "though if we're right, and he's not the real Mr. Fizzwidget, it makes me wonder who we're dealing with and how no one else has noticed the sudden changes in his personality... I mean, sure they could blame old age, but some of the things he's done can be blamed on an impersonator not knowing how he'd act in some specific circumstances."

Autumn and Starswirl said nothing as they checked the Vendor, as there was nothing else they could really say in this situation, not without repeating what had been said so far, before finding that there were no new weapons and that the way forward required them to pass through an electrical fence, though it appeared that there was no button or switch for them to mess with on this side, and there were no hacking terminals to use either. In that moment Ratchet spotted a taxi off to their left and they used it to travel over to a lone platform that seemed out of place, one that had an elevator that just so happened to head into the depths of the mountainous area Silver City had been built on top of, even though it did bring them to a tunnel that was full of gears and moving parts. Autumn spotted a Levitator platform in front of them and Ratchet used it without delay, where Starswirl wrapped his magic around them before causing them to float through the air, following after his brother as he carefully made his way around the obstacles, including a circular door that did open and close as they approached it. On the other side of the door they found that the path brought them to a larger tunnel that had a fairly large number of ships passing through it, rush hour according to what Angela said, making them wonder if the Silver City above ground was a false one and the real Silver City, but Ratchet paid it no mind right now as she used a second Levitator pad to refuel and make his way over to an electrical section, before finding a place to land that just so happened to have an elevator in it.

With that done, and everyone had regrouped, they took the elevator back to the surface and found that it brought them right to the other side of the electrical fence that Autumn had seen, to which Angela stepped on the button and quickly deactivated it, though it was mostly in the off chance that they needed to back off and restock their ammunition, but due to what she had seen so far she had a feeling it wouldn't be necessary. Instead of heading down the main path they took a moment to use an elevator to their right, or straight from where they had landed, and found that it brought them to a set of metallic poles that seemed to be powering the city, or at least all four of them assumed so, but such a thing did give all of them an idea as they jumped onto the first rail and used the Grind Boots function of their Omniboots to travel along the path in question. One thing they discovered as they traveled down this path was that there were a number of Thugs who were further along the route that seemed to be cutting through this part of Silver City, meaning they were trying to set up a number of ambushes for Ratchet and his siblings, including Angela for that matter, but in the end everyone focused on what was in front of them and less on the fact that more enemies were waiting for them inside the city. The route did take them through a few construction sites, buildings which seemed to be in the middle of being raised to the height that all of Silver City's structures seemed to be built to, before they came to a stop in an area that had a familiar button, one Ratchet and his siblings knew would summon Slim Cognito to their location, to make weapon upgrades, but given the prices that he asked for them Ratchet decided to ignore the button and use a teleport pad to return to the ship.

After checking out the other path, and figuring out what was at the end of it, the siblings and Angela approached the main bridge that lead into Silver City, or at least from the docking area anyway, and found that a number of Thugs were on the other side, who noticed them and fired in their direction not a few seconds later, causing the group to open fire on all of their enemies as they used some of the cover to protect themselves. For Starswirl this proved to be a good chance to use the Spiderbot Glove, hence why he deployed one and found that he was able to move it all the way over to where some Thugs were currently standing, trying to blast them into submission, and he simply activated it's self destruct command to blow it up, damaging the Thugs to the point where it broke their defenses and allowed his group to move forward, which impressed Autumn a little as she made a note of what the weapon could actually do. These Thugs were more prepared for a fight, in comparison to those they had faced in the past, especially since it looked like there were some with red armor, a new addition that Ratchet assumed were the higher ranks of the mercenary group, who happened to be tougher than the lesser Thugs they had been dealing with, meaning that the Leader wanted them taken down if he was bringing out what had to be the big guns of his arsenal. Of course they did have to worry about pressing a button to move forward, revealing a number of enemies on the other side of the glass wall, though there was an area that had an Elite Thug and some ankle biters attacking a fountain, meaning there had to be something around it that interested them, but after taking them out all Ratchet found was some Bolt crates and explosives, so they collected the Bolts before heading down the other path to see where it took them.

Sure enough the path brought them to an area of Silver City that had an elevator that would bring them to an area that they had seen from the grind rails earlier, though it also brought them into contact with another force of Thugs, who just opened fire on Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela as they stepped into the area, meaning they definitely meant business and were going to stop at nothing to take them down.

"Someone must be paying them a lot of Bolts to send out so many of their mercenaries," Angela commented, swinging her lightsaber into the weapon of one Thug, cutting the weapon in half so it couldn't be used against them, and as he glanced down at his ruined gun she jumped back before blasting him with the Minirocket Tube, though as she did that Ratchet did his part by swinging his wrench into the Elite Thug that was part of this group and knocked him backwards, even though she found that his first attack smashed his target's weapon.

"Especially the Elites," Starswirl replied, where he weaved his magic around the area they were in and blasted several of the lesser Thugs backwards, knocking them into the walls and whatnot, while also taking out some ankle biters as well, all while Autumn seemed to dance around all of their enemies before knocking them down, which he suspected might be yet another influence of her magic, since they were still learning things about it, "still, it means we should learn something while we're here... we just have to find whatever that something is."

Angela nodded as they finished clearing out the area, allowing them to collect their Bolts before heading to the elevator in question, which did bring all four of them up to a walkway that several of the grind rails passed by, just like they thought, and sure enough they found the Thugs they had seen earlier standing guard, causing them to open fire without wasting a single second, showing their enemies that they meant business. Of course facing off against Elite Thugs meant things were a bit harder for them, since they were supposed to be far stronger and have more experience than the lesser ones, and it did give the lesser Thugs a chance to see how their superiors operated while in the field, or at least that would have been the case had Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela been anyone else. As such the four of them blasted their way through the Thugs that happened to be up here before finding their way to another elevator, one that brought them down into a new section of Silver City and they found a number of Thugs, Lesser and Elite, guarding the area in question, causing them to open fire on their enemies before the elevator even came to a stop, by using the Pulse Rifle. With someone providing a bit of cover for them with the rifle, combined with the magical powers of Autumn and Starswirl, the group wiped out the area and walked up to what all of the Thugs had been guarding, another elevator that brought them up to where they found an Armor Vendor and a Weapon Vendor, hence why they used the latter to restock their ammunition.

After doing that they found that the only way forward was to step onto the other opening that was part of this building and let it swing down, allowing them to switch to the Magneboots function before walking down the side of the tower, where all sorts of openings opened in front of them and revealed that a number of Thugs were waiting for them, but Autumn just chuckled as she used a bit of magic to knock their enemies out of the way. Such a thing allowed her and the others to walk down the side of the building and found an opening that allowed them to move deeper into Silver City, even though it was followed by an Elite Thug appearing before Angela knocked him off the walkway they were on, to which they walked onto solid ground once more and faced the open area that was in front of them. Sure enough they found a number of Thugs all over the place, plus some ankle biters, to which the group quickly dropped down into the area in question before opening fire on all of the Thugs that happened to be in their way, who seemed surprised to find that they had gotten this far and it served as a way to weaken their defenses before taking them down. With this area secured Ratchet made his way up to yet another elevator and the others followed after him, where it brought them to where a Swingshot target rested, over a gap to be exact, and some Lesser Thugs opened fire on them while some Elite Thugs walked on the spiraling walkway behind them, though at this point none of them held back, despite the fact that Autumn was saving her RYNO II for when she and the others were totally surrounded, but that wasn't right now.

With the rest of their weapons they were able to take out the Thugs that were guarding the Swingshot target and Angela, who had switched to her own Pulse Rifle, took out the enemies who had been on the spiraling walkway, though with that done they crossed over the gap and quickly walked over the walkway in question, finding that it brought them to another elevator, which seemed to be very common in Silver City. That elevator brought them to an area that had all sorts of Thugs that had formed a defensive perimeter around a doorway, though as the Elite Thugs opened fire on them Starswirl used his magic to form a barrier before they deployed their Spiderbots for a time, allowing them to carefully walk up the sides of the nearby walls and detonate on all of the enemies that were on the other side of this area. Autumn chuckled as they took down all of the Thugs that were in this area and opened the way for them to move forward, as she kind of liked this weapon, even if it didn't have the power of every other weapon they had found so far, where she and the others stepped through the doorway and found that it allowed them to walk down the side of the building, which seemed to be linked to a large stadium of some kind, their final destination no doubt. Sure enough they found a number of openings that revealed a number of Thugs, just like before, so they wasted no time in allowing Autumn and Starswirl to knock them over the edge as they found a way into the heart of the building, which seemed to lead right to the stadium, allowing Ratchet, both of his siblings, and Angela to step into the empty area.

"Damn it, we missed him... if he was here at all." Angela remarked, as there was nothing in the stadium to suggest that Mr. Fizzwidget had been here, as there were no supplies or items scattered around that would suggest that someone from Megacorp set up shop on this planet, unless the commercial was for another city and she just assumed it had had meant that the event would take place in this city.

"Greetings morons," a voice said, where they turned around and found that the Thug Leader, joined by several Elite Thugs who seemed pleased to see them all, was behind them, standing in the hallway that brought them to this building, though he held a device that seemed like a trigger of some kind and made them wonder what he could be activating, despite the fact that the Leader had a smile on his face, "the lot of you walked right into my trap!"

A few seconds later an electric field activated all around the stadium and sent a shock into their systems, with more than enough force to knock them down to the floor, though as that happened Autumn growled and her body shuddered as she shifted into her enraged state, something that caused the Leader to freak out before increasing the voltage as he focused on her, causing her to fall to the ground as well before she and the others blacked out.

Commando: Aranos Prison

Ratchet had no idea how long he had been out, not without checking his armor or an internal clock, but he moaned as he regained consciousness and discovered that he was resting on a metallic bed that was just long enough for someone like him to rest on, though that was followed by him discovering that he was resting inside what appeared to be a cell, as if he was in a prison of some kind. If what he remembered was correct this meant the Thugs had transformed Angela's lab into a prison, why he had no idea and suspected that it had to do with whoever had hired them, the better offer provider, but as he thought about that he remembered what had happened before he blacked out, they had walked into a trap, like Clank had been worried about, and the Thugs had captured them, shocking them into submission. Such a thing made him take a moment to wonder where his siblings might be, since it didn't look like anyone else was inside this cell, save for his friend since it looked like Clank was standing near one of the laser walls, using a cup to see just how strong the laser walls were, which he was pleased to see since it had to be what woke him up or helped him wake up. The odd thing he discovered not a few seconds later was that his wrench was resting nearby and he still had access to his arsenal, meaning the Thug Leader felt that he had beaten them and this happened to be a way of taunting them, that they had their weapons and had no way to escape this area.

"Hey, thanks for the annoying alarm." Ratchet remarked, where he took a moment to pull himself off the bed and quickly stretched his arms to make sure nothing was sore, even though he was getting over the effects of being shocked like that, before standing as he stared down at his friend and glanced at their surroundings, finding a weapon Vendor on the other side of the wall or fence in front of them.

"Sorry, it was a way to distract myself." Clank replied, where he turned and dropped the cup on the ground, though since Ratchet knew his friend he suspected that he must have studied the area that they were in while he was doing that, more as a distraction for any Thugs who might be aboard the ship, before he sighed, "I am afraid that, after analyzing the area that we have been left in, that there are next to no means of escape, save for using magic to teleport to the other side of these laser fences. Also, your siblings are fine, as Starswirl is in the room to our left and Autumn is further beyond him, in what seems to be the final cell of this block... but, um, it appears that she might be stuck in her anger form and is waiting for something to happen."

Sure enough Ratchet found that Starswirl seemed to be studying the area before attempting to use his magic to escape with a teleportation spell, or maybe a portal spell, though after that he found that Autumn was surrounded by the flames of her anger form, or whatever they were going to call it since he felt it needed a name, though she seemed to be waiting for something important to happen.

"And Angela?" Ratchet asked, because it seemed strange for the three of them to be here and not Angela, especially since she had been part of their group before they had been shocked into submission, though he was concerned for her safety, as there was no telling what the Thugs might do to her.

"I do not know, but I can only guess that the Thug Leader has plans for her," Clank answered, since the figure seemed like the type to hold a grudge over something, regardless of what caused it to happen, though while Ratchet considered what he had said, especially since he knew his friend liked her, they heard a sound as a vent to the bed's right popped open and they found a small robot, a modified Infobot with a reddish pink coloration to her form, pushed it open before beckoning for him to follow.

Ratchet said nothing as his friend followed after the modified robot, as it looked like they might have found their way out of their cells, to which he sat on the metallic bed and stared at the laser fence that was blocking the way forward, taking a moment to think about why the Thug Leader wanted Angela, because both he and Clank clearly thought it was weird for her to be the absent one, but he resolved to find and save her. It wasn't just due to the fact that she was possibly the only other Lombax in existence, save for his missing sister, it was mostly because he liked her, he had a crush on her and was sure that she felt the same way towards him, so he wasn't about to let the love of his life be taken and held against him, but to make sure he didn't do anything crazy he focused on his necklace. As he thought about that he was sure that both of his siblings had noticed how he and Angela had acted around each other during their visits to the other planets, which meant that they knew how much she meant to him, something that might also explain Autumn's anger, she was enraged by missing someone she considered to be part of their family, even if it wasn't formal yet. In that moment he sighed for a few seconds and decided to stand up, glancing at what was on the other side of the fence as a group of Flame Bots just so happened to walk into the cell block and took a moment to glance at him, not to mention his siblings, moving around like they found something about this situation to be hilarious... though as the fences fell, causing them to pause, Ratchet was the first to move as he leapt out of his cell and smashed his target with his wrench.

Sure enough Starswirl used his magic to crush one of the other robots, allowing him to step out of his cell, though as they did that Autumn stepped out of her cell and stabbed her target right in it's metallic chest, causing the robot to pause as it realized what was going on, before she tore it's core out and crushed it with ease, though after that she staggered as her rage form seemed to withdraw, hence why Ratchet and Starswirl caught her.

"Don't worry, we got you," Starswirl commented, though this time around he was happy to see that Autumn wasn't taken out of the adventure, like what happened when they were back on Umbris and Autumn's other side was awakened by the betrayal none of them had seen coming, though she did seem weakened by however long she had been stuck in her other form, something he was sure they might need to help her with at some point, "How are you feeling?"

"Tired... but ready to fight." Autumn replied, where she sounded like she was tired, which made sense given everything she had been through since they reached Boldan and were ambushed, before they were brought back to Aranos and locked in these cells, or at least she assumed that they were on Aranos, unless the Thugs moved Angela's ship to another planet, but in the end she chuckled for a moment, "Clank certainly came through for us..."

Ratchet nodded his head as he quickly checked the Vendor for any new weapons, where he found two new weapons, one called the Shield Charger, which seemed to form a spherical shield around whoever was using it and it had been designed to take damage before disappearing, saving the user from harm, while the other one was an incredibly expensive and very powerful weapon called the Zodiac, Megacorp's RYNO when he thought about it, though he only purchased them so they could have the complete arsenal from this galaxy. With that done he handed the pair of weapons over to Autumn, mostly so she could stay back and study them while he and Starswirl dealt with the enemies that would be standing between the three of them and the exit, especially since the path brought them to a chamber that had no walkway to go forward, save for a platform that three Flame Bots were resting on, who were knocked into the lava below them. Of course that was the moment they discovered that the Magneboots were needed, as the platform turned a little after they jumped onto it and brought them to a long platform that they had assumed was part of the wall, but as several bots lowered themselves down so they could fire at the siblings, using a thread of some kind, Starswirl waved his hand and knocked them out of the way with a little bit of magic. After that they used another platform that moved them down to a doorway, turning like the last one the siblings had walked on, and it brought them to a passage, where Ratchet found a pair of walls to Wall Jump on and did so without delay, allowing him to open fire on all of the enemies that happened to be up here, a number of Flame Bots who reacted to their presence as his siblings joined him.

Once they cleared out the area that the Flame Bots were located in they discovered that there was no easy way for them to move forward, to which Autumn found a Wall Jump wall and a platform that was near it, something that disappeared as another appeared a short distance in front of it, so they took turns jumping and navigating their way over to the highest point of this chamber, before using a lift to reach another part of the ship, even though they were sure that Clank walked under the lift after some time.

"What the... what's a wrench doing here?" Ratchet asked, referring to the red colored wrench that happened to be up at the top of the lift, when it reached the area that it connected to, though it looked a lot like the wrench he had started with and it seemed to have a few orange bits, meaning it had to be stronger than either his original weapon, the blue one they found back on Tabora, and the combined wrench he currently carried, "Autumn, do you think you can manage merging the two weapons together, like you did back on Tabora, or should we wait until your ready to go?"

Autumn said nothing as she raised her hand and Ratchet found that both wrenches floated into the air for a moment, as the blue one took on the shape of the red one in a matter of moments, all while a flame design of some kind, which likely came from the red wrench, appeared on the handle, though once both wrenches were gone, and a stronger one was left behind, she stopped her magic and let Ratchet claim the improved weapon. With that done they found that the only way to move forward, and leave the chamber that had a bunch of red plasma that looked and acted like lava, was to use one of the vanishing platforms and quickly traverse the path it created for them, bringing them to a walkway that needed them to use their Magneboots once more so they could follow the path. It was in that moment they got their confirmation on the planet that they were currently on, as Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn found the icy mountains of Aranos passing them by as they walked outside the ship, meaning the Thugs had definitely taken over Angela's lab and tried to convert it into their ow prison ship, but Ratchet was sure that with some work and a lot of effort they could fix it right up. Of course, knowing his sister and her love of tinkering with things, he suspected that she would turn this ordinary planetary ship into one of the more important starships, capable of moving from planet to planet, so it would be turning a flying lab into a mobile base for Angela to use, and maybe them if they were lucky.

After thinking about that they found some sections rotating to reveal some Flame Bots that were waiting for intruders, to which Autumn sighed as she used a bit of her own magic, not a lot since she didn't want to push her luck right now, and let out a few small blasts that struck the areas their enemies were in not a few seconds later, sending them flying off the side of the ship and likely crushed them when they collided with the mountains they were currently flying above. With those foes taken care of the siblings walked along what was left of the metallic walkway that they were on and returned to the inside of the ship, where they were immediately assaulted by a group of Flame Bots and reacted accordingly, opening fire on every robot that was in this part of the ship as they looked for the path that would allow them to either move deeper into Angela's lab or meet up with Clank. Once Ratchet was sure that all of the Flame Bots had been taken care of, which he and his siblings confirmed not a few seconds later, they found that they had to use the disappearing and reappearing set of platforms again, to which he started it while Starswirl kept an eye on Autumn, as she was still somewhat tired from the awakening of her other side, before he came to a stop at the doorway that was up there. With that done Starswirl took his turn on the set of platforms and quickly reached the end of it as well, even though he could have used magic to bypass the obstacles, and it wasn't long before Autumn followed after them, showing that while she appreciated their concern, given what happened back on Boldan, she was just fine and didn't need to be watched over while they were making their way through Angela's stolen lab.

When they walked through the doorway, however, they found that Clank was climbing out of the vent that he had used to get through part of the ship, though the interesting thing Ratchet found, and he was sure that his siblings agreed, was that his admirer was nowhere to be seen, meaning she likely stayed in the shadows or something, though Clank wasn't sad by this turn of events, rather he walked over to them like he had fought a bunch of enemies to get here.

"Ratchet, it is good to see that you and your siblings are fine," Clank commented, especially since Autumn was fine and was no longer in her rage form, the latter being far more important since her staying inside it would have been a disaster, since it seemed like she was a true beast when in that state and it was hard to snap her out of it, or at least depending on what had triggered the transformation.

"You know it, and you did some fine work on your own," Ratchet remarked, as while Clank didn't have the abilities that he and his siblings had, not counting the magical powers that Autumn and Starswirl could use, he was proving that he didn't need all of that to do some real damage if he was left alone, making him wonder if there might be more ways for them to use Clank's skills in the future, before he found their ship resting nearby, "Well, at least the Thugs were nice enough to take our ship as well, so now all we have to do is deactivate the force field and figure out where their Leader has taken Angela... then we can worry about the Protopets."

Despite her rage form and everything that had happened to her, Autumn had to smile as Clank took his position on her brother's back, as it confirmed that there was something between him and Angela and she wanted to make sure it stayed, instead of being forgotten, to which she turned and found that there were two doorways for them to pick from, one that seemed to head to a control center and another that might head to the heart of the ship. After a few moments Ratchet and his siblings decided to tackle the open doorway, as one of them happened to be open and the other looked like it had to be locked, and when they entered it the three of them had to climb up to a ledge that had a Levitator pad on it, where Starswirl surrounded himself and Autumn with magic and lifted them into the air as Ratchet carefully avoided the plasma that was below them, only to find the Plumber on the other side of the path.

"Plumber? What are you doing here, in Bogon?" Starswirl asked, because it was odd to see someone like him in one of the other galaxies, even though they knew that there was something different about the man, especially since he seemed to be the only one that knew where Ratchet's missing sister was located, though his voice caused the man to stop what he was doing before glancing back towards them.

"Oh, it's you four again... I must say, you are right on time. Anyway, I can't control where things break, I just head out and fix them," the Plumber replied, once more speaking like they were supposed to be here and not somewhere else, given his knowledge about things that none of them knew about, though as he turned to fully face them Ratchet noticed that there was a Qwark figurine, one in remarkable condition based on what they could see, blocking a pipe that the man happened to be working on before their arrival, "also, I get triple pay and travel expenses for doing this job, so I was more than willing to take the posting... even if it's because some fool flushed this perfectly good Qwark action figure."

"I'm not sure we need the action figure, since we already took the gadget from Zurgo," Ratchet commented, because if he and his siblings had done nothing back on Todano, when they encountered one of Qwark's most insane followers, he was sure that they would have purchased it to hand it over for what was on their belts, before he sighed for a moment as he thought about what to say next, "So, um, do you have any information on what my sister is up to?"

"I'm not allowed to say, unfortunately... though my son, whose about your age, is keeping an eye on her, just to be sure that she stays out of trouble," the Plumber answered, something that caused Ratchet to sigh for a moment as he bought the action figure, mostly because he was sure that it might be worth something in the future as a collectable, and it wasn't like they were stressed for Bolts, as with everything happening in Bogon, and people buying Autumn's stuff in Solana, they had more than enough for whatever the future held for them, "but rest assured, as of right now she is safe and doing her own thing."

Ratchet simply nodded his head before letting the Plumber return to his work, though he and his siblings did find that the information he gave them was a little odd, that he had a son who was keeping an eye on his sister, where he assumed that the son was someone who had the same abilities that his father held, whatever those were, before he used the Levitator to return to where their ship rested, all while the man called out that he would see them in a year or so. Once the siblings were back outside Autumn made her way up the ladder and found that it had an Infiltrator terminal for them to hack into, hence why Ratchet stepped up and hacked into it without delay, even if it revealed another passage that had plasma pools for them to avoid, since it also held a Levitator pad for him to use. Of course Starswirl and Autumn floated behind him as he used the Levitator to navigate through the area, his siblings using the barrier technique once more, where they found an area to land on and walk on for a short period of time before heading down a part of the passage that had electricity they had to avoid, meaning the Thugs must have messed with Angela's ship and they would have to fix it at some point in time, once this adventure was over. Sure enough at the end of the passage the siblings found a chamber that looked like it held the terminal that they needed to mess with, something that Autumn found and used rather easily, where they quickly found that the barrier around the ship fell and meant that they could leave whenever they wanted to do so, though before she pulled away from the terminal she found a message and played it.

What they discovered was that Angela was definitely with the Thugs, as she had escaped for a moment and informed them that she was calling from the Thugs-4-Less fleet, and it seemed like she might have learned something important, but just before they could learn what that something was the Thug Leader found and captured her, even mocking her for calling her 'boyfriend', though as soon as the message finished Ratchet jumped out of the doorway that opened in front of them, before they returned to their ship and blasted off for the fleet's location.

Commando: Smolg

As they flew away from Snivelak, and the defeated Thug Leader, Ratchet and Clank told Angela what happened on her lab, just so she knew what they had discovered, which admittedly wasn't a whole lot since no Thugs had been left to make sure they stayed in their cells, though she seemed pleased to hear that they had taken care of the corrupted defenses and that her place was safe, so once this was done she could reclaim it and update it, even if it would take some time to ensure it was ready for whatever the future might hold.

"So this Plumber you encountered... you've met him before, twice back in Solana?" Angela asked, as while the majority of the tale was interesting, especially since she had no idea who the other robot was and had to assume that it was someone from Solana, considering her interest in Clank, she focused her attention on the other part of their story, a person they had met and she had no knowledge of, as this was her first time hearing about him.

"Yes, and we have come to the decision that he is omniscient, especially since he said that he would 'see us in another year or so', no doubt referring to another adventure," Clank replied, though he could understand if Angela was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she missed meeting such a person, thanks to the Thugs taking her to Gorn and then to the Headquarters on Snivelak, or even if she was weirded out by the existence of such a person, "we have also determined that aiding him in his endeavors might yield better results, both in terms of potentially cryptic advice about the venture we are currently on, advice about ourselves, or information on what's happening to Ratchet's sister."

"The Plumber said that his son was keeping an eye on my sister, so at least she's safe," Ratchet said, knowing that Angela didn't need to be told which sister he happened to be referring to at this moment, as it was his missing sister given that Autumn was sleeping in her seat of the ship, though he thought about something for a few seconds, "or at least as safe as she can be, given that his son might be using the same rules that he's using... which I'm sure means only minimum contact between them, if any at all, while keeping an eye on her from afar. If only he could tell me where she is, I'd figure out how to track her down and reunite with her..."

Angela could see that while any information regarding his missing twin was welcome, especially since he had next to no information on who she was and what she was up to at the moment, it also had to be annoying to learn that he wasn't actually allowed to be given the core piece of information that the Plumber knew, as it seemed like he knew where in this universe she might be. She found that Ratchet's strength was amazing, that he wasn't breaking down or raging at the rest of Bogon for everything that had happened so far, and noticed something interesting, he was, once more, touching his necklace, a constant reminder of what he was missing, while being an item he could focus on to keep calm and not break under the pressure of his anger. After that she informed them that she had some information on where they needed to go next, as she stole a transportable holodisplay from the Thugs Leader while she was escaping from the fleet, even if he was able to catch her in the process, and it seemed to be a personal log of some kind, like a journal, which was when he talked about Megacorp lying to him after he returned from the Distribution Facility on planet Smolg. According to his words and a small video he had filmed, revealing a massive number of crates with the emblem of the Protopet on the side, there was an insane amount of Protopets being shipped out, as he took a moment to count things in his head and claimed that the containers contained over three and a half zillion Protopets, a number that didn't exist, and that it was guarded by all sorts of hazards, before he said he'd be demanding a bigger cut of the action, once he was done with them.

"Disruption the shipments on Smolg would be a start, but we won't be able to do much for the containers that have been shipped out already," Angela commented, taking a moment to power down the holodisplay as she thought about what all of them needed to do next, while Ratchet and Starswirl seemed to be considering all of the information they had gained from this message, even if it was from the one who Autumn had just beaten in combat, before she steeled herself for the statement she was about to drop on her friends, "If we're going to have a shot at saving Bogon, from the menace that has been unleashed upon everyone, we're going to have to break into Megacorp Headquarters... and to do that I need to find my old ID Badge, which should be on my home planet."

"Then we'll make sure to take care of the problem, before recovering the badge," Starswirl said, as right now it seemed as if none of the planets were actually in danger of being devoured by Mr. Fizzwidget's insane and dangerous creation, or at least it sure seemed like it, so disrupting the shipments seemed like a smart thing to do first, especially since they might gain some more information while they were there and might find a way to bypass the defenses without needing the card in question.

Angela nodded her head as Ratchet agreed with his brother, to which he altered the course he had set earlier and set off for Smolg, because it was time they took matters into their own hands and hopefully saved some planets before they were put in danger, unlike their last adventure where they were just cleaning up Drek's messes before they caught up with him, before dealing with whoever happened to be behind this madness and brought peace back to Bogon.

While they were traveling to Smolg, and getting some rest since everyone was kind of exhausted after everything they had been through recently, Clank found another episode of Behind the Hero for them to watch, one that seemed to be the conclusion on Qwark's current series, and this time around Autumn yawned before forcing herself to sit up, showing them that she wanted to listen to this as well. According to the announcer it had been six weeks since Qwark had escaped from his cell, meaning he must have escaped sometime before Mr. Fizzwidget had called Ratchet and his siblings to Bogon, but all the man had to say was a few speculations on what might have happened to the missing former superhero, though that did cause the three of them and Clank to sigh, since he was more like a villain and less of a hero, but that was their opinion and the public seemed to prefer thinking about his former status. Some of the ideas were rather interesting, like being the victim of an overzealous fan, reminding them of Zurgo and what he had been doing when they first encountered him, did he go out of his way to beat a villain, to prove himself as a hero, and died heroically, or was he out there, among the stars, doing whatever he wanted without any consequences. In the end Ratchet and his siblings didn't care that much, because as of right now their focus was on stopping the Protopets and figuring out Megacorp's part in all of this, where Clank took a moment to turn it to Robo-Chef, a cooking show he liked, for the rest of the trip, allowing them to focus on the mission and whatever they might find on Smolg.

It wasn't too long after that they found their way through the atmosphere of Smolg, a planet shrouded with thick clouds or a thick layer of fog, preventing one from seeing what might be on the surface, before Ratchet found the facility that was on the Thug Leader's journal entry and located the landing pad that was right outside it, though they were amazed once they saw all of the large containers that were scattered around this place.

"Yeah, Megacorp is planning something big," Angela commented, though she was taken aback by the scene that was right in front of them, since it was far more than what they were expecting to find and not even the journal entry did nothing to prepare anyone for what they were seeing, all while Ratchet carefully pulled into the area that a weapon Vendor was in, as it was where the landing pad was, before she sighed, "Well, we had best get started."

"Sadly there are no new weapons to add to our arsenals," Autumn said, where she waited for Ratchet to stall the ship and climbed out, making sure not to go too fast since she was still recovering from what happened on Snivelak, allowing her to check the Vendor for new weapons, though with nothing inside the device she and her siblings restocked their weapons before facing the facility that was in front of them, "So, which path do you think we should take first?"

"The left... though are you sure your body can handle another planet, so soon after what happened?" Ratchet asked, as he wanted to make sure that nothing was wrong with his sister, as Starswirl seemed worried about something and that meant he might be thinking about Autumn's magical energies, since she seemed to have burned through them back during her fighting with the Thug Leader.

In response to that Autumn used the Jump Pad and launched herself over to the shipping area that Ratchet had picked out as he answered her question, to which he, Starswirl, and Angela followed after her without wasting time, finding an area that had all manner of crates and an electrical fence that they would have to bring down, where they discovered that many of the containers had other icons, no doubt the mutant guards that were supposed to be here. The first thing they did was find a button that deactivated the barrier in question, which was right in front of the fence and Angela frowned when she found it, since it seemed like a design flaw as she stared at it, before they found a Snapper enemy, a two headed mutant with purple armored skin with red pieces on top of that, an enemy Angela named, where they weren't surprised that she knew of them since she worked in the Genetics Division of Megacorp. Sure enough the group had to be careful when they engaged it, due to the fact that it had two heads and could attack two different enemies at the same time, but the Snapper was a single foe and it was facing the four of them, so it didn't take them long to bring it down and start navigating a path that had been formed in between all of the crates that were in this warehouse, even though it brought them to some small purple creatures with spikes on their back and sharp teeth in their mouths. The Grulches, as Angela called these enemies, were easier to take care of, since none of them had the same armored nature that the Snappers had, meaning they didn't have to worry about wasting too much ammunition on all of the smaller foes, even though they made sure to keep their guards up since there were some Laser Guards here, based on what Angela had told them before their visit to Boldan, so they were expecting to run into them at some point in time.

Some of the containers, as it turned out, were designed to open when they got close to them, revealing more Snappers for the group to take on and that was what they did as soon as they discovered more enemies to tackle, Angela once more showing that she had some skills as a hero as she avoided both of the heads of the Snappers and struck them before they had a chance to hit her, and both she and Ratchet had a smile on their faces as both fought beside each other, which put a smile on Autumn and Starswirl's faces as well. It was still odd that someone had gone out of their way to make a path that cut through the warehouse, even if it looked like they might have been dropped in from the ceiling or something, which all of them knew would open if that was the case, and finding some electric fences every now and then really just make them wonder why Megacorp had designed it like this in the first place. Even Angela, who had worked for Mr. Fizzwidget and his company, was having a hard time explaining what they were seeing as they explored the warehouse, as it looked more like someone knew they would be coming here, before Ratchet and his siblings even knew about this planet and the number of containers that were still here, and had modified the place into an obstacle course to slow them down, where Autumn knew that the only person who might know anything about their ventures on the other planets was Qwark. Of course that was an odd thought to have and there really was no evidence to suggest that it was true, save for their boss' behavior, as all of them agreed with Angela's feelings on that matter, before they refocused on blasting the enemies that happened to be standing in their way and used a button to open the way forward.

They eventually found a conveyor belt, not hooked up to anything in the warehouse, that needed a Dynamo to activate it, before finding that it brought them to a ledge that allowed them to progress deeper into the massive building, using one of the metallic cranes to reach another, even if the second brought Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela to an area they had to drop down into and discovered containers breaking as Snappers and Grulches marched on where they were standing, as if this was an ambush or something. Of course the interesting thing was that at this point in their adventure most of their weapons, if not all of them, had upgraded to their superior forms after being used in combat so much, like how the Lancer transformed into a more impressive gun called the Heavy Lancer or the Blitz Gun became the Blitz Cannon, which boosted their arsenal's power to greater levels and allowed them to be ready for whatever the future had for them. Autumn, while enjoying the upgraded power of their various weapons, pulled out her tablet and made a note about all of the upgrades she and her siblings were seeing, though the main reason she did such a thing was due to her jotting down that two forms of a weapon were interesting and was something that she was going to have to tell Gadgetron about, but she needed to make some modifications to her designs so the next generation of weapons could have five forms. Angela noticed that as they walked and inquired about it, where Autumn explained that Version 1 of the weapon, or V1, would be the base form and the weakest of the five, while Version 5, again V5, would be the strongest form and would be the one that took on a brand new appearance, similar to what they were seeing with Megacorp's weapons, which left V2 through V4 to gather all the power that the weapon needed before becoming it's final form.

Ratchet chuckled a little as he found his way to an Electrolyzer terminal and hacked into it, which allowed him to power up an elevator, as Autumn seemed to be just fine and it appeared that her creative mind was no longer bound by anger, but after they used the elevator he and the others found something coming down towards them, which caused Angela to step up and tell them that it wasn't a problem... revealing an egg shaped device, the 'Balloon-o-Gram', that contained a rather brief message for them, which was a welcome to Bogon and the coordinates for Grelbin.

"My original plan was to separate from you guys, so you could continue exploring Bogon and taking the fight to the Thugs, all while I gathered the tools to put the final stage of my plan into action," Angela spoke up, speaking to Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank for a moment, all while they watched as the Balloon-o-Gram deployed some balloons before blasting off, revealing that it's mission was done and that it was heading back to wherever it had come from, before she sighed as she realized what she was doing and how it deviated from every plan she had come up with, "While you did guys that I was going to head back to my home planet, Grelbin, so I could find some items to help us bring down the Protopet, using the Balloon-o-Gram as a way to contact you in case of an emergency... Davin must have learned we had been captured and that I'm still tearing all of my old plans apart, so he sent it to remind me of what I need to collect for the final assault."

"Then once we're done exploring the facility, and making sure we got everything we can get our hands on, we'll head over to Grelbin and get everything you need," Ratchet said, because if he knew Angela as well as he thought he did, which was only due to what she had told them so far and what he had seen during their time together, he was sure that there had to be a device or something on Grelbin that would put an end to the Protopet plague that was about to hit Bogon, and, if his experiences in Solana told him anything, it was better to totally explore an area before leaving, since there might be a new weapon or gadget, even coordinates for another planet, for them to gather.

"Then we can worry about assaulting Megacorp and putting an end to this mad scheme of theirs," Starswirl added, as that seemed to be their end goal right now, given that everything that happened to be occurring right now was the fault of the company that had brought them to this galaxy, instead of Angela as Mr. Fizzwidget claimed she was when he teleported all of them to Bogon, though once that was done they were going to have to figure out a way back home, or get used to living in this galaxy.

Angela glanced at them for a moment before nodding her head, as originally she would have been worried about trying to invade Yeedil and assault Megacorp's headquarters, especially since it had been designed to be incredibly hard to break into, if not entirely impossible, and after seeing what Autumn and Starswirl were capable of, which wasn't counting Clank's knowledge and Ratchet's combat abilities, in addition to her own skills, she was sure that they could actually break into the building and put her plan into action. With that done the group jumped onto the grind rail that was in front of them and let it bring them over to another part of the facility, one with a white domed area of some kind, even though it looked like the path in question would be heading around it and not inside it, and sure enough they found some Laser Guards patrolling this area, causing them to open fire on them without delay. After taking a pair of Laser Guards out the group found more of the smaller enemies, Snappers and Grulches, blocking the way forward, not that it mattered since Ratchet and Angela were the first to open fire as Clank noticed that the magical siblings kept their eyes open for any additional enemies that might try to sneak up on them, a wise idea since none of them had any idea what sort of additional defenses they might encounter during their time on this planet. The path in question brought them to a set of platforms that lead right to one of the smaller ships that were scattered around Smolg, transport ships no doubt, finding some Snappers resting in their way that they took care of without delay, before discovering some steps that allowed them to find an Infiltrator terminal, which happened to be linked to an electric fence.

After Ratchet hacked into the terminal, and brought down the barrier, they opened fire on the enemies that were behind it and continued following a path that had been built for whatever workers called this place home, even though it did bring all of them to another ship and connected them to the outside of a building, allowing the group to blast and smash their way through their enemies, before coming to a stop in what seemed to be the other side of the building, discovering what seemed to be a fragment of a gadget.

"Interesting, it's a piece of the Hypnomatic," Angela said, staring at the flat edge of the gadget in question, showing them that she did have some information about it to share, even though Autumn carefully stored it away since she couldn't use it right now, given that it was incomplete in some manner, where they paused for a moment as Angela thought about their discovery and what it might mean, "if we can complete it, by finding the other parts, we can use it on specific robots and open defenses that we normally wouldn't be able to get through... I think someone on Damosel might be able to fix it, but I have no idea where to find the other fragments."

"Probably on Grelbin and Damosel," Ratchet remarked, because it seemed like they were nearing the end of their quest in Bogon, since it appeared that the assault on Yeedil was coming up soon, so he had to assume, based on that thought, that there were two more pieces of the Hypnomatic for them to collect, something that Autumn agreed with since she nodded her head a few seconds after he said that.

Angela thought about it for a few seconds and figured that he was right, especially since this was his second adventure and knew more than she did, even if she was the one who worked for Megacorp and knew some of their secrets, to which they cleared out the area of Grulches before using a platform to return to their ship, allowing them to restock their ammunition once more before using a set of small floating pads, and some Swingshot targets, to reach another small transport ship, as it seemed to be leading to another part of this facility. The path in question brought them to an elevator that lead right to a Levitator pad, to which Ratchet and Clank used the wings in question to head forward as Starswirl surrounded himself and the others with a magical sphere, all so he could lift all three of them into the air so they could follow after his brother, who was navigating through the area while avoiding some vehicles that were moving through the air. Of course, due to the fact that Ratchet could only use the Levitator for a certain amount of time, he had to land every now and then before using the next pad that was in front of him, before they landed on one of the larger ships that were out here, likely full of guards or obstacles for them to overcome in some manner, and the only foes on the first vessel happened to be a Laser Guard and a single Snapper, something that caused them to frown before taking out both enemies. With that done the group headed into the center of the ship and found another Levitator pad for Ratchet to use, so as he used the wings once more Clank found that Starswirl kept the barrier up as he levitated himself and the others through the air, before it brought them to an area where a number of containers were resting, even though everyone opened fire on all of the guards before making their way to a structure that rested near their ship.

What they discovered, upon reaching the final structure before returning to their ship, was a Snapper that actually had one head instead of the usual two they were used to seeing, plus it was wearing a red sweater with a white scarf and happened to be smoking on a pipe with a monocle in front of it's right eye, where it took one look at their weapons and seemed to just give up on life as it sat there, almost like an actual person would. In the following moments they found out something, the creature fully expected someone to kill him and actually seemed to be asking for it to happen, since he seemed to have a desire for the feral nature of his own species, where Clank understood his plight since he had been designed to be one of Drek's warbots, even though he was actually a defect that not even the experts at Gadgetron were able to figure out, as no one seemed to understand why he happened to be different from all of the other robots in his series. While Angela was surprised by this piece of information, since no one had told her about Clank's past, the mutant crab was somewhat happy to have found someone who was similar to him, even though he humbly asked them for some Bolts for food, which turned out to be forty thousand and Ratchet paid it when they learned that he was willing to trade a holodisplay to them, one that just so happened to contain the coordinates for Damosel. The recording happened to contain Darla Gratch, who was one of Solana's reporters and must have been brought to Bogon on accident, reporting from Allgon City, where it appeared the Protopets were starting to spread and devour everything that happened to be in their way, though there wasn't much else to learn from the video as they claimed the holodisplay.

With that done the group returned to the ship and Ratchet set a course for Grelbin, as he had a feeling that they might be able to make the Hypnomatic on Damosel and that the last piece had to be somewhere on Angela's planet, so it would be a simple matter to track it down, claim the piece, and then head to Allgon City to deal with all of the Protopets before they headed to Yeedil to put an end to this madness.

Commando: Grelbin, Damosel

Grelbin, as Angela told them and Autumn confirmed with her reading, was a cold world that was far different from what they had been expecting when all of them heard the name, as they were thinking maybe a forest planet or even something close to Veldin, only for Ratchet and his siblings to find that it was covered in ice fields, chilly mountains, and frozen wastes, which did make it the perfect hideout for Angela since she had been hiding before their arrival. Of course there were buildings that had been made by Megacorp, no doubt digging into the ground since Angela revealed that her home was like Tabora, as in the fact that it had some crystals that her boss had tried digging up at one point in the past, so they might find the Mystic at some point in time, since he seemed interested in desert crystals and icy moonstones. In response to that Ratchet figured out where they were going to find the second fragment of the Hypnomatic, all they had to do was track down the man that seemed utterly strange, figure out how many stones he needed, and then collect his price before heading to Damosel so they could save Allgon City from the Protopets. Angela was still surprised by the fact that they had picked out her home world and not Damosel, given the danger that the latter happened to be in, but given everything she had seen from Ratchet and his siblings she figured that they knew what they were doing and she was still learning how to be a hero, so she was letting them call the shots right now, even if it was her plan that they were sort of following.

It wasn't too much longer after their conversation that they landed in the area that was near Angela's house, even though it seemed like Megacorp had locked every building and forced anyone who came to this planet to land on the other side of the facility in question, hence why they climbed out of the ship when Ratchet landed and they stared out at everything that was in front of them, an icy field with snow falling everywhere and a small camp resting nearby, with the Mystic sitting under a fair number of large floating stones.

"If it wasn't for the fact that we saw him on Tabora, I would have said that he hadn't moved for days," Angela commented, though as she spoke what was on her mind they walked down the platform that was in front of them and walked over to where the man happened to be sitting, even though he might move once they walked over to a boulder that happened to be blocking the mine that was connected to the facility they had landed on the edge of.

"Maybe we can enlist his aid in several manners?" Starswirl inquired, referring to the Hypnomatic and the boulder, while also counting the fact that they might be able to trade in the moonstones for some Bolts, to offset everything that they had spent during over the last couple of planets, given the prices that they had been forced to pay for some items, especially on some of the weapons as well.

Ratchet nodded his head for a moment as they walked down to where the Mystic was resting and approached the boulder that was blocking the way forward, where he found that there had to be some sort of barrier over this place since most of the enemies in this place, white furred Yeties based on what Angela told them, stayed away from where the Mystic had set up shop, and, sure enough, the moment Ratchet touched the boulder, and Starswirl weaved his magic around it, their new friend got up and walked over to them.

"Violence is not the answer." the Mystic stated, though as he said that Ratchet glanced at his siblings for a moment, as all of them knew such a thing now since the boulder was still resting in the area that they had found it in, while Angela stood near Clank for a moment, as it would have saved them a few moments if he had said something to them when they came to this camp.

"Can you move this rock, sir?" Clank asked, as while he was sure that Starswirl and Autumn would figure something out, as their magic was far stronger than the weak spell Starswirl had used as a test to see how much power was necessary for it to be moved, he hoped that the Mystic would be able to help them with the boulder and the fragment of the Hypnomatic that they were looking for.

"I am able.. however, for the rock to move, the forces of the universe must align." the Mystic replied, revealing more about whatever power that he happened to be in tune with, something Autumn wanted to ask about since he was such an odd person when she thought about everyone else they had encountered so far, before he turned and started to walk back to where his chair was resting.

"So, um, can we make these forces align a little faster?" Autumn inquired, figuring that if they could get him to use more of his power she or Starswirl would be able to figure some things out about him, especially since no one in Solana, to the best of their knowledge, had powers similar to what they were capable of using, so it would be interesting to figure that out at some point in time.

"Ah, yes... the holistic resonance of moonstones may yet guide these wayward forces." the Mystic stated, confirming that they needed to head out and take down a number of foes to find and recover the moonstones that he wanted from them, which they should be able to do once they had a single stone, but as he reached his camp, however, they discovered that the Mystic paused before glancing at Autumn, "You, young one, must learn to control the anger inside you, least it destroy everything you care about."

Autumn didn't need to have that explained to her, as she knew that the Mystic was talking about her other side, the dark and evil side that awakened whenever she delved too deep into her anger, but she said nothing as she, her siblings, and Angela headed out into the tundra that was around them, finding Yeties coming after them while they hunted for the first of the moonstones. What Ratchet discovered, as they put some distance between the Mystic's camp and themselves, was that what they were trying to find happened to be contained in some earthen material that was blue colored, while the stone itself was a cluster of crystals embedded in a piece of earth, after being broken out of the case it was trapped in, all while they fought their way through the enemies that were in front of them. In the following seconds Autumn took it and duplicated it like she had done with the desert crystal, though after that was in her pack she focused her magic and sent out a wave of light energy that tracked down every moonstone that happened to be in the tundra, shattering the earthen containers and slaying what appeared to be serpents that had been lurking below the ground, in the icy water, and once it was done she collected all one hundred and one stones. After doing that they turned around and headed back to where the Mystic was resting, trading nine moonstones to him so he could lift the boulder and revealed the opening of the mine that they could explore if they wanted, while trading him sixteen more earned them the fragment of the Hypnomatic, all while leaving the remaining seventy-four for Bolts, three thousand a piece.

With that done they quickly headed through the mine, finding that it required them to use the Glider for a time, giving all of them a chance to see an ancient skeleton while avoiding lava, before landing at the end and Ratchet hacked into the Infiltrator terminal that was in front of them, allowing him and the others to engage a number of small robots that clearly didn't like them, blasting and smashing their way through each room while demonstrating why they were a force to be reckoned with, before eventually reaching the end and pressed a button.

"There, the way to my house should be open... though it looks like we need the Hypnomatic to move forward," Angela said, though this was the first time that the robots leading towards her residence had been activated, meaning someone had to be trying to stop her and her new friends from succeeding in their mission, Mr. Fizzwidget no doubt, causing her to sigh as she glanced at the others, who shrugged in response, "Oh well, guess we really need to get to Damosel now... hopefully we find someone who can build the Hypnomatic, otherwise we might have to use magic to cheat."

Ratchet resisted the urge to chuckle as he heard that, because of course Angela wanted to do things a certain way and had to think that using magic was cheating, though without saying another word they made sure to restock their ammunition before blasting off for Damosel, as it was time to face the Protopets, save a city, and obtain the Hypnomatic so they could return and obtain the items they needed for their assault on Yeedil.

Damosel, as it turned out, was a planet that was mostly covered in water, reminding the siblings of Kalebo III, and once the ship breached the atmosphere they quickly discovered that their thoughts were correct, Allgon City was built on poles that extended downwards into the water, or towers since some seemed to be far larger than they were used to, and once they landed Ratchet found something interesting, there were three paths for them to take.

"Okay, so we have a challenger on the moon, a rail system to explore, and the main city," Ratchet commented, taking just a moment to study the paths that were in front of them as they climbed out of their ship and walked into the area that the Vendor happened to be resting in, again with no new weapons, meaning there wasn't much else for them to claim at this point in their adventure and meant that they were nearing the end of it.

"I'll take care of the moon, while you guys can deal with the rail system," Starswirl remarked, where he walked over to the chamber that had one of the platforms that Clank used to access his Giant form, again they had no idea why Megacorp had it and at this point weren't about to ask questions, since he and Autumn were fairly sure that someone in Angela's company was stealing things from other galaxies, before using his magic to shield himself as he levitated himself up to the moon that happened to be aligned with the city.

While he did that Autumn decided to sit down near the tunnel and pulled out her tablet so she could continue her work on the next generation of Gadgetron weapons, such as a whip made out of plasma, a new blaster inspired by the Lancer, or at least to some degree, and a few other interesting ideas that would take some time to create, including her next RYNO, the RY3NO, one that would be superior to the second in every way. Ratchet simply chuckled as he jumped onto the rail before departing from the chamber in question, where he started to head out and followed the rail section, though he found that Angela was right behind him, mostly to get used to the feeling of the boot gadgets that Autumn had given her, all to make sure that they had no flaws in their movements during their eventual assault on Yeedil. Of course the pair discovered that a number of trains seemed to be warping in and out of this part of the city, meaning citizens had to be fleeing before they were devoured by the Protopets, though it allowed them to jump from section to section while avoiding some hazards, a number of metallic rings and a couple of annoying Protopets that happened to be resting on the rails. Other than that there didn't appear to be too many hazards for them to face, so Ratchet and Angela simply followed the path that was in front of them and kept an eye open for anything that might threaten them, finding that it was a rather peaceful trek as they leapt from rail to rail and smashed their way through the small blue enemies they found on parts of the rail, before it brought them over to a platform that seemed to be the end of the path.

On the platform they found the third and final piece of the Hypnomatic, which they knew since a voice came from their armor that informed them of such a thing, though as Ratchet held the piece up towards the sky for a moment, so show his excitement for finding it, Clank did a bit of a moonwalk before spinning around, returning to his starting point within a few seconds, and then pointed diagonally at the sky like he was doing the disco.

"Clank... what was that?" Angela asked, as while this was one of the rare times where the little robot was walking and not on Ratchet's back, since he seemed to prefer being on his friend's back and providing support, she wasn't expecting him to suddenly break out into dance after they found the final fragment of the Hypnomatic, or whatever that was, and Ratchet had an eyebrow raised, showing he was caught off guard by it as well.

"Sorry. I have no idea what came over me." Clank replied, offering them his signature laugh, even though it was weak this time around since he honestly had no idea why he had decided to do that little dance as Ratchet claimed the fragment of the last gadget they needed for this adventure, though his friend simply nodded his head and patted his own for a couple of seconds before the three of them used the nearby teleport pad to return to the main chamber.

Sure enough they found Autumn still working on her schematics when they arrived, though Starswirl returned not a few moments after Ratchet and Angela did, finding that he faced off against a mothership on the moon and recovered an item for them to hang onto, a Map-o-matic that Megacorp called the 'Mapper', though with that added to their armor, even if it meant waiting for Autumn to finish her work before duplicating, they turned towards the main path. What they found was that the Protopets were in the middle of attacking the robotic citizens of Allgon City, though there were a number of other robots who were fighting back against the plague of mutant creatures, Extermibots according to Angela's information on them, but she warned them to be careful, since everything related to Megacorp seemed to want them dead. A couple of seconds later Angela was proven right as some of the Extermibots turned and fired at them without warning, causing the group to fire at their robotic enemies and the Protopets that were scattered around this part of the city, The interesting part about all of this was that there were a number of dispensers that were sending out more Protopets to attack both the citizens and the group, so Ratchet made sure to focus them down first to cut down on the number of foes that they had to face off against, while the annoying thing was that if even one Protopet was left it would open it's mouth and quickly spit out another one for Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela to fight, so they had to take all of them down before even thinking about moving into the next part of the city.

It also appeared that a good number of Protopets had escaped into the sewers, given that some burst out of a manhole as the group moved by it, so Starswirl gathered his magic and sent a burst of flames into the sewers, burning everything that might be down there while his siblings and Angela dealt with the enemies that had decided to attack them, opening the way for them to enter a garden area of sorts before moving into another part of Allgon City.

As they expected there were more Extermibots and Protopets doing battle with each other in the garden area, even if the two sets of enemies wanted to end the group before dealing with each other, causing Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela to open fire on them while swinging their melee weapons whenever they got the chance to do use them, blasting and bashing their way through the disaster that was in front of them. Eventually the door opened and they crossed over a gap to enter a residential area that happened to have an overturned vehicle and a store right behind it, one that seemed to be a grocery store based on what they were seeing, thought that didn't stop them from smashing their enemies and making sure this place was safe for all of the remaining robotic citizens before Ratchet moved into the store. What they found out was that there weren't any enemies inside the store itself, allowing them to head over to a taxi before using it to head to what appeared to be the bank, so once it came to a stop they restock all of their weapons with the nearby Vendor before using a set of walls to Wall Jump up into the structure the four of them had been brought to, finding more enemies inside it, just the Extermibots trying to kill them and all of the Protopets trying to eat them. After clearing out the two sets of enemies in a matter of moments, and finding that the citizens were safe, they headed up the stairs and moved through an opening that allowed them to discover that there were small robots that tried to spin into each of them when they got close, so they smashed their way through those enemies, Receiver Bots according to Angela, and moved further along the path that was in front of them.

One thing Ratchet found, as they encountered another area full of Extermibots and Protopets, were some posters of an odd group, a mean looking male with blond-green hair and a small goatee, an orange creature that looked like a cross between a weasel and an otter, plus three girls that looked like Starswirl, as one had a unicorn's horn with a two purple colors in her hair with light aquamarine highlights, another who only possessed wings and had arctic blue hair, while the third seemed to have both a horn and wings while having a moderate purple color to her hair.

"So we aren't the only ones of our kind... or I would hope so, after seeing this." Starswirl commented, as while he had no idea who the aggressive male was, or who the odd otter-weasel creature was, he and Autumn were more focused on the other three individuals, as the girls definitely looked like them, bipedal ponies to be exact, even if one was a unicorn, one was a pegasus, and the other seemed to have the best of both worlds, causing hope to blossom in him as he realized that they might have a clue as to what happened to the rest of their mysterious kind.

"So we have Unicorns, Pegasi, likely Earth Ponies, Kirin... and, um, Alicorns... I guess?" Autumn remarked, as while she and the others stared at the poster it made her wonder about the races that must have inhabited their world before they were separated from each other, and since it looked like they had unicorns, thanks to Starswirl, Kirin, thanks to her, and Pegasi, due to the first winged one, she had to assume normal ponies of the earth had to be a thing, plus whatever the final girl had to be, whatever the name of her race was.

Angela glanced at Ratchet for a moment, who shrugged since this was the first time he had seen anything that might be related to his siblings, which made it odd that it was in Bogon and made him wonder if their planet had been in this galaxy before it was totally wiped out, so once this adventure was over he'd ask someone in Megacorp about it, or someone else if it came to that. Of course, if that was the case, Ratchet knew that Angela would have said something about them, or the planet in question, meaning his initial thoughts had to be wrong, his siblings didn't hail from Bogon and were sent to his galaxy to escape the destruction of their home, meaning it was either in Polaris or another galaxy they hadn't discovered at this point in time, but he kept his mouth shut for the time being. Once his siblings were done staring at the poster, and Autumn took a few pictures so she could study them once they were done with this adventure, they headed down the rest of the path and found that it was leading to another store of some kind, a locked one, and that it had a fair number of foes that needed to be taken out, both in front of it and some on top of it. That was why Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl opened fire on all of the enemies that were in front of them, blasting Extermibots and smashing Protopets out of the way as Angela sniped both guards who happened to be on top of the building, allowing them to clear out the area before the building's door opened and the group walked inside, finding more enemies to take down.

After clearing out the second shop they found a path that lead to a lift, one that brought them to another garden area and some additional enemies, who were busy fighting each other and allowed them to bring down both groups, before they jumped through another opening and reached an area that a man was standing in, a pale gray skinned figure with a white shirt and black pants, who seemed to be messing with a sock puppet. When they approached him, however, the man and his puppet talked about making the Hypnomatic and when it came time to discuss a fee the puppet made his main self fall asleep, meaning they might have been able to get away without paying and had missed whatever window had been open, to which Autumn simply paid the ten thousand Bolt price. With that done the man assembled the Hypnomatic for them, all in a few moments since they had all of the components for him, before he used the taxi and departed from this area, likely to leave the city before more Protopets showed up, before Ratchet aimed at a robot with a receiver on it's head and took control of it, allowing him to move and fire as he desired. As he discovered that, and Autumn took notes on what he was able to do, he directed the robot to a button that actually summoned another taxi for them to use and unlocked the door that it passed through, allowing the group to return to their ship, as it looked like Allgon City was safe and sound, with no more Protopets to worry about, allowing them to blast off once they climbed back inside their ship.

It didn't take them long to return to Grelbin, where they climbed out of the ship and entered the structure that would, in due time, bring all of them to Angela's residence and obtain the items that would bring down Megacorp's plans, or at least those connected to the Protopet, where Ratchet took control of a receiver robot and opened fire on all of the enemies that were in front of him. What Autumn could see was that he was taking out the enemies that were positioned along the path he had to follow, even though he also had to switch between several robots to reach whatever was at the end, which had to be a button that caused the ledge across from them to raise up and lock into place before revealing some platforms for them to use to head off to their right, another path that might link up with the one Ratchet used. After that Ratchet turned his attention to using the Hypnomatic to move robots and clear out certain sections of the building they were clearing out at the moment, all while his siblings and Angela used their weapons to clear out the hostile robots who spawned nearby, as any damage to him would break his concentration, and once he reached his destination they passed through the now lowered barrier and dived into the water, allowing them to swim for a time. A few moments later Ratchet and the others found that they were able to find an exit teleport pad and returned to the tundra without wasting time, where it was easy for them to see that they had found Angela's place, a small building that seemed to have one bed, one bathroom, and a large living area which had a kitchen and who knew what else, as they were guessing based on the outside's appearance, only for a smile to appear on Angela's face.

"Okay, I'm going to head inside, find my old ID badge and the Helix-o-Morph, and then we can get going," Angela said, to which she headed for the door, unlocked it, and headed inside her residence without delay, leaving Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to stand outside and see if any enemies showed up, though with no Yeties to fight it was just a simple matter of them standing there as they waited for her to come out.

Thankfully it didn't take her long to track down the items she needed, as Angela had left her ID badge on the counter and the Helix-o-Morph was resting on a table, across from the holodisplay that she used to watch shows, before she returned to them and locked her residence up, though with that done they jumped down into the tundra for a moment, quickly made their way over to their ship, and blasted off for Yeedil, so they could put an end to this adventure and the threat that Bogon was facing right now.

Commando: Yeedil

As they flew towards Yeedil, and the Protopet facility that was their final destination, Angela explained that they were going to have to fight their way through all sorts of enemies once they reached the facility she used to work in, as Megacorp had some pretty nasty defenses and they would be lucky to get passed them, or she would have thought such a thing had both Autumn and Starswirl been ordinary individuals. With their magic, however, Angela knew that their chances were far better than when she planned this for herself and Ratchet, plus Clank even if he was just sticking to Ratchet's back, especially since they might be able to break through the defenses so they could safely land in the landing area that she made sure Ratchet would be aiming for. Regardless of that fact they were going to have to fight their way through all sorts of defenses, those that were outside the facility and the ones that happened to be inside it, and quickly make their way to the room that the Protopets were being replicated in, as each of the ones they had fought back on Damosel were clones of the original, so if they were to mess with the original Protopet, and she amplified the signal, they should be able to stop the upcoming storm by calming the creatures down. That was where the Helix-o-Morph came into play, as it would allow her to do such a thing when they reached their destination, though it was going to take some time for them to reach that point, hence why she was more interested in clearing out the defenses before Mr. Fizzwidget realized what in the world they were up to and tired to stop them, which would just make matters worse.

Yeedil, as the siblings discovered, was a dark looking planet from space and they could tell it was heavily industrial, given all of the factories and buildings that they could see, though what surprised everyone, and gave them some red flags as soon as it happened, was that none of the orbital defenses came online, meaning they were able to fly down to the landing pad and Ratchet turned off the ship once he had landed.

"I don't like this." Angela commented, where she climbed out of the ship as well and made sure her weapons were at the ready as Autumn and Starswirl climbed out as well, since Ratchet was the first one to do such a thing after making sure he was done with the ship, even though she could see a number of ships moving through the air and hoped that they kept their discoveries to themselves, like Davin promised, otherwise this plan would fail, "We should have been blasted by the orbital defenses, especially since the other facilities saw us as enemies... something about this doesn't sit well with me, not after everything we've been through."

"Either someone forgot to add us to the wanted list on Yeedil, or someone forgot the password again," Ratchet said, as the latter was directed towards Mr. Fizzwidget and the Deep Space Disposal Facility, even if they were sure that the man they had talked to wasn't him at this point, as Angela was convinced he wasn't the same man she had worked for, while he and the others knew that the former likely meant that this had to be a trap, "however, we don't have much of a choice right now, given what happened to Damosel."

"Sure, we stopped the assault, but its only a matter of time until it happens again," Starswirl added, causing the others to nod their heads for a moment as they took the statements into consideration, where they knew that he was talking about all of the other planets that were scattered across the galaxy, who could fall victim to what Megacorp might be planning if they didn't stop the Protopets.

"Given what you've said about this place, Angela, I think we might need this," Autumn said, where she pulled out the RYNO II for a moment and made sure it was fully stocked for the battles that would be ahead of them when they started waging war on the facility's defenses, even though it had only been used in the most dire of situations, so this would prove to be the best time to test it's abilities before this adventure was over, before she glanced at the facility, "Come on, we had best get started before the defenses realize that enemies are standing nearby."

Ratchet nodded as they crossed the bridge that was in front of them and made their way to a Vendor, making sure to take a few seconds to restock any weapons that might need to be at their full capacity, before finding that the only way forward was to use the Hypnomatic on some receiver robots and that was what Ratchet did as soon as he spotted it, allowing him to take control of it as he made his way across some platforms. From there he crossed over to the main area that was right in front of them and started to bring down the electrical fences that happened to be in their way, eventually stopping as he found a button that revealed some Swingshot targets for them to use, hence why they switched gadgets and swung over the gap that was in front of them. Of course when they landed the group had to deal with a few more buttons as boxes of Protopets broke open, and Troopers and Tanks came out to deal with the intruders who had appeared on their radars, but it was what the group was waiting for as they opened fire the moment each one landed, this time focusing on using their guns to blast through the enemies that were in front of them. None of them were surprised by the level of guards that had come out to fight them, before they even reached the main door of the facility, especially given what they had seen back on Dobbo, though Autumn found more forces coming out of several doorways that were near the main door, to which she turned her attention over there and opened fire with the RYNO II, cutting down on some of their enemies as Ratchet and the others cleaned up the enemies that were around them.

After that they crossed over a few platforms and opened fire on the Troopers and Tanks that were still out in front of the front door, as those Autumn had fired on beforehand had been replaced by new ones, not that it mattered as the group dealt with their enemies and focused on how they were going to get inside the facility to track down the room that the main Protopet was resting in. As they did that Ratchet found a door that opened, one that lead to an area which might be connected to the door, and he used the Hypnomatic to access the area that it was resting in, where he opened fire on all of the Troopers and Protopets that happened to be guarding this section of the facility's exterior, before finding a button to press and he did so without delay. What that did was open up the main door that he and the others had been fighting their way towards, to which he fell back and regrouped with his siblings and Angela before everyone headed inside, using a teleport pad to move themselves into the inside of the facility, and sure enough the passage that was in front of them was being guarded by a number of Troopers, who instantly fired on them as soon as they revealed themselves. As such the group declared war on all of the enemies that were blocking the way, as they smashed and blasted their way through them and pushed into the first major chamber of the facility, which was crawling with Troopers, both around the pillar that was in the center and in front of the passage that lead even deeper into the facility.

One thing Ratchet saw and confirmed, all over again, was that Angela fought like she had been trained to be a commando, even if she claimed that such a thing had never happened to her, and had to assume that her warrior heritage was what he was seeing, especially as she jumped between two Troopers and spun around, the blades of her lightsaber cutting the pair down like they were made out of butter. Of course such a thing opened her defenses for the remaining Troopers to fire on, though that was why he made sure to counter them with his weapons, blasting their enemies before they even had a chance to hurt her, causing the two of them to nod towards each other for a second as they continued blasting and slashing their way through the enemies that happened to be guarding this area. Autumn and Starswirl, on the other hand, didn't need any assistance as they picked when to use each weapon against the Troopers who were between them and the passage that they were heading towards, though Autumn noticed the lack of superior firepower and refrained from using the RYNO II, once more choosing to use it in an emergency than to clear out everything in seconds. She knew that it could wipe out everything in a room in a matter of seconds and allow them to progress through this facility rather quickly, given the power that each version of this weapon possessed, but right now she could see that none of them needed it to be used and such a thing meant they could get away with using the guns that Megacorp produced, tearing down all of the Troopers who happened to be blocking the way forward.

After dealing with the Troopers the group entered the passage and found that it had a few Protopets inside it, which were quickly taken out as Ratchet moved towards the next chamber, where they had to use the Dynamo to activate some new devices so they could progress through the facility, though as they did that Starswirl turned and waved his hand at several Troopers who were hovering in the air, blasting them out of the way so he and the others could move forward, giving his siblings and Angela a chance to cross before he followed after them. That, of course, brought them to another chamber that had a sealed door, this one requiring the use of the Infiltrator to unlock so they could use a teleport pad or something to get closer to the room Angela was directing them towards, and it had an army of enemies waiting for them, to which Ratchet blasted his targets with his guns, Autumn and Starswirl switched between using their weapons and magic so they could inflict the most damage that they possibly could, and Angela slashed her way through her enemies. There was also a Tank that joined the battle at one point, though given what the group was doing it didn't have much of a chance to fire at one of them, rather Ratchet, his siblings, and Angela tore it down without really noticing that it was there in the first place, though once all of their enemies had been beaten they paused for a moment, mostly to catch their breath and make sure that no more Troopers or Tanks came out to fight them. Once they were sure that the coast was clear Ratchet stepped up and hacked into the terminal that was connected to the metallic door, where it took him no time to hack through it with the Infiltrator and revealed a circular chamber with Protopets, a sunken icy floor, some moving platforms, and an opening that lead deeper into the facility, to which they simply took down the little blue fuzzballs before heading through the next opening to see what else was waiting for them.

As it turned out they were entering a larger section of the facility, one with gaps and Tanks to make sure anyone who even dared to assault this place would be taken down in due time, though before anyone could ask about the RYNO II Autumn loosed a burst of magical energy that raced through the air and took one of their foes down, blowing a Tank apart, and it wasn't long before Starswirl did the same thing. Once that was done they used a pair of Swingshot targets to reach a fairly large conveyor belt, like where boxes of weapons or Protopets would rest before being sent out, before using another one to cross the gap that the pair of Tanks had been resting in, allowing them to reach another Vendor and an Electrolyzer terminal, so they would have a chance to restock before heading even deeper into this facility. Ratchet let the others take a moment to restock, all while he hacked into the terminal so he could power up a rectangular lift that was nearby, and as soon as he was done he made sure to stock up on ammunition as well, since there was no telling what might be lurking in the rest of the facility. What they discovered was another chamber filled with Troopers and some Protopets, not that they were surprised by this fact when each of them considered the enemies they had seen so far, hence why the group opened fire on the facility's defenders and smashed their way through all of the robots that happened to be in this area, while also finding a bridge that could be lowered by one of them using the Swingshot on a blue target, which was what Starswirl did as the others finished off the rest of the enemies.

"There it is, the Protopet Duplication Room." Angela said, revealing that the door they were walking towards, which had no defenders for some reason and meant that they had to be walking into a trap, even if she really didn't want to admit that it was a very real possibility, before she sighed as she focused on why they were here in the first place, hence why she took a moment to pull out the Helix-o-Morph, "Come on, let's get in there and put an end to this madness."

"Not so fast," a voice said, where they found Mr. Fizzwidget, who was armed with a Lancer, warping into the area that was right in front of them, as in between them and the door they had been focused on, while at the same time all sorts of foes, an army of Troopers to be exact, warped into this section of the facility as well, surrounding Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela in a way that meant they had weapons pointed at them from every direction, "Did the four of you really think that you could break into Megacorp and do as you pleased?"

"Come on Qwark, we know it's you." Starswirl remarked, figuring that if they were being ambushed in this manner, and the army looked like they were itching for an excuse to attack them, he and his siblings might say something before they took this matter into their own hands, especially since he could see that Autumn was readying herself in case they were right in thinking that Mr. Fizzwidget had been replaced by Qwark.

"You guys are smart, I'll give you that." the man said, where he reached back and pulled on something that split the small disguise apart, allowing them to see that it was definitely Qwark standing in front of them, though none of the Troopers seemed to care, meaning he must have corrupted them or edited all of their protocols in some manner, before he pointed his gun at them again, "What gave me away?"

"Oh, you know, 'Qwarktastic'... that, and you did several things that Mr. Fizzwidget never did," Angela answered, as she and the others knew that the latter was how she figured out something was wrong and reacted accordingly, while the former had been the final key to understanding that the man they were dealing with wasn't her boss, hence why she fully joined Ratchet and his siblings as they uncovered Qwark's plans, "not that it matters, since we'll have the last laugh and bring an end to your foolish plans."

"I'll have to remember that for the future," Qwark stated, where he gestured to the side with his gun and the group, while knowing that they could overpower him at any moment with the magic that Autumn and Starswirl possessed, something that allowed everyone to see that he had set up some cameras for their arrival, "As you no doubt know, I'm about to save the galaxy from the Protopets and the lot of you are about to become public enemy number one... and two, three, four, and five. Once I have shown the people of this galaxy that I have beaten the Protopets, and have restored the peace, I will turn my attention to the lot of you and bring you to justice as well, which shall complete my plans to become the greatest hero that has every lived: Captain Qwark!"

Ratchet, his siblings, and Clank glanced at each other, as this was normal for a moron like Qwark, the wanting to get his old position back, though Angela stood there for a few seconds as the man snatched the Helix-o-Morph from her, but she did know not to fight back, not yet anyway, allowing them to watch as he stood near all of his cameras.

"Ahem. Citizens of Bogon, I am Captain Qwark." Qwark stated, informing the people of the galaxy that there was a brand new hero in town, which they may or may not care about once they heard what he had to say, and, sure enough, he did move his hands while he was talking, like he was addressing children, "I come to you in this, your darkest of hours, to shine the flashlight of justice on your galaxy."

The siblings and Angela had to resist the urge to laugh at that, as the 'flashlight of justice' sounded like something that a child or a moron would come up with, though with all of the guards nearby they had to hold back their laughter, since they were sure that the guards would turn on them if a single laugh was let out.

"As you know, a living menace called the Protopet has been set loose in your galaxy. But fear not Bogonites, for I, Captain Qwark, have caught the perpetrators!" Qwark continued, where he glanced at the device in his hands and messed with it while he was talking, even pulling the battery out and putting it back in after checking it out, before turning his attention to the cameras, "Yes good citizens, these are the masterminds behind Megacorp's experiment with death! Stay tuned, dear viewers, as I amplify the signal from this Helix-o-thingy and render every Protopet in the galaxy completely harmless. Allow me to demonstrate."

While one could have questioned how Qwark even knew what sort name Angela gave the device, even if he butchered it in no time, they didn't have a chance as he turned the device on the main Protopet and everyone watched as it shuddered for a moment before expanding into a massive beast, one that ended up eating Qwark as the guarded retreated, though it smashed through a wall and jumped onto a large circular platform. The group glanced at each other for a few moments, as they weren't expecting something like this to happen before they confronted the moronic ex-hero, though they could see that the Protopet was a dark purple beast that had red eyes and easily towered over all of them, causing Ratchet and his siblings to sigh as they pulled out their weapons. Angela followed suit as they used their Swingshots to cross the gap that was in front of them, though when they landed she and the others opened fire on the Mutant Protopet, where it jumped for a moment and surrounded itself in a barrier, like the Shield Charger, to which they dodged the attack before firing on it a few seconds later. As it rolled along the platform there was one other thing the group noticed, several crates phased into existence on the platform, no doubt teleported over to it by one of the guards, and it caused their foe to walk over to one of them, not that it got to eat one of them since Starswirl and Autumn used their magic to grab the containers and moved each one over to where they were standing.

Of course Starswirl also threw several spells into the mix, hurling Fireballs and Ice Spikes at their foe, not to mention a few Lightning Bolts as well, which caused the Mutant Protopet to stagger for a time as they waged war with it, and when there was an opening Autumn launched a volley from the RYNO II, which smashed into the side of the beast. While they did that several of the guards decided to come into the fight and fired at the group, to which Autumn tossed Ratchet her RYNO II as she shifted into her Dark Form, sending out bursts out magical energy that smashed them to pieces, though she only had to deal with half the area since Starswirl had the other half. Ratchet and Angela, on the other hand, focused on their foe as they opened fire on it, allowing them to smash through the Mutant Protopet's defenses with ease as they avoided any and all incoming attacks, showing the others that their warrior sides were coming to the surface once more, causing Starswirl to smile as he watched the pair in action. Such a thing made him wonder what Ratchet's sister would be like, if they ever met her anyway, before he hurled one of the tanks into their foe's side and caused it to stagger once more as his brother and his girlfriend blasted it in the face with their missiles, dealing some impressive damage to it before it had a chance to do anything to them.

In the end the battle ended with the Mutant Protopet collapsing on the ground while they took no damage, though while that happened it also threw up Qwark, who moaned for a moment before, somehow, upchucking the Helix-o-Morph, so Angela was able to pick it up and mused what might have happened to it to cause such a mutation to the Protopet, since it wasn't supposed to do that. She and Clank found out what the problem was within a matter of seconds, as Qwark had put the batteries in wrong when he was messing with the device, though as she corrected the issue they found out another interesting development, the real Mr. Fizzwidget had been freed from where Qwark had tied him up. As he stopped near them, however, the Mutant Protopet stood up and roared for a moment, where Angela used the device and it was quickly restored to a small puff ball that was overly affectionate, which was exactly what she had been tasked with doing before her boss had been replaced.

"We... we did it!" Angela said, as she honestly couldn't believe that they were able to solve the mystery behind the odd and strange behavior of her boss, find the one responsible for all the madness she had endured, and calm the Protopets, even if she knew there would be some cleanup before they did anything else, "So, um... what now?"

"Now we rest, then we'll clean up Qwark's mess." Ratchet stated, though as he said that Autumn reverted back to her base form and showed them that she was smiling, as she was happy to have beaten another foe and save another galaxy from some sort of mad scheme, though his focus was on Angela and both of them had a smile on their faces.

Mr. Fizzwidget, of course, was happy to solve this madness and informed them that he would be holding a party in their honor, and that he would fix whatever Qwark had done during his time pretending to be him, though the siblings, Clank, and Angela were eager to see what the future held for them and the rest of the Bogon Galaxy.

Interlude: Angela's Decision

Following the defeat of the Mutant Protopet, and Qwark's arrest for his crimes in both Solana and Bogon, Angela thought things were going to get back to normal, or as normal as her life could be thanks to the arrival of Ratchet and his siblings, but she was totally wrong. Mr. Fizzwidget decided to put the former Captain to work, assigning him a number so he could test all sorts of gadgets, as there was a long line of devices that had been created by the scientists and many were in need of being tested, something the cowardly man seemed to agree with since it meant he wouldn't go to jail. Autumn, while working for Gadgetron, joined all of Megacorp's inventors and pointed out any errors in their weapons or devices, showing them the intelligence of Solana's greatest mind, which one of them said even rivaled the Terachnoids of the Polaris Galaxy, which caused her to blush, since it was nice to hear someone new say that. Angela was still amazed by everything Autumn had created so far and everything she had planned, as her time in Bogon had inspired several new weapons and gadgets, as in the new line of Gadgetron weaponry that would bare her name, and while she was designing the next RYNO, the RY3NO as she called it, Angela found that she was also beginning to research new things for the next few versions.

Starswirl, as she discovered, focused on his magic and continued to read all sorts of tomes, be it magical in nature or the Holotexts that he bought with some of his Bolts, allowing him to learn more about the races, cultures, and planets of this galaxy, as he was interested in history and shared that information with his sister. Clank wasn't given the position that he had been 'given' during Qwark's time as Mr. Fizzwidget, though Angela found that her boss insisted on gifting them the apartment that Clank had been granted, only this time he granted them additional rooms as well, so Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl would have their own rooms as well. Ratchet was planning on becoming a temporary member of the new Bogon Defense Force, as there were still Thugs out there, bothering the people and planets of this galaxy, and he claimed that the work of a hero was never done, plus he could help train some new heroes for when they found a way back to Solana, due to the fact that the teleportation device only worked one way. Angela knew what her boss meant, it only pulled what the user wanted into Bogon, though sending things back to their respective galaxy or dimension was basically impossible, hence why he and his sister were coming up with something that might do the trick.

Angela, on the other hand, spent some time with Ratchet, seeing what he did when he wasn't trying to save the galaxy, or one of them anyway, but she was conflicted over what she should do with her life, as in should she continue working for Megacorp or should she join Ratchet in being a hero. The first thing she did after the defeat of the Mutant Protopet was make sure that the original was just fine and that all of the errors that needed to be fixed had been fixed, to be sure that her company produced the promised companion for everyone who called Bogon home, while making sure to fix the odd problem with the reproduction method she and the others had seen. It felt strange to be back in this position, as if she had never left in the first place, but as the first week went by she found that the feeling didn't go away, rather she felt like things were different for her now and that she needed to change her lifestyle as well. One of the things she did was set her melee weapon down and asked Autumn about the wrenches she had found, though she made one more copy of each one and handed the merged one to Angela, showing her that she wanted to keep one copy for later, a reminder of what she and her brothers had been through during their various adventures.

Her plan was create the weapon that the Lombax Praetorian Guard carried into battle, or at least according to the stories and informational pieces that were in her secret storage area, which was a staff like weapon that had a wrench head at both ends, though there were a few things she had to do to make it work like she wanted. As she thought about the new direction her life was heading in, if she embraced it and followed the siblings, part of her considered the armor Ratchet and his siblings had been wearing during their adventure in Bogon, some of the best based on what she knew, though, at the same time, she knew Autumn likely had some designs for the people of Solana. Part of her had to imagine what she would look like if she actually went out of her way and fully became a hero, like Ratchet and his siblings were, causing her to chuckle for a moment, even though it eventually made her wonder which path she would take, the path she had been on since arriving in Bogon or the new path that had revealed itself to her. She had a feeling that Ratchet, if he were in her position, would have already made the decision and started to walk down the path he decided on, to which she sighed for a moment as she considered her options and what would happen to one side if she decided to pick the other, and the potential consequences if they found a way back to Solana.

In the end she reached her decision, drafted a letter to explain herself to the person she needed to talk to, and then left her place on Grelbin, making sure to lock it up, before heading to her desired destination, Megacorp's main office, which was back in Megalopolis, as that was where Mr. Fizzwidget preferred to work and, as she discovered in due time, he was expecting her to arrive at some point, even though one of his screens had a video of Qwark, somehow, surviving a silo of RYNO II rockets, a way for Autumn to forgive him in some manner.

"Ah, Angela, it is good to see you again, and I have wonderful news: the Protopets have been well received," Mr. Fizzwidget said, speaking as she entered the office and closed the door behind her, where Angela could see that he was looking at a screen that displayed the sales of the new pet, not to mention the popularity and demand for them, as the people of other planets wanted the pets as well, before he faced her for a few seconds, "though something tells me you didn't come here to talk about your wonderful project."

"That's right sir." Angela replied, where she tapped her uplink and transferred the file she had created back in her home, a file that appeared on Mr. Fizzwidget's screen a few moments later, who raised an eyebrow as he opened it and browsed the contents of it, though he glanced at her after a few moments, "This is my two weeks notice... I'm going to resign from my position in Megacorp and follow a new path... I hope you aren't upset with my decision."

"Upset? No, never... well, if you had delivered this to me a year ago, there's a chance I could have been upset over seeing this," Mr. Fizzwidget commented, which made sense when Angela thought about it, as about a year ago she was deep in all sorts of coding and work to get the Protopet through the first of the design phases it went through, as it took them a long time to get to the version she sought to destroy, before her boss pulled up some videos, "however, after taking some time to watch and review your time with Ratchet and his siblings, I've come to understand what might have caused you to make this decision. I have to say, you make a great hero and so far the polls I have about such a thing say that people trust you, so much so that some are even wondering if you'll join the new Defense Force."

"That's the plan, until we find a way back to Solana." Angela said, as she had no idea if Ratchet and his siblings had told the man about their desire to head home, though she was making it known where she stood on the matter, she was going to join Ratchet and help him bring peace to the Bogon Galaxy, before she remembered something and undid the belt that hid her tail from everyone.

"I didn't know you had a tail, nor did I know you were a Lombax... though after seeing Ratchet, I should have figured that out with ease," Mr. Fizzwidget remarked, where Angela had a feeling that her boss had turned a blind eye to her tail in all of the recordings it had been in, in fact she could see it on one of the recordings that detailed their assault on Yeedil, but she wasn't about to question him at the moment.

"I've been hiding my true self, to keep both myself and this galaxy safe... but traveling with Ratchet and his siblings, well, it convinced me to change my mind," Angela replied, and that was the truth of the matter, encountering Ratchet and fighting beside him had stirred something inside her, and his words in regards to the threat that wanted their race dead spurred her into action, convincing her that they could take out the threat if it showed up, "Besides, Ratchet and I work well as a team, and with his siblings we work well as a unit, so I figured there was no reason to leave them... and if they do find out how to return to Solana, which is a big if, it would be nice to see another galaxy."

Mr. Fizzwidget chuckled for a moment, as he could tell that Angela was in love with Ratchet, he had seen how she acted when she was with him and had even watched as he made sure to separate the group up so his siblings could be a team and he could focus on helping Angela understand how to be a warrior, to which he tapped an icon on the screen and let a new mark appear on the file.

"There, I have indicated that the file has been received and that I have approved of your resignation," Mr. Fizzwidget said, something that caused Angela to raise an eyebrow for a moment as she heard the news, as she was expecting him to say something, anything really, to stop her from walking away from Megacorp, especially after all the years she spent with the company and worked under him, "I'm not about to stand in your way, Angela, so if you want to be a hero, and be with the one that you love, then by all means, go to him and live the life you want to live."

Angela smiled for a moment, happy to hear that Mr. Fizzwidget approved of her decision, before thanking him and left the office, though she would be back in a day or two to make sure her section was cleared out so she didn't leave anything of importance behind, and while she was sad to be parting from some of the people she worked with her mind was set on the path she wanted to walk for the rest of her days. With her business on Yeedil concluded Angela climbed into her ship and set a course for Endako, as based on what she had learned from the others they would be staying in Megapolis for a few days, allowing the officials to get everything for the new Defense Force and their temporary positions. Thanks to her new friends dealing with the Thugs, even if it was due to her hiring the criminals, a crime that Mr. Fizzwidget pushed onto Qwark and erased the evidence that would paint her in a horrible light, Angela discovered something nice, her flight was rather uneventful and allowed her to think about what Ratchet would say when she arrived. In addition to that she had a few thoughts about her flying lab, which was still on Aranos, though with Autumn's intelligence, and the knowledge of the Lombaxes that rested inside her secret vault, Angela had a feeling that they would be able to make a moving base for her and the others, depending on what Ratchet said when she shared her news with him.

After some time she breached the atmosphere of Endako and directed herself to the building that the siblings would be calling home for the foreseeable future, where her soon to be former boss had resigned part of the area to house a new private landing pad for their Star Explorer, and there was room for her ship as well, so she was able to land and climbed out so she could visit the others... finding that they were in the middle of the living room, relaxing before heading out to aid the new Bogon Defense Force.

"Hey guys. How are all of you doing?" Angela asked, where she pulled the headpiece that covered the top of her head, as it was in the way of her short hair, before deciding that this might be one of the last times she used it, though once that was done she slipped into the seat near Ratchet, who was happy to see her.

"Quite well. In fact, we're also being recruited to film a spy thriller series called Secret Agent Clank, of which I am to be the star of, with Ratchet being my chauffeur," Clank remarked, something that caused Angela to stop for a moment, as it was an interesting piece of news to hear, and while she would have been worried about their safety, given the threat that wanted to wipe out the Lombaxes, she found that this didn't bother as much as it should have, "We are still talking with the Director, Mr. Hatfield, about including one of Ratchet's siblings as well, especially since he was interested in making a villain that he called the 'Nirik'."

"Wow, that's... to be honest, that's amazing, and makes my news insignificant in comparison," Angela said, which was the truth of the matter, though she had to admit that it was an interesting idea and would likely earn quite a lot of money, not that Ratchet and his siblings needed the Bolts, before she found that the others were interested in what she had to say, especially when she looked at Ratchet's face, "I decided to resign from my position at Megacorp... and I'm going to join you guys on your adventures."

"Really? I thought you loved working for Megacorp? What changed your mi..." Ratchet started to ask, though before he had a chance to finish his question, as he was interested in why Angela, after all her effort to save the company she worked for from making a mistake with the Protopet, would leave Mr. Fizzwidget's company all of a sudden, he found something else of interest, Angela leaned forward and kissed him right on the lips.

Clank, Autumn, and Starswirl glanced at each other for a few seconds, as Angela was making the first move and they could see that she was letting her true self out, a warrior Lombax who was tired of hiding in the shadows, and finding Ratchet, in the oddest way possible, had been the best thing that had ever happened to her, to which they smiled as he embraced her and wondered what the future held for their group.

Arsenal: Veldin

Ratchet found that the weeks and months went by rather fast for him and his siblings, which made sense due to the fact that they were busy protecting all of the planets of the Bogon Galaxy, keeping the citizens safe from threats like the Thugs and anything else that might show up. He and Clank were also involved in filing all sorts of episodes of Secret Agent Clank, a series that had gained quite a following in this galaxy and was even shown in both Solana and Polaris, even though the first episode was weird, since it involved a race called the mind-stealing 'Snotbeasts' from Dimension X, which had been very well received despite his thoughts. In fact there were all sorts of strange creatures that Mr. Hatfield and his team came up with for Clank to 'deal with', as some were from other dimensions, other planets, or even robots who lead crime organizations, but he was happy for his pal, as Clank enjoyed being the main hero for once, with Ratchet being the chauffeur who was in each episode for a few moments at a time. He was fine with that, because a lesser role meant anyone watching it wouldn't connect him to the almost extinct Lombax race, in fact some fans assumed that it was a Hologuise designed to replicate the race, though none of them read into the theories as they focused on the show and their own work.

Of course Autumn played the Supervillain known as the Nirik, a dark flaming monster who sought to cover the universe in darkness, so they basically took her dark side and turned it into something that excited the viewers, and since she didn't want to be in that form all the time Autumn created a Hologuise to do it, making it as realistic as she could and surprised everyone with how well it was made.

In addition to all of the scenes she was filmed in, as one of Clank's many enemies, Autumn continued to craft weapons for Gadgetron, as she couldn't work for Megacorp in that regard, and she expanded her area of expertise by making new sets of armor, starting with ones that would fit her body like a glove before moving onto her brothers. She also added Angela to the mix during that time period, taking her measurements and incorporating them into her folders for later, especially since she switched to wielding her wrench-staff after leaving Megacorp, that way if she bought the new armors they would fit over her body with ease. Angela was fine with that, as she wanted to be a hero as well and that meant following what her boyfriend, not to mention his siblings, in how they acted whenever they were on an adventure, showing them that the warrior side of her was coming out as time went on. In fact she and Ratchet acquired a parting gift from Mr. Fizzwidget, as in a gift for Angela resigning, which came in the form of light armor with light blue on outside of the limbs and black on the inside, complete with helmets that matched, which they learned was called the Alpha Combat Suit, made to help them in their missions for the Bogon Defense Force.

Starswirl also cut into Autumn's time, pulling her aside every now and then to make sure her magical power was fine and that it wasn't decreasing at all, even though Angela watched some of their magical contests and found that both siblings were quite strong, in fact it was hard to tell who had the upper hand, though Starswirl had access to all sorts of powers, making him a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Her reasoning for that was because he could summon all sorts of elements, such as fire and wind, even though he did find a few tomes about other types of spells, like manipulating the weather, delving into dreams, or calling on the power of the stars, the last being more akin to solar spells. Starswirl also admitted that he was researching some potentially dangerous types of magic, like time and the fabric of reality, but those would some at a later date, when he was sure he had finished researching and mastering everything else that he could call upon. Plus he was training Autumn how to wield her power as well, so it made sense that it would take him some time to get to the more important stuff he was researching, but for now things seemed to be working for them and she wasn't about to mess with their plans.

Such a thing made her think about one of the artifacts in her private storage, a recording that detailed a tale of a weapon of Lombax design, something capable of messing with the fabric of reality, but she said nothing about it, since she didn't want to worry Ratchet and the others. Of course she used the magic that Starswirl and Autumn had access to, as she had them enchant part of her larger ship to be a door to the vault, like how they stored all the other stuff in a private area that no one else could get to, and once the private dimension was made she carefully stored all her Lombax stuff inside it, just to keep all of it safe. In addition to that she and Autumn turned the ship into a starship, capable of traveling from planet to planet with ease, with all sorts of systems installed to make flight smoother, creating a mobile base for when they were on an adventure, though Ratchet had plans to purchase an area for their permanent residence, but he wasn't sure if it should be in Solana or if they were going to be calling Bogon their home, not that he had a problem with that. Still, there were a number of rooms aboard their starship, meaning they could sleep between planets if they wanted, or do whatever they wanted for that matter, and she was happy to see that her ship could be used in such a way, even if it had to be altered a little to make things work.

Angela also slept with Ratchet every night, as they were definitely dating, even though she wanted to wait until they took out the threat to the Lombaxes, but they enjoyed their time together and that was more than enough for her, allowing her to enjoy herself as time went by and made her wonder what the future might have for them.

Eventually six months had passed since their arrival in Bogon, making it a year since the defeat of Drek and each sibling celebrated their birthday, before being given an off day so they could relax and do whatever they wanted, where they decided to remain in their apartment and just be lazy.

"Haha! My Blargian Snagglebeast devours your mutant swamp fly." Ratchet said, moving a piece on the board that they were playing on, as he and Clank were playing a game of chess, even if it had some alterations to make it funner, though as they did that Starswirl, Autumn, and Angela sat in the rest of the living room, watching whatever was on the screen or reading a book, "Oh yeah! I bet you didn't see that one... hey, what are you doing?"

"Check and mate." Clank stated, where he moved another piece as he said that, as while Ratchet's move was good it also opened the door for him to bring an end to the match, and while he could see his friend looking for a way to overturn this move he could see that Ratchet understood that he had been beaten, "Also, the rules of the game clearly state that the Blargian Snagglebeast has an allergic reaction to swamp flies that lasts two turns."

In that moment the show they had been watching returned, which happened to be an episode of Secret Agent Clank, where Clank, whose body had some alterations to make a tuxedo, was playing in a casino, tracking down a rich gambler who was connected to the shadowy crime rings, a brass robot called Maxmillian, and in the end he ended up dropping a chandelier on the robot. Ratchet's character, Jeeves, only appeared twice in the episode in question, dropping Clank off at the Maktar Casino at the beginning of the segment and bringing the vehicle around once his 'boss' came out with one of the 'hotbots', female robots designed to be attractive to all sorts of species. With that segment of the episode done, and everyone was told that they had to stay tuned for the end of it, Ratchet picked up the remote and changed the channel to the news, as while he and the others were supposed to have a day off he wanted to make a note of what was going on so he could spring into action tomorrow. What they discovered, however, was a news broadcast from Solana, which meant that Mr. Fizzwidget must have seen it pop up and sent it their way, where they discovered that Veldin was under attack by a race known as the Tyhrranoids and that they were working for 'Dr. Nefarious', and that they were sure that the planet would fall in a matter of hours.

As they watched that Angela noticed a change in Ratchet, as at first he was surprised by this piece of news, then outraged that his home was under attack, something that his siblings shared and even Clank seemed to be annoyed as well, which was followed by Ratchet standing up at one point.

"Come on, we're heading home." Ratchet remarked, where Autumn and Starswirl nodded, moving to activate the rest of the apartment's defenses so no one broke in while they were gone, before they gathered their weapons and headed for their ship, where Angela did the same thing as she noticed that Ratchet had a container that he didn't open at all, which only made her curious as to what it might be.

As they docked with the starship, however, she learned that it was a Gravimetric Warp Drive, something capable of what happened to them when they first arrived in Bogon, meaning jumping from one galaxy to the next, and that it was both untested and built from Blargian scrap metal, which Ratchet had made all on his own. Autumn, having know about it for some time, opened a small container for him to install the warp drive in and ran a test to make sure the starship was well prepared for what was coming next, before nodding to Ratchet as she made sure the Star Explorer was docked and ready for the journey. Once she informed them that they were ready, but before the warp drive was activated, Angela sent off a message to Mr. Fizzwidget, informing him of what was going on and that they might not be available for an undetermined amount of time, before focusing on what they were about to do. In the following moments Ratchet activated the controls of the starship and reality seemed to bend around them for a few seconds before they surged off into space, flying from Bogon and heading to Solana at long last, showing Ratchet that his warp drive was successful and that his inventor side was as good as Autumn's.

A few moments later they emerged from the tunnel they had been traveling through and appeared in the space near the atmosphere of Veldin, to which they carefully parked the starship and used the Star Explorer, modified to fit more people than the standard two, to head down to the planet's surface, finding the Galactic Rangers, green robots designed to guard the planets of Solana, fighting the Tyhrranoids in the area they landed in.

"Of course they're the first generation that I created," Autumn remarked, finding that the design of the Galactic Rangers was identical to what she designed shortly after Drek's defeat, though they also discovered that the Tyhrranoids either used guns or sat in mechs that fired lasers from their hands, or at least all of the small ones were that way, not that such a thing mattered since Starswirl blasted their first enemies apart with a few fireballs, "I'll update them later, once our home is safe and we understand the situation better."

What they discovered was that a group of Galactic Rangers had been waiting for them to arrive, meaning Mr. Fizzwidget had informed Mr. Lumos of their impending arrival, or maybe he knew they would come if their home planet was under attack, as they were given one of the newest weapons made by Gadgetron, a shotgun weapon called the Shock Blaster, one for each of them. In addition to that the Rangers were designed to register Ratchet and his siblings as their brand new sergeants, allowing them to step forward and declare war on the Tyhrranoids that were in their way as Ratchet blasted one of them with his new weapon, finding that it took a few hits for them to take it out, but the weapon packed quite the punch and made him wonder what else might have been produced so far. A few moments later they found a few more Rangers that were being pinned down by a cruiser, reminding them of what the Thug Leader did, and one handed them a second weapon, a bomb launcher called the Nitro Launcher, allowing Angela to blast her target to pieces with one bomb, opening the way for them to drop down a hole and move through a short tunnel to progress. Of course that involved the group taking out a few Tyhrranoids that didn't have blasters in their hands, opening the way for Angela to swing her melee weapon and knocked them down, taking out a group of enemies with ease and allowed all of them to continue towards the next part of Veldin.

As they did that Ratchet noticed something, they were in part of the settlement that they had grown up in, and, if he was correct, there was a path that would lead right to where their old residence rested, which had to be ruined at this point in time, but both he and his siblings were worried for Brook and the others, who Angela knew about thanks to the tales she learned from her new family.

"The colony must have expanded after we were brought to the Bogon Galaxy," Starswirl commented, as they made their way through a building that he didn't recognize, where he was sure that it looked like a storage structure that was linked to an opening on their right, while Angela and his siblings blasted the Tyhrranoids out of the way.

"Probably due to Veldin being our home, as tourists might have come to see where we lived," Autumn remarked, making sure to blast one of the mechs down as they headed up to the next level, though she did collect a bit of it so she could study it and whatever went into making it, before the group found that the area outside was like a courtyard, with a few mechs and a saucer guarding the area.

As Ratchet and his siblings blasted the mechs apart Angela pulled out the Nitro Launcher and fired it at the saucer, which blasted it apart and opened the way for them to continue moving forward, where they found a path that lead right to an old shed that everyone recognized, even in the ruined state that it was in, meaning their old place had been destroyed by the Tyhrranoids, hence why they focused on the Rangers and their large ship that rested nearby.

"What's the situation?" Ratchet asked, speaking to the pair of Rangers that were standing in front of the dropship, which happened to be on the other side of their ruined house, as he wanted to be sure that Veldin was safe and sound before he even did anything else, especially tracking down the colonists and making sure they were fine.

"The 'noids have fallen back to a base in F-Sector." the Ranger on the right said, where the group found that it was a little weird for them to shorten the name of the Tyrranoids to just 'noids', before noting that his partner seemed worried about something all of a sudden, "We have orders to go in and take them out."

"F-Sector?! No way, game over man! We're all gonna end up as scrap metal!" the Ranger on the left remarked, though it was easy for Ratchet and the others to tell that he was definitely worried about his own survival and not the survival of the planet that was being attacked, especially since he started to leave the area in front of the ship.

"Get back in there, trooper. We've got a planet to save!" Ratchet barked, allowing the military training that Qwark had put him through, while under the guise of Mr. Fizzwidget, to make sure he was ready for whatever Bogon threw at him, which his siblings had tackled as well and Angela didn't need it at all, where his words caused the Ranger to fall back in line as he and his partner saluted him.

With his 'order' acknowledged the group joined the Rangers on the dropship and watched as the door closed behind them not a few seconds later, where it took off and flew over to 'F-Sector', which appeared to be nearby since it took only a few minutes to reach their destination. The interesting thing was that there were a total of five Rangers aboard the ship, as the group was expecting there to be far more than this, and when they reached their destination they performed what was commonly called a halo jump, as in jumping out of a ship and descending through the air to reach an area below them, yet another move they had been trained in. As they did that, however, Angela found some missiles coming at them and let a smile appear on her face as Starswirl and Autumn moved into position, magic rushing forward and blasting the incoming missiles out of the air with ease, allowing them and their allies to land in a remote area of Veldin that wasn't connected to everything the siblings were used to seeing. Of course that didn't stop them from firing on the Tyrranoids that were there, no doubt getting ready for the next stage of their assault on the planet, and they even brought in a few mechs to try and take them down, not to mention a large red dropship that Starswirl shattered with a burst of magic.

Between the four of them and the Rangers they were able to clear out F-Sector with ease, including a saucer that was on the other side of a door that opened, and with that done they were able to return to their dropship, where the Rangers were happy to have survived their mission, before discovering something interesting.

"Sir, we have a transmission from the President!" one of the Rangers stated, something that interested them, since none of them were expecting to even receive a message from someone of his level, as the President was one of figures of this galaxy who held the most power, causing them to focus on a Holoscreen the Ranger pulled out.

"How are things on the front line, soldier?" the figure on the screen, a male Cazar who wore an official looking suit and was a bit thick in terms of body size, asked, though in that moment he spotted something that caused him to pause, due to the fact that he was staring right at Clank, as he had climbed off Ratchet's back to be respectful towards the Galactic President of the Solana Galaxy, before noticing who else was with him, "Is... is that Secret Agent Clank?"

"Greetings, sir. We are here to help." Clank replied, though as he said that all of them knew exactly how the President was going to react to their presence, as he seemed like the type of person who would believe that the series was real and that he was his character, which would be the same for the others.

"Well, this is an honor!" President Phyronix said, his tone confirming that he saw them as their characters from the show, even if two of them weren't even involved with it in the first place, where he eyed Ratchet for a few moments, no doubt a little surprised by his abilities, given Jeeves' abilities in the show, "And I see you brought your chauffeur along, including an entourage of loyal fans. As much as I want to talk about your latest villain take down, Agent Clank, we must stop the one behind this attack: Dr. Nefarious! As you may know, only one man has ever faced him and survived... I have just received a top-secret report on that man's whereabouts. Here, take a look."

The report, as it turned out, was none other than a mystery show called Nature's Mysteries, where this episode was on something called the 'Florana Tree Beast', where it showed a shadowy image of Qwark, as the group recognized the body size anywhere, with a small monkey on his right shoulder, and the show went into how he had been the 'greatest' superhero who ever lived.

"Mr. President, are you sure that this is the guy you're looking for?" Angela asked, because she didn't trust Qwark, due to all of his schemes back in Bogon, and the only reason she was listening to this was due to the fact that the man had gone missing sometime after taking the 'RYNO Silo of Friendship', as he called it, "He doesn't seem like he's all there... you know, that he wouldn't have the skills or knowledge to take down someone of Nefarious' caliber."

"You may be right, but he's the best chance we've got. I know the lot of you won't let me down." the President replied, his words informing them that their next stop was going to be Florana, to look for the one person that they wanted to forget about and leave buried in the past, before the transmission was terminated, after they saluted him and informed him that he could count on them.

With that done the group used the dropship to return to where their ship was located, but before leaving Ratchet and his siblings wanted to be sure that Brook and the colonists were safe, only to find that the people had been evacuated after the first wave of Tyrranoids arrived on the planet, to which they breathed a sigh of relief before focusing on the planet they would be heading to next, and the man they were tasked with finding.

Arsenal: Florana

After departing from Veldin, leaving it in the hands of the Galactic Rangers that were still on the planet, Autumn did two things during the flight to Florana, the first was send a message to Mr. Lumos so she had an idea of which weapons were available, as she wanted a catalogue of the weapons she had designed back in Bogon. She knew that she had created a fair number of schematics during their time in Angela's home galaxy, so she was interested in seeing which ones had been added to the list of available weapons and which ones might be put on hold for the future, plus she wanted to see if they had completed work on the RY3NO. She had designed it to be far stronger than both the first and second versions, which was understandable given that they had obtained weapons that could level and she incorporated that into the newest generation, and if one were to look over her shoulder they would find that she had another file, the fourth RYNO that was even stronger than the final form of the third. Part of her reasoning was because they were facing stronger and stronger foes as time went on, and she was sure that one Nefarious was taken care of she and the others would end up fighting an even stronger foe or enemies, so having stronger weapons was a requirement in her eyes.

The second thing she did was confirm their thoughts on the matter, they were looking for Qwark, who had gone missing sometime after taking the RYNO II silo, something he had asked for when she thought about it, but they really had no idea how he traveled from Bogon and arrived in Solana. Her best bet was that Qwark had been testing some sort of device that warped the fabric of reality, like how she and her brothers had been brought to Bogon in the first place, so maybe it was a return device that Mr. Fizzwidget was interested in making. Of course everyone had doubts that the man actually fought and took care of Nefarious, given that their first adventure allowed the siblings to discover his corrupt nature and he was the main villain of their second one, so it was hard to believe that he actually saved the day. Even if it was the truth they had a hard time believing that he would have any information to share with them about how to stop whatever Nefarious was planning for all of Solana, but the President had asked for their assistance and that was what they were planning on doing when they reached Florana.

Sometime after that they reached the space above the planet in question and Angela parked their starship, where they took the smaller ship down to the planet below, finding that it was a jungle covered planet and that there were some ruins in the area that the President had sent them the coordinates for earlier.

"So this is the Nabla Forest, with a number of ancient ruins," Autumn remarked, as they stared out at the area that they landed in for a few moments, taking in the sights as Angela sought out any enemies, of which there seemed to be none at the moment, before they climbed out of the Star Explorer and walked down the path in front of them, bring the group to a new Gadgetron vendor, an orange colored cube with a hologram of the name floating above it, "and we've got two brand new weapons to add to our arsenals: the N60 Storm, a pistol-like weapon that can pack quite the punch, and the Plasma Whip, a melee weapon designed after seeing and hearing about your Lightsaber... and the benefit to being back in Solana, the prices are far more reasonable."

Angela could see that when she looked at the screen in front of them, the N60 Storm only cost ten thousand to buy and the Plasma Whip was between six to seven thousand, where she knew that the former would have cost at least fifty to a hundred thousand and the latter would have been more around two hundred and fifty thousand in Bogon, and she even noticed that those were the reduced prices, as Ratchet and his siblings were employees of Gadgetron.

"Oh, that reminds me." Ratchet said, where he pulled out an envelope that had arrived on their starship while they were down on Veldin, which he had collected and paid for before they departed for Florana, one that he handed to Angela, who raised an eyebrow before pulling out the same cards that the siblings had, a Bolt Card and employee card for Gadgetron, all with her name on it, causing her to look at him, "Apparently Mr. Fizzwidget and Mr. Lumos were talking to each other and set you up with your own cards, so now you have the same benefits that we have... your old boss pulled a few strings to make it happen, or at least I'm assuming he did something to get this done so quickly."

She chuckled as she heard that and inserted her new Bolt Card for a moment, allowing her to see that, despite the fact that she would only be a new member of Gadgetron, she had the discount as well, like she was being linked to Ratchet's account or something, and it wasn't long before they all had their own versions of the new weapons, giving them four in total so they could safely tackle whatever the ruins held for them. With that done Ratchet and the others moved down the path in front of them, finding that they had to cross a few steps to reach the first part of the path, though it did allow them to find a few red swamp flies in their way, enemies that were quickly put down with a single swing of the Plasma Whip, a fact that gave Autumn good hopes for what the future held for the other weapons. With that done they continued along the curved walkway that was in front of them, with Starswirl heading off to the left for a moment since he found an area with a number of brown crates that contained Bolts inside them, which Angela knew he would be collecting for the future, before they opened fire on some enemies that swung down to where they were walkway.

The Natives had orange colored skin and a humanoid appearance, wearing tribal gear that was metallic in nature, though each one was wearing a different wooden mask over their faces, but as Ratchet smacked one around with his wrench the group found that they had simian features on their faces, after knocking their masks off. The interesting thing was that the Natives seemed to use boomerangs as their weapons, as there were no guns or other melee weapons, and each one used them with a surprising degree of accuracy, though not enough to actually stop the group from marching down the rest of the path. One thing they discovered was that there was a water serpent of sorts in part of the water, one that raised up for a moment and tried to spit some sort of damaging substance at them, where Autumn surrounded it with her magic and safely deposited it elsewhere, for when she had time to study some new substances, all while the others blasted it down so they could move forward. On the inside of the ruined building they found a number of Natives that were guarding the area, no doubt holding it sacred to whatever beliefs they might have, though since they were aggressive the group lashed out at them as they carefully climbed up some of the fallen rocks and moved over a few short gaps, eventually bringing them to an area with a few vines that the Natives used to slide down into the chamber.

Taking them down was rather easy, as all they had to do was stand in a vertical line and open fire on the area that their enemies were sliding into, knocking them out in the process, and once that was done Ratchet climbed up a nearby ladder so he could reach another section of the ruin, even though Starswirl weaved his magic around him and knocked down yet another group of Natives.

From there they had to glide down to another walkway, which was easy for most of them since Ratchet had Clank's pack to get down safely and both of his siblings had their magic to fall back on, while Angela didn't have either one, hence why she had Autumn make something for her so she could glide like Ratchet. She didn't use it back on Veldin, there wasn't any real reason to do so, but here she needed the small little metallic pack that was right on her back, something that opened up like Clank did when he used the Helipack, allowing her to glide down to where the path was located, not to mention let her blast a Native into a wall so everyone could move forward. Of course they had to deal with one of the Swamp Worms, or whatever they were called since they weren't listed in the information Autumn had found on Florana, before jumping over to the opening of another ruin and knocked out the Natives that tried to engage them, allowing the group to head inside the main structure, finding that it had a raised walkway that needed to be lowered. Sure enough a number of Natives just jumped out of the water and the group knocked them out with their weapons, switching between melee and guns based on what was in front of them, before the walkway lowered and Ratchet took out the trio that was on the other side, which allowed them to access another ladder, bring them to a higher point of the ruin.

Once more they found that there were some Natives to take down and that they had to zipline down into a circular arena of sorts, which had two of the Swamp Worms nearby, in addition to a small walkway that lead to where some Natives were standing, plus some swamp flies were near the pair of large enemies, causing the group to open fire on them before even reaching an area that seemed to be near the landing pad.

"Um.. Ratchet, we have company!" Clank said, though in that moment Autumn and the others figured out what he was talking about, as there was a small monkey with a single eye hanging on Clank, who must have latched onto him after they used the zipline to reach this area.

As Ratchet turned around, so he could laugh at Clank's words, they found a large figure who dropped down behind them, though such a thing allowed them to confirm that they were dealing with Qwark, as he wore the same pants and ripped shirt, plus boots and gloves, that the man wore, only he had a tribal mask on and didn't seem to know them, while they found that the monkey jumped onto his right shoulder.

"You trespass on sacred ground!" Qwark stated, as there was no denying it at that point, the voice was the same, which only made them wonder what was going on with him, before he made a monkey noise and motion, by nearly scratching his sides, and then motioned to the tunnel that was near them, "Now you walk Path of Death. PATH... OF... DEATH!"

Ratchet and the others found that the second statement of the name was due to Clank trying to convince him to stop, so they could speak, before they headed into the tunnel and found that it lead to what appeared to be an underground area of sorts, with a path of some kind that was made out of metal, had flaming traps that needed to be avoided, and was likely filled with some Natives that had a bone to pick with them. The Path of Death wasn't anything special, as they soon found out, as it was just an obstacle course filled with sections that pulled out when someone walked on them, rolling rocks that easily avoided, flaming jets that were easy to move around, and even the crushing pistons were nothing to worry about, as all they had to do was wait and then move during their small rest period. Ratchet was sure that this would have been far more impressive to someone who hadn't been on multiple adventures, or trained to be a commando, though in the end it didn't matter as he, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl were able to reach the end of the 'Path of Death', which happened to be a ring that Qwark was standing in.

"This... can... not... BE!" Qwark stated, his tone informing them that he fully believed that intruders would be slain by what the Path of Death had to offer, even though all of the Natives Ratchet and the others had faced were laying on the ground, defeated by mere 'intruders', all while the group stared at the figure in front of them.

"Alright, Qwark, it's time you told us how to defeat Nefarious, if such a thing happened anyway." Autumn said, where she stepped up for a moment, putting herself between Qwark and the others, though in that moment the monkey decided to remove the mask and confirmed that they were talking to the disgraced captain, who proceeded to kick at her with his right foot, which she blocked with her magic, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this more than I should."

Ratchet found that Autumn slipped into her Nirik form, only this time her eyes remained, turning a flaming red like some of the flames on her body, though as she did that Qwark seemed to stall as he watched what was going on, no doubt due to part of his memories possibly resurfacing for a few seconds, before pulling out his own metallic boomerang and threw it at her. In the following moment Autumn raised her left hand and grabbed the weapon with her magic, stopping it before it could reach where she was standing and crushed it with a flick of her wrist, though before Qwark could do anything she raised her right hand and pulled it back, yanking her foe towards where she was standing. Autumn moved out of the way before Qwark reached her and spun around, hitting the man in the back of the head with the side of her leg, knocking him into the floor for a few seconds, and once that was done she lifted him up with her magic and smashed him into one of the support pillars that lined this arena. With that motion complete she used one hand to keep him positioned there, due to the fact that she used the other hand to tear off a piece of the nearby metallic pillar and repeatedly smashed it into her foe's body, punishing him a little more for betraying them back on Umbris and for nearly bringing destruction to Bogon with his dumb idea, and the only reason she was doing this was due to the fact that he could take a RYNO silo without it killing him.

Once she was satisfied with the beating Qwark had received, even if he seemed to resist all of it, she dropped him right in front of them and let him go, causing the monkey to place the mask on her face, meaning she had to be in charge, not that she cared all that much, but it did allow them to force a feral Qwark back to the ship. Of course she needed to weave a bit of magic over their ship so Qwark had a place to sit, without forcing all of them into a squished position, where Autumn did a little more than what might be necessary and ordered the man to sit in the back, that he was to be her throne for the time being, and he did so without delay. With that done she turned around and positioned herself like she was a queen or an empress, something that caused Ratchet and the others to chuckle for a moment as they saw it, as it was weird to see Qwark in a submissive role like this, before climbing in and taking their places in the Star Explorer. As Ratchet got ready to leave, however, they received a transmission from a new location, one that seemed to come from a starship, something that made them interested in what was going on and caused him to accept the transmission, as the identification claimed it was from one of the President's trusted officials.

What they discovered was that a female Cazar was calling them, one who seemed to be close to their age, meaning she was close to Ratchet and Angela's age, who had a soft brown color to her body, light blue eyes, a slim build that made her look similar to Angela, just of a different race, and she was wearing a purple captain's attire with a pair of golden bracelets and ankle jewelry, and a hair band of sorts, with a phoenix resting in front of her throat.

"This is Captain Sasha of the Starship Phoenix." the Cazar said, formally introducing herself to the group that the President had told her would be helping them in the fight against Nefarious, though as she spoke Ratchet and the others noticed a few other things, that she had back hair and that there was a single triangle shaped ruby in all of her golden jewelry, which had to come with her position as captain, "The President has asked me to assist you."

"We read you Sasha. I'm Ratchet, along with my siblings Starswirl and Autumn Blaze, our friend Clank, and my girlfriend Angela Cross." Ratchet said, taking a moment to introduce them to their new friend, all while making sure that she knew he wasn't available in terms of a relationship, even if he did like how Sasha looked, before he focused on the mission they had been given, "As you can see, we've located Captain Qwark, but... well, he thinks he's a monkey."

"Of course." Sasha remarked, where she let out a little chuckle, showing them that she was like the group, she didn't share the President's opinion on Qwark, in fact she might not believe the tales of his 'heroics', before she considered something as she stared at them and the man who was obeying Autumn's orders, "Bring him to the Phoenix and we'll see what we can do... and we'll prepare an are for him, so he's not stuck on your starship. Sasha out."

Once the transmission was terminated Ratchet piloted them up to their starship, so they could fly off to the location that Sasha had given them the coordinates of, no doubt where she and the Phoenix were resting, and once they arrived they would see what else needed to be done to bring an end to Nefarious' plans.

Arsenal: Starship Phoenix

It didn't take long for Ratchet to get them to where the Phoenix was located, where they paused for a moment as they found a long narrow star cruiser, with two wings that no doubt housed a few of the systems to help it fly, and at the back end of it was a docking bay for them to fly into, which was where they headed after parking their starship nearby and using the much smaller cruiser to arrive at their destination.

"I've got to admit it, this is an impressive ship." Angela commented, speaking as they docked in the docking bay of Sasha's starship, where they found an area that contained the dropship that the Rangers used back on Veldin, though as she took in what they were seeing she knew Autumn was thinking of ways to improve their own starship.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Starship Phoenix," Sasha said, where they found one of the holoscreens off to their left, meaning she had spotted their arrival and was speaking to them from the bridge, since that seemed to be the best place for her to be given her position.

"Okay, I'm going to agree with Angela on this... whoa!" Ratchet stated, because with the addition of the starships he found that his desire to tinker with things, the inventor side of him, sprung to life every now and then, making him wonder if he might start designing part of their own starship or work on others in the future.

"Impressive, isn't she?" Sasha inquired, where they could see that she was pleased with their reaction to seeing the inside of her starship, in fact it was possible that she already knew all about them and the fact that Autumn was possible the best inventor in the entire Solana Galaxy, before a light smile appeared on her face, "The Phoenix is the pride of the Galactic fleet. She's equipped with the latest technology: holodeck training suite, autovendors for armor and weapons, virtual firing range, starfighter upgrade system, even a Gadgetron VG-9000 game system."

"A VG-9000!?" Ratchet asked, because he knew of the previous generation of gaming system, in fact he had been planning on saving up for one before they were teleported all the way to the Bogon Galaxy, and what Sasha was telling him meant that there was a brand new system that he needed to do some research on.

"Of course. With a Mavox Fireball Pro controller, VR headset, and a Zero-G dance pad attachment." Sasha replied, where it was easy to see what she did in her spare time, she preferred to play games and practice her dance moves, showing that she was a gamer at heart, even though there might be more to her than what they were seeing.

"You know, if it wasn't for Angela, I'm pretty sure Ratchet would have said 'would you marry me'." Starswirl remarked, but as he said that Ratchet could tell that his brother was joking, all while Autumn and Qwark finally climbed out, where some of the Rangers noticed her Nirik form and backed off before she snapped at them.

"Well, why don't you take Qwark to his quarters? We set up an area, in the off chance that some of you decide to stay on board the Phoenix," Sasha said, where Ratchet found something interesting, she sent them a map of the Phoenix and set a mark on it that held the directions to the area that Qwark would be contained in, at least until he was pulled out of his monkey mindset, however long that took, "Once that's done, come meet me on the bridge so we can discuss our next move."

Ratchet and the others nodded as they stepped forward, taking in everything that was inside the Phoenix, finding the pair of vendors that had been installed in this ship, one being a weapon vendor and the other being a new armor vendor, an area they would be checking out at some point in time, even though Ratchet knew what his sister would be waiting for the next version of the RYNO to come out. A few moments later they passed under the large dropship and turned down the path on the left, finding that it brought them to a decent sized chamber that looked like it could contain most of them, as in Ratchet, his siblings, and Clank, so Angela would be the odd one out if they stayed here. Everything Sasha had told them was inside their quarters, making Ratchet want to pause for a few moments and just try the new system out, even though he knew that they had to regroup with their new ally and see what their next move might be, so they turned towards the area Qwark would be calling home. As it turned out it was a monkey habitat, like he was being held in a zoo, and as they stood there for a few moments a few things happened, the first being that Autumn ordered the man to move inside the cage before reverting to her base form, the second being Clank tossing a few bananas into the cell so Qwark and the small monkey had something to eat before their next meal came.

Once that was done they turned around and headed for the bridge of the starship, finding that there was a ramp to walk up before reaching what appeared to be a lift that would take them over to their destination, but before they did that they stopped by the weapon vendor, finding that the Infector, a weapon that temporarily hijacked enemies, and the modified Suck Cannon were available.

After making their purchase, which made Autumn happy, the group walked up the ramp and stepped onto the lift that was waiting for them, where they found that it was large enough to hold between ten to twenty people, before watching as the dome closed once everyone was on the lift. A few seconds later it started to move forward, taking the group through the guts of the Phoenix, allowing Autumn to take notes on what she was seeing, so she could modify everything that was inside their starship at some point in the future, while the others focused on thinking about what Sasha might tell them. Given that no one had any idea what Nefarious' plans were, as he seemed to be very silent as his forces attacked all of the planets he wanted to conquer, either as a distraction or because he felt they were important to his schemes, this could be a team meeting so they could discuss everything that had happened so far and what had to be done to stop the mad doctor. Angela, despite what she and the others had seen so far, was interested in seeing more of Solana and seeing what had to be done to keep her new home safe, because she wasn't going to leave Ratchet's side for anything, but before she could think about it too much the lift came to a stop and allowed them to reach a doorway that lead them right to the bridge of the Phoenix.

What they discovered was that a number of Rangers were also in charge of piloting the ship, or whatever the rest of the controls did, while Sasha was standing in front of the captain's chair, though there was a large screen in front of them that looked like it could be raised and lowered depending on the situation, and right now it looked like the President was on the screen, which was flickering.

"We're losing the signal! Try boosting the power!" Sasha ordered, tearing her eyes away from the screen for a brief second to order one of her crew members to do what she had said, before facing the screen once more, which looked like it was set inside a compound of some kind.

"Sasha and the President must have been having a meeting recently." Angela commented, which made sense since they had just returned with Qwark, meaning Sasha must have been telling her boss about the insane captain's condition, only to be interrupted by something, meaning they might have their next destination soon.

"They came out of nowhere!" the President stated, confirming one thing for them, whatever planet he was on happened to be under attack, no doubt by a decent number of Nefarious' Tyhrranoids, and he seemed to be looking at something else as he talked with Sasha, "Tyhrranoid invasion force... presidential compound has been breached... can not hold out much longer here..."

"Mister President!?" Sasha said, where this time around the group could hear some desperation in her voice, meaning she had to know the figure more than they initially thought, which could be true since they had no idea how long the two had been in contact with each other, before she shifted her stance as the screen went dark, "Dad! Are you there?!"

That was a piece of information they weren't expecting to discover, that Sasha was the daughter of the Solana President, even though they were sure that she had worked her way up to this position and hadn't been granted it by her father, but in that moment a new image appeared on the screen, a blue robot that had a large cranial structure, almost egg shaped to be exact, and in the bottom right corner appeared a butler robot in a circle.

"Robotic citizens of the Solana Galaxy, the hour of your liberation is at hand!" the blue robot stated, where it was easy for them to determine that he had to be Nefarious, the Supervillain that was currently threatening all of Solana, while at the same time the butler seemed to be singing to those that were watching, following the words that were being said, "Too long have we robots suffered under the bigotry, the stupidity, the squishiness, and foul stench of organic life forms! Soon all robots will bask in the liberty and equality of my benevolent, iron-fisted rule. And as for you filthy organic life forms, you can look forward to being disintegrated!"

This basically told them exactly what Nefarious was planning, he wanted to conquer the entirety of the Solana Galaxy and take control over everything, even if it meant raising his fellow robots up and killing all organic lifeforms, but given what the group had been through they had a feeling that there was more to this plan than what he had said, and it wasn't long before the transmission was terminated.

"Plot a course for Marcadia." Sasha ordered, where she took a moment to collect herself, as her father and the planet he had been on were under attack, meaning there was no telling what they might find when they reached their destination, and they could tell that she wasn't happy, "Maximum speed! Prepare the dropship for planetary assault."

"We'll see you on Marcadia." Ratchet said, as he knew that he and his siblings, not to mention Clank and Angela, thrived in situations like this, where they had to deal with waves of enemies and fought to either secure a planet or obtain gadgets that would help them out in the future, plus this would help them put a dent in Nefarious' plans.

"Oh, before I forget, something arrived for Autumn earlier," Sasha commented, where she gestured to the Ranger that was standing off on the right of where the group was currently standing, to which they noticed that he was carrying a container that was large enough to hold a large weapon, causing them to wonder if it was what each of them thought it might be, due to what they had seen in the past.

Inside the container rested a large weapon that was brown colored and had six spikes around the central nozzle, though Autumn had a smile on her face as she pulled the RY3NO out of the container, as Mr. Lumos had completed the weapon and sent it to her, to be used in a field test scenario to see how it measured to her standards, causing the others to let out a light chuckle as they headed for their ship, as Nefarious' forces had no idea what was coming their way.

Arsenal: Marcadia

It didn't take Ratchet and the others long to reach Marcadia, where they landed in the outskirts of Capital City, given that the rest of the city was under attack there wasn't any good locations to land, so this was all he could do for now, and sure enough they found some Rangers standing their ground against the Tyhrranoids.

"Glad you made it, sir. The presidential compound is on the other side of the city." one of the Rangers said, while the other was in the middle of firing at the enemies that were further along the path that was in front of them, even though it was to keep his targets back while they waited for reinforcements, "Keep your head down, the Tyhrranoids are crawling all over the place!"

"Then let's take care of them." Angela replied, as she was ready for action, something she had learned how to do after her time with Ratchet and his siblings, hence why she launched a bomb and blasted the first group of enemies, causing both of the Rangers to rush forward and see what else they had to worry about.

Before they moved forward Autumn quickly checked the nearby weapon vendor and found another weapon was ready to be purchased, the Splitting Hydra, a weapon designed to hit multiple targets at the same time with bursts of electricity, but it didn't take her long to buy the new toy for all of them. With that done they headed down the path in front of them and found a number of Tyhrranoids guarding the way forward, causing the group to open fire on their enemies as both of the Rangers stood there in silence, stunned by what they were seeing, which caused Autumn to chuckle, as they hadn't seen anything yet since she wasn't using the RY3NO right now. The curved set of stairs nearby brought them to another area to fight their way through, one that happened to have a fair number of Tyrranoids, small and large, guarding the area, a few even firing at the walls as they tried to tear the area apart, why the group had no idea since there was no one else in this part of the city. Such a thing didn't stop Ratchet and the others from opening fire on their enemies, blasting the groups of Tyrranoids out of the way as Starswirl focused on weaving his magic through the air, where his power smashed into the couple of enemy dropships that were trying to deploy more troops, mostly to even the odds for the Rangers, but it did let the rest of the group move forward.

The next area had a number of Tyrranoid Soldiers, the smaller ones with guns or nothing, Brutes, the larger ones that had a machine gun like weapon, and a few Mechs, causing Ratchet and the others to open fire on them without delay, all while noticing that Nefarious had sent enough of his forces to try and smash the city to pieces. Given that it was the seat of the President's power Autumn figured that taking out Marcadia would cripple the abilities of the Galactic Rangers and the rest of the Galactic Fleet, making things much easier for Nefarious and his Tyhrranoid allies. Autumn had to admit that it was a valid strategy, launching an attack when he was sure that all of the main heroes of Solana were either missing or just gone, as they had been in Bogon, Qwark had gone missing, and the other heroes that sprung up after Drek's defeat didn't seem to be doing anything, which they would have to look into at some point. In regards to his planning, Nefarious was already a worthy foe to face off against, as his intelligence seemed to be far better than Drek's and he was leagues above Qwark, and it made her wonder what in the world he really had planned, as galactic conquest couldn't be the only thing he was working towards.

"Forgive me for asking, but why didn't the Rangers help out when Drek was around?" Angela asked, because she could see that Ratchet and the others knew more about the Solana President and the Galactic Rangers that worked to keep the rest of the galaxy safe, which made her wonder why Drek was allowed to get away with all of his deeds, without them having any allies to assist them in saving the planets the Blarg put in jeopardy.

"Because most of the planets Drek attacked were, at the time, outside the President's jurisdiction," Autumn replied, while at the same time blasting one of the mechs apart with one of her weapons, opening the way for the to move forward once more, where she considered what else she had learned about the situation Angela was interested in, "basically, the official territory of the Galactic Fleet was smaller during our first adventure, and once the President and other parties realized just how bad the damage could have been, well, they commissioned a new type of Ranger and expanded the territory to cover most of Solana... save for the Shadow Sector."

"It's a lawless section of our galaxy, located on the fringes to be exact," Ratchet added, giving Angela the information she needed to fully realize what his sister was currently talking about, all while blasting one of the Tyhrranoids that happened to be in their way, before he shrugged for a moment, "anyway, we didn't have allies because there weren't any... but that didn't stop us from wrecking Drek's plans."

Angela considered that information for a moment before deciding that she had gotten the answer she wanted, to which they leapt over a gap and blasted at the Tyhrranoids that were trying to tear down a pair of Rangers, who were trapped between two groups of enemies, where the second group was blocking the way to the dropship.

"Nice shooting, sir!" one of the Rangers said, speaking as soon as the last of the Tyhrranoids of the first group were beaten and the area was cleared, allowing them to stare out at the area that was in front of them, finding that not many enemies were between them and the dropship, "A second wave of Tyhrranoids just landed and they're attacking the presidential compound... we could sure use your help in routing them."

Ratchet and the others waited no time in blasting the enemies that were in front of them, striking down the Tyhrranoids while opening the way so they could reach the dropship, and once the area was cleared they boarded the vessel and let it take them to a large half circle shaped area that the Rangers happened to be guarding. After taking a moment to see that the compound's structure was safe, as there was no damage to it, the group climbed out and opened fire on the group of Tyhrranoids that happened to be firing upon the Rangers, surprising all of their enemies within seconds before they took them out. They kept the dropship stationed nearby, giving the group a good chance to test their new weapons out while having an area to purchase ammunition from, so it was an endless assault on the Tyhrranoids, those that were already in the area and all of the reinforcements that flew into the area. Starswirl focused on blasting the dropships out of the air, as it allowed him to cut down on the number of enemies that were in this area, while Autumn admitted that this was a good opportunity to empower some of their weapons, readying them for whatever the future held for them.

As they fought the Tyhrranoids, however, one of the Rangers mentioned that this was Operation Iron Shield, though that was met with silence as Ratchet and the others waged war on the attacking aliens, before the Rangers activated a plasma turret and Angela jumped on it, firing at all of the dropships that Starswirl was focusing on. Such a thing meant they were able to divide the area in half, her taking care of one side and him taking care of the other one, no doubt annoying all of their enemies once they realized what was going on, but there was nothing the Tyhrranoids could do save call in the rest of whatever forces Nefarious had sent to this planet. Even when the plasma turret blew a fuse they didn't have to worry all too much, as Angela switched with Autumn and let the Kirin get to work, where she figured out where the broken part was and fixed it without wasting too much time, much to the joy of the Rangers. After that they had to turn on a couple of the compound's defenses, as the Tyhrranoids were launching an all out assault to try and take them out, though in the end it didn't matter as Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl took care of them, causing the Rangers to cheer as they cleaned up the rest of the area.

With that done they found that part of the entrance opened and the President walked out, causing the group to walk over to him, as he had to have some sort of information for them to act on, though he waited for a few moments, to make sure the Tyhrranoids were gone, before focusing on them.

"Agent Clank!" the President said, his tone informing them that he was impressed by their actions, which made sense due to the fact that he actually shook their hands for a time, though they remained silent as he addressed them as who they were on the show, "You're even more impressive in person than you are on the holovid! And, I must say, I've never seen a chauffeur fight like you do, son. And you, engineer, you wouldn't happen to be related to the Nirik, would you?"

"There's no relation between us... just a coincidence." Autumn replied, though this confirmed something, the President had to be a moron for thinking that all of them were the characters they played on Clank's show, and she was sure Angela rolled her eyes, which the President apparently missed.

"Sasha's told me a lot about you, Ratchet." the President remarked, showing that he was now more interested in the fact that Ratchet was the same age as his own daughter, rather than being worried about the attack on his city and the rest of the planet, "Don't get any ideas, kid. She is way out of your league! Sasha also filled me in on the, uh... Qwark situation. I'm told the man thinks he's a monkey?"

"He has lost his memory, sir." Clank stated, though while he was willing to blame the RYNO II silo the man took, which had done a great deal of damage to him, he really had no idea what might have caused Qwark to lose his memory in such a short period of time.

"Well, then you'll simply have to find it for him!" the President said, where the group glanced at each other for a moment, as they still wanted nothing to do with Qwark and whatever schemes he might come up with, but they said nothing as they waited for him to finish talking, "On another note, my daughter tells me you're a man whose good with his hands, Ratchet.
The city's laser shield went down during the attack, and we are defenseless without it... I sent out a repair man to fix it, but he disappeared on us, so I need you to get that shield system back online."

Ratchet and the others acknowledged the order before returning to the dropship, which was now under orders to take all of them to the Laser Defense Facility, so it wasn't long before they reached their destination and discovered a device right in front of where they landed, a gun-like device called the Refractor, capable of producing an energy field around the user that allowed them to bounce lasers around. Angela glanced over at Autumn for a few seconds, figuring that she would do something to this gadget, though she only tilted her head and let Ratchet take it, as she wanted a field test before messing with the new device, who nodded his head before they started moving. Sure enough they found more Tyhrranoids inside the facility, some trying to get around the defenses while some seemed to be just guarding the area, along with a number of small lasers that could be redirected to open the doors that were in front of them. As such Ratchet focused on using the Refractor to move the lasers while the others opened fire on the Tyhrranoids, even though Autumn found something new to add to her notes on this gadget, it could also reflect the lasers from the mechs, possessing the same strength as the original beam based on what she could see.

It didn't take them long to reach a chamber that had a little spiderbot that could move around, so Ratchet used a laser to move it up a wall and open the next doorway, causing them to fight off more Tyhrranoids as they moved through the rest of the facility, eventually finding a terminal that someone familiar was working at.

"Hey look, it's Al!" Ratchet said, as he was happy to see a familiar face, even though he was surprised to find that the rest of the facility wasn't operational yet, given the man's intelligence and skill, and he could see that Autumn had tilted her head in confusion as well, "Al, do you have any idea how long it will take to get the shields up?"

"Silence! I am concentrating." Al stated, barely taking the time to look back at them as he focused on whatever it was that he was doing, as it was clear that he was focused on something other than fixing the shield that he had been sent to fix who knew how long ago, "I've close to getting a new high score!"

"What do you... mean..." Angela started to ask, though in that moment she and the others found a game cartage resting in one of the ports of the terminal that Al was standing in front of, causing everyone to instantly understand what Al meant, even if it annoyed a few of them, "Are you using the city's laser defense network to play an interactive vid-comic?!"

"It is impressive, isn't it?" Al inquired, apparently thinking that this was a good thing and that no one would realize he had done this, at least not for some time anyway, all while his focus rested on the terminal and his game, "I simply bypassed the server with a 626-hex-matrix adapter and reprogrammed the graphics sub-processor! It was child's play."

"While that is, um, 'impressive', It appears you have a feedback loop in the induction coils of your DB-3 signal processor." Clank stated, as both he and Autumn had noticed something as they stared at the terminal Al was working at, even if the man seemed too caught up in playing his game to notice the world around him.

"That's impossible! I ran a recursive checksum on the signal matrix." Al stated, where he paused his game and turned his attention back to the part of the terminal that was connected to the defense network and his alterations, before he took a moment to scratch his head.

"Did you take into account the fact that the planet was under attack, and the amount of power it would drain to repel an active assault?" Autumn asked, because that seemed to be the case, he was too focused on this being a normal day and not a day where Marcadia was being assaulted by the Tyhrranoids, but they were here to help him out.

In that moment Al moved slightly faster as he tapped the keys on the terminal and rapidly fixed the error in his coding, but as he did that Ratchet noticed that the game he had been playing was a Qwark Vid-Comic, a series that was supposed to detail Qwark's rise to heroism, or something like that.

"Hey, Al, do you mind if we borrow this? Qwark lost his memory, and we kind of need it to return." Ratchet said, because while he knew that there were many other ways for them to go about restoring his memories, especially since both of his siblings were skilled in the art of magic, this might be the item they needed to knock some sense into him.

"If it'll help the Captain out, take it with my compliments." Al replied, which was rather odd that he would give it to them as a gift, even if they might only need it for some time, but Ratchet wasn't about to argue as Al ejected it and handed it over to them, before a thought came to him, "But please, treat it gently... It is a first edition, after all."

Ratchet nodded as he safely stored the vid-comic away in his pack, though with the defense network restored, and there was no new missions from the President, he and the others returned to the dropship, so it could take them to their ship, all so they could return to the Phoenix and see if this would help Qwark out.

Arsenal: Annihilation Nation

It didn't take them long to get back to the Phoenix, where Ratchet pulled out the vid-comic they had obtained from Al as he and the others gathered in the room that had been provided by Sasha, who happened to be waiting for them in the room, as her father must have gotten a report from Al and forwarded it to her.

"Ratchet, guys, thank you for helping Marcadia, and my father, out." Sasha said, showing that she was grateful to have allies like them around, even though the Rangers needed some modifications to be made into a capable force, based on what Autumn had noted down so far, "Are you sure a vid-comic is the key to restoring Qwark's memories?"

"Honestly, we really have no idea," Ratchet replied, where he stepped forward and slipped the cartage into the machine, before stepping back with the controller as he sat on the right half of the couch, as it was split into two halves for some odd reason, allowing his siblings and Angela to take their seats as well, "but given what we know of Qwark, we can either play one of his vid-comics and hope it works, wait for Autumn to develop a device to pull those memories back to the surface, or wait for Starswirl to find a spell. This is the simplest option right now."

Sasha stood there for a moment before nodding her head, as she understood what Ratchet was saying, before taking a seat on his right, as Angela was to his left, where she noticed that Autumn had a tablet out, to take notes on what was said, while Starswirl was reading one of the many spell tomes or articles he was interested in. As he started the game they heard the narrator mention that this was the real life adventures of Qwark, constructed from 'eyewitness' accounts, bathroom gossip, wild speculation, and a Magic 8 Ball, which wasn't actually magical as Autumn noted, rather it was just a toy. This particular adventure was set during the early days of the fifth Solarian equinox, where the galaxy was being threatened by a notorious space pirate known as Captain Blackstar, while at the same time Qwark was a 'living legend', a fact that might have been true at one point in time, just not recently. That was when they learned something interesting, he ended up fighting a band of robotic pirate ghosts, something Sasha laughed at since it sounded so unbelievable, but, as Ratchet and the others expected, Autumn had an explanation as to why such a thing was possible, where she claimed that the crew suddenly vanished from Solana one day.

After the narrator was done talking, with Qwark cutting in so he could jab at the man, Ratchet was able to start playing the game, where they found that there were a few collectables that he could go after, tokens in the shape of Qwark's mark, as there were a hundred in each comic and gathering them all earned a skill point. Since there was no real reward for doing that, as they wouldn't be rewarded Bolts for gathering the tokens, Ratchet opted not to worry about them and picked up those that were in his path, so he could focus on punching his way through the enemies in front of him. Based on what he and the others were seeing the Robotic Pirate Ghosts could be hit by someone like Qwark, even if such a thing shouldn't be possible, before Ratchet found that he was able to pick up a gun and discovered that there was a robotic Space Eel that was haunting the ship Qwark was moving through. Other than that it didn't seem like there was anything else for him to worry about, as he moved the avatar through the ship and blasted his way through the pirates, before reaching the end of the ship and dealt with the Space Eel that apparently wanted to kill him, allowing Ratchet to bring an end to the game in no time at all.

The narrator went into how Qwark 'reluctantly' accepted a fee for his services that he donated to a charity, himself to be exact, and he used the money on makeovers and buxom bimbos, whatever that was, before he got a call that lead into the next episode in the series, though as that happened they heard a familiar sound.

"Well, who's that handsome devil?" Qwark remarked, where the group glanced at him and found that the monkey had, in the time they had been gone, collected a hand held mirror to show Qwark his reflection, only for the man to pause as he realized who was in the room with him.

"He's got his memory back... a shame, I was looking forward to building a machine and testing it on him," Autumn said, as she had started on a memory retrieval machine when she discovered that Qwark's memories were gone, or locked away in the depths of his mind, but now she guessed she could put it on hold for the future, as there were other things she had plans for.

"So, despite taking a RYNO II volley, she's still mad at me." Qwark commented, confirming that he did have his memories back and that he knew everything that had happened to him in the past, though the present was something they would have to figure out, especially since there was no telling what Nefarious would do.

"To be fair, we're all pretty mad at you... but we don't have time to go over the past," Ratchet replied, as he didn't like the man in front of them, in fact trying to make him and his siblings, and Angela for that matter, into the criminal masterminds of Bogon really upset them, but right now they had bigger fish to fry, "There's another threat to the Solana Galaxy, and it's one that you took down at some point in the past... in fact, the President asked us to track you down, said that you have some valuable information or something that can help us."

"Is that so?" Qwark inquired, where they found that he was actually considering the information and not jumping for joy at the thought of the President wanting his help with something, like he would have done when he was working for Drek or during their time in Bogon, before he let out a groan as he pinched the bridge between his eyes, "It's Nefarious, isn't it? He just had to come back, after all these years, didn't he?"

"Yes, and I will be briefing you on the situation," Sasha stated, though while she was able to slip into the role of the captain with ease, showing her experience over the years she had worked for her father, Ratchet was able to tell that she wasn't too pleased about the idea of working with Qwark, before she turned towards them, "Also, while you were tacking care of the vid-comic, the President left me a new message, he has another mission for the five of you. Apparently there's a new prototype holographic device that can disguise the user as a Tyhrranoid, even allowing him to speak Tyhrranese, based on one of the devices Autumn built in the past."

"Right, it's the Tyhrra-Guise Mr. Lumos sent me a message about, after we returned to Solana," Autumn said, which meant that their boss knew that they would be taking the fight to Nefarious' forces and had readied something built like one of her own previous devices, before she considered something, "it's either a marketing ploy, a way to get it into our hands without outright handing it over, or both... either way, it would be a good addition to our growing arsenal, especially since it would be great for any infiltration missions we do."

"Indeed, and it's being offered as this week's prize on Annihilation Nation," Sasha said, where she beckoned to the screen for a moment and showed them the commercial that she was talking about, revealing a battle arena that reminded them of what they had tackled back in Bogon, only this one also had what they called the 'DeathCourse', similar to the Path of Death Qwark had them take, "Given what happened on Marcadia, the President wants you to retrieve the device, but we should let Autumn look at it, to make sure it's ready for being used in the field."

Ratchet and the others nodded, as it seemed like a good idea to them, before departing from the Phoenix, as they had a device to obtain and some challenges to take down, since there had to be more than one between them and the gadget in question, even though they were all eager to see what happened next.

As it turned out Annihilation Nation was held in a rather large space station, one that looked like a modified asteroid from afar, which was known as Station Q9, why none of them had any idea, though it didn't take them long to reach the station and travel down to the arena's entrance. While they were traveling the group had debated who should face off against the challenged that would be thrown at them, as the rules stated that only one could tackle a challenge at a time, otherwise it would be unfair to the gladiators and boring for those watching. It was different than what happened in Bogon and both of the arenas they had made their way through, making them wonder what sort of rules Polaris followed, if they had these sorts of places, but that thought was shelved as they considered who would win the gadget they needed. In the end they decided that Starswirl would be the one to tackle everything Annihilation Nation had to offer, because both Ratchet and Clank would likely be confused for their characters from Clank's show, Autumn would either fall into the same category or someone would claim this was a stunt by Gadgetron, and Angela really wasn't that well known in Solana, while Starswirl, at the moment, was more of a background person.

Once they came to that decision, and Clank informed the officials of who would be tackling the obstacle course and those who were waiting in the arena, Ratchet landed their ship in the landing area before he and everyone else made their way to the stands, allowing Starswirl to step forward and access the terminal that held the challenges.

"Alright, let's meet our first contestant!" the announcer declared, which was followed by the crowd cheering, no doubt due to the fact that they enjoyed seeing new people try, and fail, to complete the obstacle course, "He's an adventurer that claims to have saved two galaxies, the shadowy brother of Gadgetron's star inventor and Solana's own heroes... Starswirl! He's hoping to win the Tyhrra-Guise to either win him a contest in the future or help unlock the 'mysteries of the universe'. Contestant Number One, are you ready?"

"Let's do this." Starswirl stated, speaking as the crowd cheered and let the machine in this area teleport him to the starting point of the DeathCourse, where he found that there were two paths that seemed to link up at certain points, along with all sorts of obstacles waiting to do him harm, just like the 'Path of Death'.

Once the machine was done teleporting him to his destination he moved forward and got started, where he avoided some flames coming out of the platforms that were in front of him and reached the structure that was at the end of it, swinging his staff for a moment to knock down all of the little Blade Bots that were in his way. He felt that doing that was better for now, as it allowed him to converse his ammunition for later, before pressing the button in the middle of the chamber and found that it caused a sign to spin, one that stopped with an arrow that pointed to his left and the door opened, allowing him to continue forward. There were some lasers that deployed when he got close and there was a laser robot beyond the set he made his way through, though this time he used a bit of his magic gather around him before he appeared behind the lone robot, allowing him to knock it down before picking up the pace. There were more laser bots waiting for him, and a few flaming platforms that he avoided, before he reached another chamber and knocked out all of the blade bots that were in his way, allowing him to open another door, to his right, so he could fight his way through more robotic enemies and activate another door.

That one opened the door to his left and let him find some pushing sections in the wall to his right, so he used them to get further along this area and blast a few more robots with one of his weapons, before reaching an ending point that had to be the end of the DeathCourse, earning him some Bolts and the second vid-comic in Qwark's series, before he was moved into the arena for the second half of the challenge.

What he discovered was that there were a number of humanoid gladiators who wanted a piece of him, in addition to the robots he had faced so far, though this time around Starswirl decided not to use his weapons and channeled his magic as he faced those that were coming his way. Such a thing meant using Fireballs, Ice Spikes, bolts of lightning, and pulling in the wind, something that caused many of his enemies to pause before charging at him once more, showing him that they were foolish enough to not back down, even though the crowd was cheering for them. Based on what he could see of the arena it was circular in nature and had six containers that would bring more foes for him to fight, though there were two large doors that were opposite of each other, no doubt where the 'boss' gladiators rested, like how Bogon had two in both of their arenas. Even though he was sure that the announcer might be annoyed with him using magic, instead of weapons, the crowd cheering was more than enough to convince him to remain silent for the time being, though it appeared that there were no real challenges to be had for this trial.

Once he finished taking down the gladiators, much to the amazement of the announcer and crowd, he was rewarded the Tyhrra-Guise, which was handed to him by Courtney Gears, a slender feminine robot, much like the Hotbots from Clank's show, whose attire was a metallic crop top, a metallic mini-shorts, and a metallic red mini-skirt, who simply handed him a device with a green front before backing off. Activating the Tyhrra-Guise disguised the user as one of the small single eyed Tyhrranoids they had fought so far, and made on what he was seeing the device worked as intended, before deactivating it as he returned to his siblings and Angela, who smiled as he handed it to Autumn. She would make sure it was ready for whatever field operations they might need it for, though while she did that both Ratchet and Angela glanced at Courtney Gears as she left the station, as she seemed disgusted by being near so many organic lifeforms, meaning they might have to keep an eye out for her in the future, given what had happened to them in the past. Other than that it didn't seem like there was anything else for them to worry about right now, giving Autumn some time to work on making sure everything was ready, though it didn't take her long to verify that the Tyhrra-Guise was ready for any stealth missions they might need it for.

Before returning to the Phoenix, however, the group turned towards the screen and decided to clear the remaining set of courses that were being offered to them, along with acquiring the Agents of Doom weapon as well, and the best part of them doing this was that it gave Sasha time to brief Qwark and get him ready for the war against Nefarious and whatever he was planning.

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.

Arsenal: Tyhrranosis

Upon their return to the Phoenix the first thing that happened was that Autumn transferred all of the items she had copied to Al, allowing him to start going over everything they had taken, leaving Qwark to address them before they bothered to plan the next stage of their war.

"Well team, I believe some congratulations are in order!" Qwark stated, where most of the Q-Force got ready for the man to take full credit for the mission being a total success, given that part of his old persona had returned after bringing back his memories, before he gestured towards Ratchet, his siblings, Clank, and Angela, "You five are the stars of this mission, working in perfect harmony with each other while Autumn using her magic to copy everything in the office, making it near impossible for Nefarious to realize that we've stolen his information. Skidd, even though you didn't do a lot of fighting, you performed well, with more heroics than what I was originally expecting, confirming that you have nerves of steel. For now, we are on an official break until Al finishes decrypting the information you've brought up, though hopefully we figure out where the Tyhrranoids are coming from, as taking their base out would seriously harm Nefarious' plans."

Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, Clank, and the others nodded their heads before going about their business as they waited for Al to figure out what Nefarious had been working on, though as they did that Sasha joined them, eager to learn about their trip into the sewers of their foe's base. Based on what the group could tell the exit plan Qwark had planned on them using, like an escape hatch or a side passage of some kind, didn't exist and the only way to get everyone out, without alerting the Tyhrranoid guards was to escape into the sewer. Ratchet then explained the existence of the Plumber, a figure who knew more about situations than what one would expect and helping him usually lead to some sort of aid being given, be it Bolts, advice, or items to help them in their quest to stop the villain they were facing. Sasha seemed a little surprised by that information, but didn't question it as she asked the other question that was bothering her, why take the Bolts when Autumn was one of the richest people in Solana, even though none of the others needed Bolts either, and it lead to what his sister was currently doing.

Autumn revealed the existence of her second account to make sure the Phoenix had everything it needed to combat the forces that Nefarious had employed in his mad quest to take over all of Solana, which included outfitting the Rangers with new weapons, armor, and even training to make sure they didn't need to rely on heroes, save for when it was a large scale battle and reinforcements were needed. What she was doing was upgrading them to their next form, like she had made in her plans after seeing what was scattered throughout Bogon, and such a thing required funds to make any improvements, and if things worked as she intended they would be able to focus on the Tyhrranoids without them needing to be called in to aid them. Several of them were going to be scouts, others in charge of demolition, a few would be snipers, a couple would become spies, she was designing a few who would be pyros, with most of the remainder split between soldiers and heavy weapon users, leaving the rest to be engineers and medics. She figured that nine types were good, especially since they had no idea what sort of tactics and challenges Nefarious' forces would throw at them, and Sasha was stunned when she saw the new designs for the Rangers, more in the short time it took her to do all this.

While they did that, waiting for Autumn to complete her changes while Al decrypted the information he had been brought, Ratchet and Angela headed to the virtual trainer, choosing to make sure they were ready for combat, before discovering an interesting addition, Sasha decided to join them. Her reasoning was that while she might never see battle, not with the group's abilities, she might as well be ready for whatever the future held for them, where they found that her weapon was an energy saber like the ninja robots on Clank's show, or the ones from Annihilation Nation, as she told them that she got it from one of the retired gladiators. Ratchet found that she was quite skilled with the weapon and could hold her own just fine, in fact she usually came here to train when she wasn't on duty, or when she didn't want to play games, which made him wonder if he had found another one like Angela, someone who was good at one thing but was secretly a good warrior underneath. Even Angela considered that for a few moments, as she had been an inventor before realizing that Ratchet's way was far better for her, especially when faced with the intelligent mind of Autumn Blaze, but after thinking about that they moved in to test Sasha's skills and see where she was lacking, just in case Nefarious decided to attack the Phoenix while they and the Rangers were gone.

After half a day of going over everything Al discovered that the Tyhrranoids had a base on Tyhrranosis, which had all sorts of defenses and obstacles to overcome, as they discovered an area with mortar launchers and cannons that would stop anyone from assaulting the main base. Even if that was brought down there were four plasma cannon turrets scattered all over the island that the base was built on, all designed to take out anyone that got too close to the main structure, so the dropship would have to fly above a certain height to ensure that the Rangers survived. It made sense for Ratchet and his family to tackle the four fusion cannon turrets, which would allow Sasha and the Rangers to use the dropship to blow the main door so someone could head inside and deal with the main boss, which would cripple part of Nefarious' plans, for the time being anyway. After that they would have to head out to Kavu Island, another base that might aid the war effort in some manner, so Sasha and Qwark agreed that it was a good place to attack before they left the planet, even though it was mostly going to be up to Ratchet and the others, unless the Rangers proved that Autumn's upgrades had boosted their abilities.

Once they knew the plan of attack, with the rest of the team staying here to plan the assault on the rest of Nefarious' plan, or at least find out more about it since Al was still working on figuring out what else their foe was planning, Ratchet and the others regrouped on their starship and departed for Tyhrranosis without wasting time.

It wasn't long before they reached the planet that was their destination, finding that the Phoenix's dropship was moving into position as well, which was when Ratchet and the others climbed into the smaller ship and flew down to the surface, only to eject themselves after making sure the ship stayed in the air. After that they glided down to the first base that had to be taken out so they could get to the main base, and sure enough the Tyhrranoids were firing missiles up at them, just to blast them out of the air, but none of them got close to them or the Rangers. This time Angela found that it wasn't one of the magical siblings doing the deed, rather one of the Rangers, who had the 'Soldier' personality, fired upon the missiles and opened the way for him, his allies, and the group to reach the entry point of the base, which had some Tyhrranoids waiting for intruders. Ratchet and the others joined the fight as soon as they landed, blasting the first wave of enemies out of the way before Autumn checked out a nearby Vendor, finding that the Annihilator, a rocket launcher she had designed in the past, was available, giving them one more toy to use against Nefarious' forces.

With the new weapon in hand they tore their way through the defenses of the first base, surprising the Tyhrranoids with the new accuracy of the Rangers, making Ratchet wonder what exactly was in each of their new personalities, as the Pyros were just burning anything that got near them, but he wasn't about to question it as they smashed through the rest of the defenses and emerged on the other side of the base.

"Good work everyone. I'm sending down the dropship now." Sasha stated, where they watched as the ship flew down to where the smaller ship was resting and it opened up, revealing something interesting to them, Sasha had come along for the ride, as she was sitting in the driver seat of an assault vehicle that was sporting Qwark's colors, where they suspected that her father was behind the paint color, "Come on, let's take out those fusion turrets."

The group nodded as the Rangers propelled themselves over the gap in front of them, which allowed them to open fire on all of the Tyhrranoids that were between them and where the commander rested, where the new vehicle allowed Ratchet, Sasha, and Angela to do the same as Autumn and Starswirl used their magic to cross it. While they did that Autumn found that Qwark was present as well, keeping an eye on the situation while not drawing attention to himself, not yet anyway, but she turned her attention to the fusion turrets as Ratchet's team tackled the one in the upper left section of the island, some of the Rangers took the one to the immediate left, leaving her and Starswirl to pick from the remaining two, where Starswirl picked the right and Autumn took the last one. With that decided the group separated and Starswirl called forth his magic, lashing out with blades made of wind, bits of water that froze his foes, Fireballs, and whatever else he decided to use, before reaching what appeared to be the power generator for the fusion turret and overloaded it with a Lightning Bolt that caused everything to explode.

While he did that Autumn decided to actually use the RY3NO, as she hadn't had an opportunity to wield it since she and the others were usually enough to tear through their enemies and whatever tactics might be thrown at them, where she watched as the Tyhrranoids and their ships fell without being able to put up a fight. It confirmed something for her, this was a dangerous and powerful weapon, which meant that the fourth and fifth versions she was planning on making in the future were going to be even more dangerous than this, and it made her wonder about the sixth entry she had only just started working on, a suit this time around, instead of a gun. After that she had an idea for a seventh RYNO, one that was even stronger and outclassed all of the other RYNOs she had created so far, and those that had yet to be produced, but that was far in the future and she had to focus on the fourth and fifth entries. She turned her attention to the fusion turret for a few seconds before destroying the entire thing, where she watched as the one Starswirl went to was breaking down and the ones that the rest of their group had tackled were breaking as well, something that allowed her to use platforms to reach the ground and approach the massive door that lead to the Commander's domain.

As everyone regrouped in front of the door, showing that they were ready for whatever was on the other side, they took a moment to watch as the dropship flew by and blasted it open, with Qwark jumping out and marching forward with his sole weapon, a blaster that Autumn had modified to be more modern than what he was used to using.

After that they used an elevator to ascend to the upper level of the main base, finding that the Commander was a massive Tyhrranoid, or maybe it was more like a slug with arms and legs, not to mention a cannon or turret that was mounted on it's back that was being controlled by two smaller Tyhrranoids. The beast roared as they entered it's domain and charged at them when they opened fire on it, showing that they were here to do battle and nothing else, while Autumn decided not to use her RN3NO, otherwise the battle would be over in no time, though everyone also did their best to avoid the attacks that were coming their way. Eventually their massive foe lowered a barrier and opened the path to another section of the structure, where Qwark led the way and blasted at the smaller enemies that happened to be in the way, opening the way for Ratchet, his siblings, Angela, Sasha, and the Rangers to target their main foe. Once more it didn't matter what the large Tyhrranoid did, as the group was more than enough to take care of anything and everything that was thrown at them over the next few few moments, and after a short period of time they dealt the finishing blow to their foe.

As the massive Tyhrranoid collapsed, and everyone took a moment to rest up, Qwark stepped forward as a few reporters showed up, where they were able to catch him in the act of crushing one of the fallen beast's eyes, as it was dead from all of the attacks it had suffered.

"Captain Qwark. First you made another miraculous comeback." the reporter, who happened to be Daria Gratch, who just seemed to be everywhere in both Solana and Bogon, which Autumn was able to explain since she was mass produced and each one was tasked with reporting on a specific planet, "Now you've defeated the tyhrranoids in a spectacular battle on their own planet. How do you explain your recent success?"

"Courage... compassion... dashing good looks... iron hard abs!" Qwark stated, which was what they had been planning on, him taking the spotlight so Nefarious would focus solely on him for the foreseeable future, at least until he realized that he was being tricked by the man he hated, and a simple nod from Ratchet was all he needed to go on, "Seriously though, to be a true hero of heroes, you need more than loads of charisma and a brilliant tactical mind. I couldn't have done it without... these massive guns!"

Ratchet and the others let out a light chuckle as they boarded the dropship and departed for Kavu Island, though as they did that they discovered that they actually didn't need to head over there, the Rangers who had been assigned to take it were reporting success, as in all the Tyhrranoids had been routed and they were in control of it, to which they returned to their ship and took off, eager to figure out what else needed to be done to stop Nefarious.

Arsenal: Daxx

Back aboard the Phoenix, after the assault on Tyhrranosis, Ratchet was telling Skidd about what happened during the fight with the massive Tyhrranoid, mostly because he, Helga, and Al had stayed on the starship, while Angela and Sasha sat near each other while Starswirl studied his tomes nearby. Both he and Autumn had agreed on one thing, Ratchet didn't need to impress either of the girls that were clearly interested in him, as Angela had flat out kissed him and Sasha, while getting used to having him around, was trying to hide her emotions so she didn't upset him or his girlfriend. Autumn, on the other hand, was resting on one of the beds in the side chamber, as it allowed her to get comfy and work on her holoplans, be it more weapons or gadgets that might help them out in the future, or everyday tools since Gadgetron liked having stuff like that on the market for the none heroes. It also let her listen to what was being said and knew that, in due time, Ratchet might have to confront Sasha about her interest in him, because as far as she knew Lombaxes preferred to have a single person to share their lives with, though since Angela wasn't annoyed there might be more they didn't know about.

As Ratchet got near the end of the tale, and he exaggerated a few things to make the tale more exciting for Skidd, due to the fact that their friend seemed bored of them overpowering the massive Tyhrranoid, they were interrupted by the arrival of two holograms, Nefarious and his butler, who arrived in time to hear that Skidd wanted to know what happened next in the tale Ratchet was spinning.

"Yes, go on." the butler stated, his tone sounding like he was bored or didn't care about what was going on right now, so it was more like his boss had demanded that they do this so they could either intimidate the enemy or try to mess with all of them in some manner, "We're all riveted."

"Really? I could have sworn that all of you were soldered in some manner." Autumn remarked, though due to the fact that they were dealing with someone who truly believed that Clank was a secret agent, and everyone else were the characters each of them played, she decided to mess with him, taking to her Nirik state to surprise their visitors.

"How amusing." the butler said, one more sounding like he didn't care, meaning it was either his default setting or it was what Nefarious set him at, if he made the robot in question, all while he stood at the ready so he could see whatever his boss did to the people that were in front of him.

"So, this is the mighty 'Q-Force' I've heard so much about." Nefarious remarked, glancing at each of them in turn, while at the same time ignoring the fact that someone else had spoken after his butler had, which Autumn was fine with since it meant she could surprise him in due time, "Pathetic! I could obliterate the lot of you and they wouldn't even mention it in Supervillain Weekly!"

"Actually, we're the Bogon Gamer Club," Angela replied in kind, where she held up the controller for a moment, making it look like she was messing with a game or something, though the others knew that she was messing with him and that he would be enraged in some manner once he figured it out, "Your nodes are way off."

"Lawrence! You told me we had the correct signal!" Nefarious stated, rather loudly at that, meaning he was used to calling for the butler in this manner, though it got no reaction from the robot that was beside him right now, which told them that he was used to this.

"Actually, sir, I believe she is 'yanking your chain', or power cable as the case may be." the butler, Lawrence, said, which let the group know that he was likely the brains of their operation, as Nefarious' value was getting lower and lower the more they listened to him speak, or maybe it was a ploy to make them lower their guards.

"Ah yes, I should have expected Qwark's lackeys to try some underhanded method to distract me," Nefarious stated, as if he was in control of the situation and not them messing with him, all while turning his attention back to them for a time, even though the longer the connection was up the more Al would be able to tell them.

"I'd say you're plenty distracted already, since it looks like Qwark's already aboard your ship," Autumn replied, stepping out in her Nirik state, someone people who watched Clank's series would recognize as a rival who only joined up with him to take care of a more dangerous foe, and she was looking right behind the robotic doctor, causing him to pause for a few seconds before glancing back.

Of course he started to say Qwark's name, as in 'Qwaaa', before something in him broke and he froze up, likely part of his brain was broken and no one had told him about the problem, especially since a slight smile appeared on Lawrence's face before he smacked his boss in the face, causing the name to end in 'aaarrk', before he realized he had been played by the people in the room he was currently staring at. In that moment Al declared that 'Qwark's' orders were complete, he was able to trace the holograms back to where they were coming from, even if it was being bounced around several planets, and as the word 'Daxx' left his mouth Nefarious let out a scream of anger as he cursed Qwark's name, ending with him in the frozen state once more. Apparently the call came from a facility on Daxx, a place that would require them to use a few new gadgets, like the Hacker that Skidd was in possession of, which he handed over without delay, and the Hypershot, a new version of the Swingshot that was combined with the Dynamo, where Angela knew Autumn was behind creating it, as it seemed like something she would do. Of course that meant they had to tackle another obstacle course of Helga's to get access to the new gadget, as she wanted to be sure all of them knew how to use it, even if it felt like she was repaying the siblings for what happened the first time they met her, but in the end they ended up securing the Hypershot, one for each of them and Autumn, in her base form, integrated them into their armor.

With that done, and they were sure that everyone was ready to go, the group departed for their starship as Sasha stayed back to make sure everything was fine with the President, since there was no telling what Nefarious might have planned after hearing him speak to them and rage at what Qwark had supposedly done so far.

Once more it took a bit of time for them to reach their destination, though when they headed down to the area outside the facility Al told them something interesting, there was the main terminal inside the facility, which likely housed all sorts of information they might be able to use, and another rested on a small island nearby, one Nefarious had been seen near a couple of days ago.

"Okay, so two of us will head into the facility and see what the terminal has on it, while the other two should head out and see what the other one has," Ratchet said, as that was a fair division of responsibilities, especially since there were four of them, meaning they could clear this place out in no time and not have to worry about leaving anything behind, since they had no way of knowing what Nefarious might have left behind on the terminals.

"Sounds fair to me." Autumn replied, where she accessed the Vendor that was nearby and found another weapon for her and the others to obtain, the Holo Shield Glove, a weapon that could be used to create shields in front of the user, based on the direction one was thrown in, before she spotted something in a small structure near them and used her platforms to find a pair of Charge Boots, which she stashed away for later.

"Why don't Ratchet and I tackle the main building, while you and Angela focus on the other terminal?" Starswirl inquired, due to the fact that he felt that sending both magic users in the same direction was a waste, as they would decimate all enemies that were in their way, without actually trying, so this would give whatever enemies were here a fighting chance, giving the warrior Lombaxes a decent fight.

Angela simply shrugged, as while she would rather travel with Ratchet, and fight by his side, she knew that keeping both Starswirl and Autumn together was a bad idea, since they could mow down everyone who challenged them with ease, and in the end it was agreed that they would be using Starswirl's side. With the new weapon in hand, and everyone knew how to use it, they crossed the gap that was in front of them and split up, Ratchet and Starswirl taking the left path, where they had to use a lift to enter the facility grounds, while Autumn and Angela put their new Hypershots to use and activated the devices in front of them, creating platforms so they could move forward. Angela was still surprised to see what used to be Megacorp technology in Solana, along with the fact that Helga had created a training course for them to train on for some time, but given who she was with she had a feeling Autumn was responsible, like maybe she convinced Mr. Fizzwidget to sell the information to Gadgetron, leading to these being created. It reminded her that Autumn was one of the greatest minds in two galaxies, three if one counted Polaris, despite the fact that she hadn't been to the galaxy in question yet, and it made her wonder if she should give her access to some of the Lombax secrets she had, even though she would have to make time to tell Ratchet some things.

As they moved into the next part of the section of the facility that they were exploring right now, however, the pair found a ship warping into the area and started to fire at where they were standing, blasting the floor below them apart when they dodged the small rockets, only when they reached the end of the portion of the path it disappeared.

"A ship capable of warping into and out of an area, likely a sentry for this part of the facility," Autumn remarked, taking a moment to think about the ship after she and Angela climbed up a wall jump section, giving them a few seconds to study the area before doing anything else, "I'm sure Nefarious stole the technology, since the people of Bogon were capable of it long before Solana was... even Gadgetron doesn't have something like this, not yet anyway... I'm so capturing that when I have the chance."

"Just don't use the RY3NO on it, you'll end up losing it in the process." Angela stated, though she couldn't want to see what sort of information Autumn learned from the ship, as she knew the Kirin well enough to know that the gunship was going to be captured in no time at all, not with her magic and technical knowledge.

Autumn said nothing to that as she and Angela used their Hypershots to traverse the area that was in front of them, which happened to be where the gunship warped into the area, fired at them for a few seconds, and then warped out before it repeated the process in another section. Truth be told the ship was rather annoying and Autumn knew she could destroy it with a surge of her magical power, but that would ruin all of the information she would gleam from it and was why she held her power back for the time being as they made their way over all of the platforms. One thing they both agreed on was the fact that something important had to be resting out here, for this sort of security, and made them wonder if the one inside the facility was a decoy, but in the end it didn't matter to them, as Ratchet, Clank, and Starswirl would be able to find it and see what sort of information it had to give them. Between their thoughts on the matter, and dodge the rest of the missiles, it took the pair no time at all to reach the end of the path that was in front of them, which was a decent sized circular platform with a lone structure behind it, which happened to be what the gunship was guarding.

The gunship tried to warp in and out of the area, only firing at them for a short period of time before disappearing, but it wasn't enough for it to do anything as they dodged the attacks and put a few bullets into the wings, before Autumn raised her hand and seized the ship with her magic, taking enough time to teleport the pilot out before stashing it away for later, allowing them to reach their true destination.

"Well what do you know, someone's a huge fan of Courtney Gears," Autumn remarked, referring to the posters that were on one of the walls of the structure's inside, not to mention that it looked like one of the terminals had been used to alter or edit something with her in it.

"Yeah, and whoever it was edited one of her music videos in the last few days," Angela said, where she sighed for a couple of seconds as she considered what this might mean, because as far as she and the others knew the robotic star was just a music sensation, even if her songs kind of sucked and most of the people watched for her body, "What are the chances that this might have some valuable information for us?"

Autumn glanced at her for a moment, the silence between them revealing that both knew the answer to that question, to which they activated the video and found that Courtney Gears was dancing with her troupe, singing about a rebellion of robots and the destruction of organic life, where they understood that she had to be in league with Nefarious and quickly downloaded the video as evidence, before returning to their ship as they waited for the others to return, all while silently questioning how that could be considered music.

After splitting up Ratchet and Starswirl used the lift to get up to the outermost reaches of the facility, finding that a good number of robotic guards were either patrolling the walkway in front of them or were floating in the air above their allies, telling them that Nefarious must have hidden something in this place. Of course they were programmed to deal with any individuals who were seen as intruders, which the brothers and Clank were since none of them had any idea who actually owned this place, only that Nefarious worked here from time to time, so the robots attacked as soon as they noticed that they were there. It gave Ratchet a chance to test out the Holo Shield Glove, where he found that the shields it produced in a matter of seconds were quite strong, capable of taking some serious damage before breaking down and disappearing, so it gave them a chance to survey the situation before firing on their enemies. An interesting thing they discovered was a large robot that looked like the torso of one, like the more powerful robots they faced back in Bogon, though Starswirl just teleported a sphere of wind energy into the robot's chest and broke it into pieces.

Ratchet chuckled a little as he saw that, as Starswirl preferred to use his magic more often than his weapons, though while that was the truth he also knew something else, his brother was getting stronger as the years went by and he knew that it was only a matter of time until he stuck to using only his magic, just like how Autumn preferred to use her toys and only used her magic when necessary.

With the first group taken care of the brothers carefully made their way forward and found more robot guards blocking the way, not to mention a few snipers that Starswirl spotted and took out with his magic by blasting the area they were in, allowing Ratchet to focus on all of their other enemies. Other than that they found a gate that needed to be lowered and a few more of the torso robots, including a few of the white colored robots that floated and zapped their targets, showing the pair that whatever was here was definitely important. After another torso robot they used the Hypershots to reach the door of the actual facility, as it appeared that the outer area that they had fought through was just a defensive perimeter, and Starswirl used a bit of lightning to break down all of the smaller robots in their way, allowing his brother to stop up for a moment to use the Hacker on the door. Not a few moments later they were inside the facility, firing on the robot guards and a few snipers that happened to be guarding the area, where Clank scanned the computers as he tried to find the one they were looking for, that way they knew which ones could be destroyed and which ones they were allowed to break, all while Ratchet was grateful for that information.

After the second locked door they found a greater force of guard robots, though none of them could stand before their might, which meant it wasn't long before the brothers had defeated their enemies and Ratchet hacked through another door, this one bringing them to the end of the facility and a rather impressive computer terminal.

"So, this is the master terminal." Ratchet commented, where he and Starswirl came to a stop as Clank dropped down so he could see what was on the computer in the center of the room, but both he and his brother stayed on alert, in the off chance that more enemies came to stop them from accessing the terminal, "Clank, can you get anything off of it?"

"This terminal will give us high-level access to all of Nefarious' project plans... and what I have found so far, after a moment of searching, isn't good," Clank replied, where he tapped a few keys and displayed something on the screen that they were staring at, a spherical device that had all sorts of technical terms attached to it, though they found that it was something called the 'Biobliterator', before he sighed, "I'm afraid that there is no information on the device, as Nefarious left nothing about where it might be found, what it is capable of doing, or anything else of importance... only that a large transport left this facility yesterday, and that it was headed for the Obani Moons."

"Then that's where we'll go next," Starswirl said, as it made perfect sense to him, the large transport had to be the strange device being moved, which meant there might be a clue to the Biobliterator's purpose or location on the moons, though as he said that Clank carefully downloaded everything that was on the terminal, in case there was something else locked away in the depths of Nefarious' files.

Ratchet and Clank nodded for a moment before using a teleport pad to return to their ship, finding that the others were back as well, to which they compared notes for a moment before leaving a message with Sasha and the Q-Force, letting them know about the Obani Moons, before retracing their steps to Annihilation Nation, to talk with Courtney Gears and see if they could grill her for information.

Arsenal: Obani Moons

As they departed from Holostar Studios, and started to make their way to the Obani Moons, which happened to be the last place for them to explore right now, they got a transmission from Sasha, which meant she must have received their latest message, about the Leviathan, and wanted to speak with them.

"Ratchet here. What can we do for you, Sasha?" Ratchet asked, all while Autumn and the others spread out around the area of the starship they were in, the modified flight deck that allowed his siblings, Angela, and even Clank to relax for a time, while they traveled between all of the planets of the Solana Galaxy, showing that they were resting and getting ready for whatever might be at their next destination.

"I just wanted to inform you that we received your message about the Leviathan and that we'll be searching for is, so once we find it you'll be the first to know," Sasha replied, though the smile on her face told them that she must have read the rest of the message, about how they got said information in the first place, and that she approved of their trickery, "Also, I wanted to inform you that Skidd read your last message, about the Obani Moons, and warn you that he might show up to 'aid' you while you guys explore the area."

"He's desperate to prove himself, given how many still worship Qwark," Angela remarked, as she had learned that fact while talking with Ratchet and his siblings back in Bogon, which had been confirmed as they explored more of Solana and met more of the people who called it home, before she considered something odd, "but that makes me wonder why so many are still loyal to him, when he betrayed this galaxy and sided with Drek... especially after all the news that was posted about him and his connections to Drek."

"I did some research and it seems that, in preparation for Qwark being found, the President pardoned him of all his crimes and wiped out all his debts," Autumn spoke up, while at the same time Sasha let out a sigh, no doubt because she knew of her father's antics and didn't approve of any of them, especially when it came to the person who assisted Drek and tried to stop them from saving the planets of Solana, "of course the Chairmen of the planets that were attacked by the Blarg aren't too happy with that, so he might be facing some opposition if he runs for office again."

"Well, we'll keep an eye out for Skidd while we're searching the Obani Moons," Starswirl said, returning to the reason that Sasha had called them in the first place, since she wanted them to be aware of the fact that one of their friends would be arriving at some point, or not since they knew Skidd more than anyone else at this point, so he was likely lingering near their destination and would show himself when they were done clearing the area out.

With the conversation done, as there was nothing else that Sasha wanted to tell them, other than wish them well and that they would be tracking down the Leviathan, Ratchet and the others focused on heading to the Obani Moons, where they discovered that Obani, the planet, had three moons, Gemini, Pollux, and Draco. Supposedly the entire set was owned by Courtney Gears, as in she owned the dwarf planet and the three moons that orbited it, which meant that since she was working with Nefarious they could expect some opposition when they reached Obani Gemini, as each moon's name had it's planet's name first, then their own name. Based on what Autumn was able to figure out she knew that they would have to start exploring Obani Gemini, before making their way to Obani Pollux and Obani Draco, mostly because the page she was getting her information from said the last one had a barrier that could only be deactivated with either a code or by bringing down something on the second moon. The problem was to get to Obani Pollux they would have to explore the first moon and then find a way over to their true destination, even though they were aiming for Obani Draco, which had to be where they would find the Biobliterator and whatever guards Nefarious left to protect his weapon.

When the starship finally reached their destination they used the smaller ship and headed down to the surface of the first of the Obani moons, where they found that it had a ring of asteroids rotating around it and a good place to land, not to mention a number of satellites that were positioned all over the moon's small atmosphere. Ratchet touched down in an area that had a beam being fired from a device, something that told them that they had to bounce the beam all over the moon to unlock a teleporter to Obani Pollux, and as they climbed out Autumn found another weapon to add to their still growing arsenal, the Disc Blade Gun. This gun was designed to fire razor sharp discs that would home in on enemies and strike them, not to mention ricochet off walls and other structures, without damaging the surface in question, making it another good weapon to add to their arsenal. The other weapon that was available was something called the Rift Inducer, a weapon designed to open little rifts that sucked in the user's enemies, though if one fired multiple charges they could combine into a larger one and added more pull to the rift in question.

With both weapons in hand Ratchet pulled out the Refractor and used it to move the beam into the nearby slot, which, in turn, caused the bridge that was in front of them to lower into place so they could move out of the high metallic walled off area that they had landed in, allowing the group to see what they had to deal with. What they discovered was the the foes they had to deal with were the small white robots who floated and shocked whoever got close to them, a weak enemy that wasn't worth actually using much of their ammunition on, to which everyone switched to their melee weapons until they found a way to the next moon. In addition to that they discovered a few platforms that would allow someone to reach the areas that the lasers were being redirected to, so while Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela dealt with their enemies Ratchet headed up each set and bounced the laser to a new satellite. As such most of them fought off the foes that were coming towards them, while Ratchet focused on moving the beams around so they could open the way to the second moon, due to Autumn thinking that such a thing was the purpose of the lasers, before eventually seeing that it brought them to the other floating structure in this area.

Inside it they found a teleport pad that allowed them to warp over to Obani Pollux, a moon that looked far more metallic than Obani Gemini, as the previous moon was more organic and had pools of lava in the short ravines they had ignored, where the group also discovered some sniper bots and soldier bots, like those from Daxx. Such a thing told Ratchet and the others all they needed to know as they switched to their weapons and blasted their way through the first set of foes who happened to be blocking the way, as with one person it might be hard, but with four warriors they didn't have to worry at all. While they tore through all of their robotic enemies, and found a jump pad to move forward, Autumn found that all of the plants and trees were definitely metallic, made out of metal and looked like bolts in some places, though as she noticed that something clicked in her mind, as this definitely wasn't natural, and if it was she had to study it when they weren't busy with Nefarious and his schemes. The jump pad brought them up to the roof of a structure and found that it also had a number of foes for them to blast their way through, which was what they did before finding some of the more powerful sentry bots guarding another roof, causing Starswirl to snap up a barrier for them to use.

Once those enemies were taken care of the group found a zipline and used it to reach the next part of the path they were following, finding that more soldiers were waiting for them and seemed to be guarding the way forward, not that it really mattered given the arsenal the family possessed, and it wasn't long before they came to a stop, at the highest point of this moon and in front of a metallic structure.

"Cover me." a voice said, speaking as soon as the family came to a stop and had stared at the clearly man made structure for a few moments, where they found that Skidd had arrived, in fact it was possible he had either arrived before them and had hidden his ship or moved after they arrived and was only now showing himself, before he tripped and fell, doing no damage to him, save his pride maybe, "Man down!"

"Skidd, you don't have to worry about enemies, as we took them all out." Ratchet remarked, though once more he found himself questioning how he could have admired the man when he was younger, as it was like Qwark all over again, the pro Hoverboarder had been a bit of a disappointment when he met him, while at the same time Autumn was studying what was in front of them.

"No, that blows man!" Skidd stated, where he picked himself up and dusted himself off, though as he did that most of the family was able to see that he was secretly pleased by this information and was acting since they preferred to be near all sorts of warriors, "I would have gotten here sooner, but I, um... encountered some heavy-duty resistance... the drive-thru at Galaxy Burger was wicked slow and, uh, my food was made wrong, so I had to waste time complaining and getting what I actually ordered."

"As interesting as that sounds, we have bigger fish to fry... specifically Obani Draco," Autumn commented, returning their focus to the task at hand as she finished studying the structure in front of them and the moon that was hanging beyond the atmosphere of the moon they were currently on, causing her to let out a sigh as she faced Ratchet, "unfortunately, it is surrounded by an Omega Class disintegration field... if we had the right tools, well, we could bust through this door and get at the generator, so we can see what Nefarious is hiding up there. The other bit of bad news is that the 'right tools' to do this, as our magic would do more harm than good, is a number of licenses and permits that would allow us to hack into anything that is in the Omega Class, which can take anywhere from a week to six months... even if we use our Gadgetron connections, and asked Mr. Lumos to help us, it would still take a few days, which we don't have."

"Never fear, I have a solution!" Skidd replied, where he put his gun away and pulled out a crowbar, with one end that was busted and one that looked normal, even though he realized that he was starting with the busted side first and turned it so the unbusted one was ready to be used, which he stuck into the door, "It'll take me some time to get through this..."

In that moment they got a call from the Galactic Rangers, who informed them that Blackwater City was under attack and, while they could handle the assault on their own, some additional assistance would be appreciated, causing Ratchet and his family to wish Skidd well before returning to their ship so they could head to Rilgar.

Upon their arrival near Rilgar, the family boarded the smaller ship and headed down to the area that the Rangers were in, finding that the Tyhrranoids wanted to take them out and loosed missiles into the air, where Starswirl gathered his magic and blasted each target out of the air so they could descend with ease. As soon as they landed it became clear that most of the Rangers were true to their word, they really didn't need the family's help to deal with the Tyhrranoids, as they were holding them back and were preventing them from getting at their base, and with their arrival the Rangers were able to totally push their enemies back. From there it was a simple matter of pushing the Tyhrranoids up the ramp and across the bridge that connected the two halves of the island that the two forces were fighting on, where they positioned themselves accordingly and opened fire on their enemies, surprising all of the aggressive aliens with the firepower they possessed, not to mention the spells Starswirl had access to. After defending the bridge they pushed the rest of the Tyhrranoids back to the area in front of the red base, where they opened fire and took down their enemies before they had a chance to do anything, and Ratchet even forced the turrets of the base to explode, ruining the Tyhrranoids' chances of winning, which eventually lead to them leaving once they realized they couldn't win.

With Rilgar saved one of the Rangers, a Sniper, handed them something, a pair of Gravity Boots that allowed one to walk on walls and special surfaces, just like the old pairs they obtained in the past, and once the planet was secure Autumn took a moment to figure out if anything was different from the previous set, before adding them to their existing boots, all before discovering that Skidd had been captured.

"Looks like Courtney Gear's dancers caught him." Ratchet commented, taking a look at the video they were sent not a few moments ago, which prompted their return to the ship and caused him to set a course for Obani Draco, though there was one thing that was out of place.

"He also took a few of them out... guess he must have realized she was a villain after all." Angela added, because she and the others were able to see that a few of the dancers had been attacked by someone, which was Skidd since he pulled out his gun and attacked them after realizing the danger he was in.

Autumn and Starswirl, however, said nothing to that as they headed back to the Obani Moons, this time finding that the Omega Class disintegration field was down, meaning Ratchet was able to send in the smaller ship and allowed the family to dock inside what appeared to be a disco ball themed moon. This place was clearly Courtney Gears' base of operations, based on all of the spotlights and dance items that were built into the walls, though there were no new weapons for them to obtain and it caused them to start moving deeper into the moon base. What Ratchet discovered was that the only foes they had to worry about where the small robots that zapped intruders, so they decided to refrain from wasting ammo on these machines as they moved deeper into Courtney's base, aware that she was likely watching them. The family found that there were moving pools of plasma they had to avoid, shocked passages they had to navigate, and sections where all of them had to walk upside down, which everyone was able to do thanks to Autumn's armor modifications, before they reached a chamber that seemed like the end of the road.

The only thing of interest was a machine that was pointed at a table that someone could be strapped to, where it showed Courtney Gears strapping Skidd down before backing off, activating a machine that turned their friend into a robotic version of himself, all in a matter of seconds.

"Looks like Nefarious has been weaponizing the technology that turns one type of matter into another, like the weapons I created that turn our enemies into sheep or chickens," Autumn commented, not really surprised by this turn of events, as now she understood the name of the weapon that their foe had created some time ago, it literally took away one's organic form and replaced it with machinery, while likely retaining the target's mind, "If that's all it does, while likely suppressing any pain involved with the transformation, it shouldn't be too hard for us to reverse the process..."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Courtney asked, speaking over a communicator, meaning she was watching them and knew all of them had seen the video she had left for them to see, on Nefarious' orders to be exact, though while it was supposed to fill Ratchet and the others with despair she found that they didn't care, rather they were upset for Skidd and one already had an idea on how to counter the Biobliterator's main feature.

"Of course I can... I just find talking while talking to an opponent distracts them while I work." Autumn replied, as she had pulled out her tablet while she made notes on what the Biobliterator was capable of and Ratchet could see that some of her notes included how to counter the machine in question, before they heard the sound of something hitting the floor, followed by a look of shock appearing on Courtney's face, "And done. Nefarious' bomb has been disabled... guess he really didn't want to run the risk of you being taken in by the galactic authorities."

Ratchet noticed that Courtney never looked back at the 'explosive' as she struggled with the concept that her beloved, as she saw Nefarious in that light, would do something like this to her, and the robotic star practically threw herself at their mercy, offering to tell them everything she knew to save herself. He kept a straight face as Starswirl and Angela escorted the star back to their ship, as he couldn't believe that the plan his sister had come up with had worked out that well, as it was all props created in Holostar Studios and someone like Courtney shouldn't have fallen for it, but she did. Autumn, of course, collected the materials that had been left behind and silently made sure they would be returned to Mr. Hatfield in due time, so they could be used to make special scenes in the future, maybe during the next Secret Agent Clank film, but for now she focused on what they might learn from the robotic star. She also scanned the area for any additional info she might gleam from the surrounding area and machines, just to boost her chances of studying the Biobliterator's power and figuring a way around it, before regrouping with her family as they headed out of the Obani Draco.

They were hoping that Courtney Gears would have something to share with them, about what Nefarious was planning for his superweapon, but they guessed time would tell, as after seeing how foolish she was in accepting that the bomb was real it was hard to tell if she was a high ranking member of Nefarious' organization or just a tool, but they knew that they would find out in the near future.

Arsenal: Zeldrin Starport

As it turned out Courtney Gears, upon their return to Marcadia, as the President insisted on her being brought there, knew next to nothing about the final stages of Nefarious' plans for the Biobliterator, and most of the information she did have on him was either outdated or simply bases she had been to in the past. Sasha wasn't too pleased with the star's lack of any real knowledge on Nefarious' movements, but at least they had convinced her that siding with the supervillain had been the wrong move and that siding with the heroes was for the best, even if she'd have to take down her latest song, the one about the extermination of all organic life. Other than that there wasn't much else for them to do while they waited for some new piece of information to come their way, where Ratchet found that the Galactic Rangers had finally returned and were now resting, after informing Sasha that everything was fine on Rilgar, confirming the report he and his family had handed her earlier. The only reason they knew that was because they returned to the Phoenix after discovering that Courtney Gears knew nothing about Nefarious' plans, giving Ratchet some time to try out all of the other Vid-Comics they had gotten since starting this adventure, where he scored perfect scores on the ones they had collected so far while Autumn and Starswirl continued their studies while Clank and Angela sat near him.

When he finished the last of the Vid-Comics they had collected, which was only three of the Qwark series so far, Ratchet switched to some of the other games Sasha had provided when creating a suite for them and the man that was the head of the Q-Force, but before he could start it Sasha contacted them.

"Ratchet, we've located the Leviathan: it's currently docked at the Zeldrin Starport," Sasha said, which was good news for the family, as it meant they might have a chance to stop Nefarious before he was able to set his plan in motion, and he found that she sent him the coordinates of the structure in question, "Qwark will be coming along, though he said he has some business to attend to before catching up with you guys."

"Makes sense, he'd rather see this battle end with his own eyes," Ratchet replied, because based on everything that both he and his family were able to figure out, during their short break, Qwark and Nefarious had several encounters with each other and that meant they would want to see the end of their rivalry with their own eyes, "though if he's taking his time it should give us a chance to see if there's anything around the starport for us to acquire in the long run."

Sasha said nothing to that as she let the family do whatever it was that they did when they were exploring the worlds that they visited, where Ratchet and the others got up before heading for their ship, allowing them to return to their starship without much delay. Once that was done Ratchet input the coordinates for the Zeldrin Starport, which rested near the planet of Zeldrin, and they departed for their newest destination, where he, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela got ready for whatever might be waiting for them. Given everything that had happened, or what Courtney had been planning on doing before Autumn activated her trap on her, there was a good chance that this was a trap, or was supposed to be, so they had to be ready for whatever their foe had prepared for them. Autumn also made sure to double check their weapons, to be sure everything was working right and nothing was wrong before they went out into the field, and was pleased to see that all of them were fine, allowing her to relax as they waited for the starship to reach their destination.

When they finally reached the area near the starport, and could see the planet beyond it, Ratchet stopped nearby before they used the smaller ship to travel over to where Nefarious' starship was resting, where they found that the starport had it's own atmosphere and that they didn't have to worry about deploying their O2 Masks.

Once the ship had landed, and the family had a chance to see that there weren't any new weapons to acquire, the four of them found an area off to their left where it looked like a ship could land, likely Qwark's at some point, before finding that a force of robotic guards, the same that were at the facility on Daxx, were here. That was all the confirmation they needed to figure out that their foe was waiting on his starship, or was watching it from another area, like a hidden base or one of the other ships that were nearby, causing the family to engage their weapons before assaulting their enemies. The robotic soldiers, despite being warned that they were coming, seemed surprised that they were already here, as if they had come to the starport sooner than Nefarious had planned on them showing up, so the first group collapsed with ease and that lead to a door opening as more soldiers and snipers readied themselves for battle. Angela discovered that the building the soldiers were coming from was a maintenance section that was used to work on all of the ships that docked here, and as they made their way through part of it they found a few small ships that were being refueled, guarded by snipers that, like all of the other enemies, wanted them dead.

"Nefarious was certainly expecting our arrival, even though he likely thought we would arrive later," Angela commented, as that seemed to be the case as they made their way through the structure that all of their enemies were in, the soldiers and snipers seemed to be on break or something and were surprised to find intruders, but they were armed enough to deal with their foes.

"If this is a trap, he was likely hoping to ensnare Qwark while we were busy," Autumn remarked, because that seemed to be what their opponent had been planning, based on what she and the others had discovered so far, so convincing one of his allies that he had sentenced her to death by explosions had damaged his plan somewhat.

Ratchet and Starswirl said nothing as they continued to do battle with Nefarious' forces, finding that he was trying to keep the starport intact, with minimal damage to the surrounding area, though with the four of them the robotic guards didn't stand much of a chance against their combined might. After the last batch of snipers they found their way to the outside of the building and discovered that it brought them to the other side of the starport, from where Ratchet landed, and that there were only a few more enemies for the family to worry about. The remaining soldiers didn't provide much of a fight, as with four opponents fighting them it was pure domination, and in the end they reached what seemed to be the end of the line, an area with a device waiting for someone to collect it from where it was resting. Autumn found that it was a new gadget that had been created, a combination of the Bolt Grabber and the Box Breaker, allowing the user to smash boxes from a greater distance and pick up Bolts from a greater distance, which was usually reserved for her and her family, so it was interesting to see one here, where she planned on duplicating it for the others once this mission was done.

As they returned to their own ship, however, they discovered that Qwark had arrived with his ship, not to mention the fact that he had Skrunch with him and they seemed to be arguing or talking about something, hence why they kept silent as they approached the area that the pair was standing in, to listen to what the conversation might be.

"I thought we agreed to put that jungle business behind us." Qwark said, staring down at Skrunch as he, against all odds, missed the fact that they were approaching the pair, though in response to his comment the little monkey made a couple of noises, which Qwark clearly understood, "It was mating season! How could I have known she was your sister? Er... ah, how long have you guys been standing there?"

"Too long, Qwark. Too long." Clank replied, though this was information they weren't expecting to discover while they were taking the fight to Nefarious and his robotic minions, while at the same time the others nodded their heads as well, just to show that it was the truth.

"Well, ahem. Stop lollygagging and let's get to work!" Qwark stated, though the family raised their eyebrows for a moment, as they had been busy since arriving in this place, not that he seemed to know that fact, before he gestured to his ship for a few seconds, "We'll use this shuttle to infiltrate the star cruiser undetected. Once on board, we find Nefarious and finish the job! Are you ready for this?"

Ratchet and the others simply nodded their heads before boarding the ship, where Qwark stepped to the side and actually allowed someone else, Ratchet, to take control of the ship, where he followed the coordinates that were in front of him for a few moments as he flew from the starport and docked with the Leviathan. Once that was done, and he was sure that the door had closed behind them, he and his family climbed out before making their way forward, finding that Qwark joined them in assaulting the soldiers and snipers that were between them and the bridge, along with a few ninjas. It showed all of them that Nefarious was expecting them to arrive at some point, though because they had arrived sooner than he had expected it was possible that there might be some holes in his defenses, only to discover that the robotic guards were as prepared as they could be for their eventual arrival. Autumn refrained from using the RY3NO, which she might have used if she was fighting them on her own and didn't have her family fighting by her side, though even then her weapons and all the weapons that the others had were more than enough to wipe out the enemies that were in their way.

As such it didn't take them too long to reach the bridge of the ship, where they used a lift to reach the area in question, all to find that Nefarious was sitting in the captain's chair and that the butler, Lawrence they recalled, was standing near the chair, confirming that they had been waiting for them to arrive.

"Come in, heroes. We've been expecting you." Lawrence said, one further bit of confirmation for them to think about, even if they didn't need to have him say that he and Nefarious were waiting for them to reach this point, to which he turned his head towards his boss for a moment, "The riffraff have arrived, sir."

"Captain Qwark! You've put on a bit of weight since last we met." Nefarious commented, while turning the chair around so he could stare at them and stand when necessary, giving him a chance to observe the heroes that were in front of him, as he was slightly interested in all of them.

"Yeah? Well, Courtney Gears didn't seem to mind." Qwark replied, as he knew that taunting the villain usually caused some sort of event to happen, and given Nefarious' past he had a feeling that something would happen soon,

"Qwa..!" Nefarious started to say, which was when the circuits in his head glitched and he paused in his action, standing as he protested Qwark's statement about Courtney Gears and his fat, while something inside him played an opera, Lance and Janice to be exact, which caused Lawrence to step up and slap his employer, "...ark! I'll have the last laugh. I lured you and your friends here so that I could witness your demise!"

In the following moments he pressed the self destruct button for the ship and laughed as Lawrence teleported out, as in he left him behind for a moment and probably freaked him out, though Autumn and Starswirl let them do that since using magic on technological teleportation could have some serious consequences. After their targets departed Ratchet and the others found that the system took over, starting the rest of the self destruct sequence, where they used the elevator and discovered something interesting, Qwark jumped off the elevator and rushed at something he had spotted. As such they headed back for the ship they had used to get here, opening fire on whatever enemies might be resting inside the rest of the Leviathan, meaning that if he wasn't back at the smaller ship soon they would have to leave him behind, and despite all of their opinions on the man none of them wanted him to die. As such it didn't take them long to get back to the ship, where Skrunch was waiting for them to return, and they climbed into the ship as they waited for Qwark to return, all while Ratchet kept an eye on the time limit they had, so he could get them out of there before the ship blew up.

Unfortunately time passed quickly and Ratchet, not wanting to get them caught in the blast, ejected the ship and headed back to the starport, giving them a chance to watch as the ship tore itself apart, with Qwark aboard it, before the pieces of the Leviathan fell to the planet below, causing them to return to the Phoenix and figure out what the next step in their battle against Nefarious was.

Arsenal: Metropolis

The family returned to the Phoenix as quickly as they could, after witnessing the destruction of the Leviathan, and when they returned to the docking area, after leaving their starship, they got a surprise, Sasha ran up and embraced Ratchet, as in she kissed him and then hugged him afterwards, before pulling back with an embarrassed look on her face.

"I... um..." Sasha said, showing that she really didn't know what to think of this situation, of her sudden desire to embrace Ratchet in front of his girlfriend, to which she beckoned to the others that had joined her, the rest of the Q-Force, "Well, we are all glad that you guys made it back safely. We should have known Nefarious would set a trap for us."

"We were hoping that we'd get there fast enough to prevent that from happening." Ratchet replied, though he was happy to see that Sasha cared about him and his family, despite the fact that she was embarrassed about kissing him in front of Angela, before he thought about the Leviathan's destruction, "Did you guys see any other ships leaving the Leviathan?"

"As much as I want to say yes... the scanners say no." Al stated, where it was easy for them to see that the knowledge of Qwark's death was crushing him, as at one point he had looked up to the figure, even if the adventures of Ratchet and his family had exposed the truth.

Ratchet sighed for a moment, as he had been hoping that Autumn's scans had been wrong or had missed something, as she had done the same thing on their way back to the Phoenix, but they had to admit that there was no denying the fact that the man that annoyed them was now dead. With that thought in mind he and his family headed for the bridge, where Sasha had prepared a funeral session for Qwark, as in they were stand at a podium for a time and speak about the man who had, in an odd twist of fate, went from being a hero and switched to being a villain, before switching to a hero after what happened in Bogon. Skrunch even joined them, even though he was the only one that understood what he said, but they gave him some time to get everything off his chest before eventually making way for Ratchet and his family to take their turn. Each of them had a few things to say, though one thing they agreed on was that, while he had been elevated to the rank of Superhero by the people of Solana, this was his chance to actually make himself a hero in his own right, which Ratchet made sure the others understood in due time.

After that, and everyone went back to their own duties, Al handed over something that arrived for Qwark, the fourth and final installment in the Qwark Vid-Comic series, where Ratchet took it and headed for the game console so he could see if it had any useful information on it, all while Sasha joined them and sat by Angela.

"So, um, I want to apologize for earlier... I shouldn't have done that." Sasha said, speaking to Angela as Autumn resumed her work on all of the schematics that she had been working on recently, while Starswirl continued to study his tomes and learn more about magic, at a frightening pace if she was being perfectly honest.

"Oh, its perfectly fine. There was a time where a single male Lombax would have multiple partners, hence why we know that we're compatible with Cazars and Markazians," Angela replied, reminding Ratchet of what she had said at one point in the past, about the races that they could form bonds with and reproduce with, before focusing on the game as he found that it was set in Metropolis, during one of Qwark's training sessions with Helga, "Considering that Ratchet is the last male Lombax in existence, well, I'm not surprised to find that there are others interested in him, just like I am... I'm even willing to share, if you want."

Autumn held back a chuckle that came from watching the pair, as Sasha seemed both embarrassed and turned on by that fact, even though the Cazar was surprised by the fact that Lombaxes formed prides, which had been done for survival based on what she knew about her brother's species. After thinking about that, and the fact that Ratchet might have more than one girlfriend by the time this adventure was over, she focused on the screen as her brother made her way through the city, collecting tokens and taking down enemies, little red robots designed by Nefarious. This seemed to be the first time Nefarious used his robotic body, in public anyway, and despite that fact Qwark, in some way, was able to beat him in battle and knocked his head clean off during the fight. As Nefarious' head was put in a trash can, however, the robotic doctor declared that he would return one day and bring Metropolis to its knees, even though it looked like there was something wrong with the ending since Qwark took over, meaning he had something to hide from the rest of the galaxy.

With that information in hand Ratchet glanced at Autumn for a moment, who nodded her head and researched if the fight had taken place like Qwark claimed it did, where she was able to find articles of eye witnesses telling people about what was in the Vid-Comic, meaning the accuracy of the game was valid.

"Well, I think we know what the next stage of Nefarious' plan is." Ratchet said, glancing at the screen for a moment, as he had left it on the image of Metropolis so the others could come to the same conclusion that they had reached, and based on what he was seeing Sasha understood it within a matter of seconds, "He said that he'd come back and bring the city to its knees, and with the Biobliterator in hand he's bound to attack it in due time... and with Qwark dead, well, now seems like the perfect time for him to attack the city."

"Set a course for Metropolis and get ready to deploy the Rangers." Sasha stated, speaking into her communicator for a few seconds, so that those on the bridge could hear her order, while at the same time she glanced at the family, who were in the middle of leaving so they could get to the planet first and see what was going on, "Let's hope we're not too late."

With the order given Ratchet and his family returned to their starship and headed for Kerwan, as it was time to see if they could topple Nefarious' plans, maybe even bring him in by arresting him, but this was the perfect chance to avenge Qwark, hence why they got ready for whatever was waiting on the planet.

Sure enough they found that Nefarious' forces were attacking Metropolis, another part of the city anyway, so Ratchet set the smaller ship down on the outskirts of the area the Tyhrranoids were currently in, and, based on what Clank was able to tell, their target was definitely on the planet, which meant the Biobliterator was near as well.

"Alright, let's show them why we're not pushovers." Ratchet said, where he opened fire on the smaller Tyhrranoids that were in front of him and his family, though he was the only one that did that since there weren't too many for everyone to worry about, meaning Autumn could look at the Vendor while Starswirl and Angela glanced around the area in case their enemies attacked this position.

After finding that there were no more weapons to buy, at least not yet, Autumn opened fire on the enemies that were in the building in front of them as the others caught up with her, where they found that these Tyhrranoids were stronger than those who came before them. Their reasoning was due to the more tiger stripe pattern that was on their body, which was completed by the orange body color, instead of the normal blue coloration they were used to seeing from this race, but their enemies still weren't wearing too much armor and it made it easier to knock them down. There were even a few dropships for them to worry about, though none of them did that as Starswirl used his magic to shatter the vessels before they had a chance to either fire on them or deploy more troops. As he did that Ratchet and the others continued to blast all of the Tyhrranoids that were guarding the next building, before they stopped inside the structure in question a couple of seconds later as Autumn spotted something over the ledge in front of them.

In that moment the Biobliterator, a massive spherical device that could be a miniature moon in some sense, rose up from the area Nefarious had stored it in and all of the Tyhrranoids turned back when they saw it, though the family moved the moment it revealed itself and hid themselves behind the walls as the machine was activated, turning everyone that was exposed to its potent rays into a robotic version of themselves.

"He actually did it. He actually used the Biobliterator on the city!" Angela said, though as she said that they found that the new Robot Tyhrranoids were much tougher to take down, as the enhancement allowed them to take more damage before being taken down, and since they were robots the final blow tore them apart.

"Yeah, and if we don't do anything about it, he'll use it on another planet and turn its people into robots." Ratchet stated, where he found a rank moved out as they cleared out the first group of transformed enemies that were in front of them, a foe they didn't have to worry about as Autumn lifted it with her magic and hurled it off the edge, reminding them that her magic was just as strong as her brother's was, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a robot, but being forced into that form, without consenting to the transformation, isn't okay at all."

The others knew that his second statement was more for Clank, just in case he was offended by the first part, but he was perfectly fine with the comment as they moved forward again, finding more robotic enemies blocking the way and caused the group to open fire on them. Of course they also found a number of dropships moving into the area that they just so happened to be moving through at the moment, deploying more soldiers as they opened fire on the family, where a shield sprung up as Starswirl used his magic, opening the way for the others to move forward. As they did that Autumn studied the fallen enemies for a time, because the more she knew about the Biobliterator's transformation process, as while it did look similar to her weapons there was a difference that needed to be discovered, the quicker she might be able to figure out a way to reverse this. While she worked on that both she and Starswirl found Ratchet and Angela fighting side by side, in perfect unison, showing that the pair really didn't need either of the magic users, and the Robot Tyhrranoids fell to the pair, before finding a large group of laser gun wielding foes floating near the edge of the area they were in.

In that moment the Ranger's ship moved by the area they were in and they discovered something interesting, Sasha was on top of it and she leapt over to their enemies, unsheathing what looked like a purple dual bladed beam sword, like the robot ninjas from Clank's show, and cut through one before firing on two of the others, opening the way for the family to take the remaining enemies out so she could safely land.

"I had no idea you could fight." Starswirl commented, as based on what they knew Sasha was just the Captain of the ship her father had designated as the base of operations to combat Nefarious and his plans, meaning he, and most of them to be exact, believed that she wasn't capable of defending herself, so this was a pleasant surprise.

"Well, I was the top score holder in all of my classes, including combat training," Sasha said, though she couldn't blame the family for assuming that she couldn't fight, as she didn't present herself in that light and didn't volunteer that information to everyone she encountered, before they found that she had a jetpack on, much like Angela's, and understood what she wasn't saying, "however, we can talk about that later. We have a Supervillain to beat."

With one more fighter joining the family Ratchet found that the Robot Tyhrranoids stood no chance against their might, as they seemed to be having a hard time dealing with five fighters, before he used the Refractor and moved some lasers so a walkway could connect them to where Nefarious was waiting, on a hover train with Lawrence, not to mention a cage that held Clank inside it.

"I have to admit, Ratchet, that you and your family are far worthier adversaries than that bumbling Qwark!" Nefarious said, showing them that he appreciated heroes that were capable of keeping up with him, instead of either falling behind or just being completely stupid, like Qwark had been from time to time, "Alas, I have a galaxy to conquer, and so I must leave you in the hands of..."

"Your fake Clank?" Autumn asked, where she raised a small button for a moment and tapped it, where the Clank that was in the cage went offline and collapsed into a pile of spare parts, something that caused Nefarious to pause for a moment as he realized that he had been played, instead of him playing them, before she chuckled, "And yes, this is just like that one episode of Secret Agent Clank that you wrote about on some of the forums some time ago... be happy, you should be happy that you can now prove your theory."

"And be annoyed that it worked so well, to the point where I didn't notice anything wrong." Nefarious remarked, though as he said that they found that he wasn't actually unhappy about this, rather he seemed pleased to be able to back up all of his statements on the matter, where he beckoned to Lawrence for a moment and teleported out, showing them that he knew he was beaten and didn't want to fight them.

With that done the group returned to their ship and found the Ranger dropship waiting nearby, to which they took it to the section of Metropolis that was under attack right now, as there was another area that the Robot Tyhrranoids were attacking at the moment. The first thing they had to do was use the gunship to fly around and destroy all of the bombs that had been placed all over this portion of the city, so while Ratchet and Angela did that Sasha joined the others on the ground as they faced off against the ground forces. It didn't take them long to deal with the bombs, allowing the pair to descend to the battlefield and help drive back the invading force, though once again the new and improved Rangers were able to prove that they really didn't need backup, they were able to hold their enemies back. As such the group found that all they had to do was stay in the gunship or a turret and take down their foes, allowing them to save Metropolis from the invading Tyhrranoids, and once everyone was sure that the city was safe the Rangers handed over a Map-O-Matic, which was a device that revealed secrets on a map, which they'd consider using in the future.

With Metropolis saved, and they were sure that Nefarious didn't have any other forces on this planet, the family and Sasha regrouped at the ship before heading back to the Phoenix, as it was time to consider their next move and try to stop their foe from conquering all of Solana with his weapon.

Arsenal: Zeldrin

Upon their return to the Phoenix, and their starship was left nearby, Ratchet, his family, and Sasha discovered that the news was already covering Nefarious' attack on Metropolis, but while it seemed like people were happy that the Rangers were able to save them they were acting like Nefarious had won... even Sasha's father was acting like he was half robot, with all sorts of fake prosthetics, to gain more supporters.

"I don't believe this! Everyone's acting like Nefarious has already won!" Sasha remarked, as she was shocked by this, just like Ratchet and the others were surprised by the discovery, especially when they considered the fact that her father seemed to be buying into Nefarious' plans as well, instead of supporting the Rangers and the heroes who had brought him Qwark.

"If we don't find that Biobliterator soon, we're all going to become his slaves." Starswirl stated, because he and Autumn were sure that Nefarious had set some sort of code into the machine's coding and made it so anyone, no matter who they might be, would obey his orders after their transformation, or at least were influenced by his words, like Skidd was, after all Al discovered so far.

"Wait a second. Before the star cruiser blew up, didn't Qwark say he was trying to find something?" Sasha asked, where she recalled what Ratchet and his family had told her and the others after their visit to the Zeldrin Starport, Qwark's last words to them before he went on his dangerous mission, which they knew ended with his untimely death.

"Yeah, he did... it's a long shot, but I guess it's worth checking the area out." Ratchet said, taking a moment to think about the idea in question, where he was sure Nefarious might have some soldiers waiting for someone to come salvage the wreckage of his cruiser, before he sighed, "The cruiser went down on Planet Zeldrin... we'll go check out the crash site and see if we can find whatever Qwark was looking for. I mean, I'm not expecting to find anything, given the amount of time we had when Nefarious teleported off the ship, but if I've learned anything over the years, and I've learned a lot, it's that you never know what might happen."

Autumn and Starswirl knew what he was talking about, better than Clank or Angela did to be exact, that anything could happen during their visits to the planets that were connected to one of their adventures, like how they awakened all sorts of powers when Qwark betrayed them the first time. Since they were dealing with someone who didn't like Qwark, and no doubt wanted proof that he was successful in taking down his own foe, there was a good chance that this simple visit to Zeldrin would be anything but simple, rather he was expecting trouble. As such the both of them, not to mention Angela, agreed with him, trouble was likely waiting for them in the area that the cruiser's fragments had landed in, so they had to be ready for whatever troops might be down there and whatever obstacles might still be active, since they had no idea if any of the traps had survived. Sasha looked like she wanted to go with them, as she must have enjoyed fighting beside the family, though for now it looked like she was going to remain as the captain of the Phoenix, to keep an eye on the situation they were dealing with and what could be done to counter Nefarious' dark plans.

With that done, and there was nothing else for them to talk about, Ratchet and his family regrouped at the Star Explorer and returned to their starship, allowing him to pull away from the ship before heading for Zeldrin, allowing everyone to get a bit of rest before reaching their next destination.

What Autumn discovered about the planet in question was that it was one of the low populated planets, though despite such a thing no one really knew what sort of natives lived on this planet, as they preferred to stay away from those with more advanced technology. She guessed they were like the natives of Florana, though the people Qwark had been living with, and leading to be exact, had more technology than one might expect them to have, though they had some pieces of information from the last survey group that visited the planet. What they knew was that the planet happened to have a dark purple atmosphere and had two moons orbiting it, though the main feature were the massive number of uneven rock cliffs that were scattered all over the planet, with vast oceans, which made her rethink her thought about the native race that might live on this planet. The others found out why a few moments later, as she was more certain that whoever actually lived on Zeldrin might be more of an underwater race, hence why they knew next to nothing about the race, they could be hiding and keeping themselves hidden, so they might never know the truth.

A few moments later Ratchet touched down on a metal pillar that looked like it could have been a fragment of the massive Leviathan, which was currently resting between two large rock mountains, somehow still mostly intact after Nefarious' trap tore it to shreds, and they climbed off after he turned off the ship.

"I'm sure we'll find something useful, given that we have company." Angela commented, where she gestured to the area in front of where they landed, as there were a number of robotic soldiers guarding the lone path that lead to the side of the Leviathan, and given the number it was clear that Nefarious was worried that something important had survived, which he couldn't let anyone else claim.

"Yeah, no villain would send this many soldiers to salvage a wrecked base, not unless something important was left behind in said base," Autumn said, as she agreed with Angela's comment, it made sense when one thought about it and she could see that Ratchet, Clank, and Starswirl agreed with what they were talking about, before she shifted her stance, "Come on, let's see what sort of information Nefarious is trying to reclaim."

What they discovered was that there was a magnetic path to the right for them to take, another way down besides simply jumping over the edge of the platform Ratchet had landed on, though as they reached a Vendor, which must have fallen out of the Leviathan, some of the robots fired on them. Starswirl threw up a barrier to protect them for a moment, just to give Autumn and the others a chance to see if any new weapons had arrived, though when they found that nothing new had arrived, making them wonder if they had all of the toys that would be available during this adventure, he turned his magic on his foes and turned the fragments of the barrier into shards of ice that took his targets down. After that he found that the others moved forward, firing on the soldiers that were in front of them and the small shock bots that were trying to hit one of them while they were distracted, though when a larger force moved into the area in front of them things got a little interesting. By that Ratchet meant that he, Starswirl, and Angela stepped back as Autumn whipped out the RY3NO for a moment and loosed a volley of rockets at her foes, wiping out the large invasion force that had been sent to smash them into the ground, and once that was done she stored it away before they resumed their mission.

One thing they discovered was that there were a fair number of components scattered around the mountain that Ratchet had landed on, some in decent condition and would fetch a good price on the market, though as Ratchet and the others walked Autumn continued to weave her magic through the air as she claimed new pieces, as she intended on upgrading their starship, maybe to the point of giving it a name.

"These guys have been here for a while, that much we can tell at a glance," Ratchet said, after taking out another group of robotic soldiers, along with one of the larger floating torso robots, though as those words left his mouth he focused on the wreckage that was around them and what it caused him to think about, "so you would think Nefarious would salvage the rest of the wreckage, instead of ignoring everything else... whatever Qwark was looking for has to be incredibly important for Nefarious to disregard the rest of his wrecked cruiser."

"Maybe we'll find a full copy of his battle plans." Starswirl remarked, as that would be grand in the scheme of things, due to the fact that they would be able to topple Nefarious' plans if they knew exactly what he was planning, which was why he was hoping he was right.

"That would be nice, given how in the dark we are." Angela stated, showing that she agreed with the idea that they were clearly thinking about right now, figuring out more about Nefarious' battle plans so they could tear them down and bring ruin to his attempts to conquer the Solana Galaxy.

The rest of the family nodded their heads before moving forward once more, blasting the soldiers that were in the way, as none of Nefarious' forces were going to stop them from figuring out what sort of information Qwark died to obtain, hence why the robots fell as they moved forward. Eventually they came to a lift that looked like it would bring them into the main section of the fallen starship, so the family made sure to blast any enemies in the area before using it to enter Nefarious' ruined ship, finding that, it too, was full of robotic guards that were looking for something. They really had no idea what it was that Nefarious was searching for, just that they knew it had to be incredibly important given all of the soldiers that had been sent here to retrieve it, so they were more than happy to eliminate more of Nefarious' forces. On the other side of the ruined starship, however, Ratchet and his family paused for a moment as they spotted an escape pod, which meant so many things and made them wonder what in the world was going on, but it seemed like no one else had noticed it yet and made sure the robotic soldiers were wiped out before doing anything else.

"An escape pod... how did all of us miss this?" Ratchet asked, referring to the fact that Autumn and Al had looked for such a vessel before giving up on Qwark, though as he said that he and Angela noticed something else, there was a set of large footprints that could only belong to one person.

"I don't know, but we know one thing: Qwark's alive." Angela replied, gesturing to the tracks for a moment, though as she did that Clank disengaged from Ratchet's back and approached the pod for a few seconds, but all of them felt the same, it was a sense of betrayal that Qwark had survived the explosion and fled for his life.

Clank found two things as he studied the pod, the first being a warm Crotchetizer, which he didn't touch, and a screen that displayed a message, that being Qwark, dressed up as a lady, calling for a taxi to take 'her' to an undisclosed location, not to mention bribing the guy to keep quiet about this.

"You know, I was hoping that the events in Bogon would have shaped him into a better person... it appears that this time I was mistaken." Autumn commented, where she let out a sigh as she found what appeared to be a data disk, which had to be what Qwark had seen and had gone back for on the Leviathan, though he left it behind for them to find in due time, no doubt a final gesture to them, or something like that she assumed.

"Well, we had best deliver this to Al and see if he can figure out what's on it." Starswirl said, though he agreed with the rest of his family, he was disappointed in Qwark's actions and the fact that he wasn't saying anything to his own team, after all his talk of trying to get back in the hero business with Nefarious' defeat, "However, we should avoid mentioning him to the others, as it'll break their morale... we can mention him once we find him, if such a thing comes to pass."

The others nodded for a moment before they made their way to the top of the nearby tower, allowing them to use a lone zip line to get back to the ship and return to their starship, though as they headed back to the Phoenix they got a message from the Rangers, who had been assigned to the battleground on Aridia. Apparently Nefarious tried attacking it, or rather his Tyhrranoids did for some reason, and they were called in to deal with it, which they did so with flying colors based on what they were hearing, and one of the Spies sent over something for them. What it was, as Autumn discovered, was one of the Warp Pad devices she had sent the schematics in some time ago, before the events in Bogon, that allowed one to put down a warp point and teleport to it, usually used for fleeing to a safe place, put could be used to solve puzzles, based on all the testing Gadgetron did. It was a 'thank you' for everything she had done for them, which told her that they might need it at some point in the near future and she thanked them for it, though they were happy to hear that the Rangers had no need for their assistance this time around.

With that done they returned to the Phoenix and quickly tracked down Al, where Ratchet handed over the data disk while Autumn claimed another weapon, the Qwack-o-Ray, before they discovered that Al found an unknown edition of the four piece Qwark Vid-Comic series, an unknown fifth that only has a single copy. One other thing they discovered was that they had brought Skidd to the prison cell in the room Sasha had given them, and that it was possible to reverse the process he had been forced to endure, before Al focused on the Omega Class Asymmetric encryption that was on the data disk, which he claimed was a worthy challenge as he headed to the bridge to get to work. After that Ratchet slipped the comic into the console and found that it picked up after the last one ended off, the seemingly broken or edited ending of Nefarious' first assault on Metropolis, with Qwark being knocked out by Lawrence and taken to one of Nefarious' bases, with the intent of killing him in a very painful manner. By the end of the comic he and his family discovered something interesting, Qwark fled to a hidden hideaway in the Thran Asteroid Belt, where the man decided to hide out for a time, so when his foe kept to the shadows he emerged and resumed being a hero for all of Solana.

In that moment they knew what their next objective was, so Autumn left a note explaining that they were looking into a new lead and didn't want to bother anyone if it turned out to be worthless, and once that was done Ratchet set off for the asteroid belt, so they could track down Qwark and get some answers from the man.

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.

Arsenal: Koros

The trip to Koros gave Sasha an idea of what Ratchet, Clank, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl did before reaching the planet they happened to be heading towards, either the ship was on autopilot or Ratchet would be there to make sure nothing surprised them, while the others had other things that needed to be done. Starswirl was making sure his spells and mana were at the ready, or at least that was what he claimed he was doing, which meant he had to be planning on using some serious power when they reached their destination, at least in the defensive manner she hoped. Angela and Clank were in the middle of coming up with a plan of attack for when they arrived, even though Nefarious had limited the ability of the officials to learn more about the planet, meaning it was definitely one of his strongholds, which they should have known from the beginning. Autumn, on the other hand, did something different, she took Sasha's measurements and tapped in a few notes into whatever she was working on, before she discovered that the Kirin was making a set of armor for her that matched what Ratchet and the others were wearing.

In no time Sasha found that she was as outfitted as the family was, with the best armor that had been created so far and all of the weapons that Autumn had developed so far, save for the RY3NO, due to the fact that she and Gadgetron had agreed to only make a single copy of each weapon, just to keep the balance of power with their weapons.

"We've found that the Biobliterator is still on Koros, meaning it must have just returned from an attack," Angela said, due to the fact that she and Clank had been discussing things before speaking to Ratchet and the others, all while they stopped in the space beyond the planet, to keep the starship safe, "not to mention the fact that Nefarious will have posted an army to make sure it stays safe from potential attackers... since we have his data disc, well, he'll be expecting us to make an attempt on his device."

"Given its size we won't be able to take out the device with most of our weapons, and I'm not sure if you two have enough power to take it down," Ratchet added, speaking to Autumn and Starswirl for a moment, as they knew that the pair was powerful and it was hard to know if their enhanced power would be enough to tear the device apart, "however, we might find something on the planet that might help us out. I'm speaking from experience, mind you."

The rest of his family knew what he was talking about, as during some of their missions they ended up finding something useful that allowed them to progress, be it a gadget or even a weapon, while Sasha had a feeling she understood what he was referring to, since she wasn't as experienced as they were. Once that was done they climbed into the Star Explorer and flew down to the planet that was below them, finding that all sorts of ships were flying around the base that Nefarious had set up to guard his device, each having enemy soldiers on them. As they did that, however, Clank informed them that he might have found a weapon capable of dealing with the Biobliterator in one blast, due to the fact that the base had a massive ion cannon that seemed to be targeting asteroids that strayed too close to the planet's surface. Such a thing was all Ratchet and the others needed to know, where Ratchet touched down on the outskirts of what appeared to be a city of some kind before they climbed out and got ready for whatever this planet had to throw at them, since it had to be much tougher given that Nefarious intended for it to be a place of safety for the Biobliterator.

What they discovered was that their enemies were Drones, small yellow robots that hovered from planet to place and had a blast for their right hand, where Autumn recalled that these guys came in droves and they would have to be careful, as there might be a massive number of them waiting for intruders. Sure enough, after checking the Vendor and found that it had no new weapons for them to purchase, the family found that there was a large number of Drones in front of them, to which they opened fire immediately, once one of their foes spotted them and loosed a blast at them. For the time being both Autumn and Starswirl kept their magic at the ready, not using it until it was absolutely necessary, while spotting one of the large war bots guarding part of the path, something that Autumn opened fire on as soon as she noticed it, allowing the others to move on as she broke it. From there they found their way to the center of the city, a common area based on what they were seeing, which had a large force of Drones guarding the area and zeroed in on them as soon as they walked into it, not that the family or Sasha were expecting anything different from what they had seen so far.

As Ratchet and the others blasted and smashed their way through the force of Drones that were in front of them, and they could see that Nefarious had set up quite a number of them to guard this area, Autumn and Starswirl sensed something coming and blasted the air in question, dropping a humanoid creature to the ground, which was followed by the figure laughing as it picked himself up.

"My master told me not to underestimate you two, yet your reactions are better than I originally thought," a voice said, a male one based on what they were hearing, though it was clear that he was talking to Autumn and Starswirl while likely ignoring Ratchet and the others, where they found a humanoid figure emerging from the smoke, a blue skinned person who had a pair of white horns on either side of his head, a crystal on his forehead and the palms of his hands, no shirt as he wore some black baggy pants, "I am M-73, an android created with the sole purpose of taking down you two, Starswirl and Autumn Blaze."

"Which means Nefarious thinks he can counter our magic... how cute." Autumn remarked, where she turned towards the android in question, which would have been an interesting feat if she wasn't sure that this was a pure machine that called itself by that title, otherwise someone would have reported someone going missing, though she loosed a burst of flames at him, something that caused them to watch as it bent inwards and was absorbed by M-73, "Great, he figured out what Zurgo was able to figure out."

Ratchet and Angela knew what Autumn was referring to, there was someone in Bogon who made a device that was able to break down magic and absorb it, which meant that Nefarious had either figured it out or he was far smarter than he and the others assumed. In that moment his brother and sister glanced back at him, causing him to nod as he headed for the area that the ion cannon was resting in, Angela and Sasha following him so they could cripple Nefarious' foul plans, as he knew what was going to happen and they needed to be out of here before the battle happened. Sure enough he felt them start not a few moments later as a pillar of flame appeared once they were out of range, where Autumn, in her Nirik form, sent her foe flying with a punch, even though he was sure that the android, or whatever he was, was trying to absorb the energy of her transformation. Starswirl, on the other hand, did something Ratchet had only heard about when he talked about his studies of the various magics that existed in the universe, his so called 'Sage' form, which came with blue runes on his arms that boosted his power output, making him just as strong as Autumn's fiery Nirik form.

Sure enough, as they blasted through the robotic enemies that were in front of them, the area outside the city shook for a few moments as Autumn and Starswirl clashed with M-73, where it was easy for Ratchet to figure out what was going on, without having to glance back, they were going to overload their foe and blast him to pieces, and even if he proved to be stronger than them it would boost their own power.

"Nefarious must have built that back during our first adventure, in case he needed to get rid of my siblings," Ratchet said, as that seemed to be the most plausible answer for how the mechanical creature had been created in such a short period of time, since he wouldn't have been able to make such a thing within the time since their return to Solana, though as he said that he blasted some of the Drones in front of them.

"Seems likely, given his ability to develop magic absorption technology," Angela remarked, where she reminded herself of what they had seen back in Bogon, Zurgo's device to be exact, which had brought about no great event, which they had been expecting after seeing it in action, all while she smashed her way through some of their enemies and blasted a few more to open the way forward, "besides, it confirms that he sees them, and us, as a threat to his plans... if he beats both Starswirl and Autumn, the biggest threats he has, his chances of success will skyrocket."

"Well, I wish him good luck with that." Sasha stated, swinging her melee weapon and taking several of their enemies down in an instant as the others caught up with her, though this time around she found that she was quite happy fighting on the front lines and not hanging on the Phoenix all the time, all while her thought was about how powerful Ratchet's siblings were, in terms of magical strength.

Clank said nothing as the trio moved through the rest of the defenses that were between them and the ion cannon, while at the same time the sky lit up before something crashed into a group of remaining Drones, the upper half of M-73's body, before Autumn landed nearby and heaved him up into the air so she could blast him apart.

"And done." Autumn remarked, where she let out a sigh as she reverted to her base state, all while Starswirl landed near them and quickly did the same once he realized their foe had been eliminated, before noticing that she had used a decent amount of power to take her foe out.

With that done they made their way through the rest of the defenses, Autumn and Starswirl allowing the others to take on all of their enemies while they rested, before reaching what appeared to be the command center, where Clank climbed off Ratchet's back and took a seat in the chair, something that gave him instant control over the massive ion cannon, which was an oversight on Nefarious' part.

"What the... Agent Clank?!" a voice exclaimed, where they found that one of the screens showed Nefarious, which meant he must have found out about them either taking the ion cannon or destroying his soldier, either way it didn't matter since they were about to checkmate him, "What are you doing?!"

"After all those Holo-films, there is one thing you should know by this point: you do not mess with Agent Clank!" Clank said, where he finished messing with the controls and pushed forward on the main section, where they found that the ion cannon's head moved and pointed straight at the Biobliterator, which was blown to pieces before their eyes, though as Nefarious started to rage he discovered something and deployed the communicator as he cut off the rant, "Incoming call from the Phoenix."

"I know all of you want to celebrate, but I have some bad news," Al stated, as without Sasha aboard the Phoenix, and with Qwark 'dead' to pretty much everyone else, Al was essentially the next in command, not counting any of the Rangers that were aboard the ship, who were likely busy right now, "I just finished decrypting the rest of the data disc and discovered that Nefarious secretly built a second Biobliterator, a new model that is far more dangerous than the one that you guys just destroyed. I've also found that Nefarious has a master control center on Mylon and have downloaded the coordinates to your ship... but be warned, this time he knows you're on your way."

Ratchet and his siblings glanced at each other for a moment, as they were surprised to find that a second Biobliterator had been built, but even if that was the case they knew that this was the end of Nefarious' plans, and all they had to do was break his machine and stop his plans so peace could be brought back to Solana.

Arsenal: Mylon

After dealing with the first Biobliterator, and crippling Nefarious' base on Koros, Ratchet and the others returned to the Star Explorer and docked with their starship once more, where he plugged in the coordinates for Mylon and they got moving not a few moments later. Such a thing gave them time to restock their weapons and wonder what sort of alterations might have been added to the second Biobliterator, as Al was unable to figure out what sort of changes Nefarious had made to it after making the first one, but in the end they decided not to think about it too much. The only downside to this mission was that Al was able to confirm that there was no ion cannon for them to take control of, meaning that to destroy the second orb they would have to either find another weapon, like one of Ranger saucers they used in the past, or rely on one of the magic users to blow it apart. Other than that there was nothing for Ratchet or the others to do but sit and wait for the starship to reach the final destination of this adventure, though Sasha was able to confirm that the Rangers were coming, because they wanted to take part in the battle that would decide the fate of the entire galaxy.

Mylon, as they soon discovered, was a heavily industrialized planet that seemed to be made of multiple islands, based on what Ratchet and his family could see right now, before they spotted the fortress that had the second Biobliterator resting in the air, but it looked like they were going to have to fight through an army to get to their target.

"So, this is Mylon... we need to stay on our toes, since Nefarious knows we're coming." Sasha commented, speaking as they headed down to the furthest point of the fortress and found a place for the Star Explorer to land on, which Ratchet did as fast as possible so they could get started on tearing down their foe's dark plans.

"We've shown him that none of his plans have worked, that he's aware of since he thinks Qwark is dead," Ratchet said, as it was the truth, Nefarious was suffering the same thing that Drek had faced when they first explored the galaxy, but as he said that he noticed that Autumn was sending a short message without telling Sasha, who was focused on what might be ahead of them, "but we should keep our guard up, since there's no telling what he might throw at us."

Starswirl and Autumn nodded their heads as they approached the end of the platform they had landed on, finding that a pair of large Robotic Tyhrranoid guards were standing guard over what appeared to be the only entrance to the fortress, that they could see anyway, where Autumn pulled out her Flux Rifle as the others readied themselves. What happened in the following seconds was that she sniped the first one and took it down with ease, causing the second one to pause for a moment, which opened the way for Ratchet, Angela, Sasha, and Starswirl to swing down to where it was standing before blasting the robot apart. Once that was done they moved through the building that they had been guarding and blasted a couple of brute robots out of the way, even though Ratchet found more of the Robotic Tyhrranoids that were blocking the way to the area that the Biobliterator was stored in, or at least get close enough so they could blast it apart, before their foe was able to activate it. Still, that didn't stop them from advancing further into the fortress, blasting the guards as they tore down any of the cameras Nefarious could use to see them coming, just to keep him in the dark about all the skills the family had to offer, even though the trail of destruction would give him an idea of where they were.

One thing they discovered was that there were a few force fields that were being guarded by some Robotic Tyhrranoids, just like what Ratchet had discovered back in Nefarious' 'secret base' on Aquatos, which caused him to reach for the small device, the Tyhrra-Guise, before glancing at the others for a moment. The problem, as he soon discovered, was that they only had one device and five of them, though Autumn and Starswirl combined their magic, one focusing on the power of the gadget while another fueling another spell, before they were all replaced by Robotic Tyhrranoids, more fleshed out so no one would be able to tell the difference. The family quickly discovered that it worked like a charm as they approached the guardian of the first force field, as the Robotic Tyhhranoid in question thought they were reinforcements, which they confirmed and found that he didn't bother to radio their presence in, before activating the lift to send them deeper into the fortress, causing them to smile once they were out of range. After that they found an area with no enemies and such a thing let them walk in their natural forms for a time, even though the ladder at the end brought them to another section with a force field, so once everyone was in a hidden area they reapplied the spell before moving forward again.

Sure enough they found that the Robotic Tyhrranoid guarding it believed that they were reinforcements and didn't bother to question or report their presence, allowing them to move forward and use a lift to head down to another level, and the moment they were out of sight Autumn and Starswirl dispelled the illusion.

"I know we used magic, but I can't believe that worked." Angela commented, as while she understood that magic was far stronger than what they had seen in the past, especially when she considered how Ratchet and his siblings had chased her under Megacorp's, or Qwark's, orders, but this just made her wonder what else they were capable of.

"With my knowledge of the various spell matrices in existence, anything and everything is possible." Starswirl said, a fact that Ratchet and the others were beginning to understand, as he was far more in tune with his magical side while Autumn was more in tune with technology, and the combination of the two made things more interesting for those who traveled with them.

Autumn nodded her head for a moment as she opened fire on the group of Drones that were in front of them, while both Sasha and Angela used their Flux Rifles to fire at two of the larger Robotic Tyhrranoids they spotted, across a gap and on a pair of short watchtowers that seemed to be connected to the path they needed to take. As they did that Ratchet found an army of robotic enemies guarding the path that would bring them to the Biobliterator, which told him that they must have found the correct path given the level of resistance, but they seemed to be waiting for them and not overwhelming them with their might. As he, Angela, and Sasha started to cross over the gap, using a platform to do so, Autumn and Starswirl used a bit of their magic to knock down any enemies that tried to stop the trio from crossing, and once they were over on the other side it was up to them to defend the area so the pair could catch up. Once they were back together they waged war on the defenders that were scattered all along the path that was in front of them, tearing down their robotic enemies before finding a large metallic door, one that was locked and had a Hacker terminal, though this time around Ratchet and his siblings decided to just ignore it entirely.

What that meant was that Starswirl raised his hand and crushed the door, tearing out the metal and opening the way for them to enter the chamber on the other side, surprising Sasha the more she watched what they were capable of, which also surprised all of the Robotic Tyhrranoids that were inside it, since they were expecting to have a few more minutes to prepare for their arrival.

It took the family no time to tear down the defenders of the chamber and found that the key to open the door forward was to use a laser and two locks, meaning it required the Refractor, though once more Ratchet decided not to worry about it as Starswirl crushed this door as well. With that done he and the others moved forward and found another section that held all sorts of robotic enemies for them to take down, which was what they did without delay, opening fire on Nefarious' guards as they kept an eye on the Biobliterator, since they had no idea if their foe would move it before they reached the end of the command center. At the same time Sasha knew that they were showing Nefarious that nothing he could throw at them mattered, as Autumn and Starswirl weaved a bit of their magic through the air and crushed their enemies as the former used her weapons to do the same, while Ratchet and Angela fought like seasoned warriors, which they were when she thought about their updated profiles. She suspected that the sheer power that the family possessed, both in magical and technical might, was making Nefarious quake in his boots, or however robots quaked in fear, but that didn't stop her from smashing and blasting her foes into submission, instead of falling back and just watching them tear their foes apart on their own.

When they reached the next chamber, which was open, they found the way to the Biobliterator and discovered that both Nefarious and Lawrence were present in front of it, but before anyone could do anything they teleported aboard the large sphere and it moved out into the distance, to one of the battlefields that rested across some islands, but Sasha was glad she had thought ahead. The reason was because the Ranger dropship had arrived and the ramp was lowered so the five of them could climb aboard, though once they were inside the ship each of them restocked their weapons as their pilot tracked down the Biobliterator, confirming that it went out to a set of islands for some reason. None of them needed to be told what was going on, Nefarious was planning on leaving the planet so he could start his attack on Solana, turning all of the planets' inhabitants into robots to cement his victory, meaning the new weapon must have greater energy reserves, a fact they hoped they were wrong about. If the second Biobliterator was self-sustaining it meant he could endlessly attack the planets of the galaxy, without stopping to recharge, and would cripple their chances of tearing his plans apart, which meant they had to stop him now, before he departed from the planet and resumed his conquest.

Once the dropship was above their destination Ratchet and the others descended to where Nefarious was standing, as he seemed to be working on something, and as they did that Starswirl sent out a number of small magical blasts that struck the incoming rockets and opened the way for them to reach their destination, allowing them to land on the platform that Nefarious was standing on.

"You again?!" Nefarious exclaimed, as if believing that they would have realized that he had the upper hand on them and that there was nothing they could do to bring down his plans, all while Ratchet spotted what appeared to be some sort of control panel or miniature ship right behind the robotic doctor, "I will admit, your persistence is admirable, but the lot of you will pay for your insolence towards the new ruler of the entirety of the Solana Galaxy!"

"Sorry Nefarious," Ratchet replied, where he pulled out his Omniwrench and threw it, something that caused Nefarious to dodge out of the way as he smashed the device behind him to pieces, before extending his hand to summon his weapon back to him as he and the others stared at their robotic foe, "both your flight, and your attempts at galactic domination, have been cancelled."

In that moment Nefarious called for Lawrence to assist him and found that, after ordering the 'figure' to destroy them, his assistant had departed after teleporting aboard the Biobliterator, or maybe he was ignoring him as he got ready for some sort of event, causing their foe to groan as he readied himself for battle. One of the abilities that Nefarious had installed in his body was the power to create holograms that he hurled at whoever he was fighting, so it was something that acted on his own actions and could, in fact, harm anyone it touched, hence why they avoided the attack to the best of their ability, all while blasting him in return. Another thing he did was pull out two small guns that fired out surges of black bullets, why they had no idea, though it didn't stop the group from moving around the arena and forcing him to focus on one of them at a time, where he targeted Autumn and Starswirl first, showing them that he wanted them taken down first, to make the battle easier for him. Other than that it didn't seem like he had anything else to throw at the group, so it didn't take them long to knock Nefarious to a knee and he coughed for a moment, forcing him to consider his options once more, all while Ratchet and his family started to surround the area that he was currently resting in.

As it turned out Nefarious had another skill up his sleeve, where he surrounded himself in a barrier and flew off to one of the other islands that was connected to this one, though as he fled they found that he was calling in his soldiers to take all of them down, which put a smile on Sasha's face for a moment. The reason was because the Rangers teleported down to the battlefield and started tearing apart the robots that were in front of them, allowing Ratchet and the others to preserve their ammunition for the final battle with Nefarious, who had to be watching this with disbelief in his eyes. Of course such a thing was only possible thanks to Autumn's changes to the Rangers, which they were grateful for since they could keep the galaxy safe from all sorts of enemies, through for right now they took a step back as the empowered Rangers took out every robotic enemy that was in front of them. When they reached a bridge that lead to where Nefarious was waiting they found that he had two other abilities to throw at the family, one being the power to fire beams of dark energy, which was easy to avoid, while the other was a barrage of missiles that was launched from his body, which likely opened along both of his arms and legs to do so.

When Ratchet and his family reached the final island they found that Nefarious had a final trick up his sleeve, one where he launched a burst of dark energy like it was a bomb, that way when it hit the ground it exploded outward and they had to jump over the ring that emitted from it, but even that didn't stop the family from knocking Nefarious to the ground in a matter of minutes.

'Lawrence!" Nefarious cried, as if he was desperate to take care of them, even though they could see that he was caught off guard by the fact that they were able to do so much to him in such a short period of time, and this time his butler did teleport down to where everyone was standing, this time looking like an old fashioned music player, maybe during the jazz era, and came with fake metallic hair.

"Is this important, sir? Its almost time for my solo, Bass Odyssey!" Lawrence replied, where he messed with the strings for a few seconds, showing them that he had been under the impression that his boss would be able to deal with Ratchet and his family while he was busy with his instrument.

As Nefarious demanded that they get the 'transformation' started, however, Autumn actually stopped them and allowed Lawrence to do his thing, since this battle was eating up his time and he might miss his solo, which brought a smile to his face as he played his tune for all of them. Once he was done, and accepted their applause with a bow, he pulled out one of the triggers they had seen him pull out in the past and clicked it, where the Biobliterator, which was in the center of this entire area, transformed before their eyes, becoming a mech warrior that looked like it might be powerful enough to do a lot of damage to anything that opposed the robotic doctor. With that done Ratchet wasn't surprised to find that the pair of robots had teleported over to the mech's head and Nefarious started to pilot it, aiming at him and his family, though such a thing caused him to grin as Sasha called in one of the Ranger saucers, because his siblings took on their empowered forms before taking to the air. Such a thing allowed Autumn and Starswirl to tank his attention while Ratchet, Angela, and Sasha climbed into the saucer, though there was another reason that they did that and he only became aware of it not a few seconds later, as it was hard to miss another ship flying into the area they were in.

What they discovered was that it was Qwark, as his ship was his usual green and bared his marking, and he blasted the chest of the Biobliterator, though while it didn't do a lot of damage they heard Nefarious screaming in anger and disbelief as he realized his foe was still alive. Of course Sasha had to wonder if Ratchet and his family knew about Qwark's survival and had purposely kept quiet about it, and it made sense when she considered what their note had said, but decided that, even if that was the case, it had been a good call, since knowing that Qwark had abandoned them would have crippled the Q-Force. As she thought about that Ratchet moved them into the air and moved out of the way of the incoming missiles, as Nefarious was firing at everyone who dared to stand between him and his desire to dominate everything in the Solana Galaxy, allowing Angela and Sasha to blast the missiles out of the air as Autumn and Starswirl dealt blow after blow to the large mech. Their magical attacks opened up several holes in Nefarious' mech, allowing Qwark to fire his own missiles into them and deal greater damage to the machine, where they could see that things were starting to fall apart, meaning the robotic doctor must have missed something when he made it, before the magic users combined their magic with a missile that Qwark fired, which tore into the machine and blasted it apart in a violent explosion.

The only thing that remained was the head and it, too, ended up blowing up a minute later, though Autumn found that a faint teleport signature was lingering where it had rested, meaning Nefarious was out there somewhere, but as she and the others cheered for their victory she knew that their foe was too far away to do anything and they could rest easy with another adventure brought to a successful close.

Interlude: Election Mess

Following the destruction of the second Biobliterator, and the total downfall of Nefarious' plans, especially since the mad doctor disappeared after what happened on Mylon, Ratchet and his family, joined by Qwark, returned to the Phoenix and proclaimed their victory to all of their allies. Autumn, Al, and Angela then combined their knowledge and skills to make a device that reversed the transformation process that people were forced to endure by Nefarious' machine, though at the same time, since the President didn't want to ruin his election chances, they made a setting that removed any coding that was left by Nefarious' machine. What that meant was that he was ensuring that anyone who wanted to remain a robot, as a few did step forward and mention something like that, could remain in their new state while also making sure to stop any of them from picking up Nefarious' banner, which caused Sasha to bring her palm to her face when she heard it. Sasha was fine with people deciding which form they wanted to take, as she wasn't about to do anything to stop them, but she had a feeling that this would fade in due time, since many were being influenced by Nefarious' attacks on the planets and that was the cause of many of the transformed turning away from their forms.

During that time Clank also received word that the new holo-film in the Secret Agent Clank series would be coming out in the near future, giving them something to look forward to and he made sure to tell the others, even though they were all focused on cleaning up the mess Nefarious left behind.

While they were doing that Sasha also asked Qwark about his timely arrival, where the man came up with a story about how he had narrowly escaped death on the Leviathan, using two escape pods to survive, one containing the data disc that was found on Zeldrin and another that contained him. His story went on to explain that he had been blasted to a desolate part of a planet he had set up a base on a long time ago, one Autumn was able to confirm the existence of since it was listed in the collection of assets that were claimed from Qwark after the end of their first adventure. Such a thing meant that it took him some time to actually figure out what was going on in Solana, after what happened to the Leviathan, because it had been a while since his last visit and many of the systems were terribly outdated, even though his ship was more up to date than the rest of the base. He finished by saying that it was a miracle that he was able to make contact with Autumn, who was sending messages to his former bases in the hopes that he had survived, and he reacted instantly, getting in his ship and heading to Mylon as fast as he could muster.

Sasha glanced at the family and found that none of them really bought Qwark's story, confirming that they knew he had survived and kept it quiet for some time, but she didn't publicly question it, since he had been restored to his hero status by her father and it wouldn't do well for her to challenge his 'official' story.

As the heroes celebrated their victory over Nefarious, and went about fixing the mess he had made, a few things became public knowledge to the population of the Solana Galaxy, a few things damaging the President's authority, especially with the upcoming election that he was partaking in. It wasn't his shameful attempt to pull in the newly transformed robots to his side, to get more votes while they were still suffering, though it was mentioned, rather the main story was about how the President decided to appoint Qwark, a known criminal that he officially pardoned, as the head of the force that was facing Nefarious. The reasoning behind that was because the Blarg who was running against him claimed that he chose a corrupted superhero over his own daughter, as Sasha had proven that she had the ability to lead an effective strike force, a sure sign of a bad leader that they would chose someone who wasn't trustworthy, and Qwark claiming that he hogged the attention so the real heroes could do their thing hurt the President even more. Most of Solana knew that the heroes of this event were Ratchet, his siblings, Clank, Angela, and Sasha, which just added to the damage done to the President's chances to win the election, and his opponent was going to great lengths to make sure everyone knew that electing their current President had been a mistake, one he aimed to correct.

While everyone else focused on celebrating, which was understandable after defeating another villain, Autumn went out and did a bit of research on her own, finding that multiple worlds would, in fact, elect Sasha if she was in the running, as while many would hold her father's actions against her they were also willing to see how different she would be, if such a thing came to pass... eventually leading to an important conversation not a week after Nefarious' defeat, between Sasha and Rather's family.

"Listen, Autumn, I realize that my father isn't the best of leaders, but he's trying his best." Sasha replied, as she listened to what Ratchet's sister had to say and, while part of her wondered if her results would be accurate if she ran for office, she had something she wanted to say, in the privacy of the section of the Phoenix she gave to them, "Though I will admit that his opponent this time around is much worse than his last one... mind you, Qwark was his last opponent and he only beat our superhero friend by a slim margin."

"His opponent is basically Drek junior, in the sense that he seems to be the type that wants power and might be seeking to expand his domain," Ratchet commented, as that was his opinion on the Blarg candidate that was running against Sasha's father right now, a bad thing when he thought about it, and yet there was one thing they all agreed on, the President was going to lose this rare, regardless if they did anything or not, "Sasha, you have to admit that stopping that sort of person from winning is worth throwing your hat into the ring, especially since there's a lot of people that would support you, not to mention Qwark has spoke highly of your skills... yes, there are some that would try to discredit Qwark, based on his old sins, but the galaxy has accepted that he's a hero again and his words carry weight once more."

"You're right, I can't let him win the upcoming election," Sasha said, where she sighed for a moment, as she had planned on avoiding this to the best of her ability, due to the fact that she didn't want to follow in her father's footsteps, and yet it looked like fate was bringing it back into her life, "Fine. Call Qwark and tell him that I'm entering the race, though while you do that I'll head to Marcadia and inform the officials that I'll be entering my name as well... hopefully this works out and we aren't too late to enter a third party into this election."

While Sasha did that, and Ratchet made the call so Qwark would know what was going on, Angela spent a little time doing something to aid them in the election, mostly finding polls and adding Sasha's name to them, in the sense that if she was to appear how would people react to her joining the running. Of course Autumn and Starswirl didn't get involved, in fact the pair knew that they didn't need to get involved, as Sasha was more than capable of winning this thing on her own and everyone understood that fact, though Ratchet and Angela didn't mind helping her out. Part of the reason was due to the fact that the galaxy knew that they were the heroes of two galaxies and, if they were siding with Sasha, there had to be a good reason for it, so it would help her beat the Blarg candidate when it came time for the election. In addition to that the rest of Solana knew that she had taken part in the final battle against Nefarious, in fact almost everyone knew about her part in repelling the attack on Metropolis, so having a warrior President, who knew what needed to be done to take down the supervillains, might be the key to winning them over.

Autumn chuckled as she got to work on the next generation of weapons and gadgets that were on her mind, because now that Nefarious was done for there was no reason for them to worry about anything happening for a year, the average time between their adventures, and she could prepare for their next adventure. Starswirl continued to study the tomes that he had access to, finding other types of magic that he and his sister might be interested in mastering, especially one spell, if he was reading things right, that could be applied to jewelry. The spell was designed to absorb the magical energy of the wearer, similar to the devices they found during this adventure and the last one, only it was on their terms, though it also came with a few effects, like how the rings would be cursed and could only be removed by the owner's hand, so if one of them did such a thing only they could remove it. The other side effect was that if they ended up removing the jewelry that held the enchantment it would release their power, everything that was hidden inside that piece, though given the vast amount of power that he and Autumn had it was a great way to hide their power without any side effects.

When he informed Autumn of it she chuckled as she considered what they could be made of, because there were all sorts of metal alloys in the two galaxies and, after studying the enchantment, she had an idea of what to use to try and make the jewelry her brother had in mind, making her all the more eager for what the future held for them.

Deadlocked: Capture and Qualification

Ratchet found that six months went by since Nefarious' defeat, where the election rocked the galaxy and people were very pleased with the candidate that had been chosen, something that caused him to lightly chuckle as he considered who had won the position. Sasha had, as per their predictions, won the election by a landslide and took her father's place as the President of the Solana Galaxy, which meant that she had to step down as the Captain of the Phoenix, which Ratchet had offered to watch over until she found someone who was deserving of the position. The people had flocked to her side as soon as her name was added to the roster of candidates, showing Ratchet and his family that many appreciated her work in saving Solana from Nefarious, though they had also named Qwark, of all people, as her Vice President. The family decided that it was for the best, as the man seemed to have taken their talk on the Thran Asteroid Belt, and what happened after the downfall of his greatest foe, to heart and was turning over a new leaf, even though the role he was now in meant that he was back in a familiar role, which meant they had to carefully watch him.

One other thing that happened was that the family had come up with a name for their own starship, the Helios, which was currently docked near Veldin, due to the fact that Angela was moving things from the family's old home onto it, what she and the inhabitants could find anyway, and transport the items to a new house in Metropolis. The reasoning for that was due to the fact that both of Solana's last villains had attacked the planet of Kerwan, or more specifically the city itself, so Ratchet and Clank decided that moving into the city meant that, when the next one showed up, they could be ready for it and react accordingly. There was a fine apartment that they were planning on moving into, with enough rooms for everyone, which also included Sasha when she was able to make time to hang out with them, and among the personal items they wanted to recover was something important to Ratchet, the pod that he had arrived in all those years ago, a second reminder that his missing twin sister was out there somewhere. Such a thing reminded Autumn of the forums she had read over during the election process, of people debating what the significance of Ratchet's necklace was, why it was half of a flat orb, and all sorts of other things that were related to it, causing her to chuckle as she read them.

Of course Ratchet spent a bit of time trying to figure out new ways to track down his sister, especially since the Plumber didn't want to help them and they haven't seen him since Aquatos, but even as he continued to fail in his quest he didn't stop, as he wanted to find her and set things right.

While that happened Autumn and Starswirl were able to do a couple of things with their magic, or more accurately they found a way to utilize the enchantment that had been found and combine it with jewelry to make the rings that Starswirl was interested in making for the both of them. They found that creating the enchanted jewelry was possible, much to the surprise of their brother, only instead of a ring, or even a set, they somehow, against all odds, made an amulet that was made out of Raritanium and had a design that included the head and wings of an 'Alicorn', leading to Starswirl sealing it in his private space, due to the dark nature of the artifact. Other than that they just learned more about the types of magic that existed out there, based on what they found in tomes that Starswirl bought for them, like a spell that allowed one to form a bow out of an element, like fire or water for example, and then use arrows of the same element to attack enemies. Of course neither of them could practice on the Helios or their new apartment, which was why Autumn purchased two sets of virtual trainers, just like what was on the Phoenix, so that way they could master whatever spells her brother discovered without damaging anything important, and with the custom scenario creator it meant that both of them could master all sorts of situations before they actually happened.

With Nefarious defeated Ratchet found that the Rangers were still incredibly busy, making him wonder when this galaxy started being a hotbed of danger, meaning it must have happened after Drek's defeat, as breaking planets to build a far larger one seemed like the perfect catalyst. If Qwark was still evil he would have blamed the mess on the man, claiming it was another way for him to get back into the superhero light he was used to, but he didn't, rather he determined that the other dangers had been lingering in the shadows and Drek only served as the catalyst to bring them out. With that in mind his offer to watch over the Phoenix had a second meaning, as it needed someone to watch over and maintain it, hence the reason he spent more time aboard the starship, until Sasha found a more permanent and trustworthy person to watch her ship. Of course Ratchet knew that there were parts that he wasn't knowledgeable in, so he managed to convince Al to work on the ship, and since it was working for the President it meant he had a generous paycheck, and Clank joined him to make sure Sasha's ship was well maintained and all of the Rangers had a place to rest before being deployed once more, though they also cleaned out the quarters they had been given.

Of course they were expecting the arrangement to last a month, maybe two, but it stretched into six and Ratchet felt that, with the amount of time Sasha was spending on her presidential duties, that it would be some time before they found the replacement that she was looking for.

"Incoming call from the Galactic President." Clank said, snapping Ratchet back to reality as he spoke, as they were sitting in the Phoenix's bridge at the moment, moving to another part of the Solana Galaxy, while both Autumn and Starswirl were nearby, working on some consoles to help their brother out, and he and Al were near Ratchet, "The new Galactic President."

"Greetings, Madame President," Ratchet said, speaking once the connection was established and they could see Sasha, in all her glory, on the other side, where it was easy for them to see that the call this time around was coming from her office in Metropolis, and despite the hard work she seemed to be doing well, "You seem to be doing well."

"Greetings, Captain." Sasha replied, though she let out a chuckle that made one wonder if she regretted her decision to do this, even if it was for the greater good of the Solana Galaxy, especially since the Blarg had captured the candidate of their species and imprisoned him for acting like Drek, "I see that you've been taking good care of my ship."

"Well, she needed some tuning up, but we've kept her in good shape." Ratchet remarked, because while he was skilled in working on machines, especially ships, smaller vessels, and even large starships, there were areas he was still learning about and that work fell on either Clank or Al, hence why he beckoned to them, "What seems to be the problem?"

The reason he asked that was because Sasha wouldn't waste time with a call like this, if she wanted some relief from all of her new duties, especially since Angela was still in Metropolis and could have been called in for idle conversation, which meant she must have found something for him and his siblings to do.

"I'm afraid I come baring bad news: as you all know, over a month ago Captain Starshield went missing," Sasha stated, as it had been all over the news, the superhero had been kidnapped from his own residence with no signs of struggle, so while many assumed he had gone on vacation, and would be back in due time, a month gone was too much, before she let out a sigh, "I've just been informed that he's been killed."

Ratchet paused for a moment as Al gasped in shock, because back before Qwark stole all the spotlight there was another tier of hero in Solana, the 2nd Tier as some called it, who worked for the betterment of Solana, instead of seeking money and the spotlight, while he knew that his family and Qwark were classified as 1st Tier superheroes, the super stars when one considered the information.

"What happened?" Autumn asked, as she knew that her brother was mourning the fallen hero, due to the fact that Captain Starshield had been a second hero to him, with Qwark being the main one before all of them discovered the darkness that was in his heart.

"According to the reports he was involved in some sort of illegal combat sport: DreadZone." Sasha replied, where she took a moment to tap a button and revealed an image of an alien that had blue skin, looked like a humanoid with a couple of shark features, and a red suit that suggested he was a businessman, "We believe that it is being run by this man, Gleeman Vox, who operates an underground media empire from the Shadow Sector."

"The lawless section of the Solana Galaxy?" Starswirl inquired, which was strange to hear that it was being mentioned, due to the fact that no one really liked to head out there and see what sort of discoveries could be found inside it, though as he thought about it he knew it was the perfect place to hide such an empire.

"Indeed. Its good to see that you guys are keeping up with the paperwork as well." Sasha commented, though while it was an official compliment, in case someone was listening to their conversations since people always tried to bring down the President and replay them with another person, she knew that Autumn and Starswirl had likely known about it for a long time, since before it was brought to her attention, "We're doing a bit of research, to see if we can learn anything else, but I was thinking of sending you guys in to investigate DreadZone, bring down Vox, and save anyone he's kidnapped... many of the other 2nd Tier heroes have been kidnapped recently, all from their homes no less, and since you four are the greatest heroes in Solana its only a matter of time until he comes for you. I wanted to warn you guys, before..."

In that moment their connection was cut as something hit the Phoenix, which seemed to be an emp that was designed to stall a starship, though as they got up and grabbed their weapons, as Al stepped back for the heroes to do their job, they were shocked into submission by a team of troopers that teleported aboard the Phoenix, bypassing the security measures Autumn had installed, and the siblings knew nothing more as they hit the ground.

When Ratchet regained consciousness, after who knew how long of being knocked out, he found that he was no longer on the Phoenix, rather he was aboard some sort of space station and was resting on a metallic table, only for him to find that he had been outfitted with some sort of armor. It came with a visor that seemed to be orange colored, why he had no idea and he really didn't care when he thought about such a thing, before finding that Al was walking around nearby, working on two other sets of armor, modeled to fit both of his siblings. One thing he instantly noticed was that there was a metallic collar around his neck, one that looked like it was connected to some sort of device that he couldn't see right now, but this told him everything he needed to know, especially when he saw a symbol that was red and looked like it might have three horns. Once his siblings woke up he knew that they would think the same thing he was currently thinking, they were in the Shadow Sector, no doubt having been captured by Vox's minions and forced into DreadZone, without a say in the matter based on the fact that they had been shocked into submission on the Phoenix, meaning they would have to be careful for the duration of their time in this place.

Al seemed to notice that he was moving, not to mention the fact that his siblings were starting to move as well, where he walked over and made sure that all three of them could accurately count the fingers he was showing them, though once he was done with that he tested some of the circuitry that had been added to the armor... causing him and his siblings to teleport out of the area and appear in what appeared to be a training course of some kind.

The new armor you're wearing is standard issue for new contestants. Al stated, speaking over the communicator that was in their armor, where Ratchet found that it was a full body suit and all three of them were wearing red, though his had brown stripes to match his Lombax stripes, Starswirl had white stripes for some reason, and Autumn had gold stripes, just to tell each other apart.

"No need to tell us... we're in DreadZone." Autumn remarked, as there was no reason for them to be told anything about the situation they were in, they were smart enough to figure things out on their own, though Ratchet could see that she didn't like the look of her armor, meaning it had to be cheaper than what they were used to.

Indeed, however, if you do not complete the qualification course in the allotted time, we will all be terminated. Clank added, where they found that he wasn't on Ratchet's back, which was odd considering that this was a new adventure, but it just meant that Vox didn't want to give him an unfair advantage over the other contestants, or whoever they would be forced to fight against.

Based on what they could see both Al and Clank were their assistants, in whatever capacity that meant for DreadZone, not to mention Vox had provided them with two weapons, a pair of small guns called Dual Vipers and a shotgun like weapon known as the Magma Cannon, as their starting gear. The first thing they were supposed to do was move around and make sure their software was working correctly, the targeting matrix of the battlesuits to be exact, before taking down three of Vox's holo-targets, used for training new contestants and getting them ready for the arena. Since the siblings were in the area, and not separated into different groups, it took them no time at all as each one targeted a single hologram and took them down before whoever was maintaining this area. With that done they jumped up a few platforms and reached the area that contained a small chamber and a teleport pad, one Autumn was able to tell that their suits would interact with if they stepped on them, which was what they did without delay.

As they appeared in another section of the station, an arena to ensure that new contestants had the combat abilities that were needed to survive in DreadZone, Autumn discovered that their suits also came with a map feature, which meant they would know the boundaries of the arenas they were sent to, before they were stopped by an image of Vox appearing on a nearby screen.

Greetings, hero! And welcome to DreadZone! Vox stated, where they were able to tell that this was a recording, which he must have filmed when he first started abducting heroes and forced them to fight for his amusement, and entertain all of the people who watched his network, so they said nothing as they listened to his speech, Rest assured, you are now far beyond the reach of hope. There will be no rescues, no pardons, no possibility of escape. You are now a contestant on the greatest holovision program the galaxy has ever known! A celebrity gladiator battling for the pleasure of a billion screaming fans across the Shadow Sector and beyond. Chances are you'll be dead by tomorrow. But, those of you who play the game with skill and strategy will earn the chance to win your freedom. So, good luck, hero. We'll be watching you.

Ratchet and his siblings said nothing as they found themselves thrust into the rest of the qualifying test, where they found some new enemies waiting for them, one being a robotic gladiator that must have been mass produced for Vox, another being the death balls they were familiar with, and the last being cybernetic insect gladiators. With three opponents both the robotic gladiators and the death balls didn't last too long, leaving the last one as a more worthwhile foe for them, and given their skill with the blades attached to their arms the siblings had to be careful. The Dual Vipers packed quite a bit of a punch, even though it took multiple hits to take a single foe down, and even the shotgun nature of the Magma Cannon took multiple hits to knock their foes out, which seemed to be the name of the game. Vox wanted entertainment and that meant that killing enemies easy ruined the purpose of his network, so his weapons were weaker than what Ratchet and his siblings were used to wielding during their various adventures, and since Autumn had stored her arsenal earlier they didn't have anything to tip the odds in their favor.

Of course they all still had their melee weapons, interestingly enough, and both of his siblings could use magic, so while the guns made things more difficult they found that it was basically the same for them and, in the end, they walked away from the arena with their heads held high and discovered a screen waiting for the three of them.

Note the Deadlock collar securely fastened around your neck. Vox said, though this time around it seemed more like he was speaking to them and not leaving a recording, all while two crash test robots stepped into the arena, both wearing metallic collars like what Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were wearing, This collar cannot be broken or removed. Should you stray into any restricted area, the collar will administer an extremely painful shock. Observe.

One of the robots jumped into the air and was basically electrocuted to death, meaning they must have altered his collar to showcase the power of the foul necklace, something that caused them to turn back towards the screen and found that Vox was enjoying the show, meaning he enjoyed tormenting everyone he captured or employed.

Should a contestant become uncooperative or worse, boring, his or her collar can be detonated at any time with the push of a button. Vox continued, where they watched as he tapped a button and the second robot has his head blown off, effectively killing him in a matter of seconds, before he turned to face them once more, Also, we are aware of the power that you two possess and have made sure that your collars will respond to any magical tampering... so if you try any funny business, to try and get around our collars, it will cost you dearly.

Ratchet had to admit that Vox was smarter than they gave him credit for, he had prepared for his siblings, which meant he must have been planning this since they returned to Solana and showed that they were the heroes they had been back when Drek was messing with his Deplanetizer. With that done they were allowed to return to their suite, the section of the station that they would be spending the 'rest of their lives in', and found that Clank was in charge of communications and Al was designing helper bots that could aid one of them in the arenas. His reasoning on the matter was because they had no idea what sort of challenges might be thrown at Ratchet and his siblings, especially one that made only one of them go into the arena, so this was for when something like that happened, if it came to pass. While he did that Clank was working on ways to get around the communication obstacles he had found so far, as he was looking for ways to get messages to them without Vox knowing, and, more importantly, both he and Al were considering ways to get around the collars, but before he did that he had to mess with the camera system.

The siblings barely had any time to rest as a shuttle arrived to take them to the Battledome, as it appeared that Mobius Man had fallen in battle, though they ignored the message that played as they flew to the main arena that they would be spending a fair amount of time in, since they had no points to their name at the moment.

One of the things they discovered was that there was a pair of announcers, Dallas and Juanita, who seemed to have near free reign of commentary, as it appeared that they didn't like many of the contestants, but the discovery that the siblings, the greatest heroes in Solana were here, shut them up right quick. After entering the arena they found more of the foes they had fought so far appear in front of them, combined with red dropships and some little robotic snappers, something that caused Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to fire on their enemies without delay. During their battle Clank informed the three of them that if they were ever out on their own, and had the modified helper bots heading into the arena with them, that they could revive a downed robot with one of the abilities that came with their new suits. Ratchet and his siblings had no desire to use that information in the future, since Vox might be forced to ensure that two of them were together at any time during their stay here, but Autumn filed it away anyway, just in the off chance they were separated from each other, before they smashed through the rest of their foes and dropped down onto a walkway to move forward.

Such a thing brought them to a larger arena that seemed to be the main battleground for DreadZone, where Ratchet and Starswirl focused on all of the enemies the dropships brought in while Autumn focused on the remainder that were on the other half of the arena. What that meant was that the arena they were on was divided in half, which became accessible as time went on, though the crowd was cheering as she smashed her way through them and cleared their section, allowing her and her brothers to move forward once the coast was clear. After that they found their way to a turret that looked like it had been taken from a tank and transplanted on the ground, plus it even had a shield that protected it from harm, so all of them hid behind some of the metallic barricades as Autumn assessed their situation. What she found was that each of their suits had the ability to command their helper bots to fire emp bursts at certain targets, though in this case pressing the button allowed one to summon a ball of energy that contained the same power, allowing her to disable the gun and its shield so her siblings could take it down.

With the turret destroyed they were awarded a Green Medal, which seemed to be important for the competition, before they were teleported back to the shuttle and returned to their section of DreadZone, finding that Clank and Al were eager to speak with them after their success.

"You did well, though I'm afraid that you won't have time to rest, since the planetary transport is coming," Al said, which told the siblings all they needed to know, Vox wanted to make sure they were put to work, creating episodes for his show so he could milk his media empire for more Bolts, before he held a hand out, revealing Ratchet's necklace, "oh, and I made sure to take this when we were searched earlier... didn't want Vox to hold this over you, given how important it is to you and your personal quest."

Ratchet smiled as he accepted his necklace and returned it to its proper position around his neck, not wanting to imagine what Vox would have done had he known about it, before he and his siblings head for the transport ship, as it was time to see what planet he was sending them to and how they were going to ruin his foul plans.

Deadlocked: Catacrom Four

Before Ratchet and his siblings departed from DreadZone they stopped at the Vendor that was at the edge of their section, where they found a grenade launcher known as the B6-Obliterator, along with an Omega Mod, which seemed to add some sort of effect to the weapons that Vox had created. Autumn found that, despite the fact that it would be unfair to the rest of the contestants, she and her brothers had access to their Bolt accounts, meaning Vox wanted their money as well, so she made sure to purchase the weapon and ignored the modifications for now. Her reasoning was because Sasha and Angela were no doubt looking for them and leaving a bread crumb trail would bring allies to their aid, where it depended on how fast they arrived and how far they were in tearing apart Vox's plans. Once that was done the siblings boarded the transport ship that was waiting for them, as it was time to see what sort of games he had in store for them and what sort of obstacles he had created to challenge the contestants that were pulled into this dark sport.

The inside of the ship appeared to be a sitting area with some guards to watch over them, so they took some seats as they learned about where they were headed, as there was a screen wit the name Catacrom Four on it, part of the Catacrom set of planets, of which it appeared that there were four in total. That appeared to be the only thing Vox wanted his gladiators to know about the planet, causing Autumn to sigh as she sat back, as she was hoping to learn more about the planets that were in the Shadow Sector during their time in DreadZone, but Vox clearly didn't approve of giving anyone anything about the planets they were being sent to. None of the guards said anything, meaning the robots were designed to simply watch over the contestants and make sure they got off whenever they arrived at their destination, causing the siblings to sit down and simply wait for the ship to reach Catacrom Four. As such there was nothing they could do but sit there and rest, to save their energy for whatever was waiting for them and whatever types of enemies might be on the planet, since there had to be some sort of variety, otherwise people wouldn't tune in and watch the show.

One thing they discovered was that Vox had left a message for them, indicating that only one magic user would be fighting beside Ratchet at a time, as he claimed that two would just kill the ratings and he'd be forced to end their lives, going on the fact that any boring contestants would be terminated, causing them to sigh as they waited for the ship to reach their first DreadZone destination.

"I think I'll go first, allowing Starswirl to take the next planet," Autumn remarked, as she had been thinking about things, or more accurately the rule that Vox was trying to impose on them, and this was her opinion on the matter, where both she and Ratchet found that their brother didn't seem to mind her decision, "not that it matters, since we'll overcome whatever Vox decides to send at us."

No one could really say anything else as they reached their destination, where Ratchet and Autumn were pulled off to the side and teleported down to the start of whatever course Vox had created for the contestants, discovering that a lone ship floated in the air with Dallas and Juanita aboard it, even though the area in front of them looked like an ancient temple of some kind.

"The Vox construction team really outdid themselves in turning this once sacred robotic burial ground into deadly DreadZone battle course!" Dallas commented, giving them more information about Catacrom Four, that it was the home of a robotic burial ground and that Vox clearly didn't respect anything if he twisted the temple into an arena for those he captured to fight for the entertainment of his twisted masses.

"Of course they had to prepare the battle course in preparation for Autumn and Starswirl's arrival," Juanita remarked, a fact that told all three of the siblings more information, that whatever course might have been here in the past had been reworked after the decision to capture Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, "I've heard that they're seasoned commandos, so this season should be rather interesting to watch... certainly better than watching a bleeder get crushed by the dangers of the modified battle course."

As Ratchet and Autumn teleported down to the start of the battle course the first thing they did was access the Vendor for a few moments and found a new weapon, the Holoshield Launcher, ready for purchase, to Autumn added it to their new arsenal before they headed down the path in front of them. What they discovered were more of DreadZone's gladiators waiting in their way, plus some of the blade spheres, which fell in a matter of seconds before they found a turret waiting in front of them, to which Autumn deployed one of the new shields to tank the bullets. As she did that Ratchet did what he had seen back in the main DreadZone arena, he tapped a button on his armor and deployed an emp that shocked their foe into submission, allowing him and his sister to blast the machine to pieces before moving forward. After that the pair found more gladiators coming to face them, which were blasted into submission without much trouble, and Autumn used the emp to shock some platforms into losing the electricity trap that was on them, allowing them to move forward and use a jump pad to launch them up to the blue waypoint that was their destination.

The waypoint was designed to show contestants their objectives, which appeared as stars on their maps, though as they reached it the siblings paused as they stared out at the altered temple that was in front of them, plus the dead trees that lingered around the area.

"As Team Darkstar continues toward the Catacrom Burial Dome, they'll need to cross what I like to call the chasm of endless falling and eventual dying." Dallas remarked, which the siblings were fine with, since it appeared that he and his partner were supposed to give them their next mission once they succeeded in overcoming the current one, or at least that was what it looked like, "In the unlikely event that they survive, they'll take control of the big, bad, and burly walking armored tank called the Landstalker. Good luck, kids."

Based on what they could see there were tree targets for them to claim, three bolt cranks that needed to be turned, due to the red objective waypoints that appeared on their maps, while a blue one appeared even further away, the location of the Landstalker no doubt. With that information in hand the pair jumped down into the burial grounds, which happened to be when they had their first encounter with the undead gladiators, who tore themselves out of the ground and groaned for a moment before discovering that enemies were nearby. Autumn had a feeling that whatever curse had been placed on all of Captain Blackstar's crew, turning into into robotic ghosts, might have been altered and placed on this planet as a defensive mechanism to keep whatever treasures were here safe from plunderers, but, knowing Vox, the treasures must have been looted when the course was built. The undead likely knew that Vox's people had taken their sacred items, and had trashed their sacred temple, and since Ratchet and Autumn's armor had the marking of DreadZone on them it was far too easy for them to understand why the risen wanted to kill them, since they assumed that they were part of the team that stole their sacred treasure.

Even with that thought in mind the siblings didn't stop, heading to the dead end to their immediate left and found one of the three cranks they had to turn, to which Autumn defended Ratchet as she blasted all of the incoming undead enemies that were rushing at them. When he finished turning the crank he joined her as they moved out from the section that was near the chasm edge, where they blasted the enemies that were in front of them and made their way to the next crank, as it was off to the right of the temple's main entrance. Of course they found more of the DreadZone gladiators moving in to face them as well, to which Autumn seized them with her magic and dragged them down to the ground, giving the risen a few targets to tear down so Ratchet could safely turn the second crank. After that they entered the main temple and just repeated what they had done so far, they blasted their way through the risen, tore down all of Vox's gladiators, disabled a turret's shield and blasted it until it exploded, and then turned the crank they had been guarding.

With all three cranks turned an energy walkway sprung to life nearby, allowing them to cross to an area that had more of the risen and gladiators guarding it, not that such a thing mattered since they were able to blast their way through them and reached a few Swingshot targets, finding that the armor came with one built in, allowing them to swing to where the Landstalker was resting. It was a four legged tank that had some powerful guns attached to it, along with a pair of missile launchers on top of it, though while one person could pilot it just fine, based on what they could see, it was also built for two in mind, depending on the number of contestants forced to work together. Ratchet climbed in and took control of the main systems without delay, while Autumn took control of the launchers, though as they did that Dallas informed them, or more accurately the people watching the show, that the Landstalker had a number of features and had the power to wipe out a small star system, the last one she sincerely doubted. If it had that much power there was no way Vox would use it in his show, rather he would have likely used it on the people of Solana at some point, forcing them to submit to whatever his demands were, so it wasn't as powerful as Dallas claimed it was, and even if Autumn tore into it she was sure that she wouldn't be able to bring that to reality, not with the components she had.

Once they knew how to control the Landstalker, which was rather easy, Ratchet started to move forward and blasted his way through the metallic fence that was in front of them, though while he focused on the smaller enemies Autumn used the missile launchers to blast the dropships out of the air and tore down a turret that was in the way.

With their combined focus the obstacles that Vox placed in their way stood no chance, as they tore through them without any real resistance, making Autumn wonder if the enemies of the first planet were designed to be weak so contestants could move onto the next planet and face greater danger. When they reached the arena that seemed to be the area that Vox wanted them to move to, however, they had to face waves of enemies, but before they started to arrive Ratchet and Autumn had to climb out of the Landstalker, since it would give them an unfair advantage over their enemies. Once it had been pulled out of the area, and the siblings were ready to go, they faced off against the waves of risen and gladiators who wanted them dead, though once more their combined might was more than enough to tear down the enemies that were coming to tear them down. In fact Autumn was sure that Dallas and Juanita were surprised by this turn of events, as while most knew about her, Ratchet, and Starswirl, and what they did when they encountered their enemies, it was another thing to actually witness them fight and understand the tales that were told.

As such it didn't take the pair long to finish off the last bit of Catacrom Four's main battle course and gave them another Green Medal for later, likely to enter a tournament or something, along with a device called the Hacker Ray and the right to take on Dread Challenges, which were additional challenges to boost their ratings. The first one was called Hoverbike Madness, where Ratchet climbed onto a hoverbike, one that looked like it was ripped right out of the Star Wars movies, a fact they knew about thanks to the information on the Net, and rode around the temple as he flew through some decent sized red rings and avoided the explosives that were in his way. Sure enough Ratchet succeeded in overcoming it, not that Autumn was expecting him to fail, before they tackled the Destruction Derby, climbing back into the Landstalker and took to the field once more, Ratchet focusing on the smaller enemies while Autumn blasted the turrets into pieces with some of the missiles. Once that was done they focused on the Monuments of Death, where they had to walk around the grounds for a time and set explosives around three stone spires that seemed to be connected to the undead rising, or maybe not since that would cripple the course, to blast the structures apart and complete the challenge, and with them watching each others backs it didn't take them long to succeed in their mission.

With that done, and they found no more challenges to tackle, Dallas and Juanita informed the crowd that Team Darkstar, their team, had just unlocked Sarathos and that they would be sent there in due time, to which Ratchet and Autumn just returned to the ship and headed back to the station, to rest for a short period of time before being sent to the new planet and facing whatever dangers it might have.

Deadlocked: Sarathos

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were allowed to rest for the rest of the afternoon, and into the night, but when morning arrived they were dragged out to the next planet Vox wanted them to tackle, though while both they and their friends had been given a light meal upon their return to the DreadZone station the ship had a decent meal waiting for them. It showed that Vox understood that keeping his captives fed, and not totally exhausted, was a key to making sure he got the money he wanted from those that were watching his show, maybe even convincing them to fork over more Bolts. One thing Autumn had found the previous night was that there was a trading card game of sorts connected to DreadZone, with the four best contestants, the Exterminators, being the rarest ones for someone to get their hands on. The Exterminators were Vox's best warriors, those who killed all the heroes once they reached the end of their usefulness to his network, and based on what Al and Clank were able to find so far they knew who the four were: Reactor, Shellshock, the Eviscerator, and Ace Hardlight.

Other than that they were left to their own devices on the transport ship, allowing them to think about what sort of danger might be waiting for them on Sarathos, though if it was anything like Catacrom Four Ratchet knew that it wouldn't matter in the end, they would smash through them and move on like nothing had happened, but there was one thing he thought about during their travel.

"Well, at least we figured out what happened to Ace Hardlight... hard to believe another hero has fallen to darkness, just like what we've seen so far." Ratchet commented, knowing that the guards were listening to their words and didn't want to give Vox any additional information on who they were talking about, since they had worked hard to put Qwark on a good pedestal after what happened during their first adventure.

"Indeed, twisted into a being of darkness." Starswirl replied, as he had been doing everything in his power to learn about Vox and his dark ally, even though they all knew that Vox was to blame for darkening such a warrior, turning him into a person who killed for fun and showed no remorse for what he had done over the years, "He and the other Exterminators will be hunting us and the other contestants at some point, meaning we might come into contact with him and his allies, so we'll have to be careful."

Autumn simply nodded her head as she listened to them, as there was nothing more that needed to be said, though while they traveled she found that Vox allowed contestants that were unfamiliar with the show to watch previous seasons, and found all sorts of planets were used for the show, especially ones that weren't resting inside the Shadow Sector, such as the world of Orxon. From what she could determine Vox must have made some sort of arrangement with Drek to use the factories that his contestants ended up blowing up or tearing apart, but with the insane Blargian gone there was no telling if he had the same agreement with the new leader, but she assumed he was just invading the planet for fun. Other than that it seemed like the sequence of planets was random, so one season's planets would be different from the ones of the next season, or the one before it, meaning it would be impossible for her and her brothers to figure out a pattern and see if they could get more information before reaching their destination. It would be a deviation from what they usually did, as whenever the three of them gained the coordinates for a new planet someone, usually her or Starswirl, would learn about it and tell everyone else what they were able to find, but that just meant they would have to learn everyone once the ship reached each of the planets.

What they discovered later was that Sarathos was an alien planet that might be a swamp, to some degree, and that there were several structures built by Vox's people, arranged as a new course for anyone who was sent here during their season of forced entertainment, and, sure enough, the guard insisted that only Ratchet and Starswirl head down, leading Autumn to observe from the transport ship.

Welcome back, DreadZone fans! Have we got a show for you! Dallas stated, where the siblings determined that, of the pair that did commentary on what happened in DreadZone, he had to be the one that did the introductions to each planet and his partner either said nothing or waited a while before speaking whatever was on her mind, On today's episode, Team Darkstar has been dropped onto the hellish alien world of Sarathos! Their ultimate goal: destroy a monstrous alien creature known as the "King Leviathan" and take it from me people, monstrous is putting it nicely.

Ratchet and Starswirl glanced at each other for a moment as they listened to him give them their objective, though before moving they accessed the Vendor and found a new weapon, the Hunter Mine Launcher, which reminded them of the Mine Glove that Autumn made and was produced during their first adventure. With the new weapon added to their arsenal the brothers headed down the path in front of them, where both of them were pleased to find that the first foe of this planet were the little green snappers they had fought in the past, so loosing a single mine from their new weapons was enough to take a group out. After that both of the brothers got a look at one of the new enemies that they would be fighting, large scorpion-like creatures, no doubt native to Sarathos, that had four legs, three eyes, and their tail split into three points, all with the ability to fire lasers or globs of acid at their enemies, which they knew about when the first pair attacked them a couple of seconds later. They were aggressive creatures and clearly didn't want people like them to be near them, hence why they lashed out so quickly, though it only caused the brothers to do the same thing, blasting their way through a few Leviathans that were in front of them, as they were sure that was what Autumn would call them.

One thing the brothers discovered was that the Leviathans were somewhat tougher than most of the enemies they had faced so far, during their time in DreadZone, and some even jumped out of what appeared to be acid pits, meaning there were other areas they had to worry about while they carefully made their way through the area.

It didn't take them all that long to reach the door that seemed to be part of the course they were following, where Ratchet pulled out their new Hacker Ray and used it on two orbs that were floating near it, allowing Starswirl to channel his magic for a moment as he formed a barrier between them and their enemies. When the door opened they found that it brought them to a central chamber that seemed to be natural, save for the metallic walls that had been added around the area, to which a number of the smaller snappers jumped out and charged at the brothers. For the first few moments Ratchet used the new weapon to lay mines and blast all of the small enemies into submission, especially since they jumped out of a pit of acid and had no idea that his trap was waiting for them, and once the last one fell a dropship flew in to deploy a couple of gladiators. Starswirl was waiting for them as he loosed a burst of magic and blasted the new enemies before they were able to fully deploy, even tearing the ship apart so it could be used again, which seemed to be the end of the challenge as Dallas proclaimed that they were moving onto the swamp, his favorite part based on what they heard.

As they headed through the open door in front of them Dallas informed the brothers that their next objective was to track down and commander something called the 'Puma', which had to be another vehicle created by Vox's people, though the pair said nothing as they restocked at the Vendor. With that done they walked own the path and opened fire on the foes that were waiting for enemies to appear, a Leviathan and a couple of snappers, which were easy to take care of since the amount of enemies in this part of the area wasn't overwhelming. As they did that Starswirl noticed that they were out in the open once more and that the path they were following had a force field in the way, guarded by a turret, meaning the courses were going to get tougher and tougher as time went on, causing him to grip his weapon as he and Ratchet moved further along the path. Sure enough when they reached the turret a dropship came to drop gladiators, so Ratchet threw an emp at their first foe and knocked out the turret, allowing his brother to blast it apart with a bolt of magical energy, so he turned his attention to the gladiators, who didn't seem afraid of the magic that Starswirl possessed, just like the foes he and Autumn had faced on Catacrom Four.

This was the first time that they had found enemies who weren't, to some degree, frightened of the magic that both of his siblings used during their adventures, meaning Vox must have warped their senses as well, to make them frightened of death by his hand, causing him to sigh as he focused on the task at hand.

Once the gladiators were taken care of, but before they could hack into the orbs that were around this area, several of the Leviathans and snappers leapt out of their hiding places and attacked them, causing the brothers to defend themselves for a few seconds, opening the way for them to blast them into submission. As soon as all of their current enemies were taken care of Ratchet hacked into the orbs and deactivated the barrier, allowing them to head up the ramp and found a group of snappers that failed to do anything to them, as Starswirl used a burst of wind around them to knock the smaller foes off the walkway. More joined the gladiators that were dropped by a new dropship, where neither brother was even remotely surprised to see such a thing, given what they had been through so far, but they opened fire on their enemies without delay, especially when a couple of Leviathans decided to join the fun. Even then it wasn't long before they found a pair of Swingshot targets that brought them to where another turret rested, and another dropship that deployed several additional gladiators, causing the brothers to fire on them as soon as they entered the area.

It took a few moments for them to take down their enemies, but in the end Ratchet and Starswirl were successful and that meant they had access to a new vehicle, the Puma, which wasn't as armored as the Landstalker, but it had four wheels, the back pair larger than the front pair, and had enough room for two people, meaning all of Vox's vehicles had to have room for two people.

Once they were inside the Puma, where Ratchet was in the driver seat and Starswirl took control of the cannon, and as the pair headed down the path they blasted through the snappers that were in front of them as the latter used their weapon to blast apart the dropships that moved into the massive area they were heading towards. Based on what Dallas had said they had to capture three security nodes, which were scattered around the flat area that was around them, so they could face the King Leviathan and then tackle the Dread Challenges before leaving, and based on what they were seeing right now all three of their targets had to be inside the modern structures. One thing the brothers discovered was that the guns of the Puma were just as powerful as the guns on the Landstalker, which meant that the cannon had to be as strong as the missile launcher that was on the other large vehicle, and the reason they knew such a thing was because Ratchet was able to blast his way through the gladiators with ease. While he did that Starswirl aimed the main cannon and blasted the dropships that were moving into the area, eliminating them and the gladiators aboard each one before they could even overwhelm the pair, which Ratchet was grateful for as he tracked down each of the nodes with Clank's help.

The nodes, as the brothers discovered, were guarded by snappers and gladiators, nothing too serious for them, and their skills surprised Dallas, Juanita, and the viewers, as they were able to overcome the defenders of the first node with a few moments, allowing Ratchet to activate it before heading out for the next one. Neither of them found much more guarding the second node, meaning it didn't take them long to smash through all of the defenders and turn it, though the third one had an enemy tank, a red Landstalker, guarding the node, which actually took a lot of punishment before it was brought down. Starswirl considered the idea of using his magic on the tank, since they didn't want to spend so much time on this planet and wanted to get DreadZone over with, but he decided not to for a time, choosing to wait for them to head over to the ramp leading to the Leviathan's domain before summoning his magic and forming a flaming bow. Ratchet found out why not a few moments later, there was a large group of gladiators coming at them from behind, so his brother loosed a flaming arrow into the air and it separated into a burst of smaller arrows that struck down his targets in a few seconds, all while blasting parts of the ground as well.

Once that was done they entered the Leviathan's lair and climbed off the Puma, finding that to challenge the King of the Leviathans they had to hack into all seven on the orbs that were around the platform, to which Starswirl lifted the Puma with his magic and deposited it elsewhere. With that done he and his brother opened fire on the enemies that were now coming at them, more snappers and some Leviathans, so neither of them were very worried as each one opened fire on their enemies and hacked into the orbs that would awaken their objective. The King Leviathan, as they soon discovered, was just a slightly larger than all of the other Leviathans they had found so far, and had red armor on top of it, which did bare the mark of DreadZone based on what Ratchet was seeing, so neither of them held back as they blasted the figure and avoided the attacks that were coming at them. Sure enough it wasn't long before Ratchet and Starswirl emerged as the victors of this event, something that seemed to utterly shock the announcers for a time, which was understandable when Ratchet thought about it, he had magic users on his side, before it was announced that they had survived and had completed the challenge.

Winning this campaign awarded them with another Green Medal, a device called the Cable Launcher, and the ability to head for Kronos, the next planet in their DreadZone season, though instead of leaving the brothers decided to tackle the Dread Challenges to earn some points and make Vox happy. The first one was right up Ratchet's alley, a Hoverbike event called Check Me Out, which was him using the vehicle to follow a series of rings and avoiding the explosives that had been put in his way, which the gun took care of in no time, and it wasn't long before he beat the challenge. The second, and last, challenge was known as Swamp Fever, where they took the Landstalker out and were tasked with eliminating the rest of the Leviathans, twenty-three of them to be exact, causing the brothers to climb into the vehicle and head out. It didn't take Ratchet and Starswirl all that long to track down all of the Leviathans and take each of them out, something that would no doubt cause some fans to cheer at them succeeding over all of their enemies and conquering the challenges Vox's team had come up with.

Once the Dread Challenges were done, and they were sure of that, Ratchet and Starswirl returned to the transport ship and headed back to their containment area, as it was time for them to rest and regroup with Autumn, Clank, and Al, all so they could prepare for whatever was waiting for them on the next planet.

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.

Deadlocked: Avenger Tournament

On the way back to their containment area of the DreadZone Station, so they could rest before the next day's challenges, Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl discovered something interesting, the day's objectives weren't done yet, as the moment they returned to the station they would be partaking in the Avenger Tournament.

"Either Vox is desperate to take us out, or the fans want more." Ratchet commented, though he had a feeling that this time it was the latter, since the villain they were dealing with now was running an entertainment empire and responding to what his viewers wanted meant he'd be able to rack in more Bolts.

"We did just take out an Exterminator, one of the big dogs of the entire series, so people are interested in what else we are capable of," Starswirl remarked, knowing that, while he hadn't faced off against Shellshock since he had been back on the transport ship, some fans would be interested in him as well and, in their eyes, he had helped them take down one of Vox's Exterminators, "it would be foolish to ignore such potential profit, and Vox isn't a foolish person in that regard."

Autumn wanted to say that Vox was foolish, in kidnapping the three of them and their friends, as they had a habit of totally wrecking the villains of their adventures and bringing ruin upon those who tried to force their evil on the innocent people of the galaxy they were in, but decided not to say anything. The guards were designed to report to Vox and she didn't want to tip him off about anything they might do, in regards to tearing DreadZone apart so he could be imprisoned for the rest of his life, on account of all the kidnappings, murder, destruction, and everything else they might discover. There was no telling what else Vox might have in store for them, especially since it looked like he had a habit of trying to drown contestants to do his bidding, as in potentially destroying their reputation so they have no choice but to submit to his demands, and if that was the case they knew it was only a matter of time until he targeted them. Of course all three of them knew that it would be hard for Vox or his team to do something to their reputation, given that they had saved two galaxies and took out three villains, so they simply sat back and waited for the transport ship to reach its destination, so they could tackle the tournament and get this over with.

When they returned to their containment area they found that Clank was focused on something and discovered that it was one of the 'news updates' that Dallas and Juanita gave to their viewers, though while it started with them claiming that Ratchet and his siblings were mob bosses, only for the fans to boo them and launch a protest to stop the pair from spreading lies about the siblings.

"Like I thought, they'll have trouble breaking our reputation." Autumn remarked, though she was pleased to see that all of their fans seemed to know that they were definitely heroes and not mob bosses that ruled Bogon with an iron fist, since it seemed like that was what Dallas and his partner had been going for.

"I'll admit, you guys have some tough reputation... Vox might have met his match on this one." a voice said, where they turned around for a moment and found that Ace was approaching them, though while they were expecting to find his usual smug attitude, which could be seen in his walk, he seemed far more calm and composed this time, like the person on the show was different from reality, "and I might have a fun opponent this time around... maybe more, since the fans love seeing you guys in action."

"Ace, I know you hit a rough patch in your life, but that doesn't mean you have to let Vox pour darkness into you," Ratchet stated, as he and his siblings knew that if certain things hadn't gone down Ace would have walked a different path in life, a path that might have seen him as the greatest hero of Solana, instead of Qwark, and, surprisingly enough, the man looked like he was thinking about something, "we can make this right."

Ace glanced around for a moment, seeing a faint glimmer in the air that meant that one of the magical siblings must have set up a barrier of some kind, maybe one to prevent eavesdropping he guessed, and debated what he should sat to them, as he was expecting them to talk about him and why he was killing heroes, but now he had nothing to say. Part of him had to wonder if the siblings liked to try to redeem those they faced, as in those they deemed to be the true villains of their so called adventures, though the stories said that each villain they had encountered was either imprisoned, like Drek or the one from Bogon, or wiped out, like Nefarious. The other part of him wondered if he should just threaten them like he had been planning on doing when he decided to come here earlier, but in the end he simply did nothing but turn to the side for a moment, showing them that he was planning on leaving, before growling for a second. In that moment he glanced at the magic users and one seemed to understand that there was more he wished to say or do, where Starswirl weaved his power through the air and Clank found out what it was within seconds, an illusion spell to hide them from Vox, so while it looked like they were being briefed the reality could be very different.

"Here... if anyone asks, you didn't get it from me." Ace said, where he pulled out a small drive and tossed it over to Clank, though Ratchet caught it and handed it to his best friend so he could use it, not that Ace was surprised since he seemed to be a warrior at heart, regardless of what the bio said about the Lombax, "Command Code 061_Alpha_Omega. Pass Code Creampuff... don't look at me like that, it was the only thing I could think of that Vox couldn't guess."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow for a moment as Clank connected the device to his terminal and input the codes, all while Ace left them to get ready for their next event, before his friend found that it opened the way for them to invade all of Vox's systems, meaning when he had a greater understanding he could mess with DreadZone. There were commands to turn off or disable the security systems, deactivate the collars that every contestant, save for the Exterminators, wore around their necks, and all sorts of other commands that could ruin all of the station if Clank activated them. They discovered the secret that Ace had handed them, this was a surefire way for them to bring ruin to all of DreadZone and save the innocent people, and they didn't even have to do that much work for all of this, meaning Ace likely assumed that there was no real reason to stand in their way and was trying to help them out. While Clank checked out the drive, and confirmed what was on it, Ratchet checked out the Vendor and found a new weapon, the Arbiter, which seemed to be the rocket launcher for this adventure, which he and his siblings collected so they could be ready for whatever challenges were waiting for them in the Battledome.

A few moments later they were called to take the shuttle to the main arena, where they quickly found that they had to face off against multiple waves of enemies and kill a specific number within a minute and a half, all while discovering that they were now taking part in the Avenger Tournament. Supposedly this was a series of grueling challenges that separated that would determine whether they were dead weight or worthy of advancing to the next rank, the Avenger rank, since all new contestants started at the Marauder rank, not that they overly cared about such a thing. With all three of them working together Vox had to increase the number of foes that were in the first challenge, as each one faced a different direction as the enemies came at them and blasted their targets apart, making it so there were no holes in their defenses. This time around the dropships actually stayed and tried to fire missiles at them, which didn't matter all that much as Starswirl and Autumn used their magic to shield themselves, opening the way for Ratchet to blast his while they tore theirs apart, much to the joy of the audience.

After clearing the first challenge they had to make their way through the rest of the arena, through the sections they had fought in during their introduction challenge to DreadZone, as Dallas informed everyone that they would be making their way to the 'Tower of Power'. The only difference between their first challenge and this one was that a new foe showed up, a bulkier insect gladiator that could fire off spikes that rested on their backs, though it didn't matter in the end as Ratchet and his siblings tore through the new challengers and continued further into the arena. Another change was that Vox had added some small laser cannons that fired at their targets when they walked within range, a decent addition when they thought about it, but they didn't stand much of a chance as Autumn leapt into the air and blasted all of them apart before any of them could hit her. They knew that putting on a show at times would make the crowd and audiences cheer, which would ensure that Vox kept them around since they were the rising stars of DreadZone, and continued to do so as they blasted their way to the next platform and turned to the left, following the path in front of them.

Such a thing brought them to the Tower of Power, a metallic tower that had floating platforms and flying enemies waiting for them, so Starswirl focused on all of the flying enemies, Autumn tore apart the lasers, and Ratchet focused on anyone who appeared in front of them. Climbing Vox's Tower of Power was rather easy for the three of them, even with the boost of gladiators that were added to give them a challenge, and after a couple of minutes they reached the peak, causing all sorts of enemies to join in the fun as they attempted to take them down. It was quite a fight, the large amount of foes that were sent to destroy them and end Team Darkstar's path through DreadZone, though Ratchet found that none of their foes were capable of hitting him or his siblings, allowing them to blast the gladiators with missiles and magic. Such a thing put on a show for Dallas, Juanita, Vox, and even the Exterminators, not to mention the audience, though in the end they were victorious and were quickly elevated to the rank of Avenger, earning them a new armor pigment, turning the red bits green, before unlocking both Shaar and Orxon as their next destinations.

After that the siblings took on the Dread Challenges that were available, one called Perfect Chrome Finish, which was a battle challenge where Ratchet and his siblings couldn't take a hit, otherwise they would lose it, causing them to chuckle for a few seconds as they opened fire on their foes. With Autumn and Starswirl's magic backing them there was no way for any of their enemies to get close to where they decided to set up camp, even the ones dropped on top of them failed to do anything, and while they expected some to boo them, for making this too easy, everyone actually cheered for the three of them. The other challenge available to them was something called Close and Personal, where they were only allowed to use their melee weapons against the waves of enemies that were coming at them, another mistake on Vox's part, as each of them were skilled with their main weapons, thanks to their commando training. As such the three of them raised their weapons and lashed out at every gladiator that came at them, while Autumn and Starswirl refrained from using magic, as it might disqualify them, dispatching wave after wave of gladiators as the audience cheered them on.

Once they were done with that challenge, and found that there were no more to do right now, the siblings returned to the suite provided to them and decided to rest for the rest of the day, as tomorrow they would be sent to Shaar and continue their stay in DreadZone, all while Vox had no idea what sort of danger he was currently in.

Deadlocked: Shaar

Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were ready for the transport ship when it was time to head to Shaar, as they boarded it as soon as it arrived at their suit, allowing them to take their positions, as this time Autumn would be staying on the ship and Starswirl would be fighting by Ratchet's side, as per Vox's rules. Thanks to Ace giving them that drive they knew more about the courses that had been designed for them and the rest of the contestants this season, meaning that everyone was able to learn about Shaar and all of the other new planets that they would be visiting so far. According to their information Shaar was home to some historic ancient temples, the type of priceless structures that Vox would destroy with his courses, and a number of them had been converted into deadly arenas for contestants to fight their way through. Their destination was one of the more challenging ones, based on the information they now had access to, which Clank was feeding to them via their communications so Vox had no idea they knew all this, no contestant had survived this place.

It was all too easy for them to realize that Vox was sending them to the hardest portions of the natural course, meaning he wanted to crush Team Darkstar and stop their rise, or at least slow everything down so he could profit off of them, but with two magic users he had no choice but to send them to the harsher courses, just to spice things up.

Shaar, as they soon discovered for themselves, was a frozen planet, or one of ice and snow, that had next to no sunlight to ensure things grew, though according to the information they could acquire the race that lived here either brought in food from the nearby planets, those closest to the sun, or thrived off something else. Sadly it was going to be impossible to tell since Vox had smashed most of the original framework of the temples, so whatever history had been written here was, for the most part, lost to time and there was no way for someone to figure it out anymore. As the transport flew down to the area that they would be starting in, the outskirts of the temple Vox wanted to send them through, the siblings found that there were all sorts of gladiators and hazards waiting for them, either because of what happened on the previous planets or because an Avenger had a rougher time than a Marauder. None of the siblings were overly worried, especially since all of their armor was designed to deal with the intense cold and the intense heat, showing that Vox didn't want the various contestants to fall to the elements, something Autumn and Clank had figured out earlier, so all they had to do was face all of the challenges and move onto the next planet.

Tonight on DreadZone: Team Darkstar embarks on a journey through the hollowed grounds of planet Shaar. Dallas commented, speaking as Ratchet and Starswirl teleported down to the planet's surface and found that they were at the starting area of their course, just like all of the other planets they had been to so far, What was once just a boring, historic, ancient temple is now the centerpiece of this explosive new battlecourse! Ratchet and his brother will have to complete some of DreadZone's deadliest challenges ever, just to gain entrance into the main temple! But, even if he survives that far, no contestant this season has come out of that temple alive!

"So, more gladiators and walking obstacles," Ratchet remarked, as he wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary this time around, though when he accessed the Vendor he found that a new weapon was available, the Scorpion Flail, which was a ball and chain weapon that produced powerful hits when it struck the ground or their enemies, "Oh, I'm going to have some fun with this one."

Sure enough Starswirl found that Ratchet swung the flail and it slammed into the midst of his snapper enemies, knocking all of them away in the process, causing him to smile as that happened, as he liked it, before they headed for their first destination, the Landstalker that was on the other side of the structure that was in front of them. After testing out the new weapon, and enjoying it's destructive power, the brothers hacked into the control orbs that were in front of them, which brought out a walkway for them to use so they could access the center of the structure, an area that seemed to be where they would have to battle enemies and hack into more orbs. That happened to be what they had to do, where Ratchet did something new, he used his wrench to smash the enemies who got too close to him while using the Scorpion Flail on the enemies who were further away from him. Such a thing left Starswirl to use small blasts of magic on anyone else, blowing all of them apart so they could focus on hacking into the orbs, but since Ratchet was enjoying the feeling of his new toy, which he would no doubt ask Autumn to tinker with once this adventure was over, he made sure to hack into the orbs as he cleared out his portion of the arena.

The only thing that seemed to be a challenge was a large floating DreadZone construct that had two arms and fired beams of energy at whoever their target happened to be, but he shattered it with ease and opened the way for them to approach the Landstalker, something that no doubt put a smile on Ratchet's face.

With that done Dallas informed them that their next goal was to head around the outside of the temple and access several points to cut off the power to a pair of forcefields that were blocking the way forward, something that wasn't much of a challenge for them, even with all of the ground mounted turrets and enemies that were waiting for them. Ratchet focused on moving their vehicle and utilizing his guns to take down the smaller foes, as a number of gladiators were brought in to stop from reaching each of their targets, while Starswirl took control of the missile launchers and fired at all of the tougher machines that had been set up ahead of time. It was easy for them to tell why this was one of the more challenging places in DreadZone, Vox had made sure to outfit the temple with every gladiator and machine available, to tear down those sent to face Shaar's mighty and terrible defenses, confirming he wanted to knock them down a peg or two. Of course that was easier said than done as the brothers went to work, blasting their way through all of the enemies that were around them, and when Ratchet jumped out to turn the Bolt Crank his brother defended the area with both the Landstalker and a bit of his magic, making it impossible for their enemies to bother Ratchet.

Once the pair of nodes were taken care of, those outside the temple, the forcefield lowered and they were allowed to go inside, where they found that they had to repeat the process and claim two more nodes, so that was what Ratchet and Starswirl did, much to the amazement of Dallas and Juanita, along with to the annoyance of Vox.

As soon as that was done Dallas and Juanita informed them that they would be searching the temple grounds for five new nodes, which had been hidden all over the place and might have been placed under special stone carvings, while Juanita claimed that future generations of DreadZone fans would look back at these recordings with glee. Since the announcers took away the Landstalker, which would have made things ridiculously easy for the brothers, Ratchet and Starswirl walked over to the Vendor and restocked their weapons before tackling the dangers that existed inside the temple. Each node, as they soon discovered, was protected by a combination of gladiators and laser turrets, including some of the flying saucers or mantis bots, making it far too easy for them to locate where the nodes were positioned and gave them a chance to see what sort of dangers were waiting, which was a rare opportunity to plan their attack on their targets. Regardless of which plan they went with, attacking or scouting before attacking, it was all the same to Ratchet and Starswirl, especially since it took them no time to take out the guards of the first node and claimed it for their team, which to the shock of Dallas and his partner.

It didn't take them all that long to claim all five node and win the challenge, no doubt causing the watchers to cheer, as a team had finally conquered Shaar, despite the gladiators attempts to bring them down, where Ratchet found that they had earned a Blue Medal, likely the requirement for the next tournament they would be taking part in.

With the main campaign done the brothers tackled the Dread Challenges without delay, finding that the first one was a bit of a challenge for them, as it was called Assault on the Frozen Tundra and involved them taking control of some nodes, a repeat of what they had just done, only this time they had no access to their weapons and had to pick up charges that had been scattered around the temple. Even with Dallas forbidding the use of magic in this challenge, since they had seen the magical siblings use all sorts of spells during their time in DreadZone, it didn't take Ratchet and Starswirl long to claim all four of the nodes that were now scattered around the temple, reminding them that the nodes could be placed and taken away within seconds, depending on the challenge. Shoot to Kill, the second challenge, required the use of the Landstalker, as they had to destroy targets that had been placed all over the temple, which they overcame in no time at all, while they found that the third challenge, Whack-A-Swarmer, was just them in the center of the temple, killing the small snappers, an easy event to overcome. The fourth, and last, challenge was Robots in a Barrel, sending them back to the first arena of the planet and forced them to face off against eight waves of enemies, all sorts of gladiators and devices sent to crush them, but, as Ratchet and Starswirl expected, they were able to overcome it in no time.

With Shaar cleared, and they were sure of that, the brothers returned to the transport ship, rejoined Autumn, and headed back to the containment suite, as they knew Vox was allowing them to rest before they tackled the Orxon course, all while they silently plotted to bring him, and his dark network, to the ground.

Deadlocked: Crusader Tournament

Not much happened after their return from Orxon, save for Clank and Al doing everything in their power to make sure Vox had no idea that Ace had handed them something that would ruin the station at the right moment, so Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl got a bit of a break as Vox's team got the tournament set up. Based on what they could discover this was going to be the Crusader Tournament, confirming that they were going to rank up again, if they survived the challenges anyway, even if it was a little odd to be tackling another qualifier, so soon after the last one. Clank explained that most contestants failed in the first day or two, so most were stuck at the Marauder rank and never reached the Avenger rank, so them beating and wrecking Shellshock had been quite the shock to those who controlled DreadZone, forcing them to move onto the next of the four tournaments. He also discovered that, to keep people interested, Vox designed the others with two qualifying planets in mind, as opposed to the three they tackled for to stop being Marauders, four once they counted the first course they were forced into, when they woke up in this dreadful place.

"So once we become Crusaders we'll have to tackle two more planets to become Vindicators, than two more after that to rank up to Liberators?" Ratchet inquired, as Ace's information had revealed the names of the ranks that were associated with the tournaments Vox had set up for those who were watching his network, not that he or his siblings cared that much, since all of them were planning on taking him down, "Four more planets and our time should be up."

"We'll be able to cripple DreadZone and arrest Vox for his crimes." Autumn said, as that was their goal whenever they had an adventure, track down the villain and throw him in jail, though she also knew that there were exceptions to that rule, due to what happened with Nefarious not that long ago, "Or just blow things up, whatever works."

"Given the current villain, the latter seems more appropriate." Starswirl remarked, where they found that Clank nodded his head to show he agreed with the statement, while Al didn't seem to have an opinion on this matter, though he felt that a number of their enemies might follow suit to avoid being captured and punished.

Clank continued to work as the siblings got the rest they needed, as when morning arrived they were called to fight in the Battledome once more, though as they passed by the Vendor Autumn found a Mini Turret Launcher and purchased it for all of them, giving them one more weapon to tear Vox's gladiators apart. Upon their arrival in the Battledome the three of them found that Dallas and Juanita were eager to see how they fared in the Crusader Tournament, where they started on the top of the Tower of Power and, interestingly enough, were forced to use their Hunter Mine Launchers. It was the worst one to force upon them as they rained hunter mines on all of their enemies, blasting the gladiators and snappers out of the way without actually slowing down, something that stunned the announcers as everyone in the crowd cheered, which was good for them since it meant Vox couldn't get rid of them. Based on what Dallas said there were five waves they had to clear out and, if they survived this and the upcoming challenges, they would be able to fight Reactor, which had many of Vox's watchers on the edge of their seats, as they had seen what happened to Shellshock and wondered if the same would happen to him.

With the challenge complete Dallas informed everyone that their collars had been charged and were on a timer, that they had four minutes to fight through some obstacles, and grind on an energy rail, to get to four control nodes to deactivate the timer, revealing that Vox might be hoping to eliminate them before they got too far.

The first thing they had to do was deal with the gladiators and snappers that showed up when the challenge started, just to cut down on the amount of time they had left, though with three of them it was easy for Ratchet to smash the device that was blocking the Bolt Crank and start to turn it, leaving their enemies to his siblings. Once the gladiators had been removed, and he was done with the node, they jumped onto part of the energy grind rail and quickly headed down to the next part of the arena they would have to fight through, as two nodes were in the center of the Battledome. Such a thing just meant that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl could repeat what they had been doing so far, one focused on the node as the other two dealt with the enemies that were coming at them, reminding everyone as to why one magic user was more than though outside the Battledome, as the siblings smashed their way through their foes without breaking a sweat. As soon as the second and third node were claimed they found that no new track was available for them to use and that they had to jump over some platforms, to head back to the square platform their first turret foe had been located on, which the siblings did without delay.

Sure enough it didn't take them all that long to eliminate the gladiators and snappers that came at them, along with them actually claiming the node that was the main objective of this challenge, and once they had done that Dallas mentioned that it was time for them to make their way back to the middle of the Battledome, which the siblings did as they waited to see if Reactor was ready to fight them.

"Ratchet, eh? Hmph, you look like a squirrel wrapped in tin foil, and your siblings look like toys playing dress up." a voice said, where they found a robot that was just as tall as Shellshock standing nearby, no doubt he had been watching and, as soon as the last node was claimed, had moved over here to get things started, and inside his chest was the reactor he got his name from, "I'm gonna take my time taking you three apart! Gonna give my fans their money's worth. And, uh, try not to go crying or anything, all right? I want this to look good for the cameras."

For the beginning of the fight nothing major happened, save for the siblings firing on Reactor while he made his way over to where Ratchet was standing, though upon finding that they were faster than him he opened fire on them, loosing small bursts of energy that likely came from his reactor. One thing Ratchet and his siblings had to watch out for was that Reactor could use some of his stored energy to rush forward at damaging speeds, like a charge of some kind, though thanks to his siblings and their magic he didn't have to worry about it too much, since their magical barriers were enough to stop their foe in his tracks. He had another attack that involved him moving to one of the two long edges of the arena and fired off blue bolts of energy at whoever he was targeting, though since they weren't faster than his normal blasts they were able to avoid them with ease as they blasted into his chest and continued to damage his body, all while the crowd cheered for everyone. Other than that he didn't seem to have any other attacks to use against them, save for one where he raised both of his hands into the air and punched the ground with them together, a close ranged attack, so the siblings avoided being near him and kept on firing at him, while noting he was stupid enough to walk into their minds, before he collapsed from all the damage and stopped moving.

With Reactor's defeat, a shock to Dallas and Juanita, they ascended to the rank of Crusader, much to the joy of the fans, which turned the main color of their armor blue and gave the siblings access to two new locations, the Valix Belt and the planet of Torval. After learning that piece of information, and restocking their ammunition at a Vendor, the siblings took a moment to check out the screen and found three new challenges to tackle, the first being Zombie Attack and involved the three of them fighting off a horde of enemies with scattered weapons, forcing them to pick one up and use it before even moving onto the next one. Of course the rules didn't say anything about magic and Starswirl used lightning to tear some of his enemies apart, allowing them to survive the first challenge and discovered that the second, Heavy Metal, involved them fighting through six rounds against a swarm of heavier gladiators, like the larger ones and the leviathans, but since it was only two or three at a time they had nothing to worry about. The last challenge, Endzone, was the simplest of them all, as all they had to do was guard an energy wall and stop enemies from passing through it, so they just opened fire on all of the enemies that were coming at them, effectively giving them a way to strengthen all of their weapons for whatever the future held for them, even through everyone in the crowd was cheering for them as it happened.

Once the last of the challenges had been completed, and they were sure of that, Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl headed back to their suite to get some rest so they could be ready for whatever was waiting for them on the Valix Belt, all while knowing that Vox had to be angry at them and would slip up in some manner, they just had to be patient.

Deadlocked: Valix Belt

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl said nothing as they waited for the transport ship to reach their new destination, which was an asteroid belt known as the Valix Belt, so at least everyone knew why it was called that, though this time around it would be him and Starswirl tackling whatever obstacles were in their way. Clank wasn't able to find out too much about the area, only that it was a purchase Vox made a few years ago, under very sketchy circumstances based on what he was seeing, so it was possible that he threatened the owner into signing it away, before killing them anyway. Of course the fact that this was going to be taking place in an asteroid belt worried them, as there was no telling what Vox might have done, especially due to the fact that parts of this sector were darker than what they were used to. Other than that there wasn't much for them to think about this time around, so they simply rested in the ship and waited for it to reach their next destination, just like they did when they were transported to the other planets Vox had set his courses on.

It took a while for the transport ship to reach the Valix Belt, though when it came to a stop Ratchet and his brother walked over to the teleporter and warped down to whatever the start of the course was, while Autumn stayed behind to watch and wait for her turn to come up.

We're live, today, from the Valix Asteroid Belt, home of the legendary Gamma Energy Beam! Dallas stated, speaking as they teleported down to what seemed to be the start of this course, the outskirts of the entire area based on what they were seeing, This famous space beacon was purchased several years ago by Gleeman Vox. Now, instead of guiding ships through deadly asteroids, it's the centerpiece of DreadZone's hottest new battlecourse! And just for fun, we've gone ahead and turned the beacon off. Can Team Darkstar turn it back on, or will hundreds of ships crash blindly into the asteroids, hm. Either way, it's gonna be a great show!

"And I hate him even more now." Ratchet commented, as he couldn't believe that Vox would buy, or steal, the lighthouse that all sorts of people used in this sector, so they could safely navigate the asteroids without the fear of running into one and being destroyed, which just gave him another reason to take Vox down.

"Well, just focus on the gladiators... we'll get to him in due time." Starswirl said, where he walked over to the Vendor for a moment, allowing him to see if there were any new weapons to be added to their arsenal, even though he was sad to say that nothing new had been added, so he pulled back and joined Ratchet.

Once that was done they stepped forward as they pulled their weapons out, finding flying gladiators and ground snappers waiting for them, even though beyond them the brothers could see a number of buildings that were connected to the few control stations that had been built onto the asteroids that were around them. None of the gladiators lasted against their might, which they were used to seeing after everything they had been through since Vox captured them, before using the Grind Cable to get over to another part of the facility, even though they seemed to be following the outskirts before being able to reach their destination. That brought them to a repeat of what had happened so far, just more gladiators and the smaller snappers that joined them in battle, allowing the brothers to smash through them before heading to the next part of the course, barely slowing down despite the enemies Vox was throwing at them in an attempt to take them down. Right now it looked like this course was just a copy and paste, the same groups of enemies were lined up after every instance of the Grind Cable, plus with a few of the heavy gladiators added in for fun, but since there was no real challenge yet neither brother was worried about what was in front of them.

Ratchet and Starswirl also found a number of floating platforms had been added to the area, either by the people who had owned this place before Vox or they had been added by the villain they were trying to take down, before finding that some of the flying saucer enemies had shown up, which Starswirl took down with a burst of magical blasts, opening the way for his brother to move forward. It brought them to an area that was near one of the structures, which was heavily guarded by enemies and caused them to open fire on the gladiators when they dropped down into the area they were in, though as that happened Starswirl weaved his magic around the area and blasted the dropships, preventing more from being added to what his brother was currently facing. From there Ratchet pushed into the structure and found that it had a control node for them to turn, which had one of the hoverships stored inside it, so by turning it they would be able to use it and wipe out more of their enemies as they focused on their main mission in this place, or at least that seemed to be what they were supposed to do. As such he tore into the guards that were already in there and Starswirl joined him as he made sure the way they had come from was secure, just in case Vox tried to box them in and overwhelm them, but the rest of the area was clear and allowed Ratchet to claim the node for Team Darkstar.

With that done the brothers climbed into the hovership and headed out into the space around the station, where Dallas informed everyone that they were going to have to clear out the area before being able to land, which was fine with them since they were planning on doing that anyway. Their targets were mostly the heavy gladiators that had been scattered all over this station, based on what the map and the blue stars were showing them, but that didn't stop Ratchet and Starswirl from firing at everything that dared to get in front of them or attack the hovership. Of course that was easier said than done in some cases, as Vox was sending a lot of enemy ships, the saucer enemies, to tear them down, though they were up for the challenge and outmaneuvered their enemies with ease, allowing them to fire the weapons and tear them apart, no doubt to Vox's dismay as he realized he was losing a lot of resources right now. One thing the brothers were able to confirm was that the Valix Belt was large and that they might be here for a while, which was fine with them since both they and their sister were trying to cut into Vox's forces so when it was time to make their move he wouldn't be able to do all that much to stop them.

Once the challenge was over Ratchet docked the hovership and they climbed out to tackle the next part of the course, that being finding and hacking into the control orbs that powered this portion of the station, or controlled how it operated, to which they restocked their weapons before moving forward. Sure enough Ratchet found more gladiators standing in front of him, though as he fired at them Starswirl weaved his magic through the air and blasted the dropships that decided to fly into the area, cutting off enemy reinforcements so they could continue to progress. When they entered the building in front of them it was easy for them to find some of the control orbs, which no one seemed to be guarding since no foes came out to stop them after all of the initial guards had been taken care of, so it was easy for them to move forward and pass through another door once all four of the control orbs had been hacked into. From there it was a simple matter for the brothers, they just had to repeat what they had done so far and not worry about being overwhelmed by enemies, not that it mattered since none of Vox's forces could put up much of a fight, and it wasn't long before they smashed through all of the guards for the second set of control orbs and claimed them.

That wasn't the end, of course, as the brothers had to fight their way to the zone Vox wanted them to end the challenge at, he seemed to think it made things better for the viewers at home, and both Ratchet and Starswirl smashed through the wave of enemies that were on the other side of the door to reach their destination. After that happened the beam that lit up the surrounding area was fired from one part of the station, bounced off a pair of mirrors, and sailed into the darkness, meaning there was more they had to do before this challenge was completed, which Dallas confirmed not a few seconds later. As such Starswirl blasted the pair of dropships out of their way so he and Ratchet could cross the swing gap that was in front of them, along with another two that descended before they could drop anyone, while his brother blasted the rest of their enemies with his weapons, opening the way for them to use the Grind Cable to move forward. That brought them to an elevator that took the brothers up to the top of a lighthouse, allowing them to stock some of their ammunition with the crates they discovered, though once that was done they used the Swingshot targets in front of them and descended to the area that was at the bottom of it.

From there it was a simple matter to use the Grind Cable to reach their final destination, tear down the gladiators that had been ordered to stop them, and find the crack that rested inside the last building that, when turned correctly, allowed the beam to line up with the main light and complete the entire course. Such a thing earned them their first Gold Medal, as in the first of two when Ratchet considered the information they had learned earlier, as well as a number of Gravity Boots for him and his siblings, which they already knew how to use and Ratchet was sure Autumn could fit into their armor without damaging anything that would alert Vox. After that the brothers tackled the Dread Challenges, finding that the first one was called Time Extension and that it was just taking the hovership through a course around the station, something that was right up Ratchet's alley given his skills with the ships and vehicles they had used so far, and it wasn't long before they claimed victory over the course. The second, and final, challenge was known as Your Land is My Land, where they had to face off against more enemies to seize more control orbs, which was rather easy given what they had seen so far and, just as Starswirl predicted, it wasn't long before their gladiators enemies had been smashed into the ground and the orbs had been hacked into.

Once they were done with both challenges, and were sure that there was nothing else that needed to be done, Ratchet and Starswirl returned to the transport ship and headed back to the suite with Autumn, even though he knew that they would be put back to work in no time and that he just had to be patient, as soon Vox would fall and he wouldn't even see it coming until it was too late.

Deadlocked: Torval

The following day Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were on their way to the next planet they had to deal with, Torval, and this time the siblings were ready for who was going down and who was staying on the transport ship, as Autumn would be heading down with him and Starswirl would be staying here. So far the arrangement seemed to be working for Vox, as he had issued no new commands to the siblings, though Clank had found a few postings that came from Ace, as he wanted the family to have all the information they needed to bring him down, making them dislike him even more. Apparently he took kids, whether as volunteers or it was pure kidnapping, in fact they were sure it was the latter given his desire to take heroes while they were working, and put them into focus groups to figure out why Ace's toys weren't selling, while the kids either wanted toys made in Clank's likeness, as in Secret Agent Clank, Courtney Gears, or the three of them. Ace's toys weren't selling, that much they had gathered from the videos they had seen, which contained over two hundred kids and none of them wanted to touch an Ace Hardlight toy, which must have caused Ace to chuckle and Vox had likely blown a fuse when he got the results back.

Of course they couldn't talk about that, not without revealing that they had inside help to the villain they were planning on taking down, and waited until they reached Torval, where Ratchet and Autumn were teleported down to the start of their next course and got ready as a deserted factory or city appeared around them.

Welcome back, DreadZone fans! Today we're live from planet Torval. Dallas said, where his tone informed them that this had to be an interesting place, or at least he was hoping so after they smashed and defeated everything that had been thrown at them so far, Team Darkstar has dominated the DreadZone circuit so far, but I think their luck will stop here. They've just been sent to one of Torval's massive Ace Hardlight toy manufacturing plants! And although the plant was shut down due to shoddy sales, one of Ace's ships still remains! Team Darkstar will have to find that ship and escape with it before DreadZone's most elite forces hunt them down!

That thought amused the siblings when they thought about it, Vox was having a hard time selling Ace's toys and, whether it was the original plan or not, he was sentencing them to fight through one of the factories that the unsellable items were coming from, meaning he might be planning on destroying it soon. Since there was nothing new for them in the Vendor, as Autumn took a look before they did anything else, the siblings moved out and opened fire on a group of gladiators that were guarding a turret, who was disabled in no time by one of Autumn's EMPs and torn apart by Ratchet's bullets. What they discovered was that the turret was also sitting on some control orbs, so that told them that they had to deal with the guardians before hacking into them, which was going to be easy for them since they knew the turrets didn't stand much of a chance against them. They also found that there were robotic zombies on this world, how neither of them knew and, if they were being honest, neither of them really cared to figure out why it was happening, so they just focused on breaking all of them and tracking down the turrets that were scattered all over the place.

As they did that they passed by a statue of Ace Hardlight, which wasn't as guarded as everything else and might be a sign that Vox didn't care about his star player at all, but they paid it no mind as they targeted the other two turrets and all of the gladiators that were guarding them, breaking through their defenses and hacking into their control orbs without too much happening.

Upon claiming the last one Dallas informed them that they were going to have to use the Hoverbike to deal with a number of drones that had been deployed, apparently they were connected to some forcefields that were blocking the path they needed to take or something, hence why Ratchet got on it and his sister joined him without delay. Ratchet found that it was far easier with Autumn helping him out, as his sister was able to weave her magic into barriers to stop the drones, or at least small groups of them, in their tracks and opened the way for him to blast them apart, which stunned Dallas and his companion as they watched the siblings work. Of course one had to worry about Vox getting annoyed with them for making his courses that much easier, but nothing bad happened as Autumn worked her magic and Ratchet tore their foes to pieces, like he had given up or something, though she kept her guard up and knew that her brother would do the same as he rode around the factory. Thanks to the two of them working together it didn't take them long to take down all of the drones, twelve in total, and power down every forcefield that had been powered by their targets, though as they came to a stop, however, something weird happened in the nearby area.

One of the purple tears in reality showed up all of a sudden, of another version of this planet that was far more wrecked than theirs, and sure enough the figure they had seen before was fighting someone else, their attacks wrecking everything around them, though before anything else happened the tear snapped shut and left them staring at the empty area that it had been resting in.

"Someone must be messing with time and space... that's not good." Autumn remarked, as it was weird to see a tear like that once, even though it didn't stick around for too long, but seeing it twice meant that something bad was happening in their universe, especially given that someone else seemed to be going through different instance of the same courses she and her brothers were going through, "We're seeing scenes from other realities... there's no telling what might happen if things get worse than a lone tear every couple of days."

Ratchet really had no idea what was going on with the cracks in reality, though part of him wondered if such a thing might be the key to finding his missing sister, though since all of the drones were taken down they were able to climb off of the Hoverbike and approached the next area of Torval that they would be fighting through. Dallas informed them that they were close to where the getaway ship was located, but it was missing and that it would take days, possibly even weeks, for them to find it, only neither of them had the time to waste on such a thing, causing him and Juanita to laugh. Of course the announcers and Vox were underestimating their abilities as Ratchet opened fire on the gladiators that were coming right at them, all while Autumn helped him track down three nodes that would help them locate the ship, even though she had an idea as to where it might be resting. He knew she was just playing the game the way Vox intended, so they wouldn't be accused of cheating or anything, and discovered that two nodes were in areas that they had passed by already while the last one was beyond where the forcefield had been resting, so with that in mind he and his sister got to work taking down the gladiators that were coming at them as they made their way to each of their targets.

Thanks to their efforts they were able to find that the shuttle was buried beneath Ace's statue, though while Dallas told all of the viewers that it would take some time for someone to get it out Autumn just waved her hand and shattered both the statue and the base, revealing the shuttle underneath. With that done they were allowed to 'blast off', showing that they had won the challenge, earning them the second of the two Gold Medals, which granted them the right to tackle the next tournament, the Vindicator Tournament at long last, but, like the previous worlds they had been to, the siblings focused on the Dread Challenges before leaving. This time around there was only one challenge for them to do, Turret Trouble, which was basically them using one of the turrets they had seen around the facility to tear down the gladiators and ships that came to take both of them out, which was just those four waves and nothing else. To be honest Ratchet and Autumn were slightly disappointed in Vox and his lack of creativity, as there could have been another challenge that used, say, the Hoverbike, or one that forced them to take to the skies to blow up bombs that would take this place out, or something else that wasn't just a turret defense.

In the end neither of them said anything as Ratchet tore their enemies apart with the turret and Autumn used her magic to take out some of the other groups, though once that was done, and the points were theirs, they returned to the ship, rejoined Starswirl, and headed back to the containment suite to prepare for the next tournament and the planets that would come after it.

Deadlocked: Vindicator Tournament

During their time waiting for the next tournament to start Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl found that Dallas and Juanita really didn't like them, as they clearly thought of the siblings as criminal masterminds and that the galaxy was better off with them trapped in DreadZone, a mistake since they were close to beating Vox's game. There was some sad news, however, as the announcers informed the and the other viewers that Agent Bizzaro, Plasma Woman, and Orange Comet, all upcoming heroes that sprouted after Drek's defeat, were dead, just like most of the other heroes they had learned about. Their next foe was going to be one of the most dangerous Exterminators in all of DreadZone, the Eviscerator, who didn't talk and when he was asked questions he would eviscerate a drone that had the answer he picked out, though they were usually yes and no answers, likely to save Bolts. There wasn't much else for them to learn before the big event, other than the fact that the only ones rooting for their death seemed to be the pair of announcers and Vox himself, especially since everyone who sat in the stands enjoyed having them around and the viewers at home clearly enjoyed a change of pace.

Clank was also able to make contact with one of Ace's allies, a female tech droid who seemed to like him, and they were in the process of working on a way to deactivate DreadZone, as in turning off all the blast collars, wrecking the surveillance system, and making it so the heroes could go free, all of them to be exact. As it turned out fighting Eviscerator would give them the time they needed to do all sorts of things with Ace's information, especially since most of the cameras actually went down during a big arena fight, so they were banking on the siblings putting on a show before clashing with the next Exterminator. With that information in hand the siblings got ready, checking their armor to be sure nothing was wrong or broken, making sure their weapons were fully stocked and prepared for the battle ahead of them, and Autumn even took a moment to check the Vendor, finding a weapon known as the Harbinger available. Supposedly it was the RYNO for all of DreadZone, a powerful weapon that didn't have all of the regulations and checks to be sure it wouldn't exploded when it was fired at the user's enemies, so she ran a quick check on the weapon, as she only bought one since she was the one who carried all of the RYNO weapons, and made it far more stable than it had been beforehand.

Once that was done they walked over to the transport ship and took it to the Battledome, as it was time for them to start their part of the operation so they could get ready for the final stages of their stay in DreadZone, because Vox had no idea what was coming his way and would be surprised by what would happen in the near future.

Due to what can only be described as miraculous luck, Ratchet and his siblings have made it all the way to the Vindicator Tournament! Dallas declared, speaking as the shuttle carrying the trio entered the area that the Battledome was in, all while the siblings were curious if they'd start all the way at the very beginning or start on the Tower of Power, given what they had done in the past so far, But, before they earn the right to rise to the rank of Vindicator, they'll have to survive the Battledome's deadliest challenges yet and then take on the Eviscerator!

Ratchet and his siblings discovered that they were starting in the first section of the Battledome, going through a bout of cycling weapons as the gladiators rushed at them, though the real fun part was that all three of them were set to different weapons, like Ratchet would have the Leviathan Flail, Autumn would have the Arbiter, and Starswirl would have access to the Hunter Mine Launcher. It was almost unfair for the enemies that were coming at them, as three different weapons meant that there was no real way for them to get close to any of the siblings, meaning they were able to smash all waves of enemies and move onto the next part of the challenge. From there they were moved to the top of the Tower of Power as they were charged with surviving an onslaught of bomb drops from all of the dropships, the dreadnoughts according to Dallas, though Autumn weaved her magic through the air and smashed their flying enemies before they could do anything to them, while Starswirl focused on breaking the bombs and Ratchet tore down the gladiators. Sure enough they found that both Dallas and Juanita were calling foul on all three of them, that this just destroyed the purpose of the challenge, only for the viewers to call for them to shut up so they could watch the siblings, showing Vox that his team was losing their popularity among the people of the Shadow Sector.

Once that was done the announcers informed everyone that the siblings would now be facing the Eviscerator, a lot sooner than what Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were expecting, as they were thinking that they might have another challenge or two before this point, before the large twin bladed Exterminator flew down and attacked them. As such they opened fire on him as he tried to strike one of them with his sharpened blades, which seemed to be his only weapons and what he was known for, before he pulled back and brought his arms close to each other for a second, causing them to pause for a brief moment. Sure enough he did something new, he fired a beam of green energy at them and Starswirl weaved some of his magic into the space in front of them, making a mirror that reflected the attack back into their foe's chest, causing the Eviscerator to dust off his chest before rushing at them again. The other other thing he did was throw up a shield that protected him from harm as he called forth some gladiators, the ones who shared his species, though they didn't stand a chance against the siblings and their weapons, forcing the Exterminator to land and fight them once more.

As it turned out he also had a missile launching attack, small rockets designed to take the siblings down, but, in the end, it didn't help him all that much as Ratchet delivered the finishing blow and took him down, allowing them to ascend to the rank of Vindicator, turning the main color of their armor golden yellow while unlocking the planets of Stygia and Maraxus, the last two before the final tournament.

Following that they tackled the Dread Challenges for this tournament, as the fans wanted more and they were more than willing to do so, as it allowed Clank, Al, and their new helper to do more work without being discovered, where they found that the first one was called Higher Ground. What it looked like was a new way to get up to the top of the Tower of Power, this time using energy grind rails and platforms before having to ascend the tower the old fashioned way, fighting enemies and blasting dropships out of the way, and when they reached the top a wave of enemies fell before their might. Once that challenge was complete Ratchet turned his attention to the final challenge, the Corkscrew, which was just them facing a number of gladiators and enemies as they activated spheres, which would move the energy grind rails into position so they could progress to the next stage of the challenge. Starswirl found that it was rather easy to do, because either he or Autumn would fight by Ratchet's side as the other focused on activating the orbs, allowing them to move forward without wasting too much time, though at the end of the line they faced another round of gladiators, which were easy to take out and they were successful in no time.

With the challenges done they returned to their suite and found that Clank was successful, he, Al, and their assistant had deactivated Clank's collar, while finding that Ace was smiling as he leaned against one of the walls, meaning he had taken out the cameras and Vox had no idea what was going on, to which they worked to nullify all of their collars and then make it look like they were still active so they could finally bring an end to Vox's terrible plans.

Deadlocked: Stygia

Following the defeat of the Eviscerator in the Battledome, and being given some time before the next course, Ratchet watched as Autumn joined Clank's group in breaking the collars they were forced to wear, where Ace just observed them, knowing that they had all the keys they needed to get back at Vox. In addition to that Clank found out what was waiting for them at the next planet they would be visiting, or rather the situation that Vox had altered, as Stygia was a planet that had constant meteor showers that would decimate the entire planet if it wasn't for a powerful energy shield that was sold to them and installed by Gadgetron. Such a thing caused everyone to glance at each other for a moment, because if they knew Vox he already had someone on sight and would sabotage the shield, making it their task to figure out what was wrong with it and fix it, something that Clank was looking into so he could set their navigation units for later. Other than that they were able to deactivate the collars for their entire unit and Clank prepared a code that would be sent out when the siblings were ready to take down Vox, which would free the remaining heroes from their terrible fates.

When morning arrived the siblings were pulled away from the containment suite and used the transport ship to travel to Stygia, where it didn't take them all that long to see what Clank had told them about, the meteors that ravaged the planet in the past, though this time Ratchet and Starswirl teleported down as Autumn watched them tackle the course.

Planet Stygia, a beautiful world with pink sand beaches, friendly service, and giant meteor storms pummeling the surface! Dallas proclaimed, sounding happy about something, which meant the brothers could ignore him a little, since he was on Vox's side of everything, all while finding that a normal storm was going on as small meteors were raining down on the planet, missing the defense station, We're live from the Tempus Control Station thousands of feet above the ground where powerful meteor shields protect the people below! But not today because we've turned them off! Can Team Darkstar destroy the jamming devices and save Stygia? Only time will tell in this final round as the fate of an entire planet rests in their hands!

"Great, gives us another reason not to like Vox." Ratchet commented, where he and Starswirl climbed into the Landstalker that was resting nearby, him taking the main controls as his brother seized the main cannon, just like they had done in the past, causing him to focus on what was ahead of them.

"Just be patient, we're nearly ready to implement our plan." Starswirl remarked, keeping his voice low so only his brother could hear him speak, just in case someone was listening in on their conversations, all while focusing on the forcefield that was blocking the way forward.

Ratchet had no response as he and his brother opened fire on the gladiators that dropped down into the area between their starting point and the forcefield that was in front of them, Starswirl's cannon blasts tearing the generators apart so they would progress without wasting more time. As they made their way towards the second forcefield they smashed all sorts of gladiators down as Starswirl eliminated the dropships with his magic, causing both announcers to look at them in sheer disbelief as they realized that they weren't holding back, and soon the second barrier was done. The third barrier lasted all of five seconds as the brothers tore it down and blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of it, a fact that was replicated on the other side as they headed for their first target, three sabotage machines attached to part of the main machine. Autumn, being one of the number of individuals who had worked on the new version of the machine, the one that was protecting Stygia, had informed them of where one would attack to cripple the device and sure enough it was easy to pinpoint their targets and take each one out, along with the gladiators that were guarding them.

Thanks to Starswirl's precision they were able to avoid damaging the control tower, though Dallas claimed that they had done such a thing and that now, due to their 'actions', they had to restart the shields manually, leading to Clank quickly telling them to play along, as he had Autumn's schematics on had and figured out a way to do this. As such they climbed out of the Landstalker and used a jump pad to get up to the four platforms that the nodes were located on, blasting down the gladiator guardians once more before turning the Bolt Cranks, each one calling in more defenders that Starswirl just wiped out with a burst of his magical power. Once one was taken control of they moved onto the next one and quickly did the same thing, seizing control of the area as they wiped out the gladiator guardians, which was no doubt causing those who were watching the show to cheer for them, since they were the rising stars of this entire foul show. After the second node was claimed Ratchet and Starswirl moved onto the third platform and repeated the movement once more, taking it and the node before making their way to the fourth and final piece of this challenge, rapidly claiming it as well so Clank could do whatever it was he needed to do.

Once the four nodes were claimed, and Clank quickly performed his end of things, Dallas informed them that they now had to use one of the Hoverships to reach the shield's core and hack into the control orbs to power it up, though he also claimed that a meteor had hit it and they could see that it was just fine. After listening to him talk the brothers climbed into the vehicle and took to the air once more, where DreadZone called in both of their companion robots, the ones that were assigned to them but hadn't seen battle since they were necessary, and they were tasked with hacking into all of the control orbs. Such a thing told the brothers that all they had to do was follow after the two robots and blast their enemies out of the air with their guns and abilities, which neither of them were worried about since their division of labor meant that both robots were able to work without having to take their attention off of what they were doing. Dallas and Juanita were outraged by the fact that Team Darkstar was still alive, that they were able to face everything DreadZone had and just walked away without too much damage done to any of them, especially since they had torn down three of their four Exterminators, and, sure enough, they raged when Ratchet and Starswirl succeeded in completing the challenge.

After that they had to land and defend the generator from one last assault, showing them and the viewers that Vox was more than willing to kill off an entire planet to kill the siblings, though even then nothing mattered as Ratchet blasted the gladiators with his weapons and Starswirl used his magic against the dropships. That one wave was all they could throw at the brothers, those gladiators were all that Vox could muster right now, meaning they were able to restore power to the shield generator and watched as the shimmering barrier returned, stopping the incoming meteors from striking the planet that was below them. After that Ratchet found that they gained a Black Medal, the requirement for the final tournament as he and his siblings figured out, before discovering that there were no Dread Challenges for them to tackle, which was a surprise since he could have flown the Hovership around and either fly through rings or take down enemies, leaving him a little disappointed in Vox and his team. As such he and Starswirl had to wait for Dallas and Juanita to stop talking to those who were watching the show at home before anything could be done, where the pair purposely talked for some time, just to keep the brothers on the planet, even though there was no reason to do so, and it wasn't long before they gave up and let the pair go.

With that done they returned to the transport ship, rejoined Autumn, and headed back to their containment suite, though now there was only one planet standing between them and taking down Vox, they just had to be patient and tackle the last couple of challenges, and the final tournament, before setting their plan into motion.

Deadlocked: Maraxus

The day following their venture to Stygia, where they decimated the DreadZone gladiators and showed Vox that he made a mistake in seeking them out, Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl found themselves on their way to Maraxus, a prison planet no doubt illegally obtained like all of the other ones they had been to. Based on what Clank was able to figure out only one person had survived tackling the Maraxus prison, that being Ace Hardlight himself, but given Vox's desire to elevate him into a figure he could make money off of it was possible they lowered the difficulty for him. Of course Ratchet knew there was a chance that Ace was just that good, just like they were when he thought about it, causing him siblings to shrug as they took a moment to think about the information Clank had found, as there wasn't much they could do about it right now and just had to wait for the ship to reach its destination. Other than that Ratchet found that there wasn't much else to do but wait for the transport ship to reach the planet it was heading to, though he and Autumn got ready anyway, making sure their weapons were prepared for whatever challenges Vox could throw at them this time around.

When they finally reached Maraxus, however, they discovered that it was a sandy planet, due to a dust storm that was now raging over part of the area, before the pair were teleported down to the starting area of the massive prison they would have to fight their way through.

Today our superstar contestants have their work cut out for them! Dallas said, this time sounding much happier about everything that was going on, as if knowing that this place was going to be their doom, but that was when the other planets had been like, according to the announcers, and each had failed to do anything to the siblings, Their bots have been scattered throughout the prison under heavy guard... we considered trapping his siblings, but due to their magic we know they won't play ball. To escape, Ratchet and Team Darkstar will need to free each of the captives, then fight their way through an army of killer robots!

"I had a feeling that was the case." Ratchet remarked, as Clank had informed them that their robots hadn't returned with them after their time on Stygia, meaning Vox was busy setting up the next course before summoning the siblings to run it, though with both of their weapons full on ammunition they bypassed the Vendor this time around.

"Yeah, well, he could have done a better job if he wanted to keep it quite." Autumn replied, where she blasted the first pair of gladiators that were in their way and knocked them down, allowing them to head under part of the prison and move closer to the cell block that the first robot was imprisoned in.

Clank, making full use of the information they had gleamed from Ace's offering to them, was able to direct them to where they needed to go, thanks to the blue stars that appeared on their navigation units, so the pair blasted the gladiators that dared to get in their way as they carefully moved forward. After a few moments they found a jump pad and used it without wasting time, finding that it allowed Ratchet and Autumn to enter the first containment area, even though there happened to be a swarm of snappers and some gladiators waiting for them. Sure enough their enemies tried their best to take them down, just like all of the enemies they had faced since being brought to DreadZone, though it wasn't long before Ratchet blasted the last gladiator into submission as Autumn smashed open the container that the robot was trapped in. After she did that both she and her brother approached an electric barrier and deactivated it with one of their EMPs, allowing them to progress to the other side of the passage and surprise the gladiators on the other side, who were eliminated without too much time being wasted, showing everyone how skilled they were.

The first part of the course was completed when they exited the prison and reached a Puma vehicle, which they would use to locate three control nodes that, when activated, would allow the siblings to enter Beta Block, where the second robot was being stored. As such Ratchet wasted no time and get in his portion of the vehicle, though when Autumn got in they rushed forward and mowed down the gladiators that happened to be in their way, much to Dallas and Juanita's dismay as they realized what was happening, and it wasn't long before the first node was theirs. From there they drove around the perimeter of the prison and continued to blast their enemies into submission, Autumn making sure to use her magic on the dropships and some of the tougher enemies, just so Ratchet didn't have to waste his time on them. Once all three nodes had been turned the siblings were informed that the door to Beta Block had been opened and made their way over without delay, running over more enemies and gunning them down as well, no doubt caused more people to cheer while Vox growled at them.

As they climbed out of the Puma, however, a sandstorm kicked up and everyone protected themselves, as it was one of the more powerful ones that struck Maraxus, though as Autumn made sure to have a barrier around them she found yet another crack in reality was forming nearby. This one, however, didn't connect to another dimension's version of the place they were moving through, rather it showed her and Ratchet a scene from what looked like a stormy planet, one with what looked like a rather imposing prison that put the one they were facing to shame. What caught their attention, Ratchet's far more than Autumn's for a few seconds, were a pair of figures who seemed to be infiltrating the prison, one being a Cazar with light brown fur and seemed to be ready for battle, based on her armor and weapons, but the other figure stole their attention immediately. There was a female Lombax standing near the Cazar, with white fur and blur stripes, matching the ones Ratchet possessed, she had piercings in her ears, two on her right ear and one on the left, while she wore a black and gray jumpsuit with an orange scarf, but what really caught their attention was that she looked a lot like Ratchet, save for the more bushy fox tail she had, where Autumn summoned her magic again.

She made sure to add in a few barriers to keep what was said to themselves, while preventing the cameras from seeing the crack in reality, while Ratchet disengaged his helmet for a moment, as he couldn't believe what he was seeing and just wanted to see it with his own eyes.

"SIS!" Ratchet called out, as while he had no idea whether or not his words could cross the crack in reality, to let his long lost sister hear his words and turn back, he was going to try and get her attention anyway, because this might be the only chance he might have to pull her to safety.

Autumn was sure that his words fell on deaf ears, that the crack didn't allow sound to move between dimensions, but as her brother touched his necklace fragment, however, the other Lombax raised her right hand for a moment and touched the same area, causing her to glance back and see the crack, though as she locked eyes with Ratchet, surprise crossing her features, the breach slammed shut, preventing anything else from happening.

"Sis... thank the Maker that she's okay." Ratchet said, as he had been looking for her for a long time and was starting to run out of ideas that would help him track her down, especially since the Plumber was of no help, but at the very least he could let out a sigh of relief as he confirmed that his twin was still alive.

"The Plumber was right, she's just fine... and she's a hero, no doubt breaking into prison to release those who might have been wrongfully imprisoned." Autumn remarked, because in the brief time they had seen the other Lombax it was clear that she had to share some of Ratchet's view points on heroism, as she was sure that, if such a thing happened to them or someone they knew, her brother would break into prison to save them as well.

Ratchet smiled as he glanced at Autumn for a moment, as he agreed with her assessment, before finding that the storm was winding down, to which he reengaged his helmet while his sister carefully lowered her barriers, as it was time for the pair to resume tearing down Vox's empire. Once the sandstorm died down, and everything was back to normal, they were able to finish the challenge, much to Dallas and Junaita's dismay, which allowed them to tackle the next portion of this course, locating Delta Block. As it turned out this was just a pit stop or something, so Beta Block was useless to them in the grand scheme of things, to which the siblings rushed forward and blasted the gladiators out of the way, showing Vox that neither of them were to be underestimated and that he'd have to pull out every trick if he wanted to bring them all down, given that the Liberator tournament was up next. There were a few control orbs in their way that they had to hack into, so the siblings guarded the area as their robot companion did that, and once the forcefield was taken down they headed out into the sandy area once more, finding a turret and a dropship waiting for them.

Sure enough the announcers groaned in dismay as Autumn smashed some of their opponents to pieces and opened the way for Ratchet to tear down the gladiators, due to the fact that magic was more potent than they originally believed it to be, before they deactivated another barrier and entered another part of the prison. From there it was a simple matter of them wiping out the guardians once more, hacking into some control orbs, and then using a Grind Cable to reach where the other robot was being held, which was a sunken area surrounded by laser turrets, large gladiators, small gladiators, and dropships. As such Autumn jumped down first and loosed bolts of magic that blasted her targets apart, as she wiped out the ships to make sure no reinforcements were dropped in on them, allowing Ratchet to join her before targeting the guardians of the area, though temporary barriers showed up to deal with the lasers, opening the way for them to take all of them out as well. Once the enemies were wiped out, and no more were coming into the block they were in, Ratchet and Autumn stood on the activation button and lowered the cell that the second robot was in, which broke when it reached the bottom of the chamber, allowing them to leave the prison chamber with ease.

With the Black Medal earned for this planet, much to Dallas and Juanita's disappointment, the siblings tackled the couple of Dread Challenges that were designed for this place, the first one called Speed Trap, which seemed like a race of some kind, much to Ratchet's delight. Sure enough he was right, he had to climb into the puma and race around the prison, all while following the checkpoint rings that he and his siblings had seen in the past, all while Autumn watched him from the stand that had been provided, as the cannon wasn't needed in the challenge and she had to sit this out. Sure enough her brother succeeded in beating the challenge and returned to her, before they tackled the second challenge, Spider on a Wire, which was a Landstalker course, destroying stuff to earn points while working towards a goal. After seeing what the other challenges of this type produced the siblings were a little disappointed by how easy this was, in fact it seemed like Vox might have withdrawn his gladiators once they beat the campaign challenges, so it wasn't long before they smashed the goal and won the final challenge.

As soon as that was done, and they were sure there were no more Dread Challenges to do, the siblings regrouped on the dropship so the could head back to the containment suite, as it was time for them to bring down Vox and terminate all of Dreadzone at the same time.

Deadlocked: Liberation

Upon their return to the DreadZone Station the siblings discovered that Clank and Al were ready to get the party started, in fact with Autumn protecting them from sight it was easy to deactivate their remaining collars and escape Vox's grasp, while at the same time Ace sent a private message that was untraceable. It was the final stages of his plan, they were going to fight and he was going to lose, in fact he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was impossible for him to win, even if the siblings stopped using magic, so he wanted to put on a show before they moved onto Vox. It also came with the discovery of the meaning of his mysterious last name, he was able to make clones of himself that he could inhabit should his main body perish in some manner, so if they crushed him he'd be able to escape and ensure his half of the plan. This was how he was able to survive DreadZone for so long, using his ability to make a copy of himself before heading into battle, and since it had been a long time since he made one his current clone was much younger than he was, five years younger anyway, he would be able to move faster in a younger body.

The plan was dangerous, suicidal even if Vox figured out that they were moving against him, but the siblings had done a lot of outrageous things in the past and this would be no different, though the announcers continued to voice their desire to see Ratchet and his siblings fall before the might of Ace Hardlight, the only Exterminator left. What was hilarious was that they were still trying to paint them as mobsters of the highest order, criminal masterminds that deserved to be in prison with no hope of escape, and that they were responsible for incredible property damage, gambling and illegal hoverbike races, and, apparently, improper dental hygiene. Even with fans booing them Dallas and Juanita continued to uphold their opinions on Ratchet and his siblings, that they were liars, as in none of their stories were true and that they were taking the winnings of other heroes, and they knew that once this was all over they would be imprisoned for the rest of their days, along with Vox. Other than that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl remained silent as they listened to what the announcers had to say about them, mostly to hear what outrageous lies they had to spread, while Ace chuckled as well, as he never liked the pair and he was happy to bring them down as well.

When it came time for them to tackle the Liberator Tournament the siblings stepped up and used the shuttle as Ace took his own secret passage back to his suite, so he could observe before making his entrance, where they were brought to the first section of the Battledome and deposited for the start of the final tournament.

We're back in the Battledome as Ratchet and his siblings begin the Liberator Tournament! Dallas said, where it was all too easy for them to tell that he hated them, especially since Juanita was staring at them with hatred burning in her eyes, meaning they were hoping that something or someone would take them down, No contestant has made it through this baby all season and frankly I don't expect that to change today. Even if they do survive the series of rigged challenges an deadly traps, Ace Hardlight will be waiting to turn him and his siblings into filet!

Ratchet and his siblings chuckled as they discovered what the first part of the tournament was, it was just another bout of cycling weapons as they faced four waves of enemies and, once again, each one had a different weapon for fairness, but it still wasn't fair for the gladiators as they blasted their way through the waves of enemies with ease. After taking down that challenge they were moved to the long platform they had fought the last two Exterminators on and had to face wave after wave of enemies, which each one slain would make each of them faster and faster. It was easy to see that it was made to make them kill themselves in their haste, an interesting plan that could have done something if it wasn't for the fact that Autumn and Starswirl could slow themselves down with magic, a cover since Clank had hacked into the systems and just cancelled out the speed increase. With them working together the challenge barely lasted as they blasted and smashed their way through all of the enemies that were coming their way, much to the continued dismay of Dallas and Juanita, who just growled whenever they won a challenge or did something incredible.

After conquering that challenge, however, they were teleported back to the first part of the Battledome, where they found Ace waiting for them to arrive so they could fight, all while Dallas and Juanita called for him to utterly destroy them, as if all three of them were demons or something.

"This is it. No one else, besides you three and myself, have reached this point." Ace commented, drawing his gun as he activated his own power, the side that he showed when he was actually fighting someone and not exterminating whoever his target had to be at the time, because he knew that they had to put on a show for Vox, "Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl... come and face your end!"

Ratchet and his siblings found that the first thing Ace did was make some of his phantom copies, which he used when he was in a fight and were totally different from his actual ability, before opening fire on the three of them, separating them from each other to the best of his ability. Since they were putting on a show Autumn and Starswirl tapped into their true power, surprising everyone since this was the first time they had really done this, before going to war with the clones that were in front of them, lashing out with magic and weapons at the same time. Ratchet also found that Ace had grenades that released waves of electricity, designed to paralyze his foes before he took them down, though while his siblings paid it no attention, due to their magic, he jumped over them with ease and continued the fight with his foe. The only other skill he had to be wary about was that Ace could launch missiles shaped in his symbol that hunted down whoever his target might be, and his clones could do the same thing, not that it mattered since Autumn and Starswirl were able to wipe out the ones chasing them with a small bit of magic.

Sadly, or at least it was that way to Ratchet, Ace didn't seem to have too many other abilities, meaning Vox kept him with just his gun skills and nothing else, because the fight ended with him knocking Ace to the ground, his nanotech reading zero in an instant, before the clones shattered under the might of his siblings. Of course Dallas and Juanita were outraged by this turn of events, even though they were forced to acknowledge their win again Ace Hardlight, elevating them to the rank of Liberator, turning the main color of their armor black, though he and his siblings resisted the urge to laugh at the name, given what they had planned. With Ace done for, and they made sure to make it convincing so Vox would call them to his office, those who sided with the announcers called for someone to take their heads, though the guards informed the siblings that Vox wanted to see them, which was according to plan. As such they wasted no time in leaving the arena and let the robotic guards take the three of them to where Vox was waiting, no doubt annoyed that Ace had been beaten, meaning it was time for them to take him down and get on with their lives.

Sure enough he was sitting in his chair, observing the station in all its dark glory, when they entered his domain and were left alone by the guards, meaning they still believed that the collars were operational and there was no reason to worry about them attacking their boss, which just meant everything was in their hands.

"You wanted to see us, Vox?" Ratchet inquired, though as he said that he found that the boxes that had cluttered up the office were already gone, meaning the greedy man had bet against Ace and was likely creating new merchandise to fill the void that was left behind.

"You three are the new grand champions of DreadZone, the hottest celebrities in the entire galaxy!" Vox remarked, where it was easy to see that he believed that they would bow to whatever he said and become the newest hero killers in Solana, meaning he was in for a rude awakening in the next few moments, "I've got a sweet deal lined up for you, which will make you rich and me richer... once we start a new season of Dread..."

"No deal." Autumn said, something that caused Vox to pause for a moment, as if he misheard her or something, while she and Starswirl stood at the ready, since there was no telling what he might do now that they were going against his will, but if he did what Ace expected it would be the end of him, "What? We're heroes, not criminals that want to make money by killing other heroes for sport."

"Besides, you don't have any cards to use against us." Starswirl added, as this would cause Vox to either make his move or just sit there and accept that they weren't going to abide by his desires to use them as money makers, the latter would be followed by them arresting him and hand him over to the authorities, given what Clank was up to.

"Oh yeah? You seem to be forgetting something." Vox stated, where he pulled out a switch that, when pressed while it was pointing at a contestant's collar, would set off one of the collars and kill whoever was wearing a DreadZone collar, though that was followed by a grin appearing on his face as he considered his apparent 'victory', "All three of you are still wearing my special DreadZone collars, which means that your lives are in my hand and if I say you'll become the new stars of my domain, well, that's what you'll do with a smile on your face!"

Ratchet stepped forward and pulled out his wrench for a moment, where he smashed the table with a mighty blow and stopped when he was face to face with Vox, who growled for a few seconds before pressing the button as he pointed it at his target, only nothing happened and caused the color to drain from his face. In that moment Ratchet raised his spare hand and removed the collar with ease, something that his siblings did as well and really shocked Vox when he realized the scene that was playing out before him, causing him to tap a button and pull up a screen containing the other heroes his people had captured. Sure enough nothing happened when he pressed the button again, even though he pressed it a few times before determining that his trump card had been deactivated, where the monitor changed before his eyes and revealed Clank and Al, who tapped a few buttons and freed all of the prisoners from their collars, causing the heroes to emerge and riot against the guards. The door opened behind them and Ace, younger than they remembered, walked up to where they were standing, though Ratchet smiled as Angela and Sasha, both in their adventure attire, followed him with a few Rangers flanking them, something that caused Vox's jaw to drop as his pet slug cowered in fear.

It took them no time to arrest Vox and cart him off the station, as well as free those wrongfully imprisoned by the man, but as everyone departed from the Shadow Sector, and no one was left on the station, Ace activated the self destruct and blew the entire station apart, leaving that part of their past behind as the siblings looked forward to what the future held for them, Clank, Angela, and Sasha.

Interlude: Time Off

Following the destruction of the DreadZone station, and Vox's people were taken into custody while his assets were seized, Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl quickly moved the armor that they had been forced to wear, though Al helped since they had been designed to last until a contestant died and he knew how to disable that feature. The other heroes were taken to an area where they would be able to rest and regain themselves after their time in DreadZone, as being kidnapped and being forced to fight as a gladiator for the amusement of the Shadow Sector might have mentally wounded some of them. As such it was recommended that the heroes take some time off, relax, and not do anything that might trigger a relapse into their days spent on the station, and even Ace, despite his change of heart, forced himself to attend counseling as well, due to all the time he had spent there, which the group agreed with. The siblings also made sure that the other heroes were unharmed and none of them had any lasting scars from their time in DreadZone, where Kid Nova was fine, Hydro Girl had a crush on Ratchet, and the others were just fine.

Angela and Sasha were happy to see that all five of them were safe, as they counted Clank and Al in their count, though as Al went back to the Phoenix, to make sure it was undamaged from the assault that lead to their capture, the pair found that Ratchet was gearing up to leave already.

"Ratchet, what are you doing?" Angela asked, as she could see that he seemed to be packing for a trip, which was odd since she knew that everyone who had been in DreadZone needed some time off before doing anything heroic, even though she was more interested in the happy look on his face.

"We, and I mean all of us, are going on vacation and heading to Pokitaru... to Jowal Resort, actually, as the owner owes us big time." Ratchet replied, referring to the fact that the man who ran the place told him and his siblings that they were going to be put down as VIPs and that they were going to be given special treatment in the future, if they came to visit the resort, before he glanced towards the air, "Also, while we were tackling Vox's courses, we found several cracks in reality, leading to another reality's version of the planets we were on... save for the last one, as it showed a prison planet unlike any we had seen, and my sister was breaking in to save innocent people."

Sasha knew that many would ask what Ratchet was talking about, as Autumn was the only confirmed sister of Ratchet, but the pod he arrived in all those years ago revealed the truth, he had a twin sister, someone he had been searching for since he learned of her existence, and realized how much pain that must have caused him, to actually see his sister and have her snatched before he could rescue her.

"Taking a break would be beneficial, since there's no telling when another villain will show up," Starswirl remarked, which was true, there were a lot of villains in Solana and, with the recovery of a good number of heroes, they should be able to go on vacation for a time, even though many would mourn the fallen heroes, but if someone like Nefarious showed up it would be their job to take them out.

Sasha agreed with the idea, because the family had been working hard and they deserved a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, off, though since nothing else seemed to be happening in her world right now, as no one wanted a piece of the President, she decided to join them. Of course neither she or Angela were upset about Hydro Girl having a crush on their boyfriend, in fact he seemed to have that effect on most of the girls he encountered, something Angela was sure that he inherited from his father, so, since she had an interest in him, they decided to invite her as well. A few moments later the newest arrival joined them at the shuttle they were going to use, as none of them wanted to bring the Helios, to keep their location a secret, where they found that Hydro Girl had navy blue skin and hair, with a silver chest piece and head gear, to help her underwater, and she had dark blue pants that belonged to a suit. Since her home planet was Aquatos it made sense for them to see that she had some aquatic features, like gills that allowed the heroine to breath underwater, along with small fins on her elbows and a large one on her back, though they also learned that her name was Nika, since she didn't want them calling her by her hero name all the time.

Once everyone was ready to go, and they didn't tell Qwark anything since none of them wanted him to ruin their time off, the group climbed aboard the shuttle and headed off to Pokitaru, a planet Nika had put on her list of places to visit when she had time off. Clank called ahead, allowing the owner to know they were coming and that they were in need of privacy for a while, though at the same time Autumn sent a message to Mr. Lumos, informing him of the fact that they would be taking some time off and that, if anyone called for them, just to tell them that they were on an important assignment and that they would get back to them later. She wasn't expecting anyone to come looking for them, but it never hurt to cover all of their bases so they could have some time off and not be interrupted by a constant stream of people, and the owner of Towal Resort understood, as he labeled them in the books as important VIPs. He also informed them that he would have cards at the ready for their arrival and that he would ensure they were left alone while they relaxed on the private section of the resort, showing Nika some of the rewards the family had gathered over the years.

When the shuttle finally touched down the group met the owner and he handed over the cards, allowing them to head out for the private section of the resort without delay, leaving the shuttle to be moved so no one knew it was here, but once that was done the group finally switched out of their heroic attire and put on attire appropriate for the beach. The cards gave them access to some of the more impressive facilities of the resort, even if the private area had a lot of things they could do, though the first thing they did was head to the beach, allowing Clank to start building sand structures while the others did whatever they wanted. This time around Autumn and Starswirl stayed away from their studies and played with a frisbee, not even bothering to use their magic this time around, while Sasha and Angela, both wearing swimsuits that had a top and bottom section, basked in the sunlight and enjoyed some time off at long last. While they did that Ratchet found that Nika wanted to explore underwater and brought him with her, so it was a good thing he brought his O2 Mask out of his actual armor, before finding that when she entered the water her legs merged into a blue mermaid's tail, which stopped at her waist, though she smiled for a moment when she noticed the surprised look on his face, before they got moving.

The family hoped that the peace they fought for would last, so they could just enjoy their time off and not have to worry about any villains coming out of wherever they were hiding for a long time, but even as they relaxed, however, most of them knew it was only a matter of time until something happened and they weren't looking forward to it.

Size: Pokitaru

Ratchet, his siblings, and the rest of their group found that they had a few days of peace, two to be exact, and they were all too happy to take a break from everything, all while joined by Nika, who would be heading back to Aquatos once it was time for them to get back to being heroes. Angela and Sasha were happy to have another female companion to hang out with, as in someone who was interested in Ratchet, instead of a sibling, especially one who was basically a mermaid when she was in the water, though it didn't take Autumn all that long to find out more about her species. She could pick and choose when to show the scales, though while they were armor against aquatic enemies, given her home planet, they weren't great against a land species, hence another reason behind the gear she wore and caused them to nod their heads in understanding. She clearly had fun hanging out with them, even though Nika did seem jealous of Angela and Sasha, due to the fact that both of them were largely known as Ratchet's wives, or mates as some called them, and Autumn was curious if she wanted to be one of them as well.

Part of her was curious as to what the child of a Lombax and an Aquatian would be, though their vacation was interrupted on their third day as a girl, wearing blue overalls with a pink shirt and red hair tied up in four points, all while having a teddy bear backpack on her back, snapped a picture of Ratchet.

"Um, what are you doing?" Ratchet asked, as no one was supposed to know they were here, on Pokitaru, and if this little girl knew about them than it was only a matter of time until someone else learned about their presence, while the others stopped what they were doing and gathered nearby, even Nika joined them.

"I'm taking picthures for my tchool project." the girl replied, where she spoke with a lisp as she held the picture and put it in her pack, all while priming the old device to take another picture, before she focused on all of them once more, with a look of innocence in her eyes, "I'm doing a project on heroeth and I reconithed all of you from the newthpaperth."

Of course while they were happy she recognized them, even Nika despite her being a lesser hero in the eyes of the whole galaxy, Ratchet and his siblings were worried that something bad would happen and, sure enough, the girl, Luna, knew where to find enemies. In that moment Autumn opened a case that contained two new weapons from Gadgetron, a new bomb glove, this one being an Acid Bomb Glove, and the Lacerator, a new gun like what they had back in Bogon, though, in the off chance that Nika joined them, she made sure to have a pair for her. In addition to that the Vendor held a third new toy for them to use, the Concussion Gun, which was added to their arsenal without much of a drop in their accounts, a fact that surprised their newest companion as she remembered that Autumn was one of the richest people in Solana, and it allowed her to easily buy anything, especially with her discounts. Once everyone was ready to go they followed after Luna and found that she brought them to a few blue crabs, which they took out the moment one tried to attack them, as it meant that all of the mutations weren't out of the water yet, and moved forward.

The robotic attackers looked like they were tourists that had gone insane or something, or maybe they had been this way for a long time, where Nika watched as the group blasted and smashed their way through the enemies without wasting even a second and Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank as the others covered him. That opened the gate in front of them, where he lead the charge, in a sense, as they focused on all of their upcoming enemies and tore each one down without delay, a fact that reinforced why they were the greatest heroes in Solana. The groups of enemies gave them a chance to test out their new weapons, as the Lacerator packed a bit of a punch, the Acid Bomb Glove really damaged their foes, and it wasn't a surprise that the Concussion Gun was a shotgun, knocking enemies back with ease. While they did that Luna took a few pictures, doing her best to get Ratchet, since he seemed to be the star of her report, though she also took a couple of his siblings as well, not to mention the others, just to earn brownie points with her instructor.

Heading down a sandy hill allowed the group to reach another area with insane robotic tourists, which Autumn was able to confirm weren't part of the resort, in fact the owner had no idea who they were and that meant a new villain had to be making their move, so they engaged their enemies without delay. The strangest thing, in Ratchet's eyes, was that none of the fake tourists seemed particularly threatening, in fact they were far weaker than Vox's gladiators, even Nika knew that as she joined them, so it made him question what was going on right now. As they moved through the next gate the group found that they seemed to be heading back towards where they had been resting, allowing the group to jump over to a small patch of land that had a Bolt Crank of it, raising a bridge that connected back to their section of the resort. What was a surprise to them was that there was a suit of red armor on it for them to claim, where Autumn took it and found that it seemed to be part of the Wildfire armor set, which only interested her and the others even more than before.

As they returned to their camp, however, Ratchet spotted Qwark standing nearby and Clank walked over to see what was going on, as he wasn't supposed to be here at all, in fact the reason they told no one about this was so he didn't track all of them down and annoy them again... only for ships to come in, blast the resort, and green plated robots chased Luna away, like she was their actual target.

"There's the minions of the villain." Ratchet remarked, causing Autumn and Starswirl to nod, while Clank returned and told him that Qwark never knew his parents, as that was all the information he got out of him before the attack, to which he shifted his focus to the ships, "Well then, let's show them who they're messing with."

As they followed the new path, however, they discovered that the green robots were tougher than the tourists, and that, oddly enough, they had been designed to deploy their heads if their bodies took too much damage, but that didn't stop the group from laying waste to them. It shocked Nika as she watched Autumn and Starswirl slinging spells at their targets, in addition to using their melee weapons and their guns, which Ratchet, Angela, and Sasha replicated with ease, showing her that they were unstoppable. Autumn also made sure they had their Gravity Boots at the ready, to climb up a wall that blocked their path, bringing them to an area with more enemies and a zip line that brought them down to another part of the resort, though the group kept an eye out for anything that might tell them what was going on. The path brought them to a small cave that had more robotic enemies and crabs, to which they opened fire on their enemies and cleared the path in no time, though it ended with them discovering the gloves to the Wildfire set, putting a smile on Autumn's face as she collected it as well.

After that they used some moving platforms to traverse the outer reaches of the resort, tearing through the robots that were in the middle of attacking this part of Pokitaru, before reaching the highest point in time to watch Luna being taken by a robot, who informed their boss that they were heading to Kalidon, all while Luna dropped something for them, with none of the robots realizing she had done so.

"My memory banks indicate that this is a Technomite artifact." Clank said, though as he did so they returned to the pad that their smaller ship would come down to, as it was time to start another adventure and see what was going on, even if his words confused the siblings a little.

"Knowing our luck, Technomites actually exist." Starswirl remarked, as the species in question was one of myth, legends to tell children why technology worked the way it did, though his statement was true, they had some strange luck at times, all while Autumn found that the coordinates on the object pointed to Ryllus, not Kalidon.

Nika, despite how out of depth this was for her, joined the family on their ship as they departed for the starship, where it would take them to Ryllus and allow them to armor up with everything they had left behind after their last adventure, all while wondering what the future held for them.

Size: Ryllus

Nika couldn't help being surprised when she boarded the Helios, the starship that Ratchet and the others used when they were on their adventures, especially since it was equipped with all sorts of gear and tools that would help them with their current quest. After putting the ship on autopilot, set with the coordinates for Ryllus, Ratchet and his siblings slipped into their armor and readied their weapons, looking more like what the stories said, while finding that both Angela and Sasha did the same, their armor altered to fit their bodies. Since she was going to be traveling with them for some time, she wasn't too sure for how long, Autumn walked over to her and took her measurements before getting to work, quickly crafting a set of armor that matched her form. In fact, according to the genius, it would also work with her natural ability, that the leggings would transform with her legs and help protect her whenever she was in her mermaid form, which surprised her when she thought about it, but she thanked Autumn as she slipped into her new attire.

After she was outfitted, and Nika got used to the new armor with a few runs in the onboard training ground, Ratchet found that they were nearing Ryllus, so once everyone was ready they climbed into their smaller vehicle, where he was once more glad for the expanded inside, before heading to the planet's surface.

"It would appear that whoever lived in this area, be it the Technomites or someone else, has abandoned it." Clank said, as he could see a temple of sorts off in the distance, with trees scattered all over the place, making him wonder why the device would have someone come here, of all places.

"Um, you do know that Technomites are a myth... right?" Nika asked, though she joined the others as they climbed out of the Star Explorer, a well named ship in her opinion, and found that there was a Vendor nearby, which Autumn was looking at as everyone else gathered nearby.

"Like Starswirl said, knowing our luck they're real and might be a danger to everyone else." Angela replied, though both she and Sasha couldn't fault Nika for thinking that way, since this was her first real adventure with Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, rather it was refreshing to have a new set of eyes for this sort of thing.

Of course they found that Qwark had hitched a ride on the smaller ship, and had remained 'hidden' until now, where the siblings told him to stay here, meaning he could use the computer inside the Star Explorer to figure out more about what happened to his parents, before they got moving. Autumn found that they could purchase the Agents of Doom, a brand new version that has been upgraded from the last one she made, and it wasn't long before everyone had a new toy to use against their enemies, though Starswirl did use his magic to wipe out some security cameras. It meant that someone had to be watching them right now, either the people guarding this place or the villain whose robots had kidnapped Luna, but regardless of who it was he didn't want people spying on them while they were here. After walking down some stone steps the group found an area that had a gate they had to overcome, one that had some light yellow skinned creatures, which reminded most of them of the Lawn Ninjas from Megacorp, who came out and attacked them, though the Agents of Doom were more than enough to wipe them out.

On the other side of the gate they discovered a few feline beasts that had spikes growing out of their backs, an interesting species based on what Ratchet had seen so far, though they seemed to realize the size difference in their group with the group following the siblings, causing the cats to flee. After that they found some plants that were capable of spitting at any and all enemies that happened to be in the area, so while Nika and the other girls dealt with it Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank to open the way forward, opening the way for his siblings to open fire on the enemies on the other side. They discovered that Nika's melee weapon was a trident, which made sense when they thought about it, and she joined them in whacking all of the yellow warriors that tried to slow them down. The gate also brought them to someone who had a new gadget in his hand, a little water dispenser that made plants grow, which was called the Sprout-O-Matic and he explained how they could use it, even though Ratchet took care of the aggressive plant he created, which earned them it for free.

While they did that Autumn also found a small opening in the wall to their left and discovered a green set of boots, which came from the Sludge Mk. 9 armor set, causing her to store them away before returning to what was going on right now, as she'd get to the armor later on.

Using the device on a 'Mimic Plant' allowed it to come alive and follow them, where Ratchet was able to plant it in one of the patches of exposed soil and it transformed into a bomb dispensing plant in a matter of seconds, which they knew due to the explosive plant they could hit into a target. Clank and Autumn were right, this seemed useful for this adventure, as they always found new gadgets during each adventure, though one was already wondering what else this might be used for as they walked through the opening and continued to explore the rest of Ryllus. They found two more plants on the other side of the hole, so while Angela, Sasha, and Nika dealt with them, to clear the area out, Ratchet found another small Mimic Plant and brought it up to the soil that their enemies had been guarding, allowing him to make a ladder of vines, an interesting use for sure. With that done they headed up the ladder, finding that it was as sturdy as an actual ladder, and dropped over the edge, only to find an area with more aggressive plants, the yellow warriors, and a pack of razor cats that wanted to take all of them down, causing them to sigh as they engaged their enemies.

Sure enough it wasn't long before the area was cleared and they were able to awaken the Mimic Plant that was resting in the shadow of the wall they had climbed over a few moments ago, giving them a plant with two leafy hands that it used to launch them over to the area in front of the temple. Ratchet and the others then used their Hypershots to move forward, over a gap between them and their destination, where they engaged the aggressive plants that were in the area, including some yellow warriors as well, who came out of a few holes and tried to take them down. In the following moments they found another platform with a second Mimic Plant, the Launcher one, to which Autumn had Ratchet place down the Bomb Plant and water it, allowing them to blast a hole in the wall in front of them. Once that was done they regressed the plant in front of them and switched it with the other one, something that sent all of them flying through it, though it allowed the group to find the helm of the Wildfire set, interestingly enough, which Autumn collected.

The door to enter the temple, however, was locked and it didn't look like there was anything they could do to open it, at least from this side, where Ratchet asked Clank if he could investigate a nearby small opening and he did so without delay, to which everyone simply took a break as they waited for him to return... though it wasn't long before he unlocked the door and allowed them to enter the temple.

"An empty room with a pedestal." Nika commented, as that was all they were seeing right now, just a lone chamber with nothing inside it, save for the item she had mentioned, though in that moment Clank, holding the artifact, approached the pedestal and slipped the device into the open space.

A few moments later it opened up into something more impressive, casting small beams of green energy at the walls that opened everything up, revealing all sorts of gears before loosing one more at the ceiling, creating a number of holograms that showed a number of planets, complete with names and coordinates that Autumn copied.

"A Technomite Map Room, complete with the coordinates to Kalidon." Autumn said, something that caused Ratchet and the others to smile, as it meant they could catch up with whoever took Luna and get her back, and like find out what sort of dark plan the villain had in mind this time around.

Starswirl had them all gather nearby before teleporting them back to the Star Explorer, where they appeared nearby and quickly boarded it so they could return to the starship, as it was time to see what was going on and what needed to be done to stop another villain in their tracks.

Size: Kalidon

With the starship it didn't take the group long to reach the area that Kalidon was resting in, though instead of positioning it close to their enemy's position Ratchet stopped it some distance away before they took the Star Explorer and landed on the outermost landing pad.

"I am worried. This has been too easy... far more than our other adventures." Clank commented, as they were able to land without any defenses coming online and attacking them, which meant either this villain was incompetent or he was trying to lure them into a false sense of security.

"I know we only just started this adventure, but you're right... something about this doesn't seem right." Ratchet said, as he was immediately on guard after discovering that nothing tried to blast them out of the air, though he turned off the ship once they reached their destination.

Based on what they were seeing it looked like the coordinates brought them to a factory, which was weird, especially since it seemed weird for the Technomites to make it so easy for someone to find out where they were hiding, while they got a brief message from Qwark revealing that he might have a lead on his family. The odd thing about his message was that he said he got a post from a company called 'Faux-Family', meaning it had to be a fake, especially since the timing of it was too odd, so the villain had to be making their move. Of course knowing Qwark there was a chance that he was being fooled into doing something stupid, but given that he wanted to be a hero there was a good chance he might be following along to turn the tide, but the siblings weren't expecting him to do much this time around. Other than that the other weird thing was that it looked like there were no guards outside the factory, which was just plain weird when they thought about it, to which they started to move as Autumn found the Scorcher in the Vendor, another weapon she claimed.

As the group explored the area Ratchet found someone tinkering with something, a board by the looks of it, though the person in question was a humanoid lion person, minus all the fur and missing the mane and tail, though while Autumn made a note about him Ratchet approached the figure.

"Tweaking the old engine, eh?" Ratchet inquired, something that immediately caused the figure to jump up and hide the board behind his back, followed by a barrage of questions as he asked who they were, what they had heard, and what all of them were doing here, causing him to hold a hand up, "Calm down, we haven't heard anything... we're just a group of traveling heroes, taking care of danger and righting wrongs so people can feel safe again."

Apparently someone accused him of being a cheater in the past and Ratchet figured that he'd be nice and say he didn't look like someone who cheated, which ended up in him being challenged to a race by the lion guy and two of his friends, he even gave Ratchet his spare board, since it was different from his Hoverboard. Ratchet, however, showed them just how good he was and was able to beat the team before they were able to best him, allowing him to earn the group a new gadget, the Shrink Ray, and a pair of Grindboots, not that anyone really needed them since they already had them, but he took them anyway. Of course the lion guy didn't have enough and challenged Ratchet to several more races, earning them a lot of Bolts in the process since he was able to overcome anything and everything that was thrown at him, showing Nika that each of them had their own pass times and that hoverboarding was Ratchet's, in addition to tinkering. The fourth and final race ended up earning them the gloves to the Sludge Mk. 9 armor set, which was odd when he thought about it, but he accepted the prize and gave it to Autumn as soon as the lion guy departed with a frown on his face, annoyed that he lost so many races in a row.

There was also a weapon modification vendor, something they didn't need even though Ratchet did check it out, just to see what it had to offer, before they moved along the empty path and used the Hypershot to reach the front door of the factory, before they discovered something interesting.

"There's a slot we can use the Shrink Ray to enter... talk about a lucky coincidence." Ratchet remarked, as it seemed odd that they would get the gadget that was needed to enter the structure on the same planet it was needed on, given what he and his siblings had seen in the past, to which he glanced back and the others nodded, "Be right back."

As it turned out if he used the gadget on the terminal he could shrink himself down to an incredibly small size and leap up into the lock, allowing him to disappear for some time, though when he returned and enlarged himself the door opened, allowing them to enter the factory. Inside it they found some red robots in glass cages, where Ratchet, his siblings, and the others tore through the area, Clank explaining that most of the time they ended up facing slumbering foes that woke up as a fight broke out, so this cut down on the number of enemies that would be in their way. Nika was surprised by that, as it wasn't reported in everything that the group did, but she understood their reasoning and joined in, because she had the feeling that this was tied to the villain Ratchet and his siblings were currently tracking. Their tactics eliminated a number of robots that would have ambushed them once they passed through the area, before they reached the construction part of the factory and started to demolish everything around them, cutting off their foe's ability to make new robots, before they found that it brought them to a circular arena.

Once more this seemed far too easy for the siblings, hence why Autumn and Starswirl started to form a getaway plan, just in case this was a trap of some kind, though it turned out to be a platform that descended into the ground and stopped a few times, at doors that dispensed more enemies for them to fight, but it posed little threat to them. When the elevator reached the bottom of the shaft, however, they had to jump off of it and watched as it fell into a hole, the end of it, where they focused on a terminal and Clank had Ratchet activate it. Such a thing caused some foul green liquid to fill the shaft, rising to where the group was standing, before they found a set of platforms that they could use to get back up to the top of the area, so that was what they did as Autumn and Starswirl kept their magic at the ready, in case someone missed one of the jumps or something. When they reached the top of the room, however, Ratchet found that the shaft sealed once everyone beat the acid to the surface, though his sister also recovered the boots to the Wildfire armor and stashed it away as they headed deeper into the factory so they could figure out what was going on.

From there they slashed and blasted their way through a few more groups of enemies, using Hypershots to traverse some of the hazards that had been placed in this factory and the Shrink Ray to deal with a Grind Lock, not to mention using their Gravity Boots to cross another area, before finally reaching what had to be the end, a large central area that looked like a combat arena.

"Okay, now where's the creature we have to fight?" Autumn inquired, as this foe was rather easy to predict, in fact if she or Starswirl did something like this they'd make it harder to figure out when powerful foes were ready to be fought, before a section of the floor rose up and revealed a purplish beast with claws for hands and feet, not to mention sharp teeth that it showed off as it roared at them, "Good. Now, let's take it down."

Nika found that while the beast was rather impressive, especially when she thought about the sea serpents and enemies she fought under the water, the family of heroes that she was traveling with were far more impressive, moving around with a shocking display of accuracy and hitting the beast without slowing down, allowing them to win and claim the armor of the Sludge Mk. 9 set as Clank opened the door to where Luna was resting.

"Thank you guys. You are truly heroic!" Luna said, though her words, without the lisp, were all they needed to hear, due to the fact that Autumn and Starswirl had their magic at the ready, as they had walked into a pretty obvious trap and now it was time for them to break it.

"Yeah, had a feeling this would happen... you forget the lisp." Ratchet remarked, where Luna realized her blunder as soon as he said it, in fact she didn't even seem to realize that she had done it, though at the same time she decided to skip the script she had prepared and tapped a button.

In that moment his siblings revealed their plan, warping everyone out of the area with ease, teleporting them back to their ship, though they also left behind a rather convincing decoy that would have been rendered unconscious by whatever the flash of light was, to which they returned to the Star Explorer and waited on the starship, just to see what happened with Luna and the fake Ratchet his siblings had left for her to take.

Size: Medical Station Omega

Ratchet, his siblings, and the others didn't have to wait too long for something to happen, as not ten minutes after the trap was sprung, and Luna's betrayal was made known to them, a ship arrived and the fake Ratchet was transferred onto it, as Autumn and Starswirl could feel it moving. Once the ship started to move he made sure to engage the cloaking device for the Helios, since they needed to keep it hidden from all of their enemies, and followed it toward whatever destination it was heading for, likely another Technomite facility or location, given what they found on Ryllus. So far it didn't look like Luna or whoever her boss was even realized that they had been fooled, rather it looked like they believed that 'Ratchet' had been abandoned by everyone else for the time being, allowing the girl to do whatever it was that she was hoping to do. For now it allowed them to rest and relax for a while, to recover from what they had done on Kalidon, and Ratchet wanted to make sure everyone was ready for whatever might happen next, even though Autumn was hacking into the other ship, without it noticing, as Starswirl maintained the fake copy that had fooled Luna.

It was also because Nika hadn't been given a lot of time to rest, since this was her first adventure with them and he didn't want to overwhelm her, but she was eager to see what happened next and got the seal of approval from Angela and Sasha, as she was acting like they had when it was their first adventure.

The ship brought them to what appeared to be a medical outpost, though Autumn confirmed it wasn't an official one, as in it wasn't marked or noted down in any of the official documentation for the Solana Galaxy, meaning they knew where part of the villain's domain rested. Of course Ratchet docked the Helios some distance from the station, meaning nothing should detect them, as they sought out more information on what was going on and who happened to be the villain they would be defeating in due time. Autumn discovered that Luna was definitely communicating with someone, especially when she found a few journal logs and communications she tore open, finding that the girl spoke about someone that she called 'Otto' and that he was an 'Emperor'. According to what she discovered the pair had set this all up, the fake girl who needed a hero to come and save her, the cameras and pictures that would allow them to study Ratchet, in fact they had planned on it being only him and Clank, to lessen the chance of their plans being ruined.

"I get it now. They were planning on making an army of Ratchet clones," Autumn remarked, though she wasn't even a little bit surprised by this turn of events, as Qwark's plan during their time in Bogon involved the clones of the Protopet, so this was just someone else using cloning technology, "Otto wants an army of soldiers so he can conquer the galaxy, possibly even Bogon if he wanted, and it would succeed if he had an army of Ratchets at his beck and call... I mean, we've torn our way through hordes of enemies in the past, so it makes sense we'd be his targets. From what I can tell he was planning on testing your skills before capturing you, to verify that you were the hero he had heard about, so he could make his army in secret, and once they were ready to go he was going to track us down, one by one. Imagine what Otto would do if he had an army of our clones, he'd be able to take control of the entire galaxy in no time, and if my clones or Starswirl's could use magic there would be no way to bring down the army."

"We're fortunate Luna messed up when we found her." Nika said, as she didn't want to imagine what would happen to the galaxy if an army of clones, made from this particular group, decided to attack it, because she was sure that nothing would be able to stand up to them.

"I'm afraid that our deception has been discovered." Starswirl stated, where he cancelled the spell that he had created to keep Luna and the others distracted, though Ratchet wasn't too surprised by his actions, as his brother usually maintained a spell for as long as he could, either dismissing it when it had served it's purpose or it was discovered by someone, "We only have a few moments before our foe flees."

"Let her flee, I have copied everything on the station without her figuring out what's going on." Autumn said, though once she was done with her work, and made sure to back it up just in case the originals got corrupted in some manner, she used a bit of her power to teleport outside, with her helmet on, before shifting into her empowered form and summoned a ball of energy that she sent into the heart of the facility, "That should be good enough."

As Nika opened her mouth to question her, to figure out what was going on, the energy expanded into an explosion that tore the entire medical station to pieces, either taking care of Luna or missing her entirely, though Autumn remained still for a time, to be sure that the destruction was complete, before reverting to her base form. Once she was done with that she teleported into the ship and looked at Luna's entries for a few seconds, finding that Otto was planning on using false evidence to turn Qwark into one of his pawns and that the little girl was heading to 'the city', which gave them the exact coordinates for. Ratchet didn't depart immediately, as he wanted to see what remained of the station and if there might be anything important that survived the explosion his sister had caused, before discovering that a metallic medical bed, plus part of the room it had been in, was intact. In addition to that they found that the lion guy from Kalidon was here as well, meaning he was either following them or he was in on Luna's plans, but such a thing meant he might have a gadget for them to claim and was the reason that they went down to the ruined station for a time.

When they landed Autumn accessed the Vendor and discovered another pair of weapons were available, where one was a modified and heavily improved Suck Cannon while the other was a Bee Mine Glove, both of which she added to what they had right now, before Ratchet approached the lion guy.

Apparently he wanted a rematch, so soon after getting his rear kicked, and while Ratchet accepted the challenge Clank did find that the man currently had a device attached to the bottom of his skyboard, a Polarizer to be exact, which he claimed to have never seen before and offered it as the reward if Ratchet beat him. A few moments later, as the group expected, Ratchet emerged victorious after beating the lion guy and his team again, earning them the gadget that would likely be of use on the next planet, if the pattern held, before he accepted a few more challenges. Such a thing deprived the lion guy and his buddies of their Bolts, even though Ratchet really wasn't interested in them and took them so the guy didn't throw a fit over losing, while the others just sat and watched him work. The fourth race ended with him earning a silver and blue pair of boots, which happened to be part of the Electroshock armor set, though as the man flew off Ratchet handed it over to Autumn so she could mess with it, only to find that she had used her magic to summon more pieces of it as well, and a few purple pieces of Crystallix armor, likely having survived the station's destruction.

With that done, and there was nothing else for them to do, the group returned to the Star Explorer so they could depart for the Helios and then head to the next planet so they could get this show on the road, to stop Otto from his dreams of galactic domination and save the galaxy from another threat.

Size: Challax

According to the information that Autumn had claimed from Luna's journal, and all the entries that she had gained from her hacking session, the planet they had to visit next was Challax, where a Technomite city was supposedly located and was confirmed when she looked at what they gained from Ryllus' map room. Based on what her studies discovered Challax was a desert planet, which meant this was either a lead to throw them off, and the map room was a lie, or it was hidden from sight in some manner and they would find it in no time. Given the gadgets they had recovered so far one had to wonder if they might have to use the Shrink Ray or the Polarizer in some manner to find their destination, but she was sure that it would become clear once they reached the planet. Ratchet, however, was fine with whatever information his siblings or the others could learn and made sure everyone had enough time to do that before they located the planet, though once again they found that nothing happened as they approached Challax, causing a few of them to worry.

Once they were sure that the Helios wouldn't fall under attack the group took the Star Explorer down to the landing pad that Luna's journal indicated, though as they flew down it sure looked like the desert planet had nothing to offer, causing them to focus as they landed and climbed out of the ship.

"Looks like you were right, Autumn, this place doesn't look very hospitable." Ratchet commented, in fact the only sign of a civilization was the landing pad that they had landed on, once more making them wonder if they had been tricked in some manner, before he glanced down at his feet and found something that looked like a hovercar, "So, shall we get the show on the road?"

"Yes, but first I will smash their orbital defenses, just to cripple their sensors." Clank replied, gesturing to the left for a few seconds, where they found one of the pads that allowed him to become his Giant form, to which Ratchet nodded as he and the others waited under a barrier that his siblings created, just to make sure no one overheated while they waited for him to return.

Nika paused for a moment as Clank transformed, having only heard the stories about this form, before he blasted off and took to the sky so he could smash whatever defenses had ignored them earlier, where they seemed to just relax, despite the fact that they were near one of their enemy's strongholds, and it wasn't long before he returned. Sure enough Clank found another piece of armor, an Electroshock piece, though once Autumn placed it in her collection, and he was back to his normal sense, Ratchet shrunk all of them down and they used the small hovercar to get moving. What they found was that it definitely brought them to a hidden Technomite city, which might as well be the size of a penny from what each of them were seeing, if they were looking at it from above, hence why it was so hard to see. In fact the insects were larger as well, as they seemed to be the size of ants at this point in time, though that didn't stop them from keeping their guards up as the vehicle stopped on what had to be the outskirts of the city, as there was no telling what might be waiting for them in this place.

The first thing Autumn did was purchase the next available weapon, the Sniper Mine, before Ratchet shrunk down even more to bypass the door lock and allowed everyone to enter the chamber that an elevator was resting in, which brought them to what appeared to be an airport area, due to the luggage terminals. What was interesting was that there happened to be a red magnet device nearby that Autumn quickly used the Polarizer on, where they watched as it knocked the metal luggage through the hole and smashed a robot between them and a terminal, which deactivated the laser wall in front of them, allowing them to advance again. From there she used it again to take down another terminal and opened the way for the others to blast their way through the trio of enemies that were in front of them, more small yellow warriors, which meant they had to be Technomite machines, before they headed outside. Sure enough the group found more robots that seemed to be the guardians of the area, a number of small ones and a few taller figures, but none of them could stand up to the might of Ratchet, his siblings, and the others, allowing them to clear the area in no time at all.

With that done Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank so Autumn could use the Polarizer, forcing a vehicle into the metal wall that was in front of them and broke it open, allowing them to enter a sandy area that looked like a good place to use some of the Mimic Plants to move forward again. By that one of them had to plant one of the Ladder Plants so someone else could climb up to the upper level, allowing them to move and plant a Bomb Plant that could be used to bring down the statue of some evil looking ruler, Otto no doubt, which created a new ramp. Such a thing allowed them to reach another Grind Lock that Ratchet quickly dealt with as the others made sure the area remained clear, and when he returned they entered yet another new area that brought them to a new elevator, this one heading upward. Of course the group was assaulted by all sorts of robotic enemies once more, though this time Autumn and Starswirl used their magic to cut down on the number of enemies by smashing carriers together, leaving the remainder of their enemies to Ratchet and the others.

At the top of the elevator's path they found another zip line that seemed to head deeper into the city, or at least the more wild part for some odd reason, so once their enemies were beaten, and they were sure of that, the group carefully used it and found that they landed on some smoke stacks before crossing some leaves.

Sure enough a Technomite ship moved into position to attack them, causing Autumn and Starswirl to use their magic to block the blasts that were coming at them, allowing the rest of the group to carefully move across the leaves, webs, and a number of four leaf clovers, before reaching the end. That happened to be another zip line that brought them down to an area that seemed to be an arena for them to fight the ship in, along with a number of robotic enemies, so the group took a moment to divide their attention between their enemies to focus them all down. To be honest there was nothing special or hard about this fight, they just had to avoid the incoming attacks and fire at it, and their enemies, in return, something that allowed them to quickly tear it down without putting too much effort into fighting it. Such a thing raised a bridge and let them claim another piece of armor, the helm of the Electroshock set, before they entered the building in front of them and found Luna standing there, only she was still and had an opening in the back of her head.

To be honest none of them were even surprised at this point, as Luna being a robotic girl serving the Technomites made sense, though as she blasted off, after sealing the hatch, Autumn tossed a small tracker onto her before they returned to their ship and enlarged themselves once more, blasting off as they tracked down their target, all while wondering what sort of trouble Qwark might have gotten himself into now.

Size: Dayni Moon

Ratchet and the others found that the tracker brought them to the Dayni Moon, a place full of agricultural facilities based on what Starsworl was able to figure out, meaning Luna had to know they were following her and was laying a trap for them, one that would fail in due time. Other than that the only thing he was able to discover before they headed down was that the moon's celestial cycle could be done in minutes, experiencing multiple sunrises and sunsets in an hour, which was of no importance to them since they weren't planning on being there too long. With that out of the way the group took the smaller ship down to the moon's surface and Ratchet found a landing pad for them to land on, allowing Autumn to find that there was a new weapon, the Shock Rocket, available and outfitted everyone with a brand new toy. There was also a platform off on the side, which seemed to be connected to some sort of robotic game or arena of some kind, which they ignored since Clank confirmed that it wasn't important to their mission.

As such the group started down the other path and opened fire on the farming robots and sheep that instantly lashed out at them, as odd as that seemed when Starswirl thought about it, though when the day changed to night they found that all of the sheep turned into large brutish werewolves. Starswirl and Autumn both seemed to think about what was happening before them, even if Ratchet and the others tore their foes down with ease, though it wasn't long before his brother waved his staff, calling down silver bolts of energy that wiped out the next group of enemies. Such a thing surprised them, since this was the first time they had seen him do such a thing, where Ratchet and Clank were sure that he had likely called on the power of the stars to smite his targets. Autumn, however, surrounded herself in a surge of energy and they watched as her body became more bulky, her hands and hooves turning into claws while she shifted into a werewolf form that possessed her normal colors, and it also had her horn.

For a moment Angela and Sasha had assumed that Autumn was going to take on her Nirik form, which Nika had heard a number of rumors about, but a werewolf form was new and must have been her way to integrate her power with the new sensation that she and Starswirl discovered, though they kept their guard up as she growled for a second and cut herself off as she regained her senses.

"Note to self: lunar energy transformation causes a massive rush... and a sense of violence." Autumn said, where she did sound more intimidating in this form, before she glanced at the enemies that were gathering in the area the group was heading towards, causing her to shift her stance for a moment, "Let's see if this is viable, or if I have to lock this spell away and forget about it."

They watched as she rushed down the path in front of them and slashed through the enemies that were blocking the way forward, which included tearing the arm out of a larger robot that seemed to be a guard, allowing her to beat it apart with it's own limb. While she did that Ratchet and the others figured out how to move forward as Starswirl explained that both of them had come to the same conclusion after seeing the werewolves, tapping into the lunar energy that was around the area, though given that his sister was using a transformation it was more than his spell. First they had to deal with a bunch of werewolves, which was actually rather easy once Autumn joined in, since the beasts wanted to take her down first, so it wasn't long before the area was cleared and they were able to move the plants into the building, only to find that the door on the other side opened for them and revealed two soil patches on the other side. Such a thing allowed them to use the spring flowers to ascend to another path, blasting and breaking the robotic enemies and the werewolves that had been placed to stop them, as this seemed like something Luna would do.

Speaking of Luna they found her outside an opened building, having lowered the gate for the werewolves they had taken down, though the smile on her face turned to surprise as she noticed Autumn's new monster form, clearly not expecting this to happen, especially when she smashed one of the werewolves without her weapons.

"Well that's not fair at all!" Luna remarked, showing that she wasn't too worried about the group that was in front of her, as if she thought she and her minions could overwhelm the group, rather she found unfairness in the fact that Autumn had a new form that was either hidden from the galaxies or had been awakened by coming here.

"Really? Coming from someone whose likely seeking to dominate the galaxy?" Ratchet inquired, though before they could do anything the robot fled from where she was standing, showing that she understood the danger she was in if she stayed in one spot, but they were expecting that and kept moving.

From there it was a simple matter to take out the robotic guards, the robotic farmers who fought them, and the rest of the werewolves, regardless if they were in sheep form or their monster form, while using the plants to carefully navigate most of the area Luna was moving through. Part of them had to wonder if this was one of the Technomite facilities, given that everything wanted them dead, though after some time they decided that it didn't matter, as there were natural enemies on each planet they visited and this moon seemed to follow suit. Ratchet also had to use the Shrink Ray to unlock a door in their way, allowing them to ascend to another part of the facility that they were tearing their way through, before they found that the path was outside the tower he had opened up. After figuring out how to move forward the group found a dark gray helmet that belonged to the Mega-Bomb armor set, which Autumn stared at before stashing away with the rest they had collected so far, before everyone tore their way through the building in front of them, wiping out Luna's guards in no time at all as Starswirl broke the machines with his magic.

On the other side of the building they found Luna piloting a small gunship that could transform into a harvester, though it did nothing to them as Starswirl caught it with his magic and shattered it with his magic, knocking the robot to the ground and damaged her head, leading to Autumn channeling her magic to knock out the Technomites before they could flee, a fact that gave them more leads on what to do next.

"I should be able to hack into her and figure everything out..." Autumn remarked, using her magic to summon a cage that would hold Luna in and allow her to scan her systems, though what surprised them was that she got the information in a matter of seconds, "Let's see... they hate being taken advantage of, as the Technomites get no credit for their inventions... would help if they bothered to patent any of them... and, to show everyone they mean business, an army of Ratchets had been created to do the deed... or at least that was the plan, since we've ruined everything."

"Download the coordinates she has and we'll track down whoever her master is." Ratchet said, because this seemed to be the end of this particular adventure, a short one when he thought about it, though as the words left his mouth he and the others watched as Autumn reverted to her true form, much to their relief.

With Luna and the Technomites imprisoned, and she was sure they would be unable to escape, the group returned to the starship with all the haste they could muster, as it was time to bring an end to this adventure and get some rest before yet another villain showed up to ruin everything yet again.

Interlude: Four Years of Peace

Sure enough Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, Clank, Angela, Sasha, and Nika were able to return to their vacation without too much stopping them, as the authorities were surprised to see that they found and defeated another villain, though at this point none questioned him or his siblings. Qwark, on the other hand, was able to figure out that his real parents had been killed in an accident caused by faulty Technomite equipment, so he spent some time grieving his loss while staying away from Otto's prison, in case he was tempted to ruin the man's life more. Ratchet found that this time around they were able to spend more time on Pokitaru than before, as no one came running up to ruin their vacation, no villains were making a move on the planets, and everything seemed to be rather peaceful. Even Autumn and Starswirl confirmed that fact, as both of them detected nothing bad happening in the galaxy and, more importantly, no cracks in reality were showing up, as none had happened during their now finished adventure.

Nika didn't understand the idea of reality cracking, or at least in the way Autumn described it, but she was better off simply learning about it whenever it actually happened, as Ratchet and his siblings were sure it would return at some point, just like all the times they had seen it so far.

When they finally returned to service, and Sasha went back to being the President of the galaxy, the siblings found that a fair number of incidents that were reported were either dealt with by the Rangers or the lower ranking heroes that were now spreading out, to cover as much ground as they could. As a result Ratchet was able to focus on what had been interrupted after the war with Nefarious, finding a place for him and his siblings to live since their home on Veldin, sadly, had been taken out, along with most of their stuff. He eventually settled on an apartment that was in Kerwan, in the more advanced part of the city that was some distance away from the defense facility, so in the off chance that something happened he and the others would be ready to depart in no time. Ratchet also knew that Qwark had an apartment in the city of Metropolis, hence why he made sure to steer clear of the man so they weren't bothered by him, though he found that his offer was accepted, likely because he and his family were heroes, and that they could start moving in as soon as he got the keys.

A week later he, Autumn, and Starswirl moved into the new apartment, which had a room for Clank as well, because while he didn't need sleep like an organic lifeform he needed someplace to do whatever it was he wanted to do while they were sleeping, and Ratchet ensured his room had more than enough room for Angela, Sasha, and Nika.

When the first year passed by the siblings were able to celebrate their seventeenth birthday in peace, as no enemies came out of the woodwork or the depths of space to bother them, though Qwark did get a job with the city's defense force, just to continue keeping everyone safe. It was weird for the siblings when their seventeenth birthday went by without any new villains showing up, as they were used to it happening, roughly, around or on the day they celebrated turning a year older, like what happened when Clank showed up for example, but it was a nice change of pace. Autumn returned to her job at Gadgetron without too much delay, as without a villain to worry her she was able to devote most of her time to making all sorts of new gadgets and gear, for the Rangers and other heroes, while cracking the code to the Technomite technology, which had officially been handed over to her after Otto's defeat. Starswirl, on the other hand, spent his time researching all sorts of magic that he and Autumn hadn't considered, the lunar power they discovered previously causing him to take a moment and broaden his horizons.

Such a thing also caused Autumn to shift into her new form every now and then, to make sure she had it under control in case she needed it in the future, though she had to admit that doing this gave her a good feeling and it gave them another weapon to add to their arsenal.

In addition to that the group kept their eyes open for cracks in reality, showing scenes from what had to be dimensions none of them should be aware of, though Ratchet was doing it for another reason, just so he could figure out what his sister was up to and if he could figure out a way to bring her home. That was the thing that frustrated him, he had been so close to connecting with his sister, to the point where if he had been closer to the crack he could have crossed over into her dimension and either worked with her and her friend or bring them both to his dimension, but the crack slammed shut before he could do so. The Plumber, who they hadn't seen since infiltrating Nefarious' base on Aquatos, had simply disappeared and meant he wouldn't be able to aid Ratchet in connecting to his sister's dimension, not that he was even remotely helpful in the past since all he could say was that his sister was safe. Autumn and Starswirl, of course, couldn't do much to aid him since nothing existed to open portals between dimensions, but, at the same time, Autumn was sure that with enough time and effort such a device could be made, hopefully without doing more damage to reality, given all of the cracks they had seen so far.

That was something else they tracked down during their time waiting for another villain to show up, making sure nothing happened when one of the cracks showed up, though there were a few that showed a dimension where Ratchet was all alone, no girlfriends to speak of, though Clank was nearby and he had a purple alicorn filly who acted like his daughter, which caused him to chuckle whenever he laid eyes on them.

When they turned eighteen the siblings discovered that nothing new had happened and that Solana was safer than it had been in the past, thanks to their efforts and the efforts of the heroes that were making things easier for the family, which Autumn, Sasha, and Nika were okay with since they got some time to relax as well. At this point in time news had spread of Nika joining Ratchet's 'harem', as many were calling it right now, but, much to the surprise of the public, she simply went with it and enjoyed her time with Ratchet and the others, as it was the best idea she ever had. Their nineteenth and twentieth birthdays were rather tame as well, nothing major happened safe for both Solana and Bogon enjoying a time of peace that was only possible due to them and the various heroes bringing justice to every corner of the galaxies. During that time, however, Ratchet perfected his gravimetric warp drive and patented it with Gadgetron, who started to produce it so people could travel from one galaxy to another, meaning if they were needed in Bogon they could travel there in just a few seconds, and he was happy to see that people liked it.

It was on the night before their twenty-first birthday, however, that something happened, the siblings and the rest of their expanded family were sleeping peacefully when Ratchet, with no warning, started screaming as if he was in pain, where all of them were fortunate that the walls were soundproof so no one could hear this, though it wasn't long before Autumn and Starswirl burst into his room.

"What's wrong?" Autumn asked, where they found that Ratchet was sitting on the edge of his bed while Angela, Sasha, and Nika were tending to him, all while he was holding onto his right arm, as if he was afraid that he was going to lose it, which caused her to step forward and run a few tests on him.

"I... it felt like something blasted my right arm off..." Ratchet answered, revealing why he was so protective of his arm all of a sudden, even though they suspected that it might have been a rather real nightmare, they were known to happen, but in that moment Angela glanced down at his neck.

"Um, Ratchet, I don't think that was a nightmare... I think something happened to your sister." Angela said, where Ratchet and the others followed her eyes and noticed that his necklace was glowing, not intense enough to be blinding while being high enough to show them that something was happening, but they all understood what was going on.

Ratchet's sister was in trouble, likely hurt based on his actions, yet Angela had a feeling that this was a sign that something bad was coming their way, maybe the threat she had informed the others about before joining them, and suspected that when the morning arrived they were going to be starting another new adventure, whether they wanted to or not.

Tools: Kerwan, Cobalia

"You have to admit, last night was pretty... odd... even for us." Ratchet commented, as part of his attention was still on the event that happened not too many hours ago, even though Autumn had assured everyone that no damage had been done to his right arm, in fact it was like phantom pain from his twin's injury.

"Yes, it was odd, and we will get answers in due time." Starswirl said, where he found that their brother and Clank were in the middle of working on a new hoverbike, one that Ratchet was sure would replace some of the older models, or at least at some point in time, though he needed to test it first before presenting it to Gadgetron, if he could focus on the vehicle and not get distracted.

"Good luck with that... those cracks are unpredictable and we haven't seen the Plumber in a long time." Ratchet stated, as that was the truth of the matter, the only ways for them to figure out what was going on with his twin were unreliable right now, though it didn't stop him from wondering what in the world had happened to his sister, given what happened while he was sleeping.

Autumn, who was standing nearby, had nothing more to offer her brother, though she did find that he was half listening to Clank as he asked about the fuel lines, horizontal stabilizers, and the ion thrusters, as he was too focused on what had happened last night and on his necklace, though the former would plague his mind for a long time.

Clank turned his attention to his tablet for a moment as they received a message from Qwark, who informed them that there was a battle going down at the Planetary Defense Center, as in heavily armed robotic commandos, and while he and the other heroes on duty hated to interrupt them during their day off, due to their birthday, they were in need of aid.

"Just like old times... especially with the heavily armed commandos, as that never changes." Ratchet remarked, though he had been hoping for a pleasant day off and not have to deal with an invasion, as Autumn was now receiving reports on what was going on.

"They're heavily armed until we get to them." Autumn stated, where she and Starswirl joined Ratchet and Clank on the new vehicle, as it seemed to be the fastest way for them to get to their destination, even if it meant cutting through most of the city to reach Qwark's position.

Of course, despite the time that Ratchet had poured into making the vehicle, it had a failure immediately as it failed to fly and fell as soon as it was over the edge, leading to the activation of a set of auxiliary thrusters, though as Ratchet made his way through the city he collided with a blimp and was only saved because of Starswirl's magic, which set them down on a walkway below where the collision happened. This gave Ratchet a chance to try out a new navigation unit, as he changed out his old attire for an orange shirt and blue pants, plus his brown gloves, boots, and leather cap, while his siblings didn't change, rather they acquired new versions of their attire. Autumn took the chance to reveal their newest weapons, one being a gun called the Combuster and the other being a grenade launcher that she called Fusion Grenade, the latter being more like a Bomb Glove. Ratchet wasn't even too surprised by this discovery, given what he knew about his sister, though with the weapons in had the three of them moved forward, gunning down small tracker enemies while blasting humanoid sized enemies that were basically walking suits of armor with a fish controlling each one.

One thing they discovered was that the commandos seemed to be hunting for Ratchet, as they said 'the lombax' and used male pronouns when speaking about him, to which Ratchet paused for a moment and sent Angela a note, telling her that their enemies were only after him and that she should begin their plan, to wait until he contacted her again, because the two of them, along with Sasha and Nika, had prepared for this day for a long time. Despite living with them for so long, and also understanding that she had some strong allies, Angela knew that a dangerous threat was coming and wanted all of them to be prepared, hence why the code system she and the others came up with for Ratchet to use. The code that he sent her was basically for her to make sure their enemies didn't discover her existence and wait for them to chase him and his siblings out of Solana, as these guys had to be from Polaris, before she warped to Bogon. They were going to use her old house as a base to make sure she stayed safe, since this had to be the threat that hated Lombaxes, and once they were sure that the coast was clear, or were close to beating their foe, he would call them in, to bring the starship and join in the finishing of this adventure.

Another thing they uncovered was that an 'Emperor' was after them, which was strange, though even when they made it to the Planetary Defense Center a foe blasted the door to stop Ratchet in his tracks, leading to them using a set of grind rails to escape from a large ship that was chasing them, even if it ended with them landing on a platform in the middle of the city and the ship landed after they did.

"Behold, the last Lombax in the entire universe... and such a weak specimen, despite the chase." a voice said, where they found some sort of small creature, with pale skin and wearing the attire of an emperor, complete with a headpiece that was unnecessary, who happened to be sitting on some sort of walker, likely designed for battle if need be, before he took a moment to pause his mech and raised a shoddy looking scepter, "I am Emperor Percival Tachyon, Crown Prince of the Cragmites, Conqueror of Space and Time, and, pending the obliteration of a few insubordinate species, Ruler of the Entire Universe! If you don't believe me, check the crown, the scepter, the walking throne, AND the legion of robotic commandos that are..."

"Being decimated by the other heroes?" Starswirl asked, which was the truth, Tachyon's forces weren't all that impressive and it seemed like all he was capable of doing was ruining buildings or walkways, because they could see the Rangers and the other heroes dealing with some of the enemy ships and the commandos, without them having to do anything for the first time in a long time.

"Out of curiosity, what took you so long to discover Ratchet's existence? He's been in the news for a while now." Autumn inquired, because that was the part that made her wonder about their foe's intelligence, that it had taken him this long to hear of her brother's existence, though she was glad it had since Tachyon arriving early would have altered history in who knew what way.

"Really? He only appeared on my search a few days ago." Tachyon replied, where he raised his hand and checked a device on his wrist, where Autumn rushed over to where he was positioned, shifting her hands into their clawed form, giving her a bit of grip as she stared at the screen, only to see 'Lombax Invention' in the search bar.

"I'm going to enjoy breaking you when the time comes." Autumn remarked, as that was all she could say in the face of the discovery she had made, Tachyon only cared about inventions that Lombaxes had made, dismissing everything else that one could do, before she let go and attacked the walker's legs.

Ratchet and Starswirl ran by Tachyon as Autumn ruined his throne's legs, allowing the siblings to climb aboard the ship as Clank got it started, where they found that the autopilot lifted the ship into the air and, unfortunately, knocked everyone out as it surged towards the planet that it was programmed to return to.

Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank had no idea how long they had been out, but based on what they could see none of them were in the black ship anymore, rather they were laying on the ground in what appeared to be a swamp forest, due to the smell in the air, and the ship had crashed into a rock wall.

"Huh, ship must have run out of fuel and ejected us." Ratchet commented, though based on what he was seeing he and his siblings, not to mention Clank, were just fine, no harm had been done to them, but they also knew that they had to get out of here before Tachyon showed up, since he was likely tracking the ship.

"I ought to tear it apart and reprogram the autopilot... who in their right might uses cryosleep when traveling between two galaxies..." Autumn mumbled, showing that she didn't care about the machine that knocked them out, though she disliked Tachyon more, before she got up and stretched her arms, which her siblings did as Clank returned to Ratchet's back, all so they could be ready for whatever this planet held for them.

"Well, let's get exploring. We need to find a ship to get some more information on the situation." Starswirl added, since he and his siblings had no idea what was going on in the galaxy that Tachyon was from, save for the fact that he had to come from Polaris, though he did find Tachyon's title, the 'Conqueror of Space and Time', to be interesting, given the cracks they had seen in the past.

The siblings found that there were a number of little red snappers and some aggressive centipedes that wanted them all dead, hence why they pulled out their weapons and blasted their way through them, before finding a large serpent beast that rose out of some of the acid water. It didn't stick around to fight them, allowing Ratchet and his siblings to continue on their way, finding more smaller enemies that they tore their way through like usual, though Autumn showed that she was more skilled with her new claws as she cut one centipede down with ease. As they found a building to fight through Starswirl found a ledge that brought them to a large pirate chest full of Raritanium, where he collected it before joining his siblings on their fight through the structure, which was just two open chambers connected by an outer area. When they reached the top of the area all three of them glided down to the next section they had to pass through and wiped out the rest of whatever enemies happened to be out there, before eventually stopping at an arena area with the serpent beast in the middle of it.

Together the three of them waged war on the beast, as it roared and attacked them first, and with the odds in their favor it wasn't long before it was taken out, some sort of soul became theirs, and they found their way to a port that had some messages from Tachyon about a Lombax, to which Ratchet shrugged as he ignored them. He could do as Angela did, use a special belt to hide his tail, but he didn't have the skill to offset the balance issues and right now he needed his balance to counter whatever their foes sent their way. While he thought about that Autumn spoke with the Vendor, as GrummelNet was the Polaris version of Gadgetron and their cards worked with both companies, since she figured out how to make the pair and Megacorp sign a pact during the last four years. Such a thing allowed her to purchase the Tornado Launcher and the Plasma Beasts, the former being as the name suggested and the latter being mines that used green beasts that would attack enemies, before upgrading them with their vast amount of Raritanium, a benefit of working at Gadgetron for so long and the contracts she had signed.

With their new weapons in hand, all upgraded no less, they made their way through the plant and discovered a scene that made them pause, a blue skinned figure, dressed as a smuggler, was arguing with a red parrot, though since they were the only no robots in the area the siblings stopped to talk with them.

"Is everything alright?" Ratchet asked, mostly because they seemed to be the ones that might be able to help them figure things out, even if it was just a ride to another planet, and his siblings agreed with his idea, since there seemed to be one ship in the plant and it had to be theirs.

"Imperial spies! Hide the bodies!" the parrot declared, though in that moment, before anyone could do anything, Autumn responded by giving him a face full of claw, shifting in no time at all, with a bit of magic dancing around the claws for good measure, which the smuggler instantly noticed.

"Accuse us of being on Tachyon's side again... I dare you." Autumn said, showing them that she didn't like the 'Emperor' at all and that she would gladly tear him down the next time they were in the same area, unless the mission prevented her from doing such a thing.

The Smuggler hastily apologized for his companion's words and arranged a deal with Ratchet, the three of them fix the gelatonium plant and he'd take them off planet, where he even offered a gadget, the Gelanator, to aid them in navigating the potential hazards. While he went off to ready his ship, however, the siblings headed inside the plant and charged their new gadget up with gelatonium, allowing the user to fire out squares of gelatin that they could jump on or even stack, to boost their jump height, all while discovering annoying little robots that ate the material in question. As such Starswirl just used a bit of his magic to freeze the bots, allowing Ratchet to use the gadget to make platforms so they could make their way towards the end of the plant, finding two devices they had to turn the bolt cranks for to reactivate, even if the voice of the facility informed them that they were disobeying the Emperor and his decree. When the second one was activated it also restored power to the entirety of the plant, allowing the siblings to leave the facility and make their way down to the area that the Smuggler and his parrot happened to be hanging in.

With the deed done they climbed into the transport ship he had readied for them and they left Cobalia, the planet they had landed on, behind as he made his way to Stratus City, on planet Kortog, which would give them some time to figure out a few things and give them a better idea of what was going on in the Polaris Galaxy, and what they might have to do to bring Tachyon down.

Tools: Kortog, Fastoon

The Smuggler was a well of knowledge about Tachyon, about how his egg was found in the Verdigris Sector and he was hatched by some Lombaxes, who were looking to raise him as an enlightened or educated Cragmite, but, since they were responsible for the extinction of his race, he had a sore spot for them. Autumn collected every bit of information he was willing to share with her and her siblings during the flight, allowing Ratchet to learn more about his race, though when he considered things he knew something was wrong, as the Lombaxes didn't seem like a race that would exterminate another race, even the Cragmites. Polaris, as they discovered, happened to be the home galaxy of the Lombaxes, something that many in Solana and Bogon had rumors about and they were able to confirm with a simple conversation with a native, but all of it was now under Tachyon's rule, much to the dismay of everyone. Apparently the little Cragmite had betrayed the rest of the Lombaxes and exterminated them in kind for what happened to his race, but, once again, Ratchet had a problem with that as he recalled what happened to his sister, clearly lost and hurt in another dimension.

He could tell that Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank were considering the same thing, that his kind were in another dimension and that the answer to his question might finally be in front of him, he just had to deal with Tachyon first, but before they could say anything the ship got a message about a bioscan noticing Ratchet, to which Starswirl teleported them out of the ship, to a ship landing area, so the Smuggler could escape.

"Well, now we have a reason behind why Tachyon was hunting you and Angela." Autumn remarked, where she stretched for a moment as they approached the Vendor that was in front of them, finding more commandos standing between them and the rest of the city they had been brought to.

"Not to mention an idea of how to find your sister." Starswirl added, as he knew that Ratchet was focused on finding out how to get to his sister and save her from whatever was going on in the dimension she was in, even though they would no doubt have to deal with their new foe before that happened.

"Yeah... hang on sis, I'm coming." Ratchet said, taking a moment to touch the necklace again, giving Autumn the time to buy the Predator Launcher, a new toy to add to their arsenal, while his stance informed his siblings of his hope that they were right, about the dimensional tool to find his sister, before he got moving.

As they started to tear into the commandos, however, they found a few screens showing Tachyon issuing news to those he ruled over, about the 'renegade Lombax' and his troublesome allies, though they ignored him for the most part, since his opinion mattered little to them. While the three of them tore their way through all of their enemies, showing them that what happened on Kerwan wasn't a fluke, Starswirl found another weapon, the Shock Ravager, which turned out to be an energy whip that seemed to take on the appearance of electricity, something their foes disliked. As such duplicating it for all three of them made things easier for Ratchet as his siblings as they tore through all of their enemies, collected all the bolts and raritanium they found, and used some Slingshot targets to move further through the city as the commandos did their best to track them down. Their efforts showed anyone watching that the Emperor's forces weren't as tough as they might have assumed, that a Lombax was fighting to free Polaris from his foul rule, and that they wouldn't stop until he was taken down, just as they had done to the other galaxies and sectors they had freed in the past.

What interested them, as they fought their way through the city, was that some of the commandos assumed that Ratchet and his siblings were heading for the Hall of Knowledge, a forbidden place apparently, which meant that it was their next destination as they swung their way across hazards and used their new gadgets to progress. Such a thing made them take a moment and wonder what might be in such a place, that Tachyon would outlaw being able to go there and make it one of the punishable offenses in Polaris, and each of them knew they would understand in due time. The commandos kept trying to break them so they could capture Ratchet and present him to their Emperor, though it resulted in them breaking Tachyon's forces with ease, much to the joy of those watching them, even if they kept their cheering low so the Cragmite didn't discover that they hated him. Given what the siblings had faced in the past this was next to nothing to them, which made them wonder if Tachyon had some elite guards he wasn't using yet, which he should if they existed, so they left yet another trail of destruction as they made their way through the city.

Eventually they came to a stop at what seemed to be the end of the path they could use, causing Clank to drop down and walk around for a moment before Autumn and Starswirl watched as some energy surged around him and gave him a pair of nice wings with green material, something that allowed him and Ratchet to reach the Hall of Knowledge by flying, even if the pair teleported behind them when they landed.

"So, this is the Hall of Knowledge... time to stick it to Tachyon and steal his 'forbidden knowledge'," Ratchet remarked, to which he and his siblings advanced into the structure, while Autumn asked about the new wings and discovered that Clank had no idea what had happened, even though she and Starswirl had an idea given everything they had read about before this point in time.

From what they discovered there were some defenses to keep people from entering the depths of the facility, the first one being a chamber with three buttons they had to press, so they separated from each other for a few seconds and did so, to which they opened a tunnel to the next chamber. Ratchet found that the second one was just powering up a device to let out a sound that would move some large squids into position, allowing him and his siblings to reach an upper area that he felt was part of the ventilation system, large enough for them to pass through with ease. It lead to what appeared to be a map room, where Clank dropped down and started to download everything that was on it so they had a map of Polaris, so they wouldn't get lost once they found a ship or Angela and the others arrived with their starship. Of course they fought a surge of commandos that arrived to take them down, allowing Clank to do his work without being interrupted, which had to be annoying Tachyon when he watched what was going on with his forces, before their friend informed them that his task was done and he had a planet in mind for them to escape to.

In the following moment they climbed into an egg shaped escape pod and Clank input the coordinates for Fastoon, which was the planet he had picked out, allowing them to blast off and slip into the hyperspace that the ships of Polaris were able to use to travel between sectors, granting the siblings a period of rest before reaching their next destination.

While they traveled between sectors Clank revealed that Fastoon was a Lombax planet, the Lombax planet, which meant Ratchet was going home at long last, even though he had bad news for them, it was deserted and in ruin in some places, confirming part of the story they had been told, Tachyon attacked the Lombaxes. It was in that moment Ratchet wished that Angela was with them, as while he was still learning about his race, and everything associated with them, she was still far more knowledgeable in everything concerning the Lombaxes. Autumn also informed them that she had completed her own task before they left, stealthily stealing the information in the Hall of Knowledge, and it came with a surprise, the full and complete Lombax language, confirming what Angela showed them a long time ago. Starswirl did reveal that this left them with a problem, if the planet was in ruin there might be no ships for them to find or fix up, especially given the fact that Tachyon would track down the escape pod and follow them in no time, causing the others to nod as they realized that this was either a quick stop or a permanent stop.

When the pod emerged from hyperspace they found themselves heading down to a desert planet that reminded them of Veldin, which might be why it had been picked as the place that Ratchet and his sister would be sent to, causing him and his siblings to brace themselves as it landed and allowed them to see the ruins.

"So this is home..." Ratchet commented, where he could see some tall buildings, which had to be either homes or a work structure of some kind, before he spotted something across the gap in front of them and crossed it without delay, which allowed him and his siblings to see a crashed red ship that was in near pristine condition, "We have to fix her."

"Given that it's the only ship around, it is either this or wait for either Angela or Tachyon to arrive." Clank said, despite the fact that none of them had enough time to send the code that would tell Ratchet's wives where they were located, which Ratchet turned into the frequency she, Sasha, and Nika would be keeping an eye on.

"From what I can tell, there are six missing components we need to find to fix it up, five out here and one in a nearby mine that only Clank can explore." Autumn remarked, as she had taken the liberty to scan the ship Ratchet wanted to patch up, where she found that five were nearby and they could either recover them separately or take them as a team, but at least none of them were too far away.

They found that one of the flight components were above where the escape pod landed, where the siblings found some small kobold creatures, armed with clubs, who wanted them dead for some reason, causing the group to lash out at their new enemies and found that they took them down in no time. With the first one claimed they returned to the middle of the area and resumed looking for the other ones, where one happened to be at the top of the central tower or pillar, but as it happened they got a holo-vite from Qwark, since it was his voice on the message. He used one of the aliases he made for undercover work, that being Finnegan O'Qwarksalot, though the interesting thing about this was that none of the foes he used his aliases against realized he was Qwark, despite his well known name being part of his supposed fake names, a fact they had long since stopped questioning. Of course they couldn't actually play the message just yet, but Ratchet was sure that, when they patched up the ship, they would be to see what the message was and head to a new planet to figure out what in the world Qwark was up to this time around.

After discovering that they found the third flight component inside one of the nearby buildings and claimed it, though they did have to fight the little kobold critters, apparently called Nanophytes in part of the Hall of Knowledge information, and it took them no time to claim the component and continue searching. Another happened to be across a gap that they had to use a pair of Swingshots to cross, leading to more enemies showing up and trying to take them down, where Autumn did a bit more research and found that they were scavengers and she made it a point to take the Lombax items from them, just so Angela could appraise them later. The fifth one was in an odd place, what looked like a water reservoir that was both a natural cavern and a metallic area that some of the Lombaxes crafted in the past, where Ratchet swam through the area for a few moments, looking for the item in question, before returning with his prize. Once that was done Ratchet and his siblings returned to the ship as Clank headed into the mine to find the final component, giving them some time to work on the ship and make sure it was good enough to fly, even though all three of them admitted that Lombax tech, especially for ships, was rather interesting to study.

Once Clank returned, and informed them that the Zoni, the energy beings that he was conversing with that Autumn and Starswirl could see if they focused their magic, were certain that the Cragmites would return, how he had no idea, which lead to them inserting the final component and activating the ship.

Miserable little Drophyds! I can't believe they used seeker ammo! the ship said, speaking in a feminine voice, which none of them were expecting when they decided to patch the vehicle up, all while closing the area of her frame that the siblings had been working on to repair her, before she noticed Ratchet and the others standing there, What a bunch of cheat... oh, a Lombax. After what happened here, I thought I'd never see one of your kind again... wait a moment, it can't be... Ratchet?

"That's me. Do I know you?" Ratchet asked, as this was the first time he had seen a talking ship before, especially since he knew that neither of his siblings had considered such a thing in the past, though this was good for them, because if the ship knew him it meant she might know more about his family.

I'm Aphelion, the ship your father, Kaden, made to help defend Fastoon, even if I was shot down by cheaters on the day we were attacked. the ship, now known as Aphelion, replied, though as she said that, and they got a chance to see that she could hover while talking and even made movements when utterly certain lines, either because of her programming or due to her being annoyed about something, she noticed something, Ratchet... where is Rivet?

"My sister... well, she's lost in another dimension." Ratchet said, though now the etching on the pod he was found in on Veldin made sense, it was 'Ratchet and Rivet' written on the side of it, where he considered what they had thought about on the way to Kortog earlier, "And Tachyon, unless we're mistaken, might be after some sort of dimensional tool that the Lombaxes created at some point in the past."

Aphelion, while being sad that Rivet wasn't here, confirmed their suspicions and informed them that the gadget had been his father's greatest creation, the Dimensionator, but she had no information on where it had been hidden, meaning they had to track it down themselves. It was the key Ratchet was looking for, a gadget capable of traversing dimensions, and if he could get his hands on it he could finally reunite with his sister, save her from whatever world she had ended up in, and then seal the device away in a magical storage area so Tachyon couldn't claim it. With that information in hand they asked Aphelion if she could play the holo-vite they had received and she confirmed that she could, allowing them to climb inside, even though Autumn had to apply the magic for the expanded sitting area, though once that was done Ratchet slipped the device into the slot and they watched what Qwark sent them. It was an advertisement for the Imperial Fight Festival, which had to be the arena of this portion of the Polaris Galaxy, and their friend even mentioned that the offer was only for them, in his own description to avoid someone like Tachyon figuring out what he was doing.

With that information in hand Ratchet took the controls and blasted off for planet Mukow, allowing them to continue with their adventure and, hopefully, gain more information on what Tachyon was doing, all while hoping to cut him off before he found the gadget Ratchet was seeking, even though they knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.

Tools: Mukow, Nundac Asteroid Ring

Following their departure from Fastoon, a place they swore to explore once Tachyon was dealt with, Ratchet found that a signature was tracking them and exited the hyperspace they had entered, entering an asteroid belt as they got a message from someone called Cap'n Slag.

Ahoy there, young scallywags. This be Cap'n Slag, Scourge of the Galaxy. the obese robotic pirate declared, as that was what they could see on the screen, though none of them even cared too much about the figure in question, as he wasn't too imposing, which had to be their many years of dealing with villains, Surrender your vessel, or be cast to the depths of the universe!

"Honestly, we aren't intimidated at all... though I wonder if we can find some new energy in such a place." Autumn said, as the depths of the universe sounded like an interesting place to find something that might be entirely new or lost, which was when she pulled out her tablet and started making notes on a new weapon or gadget for the future.

"She's too focused on beating Tachyon and tearing him a new one after what happened on Kerwan." Starswirl remarked, all while showing that even he wasn't too concerned by what was going on at the moment, as he was sure that Ratchet, armed with Aphelion's systems, would be able to stop Cap'n Slag.

It cannot be... you are the Terrors of Solana! Slag stated, showing the siblings that even people in Polaris knew of their existence and were rightly worried about their chances of surviving an encounter with them, if they got on their bad side to be exact, something that just amused the siblings.

Slag and his pirates, not wanting to endanger their lives by tangling with the siblings, quickly signed an agreement with all of them, that he would stay out of their way, and possibly aid them if he could, while they dealt with Tachyon and his plans for all of Polaris. He knew that trying to stall the siblings meant certain death, even if it would be some time before they found a way to track him down and fight him on a planet, but this was the favorable outcome for all of them, as it saved a lot of time and allowed them to continue on to Mukow without delay. While they did that, however, Ratchet activated the encrypted line that he and Angela had created in preparation for someone like Tachyon showing up to hunt them down, a fact that interested Aphelion as she ensured it was totally secure, even if the ship was more interested in discovering that a second Lombax was out there. He explained that, while he and Rivet were supposed to be transported to the same area, and had been separated by something, Angela had either been chosen to be send to Bogon or she was like him and Rivet, separated from her family and ended up in Bogon, before he and his siblings arrived years later.

When they finally reached their destination Aphelion exited hyperspace and descended to the Imperial Fight Festival, or at least the fairgrounds that Ratchet and his siblings would have to fight through before reaching the arena and gaining the information Qwark had obtained for them.

"He seems to be doing better this time around," Ratchet commented, referring to the fact that Qwark had pulled the wool over Tachyon's eyes, or at least it sure seemed like that since they got a message from the man and learned that he did have information for them.

"Not that it matters, since Tachyon is an idiot." Autumn stated, though as she said that she found the Vendor and bought a new weapon, the Shard Reaper it was called, which she was pleased to have on hand based on some of the enemies they might find soon, given that they had no idea what sort of danger existed in this galaxy.

Starswirl said nothing to that as they headed down the path that would, apparently, bring them to the arena that Qwark had likely set up their disguises in, to be applied when they entered the ring most likely, and sure enough the commandos wanted them dead before they befouled their Emperor's domain. Sure enough they found that none of Tachyon's forces had enough power to slow or even stall them, allowing the siblings to tear through all of the defenders that were guarding the Path of Challengers, an area that seemed designed to kill most people. It also allowed Ratchet and the others to see a couple of new enemies, ones with electrical shields that really collapsed under the pressure of their weapons, or some of them to be exact, which had to annoy Tachyon when he realized what was going on. The only real challenge was finding their way through the obstacle course, navigating the various challenges and whatever Tachyon put in their way, but that, too, didn't last as Ratchet and his siblings overcame everything that had been placed in their way.

The group was able to figure out where the arena was when they found the end of the path, linked to a bridge with a vast number of statues that poured out fire from their mouths, but it was nothing to them as they passed through them and reached the teleporter that would take them into the arena. Once their weapons were restocked Ratchet contacted Qwark and informed him of their arrival, where he carefully loaded the teleporter with the guises he had crafted for them, as in a traveling warrior for Ratchet, a simple sorcerer for Starswirl, and a farmer for Autumn. His reasoning, since none of their guises really looked like them and even hid some of their unique features, was that they had trained for this for the two to three weeks and were ready to make an attempt on winning some Bolts. The siblings decided not to question it as each of them walked onto the teleporter, let their guise appear over them, and then teleported into the arena, where Qwark took a moment to wait until all three of them were present before announcing their arrival, even though he had to announce the arrival of Tachyon on the holoscreen, even if he wasn't well received.

After he forced the crowd to cheer for him the siblings got started on wiping the floor with the robotic challengers that were in the arena, which reminded them of what happened in Annihilation Nation, it was just a number of waves of foes and nothing else, meaning they were able to split up and dominate their enemies. What was humorous was the fact that Tachyon had no idea that his targets were in the arena, especially with some of the moves they showed off, mostly to see if he was as dumb as Autumn thought he was, and this just confirmed that he was a total moron. When they took out the waves of enemies it looked like they also had to fight a boss of sorts, a massive frog beast that had cybernetic limbs that allowed it to do battle with whoever it wanted to kill, including missile launchers that they ignored entirely. Taking it down earned them a new gadget, the Heli-Pods, along with people cheering for them, believing that they were simple people and not who their Emperor was looking for, which Ratchet pocketed for now.

Qwark appeared after the battle was over and said a few words, all while handing over a few items to aid them, a book of exercise routines he went through, along with a hidden info device inside it that they learned about in a whisper, and as he returned to deal with Tachyon the siblings exited the arena so they could return to the ship.

"Hopefully this was worth it." Starswirl remarked, as Qwark was a mixed bag at times, either being a worthwhile ally for an annoyance they could do without during their adventures, before Ratchet pulled the device out and slipped it into the slot Aphelion provided so they could figure out what was going on.

What they discovered was that it was a recruitment advertisement for Tachyon's army, but finding that Qwark had been inserted meant it had to be important, before it mentioned the 'Lombax Secret', the device responsible for the downfall of the Cragmites, and their sources claimed a clue might be found at the Apogee Space Station, hence why the siblings left for the Nundac Asteroid Ring to beat him to it.

While they flew to the Nundac Asteroid Belt, making sure to keep an eye out for Tachyon's forces, Autumn did her best to find out more about where they were going and found that most information about Max Apogee was about him being one of the most famous explorers in this galaxy, but that was it.

"I bet Tachyon's behind the lack of information." Autumn remarked, speaking as they landed on the furthest asteroid from the lone station that was in front of them, though her comment was on his apparent dislike of knowledge, based on the Hall of Knowledge they had passed through to get a map of Polaris, before she noticed something, "Though it looks like a familiar figure is waiting for us, or someone else, to arrive."

Sure enough they found the Smuggler waiting near a spherical pod that would likely bring someone to the entrance of the station, where Aphelion landed nearby and allowed the siblings to climb out, finding that there were warp rings that would send someone to another part of the asteroid ring, before they faced the mysterious figure.

"Well hello again, friends. We ought to warn you, the owner of this station isn't welcoming to visitors." the Smuggler said, his tone indicating that he might have a way for Ratchet and the others to get into the decent sized station, no doubt tied to the Leviathans flying around the area, identical monsters to what they saw on Cobalia, all while he petted his parrot for a few seconds, "Some pirates from Ardolis offered us some Bolts for Leviathan Souls, and this here happens to be a prime location to collect them, so how about we make a deal? You supply us with a couple of souls and we'll give you the launch code for the transport vessel... I'll even through in some Bolts as well, to pay you for your precious time."

"Is there a communicator so we can call the station?" Starswirl asked, as while he knew that he and his siblings could easily do what the Smuggler wanted, because each of them knew that they would be able to take out all of the Leviathans in no time, he wanted to see if they could book an appointment or something with the owner of the station.

"Why yes, I do believe there is one." the Smuggler replied, where he realized that they were going to try something, due to the fact that Ratchet was walking back to his ship, something that caused him to tip his hat to them before backing away, because he wanted to be there in case they failed.

"Aphelion, connect to the frequency of the station, and shield the connection so Tachyon doesn't figure out what's going on at the moment." Ratchet said, where he paused for a few moments, allowing the intelligent ship to set up the link he was requesting, before informing him that everything was set up so he could speak to whoever owned the station, or, if he failed to talk to someone, leave a message, "To whoever is in control of the Apogee Space Station, this is Ratchet Cross of Solana, along with my siblings Starswirl and Autumn Blaze, and our friend Clank, and we come baring a message for you: Emperor Tachyon believes that you have the infamous 'Lombax Secret', or at least a clue as to where it might be hidden in this galaxy, and is planning a raid to come get it. My siblings and I would like to help you, be it defending this place or even finding the secret itself... and if it helps, I'm one of the last Lombaxes in the entire universe."

There was more he could say on the matter, he knew that much, but it was better revealed face to face, instead of said in the presence of someone like the Smuggler and his odd parrot, so he simply leaned back as Autumn checked the Vendor, finding nothing new, while Starswirl stood nearby, before a hologram of a female figure, who had shoulder length brown hair, a red hairband, blue eyes, and civilian attire with a jetpack attached to it, appeared nearby.

This is Talwyn Apogee, owner of the Apogee Space Station. the figure said, where she and Ratchet locked eyes with each other for a few seconds, allowing her to see that he was telling the truth about being a Lombax, while he could see that she had a tail, a hairless one that didn't end in a tuft, before she regained herself, Forgive me for being surprised, it's... well, everyone believed that the Lombaxes were exterminated a long time ago, and yet here you are, telling me that there's more than one of you out there. Come in... let's chat.

Ratchet and his siblings found that the transport was primed once the call ended, no doubt Talwyn's doing, though as the three of them and Clank entered it, however, the Smuggler bid them farewell as he left the station behind, allowing them to focus on entering the station. When they stepped inside they found that it was basically a massive living area, a hidden location that would keep someone safe for a long time, and two warbots, named Cronk and Zephyr, escorted them to the dining area so they could speak with Talwyn about the secret she was rumored to know about. The moment the siblings met up with Talwyn, who offered them a drink while they talked, Ratchet explained why they were here, in Polaris, and she wasn't too surprised by Tachyon attacking another galaxy because they had a Lombax, even though one of Ratchet's wives was a Lombax, a fact that caught her off guard when he mentioned Angela, Sasha, and Nika. He briefly mentioned his still missing twin sister, who he was currently searching for, before explaining what they had learned about Tachyon's plans, a fact that included his assault force that would be coming to her private home, even though Zephyr had a few choice words when he referred to the secret.

Talwyn was more focused on the fact that, while Ratchet was here and knew some things about his species, he had next to no idea what the secret was, even though she, too, had no idea what it might be, even though she mentioned the fact that her father found a clue before he went missing, with Cronk confirming that Max Apogee was a famous explorer and loved to collect rare antiques.

"I'd love to help you out, but the pirates of Ardolis stole the artifact years ago." Talwyn said, as that was the end of their conversation, though as she said that, and the others took it in, Ratchet smiled as he considered what had happened just before they reached Mukow, "Something tells me you have a plan of some kind."

Ratchet nodded as he explained his plan to them, where Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank were impressed by his plan, while Talwyn and her warbots were surprised by it, before he explained what happened on the way to Mukow, though once all of them knew what was going on they split up and the siblings returned to their ship, as it was time to head to Ardolis and speak to Slag.

Tools: Ardolis, Rykan V

Following their departure from the Apogee Space Station, and Talwyn was boarding a ship with her warbots, Ratchet and his siblings flew through hyperspace and arrived at a planet that was mostly water, save for some patches of land that were where the pirates built their bases. He had Aphelion touch down on what seemed to be the outskirts of the section of the base that Talwyn was sure the artifact was resting in, which Autumn could confirm thanks to the small program she and Angela had created, mostly to find lost Lombax items and none of the structures. Once they landed Autumn took a moment to check the Vendor and found two new weapons, the Buzz Blades and the Nano-Swarmers, which she purchased for the three of them, all while Starswirl glanced down the path in front of them. Clank also informed them that the Zoni gave him a second gadget to use during this adventure, some sort of laser that could cut through stone with ease, though their focus was on something else at the moment, even though Ratchet was glad to have that information.

Some distance in front of them they found some pirates standing guard, having seen them arrive and looked like they were ready for battle, but as Ratchet and his siblings approached them, however, most of the guards put their weapons away, showing them that Slag must have warned his crew about their existence in Polaris.

"Pirates of Ardolis, we have no desire to fight you, not when we have a mutual enemy in Tachyon," Ratchet said, keeping his weapons lowered so the robotic pirates could understand that he wasn't trying to trick them and that he was only here to talk, while his siblings did the same thing, and Talwyn, who was in the atmosphere, was staying out of the way, "We know you have a Lombax artifact that might help one find the secret that they left behind, and we would like to have it returned to us so we can claim the weapon before Tachyon does. Tell Slag that all we want is the artifact and we'll leave Ardolis."

The pirates glanced at each other and huddled for a moment, actually talking it over as they tried to figure out if he was lying to them, even though anyone who knew of him and his siblings would know that none of them lied, even to their enemies, not unless there was a plan in motion to deceive them, before the robots broke and faced him again.

"We will let the Captain know... stay here, and try not to steal anything." one of the pirates said, a female one to be exact, to which she departed from the area while the rest of the pirates stayed behind, keeping an eye on the siblings so they could attack them if this was a deception, causing Ratchet and his siblings to back off for the time being.

This was Ratchet's plan, as they knew that Slag was afraid of them, due to hearing rumors about the siblings and what they did to their enemies in the past, and he was using that against the pirate captain, though it was long before the obese robot rode in on a ship shaped vessel, with a thin orange robot behind him that looked and smelled like he was drunk.

"So, you believe that this artifact can locate the legendary 'Lombax Secret'?" Slag inquired, referring to a triangular shaped item he was holding in his left hook, even though both his hands had been replaced with hooks by the looks of it, though all of them found that nothing happened when he tapped the artifact.

"Yes, we do." Autumn replied, as they had considered the information available to them and knew that it had to be a weapon or tool that messed with dimensions in some manner, especially given Aphelion's reaction to Rivet's disappearance, and the pirates said nothing as they waited for the conversation to be over, "Tell me, who would you rather give the secret to the 'Emperor' of this galaxy, or would you rather see it in the hands of someone who can use it to topple his empire?"

"A fair point, and we aren't fans of Tachyon either." Slag said, something that made them wonder what Tachyon might have done to the pirates to earn their ire, which Ratchet knew Autumn would be able to figure out once she overcame the various blocks Tachyon had placed on, before he raised his hand and dropped the artifact into Ratchet's hands, "Very well, we'll see if the stories about you are true and that this isn't a trick."

Ratchet, true to form, gathered his siblings and departed from Ardolis, though as they breached the atmosphere, so they could return to Talwyn's station to see what was on the artifact, the four of them smiled as the Helios, in all it's glory, warped into the space near the planet, causing them to dock as Talwyn followed his lead.

"Ratchet, thank goodness you and your siblings are alright." Angela said, taking a moment to embrace him while Sasha and Nika stood nearby, greeting Talwyn and her warbots, who were seeing that Ratchet had been telling the truth, before she pulled back and studied the artifact that Slag had given them, mostly out of fear since they could wipe out the pirates in no time at all, along with the ship they had arrived in, "I have so many questions."

"And we'll answer them, but not right now. Tachyon's looking for the Lombax Secret, and this should help us locate where it might be hidden." Ratchet replied, where he held the artifact out and found that it was responding to his touch, activating as the top opened to reveal a hologram of a planet that looked like it was mostly lava.

"Rykan V... that might be where the Lombaxes hid the secret, or the next clue to it's location." Talwyn commented, as she was able to recognize the planet with ease, due to her studying everything her father had left behind when he went out on his last expedition, which he had yet to return from.

Ratchet and his siblings nodded as he input the coordinates for the planet and the starship started to move through space, though Autumn was able to quickly update it's systems with an identical warp drive to what the ships in Polaris had, and as it traveled they explained the situation to Angela and the others, just so they understood what was going on.

As they reached the space above Rykan V, where upon exiting warp space they started to move to their ships, Angela did a scan of the location on the map and found something that surprised them, Tachyon's forces were already on the planet, either because it was a fuel station for them or someone knew they'd be here in the near future.

"I'm not sure how he knew we were coming here, but Tachyon's about to lose some soldiers." Angela remarked, taking a moment to join the others as they headed down to the planet below them, though with three ships, Aphelion and the Star Explorer for the family and Talwyn's carrying her and her warbots, and it wasn't long before they confirmed that an army was in the starport.

"You said it. Let's do this!" Ratchet stated, where he set Aphelion to fly without him, as Sasha linked the other ship up to her so it would follow her, before opening the cockpit so they could jump out, allowing them to open fire on the various commandos that had been ordered to assault this area.

As Talwyn landed nearby, so she could be of some assistance since she wasn't great at jumping from heights, even though it would have been okay this time since Autumn and Starswirl had magic that tore the incoming rockets to pieces, she was able to witness just how good Ratchet and his team were. One thing she found was that each fighter had a melee weapon on hand, just in case enemies got close or they wanted to fight someone without using their guns, but for the most part all of them tore into Tachyon's forces with ease, showing that they had more experience than she originally believed. It was in that moment that she found herself thankful that she didn't turn Ratchet and his group away, forcing them to force their way into her station, as it looked like they would have been able to topple her defenses in no time. That, combined with all of the weapons they had gathered so far, made them a force to be reckoned with, to the point where Cronk and Zephyr paused for a moment to watch the group tear their way through the enemies in front of them, to the point where Starswirl loosed a bit of magic and tore down the gate blocking the way.

Autumn, on the other hand, also surprised them with her other form, the werewolf side she accidentally unlocked, where she slashed her way through some of the flying saucers with her claws and cleared the skies for the others, even though they did have to hide behind some of Starswirl's barriers to deal with four cannons that had been designed to stop them in their tracks, which fell in no time and allowed them to enter the starport.

"That... was amazing." Talwyn said, as that was all she could say on the matter, since she wasn't expecting them to utterly wipe out Tachyon's soldiers, in a matter of minutes no less, while wondering what would happen if she and her warbots stuck around with the family of heroes that came from Solana to defeat Tachyon.

"Tachyon was foolish to send so little at us... I mean, it was nice taking his commandos down, but I expected him to send far more after our last encounters." Autumn remarked, sounding disappointed in the fact that they had taken down all of the commandos so quickly, even though she was pleased with how her weapons had turned out, before she spotted the Smuggler standing off to the side once more, "Either he's following us, to try and make some money off of us, or he's got an item of some kind that we need to get closer to the location on the map... which is across the lava field, based on what I'm seeing right now."

"Friends, you sure picked the wrong time to visit Rykan V, since Tachyon's closed everything down until he can locate the infamous Lombax Secret," the Smuggler said, though in that instant they found that he had some sort of gadget resting on the rail behind him, one that looked like a single seater item, which he gestured to for a moment, "I do have this modified Gyro-cycle that I got off a Lombax many years ago, before they all disappeared..."

"It wouldn't happen to be a Lombax called Kaden, would it?" Ratchet asked, where the Smuggler and his parrot paused for a moment as he said that, confirming that his father must have known someone, most likely him, would come looking for the Lombax Secret and wanted to leave a way to get to the next step in the process, "Looks like we were right, dad left us a trail to use to find the secret."

The Smuggler was surprised by that information, even though he quickly realized that Ratchet was telling the truth, he was Kaden's son, to which he handed over the gadget and informed Ratchet that, once Tachyon's reign had been toppled and the Cragmite was defeated, they would have a chat about his father. Once that was done Ratchet used the device to make his way through the lava refineries that were between him and his destination, just to test out the new gadget, while both of his siblings, their family, and Talwyn's group used their ships to carefully track down the area in question. Autumn made sure to scramble all of their signatures so Tachyon couldn't figure out where they were, as it would be a bad thing if they found the secret and he stole it from them, but for right now everything seemed pretty normal. Their destination was far enough away from the starport, so no one would be able to see them from where the Smuggler was standing, and all that told them was that Kaden likely created the refineries as an obstacle course for whoever followed the trail, though Ratchet emerged from it in no time and landed on the outskirts of the small rock island.

Once he caught up with them, which might charge whatever power source was inside their destination, they found what looked like an incredibly touch stone door, likely brought in from another planet, which was connected to a building that Kaden must have helped construct, all looking like stone to remain hidden, with the Lombax language written on the door they were staring at.

"In this room, a secret born, to quell the angry Cragmite storm," Talwyn recited, showing them that she could read all of the symbols that were on the door, while at the same time Angela nodded, confirming that what she was saying was true, since she was the resident expert on all things Lombax, or at least for Solana and Bogon, "You've traveled far, but to be clear, without a tail your quest ends here."

Ratchet said nothing as he rested his palm against the stone, where it seemed to scan his DNA before opening up, which allowed them to see that the facility looked like a storehouse with next to nothing inside it, save for an old info player and a few boxes that were empty, likely Kaden's doing. While Talwyn was annoyed by the lack of anything, since she expected the secret to be here and not have to worry about another clue, the siblings activated the player and found that it played a mission briefing from the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. This appeared to be a testing site for what they claimed was the most important invention in Lombax history, the Dimensionator, and it included the image of a Lombax wearing a massive helmet on his head, something that caused Ratchet's to ache for a moment, as if something was wrong. It had a couple of warnings and mentioned the dimension of the Zanifarian Death Weasels, either an annoying creature or one of the most deadly, before they found that this wasn't a testing facility, rather it was Kaden's way of telling them about the Dimensionator and that the true testing area was somewhere on Sargasso.

As the presentation finished Ratchet found a memory resurfacing for a moment, two Lombaxes, one being his father due to a gun shaped Dimensionator resting in his hands, discussing something before the weapon changed hands, and next to him rested his sister, before he snapped back to reality.

"The secret used to take out the Cragmites... was a hat?!" Nika remarked, as that just seemed unlikely, especially when she thought about what Angela had showed her and the others over the years before Tachyon's arrival, where she glanced at the others for a moment as Ratchet found the headache retreating.

"No, it isn't... I mean, it could have been upgraded, but the original design had the shape of a gun," Ratchet replied, where his siblings raised their eyebrows for a moment as they heard that, even Angela did, as this was the first time he had even mentioned such a thing, causing him to tap the side of his head, indicating that a memory had surfaced, "Rivet and I were between one to two years old when our dad handed it over to another Lombax for some reason... that was the last time I saw it."

His siblings had no idea what was going on with him, but since he wasn't in pain this time, unlike when Rivet got hurt, they decided not to worry about it as they headed for their ship, as it was time to take the Helios and get to Sargasso, all while Talwyn was going to make a pit stop before joining them, just to be sure they stayed ahead of Tachyon and claimed the Dimensionator before he did.

Tools: Sargasso

Sargasso, as the group discovered, was a swamp planet that wasn't as advanced as the majority of the planets in Polaris, save for a number of facilities owned by the Kerchu, whoever they were, but Ratchet, knowing his father, suspected that the facility they were looking for would be buried in the depths of one of the mountains.

"This is a big planet, and there are plenty of mountains to pick from," Autumn commented, speaking as they flew down to the landing area, which happened to be near where the Smuggler had set up shop, though she decided to focus on Ratchet, just to be sure their visit to Rykan V didn't leave any lasting damage to him, "are you sure we'll find the facility under one of them?"

"No, but it seems like the logical place to look... unless the Zoni tell us to search somewhere else." Ratchet remarked, due to the fact that Clank's odd allies seemed reasonable and might show up whenever they needed assistance, like what happened when they were heading for the Halls of Knowledge and when they were on Fastoon, before he landed and they climbed out of Aphelion.

As they walked down to where the Smuggler was standing, to see what he wanted this time around, Autumn found no new weapons, causing them to regroup in front of the figure who had been following them for some time and had helped them a few times, as well as attempted to make some Bolts off of them.

"You sure move quick. Let me guess, you need Leviathan Souls?" Ratchet asked, because that seemed to be the reason why the figure kept appearing before him and the others, he wanted the souls of the powerful creatures in the area, though he had a feeling that the ones they had seen before would pale in comparison to whatever was on Sargasso, one of the most primal planets he had seen.

"Yes, and you might need these launch pads to move around Sargasso," the Smuggler replied, gesturing to a device that was like what they had found on Kortog, when Clank first discovered those new wings, though it seemed to be offline right now, causing him to gesture to a hacking station and a hacker device in his other hand, "this Decryptor can get them going in a pinch, but, as you said, I need something before I part with it."

Since they only had one Leviathan Soul, due to the fact that they had ignored the powerful creatures on the other planets the Smuggler was hunting them on, the group headed out into the surrounding area and found some massive docile beasts who seemed to be grazing at the moment, including a few smaller beasts, but large to them, that stood on two legs and had curved horns to hurt whoever it was fighting. As they expected the serpent monsters they had seen before were now inferior to the larger beasts, though everyone remained on guard as one of the beasts approached them, spreading out to blast it from multiple directions. Sure enough they were able to bring it down and collect what they needed from it, even though they did have to track down a second one, which didn't take long since there seemed to be multiple near the landing area, so everyone separated into smaller groups and brought down their targets, just to ensure that they had all the souls they needed to buy the device. After clearing out the area of enemies, and gathering the souls necessary to buy the Decryptor, everyone regrouped and Ratchet made the trade, allowing him to hack into the nearby terminal and power up the platform that would allow him to use Clank's brand new wings.

With that done he and Clank took off, his friend sharing his sight with him so he could figure out where they were going, all while Autumn and Starswirl used their magic to lift everyone else, following behind them as Clank tracked down the Zoni's trail, though at the same time Autumn found a fragment of the RYNO 4, which she pocketed for later.

As it turned out the trail brought them to one of the Kerchu's buildings, who opened fire on them immediately, without a moment of delay, causing the group to wage war with them in kind, all while Autumn tore apart the spherical armor that a few of them were wearing with her sharp claws, finding that she really liked her new power. There were also some native creatures who wanted them dead, small red bugs who basically died in the crossfire between them and the Kerchu, but it didn't matter as Ratchet and the others blasted their way through their enemy's forces before he hacked into the building so they could move forward. As the group discovered the building didn't have anything for them, save for obstacles that all of them overcame in no time at all, before finding some platforms that allowed them to enter a rundown building, which just so happened to have an ancient Lombax weapon inside it, the Alpha Disruptor, a nano-weapon that fired beams of plasma at the target. Such a thing allowed Ratchet to rapidly take down one of the larger beasts, in three hits as opposed to what they were used to, and he knew that when they left Sargasso his sister was going to tinker with it before figuring out how to upgrade it and get it approved by Gadgetron, before finally finding a cave that seemed to be where they were to be going.

In the heart of the cave they found a facility that seemed to be their final destination, for now, and Ratchet hacked into the terminal to open a door up, allowing them to enter another Lombax facility, before finding a wall that opened up as they approached it, revealing the Plumber, who was slightly older and had glasses on his face, tending to an odd machine, one that wasn't the Dimensionator.

"Oh, it's just you guys... almost didn't recognize you, since we haven't seen each other in years." the Plumber said, where he seemed happy to see them, and for the most part the majority of the group felt the same way, though Ratchet was the only one who wasn't even remotely happy, given what happened to his sister, "You guys seem disappointed... let me take a guess, you were expecting to find a gadget that's capable of vaporizing an entire planet of Cragmites?"

"Please, don't insult our intelligence. We already know about the Dimensionator and that it allows one to move through dimensions, meaning the Cragmites were moved." Starswirl replied, as they had figured it out long before reaching the facility on Rykan V, thanks to him and Autumn figuring it out and Aphelion informing them about the device, before he and the others found that Ratchet was moving towards the Plumber.

"You would be correct." the Plumber stated, though in the following moment he found that Ratchet was annoyed with something and he suspected what that something was, given all of the questions he had asked in the past, whenever they crossed paths, and he was ready to answer whatever he asked this time around.

"I don't want to hear you say 'she's safe' this time around. We know Rivet's hurt! I woke up screaming the night before we were attacked by Tachyon, feeling like my arm was blown off!" Ratchet stated, though none of the others tried to stop him, as they knew he was annoyed and that he could have prevented this if the Plumber had bothered to help him save Rivet, before she was harmed by whatever had struck her, "You said your son was watching over her... well he failed to keep her safe, unless his job was to just observe and not interact with her... so I don't want to hear any excuses. Clearly you know about the barrier between dimensions and are able to traverse them with some ease, so I want you to open the way to my sister and let us assist her."

As the Plumber opened his mouth, to say something to calm Ratchet down, he paused as he felt the dimensional energy surge through the chamber and a crack in reality appeared nearby, showing them what looked like someone's home, and Ratchet found Rivet, minus her right arm, resting against a wall as she stabbed her wound with another needle, as there were several around her, and drugged herself to dull the pain.

"You see? She's hurt!" Ratchet continued, though it pained him to see his twin in such a state, hurt so much that she had to resort to such a thing to dull the pain before doing anything about her arm, causing him to turn on the Plumber, who was just shocked by what they were seeing, meaning that, despite his ability to see everything or whatever it was, this was something he wasn't expecting, "Do something!"

"I can't. You must understand, assisting you in small ways is all I can really do." the Plumber replied, where Ratchet wasn't the only one pained by the scene in front of them, in fact he felt sorry for Rivet as well, but there were rules he needed to follow and if he helped Ratchet now, in the way he wanted, it could have disastrous consequences for everything.

"Screw this." Ratchet said, as he couldn't believe what he was hearing, that the Plumber couldn't help them, or maybe he didn't want to given the fact that he refused to help him find his sister every time they encountered each other, though in that moment he walked up to the crack and pounded on it, finding that it was more solid than what he, Starswirl, and Autumn had assumed it was, "Rivet! I'm here! Your brother's here for you!"

For a moment it didn't seem like he was doing anything other than wasting his energy, though that was when Rivet lifted her head and noticed the crack in reality that they had spotted, allowing her to see Ratchet fully this time, instead of her seeing the armor he had been forced to wear during their time under Vox's thumb. Autumn and Starswirl tried to use their magic, to aid their brother, but the Plumber shook his head, indicating that mixing dimensional energy and magic wasn't a good thing, meaning if they used the Dimensionator they couldn't use magic for a time, causing them to watch as Ratchet smashed at the crack with his fist and his wrench. He kept calling for Rivet as he did everything in his power to break open the crack, as she was literally in front of him and he wasn't about to let this chance slip him by, while Rivet watched him for a few moments, either because the drugs were messing with her or because she doubted what she was seeing, before his necklace fragment fell out into view. In that moment Rivet lifted her left hand and reached for her neck, pulling out the other half of the charm they had been given by their parents, something that caused her to stand up and start making her way over to the crack, just in time for something truly marvelous to happen.

Ratchet, channeling all of his determination and power, punched the crack in reality and it shattered, like a window that had been broken by a rock, though when he tried to move forward he found that he couldn't, something was blocking him from crossing over, to which he reached for his sister, to help her cross over... but as they tried that, however, their fingers touched for just a second before the crack repaired itself and Ratchet was bounced back into the arms of Angela and Sasha, only when he regained himself he found that the crack was gone.

"No... nonononono! RIVET!" Ratchet called out, hoping that something, anything, would take pity on him and his sister and bring the crack back so he could save her, but as he staggered forward he found that nothing was there, the crack was gone and so, too, was his wounded sister, causing him to fall to his knees as he pounded the ground, letting his tears fall while he did so.

As the Plumber handed Autumn an item, a three and three fourths cubit hexagonal washer that they'd need later on, he realized something, if it hadn't been for the untimely interference of another being, who was also watching over Ratchet, the Lombax would have done the impossible, he would have saved Rivet and would have brought her home, but now all he could do was leave them to tend to Ratchet as they faced whatever the future held for them.

Tools: Mukow, Kreeli Comet

Following their time on Sargasso, which ended in disappointment, the group returned to the Helios and Ratchet simply sat down as he stared off into space for a while, causing the others to focus on leaving the planet's atmosphere while trying to figure out how to help him. Most of them were used to dealing with his sadness whenever they found that the Plumber was unable to aid them in saving his sister from what was happening to her, though this time around, after witnessing the event the night before Tachyon's invasion and his failed attempt to save Rivet, there wasn't much they could do. Rivet was right there, right in front of them, and Ratchet had nearly done what the Plumber considered to be impossible, he never brought her out of the dimension she was trapped in and would have succeeded had the crack not repaired itself so quickly. As such he seemed to be moping right now, unhappy with the fact that he had been so close and it had been snatched from him, and this time around his siblings and the others had no idea how to help him, so they focused on moving the starship and figuring out what their next step should be.

Autumn, on the other hand, used her power to summon the other fragments of the RYNO 4 holoplan and assembled the weapon in no time, mostly just to have it since she figured that they didn't need it's power with their full team gathered in the same place once more.

"We got a message from Qwark... from what I can tell, he might have found a clue about Tachyon's next target." Starswirl said, though before that point he had been studying the energy that the cracks produced and confirmed what the Plumber had told them on Sargasso, mixing dimensional energy with magic was a bad idea, causing him to wonder if this might be why he and his siblings had seen some cracks in the past.

"Then we'll head to Mukow and see what's up." Angela remarked, because she had a feeling Tachyon knew of the existence of the Dimensionator, due to everything he stole from the Lombaxes during his attack, before she thought about what they were looking for at the moment as she turned towards Ratchet, "Of course... Ratchet, the Dimensionator!"

"What are you... oh... OH, I get it. It's the key to saving Rivet!" Ratchet said, showing them that he understood what Angela was saying, the tool in question was capable of opening portals between dimensions and, even if they had no idea which one his sister was in, he suspected that the new version of the Dimensionator would be able to help them out, though the rest of the group was happy to see the light return to his eyes, "We find where it's located, obtain it before Tachyon finds us, take out the Emperor and his forces, and then we can open the way to Rivet's dimension and pull her out."

His siblings and Clank smiled for a moment as the old Ratchet returned, though they could see that he was still saddened by not being able to save Rivet when the crack showed up on Sargasso, but there was nothing they could do about it now as he took his place in the captain's chair and set a course for Mukow. Sure enough it didn't take them all that long to reach the planet in question and send down their smaller ships so they could land at the edge of the fair grounds, finding that none of the guards seemed to notice their return, which was fine with them. Autumn found that no new weapons were available, not that she was expecting anything new right now, causing her and her siblings to take the taxi back to the arena entrance as Angela's group joined them, mostly because Qwark knew of their arrival in Polaris and had seats for them in the arena, so they could watch the fights without drawing attention. When the taxi came to a stop the group split in half and went about their duties, one team heading into the stands while Ratchet and his siblings readied themselves for whatever the arena had in store for them this time around, donning their disguises before heading inside.

It wasn't long before they discovered that the arena was the same as before, save for two flame throwing statues of Tachyon in the center of the arena, though it wasn't anything they had to worry about as the siblings tore their way through the few waves of enemies, including an energy being as the final boss, causing the crowd to cheer as they witnessed their victory over the Emperor's obstacles.

"Outstanding work, strangers I've never met before." Qwark stated, emerging from the middle of the arena floor once they tore down the energy being that had been the final opponent, even though the group knew the challenge had been nothing compared to their might, before he handed over another exercise book, volume two to be exact, and a device that looked like a Hologuise, "And now, the fruits of your labor: one Holo-Pirate Disguise, which is great for parties, and a signed copy of my new exercise book, the second volume of 'Body by Qwark'."

As the siblings considered this information, as it meant a venture into pirate territory once more, a crack in reality appeared nearby and this time around something emerged from it, a feminine figure who was wearing a robe that looked like it was made of metallic dragon scales and wore a mask over her face... and, unless they were mistaken, it looked like she was in the middle of a fight with another version of Ratchet, Qwark, Angela, and a few others.

"Fus... Ro Dah!" the figure shouted, releasing what looked like a wave of energy from their mouth, knocking all sorts of weapon charges out of the air with the sheer force of her attack, before she dived back into the portal and clashed with the group on what appeared to be an island, before the crack sealed itself a few seconds later.

As Tachyon and the others took in what they had just witnessed, a scene that seemed unbelievable to many, Ratchet and his siblings departed from the arena, while leaving Qwark behind to keep an eye on their foe, and when everyone quickly regrouped outside they returned to their ships. Once they were aboard the Helios, and were sure that no one followed them off planet, Ratchet played the Infobot that was inside the volume Qwark had handed them, just like he had done to give them the information that pointed at Talwyn's station. What they discovered was that it was an issue of a show called the Polaris Compendium of Historical Importantness, which had information on something called IRIS, a supercomputer that had an IQ of three billion, or 170 Terachnoid Sages, meaning it was one of the smartest things in Polaris, and it was, according to the Infobot, the ultimate search engine for the galaxy. That told them everything they needed to know, IRIS had to be the key to finding out where the Dimensionator was hidden, even if the supercomputer was in pirate territory, a fact that none of them were bothered by, and once the message was done everyone took their positions once more.

Ratchet was filled with renewed energy as he realized that they might be close to obtaining the Dimensionator, the key to saving Rivet from the terrors of her dimension, and he had a feeling that soon everything would be fixed, he just had to be patient and make sure nothing stopped them from claiming the gadget.

Upon reaching the Kreeli Comet, where IRIS was located, the group headed down with their smaller ships, landing on the outskirts of a pirate base, where Autumn discovered that a new weapon, the Pyro Blaster, was available and added it to their collection, before they approached the pirates.

"Oh not you guys again... the Captain won't be happy about this." one of the pirates said, possibly the same one they had talked to back on Ardolis, who went off to tell Slag about their arrival and what they were after, before she sighed as she and the others realized why the group was here, given the massive supercomputer that was housed in the comet, "Just stay here and don't do anything. I'll tell the Captain that you're here."

Ratchet nodded his head as he and his family stood back, allowing the pirates to relax while they waited for Slag to show up, since it looked like they needed his permission to use IRIS, though while they waited everyone thought it was amusing for Qwark to hand over a device that would let them sneak through the area. Autumn then found that there were doors that pirates stopped and danced at, showing their piracy or something like that to make the doors open, causing her to understand what she was seeing and knew that the new gadget would have allowed them to do the same without being detected by their enemies. One thing they all agreed on, however, was that Tachyon knew about IRIS and likely wouldn't show up to attack the pirates to get at the supercomputer they were guarding, but if that was the case, and Angela had to agree with Starswirl and Autumn, it made them wonder what his next target was. They had no way of knowing because he was more of a moron than they originally assumed, especially with Qwark being a well known hero and his legacy of being able to beat villains, even if those were just tales, but they figured that time would tell in due time.

Their thoughts were cut short as they found Slag and his second, Rusty Pete they believed his name was since some of the pirates mentioned him during their conversation, flying in on one of the smaller ships, where Slag took one look at them before beckoning the group onto the ship, which took them towards IRIS' command center.

"It would seem that the artifact, in some way, brought you here." Slag commented, showing them that he was following their exploits as Ratchet and his family made their way across Polaris, to find the Lombax Secret and stop Tachyon from whatever it was that he happened to be planning right now, "Be warned, IRIS is damaged and none of us are capable of fixing her... so either keep the questions simple, or get ready for a long stay since I hear fixing a supercomputer can take a long time to pull off."

"Slag, you wouldn't happen to know where Tachyon's going next, would you?" Ratchet asked, though at the same time he found that they stopped at what appeared to be the entrance of IRIS' command center, something that caused Clank and Autumn to rush forward first, the former likely hoping that the Zoni would come and help them, "He hasn't made a move since we arrived in Polaris and I'm starting to worry that we might have missed something in our haste to find and claim the Dimensionator."

"No, but our forces are gathering for an assault on Jashindu... the Kerchu have annoyed us for the last time." Slag said, all while he filed away the information about the secret's name in his memory, finding it fortunate that Ratchet would let it slip while in the presence of someone who might misuse it if he found it first, but that meant betraying them and he really didn't want them as his enemies.

Ratchet and Angela said nothing to that as the others made sure the area was clear for the smarter members to do their work, Clank heading into the machine as Autumn got to work on everything that was outside, in her range, where it didn't take them long to put IRIS' insides together to the point that it was operational again. As it came online they discovered an interesting fact, the supercomputer had been waiting for them to arrive and called them by their names, revealing that it was smarter than most assumed, before she, as the voice was female, went into a tale about Tachyon being found by the Lombaxes, being raised by them, and betraying them in due time. IRIS also confirmed what Ratchet knew, the device his father carried for some time had been a gun at one point and had been redesigned at some point by another Lombax, all while informing them that existence was divided into infinite dimensions and the Dimensionator opened portals to those worlds, with reckless use causing harm to the barrier between the dimensions. The last thing they discovered was that the device was found by Talwyn's father and was relocated to a safe vault on Jasindu, which happened to be where Slag and his pirates were going, but as IRIS turned off, before Ratchet could ask about himself, his sister, his adopted siblings, or any of the other questions in his head, they learned that Tachyon's forces were making a move on Jasindu.

In that moment Clank informed them that the Zoni told him why they hadn't heard from Talwyn since Rykan V, she and her warbots were in Zordoom, a prison world that none of them would be able to escape from, to which the group made their way outside, the pirates swearing to battle Tachyon's forces and keep him away from the vault, giving them time to save Talwyn before worrying about the Dimensionator... though Ratchet could only hope this was the right path and no harm would come from their new plans.

Tools: Reepor

Following their discovery on Jasindu, the fact that the Dimensionator had been stolen, Ratchet and the others returned to their ship as he called for their army to follow him to Reepor, as Tachyon had moved before their arrival and he had taken out Slag, causing the pirates to rage over the loss of their boss. Autumn was able to confirm that an armada was resting near the planet in question, a good chuck of Tachyon's forces were waiting in the atmosphere, where the Resistance and the pirates agreed to do battle with the ships while the main force headed down to confront the mad Cragmite. Autumn and Starswirl, however, knew that Ratchet was angry, the Dimensionator, a device his father had created and guarded until he lent it to another Lombax, was now in the hands of his race's sworn enemy and there was no telling what Tachyon might do, other than use it to destroy the entirety of his race. Such a thing included his sister, who was wounded from something that happened in her dimension, and that was something he wouldn't stand for, the possibility of their enemy seeking his sister and hurting her more than she already was, though they were fortunate that he had no idea she existed, for now.

They didn't have a lot of time to talk as they reached the space near the planet in question, finding the armada was ready for whoever might be coming, which was where Starswirl gathered his power and loosed a burst of magic, opening a portal to the exterior so he didn't harm the Helios, allowing him to wipe out a warship so they could slip through, leaving the rest of their enemies to their allies.

"Let's get the Dimensionator back." Ratchet stated, speaking as he leapt out of the ship and flew down to the arena that he and the others would be fighting in for an undetermined amount of time, an area that had two cannons that were either older than everything else in Polaris or their aiming sucked, as they couldn't target the Helios.

"At least we know Tachyon hasn't activated it yet, otherwise we wouldn't be able to use magic." Starswirl commented, to which he held a hand out and his energy danced around his fingers for a few seconds, as the Plumber told both him and Autumn that they couldn't use their magic when it was in use or a dimensional crack was nearby, so he was able to see that they were in the clear, for now anyway.

"Well, that's why I've got this, just in case he does activate the weapon." Autumn remarked, where she landed and pulled out the RYNO 4, a more advanced version of the RYNO series that was superior to the RY3NO in every way, though they also knew that she had created a RYNO 5, a RYNO 6, and even a RYNO 7, but those seemed to be under lock and key right now, no doubt figuring that they didn't need them at the moment, before she found that a new weapon, a net launcher called the Mag-Net Launcher, was available and bought some, "Let's get the show on the road."

Ratchet and the others spread out as Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr joined them, allowing Autumn to focus on the enemies that were coming from the middle bridge while everyone else focused on the other two bridges and the entrance of the cannons, since there were a number of commandos stationed in this place. Such a thing confirmed what they had been expecting, Tachyon had brought what seemed like his entire army to Reepor, sacrificing them so he could have the time he needed to figure out how to use the Dimensionator and bring back the Cragmites from where the Lombaxes sent them all those years ago. In fact, as time went by, more and more ships warped into the space above the planet, where it was easy for them to tell that the space defenders might be overwhelmed in no time, as neither the Resistance or the pirates had faced this many before, before things turned their way as ships from Solana and Bogon warped in. Sasha informed them that, upon hearing Qwark's message about the danger that was stirring in Polaris, the heroes of the other galaxies were coming to assist them, as while they knew Ratchet and his family were strong, in many ways, fighting an entire army was unheard of and they were coming to help them out.

After some time Autumn pulled back and yanked both Cronk and Zephyr with her, where she set up a quick station, right in the middle of a battle no less, and rapidly did some upgrades so they could stand up to the might of their enemies and dish out some decent damage as well. When they returned to the battlefield Talywn found that they were moving better than every before and were far more accurate, making her take a moment to wonder just what Autumn had done before deciding against it, as anything that boosted their chances of securing the Dimensionator were okay in her book. That also meant getting used to her new armor and weapons, as Angela and Sasha had insisted on her protecting herself better if she wanted to go on adventures with them, where she blasted one of the commandos from afar and marveled at what Autumn had created, as her weapons were deadly. She guessed, after hearing about the villains they had encountered in the past, and the major ones seemed to be increasingly dangerous for the safety of their universe, that it made sense for her to make even stronger weapons, especially support gadgets that might become weapons in the future.

One such gadget was Mr. Zurkon, a small synthenoid that adored death and destruction, making it a support device that would lay waste to the user's enemies, which fired on some of the commandos without a care in the world and blew itself up when it was out of time, doing some serious damage to Tachyon's forces.

"Yeah... that's why I didn't anger them earlier." Talwyn commented, mostly to herself as she watched the three siblings, as they were the best of the best she noticed, in terms of their group anyway, and she was fortunate she had listened to the message Ratchet had sent to request an audience with her, otherwise she was sure her station would have been utterly wrecked by the group.

As she thought about what was going on, however, she decided that it was time to deal with the cannons and they broke up into three groups, the main one would hold the attention of the commandos while the other two would focus on using a few explosives to break into the buildings and take control of Tachyon's cannons. With them in their possession she was sure they would be able to blast their way through the support beams of the barrier that was resting between them and Tachyon's position, and once that was done they could blast the enemy armada out of the air. If Tachyon was able to use the Dimensionator, and unleashed the Cragmites upon their universe, she figured the assembled alliance would be able to smash the enemy ships out of the way and maybe give Ratchet a chance to grab his father's gadget before it was misused again. If they succeeded in stopping Tachyon from using the device they could throw Tachyon in Zordoom and celebrate a job well done, since most of Polaris would be freed from his cruel tyranny, before moving onto the main event, opening the way to Rivet's dimension and get her out of there, hopefully before more harm came to her.

With that in mind she, Cronk, and Zephyr, joined by Angela and Sasha, broke into the cannon rooms and used them not a few seconds later, allowing them to focus on the commandos as the siblings rushed into the building... only to find Qwark on the ground, with one of Tachyon's walker's legs pinning him down, while the Cragmite in question was wearing the Dimensionator on his head.

"How fitting: the Prince of the Cragmites and the Son of the Dimensionator's Guardian, standing on the very ground that their ancestors fought on." Tachyon stated, speaking after letting out one of his chuckle sessions, showing that he enjoyed what was going on right now as the group faced him, while Ratchet remained silent, as he really didn't care about this foul planet or the fact that it was the Cragmite homeworld, "How do you like my planet, Lombax? It's been dormant for years, thanks to what your kind did to my race.

"Honestly? I don't care. Put down the Dimensionator, Tachyon, and we won't hurt you as much as you deserve." Ratchet replied, his tone showing that he had faith in their abilities, not even taking the magic that Autumn and Starswirl used into consideration, and that he also knew that if they got into a fight he and his family were going to win, as there was nothing Tachyon could throw at them to make them falter.

"You fool! I've waited years for this, ever since I heard of the 'Lombax Secret'... I''m not about to let you have it! It is time for the Cragmite's to rise again!" Tachyon said, where he raised his right hand and pulled a pull device that looked like it was from a toy, as if it would activate the Dimensionator, though when nothing happened Ratchet started to assume that his father put in a failsafe to make sure it could only be used by a Lombax, causing Tachyon to get angry as he pulled it again, though this time the top opened into a spherical device that unleashed dimensional energy into the area, "Lombax, the horrors committed by your race during the Great War are about to be reversed, at long last! Dimensionator, find the Cragmites!"

In that moment things went south as multiple cracks in reality formed before breaking open into wormholes, portals to the dimension that the Cragmites had been sent to, and with the sheer number of them the group had to retreat, though Ratchet used a grapple line to latch onto Quark and pull him out of the arena. From there they regrouped with the rest of the team, where Angela instantly noticed that the Dimensionator was in use and that it wasn't Ratchet using it, before all of them climbed into their ships and blasted off without delay, allowing Tachyon time to see what his actions had brought while they prepared for whatever he had planned next. The Resistance and the pirates backed off as well, though it was more due to the fact that they had wiped out the armada and crippled Tachyon's forces, or would have if he hadn't used the Dimensionator, but right now they were going to regroup at the Ublik Passage, or part of it, to figure out what their foe's next move might be. With the might of the Cragmites, a race that the Lombaxes had to move to ensure the safety of the universe, they knew he would be more dangerous than before and each of them had to be ready for whatever he and his army did next.

Ratchet and Angela, however, knew that once Tachyon proved the might of the Cragmites he was going to go on a march across the dimensions to annihilate the rest of their race, including Rivet, which could damage reality on an unimaginable scale, meaning that once Tachyon made his move they had to secure the Dimensionator, otherwise things were going to go from bad to worse.

Tools: Igliak, Fastoon

Following their arrival at the Ublik Passage the family and their allies received a shocking transmission, the capital of the entire galaxy, that being Meridian City on planet Igliak, was under attack by the Cragmite armada, which Aphelion was able to confirm not a few seconds after the transmission arrived.

"How?" Rusty Pete asked, where he let out a hiccup once more as they stared at the scene that was unfolding on Igliak, an invasion of a race that hadn't been in this universe for a long time, though Autumn wasn't too surprised that Pete had no idea what was going on, since he was drunk and had Slag's head with him, "He should still... hic... be on Reepor."

"It's the Dimensionator. Not only can it open doors to other dimensions, it allows one to move around the dimension that they're already in." Ratchet commented, as he had been thinking about this and already understood it, where he felt it was due to the fact that his father worked on it and was the one left behind with it, at least according to Tachyon, though most of his family understood what he was saying, "Tachyon can move the Cragmite armada wherever he wants, whenever he wants to do... no one is safe while the Dimensionator is in his grasp, and knowing how much he despises the Lombaxes he'll likely attack the other dimensions to find the rest of our kind, once he proves the might of his army."

"We had best get to Meridian City... if we stop the assault we might be able to convince Tachyon that this isn't the right path for him to talk," Autumn said, though as she started to move, so she could get back to the Helios, she paused as she thought about what she had just told the others, who were getting ready to depart for an assault on their enemies, "at least, he should consider such a thing... given that he's an idiot, well, we might have to take him out the hard way."

The others didn't have anything to say as the Resistance leaders agreed on assaulting the Cragmites, while saving the people of the city, so while the family departed first it wasn't long before their allies followed after them, allowing everyone to get to the planet in question, and, as Aphelion landed, they found Tachyon informing the people of Igliak of his conditions, which Ratchet ignored as he climbed out of the ship.

Ratchet, a quarter of the city has already been decimated by Cragmite Drop Ships... now you see why the Lombaxes had to use the Dimensionator to banish them. Aphelion commented, showing that she had scanned the city upon their arrival and had information to share with the family, even if she was speaking to Ratchet, since his father had been her pilot at one point in time, before she was downed on Fastoon.

"Yeah, but they haven't faced heroes like us before." Ratchet remarked, where he and the others quickly stocked up their weapons, making sure they had all the ammunition they needed and upgrades that were available, before waging war on the invaders that were attacking Meridian City, while the Resistance and the pirates attacked the ships.

In the following moments they had their first encounter with the Cragmites, a hideous race that looked like a cross between a reptilian creature and an insect, based on some of their characteristics, plus some of the adult ones seemed capable of using personal warp devices to move short distances to avoid damage. Such a thing didn't stop them from opening fire on all of their enemies, quickly wiping out the first wave of enemies as Autumn used the RYNO 4 on some of the ships in the air, allowing her to cut down on the amount of foes that were in their way, even though there were plenty more for the others to take out. Starswirl, sensing no dimensional energy in the area, weaved his magic and zapped some of his enemies, blasting them into submission so Ratchet and the others could finish them off, while some of his magic blasted them into oblivion, choosing to save those spells for the greater enemies. They also discovered that some of the commandos were mixed into the Cragmite army, survivors of Reepor or more that Tachyon called in after his forces were devastated, no one knew, but it didn't make a difference as the family opened fire on their enemies and heard that Qwark was attacking another part of the city, cutting into the enemy army to prove that he was a hero.

Ratchet found that when the Cragmites had the element of surprise they were a threat, but with the combined forces of his family and Talwyn's group he discovered that their enemies didn't seem to understand what was going on, meaning it must have been some time since they fought anyone. While they fought, however, there were other screens where they learned that Tachyon actually wasn't trying to wipe everyone out, he was tearing down the rest of the Resistance, at least those he hadn't imprisoned so far, and that he wished for the people of Meridian City to stay indoors. Of course they knew it was because he wanted people to rule over and didn't want a dead planet, typical of rulers and tyrants, but Autumn had to admit that it was nice to see that he was interested in keeping certain people safe, so he wasn't a total idiot. Other than that they paid no attention to the screens or their messages as everyone opened fire on the Cragmites or commandos, as it seemed like that was all Tachyon had to throw at them, and while it was interesting to see both forces work together it still meant nothing to Ratchet, his siblings, and their large family.

Eventually they reached a point where Ratchet had to move forward with the Gyro-Cycle, where Autumn called in Aphelion so she and everyone else could follow after him from the air, allowing them to wage war with the drop ships while he used one of his father's devices. Aphelion was happy to wage war on the Cragmites once more, and with experienced gunners she was a force of destruction as they laid waste to the attackers that happened to be in the air, allowing Angela to keep track of where Ratchet was going, just in case he reached an area where some of them could land and join him. Sadly they found that he had to use Clank's new wings for a time as well, navigating his way through the civilian vessels that were in the middle of fleeing from the ongoing invasion, though Sasha monitored the transmissions that Tachyon was sending out to all of Meridian City. She was looking for a message of him retreating, since their alliance was tearing his armada apart, which had to annoy him, meaning he had to withdraw at some point and fight them on a planet that he had an advantage on, or at least that would be the smart thing to do in this situation.

When Ratchet landed by the area Qwark was fighting in, as the path brought him there, they learned that Tachyon had a message for them, he was taking Fastoon so he could ravage whatever was left of the Lombaxes' legacy, to which Ratchet and Clank regrouped with the others before making their way to Fastoon.

It only took them a few minutes to travel from Igliak to Fastoon, though they were joined by their alliance and found that Tachyon had opened more portals to the dimension the Cragmites had been sent to, since he had an army gathering in the area Aphelion had crashed into when she was shot down.

"Let's take him down!" Autumn shouted, where she jumped out of Aphelion, once they were above the section of Fastoon they had landed the escape pod in a lifetime ago, allowing the others to see that she was firing on all of the missiles that were being sent up towards them, opening the way for everyone else to follow her.

As Ratchet landed Aphelion nearby he found that the Resistance waged war with Tachyon's forces in the sky, leaving them to deal with those that were on the ground, though Starswirl was pleased to find that no dimensional energy was in use at the moment, meaning he and Autumn could use magic. There were five cannons pointed up at the air, in an attempt to wipe out all of the enemies that were coming towards Tachyon's position, though if the group was being honest it really didn't matter to them, since they were more than capable of eliminating their enemies with overwhelming firepower. The cannons, on the other hand, were torn apart by Autumn's magic as she dismantled them in no time at all, allowing her to study their power for a time as she formed a few new weapons in her mind, likely for whatever adventures they might discover after this one was over. Starswirl, however, loosed spells at some of his foes and showed them that he had more skills than his weapons, something even Talwyn and her warbots understood as they followed the main group into battle, before they brought down the bridge that would allow them to move forward.

When they crossed it, however, Autumn and Starswirl cancelled their magic as another crack in reality appeared nearby, only this one produced a large robot that looked like the floating torso of someone, a bulky red figure that was a torso, two arms, and a head, and they paused as it took in the surrounding area.

"Location: Unknown. Lifeforms: Unknown." the robot declared, where it was clear that it was going over a checklist of sorts as the crack in reality closed behind it, while Ratchet could tell that the second statement had been made when some of the Cragmites showed up to defend the barriers that the group was heading towards, "Protocol: Destroy!"

What they discovered was that the robotic tank, or whatever it was, could fire off volleys of rockets at the enemies that were in front of it, and when some Cragmites backed off it fired beams of purple energy that tore through it's targets with ease, meaning there was a far more dangerous dimension out there. That thought was due to the Cragmites folding before the robot's might, as when the last one tried to flee the thing propelled itself forward with a powerful jetpack and smashed into the ground near it's target, basing the unfortunate enemy into the wall. While it was distracted Autumn and Starswirl took a moment to gather their magic as they focused on the figure, causing Ratchet and the others to back off for a time, staying in the shadows as it tore through the Cragmites and opened the way forward, in record time no less. When it had nothing to fight, save for them, the pair unleashed their spell and tore the robot apart, rapidly breaking it down into the various pieces that put it together, though Autumn did keep a few sections in one piece, to study them and maybe make some new items in the future.

Ratchet, as they moved forward, had a feeling that the robot came from his sister's dimension, given his actions on Sargasso when he saw the rift between him and Rivet, but for now he had to focus on the Cragmites and that was what he did as he and the others waged war on Tachyon's ground troops.

After that they found that Tachyon tried to intimidate them from his ship, the same one the siblings crashed a lifetime ago on Cobalia, though they ignored him as everyone navigated around the locked door and headed into the court that was on the other side. Sure enough they found more Cragmites waiting for them and opened fire on their foes without delay, finding that their foes tried to hide at times, either afraid of their strength or worried that another robot might attack the area again, but no one was about to complain as they wiped out their enemies. Talwyn and Angela headed over to some of the nearby structures and worked to open the various barricades that were in front of them, allowing the rest of their group to continue the fight, even though they had to pull back on the amount of magic used since Tachyon kept opening portals to the dimension the Cragmites had been sent to. Such a thing told Ratchet all he needed to know, their foe had to be taken down, as while he wasn't seriously hurting the barriers between dimensions, like both most of them had thought about after learning about the Dimensionator, there was no telling how much strain the barriers could take before they started to actively break, so they needed to get the weapon now, before it was too late.

With the combined power that the group possessed Ratchet found that they were able to enter the main building of the court, where Talwyn and most of the others stood outside to make sure none of the Cragmites interrupted what Ratchet was about to do, where he and his siblings walked into the building, knowing that Tachyon was watching from the second floor, waiting for them to catch up with him.

"With their city decimated by my enforcers, your kind took refuge behind these walls. They believed that if they left this dimension I would leave Polaris unscathed... they were wrong." Tachyon said, showing that he had things he wanted to tell them before the final battle started, even though there was a chance that he was going to tempt Ratchet and use take advantage of his desire to find the Lombaxes to destroy his ancient enemy, "Face it, Lombax, your kind were cowards who fled with their tails between their legs! They should have bowed to their Cragmite overlords and prayed that they would be spared, for a time anyway."

"That's rich, coming from the one who launched a sneak attack on Fastoon, instead of facing the Lombaxes head on, like the Cragmites did." Ratchet replied, as he had spent some time studying the information Aphelion allowed him to see and figured out that Tachyon had decided to play dirty to force his race to flee, even though his father knew it was coming at some point in time and managed to get everyone off the planet, as the 'operation' was labeled as 'success'.

"Dimensionator! Find the Lombaxes!" Tachyon shouted, where they watched as a portal tore open in front of Ratchet, all while Talwyn and the others, finding that the coast was clear, rejoined them, in time to see the portal break apart into a large number of breaks, confirming what Ratchet had discovered earlier, "Originally I believed that three stayed behind: your father, the Keeper of the Dimensionator, yourself, and an elder that has eluded me for some time, but I see that it is four, counting your precious girlfriend. I offer the two of you this one chance: join your race in exile, like the cowards you are, or stay and suffer at my hands!"

"See? Even you are terrified of us, to the point you're trying to coax us into leaving... I bet you'd do the same with Autumn and Starswirl, just to secure your rule." Ratchet stated, where he swung his wrench and smashed the crack, which caused the others to slam shut and leave the area bare once more, though in that moment he zeroed in on where Tachyon was standing and blasted him with his rocket launcher, knocking him and his walker to the ground, "I'm not about to leave you with the Dimensionator, a tool that will allow you to come after us once you're good and ready to wipe us out, so let's do this already."

As Tachyon got up he fired thin beams of purple energy from the hands of his walker, though the siblings and Angela, who joined the fight since this was her race's enemy, found that it was easy to avoid the attack and opened fire on him, only to discover that his walker really wasn't designed for battle, it was just a glorified throne for him to rule from. While they did that their foe attempted to get the Dimensionator to work so he could send them into some unknown dimension, or part of this one that no one could survive in, which only caused it to collapse shut on him, much to his annoyance as he beat it and demanded that it work. In the following moment the device opened and created a wormhole nearby that sucked him into it, causing him to screech in annoyance before disappearing, though Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Angela rushed in after him, because with the device in hand he could return with ease. When they passed through the portal between the dimensions, however, they found that they were standing on what appeared to be an asteroid that had one side, theirs to be exact, that was flattened and was large enough to be an arena, and Tachyon was definitely resting nearby.

"What have you done?! You've ruined EVERYTHING!" Tachyon screamed, showing that he thought he was superior to all of them and that he believed that this wasn't the way things should go, at least not for his war against the Lombaxes and the rest of this galaxy.

Ratchet and the others said nothing as they pulled out their Alpha Cannons, the advanced form of the Alpha Disruptor, a fact that caused Tachyon's eyes to widen before they blasted the legs of his walker, causing it to crash to the ground, and as he landed Ratchet rushed up to him to grab the fallen Dimensionator. Not a few seconds later he stuck Tachyon with his wrench, knocking him away from the damaged device, though all it did was cause the Cragmite to declare that only he 'knew their destinies' and that only he 'knew their true names', which they ignored entirely. A few seconds later he tried to rush back to Ratchet, so he could grab the Dimensionator and use it against them, but he failed as the ground around him collapsed and he fell straight down into a wormhole, which meant they had no idea what dimension he would end up in, but it wasn't theirs. With that done Ratchet confirmed that the crash dislodged something inside the Dimensionator, which just so happened to be the washer that the Plumber gave them back on Sargasso, to which he carefully slipped the item inside the device, sealed it up, and placed it on his head as she others grabbed onto him.

"Dimensionator! Take us home!" Ratchet declared, making sure to pull the handle that he had seen Tachyon pull and just stood still for a moment as the ground around them shattered as well, but before anyone could scream a portal opened in the space below them and they landed in the building they had started fighting Tachyon in.

"We did it... we actually did it! We beat the Cragmites and Tachyon!" Angela remarked, as this was a great end to the quest they had been on, they saved all of Polaris, possibly even the entire universe, from the return of the Cragmites, and she was pleased to see that everyone else was happy that they were safe.

"Not quite." Ratchet said, where he marched outside and stared at the atmosphere of Fastoon, finding that there were all sorts of Cragmite ships in the air, and without saying anything Autumn had the Resistance pull out of the fight, confusing their enemies as he gripped the handle once more and pulled it without slowing down at all, "Dimensionator! Send the Cragmites back to the dimension they came from!"

Sure enough a massive crack in reality or wormhole appeared in the space above the Cragmite armada and pulled them back into the dimension they had been banished to all those years ago, all in a matter of seconds, though once that was done they turned towards Ratchet, finding that he had gripped the pulley once more.

"Dimensionator! Find Rivet!" Ratchet stated, as this was it, the moment he had been waiting for since he learned about the artifact he was now using, though this time around, as he pulled the start up portion of the device, nothing happened for a few seconds, causing him to frown as the Dimensionator shrunk back to it's small form, "No... please, you have to work..."

Autumn and Starswirl stopped him before he did anything drastic to the device, which seemed to be broken after what he had done, though with their victory over Tachyon they agreed to return to Talwyn's and see if anything could be done to fix the Dimensionator.

Interlude: Brief Rest

Following Tachyon's defeat, which caused the Resistance to return to Meridian City with glorious news and the pirates to return to Ublik Passage to celebrate in their own way, Ratchet and the others returned to Talwyn's place, along with Qwark and Rusty Pete. From what they were able to figure out the pirates both respected and feared the family that Slag tried to steal from, before he knew who he was dealing with, but none of them wanted to cross them and continued to see Ratchet as their captain, so Rusty Pete, the new 'official' face of the crew, was joining them to figure some things out. Of course the group needed some time to figure out how things worked in Polaris, or if it was identical to what they were used to back in Solana and Bogon, but with Talwyn working with them both Autumn and Starswirl knew it wouldn't be long before Pete had the answers he needed. Qwark, on the other hand, just had a habit of following them and understood they might have yet another adventure in mind once someone figured out how to fix the device they had recovered, so he just had to be patient and see what happened next.

After arriving at their destination Talwyn found that Ratchet and his wives relaxed nearby, even though the main Lombax was focused on what Clank and Autumn were doing, scanning the slumbering Dimensionator, while everyone else was just relaxing and having fun, even if Pete was helping Qwark learn how to speak like a pirate.

"Having fun guys?" Talwyn asked, as Cronk and Zephyr, now in their primes once more thanks to Autumn tinkering on the pair during their fight on Reepor earlier, were imagining how the final battle with Tachyon went down, using makeshift items to represent the main weapons, Ratchet's wrench and the Dimensionator itself.

"Yes! Especially now that Tachyon is gone for good." Cronk replied, while at the same time Zephyr nodded his head, as the pair usually agreed on many things, even if they argued about other things far more than they agreed, but she was happy that they were pleased with this turn of events.

"To be honest, we can't really say 'for good', since we have no idea which dimension he was sent to," Starswirl said, as that was the truth of the matter, because Tachyon could have been banished to the one his people had been sent to, he could have landed in one where he perished immediately, or maybe he ended up in one that would spell doom for everyone, he really had no idea, "but, for the time being, saying that isn't a bad thing... and it certainly puts everyone at ease knowing that the emperor is gone at last."

"If you say so." Talwyn commented, as she was still getting used to the idea of there being other dimensions that none of them were aware of until this point in time, or 'universes' as both Starswirl and Autumn claimed, even though she and the majority of them were going to stick to dimensions, before she focused on the main pair, "So, what's the status report on the Dimensionator?"

"I am afraid that it isn't good. The Dimensionator is in no danger of self-destructing," Clank stated, which was the good bit of the news he and Autumn had to share with the others, causing many to come over and listen to what they were talking about, even though he could tell Ratchet was dreading the news they might give him, "but after using it to return to our dimension, not to mention using it to send the Cragmites back to their new dimension, and taking into consideration the damage it sustained during the battle with Tachyon..."

"Clank... please. Can we use it one more time?" Ratchet asked, as while he didn't want to interrupt Clank, especially since he and Autumn had spend a lot of time with the device his father had made and protected until his disappearance, there was only one thing he wanted to know right now, after seeing everything his sister was going through.

"I'm afraid not... we wouldn't have been able to use it without that washer, and that was only a temporary fix for what we were dealing with," Autumn said, where she could see that Ratchet deflated when he heard her response, as this was the one thing that could help him get to Rivet's dimension and bring her back, before something worse happened to her, and hearing this news only ruined his mood, "but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Clank and I already have plans to tap into Aphelion's archives, in case Kaden stored a copy of the schematics or his notes inside her for safekeeping, and carefully pull it apart to figure out how it works... with his intelligence and my gadget crafting ability, we should be able to figure out a number of things in half a year, and, baring any interruptions, we should be able to restore the device in a year's time."

"You do realize that you guys are usually interrupted around your birthdays, right?" Sasha asked, as while she was glad to hear that there was a chance that they might be able to help Rivet, even if it would take a years worth of hard work and no interruptions, she knew there was no way the universe was about to give them such a break, "I don't want to rain on the mood, not after everything we've been through, but there's a fair chance that the universe will throw something at us to stop the Dimensionator from being fixed... and this time I'm hoping to be wrong."

As Ratchet opened his mouth, so he could ask the pair what they needed to repair the Dimensionator, a vortex of energy tore open above them, causing him to hope, against all odds, that his recklessness on Sargasso was about to bear fruit, all to find small creatures that floated through the air, though as they approached Clank he found that Starswirl stepped up to make sure Autumn and the Dimensionator were away from the newcomers.

"Greetings, Sire. We are pleased that you survived the confrontation with Tachyon." one of the creatures said, where Ratchet was sure they possessed some sort of energy that was contained in their small frames, though they circled around Clank as one glanced at Starswirl, as if worried that one of his siblings might interrupt what was going on, "Now it is time for you to come home."

"No way... the Zoni!" Talwyn commented, as she had seen illustrations of them in some of her father's notes and knew the beings with a quick glance, what what was more interesting was the fact that they were interested in Clank, someone who was born in the Solana Galaxy, based on what she knew of the group.

As the Zoni surrounded Clank with their energy, lifting him into the air while informing him that it was time to learn of his origins and his true purpose, Starswirl latched onto them with his magic, showing that he wasn't about to let them take one of his friends, but before the others could do anything the Zoni energy surged down to him, surrounded him, and suddenly he and Clank disappeared with the Zoni.

"Okay... what just happened?" Nika asked, though that was becoming the norm for them, strange things were happening to Ratchet and his siblings, but now the family was fractured more than before, as Ratchet's twin sister was lost in one of the other dimensions and now Starswirl had been kidnapped by the Zoni.

"I don't know, but we'll find out soon enough." Ratchet said, where he found that Autumn stored the Dimensionator away in a magical storage space, as without Clank it would take her far too long to figure things out, while the others were getting ready to help him figure out where his friend and his brother had been taken.

He really had no idea what the Zoni wanted with Clank, or why they decided to take Starswirl with them, but he knew that, in due time, he, Autumn, and the others would figure out what was going on and set things right, they just had to track down the Zoni first and he had a feeling that it would take some time before they were able to do that.

Time: Clock, Quantos

Clank had no idea how much time had passed since the Zoni appeared in Talwyn's station and abducted him, but he did find that he was drifting in and out of consciousness, never for enough time to do anything or learn anything about what was going on right now, even if one of his scanners indicated three people were nearby.

"Sir, the Zoni are inquiring about our progress." a voice said, where Clank determined that it was Lawrence's, the butler that worked for Nefarious, meaning he was currently in the hands of one of the greatest villains the universe had ever seen, a foe far smarter than Tachyon as Autumn would say.

"It'll be the same answer as before: you're trying and not making progress." another voice said, one that Clank knew was Starswirl's, which was interesting since he assumed that if the Zoni had taken Ratchet's brother he would have been freed by this point in time.

"The annoying part is that he's right... I'm running out of ideas to try." a third voice stated, confirming that Nefarious was nearby and was likely working on his body for some reason, though the odd thing was that the doctor was calm and not in his usual rage, like his defeat had humbled him.

"Sire does not remember. You must fix!" a new voice said, where Clank's sensors informed him that three Zoni appeared in the area that they were in, likely whatever domain that the energy beings came from, and it seemed like they were bossing Nefarious around.

"I know that! I'm trying to 'fix' him." Nefarious replied, where it sounded like they had been through this several times since Clank's arrival in this place, before he heard that something was starting a scan of his sisterboard, likely whatever device he was trapped in, "Let's see... his favorite color is green... his favorite number is eighty-three billion and four point seven..."

In that moment whatever Nefarious was trying to do failed as Clank's neural safeguards were activated, causing the doctor to groan as he realized that something inside Clank was resisting his efforts to do what the Zoni wanted him to do, all while the Zoni were oddly silent.

"That was the last possible combination I could try... his safeguards to prevent outside tampering, be it the beneficial type or the hazardous type, are annoying." Nefarious commented, once more making Clank wonder how long he had been like this, how long he had been separated from Ratchet and the others, even if Starswirl was nearby, before he paused as a new idea came to him, "Fine. If I can't fix him, then we'll do things the hard way. Lawrence, wake Clank up."

As Lawrence informed his boss that it would be as he commanded Clank found himself being pulled out of whatever state he had been trapped in, where he quickly discovered that he was in a chamber that was more advanced than anything else he and his friends had seen over the years.

"Clank, it is wonderful to see you again. Did you have a pleasant nap?" Nefarious asked, where Clank found that the doctor had upgraded his body, as while the design was the same, and it had the same blue coloration, it seemed more advanced than what he and the others were used to.

"I am uncertain, given that I was abducted, have no idea how long I was out, and woke up with you nearby." Clank replied, as all of that would have caused him to go on the offensive immediately, given what he knew of Nefarious, and the only reason he refrained from doing anything was because Starswirl hadn't knocked the robot out yet, "Tell me, what sort of evil plan do you have in mind this time?"

"Nothing. Oh, don't give me that look, I know you and your family well enough to know that you'd come running if I messed with the people of Polaris, so I didn't." Nefarious stated, something that Clank sincerely doubted, even if Starswirl was off to his right, but the logic was sound when he thought about it, Ratchet and the others would have flown into this part of Polaris if they knew Nefarious or another villain was here, before the chamber shuttered, "Not again! Stupid dimensional energy, causing chaos on the Great Clock."

As Nefarious headed outside the chamber Clank followed and found out what he meant by 'Great Clock', as they were in a massive space station that looked like it was made to resemble the insides of a clock, before a crack in reality broke open and a device using sonic weaponry burst through, causing great damage to the station.

"What is that thing?" Starswirl asked, where he and the others watched as it terrorized the Zoni, some drifting off into the depths of the section of Polaris they were in, while also telling Clank that this was the first time he had seen the machine in question, and even Nefarious was surprised.

"The Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler... a sonic weapon I once considered making, but then scrapped when I found that it could cause serious damage to the Great Clock." Nefarious remarked, where he was definitely annoyed by what he and the others were seeing right now, where Clank determined that he was telling the truth, he had been thinking of making a new weapon and then cancelled it when he figured out how much harm it could do, "Since it came from another dimension... or maybe another timeline, hard to tell given where we are... I would hazard the me that made it was planning on betraying the Zoni at some point. Great, how Lawrence and I are going to have to deal with this and make sure this is the only crack in the barriers between dimensions... our allies aren't going to be happy... Clank, you and Starswirl should find Sigmund and get to know the station, as I have a feeling this is fate's way of telling me that only you can fix yourself."

Clank really had no idea what was going on, he was totally lost, and when Starswirl informed him that he had been in that container for a year he had to wonder what Ratchet and Autumn were up to, since the family had to be worried after what happened to him and Starswirl following Tachyon's defeat.

Ratchet sighed as he took stock of their situation, because Clank had been abducted by the Zoni, he and Autumn spent a long time hunting down leads before using an artifact that pointed them towards the lawless section of Polaris, and now he, Autumn, and Qwark were stranded on a planet after a surge of energy knocked Aphelion out, causing them to crash in the process, even if Aphelion was trapped in a pillar of energy.

"So, what's the situation?" Ratchet asked, though he knew sending a distress call wouldn't work since Aphelion was offline right now, making him wonder if he was ever going to see Starswirl or Clank ever again, since they landed on a planet that looked like it had no modern technology.

"We can't do anything about Aphelion... that stream of time energy is keeping her safe, and unless we find something that allows us to direct it we'll simply destroy her." Autumn replied, as she had spent a while studying the energy and found that it was temporal in nature, though something had caused it to act so strangely, "I'm sure Starswirl would have come up with some sort of way to explain all of this, he was the most magically intelligent one out of the two of us, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't change anything... either we find another ship and come back for Aphelion when we learn more about this energy, find a way to control the energy, or get used to living here."

"Personally, I prefer the first two." Qwark said, as he came with them because he felt that they might need some help, not to mention potential emotional support since Clank and Starswirl had been taken, so he had a blaster primed and ready for whatever the future could throw at them.

Ratchet sighed as he picked up his wrench and followed Qwark as they started to explore the planet they had crashed on, as there was nothing they could do for Aphelion right now, where he noticed a few temples that looked like they were well maintained, meaning some sort of species had to be living on this forest planet. This time they had a new weapon to try out, a pistol that, according to Autumn, could be customized a little once they found the components to do so, and there were two others in the Constructo line, a bomb and a shotgun, and the pistol proved to be great against the small purple critters that tried to bite them. When they reached a long river, with no good way to cross without getting swept up in the water, Ratchet and Autumn found that Qwark, apparently, couldn't swim, causing them to sigh as they found some stones to carefully jump over to reach the other side. It was then that they found a Bolt Crank and that it was attached to a bridge that could be raised in the water, giving their friend a path to walk on so he could catch up with them, all while Autumn knew that someone definitely lived on the planet with the limited technology they had discovered so far.

Qwark decided to smash through a wall to make a path forward, allowing them to see that time seemed to be broken in some manner, at least in the area they were entering, allowing Ratchet and Autumn to make their way to a higher point to jump over another wall, not that it mattered since Qwark smashed through it with a fungus monster chasing him.

While they took care of business Autumn made an interesting comment, their last adventure dealt with dimensions, one could almost call it space in some manner, while this one seemed to be dealing with time itself, like how Tachyon said that he was the 'Conqueror of Space and Time'. Ratchet had to agree that it was interesting, though as he dealt with another bridge, to help Qwark across yet another bridge, Autumn found a Vendor and purchased the Constructo Bomb, giving the two of them another weapon to use against their enemies. Once their friend caught up with them Qwark smashed down another door and they were able to use the new weapon to quickly wipe out the smaller fungus creatures, where Ratchet had to wonder how much power Autumn packed into the explosives when she made them. After that they found a female creature, a Fongoid she called herself, who was in trouble, her children were missing and Qwark decided to protect her as Ratchet and Autumn explored the surrounding area, using their weapons on more fungus creatures while keeping an eye out for the missing children.

Two of them were easy to find, as they were being attacked by Zyphoids, the fungus virus creatures, though the third was trapped in a broken area that was being repaired and destroyed again by a time loop, not that it mattered since Ratchet was able to save him in due time.

After that they found their way to a door and found that the female Fongoid had to lower the wall, allowing her to speak to her husband about what was going on, especially by mentioning someone called Orvus and the 'Time Keeper', but the pair was more than willing to escort the group back to their village. Sure enough they found an army of Zyphoids that were in the middle of trying to break down all of the stone walls that surrounded the Fongoid village, where the siblings fired on their enemies without delay, as it would put them in good graces with the natives. Qwark asked why Autumn wasn't using her magic and she informed him that, after the events with Tachyon, she had become more in tune with the energy that came from the Dimensionator, as cracks were still appearing and she wasn't about to take a chance. Of course Starswirl, on the other hand, might be able to figure out a safe way to use magic without doing damage to reality, like the Plumber said when they tried to help Ratchet back on Sargasso, but for now she was focused on tracking him down so they could pull the family together.

The villagers were more than happy to have newcomers visit their home, where Ratchet and Autumn found their way to a temple that should have something that would help Aphelion, with Qwark taking a moment to stare at a statue of the hero of the race as Autumn claimed a new weapon, the Sonic Eruptor, before the Elder turned towards them.

Apparently he wanted to know if they could keep a secret, where the siblings confirmed that they could and Qwark was up in the air, but he had been rather good in the hunt for the Dimensionator so he could be trusted, this time around, where the Elder informed them that there was a vessel that would help them repair their ship. Of course only one of them could go inside and Autumn did it this time around, where Ratchet and Qwark stepped on two of the three pads, with the Elder on the third, to open the door for her, as the moment it was down she headed inside and started the deathcourse, since it seemed to be what she was dealing with. What she discovered was that it happened to be flaming lasers and a couple of gears with flames moving on top of them, nothing too exciting, though she did learn from Ratchet that the vessel allowed one to capture Zoni and harness their bioenergy, one of the most powerful sources of energy in the omniverse, or at least Orvus claimed it was that way. She had no idea who this 'Orvus' was, but Autumn figured that he might be someone who watched over the Zoni, meaning that they might have an encounter with him at some point during their journey to find Clank and Starswirl, though it wasn't long before she found the circular vessel and used her magic to capture the pair of Zoni that happened to be nearby.

When she returned to the others, however, they emerged from the temple to find that a warship was attacking the village, with robotic enemies that reminded them of the Tyhrranoids, making Autumn wonder if Nefarious might show himself in the near future, before a slim being teleported down to them, who looked like a commander.

"Azimuth!" a voice said, which came from the figure in question, who ignored Qwark entirely and stared at Ratchet, which reminded them of what they learned during their previous adventure, all while his hands were behind his back, showing them that he wasn't too afraid of them, "Were we not clear as to what the repercussions would be if you left your hovel? The Clock is..."

"Sorry, but you aren't intimidating anyone." Ratchet replied, though at the same time he altered his stance and revealed a weapon that the figure, Vorselon as the Elder had called him when he noticed the oddly shaped warship, hadn't seen, as it was the last variation of the RYNO, though the trick was that it was empty, not that he knew it, "Now then, whose Azimuth? What's this 'clock'? Oh, and who are you working for?"

All Vorselon said was that he 'wasn't Azimuth' before teleporting back to his ship, along with a number of villagers, which caused the siblings to move forward as they followed the Elder, only to find that Qwark had been captured as well in his attempt to stem the tide. Such a thing worked in their favor, as Ratchet could link their nav units and follow Qwark to the area that Vorselon would be stopping in, since he had to go somewhere after attacking this planet, which Autumn agreed with when she heard what he had to say. Even with two of them it took them no time to clear out the village of enemies, all sorts of robots that were different from what they were used to while reminding the pair of the Tyhrranoids, before the two found another Zoni as the Elder lead them to a teleport pad, one that connected to an ancient one outside the village, near the area they had crashed in. Once they were ready to go Autumn raised the vessel and they watched as the Zoni did their work, weaving temporal energy over Aphelion as her color turned blue, Zoni blue Ratchet guessed, and with her back online they could leave the planet, as it looked like they might have a lead as to where Clank might be located.

Once they were sure Aphelion was fine, and she confirmed it, Ratchet and Autumn climbed in before telling the Elder that they would free his people from Vorselon's worship, who nodded as they blasted off, as it was time to truly start another adventure and see who the grand villain they'd be taking down this time around would be.

Time: Warship, Clock

As they departed from Quantos, confirming that Aphelion was flying well and true, in fact Ratchet was sure she was even better than before thanks to the bioenergy of the Zoni, Ratchet contacted Qwark while Autumn stared off into space, as she was keeping an eye on the warship that was leaving the planet behind.

"Qwark, do you read me?" Ratchet asked, though at the same time it was almost unnecessary, as he could see that the link had been made and they were getting information from Qwark's nav unit, building a map of the warship so he and Autumn could find their way through it.

"I read you Ratchet. They've got us caged up in these containment cells, unlike any I have seen before, and they don't give out food, only tap water and terrible pills for substance." Qwark replied, where it sounded like he was depressed over the food situation, though they knew it was an act in case there were any guards listening in on whatever he might say, "Don't worry, I made sure to activate the unit before Vorselon's men captured us."

"Good, then sit tight and we'll be there soon." Autumn said, where they cut the connection off, letting Qwark know that they were on their way, though at the same time she found that enemies were coming out of the warship, something both her brother and Aphelion noticed, "Good, Vorselon knows he's being followed... he's clearly smarter than Tachyon."

"You're never going to stop mentioning that, are you?" Ratchet inquired, though he had a smile on his face, as the mad Emperor of Polaris really got on his sister's nerves and it was easy to tell that she was never going to stop mentioning it, or maybe she'd do so once enough time had passed, and the look she gave him told Ratchet that it was more of the 'never' category.

With that conversation done he turned his focus on the approaching enemies and blasted them with Aphelion's guns, as he would have done had they not crashed into Quantos, only to find that they were stronger than he originally thought and that they were able to cut through Vorselon's defenders. Once he was done with them he found that he could land on one of the wings of the warship, near some outer engines, which he did so without delay and made sure that both he and Autumn had their O2 Masks on before he popped the lid. A few moments later they started to make their way towards an entrance of Vorselon's ship, an airlock for maintenance no doubt, though Ratchet revealed an alteration to his wrench, as when he swung his wrench in a specific manner, with a certain grip strength, he sent out the head and it connected to all sorts of items, allowing him to pull down walkways and tear off power modules. Autumn had to admit that it was a worthy addition to his melee weapon, allowing him to do things whenever his siblings weren't with him, and it allowed them to get to the airlock in no time at all so he could tear it open and marched inside, surprising some of the smaller robots that had to be on guard duty.

What was interesting was that the passage to the elevator had a number of lasers they had to avoid, making them wonder if Vorselon was responsible for destroying his own troops from time to time, though it was easy to get around and Autumn took out the robot in the elevator, before it could react. As they entered the elevator a voice asked them which floor the pair wanted to go to and Ratchet informed it that they wanted the detention wing, where it actually complied with his statement before closing the door, allowing them to move deeper into Vorselon's ship. Autumn resisted the urge to moan, as even the ship's computer was stupid, as it should have known that they were intruders and that it would be best to drop them off in an area near a large number of enemies, but she said nothing as the elevator came to a stop and they stepped out to see what else stood between them and their destination. It wasn't long before they found a magnetic surface that connected to the door to the next portion of the warship, where Ratchet blasted the nearby robot as he and Autumn walked up it, even if he also had to use his wrench addition to pull apart some modules to let them move forward.

When they entered a cargo area, however, Autumn found a Vendor and discovered that the Mr. Zurkon gadget was now a full blown weapon, causing her to grin as she and Ratchet deployed them, allowing them to go to war with the enemies that were in the large chamber. She found that they were the same as before, the Zurkons loved to cause pain and misery to all those who were enemies of those who deployed them, killing everything that dared to attack the siblings, which caused her to smile, as they were one of her more interesting inventions and it was nice to see that no one had tampered with them over the last year. Together the four of them wiped out the enemies in the cargo hold and moved forward once more, but they did stop when Autumn found a piece of the RYNO V holo-plan, making her wonder how in the world a piece of it ended up on an enemy warship, though she collected it without wasting time and opened fire on the robots coming at them, as by now Vorselon knew they were here. Eventually they reached what looked like a single cell containment area, for priority prisoners no doubt, though the siblings wasted no time in firing on the enemies that were here, opening the way for them to use a magnetic walkway to reach so fuel modules, which Ratchet pulled apart so they could move into a hallway with more lasers to avoid.

Autumn's opinion of Vorselon decreased as she heard that he was more annoyed that someone tapped over the show he was interested in last night, meaning it was a new episode, and he told them that the one response should use an airlock as punishment, meaning he had no regards for his troopers, before they finally reached Qwark's cell.

Qwark, of course, was happy to see them and waited for Ratchet to bring down the laser wall so they could leave their cells, as one of the children and an elder were trapped with him, before he busted down a nearby door and the siblings fired on all the enemies that were coming at them. Neither of them were even remotely worried by Qwark's actions, in fact both of them had been planning on going wild once they saved everyone who had been captured, though this meant that they had to do things differently than they originally planned. Qwark joined in on the fun as he fired on some of the robots that were in their way, though for the most part he was protecting the innocents that had been kidnapped with him, as he knew that Ratchet and Autumn didn't need assistance, especially since both of them were tearing through their foes with a familiar ease they were used to having. Eventually they reached what appeared to be an escape shuttle area, which also had the rest of the kidnapped Fongoids, where Ratchet and Autumn wiped out the guards before opening the cells, all in a matter of moments, allowing Qwark to board the vessel with the Fongoids as Ratchet turned a Bolt Crank, which lead to the ship flying out of the warship.

With that taken care of the siblings continued their assault on Vorselon's warship as they started to leave, finding that the way back was different from what they used to enter the ship in the first place, meaning Vorselon changed things on them at some point, before they entered what looked like an arena and found the figure waiting for them.

"I don't know who you are, Lombax, but you've caused enough problems already. Prepare to be killed by... wait for it... Lord Vorselon!" the figure stated, showing them that he thought himself higher than what he was, as he was just one of the mercenaries Talwyn had told them about before they came to the lawless section of the galaxy.

"Like we said, you aren't intimidating." Autumn remarked, where Ratchet used the opening provided to smash the side of the headpiece that Vorselon's head was contained in, hard enough to break it off the body which actually served as armor as well, though it collapsed after losing the main control center, "Come on, let's get out of here."

Ratchet nodded as they made their way back to Aphelion, where they got a message from Qwark that Azimuth lived on a planet named Torren IV, in the Vela Sector, and he was kind enough to provide the coordinates, so as they left the warship the siblings flew off to their next destination, hoping to get some real answers at long last.

Clank quickly discovered the one named Sigmund, a red robot who looked like he might have been a janitor and floated with some assistance, after he floated out of a broom closet, containing a few items that looked like they were designed to fix up parts of the station they were on.

"Greetings sir, I am Sigma 0426A, but you can call me Sigmund." the robot said, confirming that he was, in fact, the one that Clank and Starswirl were looking for, where Clank found that he also had a screen attached to a ring around him, and a flower pot for some reason, so it was easy to assume the mini computer was linked to the station's systems, "I'm the Junior Caretaker here at the Great Clock."

"Forgive my ignorance, but what is the 'Great Clock'?" Clank asked, as that was the part he was worried about, especially given what happened during the adventure to defeat Tachyon, though he found that Sigmund had an alarm in the form of a small metallic bird that emerged from his chest, like an old fashioned clock.

"A technical marvel that was designed to maintain temporal normality to the universe... it keeps time stable, while also having facilities to combat corruption to the timeline." Starswirl replied, though at the same time he and Sigmund lead the way out to the area that Nefarious had stopped them at before he and Lawrence had to leave, allowing Clank to stare out at the rest of the station, "It's also constructed in the exact center of the universe... give or take fifty feet... but due to the power it commands it is kept a secret from nearly everyone, as villains would come here in an attempt to change the falls they suffered over the years. I assumed Nefarious was after the same thing, given what we know of him, but it seems that he's turned away from his villainous past and has taken on the role of the Clock's guardian, while trying to fix you like the Zoni asked him to do."

Clank considered that information as he launched himself over to another platform, where he found that some damage was being done to the facility by the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, a device from another dimension that had an evil version of Nefarious in it, though he wasn't too sure he trusted their Nefarious either. Sigmund, of course, was annoyed by the destructive robot's existence and hoped that they destroyed it at some point in time, even though Starswirl wasn't using his magic, no doubt determining that a dimensional rift or tear was nearby. There was also the fact that the systems were designed for 'Senior Personal' and Sigmund, being a Junior based on what he said, as some doors refused to open for him but, if Clank stepped up, they would open like magic, meaning that he was tied to the Great Clock in some way, as if he had been partly created here before being shipped to Solana. After that they reached a chamber that had two really odd buttons on the floor, one blue and one green, where Sigmund explained that, during his year of slumber, their ally had installed some software that would allow Clank to be more in tune with the Great Clock and do things that he, Orvus, and the Zoni could do.

What that was, as he found out, was that they could use the platforms to record their movements, so while a time copy did one thing the original did another thing, so in this instance he could open the door with one copy and then use his main body to pass through the now opened door.

"This quantum actuator will come in handy." Clank commented, as the ability to make multiple selves was great and would allow him to navigate the puzzles that might be scattered throughout the Great Clock, though as he did that he found that Starswirl did the same thing, only his copies were more like him and weren't colored like the platforms, in fact he didn't use either platform at all.

"Yeah, he's been learning how to manipulate time while he's been here, and his skill is far above mine... in fact, he might be second to Orvus himself, maybe third counting you." Sigmund said, as he understood Clank's surprise, because he had experienced the same thing when he discovered what Starswirl could do, all while this revealed that he could use magic, in small fragments that didn't seem like he was even using magic.

The next chamber had something interesting, Clank found that he had to write over one of his selves to move forward, as he had to trap one in a chamber to open the door, where he did the calculations in his head and acted on them without to much delay, impressing Sigmund in the process. Such a thing made him wonder what in the world was going on, due to the fact that this was his first time doing this, before determining that it was to boost his morale or something, though he decided not to worry about it too much as he focused on solving the puzzle. As soon as he was finished he kept moving, as there was no reason for him to stop as he explored the rest of the Great Clock, especially since Clank knew Starswirl had no need for assistance and would overcome the obstacle in no time at all, allowing him to focus on his tasks. The chamber beyond that, after using a pad to get to the next building, held what was called a mnemonic station, where Sigmund told him something interesting, it would allow him to delve into his own mind and tap into lessons left there by Orvus, for the day when he returned to Polaris and the Zoni called him back to the Great Clock.

As Clank climbed into the station, which involved him closing his eyes and letting himself float up into the device, Starswirl weaved a bit of magic around the chamber and Sigmund watched as everything that had been broken since the rift had brought out the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler fixed itself in no time.

They discovered that it wasn't long before Clank emerged from the station and approached them, where Sigmund opened the second door and revealed a scepter that radiated temporal energy, where Starswirl found that it contained the energy and only used it in accordance to the user's will. As the group exited the building they discovered some small critters that Sigmund claimed could eat quantum energy, so if one used their time copies near such foul creatures they had to be a tad bit careful, because if one was eaten it would break that recording and have to be remade. Clank stepped up and swung his arm as he released a sphere of temporal energy, trapping the critters in the dome it created and slowed them down, a fact that made it easier for him to clean up the surrounding area, especially with some flying critters that looked like some of the leviathans the siblings faced during their last adventure. As he did that, however, Clank found Starswirl walking up to him, the air around him shuddering as he drew his staff, though the reason for that was because he noticed that there was a sphere floating above the peak and it had a ring of magical runes floating around it, a sphere that contained both fragments of temporal and dimensional energy.

Such a thing allowed him to deal with a group of flyers that attacked him, wiping them out in mere seconds, making Clank wonder just how much training Starswirl had done to become stronger than he remembered, before deciding to continue his exploration and clean up of the station.

From there Clank found a few more puzzles to do, testing his ability to use the quantum actuator and his time copies, all while finding that they were quite fun to do, as if someone had made work fun for some reason, where he suspected that Sigmund might be responsible, since he was the only one here besides Orvus. Of course he considered the Zoni to be like workers in a hive, while Nefarious and Lawrence were outsiders who didn't have much authority, so Sigmund was the only one who could be responsible for such a thing, unless Orvus did this before taking on a trainee. On the other side of what had to be the last puzzle, for this portion of the station, they found an open arena that the Scrambler landed on, where Clank jumped down into the arena and did battle with it before it could do more harm to the Great Clock. Starswirl, on the other hand, simply stood back as he channeled his power into wiping out anything that dared to attack him or Sigmund, as some came at them while Clank was distracted, all without moving from his post.

It wasn't long before Clank smashed the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler to pieces, mentioning that the robot had been scrambled, causing him to chuckle as Sigmund applauded his efforts, while Starswirl agreed with him, causing the three of them to head into the next section of the station to see what else needed to be fixed.

Time: Torren IV

It took awhile for Aphelion to reach the Vela Sector, though as they arrived at their destination she picked up another ship signature and found that it was the Helios, allowing Ratchet to dock with the starship and give them a chance to stretch their legs after spending so long sitting down, only to find that Angela was present.

"Sasha and Nika are busy tending to the rest of Polaris, helping Talwyn set up the new Defense Force," Angela explained, as she could see that the others were surprised that it was only her, though since she had been with Ratchet the longest, of the three girls, soon to be four after how Talwyn acted not that long ago, she decided to come help them out, "Do we have any leads as to where Clank might be being held?"

"From our enemies? No, none of them have mentioned Clank." Ratchet replied, though at the same time Autumn quickly outfitted Angela with the new weapons that they were carrying into battle, that way she could be ready for whatever they might find on Torren IV, before he recalled what Qwark was able to figure out from the Fongoids, "However Qwark has been talking to some Fongoids, a race we helped after crashing on Quantos... I'll tell you what happened later... and we've found out that there is a rebel by the name of 'Alister Azimuth' somewhere on Torren IV."

"Alister Azimuth? I vaguely remember a Lombax by that name... could it be the same one?" Angela commented, as that was something she wasn't expecting to discover when she decided to join the pair in their quest to recover Clank and Starswirl from the Zoni, even though she was impressed by the changes that had overtaken Aphelion.

"Tachyon said there was another, back before we defeated him and took the Dimensionator, so I would assume that they are one and the same." Autumn stated, though she was interested in meeting the other Lombax that had been left in this dimension, since it made three, not counting Kaden who was the fourth, who hadn't been displaced by Tachyon's attack on Fastoon all those years ago.

Angela said nothing to that as they climbed into Aphelion and headed outside, where Ratchet flew over to Torren IV with all the haste he could muster, though as he did that the others found that the planet in question appeared to be more of a junk planet, which interested them each to some degree. Once he landed he, Autumn, and Angela carefully explored the area they had landed in, all while Qwark informed them that Alister was said to live in the ruins of Volgram Pass, meaning Ratchet and the others would have to ask the locals to figure out where they needed to go. For right now Ratchet used his new wrench addition to move some devices for them to move forward, allowing the three of them to reach an upper area that was right above where Ratchet landed, which also gave everyone a chance to see that there was a large valley nearby, no doubt carved into the planet a long time ago. Standing near a device that would propel them forwards was a new alien race that wore red metallic attire and seemed to have cylindrical containers on their backs, or their shoulders to weigh all of their species down, which was filled with metallic junk, meaning he likely collected it for some odd reason.

The creature, a Vullard as he called his species, welcomed them to Molonoth and asked what they were doing here, which ended with him being surprised when Angela said they were looking for Volgram Pass, where to gain entry they would have to speak to the Guardian, and they also learned that Vorselon had been the greatest Terraklon assassin before he lost his body on Zaurik.

With that done they thanked him for the information before using the device to propel themselves over the area that they had landed in, where Autumn found a couple of junk robots pulling themselves out of the rubble to attack them, likely a defense mechanism for outsiders. Such a thing didn't stop the trio from blasting their way through their enemies with no real effort required, though before moving even further along their path Autumn noted that time also seemed broken in part of the area that they had landed in, but it didn't seem as important as what happened on Quantos. With that in mind they continued along the path in front of them and just opened fire on their enemies without delay, showing the Vullards that they were more than capable of handling anything that was thrown at them, all without Autumn using magic, but so far it looked like the Guardian was absent. As they reached a large tube, likely fallen from a massive mech of some kind in the past, Angela spotted what looked like a ramp, one that someone needed a special item to use, though she decided to ignore it for now as she and the others dealt with the enemies that were in front of them.

After that the trio found their way to a platform where a mechanical head activated and chatted with them, where they learned that Volgram Pass existed beyond the Hollow, the massive walled city that they were approaching with every step, but they would have to find the entrance themselves, which they were fine with. In addition to that Qwark informed them that he learned of a race of brutal warriors called the Agorians and that they hated Vorselon, along with Nefarious, which just confirmed that he was part of this madness, somehow, before revealing that he was going to talk to them, meaning they would have to bail him out of danger at some point. After learning that Autumn found a Zoni floating near the area that she and the others would have to move through next, where she quickly made sure the dimensions were stable, since there was no telling when something would happen, before expanding her magic to catch it and charge a spell that would call forth all lost Zoni, since she had a feeling they'd bring them home at some point in the future. With that done, and she confirmed that her spell was done, the group continued to move through the area, before finding a grind rail that seemed to wrap all around the area that they had just moved through and they used it without delay, only to discover it was shorter than they thought and that it launched them into the Guardian's mouth.

As it turned out the head was just a prop, used by a Vullard to keep their operation out of the eyes of the galactic authorities, before he lead them right up to the passage he used to enter and leave the Hollow, only to find a battery bot that wasn't in it's socket, so Ratchet grabbed it with his wrench before sending it back to it's home... but as the door opened they found a state of panic on the other side, battery bots rebelling against the Vullards.

Apparently this was a 'Code 11-13', meaning they had plans in case such a thing happened, and the Vullard told them that the way to Volgram Pass was now blocked, at least until the systems came online, and apologized for their bad luck, but as he started to leave Autumn asked how many systems were broken, discovering there were three. It was a coincidence for the group, to which they split up and tackled the three sections that were available to them, where Autumn and Angela just headed to the right and found two battery bots, one for a socket nearby and one for across the way. Angela caught the first battery bot and socketed it without delay, before carefully avoiding the compactors that were in her path so she could catch and socket another one, though as she did that Autumn avoided some saws as she carefully sent the battery bots back into their homes. While they did that Ratchet jumped up a few platforms, avoiding the bursts of fire that came out of them, and found that all he had to do was lower a jump pad so he could propel himself into the air and send a battery bot back into it's socket, which he did without delay.

Once all three of them were done the Vullards cheered as the Hollow returned to normal, giving them a chance to regroup as Autumn checked out the Vendor, discovering that a new weapon, the Dynamo of Doom, was available, which allowed the user to deploy a controllable orb that fired lightning at their foes. After purchasing the weapon, and making sure everyone had one in hand for later, they followed the path that lead to the center of the Hollow and found that they had to avoid the couple of compactors in their way before finding a launch pad that sent them to the upper reaches of the Vullard's odd base of operations. Sure enough they found a few more of the junk robots blocking the way forward and the group decided to use the Dynamo on them, finding that three circling their foes was more than enough to wipe them out, allowing Ratchet to walk over to a conveyor belt and used it to leave the Hollow, with Autumn and Angela following after him. As far as they could tell the only things that seemed to be outside this side of the large settlement was a wrecked giant, another one that was much like the talking head, before he stepped through an opening and stopped when he discovered something he had been expecting to see, but was unprepared for it.

Standing on the edge of a balcony, around the robot's head, was a male Lombax who was older than Ratchet, who had light gray fur with red-brown stripes, wearing some armor that had to be from before the attack on Fastoon, as it was different from what they had seen over the years, and he had a wrench that doubled as a staff while having two heads.

"Alister! We need to talk with you." Ratchet said, raising his voice so the figure could hear that he had guests, though he and Angela were overjoyed, as before Tachyon's arrival they had believed that they were the only Lombaxes in their universe, with Rivet in another one based on the Plumber's words, but discovering Aphelion allowed them to understand something important and now, against all odds, they had found another survivor.

In that moment Alister zeroed in on them and seemed upset about something, where he pulled out a device that he threw at them, which expanded into an explosive, though Autumn raised a shield around them to cancel it out before using more of her magic to yank the Lombax out of the air and pin him nearby.

"Wretched assassins, you'll have to do more... than... that... Kaden?! No, you... you're Kaden's son." Alister stated, where it was all too easy for them to see that he had been enraged by the fact that Tachyon had driven his race to flee into the rest of the dimensions, at least according to Aphelion, though as he gazed upon Ratchet that anger faded away as he realized who was in front of him right now, and when Autumn released him he knelt for a moment, "Forgive me. I am General Alister Azimuth, Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard, and Elder Councilman of the Center for Advanced Lomabx Research. You must be Ratchet... you look so much like Kaden, but those eyes... they remind me of Millie. And if I had to guess you're Angela, Lorna's daughter... but I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Autumn Blaze, one of Ratchet's siblings... sworn siblings, if you prefer, since we grew up on Veldin together," Autumn replied, though she wasn't surprised by the fact that Alister didn't recognize her, since he only knew Lombaxes and his own words told them that he knew Kaden, not to mention Ratchet's mother as well, "we also have a brother whose not here right now, called Starswirl."

"What about Rivet?" Alister inquired, showing them that, because he was a good friend of Kaden's, he knew about the fact that his friend and his wife had twins and even knew their names, though in that moment he noticed the look on Ratchet's face and realized that something was wrong, something that instantly worried him.

Alister, seeing that they would be talking for some time, had them retire to his residence, the robot head, and served up some tea as Ratchet explained the situation to him, explaining how a year ago, on the night before Tachyon attacked their home in Solana, that he woke up screaming and felt like his right arm had been blown off. He revealed that they used one of Tachyon's ships to reach Polaris and found their way to Fastoon, allowing them to claim Aphelion and her information so it didn't fall into their enemy's hands, while confirming that the Dimensionator existed, something Alister knew about due to his Elder Councilman position. He was, however, amazed that Ratchet remembered that it existed, as he explained that a memory of the device had surfaced while they were on Rykan V, and he was even more amazed when Ratchet told him of it's original design, as he wasn't expecting him to remember that it was gun shaped, which he blamed on Mags, a Lombax Kaden worked with. When they reached the end of their previous adventure, however, Alister learned that they were in possession of the Dimensionator and inquired as to why Ratchet hadn't used it to track down his injured sister, to which Angela told him that he tried, but the temporary fix they used to get back to Polaris only worked for so long and he had used it to banish the Cragmites, unaware of how many charges it had left before breaking.

In that moment Alister knew why Ratchet was unhappy, he had the key to finding his sister, his wounded sister, and had it ripped from him, and now, with a year having passed with no new cracks opening, he was worried that he was too late to do anything to help Rivet. Alister put together the pieces with ease, Clank had been kidnapped before he and Autumn had a chance to start their work on the Dimensionator, causing him to explain that Kaden was the first one of their kind to talk about the Great Clock, where the Zoni came from and were said to work. He figured that Clank played some role in how it operated, otherwise it made no sense for the race to take him and Starswirl, and informed them that he had an idea that should help them get in contact with Clank, based on the pirate portion of their tale and his own previous experience. He also had a pair of hoverboots, Kaden's to be exact, which Autumn quickly studied before fixing something inside them so it didn't blow out, causing Alister to raise an eyebrow before handing them to Ratchet.

As he gave Ratchet and the others a lesson on how to use them, however, Alister had a feeling that things were going to get much better for all of them, they just had to complete a few missions and they would be at the Great Clock in no time at all, they just had to be patient and not be overwhelmed by what the future might throw at them.

Time: Terachnos

After completing their hoverboot training, where Alister was surprised by their progress, he informed the group of the next location they had to head to so they could claim the Great Clock before it was misused by their enemies, Axiom City on planet Terachnos. He claimed to have a way to contact Clank, using one of the Eyes they had used to figure out that their friend was in this part of Polaris, meaning he needed to gain some information before determining where to go next, which Ratchet and the others understood. With that in mind he told them that they would be using their nav units as communicators, since no one would be foolish to tap into the devices, before calling his own ship, an older model that looked like Aphelion, without an AI inside it, and leaving Torren IV behind. After that Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela spent a few more moments figuring out the movements to use their new boots, even though two of them stopped as Autumn took a few seconds to merge it with her existing omniboots and found that it worked like a charm, allowing her to do the same to what her brother and Angela had.

Once she was done tinkering with their boots the trio returned to Aphelion and left the planet as well, as it was time to see if they could learn more about the situation and figure out where the Eye was located, and it didn't take them long to return to the space between planets, not to mention their starship.

"I know you guys weren't paying attention, but Alister is obsessed with the Great Clock." Autumn remarked, as she had seen a large number of schematics, or one's interpretations of what might have gone into making the device in question, and all sorts of papers on the walls of Alister's hut, where she knew that he might be planning on using it at some point, "We might want to keep an eye on him, just in case he's planning on altering history with the Great Clock's power."

Ratchet and Angela glanced at each other for a moment, as they suspected that tampering with time was a bad thing and was why whoever made the Great Clock went to great lengths to keep it hidden from those who might misuse it, but for the time being he set their course for Terachnos. As they did so Ratchet found that Qwark was oddly silent, they had yet to hear anything from him about the Agorians and whether or not they would be willing to join them in their fight against the villain of this part of the Polaris Galaxy, who they were convinced was Nefarious. If that was the case Angela was sure that he knew they were coming for him, even though he should know he couldn't defeat them and should just throw himself on their mercy, in the hopes that they would actually do so this time around. Her reasoning for that thought was because it didn't seem like Nefarious was doing anything this time around, other than being a silent ally of sorts for Vorselon and the other mercenaries of this galaxy, so maybe he would cooperate this time around.

After they considered Autumn's comment on the matter Aphelion, linked to the Helios' systems when she was docked in the warship, informed them that they were approaching Terachnos and the family moved without delay, boarding her so they could head down to Axiom City, a place that was different from what they were used to, and Ratchet landed without too much delay.

"So this is Axiom City... it's a nice place." Angela commented, in fact it reminded her of the capital cities they had been to since she joined Ratchet and his siblings in their quest to save the galaxies, and she found that the others nodded once they climbed out of Aphelion.

Alister called them seconds before they heard an announcement from the city's defenses, that the 'rogue Lombax' was in city limits and that troopers were being mobilized to deal with him, where he wanted to meet Ratchet and the others in a plaza once he dealt with his pursuers, allowing them to focus on exploring the city. The first thing they did was purchase a new weapon from the Vendor, the Tesla Spikes, before buying some new armor to ensure that every one of them survived longer in the future, the Ectoflux Armor to be exact. With that done they used a platform to advance deeper into the city and found that they landed near a spaceport of sorts, species were planning on leaving or traveling the galaxy, though it wasn't due to the ongoing alarm Alister had set off. Their enemies, as it turned out, were more of Vorselon's robots, which were far too easy for the trio to take out as Autumn used her magic to shield the bystanders, confirming that the troopers didn't care about people and were willing to hurt them if it meant taking out their true targets.

What was weird was that some of the aliens cheered them on and Autumn asked them about that while both Ratchet and Angela continued down the path that would link up to Alister's at some point, and when she caught up she informed them that Vorselon was definitely backed by Nefarious, but that's where things got weird.

"Apparently there are rumors of another robot that looks like Nefarious, who calls himself 'Dr. Virtuous'." Autumn said, all while blasting the next group of enemies down as she informed the others as to what she had learned so far, which was odd when she took a moment to think about it, "I think you know what this means."

"Either Nefarious separated himself into his good and evil halves... why, don't ask me... or we've got another dimensional issue to deal with." Ratchet remarked, as those were the two likely scenarios that would explain what his sister had found out by asking the local Terachnoids they had walked by, before he sighed as he pinched his nose bridge for a moment, all because he knew part of what was going on, "Here I thought we'd be able to get by without some sort of consequence for Tachyon's actions... should have kept our mouths shut once we got the device."

Angela knew what Ratchet was thinking, the Dimensionator was a great device, but now they were dealing with Tachyon's misuse of it, as it seemed some damage had been done to the dimensional barriers that protected their reality from one of the others that existed out there. She considered themselves lucky if it was the latter they were dealing with, that their Nefarious was still present and another one, a good one, had arrived from another dimension because of a crack in part of the barrier, but decided to say nothing on the matter. Angela also realized that this had to annoy Ratchet, not only was the Dimensionator broken, and one of the people who could fix it, Clank, had been taken before he could fix it, all sorts of other beings were sometimes breaking through the barriers, but not the person he wanted. She resolved to help Ratchet and Autumn finish this adventure, to stop whatever was going on in this part of Polaris, and then get to work on fixing the Dimensionator so they could repair the damage done to the dimensional barriers, before helping her husband find Rivet at long last.

After thinking about that they reached an area that looked like a terminal station for the city, where Autumn spoke to the Terachnoids that were present and learned about what was going on right now, that Alister had moved through the area not that long ago. She also informed them that he wasn't a rebel, as he wasn't challenging the official galactic rule that was in effect in the rest of Polaris, since this portion happened to be outside that zone, rather he was fighting the dark rule of Vorselon and his sinister allies. As such they promised to spread the work to the rest of the galaxy, to erase Alister from all of the wanted lists that the true villains had placed him on to separate him from anyone who might aid him in his quest to right his past wrongs, allowing her and the others to focus on the troopers. It looked like the troopers had done quite a bit of damage to the surrounding area, causing Autumn to make a note of how things were and how they should be, fixing it with her magic as Ratchet and Angela dealt with their enemies, showing the watchers that there was nothing to fear from the troopers if one of them was turning away from them.

In the end it really didn't take them that long to reach Neurox Plaza, where they found Alister waiting for them near what looked like a more advanced communication device that worked with holograms, something Autumn was interested in as soon as she looked at it, but for now they focused on their new ally, after smashing the enemies that had surrounded him upon his earlier arrival.

"It seems that your tales were right, you are definitely trained warriors." Alister said, though at the same time he was just a tad bit surprised when he saw Angela fight, as her family hailed from inventors and, from what he had learned, she had been one in Bogon before joining up with Ratchet, turning her into such a skilled warrior, "It would seem that Nefarious has boosted the patrols around the city... it's time for a change in plans: I'm going to contact my man on the inside, to get some information out of him."

"You know someone who works for Nefarious?" Angela asked, mostly because it was interesting to hear what Alister had been up to since the assault on Fastoon, and the Lombaxes disappearing into the other dimensions, though the others did keep an eye on everything around them in the off chance their foe attacked them.

"Actually, he works for Pollyx as a data miner... I saved him from becoming food for the Agorians." Alister replied, though he was amused that the others were somewhat interested in the story, even if it wasn't that great when he thought about it, before he quickly tapped the device and input the code he needed to use, "Jarvis, are you there?"

"I am, Azimuth. Finally calling in that favor, are you?" a voice answered, where they found a Terachnoid on the other end of the line, meaning he appeared as a hologram in part of the device, though what was interesting was that there were no new enemies coming their way, causing the family to worry that something massive was coming, "What can I do for you on this fine day?"

"Honestly, I expected you to hate me... but I'll take this any day. Anyway, we're looking for an Obsidian Eye." Alister said, the very same device that Ratchet and the others used to point this to this part of Polaris, according to their tale, though he wondered what in the world was going on with Jarvis, before realizing that Autumn must have said something earlier, as the alarm was gone, "Preferably one not under Pollyx's nose."

"Well, the only one we don't have control over is located in the Krell Canyon on Planet Lumos." Jarvis stated, where he took a moment to double check his notes and nodded, meaning he had to be checking the company files or something, but as he did that the family noticed nothing out of the ordinary still, "I can't tell you where, though, since we're not sure where in the canyon it's located."

"Thanks for your help Jarvis." Autumn said, as she knew that he must have risked himself a little to get that information, especially if his superiors found out that he was giving it to outsiders, though she did find that the Terachnoid was happy to help them out, no doubt a fan of hers, and the call was terminated once they had the coordinates, "This was too easy... Nefarious must have some sort of guardian to stop intruders or invaders, to protect his own investments, and yet there is nothing coming at us."

"I suspect that's the reason." Angela remarked, gesturing to part of the sky where they found what appeared to be a crack in reality, though above it was a blue crack, likely one of time since a purple one was dimensions, though Alister paused as he noticed how large they were, at least half the size of their starship, "This Nefarious might not have the resources to pull off such an attack, but one from another timeline or dimension might be able to do so... and it just so happens that a crack of the opposite type opened, taking the guard to another version of reality. We get off easy, the other one gets pain."

Ratchet sighed as he and the others told Alister that they would meet him on Lumos, to find the Obsidian Eye, before they all departed from Axiom City, so they didn't get caught up in whatever was going on right now, but he was worried about Clank and Starswirl and hoped that they were doing well, wherever they were.

Time: Clock, Lumos

Sigmund, as Clank and Starswirl quickly learned, was an easy robot to entertain, because as they walked to the next part of the Great Clock he went on and on about the battle with the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler, even repeating Clank's line a few times, showing them that he was a fan of his work.

"Now that the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler is dealt with, we can continue to the Orientation Room." Sigmund said, as he likely had a list of things that needed to be done and getting them to the room in question was one of the top ones based on what Clank could tell, or getting him to it since Starswirl didn't use the stations like he did.

All he could do was nod his head as he used his scepter to mend the Great Clock's wounds, though at the same time both he and Sigmund watched as Starswirl weaved parts of his magic around the components that were further away from them, time reversing to repair the damage. Clank marveled at Starswirl's control over his magic, far more than what he had seen in the past, and his power over time itself showed him that Ratchet's brother was definitely a quick learner, to the point where he had a feeling that they would be able to finish this in due time. Of course Sigmund talked about one of the lessons that Orvus had taught him in the past, even though he couldn't remember the exact statement in question, allowing the pair to get to a doorway that brought them to yet another time puzzle. Clank also found out why he wasn't affected by altered time, it was due to the quantum actuator that had been installed in his systems when the Zoni brought him to the station, while at the same time finding that Starswirl, even without such a thing, moved with ease as well.

All Sigmund could say was that it was 'Starswirl being Starswirl', as even when he and Orvus watched over them they had a hard time wrapping their heads around some of the weird things he had done with his magic, even though it seemed like he was only scratching the surface of his power.

"Out of curiosity, why were you watching us?" Starswirl asked, allowing Clank to work on the puzzle that was in front of him while he sated his own curiosity on the matter, where he could see that his friend was more than capable of clearing the obstacles that had been installed at some point in time.

"Before you and Autumn arrived, time was easy to know and plan for, but after you showed up it became more unknown and harder to plan for." Sigmund replied, showing them that there was a reason for him and his boss observing the family for a long time, even though Starswirl knew it had something to do with Clank, before he considered something as Clank finished the puzzle and made way for the magic user to try his hand at it, "We were watching over all of you, until recently... we've been experiencing some difficulties lately, both with temporal anomalies and runaway dimensional energy, and I'm almost convinced there's another Dimensionator out there."

"That is highly unlikely. The Lombaxes would not make more of the device, especially with the dangers they were facing at the time." Clank stated, as while he understood that the blueprints to make the powerful device might be out there, just in case the Lombaxes needed to fix or repair the Dimensionator and needed a point of reference, he refused to believe that there were more of the device out there.

Sigmund said nothing to that, as he found himself agreeing with Clank, and once Starswirl cleared the puzzle they moved on once more, allowing them to reach a massive chamber that was the Orientation Room he needed to bring Clank to, where a mnemonic station was resting nearby. Clank and Starswirl sat on a red couch, which Orvus likely sat while watching over all of them, before Sigmund played the video, which turned out to be Orvus welcoming newcomers to the Great Clock and that he was happy to have them on the team. Orvus went into the purpose of the Great Clock after that, revealing that the Zoni had given the Fongoids the gift of time travel, but, after three thousand years, they had strained the space-time continuum thin, instead of enriching their lives, eventually resulting in a tear that destroyed eighty-three celestial entities. They quickly learned that the Great Clock's purpose was to contain the temporal rift and restore temporal normality to the universe, and, under no circumstances, was the station to be used as a time machine, as it was meant to keep time and not alter it, which meant if someone touched those controls it would be bad.

Once the video was done Clank hopped into the mnemonic station and tapped into the lessons that Orvus installed in him, preparing for the day that he was returned to his father's greatest creation, where Starswirl silently wondered where Orvus had gone, as he figured that the Zoni's leader would have come to Clank at some point, but decided not to question it for the time being.

The moment Clank was done they existed through another door and headed to a platform that was connected to one of the many planets that still existed in the universe, where he connected his scepter to a device and dealt with the vast number of temporal anomalies that were threatening the planet, Quantos to be exact. Starswirl also asked about the 'Chamber', which was the Orvus Chamber, the main control hub for the entire station, but Sigmund informed them that he had never been inside it, not once during his time here, which he was sure was going to change given the path they were charting. After that they found their way to another puzzle and the pair tackled it, Starswirl focused on repairing the other components of the station with his magic so he didn't see the solution, though it wasn't long before both of them had cleared the puzzle and continued deeper into the Great Clock. Other than the puzzles, and cleaning up the pests with Starswirl's brief bursts of magic, Clank was able to do his duty as the Caretaker of the Great Clock, repairing some damage that had been done to Torren IV and Terachnos, during which Sigmund left for a time, which interested Starswirl since the robot was supposed to be making sure Clank understood his new role.

When the pair returned to the Orientation Room they found Sigmund starting up a personal message from Orvus, that he would be traveling to the Tombli Outpost on Zanifar, though given the fact that Orvus was missing they knew that he had either been captured or went missing there, and Starswirl had a plan to help Clank out, they just had to wait a bit before putting his plan into motion.

As the Helios arrived at their destination Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela found that hostile ships were approaching, which told them that someone knew they had been planning on coming here at some point, before discovering the winged ships of the Valkyries, female robots who lost their home in a supernova, according to the stories. The family said nothing while the three robots talked to each other, about how Ratchet and Angela were 'lost', that they should help them find their way to a new destination, and, more importantly, that they would bring them before Nefarious, likely for a bounty that had just been placed on their heads. It was perfectly clear that these Valkyries were here to either kill them or capture them, but it was a terrible idea since the starship had been outfitted with weapons that Aphelion could operate so Ratchet and the rest of his family could rest before reaching the planet they were interested in. In addition to that they were able to scramble the scanners on the ships that were in front of them, preventing them from realizing that Alister had entered the system as well, allowing him to head to Lumos while two ships backed off immediately, the third retreating after Aphelion blasted both of her wings and partly stranded her.

With the Valkyries taken care of, and the coast was clear of enemies, they docked the starship near the planet in question and took Aphelion down to Lumos' surface, targeting the canyon that was connected to the coordinates that Jarvis handed over earlier, and it wasn't long before Alister landed in the same cave they picked out.

"I don't know what you did, but it worked like a charm." Alister said, speaking as they climbed out of their ships, though at the same time he double checked something before catching up with them, at what appeared to be an entrance for some sort of mine, Raritanium most likely, "I was able to triangulate the Obsidian Eye's position to somewhere in these caves, and we happened to pick the perfect point to enter through... finding it, however, is the hard part."

"Then we had best get started." Ratchet remarked, though at the same time Autumn found a new weapon to outfit them with, the Plasma Striker, a new rifle weapon his sister had designed during their time trying to find the clue that brought them to this part of Polaris, and it wasn't long before they had a new weapon to try out.

As they explored the cave Alister confirmed that it had been a Raritanium mine at one point in time, in fact he and Kaden came here a long time ago, when they were younger, and just hoverboot around the area, he even remembered a place where Kaden nearly broke his right arm. There was a lowered bridge that caused Ratchet to jump and glide down into the abyss, which Autumn lit up using some magical lights so he could see the Boltcrank that reconnected the bridge, even if he had to climb up some pipes to get back up to where the others were standing. After doing that they encountered a brand new obstacle, Tetramites, little vicious eaters that could digest practically anything in existence, though Alister told them that the termite critters hated water, which caused Ratchet to nod to Autumn. In the following moment she used some of her magic to manipulate the small pools of water and made walls surrounding the nest that the Tetramites came from, a fact that allowed them to safely move through the cave, leaving Alister to point out each and every nest so she could make new barricades to aid the group in their quest.

When they reached a ledge, however, the group wasted no time in using it and glided down into a dark area, which wasn't too far down from where the end of their path had been located, so in terms of where their ships were resting they were a bit further down, but Ratchet stopped Alister as Autumn lit up their area for a time.

"Alister, I can see that you're hurting. Tell us what happened." Ratchet said, as he recognized the look in Alister's eyes, in fact he was sure it was how he looked after losing every opportunity to save Rivet from whatever was happening to her in her dimension, and since nothing was happening above ground he was sure they had time to spare.

Alister sighed as he revealed that, with the Cragmites gone, he knew the universe would be a dangerous place and that a number of steps needed to be made to ensure the safety of the other planets, even if it meant working with an inventor that wasn't a Lombax. They figured out that it was Tachyon, even he admitted that he tricked the Lombaxes into giving all sorts of access to him so he could build his army, where Ratchet pieced together what was going on, Alister allowed their own enemy to obtain the weapons he used to bring down the Lombaxes. It was clear that he felt that it was his fault for the deaths of so many, Ratchet's parents most of all, and, as punishment for his crimes, Alister forced himself into exile as the portals to the other dimensions closed, which he claimed he deserved for his actions. He then moved onto why he was so interested in the Great Clock, assuming they had seen the writing on the walls of his residence, because he thought he might have a chance to rewrite history if he used the device, even if Autumn and Angela were unconvinced.

Ratchet, however, let out a sigh as he contacted Aphelion and had her transfer a file over to him, where he opened up his tablet, opened the file, and handed it over to Alister, who set his weapon to the side as he took the tablet, with the others interested in what they were doing right now.

"That's a list of everyone who survived the attack on Fastoon. Alister, no one died... even my parents, who Tachyon even claimed to have killed, are on it." Ratchet stated, though Autumn and Angela could see that there was a hollow smile on his face, as while everyone was alive and fine, at least during the time of the assault on Fastoon, he had no way of knowing who was truly alive, and if his parents were alive, like Aphelion claimed, he wondered why were they staying away from him, after all this time.

Sure enough Alister needed some time to adjust to this information, especially the part where his best friend was alive, a person he assumed had been dead since the day the attack happened, not to mention Millie for that matter, which only made him that much more interested in what was going on. It did, however, give him the fuel he needed as he drove the head of his weapon into the rock wall, shattering it with a burst of energy so they could leave the caves at last, where he handed the tablet back to Ratchet as the group headed outside, finding that the Agorians were attacking. A Vullard quickly noticed him and the others and beckoned them over, asking for assistance in clearing out the raid and offering them any reward that they desired, causing Angela to ask if he could point them in the direction of the Obsidian Eye, which he knew about and confirmed that he could do so. The next step became clear as Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela crossed the bridge by launching themselves over it, as an Agorian ship blew part of it up, and Alister followed them, as while he wanted to focus on the mission he knew that aiding the Vullards was important as well.

There were five targets for them to take out, likely generals or lieutenants in a military sense, where Ratchet and Alister took two on by themselves, Angela tracked down two of the others, and Autumn took one, mostly because once the riders fell the Agorians dropped Hydra Tanks into the canyon. Hydra Tanks were three headed robotic war machines that were tough to take down, since each head could attack different foes or the same one and they had interesting powers, but the group found that there were only two of them to take out. In that moment Alister got a taste of just how powerful Autumn was with her magic, as she grabbed one of their targets and smashed it into the ground repeatedly, until it was broken to the point of being beyond repair, leaving Ratchet and Angela to deal with the other one with ease, reminding him of how skilled the family really was. He then understood that this wasn't their full power, as the fourth member was missing, the one called Starswirl, and supposedly his magic was far stronger than Autumn's current level, especially since they said he could tap into time magic, as strange as that sounded.

As the Hydra Tanks fell they found that the Agorians were sending their Talons, their fighter ships, to wipe out the rest of the canyon, where Ratchet left the fun to Aphelion this time around, who wiped out the Agorian attackers with ease, which allowed them to regroup with the Vullard at what appeared to be a temple entrance.

He opened the door for them and then handed over an Omnisoaker, which absorbed all sorts of liquids and fired them at whatever the user happened to be targeting, which Autumn would look at later on, but as soon as they were on the other side of the metallic door it slammed shut, even if they heard him talking about rust. From there it was a simple matter to make their way through the temple, someone using the new device to absorb liquid, either water to grow plants or some sweet Breegus Nectar that Tetramites couldn't resist, allowing them to navigate their way through the place. The temple was much like what they had seen in the past, like on Quantos, meaning it had housed some Zoni technology in the past and likely still did to this day, something that caused them to push forward while avoiding the Tetramites. In the end they found the large black gemstone that was the Obsidian Eye, along with a gleaming stone known as a Fulcrum Star, inside a single chamber, the main one to be exact, though upon seeing that the star was cracked Autumn used the Zoni to mend it so they would have a greater signal.

Alister tapped the controls without delay, where they paused for a moment as the Eye linked up with the Great Clock, to which they found an interesting sight, Clank and Starswirl standing in a large chamber, in an odd station, near a couch for some odd reason, and when the image appeared the pair paused as well.

"Clank! Starswirl! Boy am I glad you guys are alright." Ratchet said, because after everything that had happened with his failure to save Rivet he had been worried about the same thing repeating with his brother and his robotic friend, before he thought about something as he noticed the shocked looks on their faces, "Oh, don't be alarmed, but we found another Lombax: General Alister Azimuth."

"Fascinating. We suspected there might be another one, and now you guys have found him." Clank replied, as it was good for Ratchet to have another member of his race to converse with, someone other than Angela anyway, but he also knew he had a more pressing matter they had to deal with, "Listen, you need to help me find Orvus. Last I heard he went to the planet of Zanifar, to the Tombli Outpost."

"The Tombli Outpost? That's owned by Nefarious, but he hasn't been there for two years." Alister remarked, though he did know what Clank was talking about, the head Caretaker of the Great Clock was missing, hence why the Zoni must have come to take him, likely because he was a backup or something of that nature.

"Then that is where you must go." Starswirl stated, where he tapped his staff against the ground, a new one Ratchet and Autumn noted, though they also noted that he seemed far wiser than they recalled, likely due to learning more about the Great Clock, how it functioned, and time itself, "We will figure out how to get you to that point."

Ratchet had a feeling there was more to this, in fact Clank almost had pleading eyes, causing him to realize who Orvus was to him, and when he nodded his head they cut the connection, allowing them to return to their ships so they could leave as Alister departed as well, though he and the others knew things were going to get even more interesting when they reached Zanifar.

Time: Battleplex, Zanifar

Following their departure from Lumos, which gave the group a feeling of accomplishment since they were closer to the end of this adventure, Ratchet got a call from Qwark, who was being forced into the Agorian arena and was calling in backup, to which he sighed and told their friend that they'd be there soon enough.

"I guess he failed to convince them to join us in fighting Nefarious' forces." Angela commented, because that was the only reason Qwark would bother to contact them, due to the fact that he was in danger or felt that he was in danger, but, at the same time, she knew that they found useful items in the arena and this might be a benefit to them.

"Yeah, but we'll see what's going on anyway." Ratchet said, as he was interested in what they might discover, since there might be a chance that the Agorians could have something that might aid them in the near future, which the others also agreed with as he directed Aphelion over to their new destination.

The Agorian Battleplex was a massive starship that had a dock for customers and gladiators to enter through, it had all sorts of communication devices on top of it, and seemed to have an impressive power source to power everything inside it, but Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela were focused on their main objective. It appeared that they would be taking part in a series of battles to ensure Qwark remained safe, and obtain a few items that would help them out in their quest to save the galaxy from Nefarious and his allies, hence why they docked with the ship and used the elevator to enter the lobby. They also had the privilege to tow an Agorian to the Battleplex, as his competitor didn't want him to compete and they found that no ships came out to harm them, meaning even the Agorians knew not to mess with them, allowing the stranded one to enter the massive starship with ease. In addition to that they found a number of Terachnoids wandering around, as if they were the ones in charge of everything on this ship, though there were a number of arcade machines in the lobby, though Ratchet paid them no mind as he and the others approached the center of the lobby, where a hologram of a Terachnoid greeted them.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, to Open Fight Night at the Battleplex! the Terachnoid stated, showing that he had to be an announcer or speaker for the Agorians, or whatever his reasoning was for being here, before he fully focused on them for a few seconds, You like to fight? You like to mix it up? The three of you look like a bunch of mixer-uppers. What's your names?

"I'm Ratchet, this is Autumn, and this is Angela." Ratchet replied, knowing that if he used their last names the Terachnoid or the surrounding Agorians might figure out who they were, even though the figure was smart enough to figure out that he was keeping that part quite for now.

It's nice to meet all of you. the Terachnoid said, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things, as Ratchet had a feeling that they wouldn't be here for too long and would be gone once they had everything that might help them tackle whatever Nefarious was planning, I'm Mac. You have to excuse the hologram. Folks around here have a tendency to throw things. Take a look around. If you need anything, Mac's your guy!

Autumn chatted with him for a time before she joined the others as they headed into the arena at long last, though right before that she found a new weapon in the Vendor, the Groovitron Glove, another gadget turned into a weapon after the initial success. With that in hand they headed into the arena and faced whatever the Agorians had to throw at them this time around, even though it seemed like the race had no idea that they had crushed their attack force on Lumos, where it became clear that they first had to deal with five waves of enemies, small little robots, a number of junk bots, and a couple of Agorian warriors. The arena itself was located in the middle of a pool of molten lava, why they had no idea, but Autumn was able to figure out that the Battleplex had been outfitted to make sure the area section survived having this inside it, or else it would have sheared the ship in half. The second challenge added hazards they avoided with ease, the third had the three of them throwing bombs back at the Agorians who launched them at the group, and the fourth dealt with several of the platforms sinking into the lava, causing them to get off of them before it happened.

The fifth challenge, as it turned out, was against a massive creature known as a War Grok, a gorilla looking beast that was quite fierce and rather deadly, and it also looked like it hadn't been fed recently, though it was the battle that Qwark was forced to join them on. Ratchet had a feeling that trying to feed it, with food or whatever Autumn might come up with in the span of a few minutes, would be a bad idea and simply focused on fighting the beast, with his sister and Angela doing their best while flanking the massive creature. While they did that Qwark decided to appeal to the masses as he spoke on his time as a member of Florana's native tribe, how he was dubbed 'He With Mighty Pecs Who Hath Delivered Us Serenity' by the natives, complete with a bird routine for some reason, and, in a strange twist of fate or decision, he offered himself to ensure the group survived. Somehow, against all odds, the Agorians were moved by his words, saying that Qwark had honored them, no doubt because Agorians loved to name things and Qwark mentioned that they could name something in his honor, and in the end he escaped with the War Grok, which they weren't about to question.

In the end Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela walked out with a bunch of bolts, a new Constructo mod, a security card, and the newly empowered Negotiator, meaning they now had the key to the base that was on Zanifar, to which the group left and flew over to the planet in question, which was an icy world that Aphelion claimed had a temporal signature on it.

"That's likely Clank's doing." Autumn remarked, as Clank and Starswirl said that they would do something that would allow them to go back in time, to the day of Orvus' visit to Nefarious' base, and it seemed like the pair had been successful, they just had to be careful as they explored the base.

"Good, then we can get this over with and figure out whatever Nefarious is planning." Angela said, because that was what they didn't know, what the villain was planning, but if the Great Clock was involved she had a few ideas on what he might be thinking, especially after seeing what happened with the Dimensionator.

Ratchet nodded as they started to move forward and wiped out a fungus monster that was near the landing platform, or the one he had picked out to avoid getting in trouble with both the facility or the time portal, before crossing a gap that allowed them to fire on a trooper and enter the first of many buildings. On the inside they found several additional robots and one of the moving turret troopers, where Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela opened fire on their enemies without delay, all while Autumn stopped at the Vendor and discovered a new weapon, the Cryomine Glove. Such a thing allowed them to freeze their foes in their tracks, making them that much easier to tear through, and with the three of them armed with the weapon in question the next couple of groups really didn't stand a chance against their might. It was almost laughable as the group tore through each and every trooper or saucer that was supposed to be guarding this place from invaders, as three new weapons, copied and spread to each of them, allowed them to decimate their foes with ease, though Ratchet kept his guard up since they had no idea what sort of traps Nefarious might have installed in this place.

It took them some time to track down anything new, which was a force field containing some Fongoids, who informed the group that they had witnessed Nefarious' crash on their world and decided to help him, seeing his arrival as a sign from Orvus that he trusted them with technology again, only to be betrayed in due time.

"Something's not right about this... the Fongoids say Nefarious betrayed them, but this place seems like it was designed to protect them from the other races." Autumn remarked, in fact the huts that the Fongoids used were safely behind several of the structures, untouched by the various metallic structures, and when she looked at the race in question they seemed far too happy for being imprisoned for so long, making her wonder if they were acting.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ratchet said, as he had spent more than enough time with his siblings to know when there was something wrong, especially since Autumn and Starswirl were tied to forces beyond his understanding, and he could see why his sister thought such a thing, which only worried him.

Angela had nothing to add to the comment, save for nodding her head to show that she agreed with them, before they found their way to what appeared to be another area that the Omnisoaker would be useful in, so she and Autumn left it to Ratchet, since he could do this in no time. Ratchet found a way to open the way to an area that had a thick vine for them to grind on, as weird as that sounded, and once the way was open he beckoned for the others to join him, where the three of them started to grind along it, avoiding the red thorns along the way. It brought them to a platform that had a couple of hoverboot pads for them to use, something that really made them wonder what in the world was going on, because there was no way Nefarious would know it was important to put this stuff in, but they kept it in mind as they tore through a few troopers that were posted this far out. After that they reached what appeared to be a security station and quickly used the security pass they picked up from Mac in the Battleplex, finding that it allowed them to enter the structure and turn off the fences that were keeping the Fongoids safe, and while the tribe cheered the group realized that they were acting, almost as if Nefarious had changed, or if they knew a different Nefarious than the one they dealt with.

With that done the group headed outside and found the blue oval portal that seemed to head into the past, when none of the more advanced structures had been built, where Ratchet stepped through it and found that it brought them to when it was spring, right after Nefarious and Lawrence crashed on the planet.

What surprised them was that the locals were far more welcoming than their future counterparts, even inquiring if they were here to help construct a residence for the 'fallen star', with a small fence around the asteroid that the robotic pair had likely been trapped on since their defeat all those years ago. There was a bridge that would lead into Nefarious' base, but the winch was rusted shut apparently, and there was an area where they could plant some special seeds that would grow into those large vines they had seen in the present, which caused Ratchet to have a wonderful idea. He knew that a couple of already prepared patches of earth existed around the village, they were even present in the future, so if one of them planted the seeds in the designated areas they might form a path to a drill platform he had spotted in the future, an area they would find oil in. Angela agreed with the idea, in fact it made sense when she considered it, and Autumn simply followed their lead as they quickly took out the fungus monsters before planting the seeds, though once they were done the trio returned to the future and found that Ratchet had been right, a path of vines lead right to the drill platform, which caused them to smile.

One thing Autumn noticed was that there were no more enemies for them to fight, rather they were able to grind over to the drill, get the oil, return to the past, and then use it on the winch to lower the bridge, allowing the three of them to walk over to Nefarious' previous base of operations and ride an elevator up to the peak.

"Are you sure that this is going to work?" a voice asked, where they were able to tell that it was Nefarious, though by slowly opening the door in front of them, enough so it wouldn't make noise and allow them to see what in the world was going on, the group discovered the blue robot talking to a Zoni that was different from the others.

"While I'd rather not involve the Fongoids, they know what must be done: the visit to Zanifar must happen." the Zoni, who had to be Orvus, replied, where Ratchet found that he floated around the chamber, which looked like a command center for everything in the outpost, and included a cylinder chamber that looked like it might be used for studying items, while they found that Nefarious just stood there, looking outside, "Time, as I have often said, is a gift and not to be misused... sadly, the other you won't understand this for some time, if at all, while the heroes will learn that the Clock isn't a time machine and that one cannot make drastic changes to the past... isn't that right, Dr. 'Virtuous'?"

"I only picked that name because it was the only one that made sense." Nefarious, or rather Virtuous, stated, though at the same time Autumn sensed a sudden change in the temporal energy that had allowed them to return to the past, or rather it was connected to the energy and seemed to be gathering in the chamber on the other side of the door, "Okay, I'm sure that the defenses will be ready in no time, so the Fongoids will be safe from the other races... though I'm sure Ratchet and his family will find a way around them... but I'm ready to leave the mundane way."

As Ratchet and the others started to wonder what he meant Orvus seemed to call forth his temporal powers and opened a portal back to what had to be the Great Clock, before Ratchet found that Starswirl was on the other side of the portal and seemed to be pulling Orvus into the future. He wasn't sure what was going on, other than the fact that Clank assumed that his father was in danger and had sent them back in time to stop him from being harmed by Nefarious, only for them to find that his worry had been for nothing, rather it opened a can of worms they didn't understand. As they carefully left the peak of the outpost, so they could return to the portal, they understood that Virtuous was allied with Orvus and that they had convinced the Fongoids into playing along with the group arrived in the future, meaning the Great Clock wasn't in as much danger as they originally assumed. Of course none of them knew where the new Nefarious came from, as in the evil one that Alister had been fighting against for some time, but, at some point in time, Ratchet was sure that they would figure things out, after figuring out the whole time portal and the fact that they saw Starswirl on the other side.

As they returned to Aphelion, however, the group realized that they had more questions than answers and suspected that it would take some time before they figured everything out, to which Ratchet climbed into his seat as the others climbed into the back, as it was time to leave and figure out what they needed to do next.

Time: Warship, Battleplex, Clock

Following their visit to Zanifar, and discovering that Orvus was fine, not to mention the fact that Dr. Virtuous existed and was a separate person that wasn't to be confused with Nefarious, Ratchet decided to return to the Battleplex, as he suspected that it might hold more weapons for them to obtain.

"I figure that we can do this while we wait for either Qwark to call on us again, or we hear something from Alister." Ratchet said, as there wasn't much for them to do right now, because there weren't any other planets for them to visit right now, and he felt that claiming new weapons from the arena would allow them to boost their arsenals further.

"Sounds good to me, since Alister is giving us the silent treatment... he's likely upset that we went back in time, while also keeping him from doing the same thing." Autumn replied, showing them that she had been thinking about what they had learned so far, even though she was still coming to terms with what happened on Zanifar, all while finding that Angela just nodded her head to agree with her.

Ratchet said nothing as they docked with the Battleplex and headed inside, where Mac intercepted them and informed the group that multiple challenges were now open for them, not to mention several new weapons were available to be won in the process, which was what they wanted to hear. Apparently the weapons included the Spiral of Death, the Constructo Shotgun, and the Chimp-o-Matic, along with several Constructo additions and three items that might be helpful on their quest, those being the Box Basher 2000, the Armor Magnetizer, and the Treasure Mapper. Autumn was able to tell that the gadgets were the same as what they found in the past, items to make things somewhat easier for them, but none of them were interested in complaining about it, not when Ratchet started them on the Silver Cup, since they tore down the Bronze Cup to get to Qwark. At the same time she found that many of the Agorians were cheering for someone to enter their arena so they could get ripped apart, meaning whoever had come after them earlier had been less or insufficient in the eyes of the Agorians, but they were a savage race and it was hard to understand them.

The first challenge of the Silver Cup was to defeat a certain number of enemies in a certain amount of time, though since there were three of them the Agorians decided to triple the requirement while keeping the time the same as before, not that it mattered since Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela tore through them with ease. After that they took control of a fusion turret and used it to defeat a number of Agorians clusterbombs, which were the explosive orbs thrown at them, and after doing that the officials limited their arsenal to the Negotiator, a challenge they overcame with relative ease. Once that was done the Agorians used a lethal toxin to try and take them down as the group dealt with the enemies that came at them, all while everyone in the crowd cheered for them, showing the trio that while the officials were trying to take them down the public enjoyed the fights. The final challenge of the Silver Cup was a fight with one of the Hydra Tanks, where Ratchet and the others simply dodged it's attacks, damaged it with their weapons, and then took turns breaking their defenses to make sure they brought it down, which they did in due time.

Following that the group dealt with the first challenge of the Gold Cup, which involved them fighting a ton of enemies, like they were used to, though to win none of them could take a hit, meaning it was one of the 'untouchable' challenges that the arena owners loved to throw at the group. After that Ratchet and the others fought a battalion of Agorian warriors, all of whom didn't approve of them participating in the arena, and the next was that some Terachnoids spread some rumors about them mocking the underdeveloped legs of the Agorians, resulting in another fight with them. With those two taken down Ratchet chuckled when he noticed that the next one was a randomized weapon challenge, something that he and the others took down with ease, even though many were cheering for their victory as they enjoyed watching them tackle all of the Battleplex's challenges. The final challenge was them fighting off against another War Grok and the Hydra Tank, though it was one at a time and they switched out every now and then, a tactic to slow them down, but it didn't matter in the end as they bested their opponents and claimed victory once more.

With those wins they got the Spiral of Death, which fired off sawblades of kinetic energy that harmed their foes, and the Constructo Shotgun, which was yet another shotgun style weapon that packed quite the punch, before they moved onto the last available cup, the Raritanium Cup.

Their first challenge was to use the new Constructo Shotgun to stop enemies from crossing a certain point, and with three of them it didn't take them all that long to actually win the challenge, with the watchers cheering as they watched the fight unfold before their eyes. After that was another toxic challenge where they used their melee weapons to take down the War Grok, which was more challenging than they originally thought, but, in the end, Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela claimed yet another victory before moving onto the next challenge. The next was kind of weird, using the Omnisoaker and some of the nectar to put warriors to death, an honorable one for Agorians apparently, before moving onto a challenge where they had to return Battery Bots to their containers while fending off waves of enemies. The final challenge was twenty rounds of combat, a fight with a War Grok, and a battle with the Hydra Tank, which really put a strain on their ammunition, even with the supplies that were provided during the waves, but, once again, they emerged victorious over their enemies.

With the Battleplex cleared out entirely, though Ratchet told the Agorians he'd return if they offered new challenges, they returned to Aphelion and departed from the large starship, though as they returned to space they got a call, this time it was from Vorselon.

"Greetings young Lombax, it would seem that I have something that belongs to you." Vorselon stated, where he moved for a moment and revealed that Alister was trapped in a cage, one they had passed through to get to Qwark not that long ago, though none of them said anything as they let him talk, because all three of them could see his ship off in the distance, as he wasn't trying to hide from them, "It is a dark day when one is tasked with destroying half of the universe's Lombax population..."

"Actually, it's a fourth, as there are four Lombaxes." Angela remarked, showing her annoyance for Vorselon's words, as he seemed to be ignoring her presence and it annoyed her, while she could see that Autumn was marking their foe down for his stupidity, a custom she must have developed back after the first or second adventure, "Besides, if you're calling to ask if we'll trade places with him, all I have to say is this: prepare to entertain guests."

As Vorselon opened his mouth Aphelion landed outside the ship, on a landing pad that Alister had docked his ship on, and they exited the ship as the call was cancelled, allowing them to make a quick stop at the Vendor to purchase another new weapon, the Buzz Blades, a rapid fire weapon with sharp blades. With that in had they entered the ship and waged war on the robots that were waiting for them, as their foe knew they were coming and must have prepared his forces before he made the call, but Autumn highly doubted that after seeing how Vorselon failed to acknowledge Angela's existence. None of them said anything about Angela's remark about there being four Lombaxes, as most only knew of her and Ratchet, while the people of Polaris knew of Alister, meaning she was referring to Rivet without drawing attention to her, especially since no one else could confirm or deny her existence. Ratchet, on the other hand, found that the Buzz Blades were one of the most impressive weapons he had seen so far, three of them simply tore through their enemies with ease, given that all of them used multiple blades at the same time, and when combined with their other new toys the robots really didn't stand a chance against their might.

What was interesting was that there was a place to use the Omnisoaker and some oil, allowing the group to move things to their liking so they could advance deeper into the ship, using a different route this time based on what they were seeing right now, before finding the arena that Vorselon was waiting in... only for Autumn to wipe him out with a weapon that was more like a machine gun than anything else.

"Autumn... what is that?" Ratchet asked, as the weapon was massive, much like all of the RYNOs they had seen so far, and when he thought about it he was sure that they fired off rockets like they were bullets in a machine gun, all while playing a tune of some kind.

"The RYNO V, the latest in the line... and no, you can't have it." Autumn remarked, though at the same time she used part of her magic to hold Vorselon down while forming magical charges all over the chamber, something they realized to be explosive charges, meaning she was planning on tearing the ship apart once Alister was saved.

At that point Ratchet didn't even care as they tore through the rest of the ship, in fact Autumn put away the RYNO V and said that she'd bring it out whenever she felt like it was needed, which might be never in his eyes, but that didn't stop the three of them from reaching Alister's location. Of course he wasn't too happy to see them, going on and on about how he should have been forgotten while they secured the Great Clock, but Ratchet pointed out that they had no new leads, so it was impossible for them to do anything without some new information. When he learned about their journey into the past, as in that they actually did what Clank asked of them, Autumn stopped him and told him that they weren't going to use the Clock to reverse Tachyon's attack on Fastoon, as they had confirmation that everyone, against all odds, survived and were out there somewhere. Angela even added the fact that if they did change the past it might lead to a future that was far worse than what they were currently going through, especially since he'd have the keys to both time and space if things went south, those being the Great Clock and the Dimensionator.

Alister, faced with that knowledge, admitted defeat and followed them outside, where the troopers fled in terror, showing him just how strong and capable the group was, allowing them to leave the ship unopposed, though as they fled off into space, and got far enough away, Autumn detonated her magic and tore Vorselon's ship apart.

"Well, I can see why you guys are famed heroes in two galaxies." Alister remarked, though he was still worried about even allowing someone like Autumn near the Great Clock, with how powerful her imagination was for weapons and gadgets, but he did have information to share with them, "Also, the reason I was aboard Vorselon's ship was so I could copy all of his flight data, to figure out his movements and see if I could find the Great Clock... I won't bore you with the details, but I did find an uncrypted file that indicated that he recently visited the Bernilius Sector."

"It's not much to go on, but we had best head over there." Ratchet said, where the others nodded their heads, as they all agreed with his statement and wanted to see if the information was good or bad, though at the same time both he and Alister input the coordinates that had been obtained.

Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela had a feeling that they were getting closer to the end of this adventure, it just felt that way, and not a few moments later Aphelion warped out of the sector they were in and started to travel to the Bernilius Sector, all while they readied themselves for whatever might happen next.

"So, what's next on out temporal to do list?" Clank asked, as after convincing Sigmund to help them make the time portal on Zanifar, so Ratchet and the others could head back to when Orvus was visiting Nefarious, they had moved into another part of the station, moving closer to the Orvus Chamber if he was right.

"Well, most of the planets have been repaired, I've ordered a new quantum entanglement module, and the time cleaners are eating away at the residual rifts," Sigmund replied, where he went over the items that had been done so far and what they still had to do, while at the same time Starswirl walked by them, studying everything he could see, "so the only thing left to do is test Mnemonic Station Iota... as in 'Iota test the Mnemonic Station'. Heh, sorry, Orvus' humor rubs off on you after the first thousand years."

"Really? You've worked for him for that long?" Starswirl asked, as that was an interesting thing to discover, even though he knew that there was a chance that Sigmund might have been working for Orvus for much longer than a thousand years, all while Clank was focused on the obstacle in front of them.

"Relatively speaking... quantum entanglement screws with our chronometers, and there's the fact that you work with time." Sigmund said, meaning there was a chance that he had been working for Orvus for more than a thousand years, in fact the pair was certain of that fact, before he considered something for a few seconds, "Anyway, I have a few things that I need to take care of, part of my own duties as a Junior Caretaker, but I'll catch up with you two at the station."

Clank nodded for a moment as Sigmund flew off into the distance, where he and Starswirl focused on carefully jumping from platform to platform, knocking blasts back at the turrets on them to knock them down, before crossing some floating rings to reach the first puzzle of this section of the Great Clock. What Clank discovered was that the puzzle was much harder than all of the others that came before it, where he had to carefully plan out how to use his echoes to move platforms and open doors to access all of the key pads so he could move forward. Starswirl, as he expected, wasn't even bothered by the puzzle, once more showing him that he was far smarter than one might assume by just looking at him, in fact he carried himself as if he was a sage of some kind, and Clank found that his friend solved the puzzle faster than he did, which he was perfectly fine with. After that they made sure to fix up the rest of the area that was around them before using a launch pad to travel over to another part of the Clock, where Starswirl weaved his magic around himself for a few seconds and took down the enemies that happened to be there, opening the way for them to move forward.

Sigmund was waiting for them at the entrance of the next structure and opened the door to reveal a busted station, one that Clank repaired with his scepter before slipping inside it, allowing Starswirl to glance around the area for a moment, to see that every Mnemonic Station building was the same, though it was short lived as Clank emerged from the station not a few seconds later.

"I... found the Plumber inside my head. We talked for a time." Clank said, speaking to Starswirl as Sigmund departed from the building, though at the same time it was easy to tell that whatever he had talked about was more of a private nature, where Starswirl said nothing as they followed after their new companion.

After testing out the Mnemonic Station, likely the last one based on how far in the Great Clock they were, they used one of the launch pads to reach another building, one that happened to have what had to be the hardest puzzle Clank had seen so far, likely a test of his skills when he thought about it. Clank spent a few moments studying the various obstacles that had been installed for this puzzle, trying to figure everything out in his head before he made a move, and the moment he completed his observation he got started on tackling it with his echoes. It took him some time to get it right, to open the way so he could access the door, though when he did Clank found that Starswirl made his way through it as well, mostly to see how hard it was for himself, before they regrouped and continued towards the Chamber. Sure enough the pair had to take down some additional enemies and turrets to even get near their destination, which was common at this point and made Clank wonder how his father dealt with the annoying creatures, before finally coming to a stop on a pad that caused the icon on the door to move, revealing his face.

It was a grand reveal, showing that his father put a lot of effort into making sure he was ready for this, or whenever it was time to succeed him and take over the Great Clock, and the center of the Clock, the Orvus Chamber, was full of consoles and switches that likely controlled all of time, and they weren't the first ones to enter it.

"Finally! The dimensional damage caused by Tachyon using the Dimensionator has been fixed." a voice said, where Clank and Starswirl found a male Lombax, who looked a lot like Ratchet, standing in front of one of the terminals that formed a ring around the center of the chamber, "However, there's still a large amount of dimensional energy going haywire, so I'm not out of the woods yet."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out, honey." another voice replied, where Clank found a female Lombax that had white fur and a number of blue stripes, along with blue colored eyes, which caused him to wonder if they had found Rivet, only to quickly discover that this one still had her right arm and was wearing metal armor that was similar to Alister's, "Oh, Starswirl, it's good to see you again... and it's nice to meet you as well, Clank."

"Kaden, Millie, hard at work I see?" Starswirl remarked, though at the same time he engaged his magic and opened what looked like a portal in time, where Clank's eyes would have widened if he was organic since he found his father flying out of it, before he turned to face the little robot for a moment, "Sorry Clank, but they swore me to secrecy when I found out they were here... now that you know of them, however, I believe it's time to answer your questions."

"And there will be a lot, I wager." another voice said, where Clank found both Nefarious and Lawrence standing nearby, as if they had been silently working on one of the terminals and had only pulled themselves away after hearing that they had reached the final section of the Great Clock.

Clank had no idea what was going on anymore, especially when he considered the fact that Ratchet and Rivet's parents were right in front of him, and he had a feeling that he was going to have a long conversation with everyone, just to figure out was going on, even though he worried that this might impact Ratchet once he learned that his parents were alive and well and hadn't come for him, but he'd cross that bridge when it was time to do so.

Time: Vapedia

Clank remained silent as his father, both of Ratchet's parents, Starswirl, Nefarious, Lawrence, and Sigmund gathered near a table in another part of the Great Clock's many structures, one that looked like a living area of some kind, with pictures of his friend and his adopted siblings, telling him what he needed to know.

"I know you must be curious as to how we're still alive, since Tachyon likely claimed that he killed us, and the answer to that is that Orvus saved us before we were hit." Millie stated, though as she said that Sigmund produced a number of drinks for all of them, each one suited to the unique tastes of the individual in question, while Kaden pulled out a tablet to continue his intense work, fixing the dimensional damage done to the universe, "We quickly discovered that the Council's efforts to save as many Lombaxes as possible had been successful, our people, while scattered, were safe from Tachyon and his wrath, and we had been brought to one of the greatest technological marvels of the entire universe. Naturally my husband freaked out when he discovered where we were and we talked with Orvus for a time, discovering that we would be unable to return to the rest of the galaxy, much less the rest of the universe, for a number of years, though he was interested in acquiring more assistants, to help him operate this place. Of course we weren't too happy about part of the arrangement, since both of us wanted to head out and help Ratchet, plus find Rivet so we could grow as a family, but he insisted that we had to let both of them grow on their own... including doing nothing when she went through her incident in the other dimension... it still pains me to leave Ratchet in this situation."

"Which is why I've been fixing all the dimensional damage that's been done to the barrier, not an easy task since I'm sure there's someone else causing problems," Kaden added, confirming what he had said when Clank first discovered them in the Orvus Chamber, which was interesting since he wasn't aware of anyone else who might be causing damage to the barrier between the dimensions, before he sighed as he tapped his tablet, "I'm positive that it's coming from the Zarkov Sector, but other than that I haven't been able to pinpoint anything... you can thank Tachyon misusing the Dimensionator and whoever else is messing with the dimensions."

"That's where I come into play: tracking down the movements of my evil self and the villains he's allied with." Nefarious, or rather Virtuous as Clank determined, continued, while at the same time Lawrence and Sigmund discussed something, no doubt an item of some kind in their own suite, since Clank was sure his father had set one up for them once he found out that they were planning on helping him out, "Vorselon and the Valkyries are minor villains, not skilled enough to mess with the barriers between dimensions, and Nefarious... you know who I mean... doesn't have the technology to even attempt such a thing. I have my eyes on a pair of siblings who might be responsible for this mess, not Starswirl and Autumn since we all know that their magic reacts badly to dimensional tears, but haven't been able to confirm or deny my findings, so a great deal of my time is spent between protecting the people of Polaris and my studies."

"In addition to that we had to stage Zanifar in such a way to ensure Ratchet and the others helped you out in trying to save me from 'Nefarious'." Orvus said, confirming Clank's thoughts on the matter, all of this had been set up to ensure Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela followed a specific path to maintain temporal normalcy in the universe, given how important his friend was for everything, "To ensure the Zoni tracked you down, and brought you to the Great Clock so you could begin your own lessons in how to maintain time, I had to disappear for a time and used my power to slip into the time stream, to let several years pass by, and Starswirl was the anchor that allowed me to return safely... let that be a lesson, do no use the time stream unless you have someone to assist you."

"I see." Clank commented, as there was a lot of information to take in right now, in fact he was grateful for them talking so he could listen and understand everything that was going on, where he determined that most of them were bound by Orvus' rules, so they didn't interfere with the universe until the time he said it was okay, "What about you, Starswirl? You weren't supposed to be grabbed by the Zoni, yet you were brought here and haven't made an attempt to return to your siblings... may I ask why?"

"I could have, but you have to remember where we are." Starswirl replied, though at the same time he twirled his fingers for a moment and they watched as his staff just floated around the area as he considered his reply, showing that his control was far stronger than it had been in the past, "Besides, this was the best place for me to learn about temporal manipulation and how to use magic that does the same thing without the fancy machines... you saw it when I made my copies to perform the trials you went through... and Kaden's been helping me learn how to safely manipulate dimensional energy."

Clank sat there for a moment, as he had expected that Starswirl had grown stronger over the last year, though learning that he was capable of using both temporal and dimensional energy, or magic to be more exact, meant he was far stronger, and more dangerous, than he originally thought.

"Sir, we had best get ready. Ratchet's team will be entering the Bernilius Sector soon." Sigmund spoke up, where Clank could see that, while he wanted the conversation to go on, there was something they needed to do and that he was involved with it, causing most of them to sigh for a moment, "We need to play your distress call and make it come from Vapedia... with any luck Ratchet and the others will take out the Valkyries, just as they took out Vorselon."

Clank said nothing as he and Starswirl joined Sigmund, as the others were returning to their own stations for the time being, though he had a feeling that things were about to speed up for this adventure, that Ratchet and Autumn were getting close to the end, he just had to be patient and see whatever happened next.

It didn't take Ratchet, Autumn, and Angela long to reach the Bernilius Sector, where it was easy to see a station that was in the shape of Nefarious' head off in the distance, all while noting that Alister reached the sector as well, ahead of them due to the fact that he wanted to end this adventure in the near future.

"Ratchet, come in. I discovered a looping transmission on one of the emergency frequencies." Alister said, showing that he must have been here for a while and had been looking for anything that might be used against their remaining enemies, as in two Valkyries and Nefarious, though it was easy to see him pressing a few buttons on his side, "What do you make of this?"

The group paused for a moment as they listened to the transmission, as they instantly recognized it, due to the fact that Autumn had insisted on having them memorize each emergency frequency that their family or friends used, and this was one that Ratchet was very familiar with.

"I... I don't believe it... that's Clank's signature!" Ratchet stated, though at the same time he, Autumn, and Angela thought about the information in question, because nothing seemed out of the ordinary when they made contact with Clank and Starswirl back on Lumos, causing him to grip his chin for a moment, "Something doesn't feel right about this... even if we eliminate the possibility of Lawrence surprising Clank and Starswirl, knocking them out in the process, there's no way our brother would have allowed something like this to happen... meaning a key to the Great Clock is at the end of the code, a villain needs to be taken care of, or we're walking into a dangerous trap."

"Still, we should investigate, just to see what it's connected to." Autumn remarked, causing Angela to nod her head as well, showing that she agreed with the idea, but she still agreed with Ratchet, something about this didn't sit well with her, and that was counting the Valkyrie ships that were between them and Vapedia.

Sure enough they discovered that one of the other Valkyrie leaders was patrolling the space around Vapedia, not that any of them cared as Aphelion engaged the Helios' weapons and tore the enemy ship's engines apart, sending it down onto one of the main small moons, allowing them to fly down to a floating citadel in the clouds and land in what was the outer reaches of their domain.

"You know, I copied the communications we got from the other ship, and something's definitely wrong." Angela said, not that any of them were surprised by this turn of events, all while finding that Alister landed nearby and climbed out of his ship so he could join them, "She mentioned that her sisters should stop us from reaching the main citadel, where we'll no doubt find their leader, but as far as I can tell there is no mention of the signal we discovered... either she's playing dumb, to ensure anyone listening didn't catch on to what they knew, or someone is framing the Valkyries."

"Either way, we had best take care of them." Alister remarked, as while he was getting used to how the family operated, in terms of being heroes, he knew that leaving the Valkyries alone would be a disaster for the rest of Polaris, where he found that Autumn purchased the newest version of her Mag-Net Launchers for herself and her family, "Are you sure that you need more weapons?"

"One never knows what you'll face on the battlefield, and Autumn makes a wide variety of weapons for us to use against all of our enemies." Ratchet replied, where he accepted the weapon and grinned for a second, as it had been a useful one during the battle against Tachyon and his Cragmite forces, even though he knew there were a few more for them to get before this adventure was over, "Alright, let's get this show on the road."

As Alister nodded the group got moving without wasting time, taking care of some snapper enemies while finding a couple of devices that used their Hoverboots, though given the presence of the Lombaxes at one point in time it was easy for the group to tell the Valkyries had installed them to keep would be trespassers out. One thing they discovered was a rusted area and noticed that it required two Battery Bots, hence why they investigated a nearby area and returned with the pair of missing bots, allowing Ratchet to use the Omnisoaker to fix things for them. With that done they continued forward and found that it brought them to the start of the Valkyrie controlled area, where a group of enemies flew through the air so they could fire at Ratchet and his family, only using melee weapons when they were dropped to the ground. Alister found that his earlier thoughts about the group were right, they were a force to be reckoned with and that was missing their last member, making him wonder what he would see if Starswirl fought beside them, and it wasn't long before they wiped out the first group of Valkyries.

On the other side of the fortifications Ratchet found a lock that required him to move bits out of the way and move others into position, allowing him to spin it and lock it into place, which spun a walkway and granted them access to a small ship that brought them to another section of the citadel.

Upon reaching their destination the group discovered that the leader of the Valkyries was waiting for them and issued a command to her forces, to bring each of them down, labeling Ratchet and his family as intruders and not guests, to show that there was something wrong with this situation. Since they had no idea what was going on anymore Alister informed the group that he was going to head through another path before catching up with them, leaving them to deal with all the Valkyries who were protecting the citadel, while listening in on the leader's rather loud conversation. It seemed that she was talking with Nefarious, informing him that the family was here on Vapedia, wrecking her forces and breaking the traps she had for them, as she had several waiting for intruders and intended on killing them with each one. Cassiopeia claimed it was the Valkyrie training course and no male had ever survived it, indicating she believed Autumn and Angela would no doubt survive, but the first challenge was dodging bombs and hurling them back at the machine that used them, crushing it with relative ease.

As they did that, however, the group overheard Nefarious mentioning that they shouldn't be there, as he was still trying to find the Great Clock and Clank, confirming that something was going and, more importantly, they had played into the trap someone had set for them.

The second obstacle Cassiopeia had for them was a silo of deadly nerve toxin, where all they had to do was press a couple of buttons on the floor, or at least those that were glowing, until everything turned off, leading to them leaving through a second door as they left the silo in pieces, since it tore itself apart with their victory. Ratchet contacted Alister and told him that they had been right about this being a trap, by an unknown third party since Nefarious didn't know about them, but it didn't stop them from wrecking the forces that were coming at them. While the Valkyries were skilled, showing how their training shaped each of them into the warriors they were, it didn't matter to Ratchet, Autumn, or Angela as they blasted their way through the warriors that were trying to block their way. The third and last obstacle was them having to place a number of Battery Bots into their sockets before the glass floor shattered on them, dropping them into the abyss, and the trio cleared it in no time, allowing them to reach part of the main citadel.

Ratchet found that they were able to use an elevator to reach the upper reaches of the citadel, where Cassiopeia stopped on a turret so she could face them as the ceiling opened, revealing that they would be fighting on three platforms while she used her weapon to fire at whoever reached this point.

"I don't know why you came here, since we haven't reached the milestone of our plan, but I won't allow you to do anymore damage to our forces." Cassiopeia stated, showing them that this had to be a trap of some kind, not of Nefarious' making, and that she was upset with them wrecking everything to reach this part of their citadel, but before she could get started a blue magical portal opened nearby.

Autumn's eyes widened for a moment as Starswirl, accompanied by Clank, stepped out onto one of the other platforms, to which her brother twisted his hand and the turret broke apart before their very eyes, surprising them in the process, only to reform into cuffs that bound Cassiopeia's arms behind her and knocked her to the floor, complete with a mouth piece so they couldn't have to listen to her rage.

"Starswirl... I have so many questions." Ratchet said, though as he said that Alister joined them and Clank stopped in front of him, where he had to come to terms with the fact that his brother and their friend had done this to take out the rest of the Valkyries, though he suspected that they would be learning the answer soon enough.

"And we have answers, but first we need to stop Nefarious." Clank stated, something that caused the group to glance at each other for a few seconds, as they had been planning on doing that at some point in time, but with them at full power it seemed like now was the best time to take their foe down.

Ratchet, Autumn, Angela, and Alister said nothing as the group was brought back together and they headed back to where they had landed their ships, though Clank explained why they set up this event, to take care of Cassiopeia and the rest of the Valkyries, to get that out of the way as they readied themselves for the final event of this great adventure.

Time: Nefarious Station

"So let me get this straight... Nefarious is trying, in vain, to find the Great Clock, despite telling his allies he's found it, and his other self, Virtuous, is working to keep time intact?" Alister asked, as Clank and Starswirl had explained much to him and the others upon their return to the Helios, where he was amazed by the starship that Ratchet and his family used during each of their adventures, though there was a lot of information for him and everyone else to digest.

"That's right. I have also been told that using the Great Clock like a time machine will have disastrous consequences for the rest of the universe, especially with the dimensional damage that's going on," Clank continued, though the downside to his and Starswirl's explanation was that neither of them could reveal the existence of Orvus, Kaden, or even Millie, two of which would break Ratchet when he thought about it, but he was interested in the fact that Alister seemed to understand what he was saying right now, "however, we are unsure if Virtuous is the good half of our dimension's Nefarious, split in half to make our lives that much easier, or if he's from another dimension and used a portal between the dimensions to come here. We were, however, told that the Valkyries needed to be taken care of, hence why we set up that distress call so you guys would come in and deal with them... yes, I wasn't in danger, but it was an important event you needed to do."

"The Caretakers of the Great Clock told us that certain events had to take place, that's why we did this." Starswirl added, all while discovering an easy way for him and Clank to tell the others about the people working in the secret structure, without actually giving away any information on who was currently watching them right now, all while noticing that Autumn was interested in his new powers.

"Okay, so now we just have to head to the Nefarious Station and bring down Nefarious." Ratchet said, as he understood that part of their tale, while he was still digesting the rest of the information on the reasoning behind Virtuous' existence, as in was he the other half of Nefarious or was he a dimensional counterpart, and right now he was leaning towards the former, since there was only one Lawrence in their universe, "Once that's done we should be able to return to the Great Clock and ensure that everything is just fine... we can do that, right?"

"We can. The Caretakers told us not to return until Nefarious was dealt with." Clank replied, confirming Ratchet's thoughts on the matter, though at the same time he could see that his friend understood that he and Starswirl were keeping part of their time in the Great Clock from everyone, but he seemed to accept it without asking questions.

With the final destination of this adventure in mind the group departed from the Helios with Aphelion and Alister's ship, as Nefarious knew about the starship and was likely scanning for it, so keeping it on the opposite side of the sector might lure him into a false sense of security. The group discovered that the station had all sorts of asteroids floating near it, big ones that were obliterated by it's powerful laser that it fired a few seconds after their arrival, making it look like it was designed to clear the area of hazards so the station could remain safe. In addition to that Ratchet found that, while he landed at the edge of the station and picked a floating rock area of sorts, there was gravity outside the station and Autumn quickly discovered how it was possible, Nefarious must have found and contained an anomaly before creating a device to carefully turn it into power for his large station, including the outer gravity field. Alister, having landed nearby, wasn't even surprised by the fact that Autumn had figured that out in no time at all, in fact he could see her getting things set up for a hacking session so she could learn everything there was to learn about the station, but she checked out the Vendor first, arming everyone with the last weapon of this adventure, the Rift Inducer 5000.

Basically it was a weapon designed to open small portals to another dimension, without causing harm to the barriers that were already under extreme pressure right now, so tendrils could come out and snatch enemies, dragging any unfortunate foes into a dark dimension to be devoured, once more causing Alister to be thankful that he was on their side, otherwise he knew he'd be in real danger.

"Ratchet, come in." Qwark said, speaking as soon as they were done with the Vendor, using the same method Alister used as soon as they recruited him to join their cause, causing Ratchet and the others to pause for a moment, since it meant he must have found something for them to use, "I'm waiting on an asteroid between the outer ring and the main station, and, before you ask, I have a genius plan to get us inside the station!"

"Roger, we'll be there soon... oh, and both Clank and Starswirl are with us." Ratchet replied, as he figured that they might as well tell their friend the news that the missing pair had been found, and that they were here to deal with Nefarious, but before he got a response he cut the connection before turning towards the others, where everyone readied their arsenals for the fight of their life, "Let's do this!"

As the group started to move, using the Swingshot to head over to another platform, Autumn noted that there were a few sections they wouldn't be moving by in their quest to meet up with Qwark, containing power stations and nodes that held oil sections, but for the most part everything to the left of the landing area was worthless. Of course they found that none of the troopers were happy to see them, as they gathered in great numbers to tear Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, and Alister apart, but with the siblings reunited there was nothing they couldn't handle, especially given the weapons that they possessed and the magic Starswirl commanded. Such a thing allowed them to witness Starswirl's new power for the first time, where he showed far greater control over his magical powers as he carefully moved his arms and staff, creating bolts of purple energy that rushed through the space between them and their enemies, blasting the robots in the chest as the others moved forward. The Rift Inducer, on the other hand, tore through a group of enemies without much delay, as all of the tendrils that emerged from the other side snatched some of the troopers, dragging them to a dimension that just tore each of them to pieces and then, before the rift closed, burped out all of the remnants and Bolts that came from one of them taking a foe down.

In addition to all of that Ratchet found that Clank had a new trick up his sleeve, he was capable of manipulating time and could throw what he called Time Bombs, which the pair used to trap groups of enemies in a single area and then use one of the rockets from the Negotiator to blast them to pieces.

At the same time Alister found another reason to be thankful the group was on his side and not against him, as Ratchet, on his own, was a force to be reckoned with due to the size of his arsenal, his skills with his wrench, and everything else he had learned over the years, and with Clank he just wrecked everyone else. Autumn, when she wasn't spending her time on hacking into Nefarious' systems, used her weapons with lethal precision and skill, once more confirming that she and her siblings had military, often picking enemies that Ratchet and Starswirl weren't attacking. Starswirl, on the other hand, had all sorts of elemental powers that Autumn either didn't know about or didn't want to use on their enemies, as he seemed to use fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, and who knew what else against his opponents, wiping out his targets without a care in the world. Angela, the last of their number, while not possessing any powers of her own was able to fight on par with Ratchet, if not more so when he thought about her parents, one an inventor and one a warrior, just like Kaden and Millie, which just meant that the troopers were in for some trouble as the four of them tore through the defenses like they were made of paper.

Thanks to their power it wasn't long before they punched through Nefarious' defenses and reached the asteroid that they were supposed to meet Qwark on, where Ratchet simply shook his head as he found that the man was wearing a nurse's outfit, somehow sized to fit his massive body, and that he was happy to see everyone again. Qwark, knowing that time was of the essence, wasted no time in launching into his ingenious plan, where they would be using the nearby trash chute, an area he had convinced the troopers to reroute it, thereby allowing them to use it to enter the station. After that he would be taking on the guise of 'Shannon Hates Captain Qwark Mcgee', the persona he had created to infiltrate the base, where he even admitted that he was surprised that he got away with it since it was so obvious who he was, meaning Nefarious wasn't as smart as they originally assumed him to be. With his disguise in hand he would bring them to a vent that was, to their amazement, exposed and lead right to Nefarious' quarters, where Clank would make his way through it and quickly scan Nefarious' body so they could use his form to get to the Hypernova Defense Laser, thereby allowing them to wipe out the fleet before dealing with the mad doctor.

While most of them were in agreement with the plan, even with Autumn adding in a Hologuise to make them look like the troopers they had wiped out so far, Starswirl wondered if they should find Virtuous to enlist his help, but for now this did seem like a good plan, a shock for sure given Qwark's previous track record, and they used the transport to head inside the station.

When they entered the trash chute, however, things instantly went south as the machine turned on and Autumn hacked into the systems to make sure they weren't crushed, turning them off and opening the door in front of them, though that happened to be the easy part of the operation. As Ratchet expected the troopers who were on duty didn't approve of the group being here, even with Qwark trying to convince them that Nefarious was expecting them, and they issued an order to kill them, leading to the group waging war on the guards as their large friend lead the way to their next destination. Of course they would be surprised if Nefarious didn't stop them from reaching the vent in question, but since he had no idea Qwark had infiltrated his staff, due to the fact that the man was still alive, no one was holding their breath and suspected they would get through this without their foe realizing what in the world was going on. Alister, despite being old fashioned in terms of combat, fell back on the new arsenal they had gifted him and helped tear through the enemies that had come to stop them, where he found that he liked the weapons, even if he preferred Lombax weaponry, and continued to join the group in laying waste to the remaining enemies.

As the group made their way to the vent in question Autumn did a few more things to aid their cause, she claimed Qwark's device and fine tuned it so that it had Ratchet's actual measurements, so he could be correctly sized to match Nefarious in the end, and she cut off most of the station's communications, preventing their foe from realizing what was going on, or at least not until it was too late to stop them.

Once Clank claimed the scan of Nefarious' body, and returned to the group, Ratchet attached it to his belt and shifted into their foe's form, while at the same time Starswirl combined his magic with Autumn's Hologuise, allowing them to make a military escort for Ratchet. To anyone else they were troopers serving under Nefarious, while Ratchet was the big boss of the entire station, and Autumn was more than pleased to find that her alterations were making things easier for them, as none of them had to raise their weapons for some time. When they reached the main elevator they discovered that it was like what was in Axiom City, one of the callers that Alister used, and that it connected to Pollux, the Terachnoid who just so happened to be Nefarious' business partner, and even he was surprised by the arrival of his partner, as if expecting him to be studying the Great Clock. In the end, however, he activated the elevator and allowed them to reach the main command center, where Ratchet ordered all of the troopers that happened to be in his way to get out of the way, like Nefarious likely did in the past, before seizing control of the Hypernova Defense Laser to destroy some asteroids as Pollux recalled their fleet, a terrible mistake on his part.

As soon as the fleet was in position Ratchet fired the laser and tore them apart, as his target ended up splitting and that caused every other ship to be destroyed as well, though when the alarm was sounded the group dismissed their disguises and wiped out the security force, though as they used the elevator to escape they found Nefarious, with some of his own guards, standing on the other side of the door.

"Ratchet and Clank... and Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, Qwark, and even the elder!" Nefarious said, as it was clear that he had no idea that they had invaded his base, wiped out his forces and his fleet, and had basically crippled his plans to dominate all of time, even though Ratchet had no idea where Lawrence was, "I know what all of you are thinking: 'you can't use the Clock as a time machine!', 'it'll ruin the whole universe'... however, allow me to share with you my reasoning! Initiate super wavy flashback effect!"

That caused a machine to drop out of the ceiling and show them the memory he was talking about, his annoyance over being trapped on an asteroid for years, his crash landing on Zanifar, the soul quest he partook in, all of the classes that he took to manage his anger, and his discovery of the Great Clock, which started all of this madness.

"Of course, I don't remember finding the Great Clock... plus I'm sure that spirit quest tore my soul in half... but soon that will change and I'll be able to rewrite all of history!" Nefarious stated, though while the group wanted to say something, to stop him in his tracks, they decided to let him speak as several of them armed their weapons, as the guards clearly didn't want to be here and their boss had no idea they were backing off, "I will be able to wrong all the rights of the universe, make it so the villains win while the heroes lose, until my reality, a reality where the heroes always lose and I always win, is born from the ashes! You won't be able to stop me, not with..."

Before Nefarious could say anything he noticed that the group was readying their weapons and quickly warped out of the station, allowing them to lay waste to it, and Ratchet meant in the sense that Starswirl crushed it with his magic, as Pollux had escaped as well, allowing them to end this adventure on a high note as they left the wrecked station behind and turned their focus to what the future held for them and the universe.

Interlude: Shocking Discovery

Following the destruction of Nefarious' space station, and they were sure to leave nothing behind for him to use if he dared to make another attempt on controlling the entire universe, Starswirl directed the Helios to a hidden space where no one would be able to detect them, allowing him to open the way to the Great Clock, causing Ratchet's jaw to drop.

"So... this is the Great Clock." Alister remarked, where he and the others stared at the massive station that ensured that temporal normalcy was maintained across the universe, which Clank had restored to full functionality after an anomaly let a dangerous device into it's private part of space, "It's... honestly, it's incredible."

"Clank... your father made all of this?" Ratchet asked, as while he knew that Orvus must have used the Zoni to construct a fair amount of the station, given what his friend had told them when he rejoined the group, the sheer magnitude of what he and the others were seeing caused him to pause for a few seconds.

"Yes, and he left it all to me." Clank said, which was the truth of the matter, he had been partly created to be an heir for the Great Clock and partly to be a partner of one of the universe's greatest heroes, or at least that was what he assumed his father meant for him, before they crossed through the Clock's protective barrier, hence why it remained hidden for so long, and he glanced at the landing platform, "Or at least, that was the plan... but, since my father is fine, you won't have to worry about me abandoning all of you."

Ratchet, Autumn, Angela, and Alister had been expecting Orvus to be lost in the streams of time or something, based on the events of Zanifar, but here he was, floating with a smile on his face as if nothing was wrong, which made them wonder what in the world was going on as Ratchet docked near the edge of the platform.

"Good job my boy. You and your friends, both new and old, stopped the greatest threat to the Great Clock." Orvus stated, showing them that he knew that Nefarious was dangerous and that he should be kept away from this important station, a place Nefarious apparently didn't know about anymore, all while he spoke as soon as they walked down the ramp that Ratchet deployed so they could walk down to him, "Before you ask, yes, I am Orvus, and I will answer the questions you have in due time... but first, well, there are two very special individuals I want to introduce all of you to."

As most of the group opened their mouths, so they could ask what he was talking about, Alister dropped his weapon as soon as two Lombaxes appeared at the end of the walkway, showing his surprise over who he was seeing, which caused Ratchet to stop for a moment.

"It... it can't be! I know Aphelion said everyone was alive, but I didn't dare to hope she was right... Kaden? Millie?" Alister said, where it was clear from his shocked expression and his voice that he couldn't believe the scene that was in front of him right now, especially since Angela felt the same when she laid eyes on Ratchet's parents, as while Aphelion said that they were fine many of them were expecting the pair to be in another dimension.

"Alister! It's been ages!" Kaden replied, embracing the shocked Lombax as if he hadn't been gone for a long time, or hadn't been crushed by Tachyon, which was the story Alister had been stuck with since the fall of Fastoon, while Millie nodded as she watched them, even though the pair focused on the one person they were interested in, "Ratchet..."

There wasn't much to say as Ratchet, without wasting any time, rushed into the arms of his parents, two people that he had thought were dead, much like the rest of the universe, and even with Aphelion giving him the information he and his siblings shared with Alister he thought he'd never see either of them. As they walked to a living area that Orvus had made ready for them, in fact he suspected that Ratchet and his family would use the area as a secret retreat whenever one or all of the family needed to rest, Clank filled them in on the information he and Starswirl learned, that upon entering the last chamber, the Orvus Chamber, he learned that Kaden and Millie were fine. Of course his father swore them to secrecy, as it would ruin the surprise when they eventually reached the Great Clock, and while they hated not telling Ratchet the news, as they desperately wanted to tell him about his parents, both decided to abide by Orvus' wishes and kept it to themselves for the short period that was required of them. While they walked, however, a message arrived from Virtuous, who was far more trustworthy than his evil counterpart, in fact Orvus told them that he erased the location of the Great Clock from the evil doctor's core to keep the station safe, informing them that Polaris was safe for the time being.

When they reached the residence and took their seats, with Sigmund passing out drinks while they talked, Kaden told the group about how he escaped Fastoon, as after all the portals had been opened, and everyone but he and Alister had gone through, Orvus opened a portal for him to enter. Of course it was far too dangerous to take the Dimensionator, which had been overused to ensure the safety of the Lombax race and needed time to rest, straight to an area like the Great Clock, so he was moved to another planet in Polaris, without passing through the station. From there it was a simple matter for the two of them to speak, especially bring Millie back to him, who had been saved after sending Rivet off in a ship she had set for Sargasso, even if it never arrived, where Kaden put forth his plan to let the Dimensionator cool down. Of course the downside of his plan was that, until the dimension crisis was over, he couldn't use the device and hid it away where only a select few would find it, Max Apogee not being one of them, showing them that even the bed laid plans could be wrecked by someone they weren't expecting.

They did pause for a time as Starswirl noticed the arrival of the rest of the family, that being Sasha, Nika, and Talwyn now, and opened the way for them to join them, leading to a shock when each of them noticed that Kaden and Millie were here, in this dimension, showing that they believed that they were in another one.

"I've been working for a long time to stabilize the barrier between dimensions, and let me tell you it hasn't been an easy task to take on," Kaden continued, as most of what he had said was old news for some of the group, even though Ratchet was taking in his and Millie's story while he remained silent, showing them that his sworn siblings had helped him out in more ways than one, where he sipped at his tea before considering his next words carefully, "Someone, we don't know who yet, is messing with the barrier between dimensions, weakening it in another portion of this galaxy, and until we stop them we won't be able to use the Dimensionator... we haven't found them, not yet anyway, but that's something Virtuous is working on."

"Other than the other Lombaxes, who would you... be... seeking..." Autumn started to say, though in the following instant she understood what Kaden was saying, especially since she and the others hadn't thought about for some time, simply out of fear that they would harm Ratchet by mentioning her name, "No way!"

"Rivet! It has to be... but, last we saw of her, she was seriously wounded and drugged up." Ratchet said, because after the Dimensionator was wrecked due to their battle with Tachyon he had given up hope of being able to save Rivet from what had happened to her, in fact after an entire year he was worried that something had happened to her and didn't want to think about what that something might have been.

"That's right, but she's still alive." Millie replied, where Orvus pulled a screen over and they saw that it revealed a crack in the barrier between dimensions, the ones that Ratchet and the others had seen multiple times over the years, before they found Rivet up and about, working on something in her home, and she still bared the scars of her ordeal, as her right arm was still missing, "As much as it pains me to leave her like this, wounded and alone, the dimensions will literally shatter if we use the Dimensionator to go to her aid... we have to deal with the ongoing problem before rushing to Rivet's side."

Ratchet sighed as he heard that, as he had been hoping, against all odds, that they could have healed the dimensional barrier and make it possible for them to aid his sister, but this was fine, in fact there was so much for them to catch up on and, with his siblings joining him, he knew that it was only a matter of time until things got better for them.

All 4 One: Igliak

Following the end of their second adventure in Polaris a few things happened, the first being that Ratchet and his family moved to a new house in the main city, because the next villain they were interested in, the one wrecking the barriers that existed between dimensions, should reveal themselves in due time. Many of the citizens of Polaris were happy for that, due to the fact that they stopped Tachyon and even brought down a number of villains in their quest for the Great Clock, though not many knew that such a thing had been the end goal of their enemies, rather they knew that they had stopped Nefarious' plans. Of course news spread of their deeds, which ended up making the lesser villains simply give up and change their lives so they didn't get wrecked by Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, much less everyone else, though in addition to them moving into Polaris the people found that Alister returned with his head held high. Sure, he was still annoyed at his part in allowing Tachyon to destroy Fastoon, but Kaden and Millie convinced him not to blame himself for everything, especially given the information Aphelion had obtained, while Ratchet's parents also revealed themselves to the universe, even if they kept their home a secret.

In addition to that Qwark, against all odds, was elected as the Galactic of Solana, Bogon, and Polaris, where Autumn was sure that someone was trying to ruin him and offered to point him in the right direction so he understood the nature of his office, something that the man was grateful for.

Ratchet found that, while they were searching for Nefarious, the public adored Virtuous, which was interesting since he looked a lot like the evil doctor, save for the color scheme, but since he couldn't tell the rest of the universe that he was the other half of Nefarious he simply let them have their rumors. He was well loved by Polaris' people, as he had spent a great deal of time tending to their needs and saving them from danger, showing that he was totally Nefarious' polar opposite, and he even treated Lawrence far better than his other half did, hence why the butler changed teams shortly after his boss was split in half. Virtuous also had plans to make new troopers that would help keep the planets of Polaris safe, ones that had a different design from the troopers Ratchet and the others had seen during their previous adventure, though his first steps involved seizing most of Nefarious' assets, his bank accounts and his bases, cutting into the evil deeds that he was able to do while keeping the people safe. Even Virtuous was surprised by how well he had been received by the public, especially when he took his own form into consideration, but he wasn't about to complain about this turn of events as he waved at them whenever the opportunity presented itself.

While that was going on Autumn continued to make new weapon, gadget, and armor plans, either for heroes like the rest of the heroes who started after Qwark's defeat all those years ago, or were trying to follow in his footsteps, the Rangers that protected parts of Solana, and everyone else. Starswirl, as they expected, went back to his studies in the Great Clock, as he had so much more to learn about his magic, the power of time and space, and whatever else he was researching, plus they knew that it would come in handy if another crack in reality appeared, as he might find a way to use magic without setting off a chain reaction. Such a thing lead him to share his theory on why they were seeing the various cracks in reality, as he was sure that either he or Autumn, at some point in the future, would use their magic near one of them, as it would explain why only they, for the most part, were seeing the cracks. He was positive that was why the cracks seemed to appear for them over the years, it was responding to their magical energies, though the ones with Rivet were caused by whoever was still messing with the barrier between dimensions, hence why he was helping Kaden and the others in their efforts to find the offender and stop them.

Of course Autumn and Starswirl noticed how their brother looked from time to time, as while he was happy to have both of his parents back, something none of them had thought possible given the Dimensionator's current state, he was sad due to the lack of it feeling complete. He was trying to hide his pain by smiling and waving as he did everything in his own power to make the universe a better place for everyone, but they knew the truth of the matter, that every time he thought he was getting closer to saving Rivet, or being able to rush to her side, something was thrown at him to stop him. He had to be frustrated with this turn of events, that his hope had been restored after learning that his sister was fine, only to find that they were unable to use the Dimensionator, meaning fixing it was possible, least they tear the entirety of the known dimensions apart. He was desperate to go to her side, that was true, but he wasn't stupid enough to even dare to do such a thing with the barrier between dimensions in the state his father claimed it was in, and since Alister informed him that Kaden wasn't a liar that meant he was dead serious about this topic.

It was for that reason that she and Starswirl were focused on tracking down the one responsible for wrecking the barrier between dimensions so their brother could finally be reunited with his sister, even though they were sure that it would be sometime before the villain in question would be found, so they just had to be patient and wait for them to show up.

By the time a year had passed since the family went deeper into Polaris, to track down Clank and the Great Clock, Autumn and Starswirl joined Qwark on the planet of Igliak, in the city of Luminopolis, as he wanted some backup for something, to which they landed on the Star Explorer, since Aphelion was with Ratchet.

"Let's see here: 'In conclusion, I humbly accept this reward for subduing the insidious and dangerous light-eating Z'Grute, against near-impossible odds'." Qwark finished, as he had been preparing a speech during their journey to the location he had been invited to, because Autumn had helped him tap into some untapped potential and, despite being the President of the known universe, he still made time to beat up villains, and occasionally monsters, though he never remembered his battles against the latter category, "How's that sound?"

"It's decent, given that many in Polaris don't care for fancy words." Autumn replied, where she had outfitted the ship with all sorts of upgrades so it was actually larger on the inside than it was on the outside, so they could fit someone like Qwark inside it without breaking the glass or ruining parts of the ship, before she faced the area in front of them.

"However, aren't you worried that accepting a reward for something you didn't do will make you seem deceitful in the eyes of the public?" Starswirl inquired, as while they knew Qwark had improved over the years, due to interacting with them, their family, and helping take down some of their enemies, he still stuck to some of his core ideals and one was that he always had to be the hero.

"Actually, he's not lying." a voice said, where they found Virtuous standing by a lamppost, meaning he must have heard of their visit to Luminopolis and decided to pay them a visit, secretly since there weren't any reporters hounding them right now, while Lawrence appeared to be elsewhere, though he opened a video of the battle in question, "His late night fights against evil are, surprising, truthful and the public adores him for every monster and villain he puts away with his own two hands... I still don't fully understand the people of Polaris, but I'm not about to argue with them."

"Still, you'd think he'd be a lot more subtle with his traps... the podium is right in front of the Z'Grute's mouth." Autumn commented, referring to the massive monster that was in front of them, frozen in stasis after Qwark apparently beat it up, with nothing more than his small gun based on the fight video, and the fact that a shoddy podium was right in front of it's open mouth, something they knew to be Nefarious' handiwork.

Their reasoning for this being something that the evil doctor would do is because the award was called the 'Intergalactic Tool of Justice' award, and since he hated Qwark, with every fiber of his robotic body, this trap screamed that it was what he had spent his time working towards, especially with the cloak and dagger feel of the invite, not to mention the fact that Autumn could see Nefarious hiding behind the stands.

"Now then, let's begin." Qwark said, where he showed off his new found intelligence, as he had spotted Nefarious out of the corner of his eye as well and, due to the lessons he had gained from Ratchet's siblings, knew not to engage Nefarious just yet, all while the others gathered nearby, allowing him to clap his hands, "House lights!"

In that moment Nefarious emerged in what had to be the smallest hover carrier ever created, as it was built for a single person and seemed to be equipped with a weapon of some unknown kind, and he pulled out a microphone that he was no doubt going to use to speak to them.

"Why hello Mister President!" Nefarious declared, where he seemed pleased to see the lot of them, even though they had been expecting this from the very beginning, in fact most of them knew not to even call Nefarious out since he'd throw a tantrum if they attacked him too early, "So nice of you to accept my invitation!"

"Nefarious, I know we blew up the last station, but I was expecting you to have made something bigger than this in the year you've had." Starswirl stated, where he shifted his stance for a moment as he summoned his staff, while Autumn did the same with her new wrench-staff, as she created her own after seeing Alister's in action and had modified it to make it a better weapon for combat.

"Wow, your hysterical... let's see if you can crack jokes from the inside of the digestive track of the Z'Grute! LAWRENCE!" Nefarious shouted, where he paused for a few moments, clearly expecting something to happen when he called out his butler's name, before remembering that Lawrence was no longer in his employment, causing him to sigh for a moment as he activated the saucer's main weapon.

Sure enough it was a device that roused the Z'Grute from the cryosleep it had been stuck in, causing Qwark to move out of the way before it could eat him, and, just as Autumn predicted, it devoured the energy of Nefarious' saucer, causing him to warp off the planet as he left the heroes to fight the revived monster.

"It's time to get serious." Virtuous stated, where they watched as the Z'Grute started to move away from the arena that Nefarious had brought them to and started to snack on several of the nearby power sources, causing him to shift his own stance for a moment as his arm blade opened and extended, revealing the hilt of a katana, "Nefarious had plans to make a melee weapon for himself, utilizing his own arm blades to make either razor sharp blades that cut through metal or an odd chainsaw to mow his way through his enemies... I opted for this."

"Nice to see you have a new toy... it just so happens that I have one as well." Qwark said, where he stepped forward and removed his President attire, which stored themselves in a container Autumn had made for him, before he brought the sides of his fists together, like he was holding a tube, and pulled them apart, revealing the long handle of a long weapon, which had a large metallic hammer head on it, "I had Autumn whip me up something special, since I've been training to be a true hero of the universe... but I'll tell you about it later, for we have a Z'Grute to stop!"

With their melee weapons at the ready the group of four headed down the path in front of them, jumping over fallen bits of metal that the Z'Grute discarded after eating the power inside each item, making sure to break any crates that might be in the way, even though they heard that Kip and Pepper, from a talk show, were commentating over the scene Nefarious had created. Autumn also make sure to give both Qwark and Virtuous their own Swingshot, which could be used to tether to someone else, mostly to ensure no one fell into the abyss or anything, which they used to navigate the city, before they found an area that had a large light bulb that the Z'Grute broke. Such a thing dropped a few Lumenoids, little electric ray critters, that weren't too happy about being used as energy sources and attacked the group accordingly as the Z'Grute just wandered off, though they wiped out the small group of foes before moving further along the path, as there seemed to be only one for them to follow right now, as odd as it sounded. In addition to that there were odd switches that needed to be activated by performing the ground slam attack on top of them, hitting the head of their weapons on top of them, but the pair proved to be nothing before the group as they used an energy walkway to move forward.

What was interesting was that there was a sonic summoner, a device that all four of them needed to hit with their ranged weapons, all designed to be boomerangs interesting enough, that called forth a taxi for them to use, so they climbed into it and followed the Z'Grute further into the city, avoiding other vehicles and obstacles as they did so. When the Z'Grute smashed the taxi with a punch the group dropped down onto a thick grind rail, part of the city's electrical system, and just sped off to another portion of Luminopolis, stopping at a new structure with more buttons to activate. Once that task was done they were able to enter the building and discovered some odd orange colored robots that seemed interested in the Z'Grute as well, even though they used lasers to attack the group, either to knock them out or just to eliminate enemies as they completed their task. Virtuous confirmed that these weren't his and he was sure they weren't Nefarious' either, as he was sure they would have been used against them sooner, where Autumn informed everyone that she was going to take a few of them for later, to see what they were made of, claiming a downed one while the others shattered the remainder of their enemies.

Once that was done they found a Vendor, this one designed to look like a bullet casing that had pierced the ground while leaving four platforms for them to stand on and possessing a satellite on top, and they discovered the new Combuster, as well as the Friendship Through Firepower system, combining attacks equaled greater damage.

With a quick lesson under their belts, and a new weapon in hand, the group waged war on the minions that were blocking the way forward, as while it wasn't hard to deal with the robots with all of their melee weapons adding actual weapons to the equation really tipped things in their favor, far more than before. While they did so some of the minions were seen not a few moments behind the Z'Grute, confirming that they were here for it as well, or at least it sure looked like it, but, since it seemed like their paths wouldn't cross just yet, the group focused on their own enemies. Even a new type of enemy that just fired at them, with a gun of some kind, didn't stand much of a chance against the group and, since there were more than one of each type of enemy, Autumn made sure to imprison one for her collection, to be examined later on. While the group marched through the city they had to wonder who was controlling the robots, even though they knew it had to be the next villain, with Autumn and Starswirl hoping that they might find the one messing with dimensions to allow Ratchet to complete his personal task.

Eventually they found a small hover device that brought them to the area that the Z'Grute was in, where they found that the minions were fighting it, and losing at the same time, so once Autumn and the others landed they waged war on the massive beast, intending to bring it down and save Luminopolis. From what they could see the Z'Grute only had a couple of attacks, swinging it's fist down at the platform they were standing on, combining both in a ground pound, or shocking the ground to make them move, all while it stood on a pipe to fight them. When they dealt enough damage the beast took a moment to activate a power source to recharge itself, where the group blasted it's food source and blasted it backwards with the new combined abilities of their new weapons. After that, sending the beast into a wall, the group had to spring down a path and use a launcher to reach another grind rail, allowing them to flee as the Z'Grute chased them, though as they did so Autumn noticed that they were approaching Zodd Tower, which had four fusion turrets installed on it, and an idea formed in her mind that she shared with the group.

As they landed on a stable platform, separated from the Z'Grute, it appeared that the minions and the announcer also understood their plan and the beast started to climb up to a building across the city, while they made a quick stop at the Vendor to purchase the Plasmabomb Launcher, a new toy in Autumn's sixth tier arsenal.

With that done they assaulted the minions that were blocking their path, all while overhearing that someone had installed the fusion turrets in the event of Nefarious attacking the city, so while they weren't being used in their original purpose it would be nice to use them against the Z'Grute. The beast, of course, caught up with them and tired to attack them again, meaning it knew they were dangerous, especially as Starswirl crushed a minion in an instant with some of his magic, and it seemed to go down for a short bit. By that they found that the Z'Grute returned as they used a lift to head up to the top of the tower, finding that it spotted a new power source across the section of the city that they happened to be in, so while it leapt over to feast the group dealt with some minions that tried to stop them. Once the distraction was dealt with the four of them climbed into the four fusion turrets and opened fire on the Z'Grute, first blasting down it's new barrier, which was powered by the station it was feeding on, before unleashing the full might of the turrets on the beast.

The final blast sent the beast back down to the arena it had been positioned in earlier, allowing them to use a platform of magical energy to reach it's former resting place, finding that it seemed to be unconscious, but before anyone could even say anything the sky darkened as a moon sized ship, surrounded by dark clouds and possessing a red eye, appeared in the sky above them.

"That's new. Definitely not something any of our allies possess." Virtuous stated, where they found that the minions came from it, meaning it was connected to the new villain that was revealing itself to them, and there were far too many for the group to take on, or at least not without using Starswirl's magic, which would do some serious damage to the city based on the positioning of the minions.

"Then we'll beat the villain, take the ship, and study it." Autumn replied, as weather manipulation, which not perfect, was something that she and several scientists were in the middle of creating for the universe, before noticing that the minions were interested in hauling off the Z'Grute, and several of them as well.

In the next few moments the group, rendered unconscious due to some hidden gas canisters, were abducted by the rest of the minions and carted off to the new ship, even though that was their plan all along, as it would allow them to get one step closer to taking down another villain, they just had to be patient for a time.

All 4 One: Deadgrove

When morning arrived Autumn made sure that she, Starswirl, and Qwark had something to eat, since Virtuous didn't eat, save for the fact that his body could process liquids and he rarely did so, before heading into the underground area that was on the edge of the Tharpod village.

We've been going over the information that the elder gave you, and determined that you are leaving Aldaros Plains, as the area in front of you is the Deadgrove. Cronk commented, speaking as the group approached a Vendor that had been sent down to where they were positioned, in fact Autumn wasn't going to ask how since she could see an opening above them that a satellite could spy them from, which he and Zephyr were using to follow their progress, According to the feed, there is a large sorting station exactly one sector north of your current position... I bet my original rotator cuff that that's where you guys will find this 'Commander' Spog.

As Zephyr mentioned that they would have to find a subterranean railway station, the key to moving forward, the group took a moment to access the Vendor, allowing them to restock their ammunition before obtaining two new toys, where the first was the Blitzer, which was a punching weapon like the Walloper of old, and the second was the Warmonger, which was a rocket launcher. With those weapons in hand, and everyone had restocked their ammunition while empowering any other weapons that were available, the group headed down the path that was in front of them, which involved heading deeper into the earth, or at least the parts that weren't broken by all of the gravity machines. Of course it allowed them to face new enemies, such as the Dreadgrubs, bug critters that were native to Magnus and were incredibly weak, as a single shot was more than enough to take them down, be it from their pistols or their melee weapons. Not only that they found a large beetle creature with a harder shell and a horn growing out of it's head, though Starswirl used his magic to stall them and flip them so the others could wipe them out, even though they could just let it charge them and attack the underbelly after that.

Other than that there didn't seem to be too much for the group to worry about, as they found many minion additions to make it easier for all of their grounded enemies to move throughout the Deadgrove, but, even if that was the case, they kept their guards up since they had no idea what might be around a vine or corner.

"Is that... a minion tending to a turret?" Qwark inquired, as they found an area that seemed to have a powerful turret, no doubt to be used against the critters of Deadgrove, and it looked like the minion in question was currently getting a drink from a water cooler that had been placed near his position.

"Indeed it is. It'll likely see us as an enemy, but maybe we can reason with..." Autumn replied, though before she could even finish her statement the minion noticed them and rushed over to it's turret, turning it on the area they were in so it could be ready, all while radioing in to the rest of the minions who were stationed down here, "...it. You know what, let's just stick to blasting everything."

Virtuous nodded as he jumped down into the area and showed off his reflexes as he moved around the turret, before the minion had a chance to track him down, where they discovered that the back was wide open and if they attacked that part the battle would be over in seconds. With the turret taken care of, and Autumn had collected parts of it for later, she and the others continued down the path it had been guarding and found yet another gadget waiting for them, making Qwark wonder just how many they would obtain during this adventure. This one happened to be four Quakehammers, which let the users drill through hard stone in search of treasure, or at least that was what the Tharpods used before being drive to their current conditions, though when they combined them together they unleashed a contained mega-quake that just shattered the wall of rock in front of them. With that done they used some bouncers to propel themselves over to the next part of Deadgrove, where they walked down the path in front of them and opened fire on the minion that was outside it's fission turret, allowing Starswirl to ensure that the area was clear before they used a pad to send them flying once more, to deal with another beetle and then propel themselves onto a vine.

The vine, however, took them deeper into the region that they were moving through, as when it ended them grabbed a couple of peaceful critters, in case they found any of the other four labs, before leaping across some stones to reach the stone platform in front of them. Sure enough another barrier minion decided to try and trap them in this area, though it only caused Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous to chuckle as they opened fire on their enemies, wiping them out in a matter of moments before taking out the fission turrets that were positioned further ahead. After that they found what, at a glance, looked like a dead end, but Virtuous knew that this was where they could use their Quakehammers and the rest of the group did so without much delay, allowing them to break through it with ease. Once the rock wall had collapsed the four of them walked down into the next area, which was when Cronk called and informed them that they were detecting collection activity in the mining camp below their position, meaning they had to be getting closer to their destination, or at least one of them since this meant they were getting closer to some rails.

After that they launched themselves over to an area that seemed to have a number of brittle layers for them to blast their way through with their Quakehammers, along with clearing out each level of crates, since there didn't seem to be many minions for them to deal with. Along the way Qwark found some sort of bulb that exploded when launched at something, like a steel shutter wall for example, allowing everyone to progress as Autumn fell back a little to make her notes on what they were uncovering, since they discovered something interesting every now and then and she wanted to keep track of it all for later. She also discovered some rather bouncy mushrooms that were growing out of some of the walls, which would send them in a certain direction based on how they grew, but, as everyone expected, the mushrooms were groomed in a way so whoever used them would be pushed along the path they were currently following. What was interesting was that the further along in this adventure that Autumn, Starswirl, Virtuous, and Qwark got in this adventure the more times they found an area that required more than one of them to do something to progress, providing an interesting challenge that none of them were used to.

Eventually, however, they discovered a new creature in the depths of the mine, a massive worm like critter that dug into the walls around them, where Zephyr informed them that it was a Wigwump from Sargasso, a carnivore to be exact, and it seemed to be eyeing everyone before digging into a wall, allowing them to outrun a collapsing scaffold before moving even deeper than before.

There was a shattered rail system that allowed the group to make rapid progress in descending to the depths, all so they could make their way to the area Spog was resting in, and dropped them at some steel platforms that Autumn and the others were able to traverse as well. Such a thing lead to another rail system that eventually brought them to a set of Jet Packs, allowing them to equip the gadgets before taking flight, as in move from side to side and, amazingly, perform what was a powerful smashing move to wreck whatever was in their way. The Jet Packs allowed them to safely navigate the area that was below them, avoiding still working incinerators, something none of them were going to question since some of their previous adventures had taken them to deserted places that still operated with no one working on them, while also avoiding saws and other hazards. An interesting aspect was the fact that they still had to break through some stone that was blocking the way, along with pausing on steel platforms every now and then, which seemed designed to allow the Jet Packs to rapidly recharge their power sources, or at least top off before the next session, and they even smashed a couple of laser turrets that happened to be in the way.

Autumn had a feeling that, to ensure no one tried to use this path against them, Nevo or his boss designed some terrible additions to the shaft the group was flying through, as some of the hazards actually tried to chase them down for a short period of time, but even with that happening she and the others were able to out fly the traps, until they came to a stop in an area that had another of Croid's weapon labs.

"Honestly, I'm surprised we've found another one, not that long after finding the last two." Qwark commented, which the rest of the group agreed with, even Autumn, when she went over where the pieces of the RYNO IV and V holoplans went, felt it was strange, as they were usually more spread out than this, making her wonder if they'd have the RYNO VI before reaching the halfway point of this adventure.

"Indeed. It's almost like Croid wants his allies to be armed for whatever is waiting for us." Virtuous said, though this time they headed inside the lab and found that, just like the ones before it, they had to escort some critters to the end of the line and they did so without delay.

This time around the group found that they didn't have to use either of the new gadgets they had discovered, which was just weird since Autumn knew the Glob Lobber had been used in a lab after they found it, but she wasn't about to ask any questions as they claimed the right arm piece of the plans. With that done the group returned to the path they had been following and used a platform to propel themselves forward once more, finding more bugs and minions to do battle with as they pushed deeper into the Deadgrove, as Cronk and Zephyr were sure that they were close to the rail system, which was good news for them. An interesting thing they uncovered was that there were mortar minions now, as they launched their bombs at Qwark as he stepped into their range, though no harm came to him as Starswirl engaged his magic and quickly sent the explosives at their owners, wiping all of them out so the group could move forward. While they fought all of their enemies, however, Autumn noticed that there were several other rail systems that were moving right now, so that meant someone was still mining into the area and using the material, no doubt Spog's master when the group took a few seconds to consider it.

After clearing out the rest of the enemies they found the rail station that Cronk and Zephyr had told them about earlier, which caused them to let out a sigh of relief as everyone stepped on the platform in front of them, as it moved as soon as everyone was on it, but they weren't able to get too far as the Wigwamp smashed through a wall and shattered the steel platform they were on.

Such a thing caused them to deploy their Jet Packs and descend into the depths once more, this time racing to avoid the massive beast that was following them right now, all while it looked like they were heading into the Wigwamp's nest, a bad sign since it might see them as either invaders or precious food. There were instances where everyone had to stop as the Wigwamp blocked the path, though by kicking at it's head, with the applied pressure of the thruster mode of the Jet Packs, they were able to force it back into some of the holes that it emerged from so they could get away from it. Starswirl could tell that they were doing some small amount of damage to the creature, even if it might be getting angrier with them while they did that, but for right now it seemed like this was all he, Autumn, and their friends could do. It even followed the four of them down another portion of it, trying to eat them after finding that the other methods didn't work for it, but Autumn found that they were able to bypass it's attempts and smashed through one last layer, finding a large arena of sorts that had a pool of acid and, more importantly, another rail system off in the distance.

Of course it emerged from the pool, which did nothing to it, and they opened fire on it, usually because reasoning with the various beasts did nothing, finding that it seemed to be able to heat up parts of the ground by breathing on them, but as time went by they discovered launch pads so they could use the thruster feature again, allowing them to known out the Wigwamp in no time at all.

"Okay, let's get out of here before something else finds us." Qwark said, as while he knew that Autumn and Starswirl could deal with anything, or at least they could as long as they had access to their magic, before he paused for a moment as he found what appeared to be an egg shaped device that he handed to Autumn.

Together they watched as she activated it and they discovered that it was like an Infobot, where it revealed that it was the diary of someone, Croid most likely, who stood on Zuzzo Fields as Commander Spog and his forces wasted Ozo City, while Ephemeris floated silently in the sky like a moon.

"Croid called it an ark... there's more to the story that we need to find." Autumn stated, as the holo-diary only opened new questions for them to ask, even though it was clear something had happened between Croid and Nevo, leading to one of them, the former it seemed, making Ephemeris while the latter simply stole it, "We must find Spog at once... he might hold the key to stopping Ephemeris and his dark master."

Starswirl found that Qwark and Nefarious agreed with his sister, to which they boarded the nearby rail platform and let it take them out of the Wigwarm's barrow, as it was time for them to make some real progress and deal with Spog, hopefully before anything else happened to them.

All 4 One: N.E.S.T.

The group had to wait for a while as the platform moved along the railway that it was connected to, though their patience was rewarded as they finally emerged from the depths of the Deadgrove and stopped at a platform that had a Vendor for them to use.

According to our research, you four have reached the Northern Extraterrestrial Sorting Terminal, or N.E.S.T. as they call it. Cronk stated, speaking once they were outside and happened to be purchasing the ammunition they needed for their growing arsenals, where Virtuous found that it really was a pebble in the ocean of the wealth that Autumn had gathered over their many years as heroes, We have spotted Spog a fair distance from your position, so you'll have to fight your way to his part of the station.

"Figured as much." Autumn remarked, as it was never too easy for her and the others, because they usually had to fight their way through all sorts of enemies and obstacles before reaching their destination, before the group focused on the Vendor and found that the Critter Strike, the newest Morph-o-Ray weapon, was available for purchase, along with an empowered Mr. Zurkon and a Pyro Blaster, both wonderful additions as well.

With the new weapons in hand the group made sure that everyone was ready before using the launch Swingshots to move up and out of the area that the rail platform had stopped in, even if it meant climbing the side of a rock pillar for a time so they could better see the area that they had been brought to. They also found a spot to use the Glob Lobber so they could enter yet another ruined Tharpod settlement, though this time around the group couldn't stop and help them, not like with Susie's place, so they focused on making their way to the next part of the area. Sadly Cronk and Zephyr noticed that the main path was blocked and were currently scanning for a path that they could use, though their warning not to get into trouble was unheard as they unhinged some massive boulders to uncover the main path that was heading out of the settlement. They also discovered plenty of Weevoid toxin on part of the ground, a powerful binding agent that was used to trap prey, meaning that they would likely encounter the creatures as well at some point, though Starswirl did use a bit of his magic to scatter most of the material after Autumn claimed her samples.

After being flung at the next section of their path the group found that there were a few moving rocks that turned out to be purple skinned critters that actually looked like scorpions, Weevoids as they discovered, and after taking care of them the group moved over to another area, even though the bridge behind them was broken by something after they came to a stop on the other side.

An interesting way to move forward emerged when they discovered that they had to use the bounce mushrooms to do so, to which the group used them and opened fire on minions and Weevoids alike, including pesky flying minions that looked a lot like wasps when fully revealed, so Autumn caught a few hunter minions before they wiped them out. These minions wielded lasers against them, a favorite of theirs apparently, though it wasn't long before the area was cleared and the four of them were moving on like normal, even if Qwark and Virtuous were getting used to traveling with the siblings. They also found that they were passing by some falls, allowing them to stop for some water, after Autumn made sure it was safe for them to drink, since they had no idea what other creatures might have been brought to Magnus, before pressing on so they could find Spog. Eventually they found an interesting sight, there were four wooden elevators for them to use, each of them having their own wheel attached to them, so once the enemies were taken care of they gained access to the new device and used them to reach the upper area that was above them.

Once they were done with the wooden lifts the group found themselves in yet another ruined settlement that Spog might have ordered an attack on at some point in the last few hours, or fairly recently since the minions were still attacking it, right in front of their eyes, to which the group opened fire on them as they carefully moved forward. As they did that, and tore down the attackers that happened to be in the way, the group heard a familiar voice, the AI from the training grounds that informed all of the Tharpods that this land, which they had built their latest settlement on, was now being claimed for yet another creature that would be arriving in due time. In fact she told them to collect their problems and relocate to an area she called the corner of 'We Don't Care' and 'Not Our Problem', meaning that she and Spog believed whatever their Master told them, though it also confirmed that they had to take this villain down before something terrible happened to this world. Autumn's reasoning for that was due to all of the creatures that they had seen so far, there had to be a reason for all of them to be brought to Magnus, a reason they had yet to discover, hence why she was having either warbot look into the knowledge they had access to, as there had to be a powerful creature that might explain everything.

Cronk and Zephyr, upon hearing that, decided to belay their previous recommendation and told the group to unleash all sorts of mayhem on the minions and their masters, which was what the group was doing as they pushed forward, even a whole squad of mortar minions couldn't stand before their might, not with Starswirl unleashing a blast of magic that tore all of his targets apart.

The Tharpods cheered for them as they made their way through the ruined settlement, showing their appreciation for all of the hard work that Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous were doing, even pointing the way to an area that had been turned into an arena for the minions to ambush them in. Of course the group wasn't too surprised by this, rather the four of them turned the tide on all of their enemies as they tore each and every minion down, quickly clearing the area so they could make their way to Spog's portion of the area. Autumn also listened to the reports that the warbots gave them, which included one mistaking a crate facility for a rail station, meaning the geoscan of the area was either at fault or she needed to upgrade them some more, but all of it was good information for her and the others to work on. As they crossed a gap, by using some Swingshots and a rotating one, the group found a large glass facility nearby and suspected that it was the area that they had been working towards for some time, even though none of them had spotted Spog flying through the surrounding area, which made them wonder where he might be lurking.

Qwark even found some more lifts for them to use to make some progress, especially since the warbots confirmed that a power source connected the area they were in to the N.E.S.T. loading bay, meaning they might have found their ticket into the compound and used a launch platform to move forward. The platform allowed them to land right on the pipes that were the power source, which was followed by the four of them grinding along it as it brought them to their destination, only to discover Spog flying through the air. What was interesting was that his design wasn't in the Hall of Knowledge, an odd fact for sure, and while the warbots informed them that it was a violation it also meant that whoever stole the large moon station must have also build Spog as their enforcer. Fortunately it didn't seem like he had noticed them yet, since he seemed to be more interested in moving creature containers and observing the construction of the area, allowing them to reach the end of the pipe so Starswirl could hide another Vendor without their enemies noticing it hitting the area, which worked as a charm since no alarms sounded.

After making sure everything was fine the group empowered their weapons further and restocked their ammunition once more, taking all of a few seconds, before getting underway as Cronk and Zephyr kept an eye on Spog, to give them more information on his movements before the final battle.

It didn't stay that way for too long as some of the lesser minions noticed them and opened fire on the group, where they responded in kind and made sure to keep each fight as unnoticed as they possibly could, to prevent Spog or his allies from noticing that enemies had invaded their domain. Of course they had to deal with a few obstacles, like utilizing the energy beings to power bridges and close incinerator vents, while wiping out their enemies to get closer to their destination, while at the same time the two warbots whined about not being there with them, as it seemed like they preferred being part of a fight or an adventure. At least Zephyr did, as Cronk went into detail about an episode he had watched and fallen asleep to, to the point where he believed that it was he who did all of the interesting things, causing the two to bicker for a time as Autumn, Starswirl, and their friends continued to fight their way through their enemies. The interesting thing was that Spog, save for his first appearance, didn't seem to be doing much right now, rather it seemed like he was in his old age, in a sense, and might be getting ready to retire, so he might be taking things slow before he left Magnus.

After taking an elevator they were assaulted by a new type of minion, one that turned into a metallic brute, so Autumn did what she did before, capturing one of them, while the others tore the new enemies apart once she was done dealing with her chosen target. The bouncer minions were definitely tougher to take down, usually a sign that most enemies would be that way in the future, so some of their earlier weapons were less effective against them, but despite that fact the group was able to make their way around the side of the rocky spire they had been brought to and used a launcher to head even deeper into the N.E.S.T. Of course they happened to land on some platforms that were still being constructed and most of it started to collapse due to the sudden shift in weight, so the group quickly raced over to another cannon device and let it send them to another one that launched them to a higher point of the platforms surrounding the main structure. Qwark noted that the N.E.S.T. was far larger than he was expecting, despite what they had seen of Magnus and Ephemeris since their battle with the Z'Grute, but he got serious when they found more enemies and saved his opinions for later, just like what the rest of the group was doing.

There was even an odd sight, a minion who operated a shielded turret of some kind, though when it stopped firing they found a button on top of it that they could slam into from above, crushing the minion to pieces with ease, giving Autumn a chance to collect some components for later before they resumed their journey.

After that they used a carrier to get close to a large metallic door that could only be opened by supplying energy to a pair of sockets, instead of one like they were used to, but before doing so the group made a pit stop at the Vendor and quickly restocked on their ammunition before getting underway once more. It took them a few moments to figure out how to get some of the Voltergeists over to the sockets they were needed in, especially since Qwark and Virtuous dealt with a group of minions that attacked them, but Autumn and Starswirl did it without wasting too much time. Once they were done the four of them watched as the large door opened, revealing a passage to the inside of another building, discovering sentries that wanted to take them down as soon as they entered it, so Autumn snagged one before she and the others tore the rest of their foes to pieces. The fascinating and infuriating aspect of all of this was that Spog was nowhere to be seen, as if he was intentionally avoiding any active work that might stain his record if he failed, he seemed old enough to care about something like that, so while it made the infiltration aspect easier it made their true task much more difficult.

There was even a heavily plated minion that tried to stop them, like a tank of some kind, but even it's improvements stood no chance against a barrage of magical blasts, since Starswirl knew Autumn wanted a piece of it intact, allowing them to access a platform and get moving, only for the AI to detect their movements at last, which, in turn, caused Spog to zero in on their current position.

"Ah, interlopers... two of you weren't on the Master's list!" Spog stated, confirming that he and the AI were working for the villain of this adventure, which was far too easy for them to tell, even though they were amused by him fitting half of his upper body through an opening to talk to them, "The other two are weak and fragile... Steward, direct platform delta to the steam channel. We'll dispose of the trash before collecting out Master's prizes."

It wasn't hard for them to tell who their Master was interested in, as Autumn and Starswirl were the only know users of magic in the known universe, so if someone was gathering monsters, and all sorts of powerful beasts, it made sense that they would want the pair as well, but for what they had no idea. As the platform shifted, however, they also learned that the female AI was called the 'Steward', though her steam channel was far too easy to overcome and even the minions she sent at them were nothing before their great arsenal. Of course they had to get off their platform at some point, which the group did without delay, and as they made their way out of the portion of the N.E.S.T. that they were in they found a few places where new minions were being made, to which Starswirl dropped magical charges to blast the areas apart, just to slow down the production of future enemies. Spog wasn't too pleased with their survival, nor was he interested in the fact that they were here to stop the Master's plans, whatever they were since he didn't feel like sharing with them, though the humorous aspect of this was that he and the Steward were bickering with each other.

Of course Spog also tried several ideas to dispose of them, such as taking the platform out from under them so they had to glide to safety, much to his disappointment, sending minions to stop them from accessing an elevator, and even using a boss level minion to stall them, with Starswirl tearing it apart with his potent magic.

After dealing with Mr. Perkins, the boss level minion, the group stopped at the Vendor that landed nearby, where Autumn was convinced it was the same one and the warbots were just calling it up once they were done with it so they could send it to another part of Magnus, before they purchased the Darkstar Fission Tether. This weapon was supposed to electrocute the enemies that were struck by it, different from the stunning power of the Arc Lasher, and with it in hand they walked over to the platform that happened to be waiting nearby, allowing the group to progress once more. Spog, of course, continued to demand answers from them, even asking if they were working for that 'Tharpod girl', who apparently loved sticking gum in the machines, just to delay things to the best of her ability, while the Steward told him to count down to return to his sense of calm, which enraged him further since he was 'in the middle of a battle'. As the group entered the next structure the two robots continued their discussion, apparently regarding the absence of minions, where they learned that some of them were scared of the group, not that it mattered since those that appeared before them were trashed with their arsenals.

One thing the four of them discovered was that there were far more minions inside the structure they were making their way through right now, in comparison to the other buildings, all while their allies in space informed them that Spog was on top of them, meaning they might be getting closer to fighting him. As much as they wanted to take him out the group were in agreement about something, listening to Spog and the Steward argue about things was entertaining, far more than what any of them had experienced during their previous adventures, and it seemed to be the perfect distraction so they could make progress through the area they were moving through. Eventually things things as the group started to use one of the larger pipes as a grind rail, where Spog finally caught onto their presence and flew nearby as he loosed bombs at a fair portion of the track they were following, intending to either blow them up or tear their only track apart. As such they moved and dodged the projectiles and any other hazards that existed to take down people who were trying to mess with the Master's dark plans, and he even sent out saws to try and cut them down, not that it mattered since they avoided the projectiles and reached the end of the pipes without much delay.

The end happened to be right in front of a dam of some kind, at least it sure looked like that to the group, and all sorts of minions were waiting for them to arrive, likely positioned by Spog some time ago, but the four of them unleashed their arsenals on their foes without delay, blasting through the minions with ease. As they did so, however, Spog actually said something that interested them, that the Master's plan was to 'escape' and that none of them would be able to stop his 'crusade', whatever that meant, but it did tell them something, Nevo had to be a pawn. If Nevo was the Master there was no way he'd be contained to Magnus, not with Ephemeris heading off to collect all sorts of powerful creatures, meaning the 'Master' had to be some sort of being that had been sealed away in some manner, giving them an idea as to what they had to do to complete this adventure. The other interesting thing that Spog told them was that the Cragmites tired, in vain no less, to destroy him, meaning they might have found out why the Lombaxes' greatest foe were so eager to burn down the rest of the universe, or at least a potential reason anyway.

Eventually they found a large elevator that they powered up and took to the highest point it was connected to, where the siblings used some of their magic to launch any and all incoming attackers off the platform, allowing them to conserve all of their ammunition for later as the platform reached the top of the line, a tower peak.

Spog declared that, as the highest ranking warbot on site, he was going to do battle with the Master's enemies and waited for them to reach the roof of the tower before firing upon the group, where they found that one of his weapons involved turning his hands into large metallic slammers, which they avoided as everyone fired on him. He also had lasers linked to his hands as well, which happened to be easy to dodge since it involved jumping over the beams when they were used, all while he boasted that he had never lost a battle before, which meant this would be his first loss. Another thing he tried to use against them were the bombs they had seen not that long ago, where they used their Vac-U's to suck them up within seconds and fire each one back at the warbot, blasting through his metallic armor and weakening him even more, which seemed to annoy him. Whenever they did substantial amount of damage to Spog, even if his outer armor didn't show any of it, the Steward informed him that he should retreat for repairs, causing him to tell her off as he continued the fight to it's bitter end, trying not to end his service with a blemish like this, which caused the other robot to be silent.

It really didn't take them all that long to beat Spog, smashing him into the tower's roof as they beat him, though once he was on the ground he tried to talk, revealing that his voice modulator was damaged, which presented the perfect chance for them to learn a few bits of information.

"Your voice modulator is damaged, Spog, and we can repair it... if you agree to tell us how to beat Ephemeris." Autumn said, as while she knew that they could focus on the Master she suspected that bringing it up was the worst thing, so she focused on the more immediate threat, the ship that brought them here, as if they took it out or captured it they would deal a blow to the Master's plans.

Spog paused for a few seconds before nodding his head, to which Autumn and Virtuous got to work repairing the portion of his circuitry that was his voice modulator, rapidly restoring the warbot's functions to full functionality, causing them to step back as he floated and stared at them.

"I do not know how to defeat Ephemeris... only the Architect, who lives beyond the lighthouse in a forest of blue rocks, knows the answer to that question." Spog stated, informing them of what they wanted to know, even though he had next to no true information to give them, but for the group this was better than nothing, and as soon as they thanked him the warbot flew off, likely to avoid them for the rest of their adventure.

With that done the group accessed a nearby elevator and rode it down to what appeared to be another rail station that would likely take everyone in the direction of the lighthouse, which Cronk and Zephyr were searching for, though they all knew that they had to be patient before they could act on Spog's information as they sought out the Architect and learned how to bring down Ephemeris.

All 4 One: Octonok Cay

Following their departure from the N.E.S.T. Autumn found another of the holo-diaries they were collecting, the first one out of the set according to what it told them, and they discovered something interesting, that all of the creatures were like a rite of passage for the people of Magnus, in a fascinating way. It appeared that the critters in question were able to enrich, inspire, and motivate them through a bond that no one understood, or even attempted to understand, at least until a pair of figures dared to do just that. Sure enough Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous figured out that Croid and Nevo were the ones in question and the pair used a number of devices, which were left unnamed in the diary, to study the connection, and in an interesting twist Croid's companion, a fox or cat creature called Mr. Dinkles, amplified his talents as a paradoxologist.
Qwark decided not to ask as they learned that the companion creatures had some sort of energy inside them that had to be what Croid and Nevo had been studying, in fact Nevo was the one who apparently came up with the idea to extract that very energy from it's host, which was where the video ended as Autumn put the diary away for later.

"This 'Master' that Spog mentioned must be some sort of energy creature... whether it's the energy of the critters or one that was drawn in because of the experiments, I don't know." Starswirl commented, something that caused Autumn to nod her head as Virtuous considered what they had just learned, even though Cronk and Zephyr had no information on Magnus' critters to confirm or deny their findings.

"If we're right, this won't be an easy fight for us, especially if it has the power to possess bodies." Autumn added, where it was far too easy for the others to understand her statement, she was referring to herself and Starswirl, which would spell disaster for the entire universe if either of them were possessed, before she sighed, "We'll have to gain more information before worrying about the Master... let's find the Architect and see if we can't get any information out of him."

Cronk and Zephyr did have some information to share with them, as the information Spog gave them had to be pointing to Terawatt Forest, which is where they assumed they would be able to find the Architect, of that Autumn and the others agreed with, given the information that had been discovered so far. In addition to that the warbots informed them that they were heading to Octonok Cay, a coastal region that was no doubt either being wrecked by the new creatures or might be in the near future, but from the ruined state they could see from afar it seemed like it was too late to do anything for this place. Once the platform reached the end of it's rail, at the edge of the ruined city, the group had a chance to add yet another weapon to their arsenal, the OmegaTech Frost Cannon, which turned enemies to ice and was incredibly powerful when more were combined on a single target. With the weapon added to their arsenal the group got started and headed down the path in front of them, a combination of wooden piers and large stones, including large turtles of some kind that didn't seem annoyed by anyone jumping on their shells.

The first foe of this place happened to be some sort of fish creature that had a powerful looking beak, though they were able to take care of them with ease, but from what they could tell it looked like the minions had cleared out after bringing a new creature to this place, so their main foe would be in the dark for some time. After clearing out the group of enemies they discovered what appeared to be a metallic water buoy, a sonic pylon that would summon tortemoths, which were the passive creatures they used the shell of earlier, for them to stand on for a time. As such they were able to use a pair of Swingshots to access another pier, collecting more Bolts and critters for later, before discovering some blue blob critters called Slorgs, electric beings that were more dangerous than the smaller ones they had taken care of earlier, though the new weapon proved to be the best countermeasure against them. The only interesting thing was that if they hit the Slorg with the bullets and rockets of the other weapons they would slide around for some odd reason, something Autumn kept in mind as they moved through all of the scattered piers and used Swingshots to move forward, though they were slightly surprised by the lack of people.

Even Cronk and Zephyr, who were observing them from space, noticed that the area seemed devoid of life, save for the creatures that now called this place home, while reminding them to keep their guards up, since they had no idea what had been brought to this area. As they continued to push through the Slorgs, a few being armored surprisingly enough, Cronk also informed them that the reading had been updated and there was a single heat signature near the water, which had to mean it was a fishing vessel and that there might be someone left in this abandoned town. After that minions warped into the ruined town and attacked them, meaning that Spog's forces might still be chasing them, or maybe these were the ones stationed to watch over this place and engaged them because they weren't supposed to be here. At the same time Autumn found that the town seemed to love using the sonic pylons, as she found that there were a fair number scattered throughout the town and the area that surrounded it, as they even moved platforms for them to use to progress deeper into Octonok Cay.

As they used one of the lifts, however, Starswirl pointed out an object in the distance, which seemed to be another type of weather machine that was making the natural habitat for another creature, where Cronk and Zephyr informed them that they'd do some digging while they caused some mayhem.

Sure enough when the lift stopped they found more minions and creatures to deal with, which was becoming a trend on this world, just like all of their previous adventures when Qwark mentioned it, showing that he had been paying attention over the years. Virtuous also noted that he was very pleased with the weaponry that Autumn created before they sprung Nefarious' trap and faced the Z'Grute, though at the same time he did have to wonder what sort of weaponry she'd make for the next generation, her seventh tier. Autumn chuckled at that, as she had schematics in mind for several weapons, a fact that no one was even remotely surprised by, and she was eager to see the RVNO VI in action, because the seventh in the set was supposed to be even stronger and deadlier than the one Croid modified. She knew that the RYNO VI had been designed to wipe out large groups of enemies with a single volley, so it really made her eager to see what had changed to her weapon, and the RYNO VII had been designed to literally shred enemies.

"This might not be the best time to mention that I'm not stopping there... I've already started on the RYNO VIII." Autumn remarked, taking a moment to blast some of their enemies off the platforms so they could keep moving, though she did discover that Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous were surprised by this information, even though they felt she'd be doing it at some point in the future.

"Don't tell Ratchet, but... I'm hoping you stay away from the Dimensionator, as I shudder to think what might happen with two dimensional weapons." Virtuous stated, as while he had no idea if he had struck gold or missed out, since Autumn had said nothing about the true nature of the RYNO VIII, he suspected that she'd make something dimensional related at some point, hence his desire to keep her away from the Dimensionator, least she weaponize it.

Autumn chuckled at that, as she knew Ratchet would want her to work on the device once the barriers were fixed, which Kaden was working towards right now, before turning her attention back to all of the creatures and minions that were in their way, allowing all four of them to resume their journey. One thing they noticed was that there were a few tendrils that emerged from the water and crushed parts of the wooden walkway that was their only way forward, before coming to an area that required them to use the Slorgs as power sources to power up certain machines in the ruined town. It was far too easy for Autumn and the others to set up a system to allow them to power up the various areas they had to navigate through, especially with her and Starswirl having magic to fall back on, though it did surprise them that the people used the Slorgs as power sources before being run out of town. Qwark also noted that whatever those tendrils were attached to seemed to be following them, as it snatched a large fat shark that was hanging out of the water and hauled it down into the depths, likely as food, causing the others to realize that they would be dealing with it in due time.

Along the way they also encountered a new type of minion, those that dropped bombs, though they weren't bothered by the newcomers and simply blasted their way through them as well, before finding a series of sonic pylons that allowed the group to reach the area that a boat was clearly waiting in. While they did that Zephyr informed them that he sent a scan of the device to a Terachnoid friend of his and confirmed that it was a weather manipulation device was called a Weather Alteration Systems Platform, or a W.A.S.P., and that it had been patented by Nevo Binklemeyer. It wasn't too strange for all these devices to be patented by the same person, especially one that was either employed or enslaved by the villain that was lurking in the shadows, but both warbots informed the group that they would do some digging to see if there was more for them to learn about Nevo. Autumn thanked both of them ahead of time, just in case either of them found any new information to share with her and the others, as they tore through more minions that tried to use another barrier to stop them, allowing them to approach the lone boat.

What was surprising was that there was a Tharpod hanging out near the vehicle, which looked like it was in pristine shape, as opposed to the poor condition that Autumn was expecting given everything that was around them, and it looked like he was in the middle of preparing to go somewhere, before pausing as he spotted them.

"Oh, hello there! Sorry, I wasn't expecting there to be anyone else left in this town." the Tharpod said, where he set down the item he had been carrying, likely supplies that had been left over, before turning to face the group as he noted that all of them weren't members of his own race, "What can I do for you folks?"

"We're actually trying to get to Terrawatt Forest to speak with Dr. Croid." Autumn replied, since that was what Spog told them after beating him into submission, and both he and Virtuous had confirmed he was speaking the truth, though they were hoping this guy knew how to move forward, without them having to use more of their magic to do so, "Do you know where we might find a railway station that would allow us to head over there?"

"Well, there is one by the lighthouse, but I can't take you there because the water is too dangerous for me to use the boat in." the Tharpod stated, where he gestured to the machine that was hanging in the air, which they had learned about due to their friends doing some research, before glancing back at them, "Ephemeris hauled that in last month to help create a habitat for some sepiads, and the storm basically ran everyone out of town in no time at all... the only way up there, that I can think of, is a cannon that the minions use to launch food over to the sepiads."

Autumn, Starswirl, and the others chuckled as they told him that they'd take care of it, though as they moved Virtuous told them that he finally remembered what the tendrils belonged to, sepiads, and that meant there was a king sepiad nearby, as they brought food back to the king, which they should stay away from. As it turned out they ran into a normal sepiad, as it was right in front of the cannon platform, to which the group opened fire on it and used both sonic pylons to weaken it, or rather distract it since it connected to a fishing station, causing the creature to expose it's belly to them. That allowed the group to unleash pain on the sepiad and defeat it in no time, as with four experienced fighters it stood no chance at all, which really surprised Cronk and Zephyr, even though they were used to Autumn and Starswirl's abilities at this point in their travels. The more impressive part was that neither of them had bothered to use their magic against it, meaning it was just them, Qwark, and Virtuous' combat skills at work, leaving the warbots to continue scanning the area to see if the king sepiad was nearby or not.

While they did that the group found another holo-diary and Autumn collected it as the others used two sonic pylons to form a path to the cannon platform, where they learned that Croid's lab had been vandalized and the plans that he and Nevo made had been stolen, along with Mr. Dinkle.

"It says here that Nevo is an expert in robotics, avionics, and quantum mechanics." Cronk stated, reminding them that the two warbots were doing different things, one was focused on the sepiad and the other was focused on Nevo, though this did make them wonder what was going on with this world, "As you know he's Croid's partner and he co-owns the Croid Exploratorium of Scientific Wonderment... there's no way, with his bond with his friend, that he'd betray Croid."

"Meaning this 'Master' is the one in control." Starswirl remarked, which they suspected after their recent discoveries, but now there was no way for them to assume that he was at fault, in fact someone else was to claim and Croid had blamed his own friend for whatever had happened.

As they made their way over to the Vendor, to restock before attacking the weather station, they also learned that Nevo had several patents in his name, despite Croid's desire for Tharpod technology to remain on Magnus, and, what was more important to them, he had expertise in space travel, all sorts of dangerous theories, and espionage. The reason they were interested in that information was because he was labeled as an expert in all sorts of energies, such as temporal energy, dimensional energy, the power of the soul, and the theory of magic itself, which meant his gadget was primed for Autumn and Starswirl, after everything they had learned so far. With that in mind the group agreed that the Master needed to be defeated as quickly as possible, because with Nevo's devices there was no telling what might be waiting for them when they finally reached where he was lurking. The siblings also noticed that Ratchet was silent, as he had been listening to all of their conversations as he waited for them to finish an adventure without him, but they knew that he was focused on the fact that Nevo had an expertise in dimensionality, meaning he was hoping this was the villain damaging the barriers that existed between the dimensions.

After checking the Vendor, and purchasing the Thundersmack, which created traveling thunderstorms, the group used the cannon and launched themselves into the air as Starswirl ensured that they landed on the edge of the weather platform, a fact that was followed by everyone getting to work. Zephyr informed them that, in order to shut down this machine, they had to smash three charging docks and then use a central escape device to flee the destruction, where the group crossed the platforms in front of them as they opened fire on the minions guarding the W.A.S.P. There was a new obstacle for them to overcome, the fans that were spread around the machine, where they either had to hide behind cover until they stopped blowing or let Starswirl use his magic to make moving shields so their progress wasn't stalled. The charging stations had a fair number of guards protecting them, though while two of them tore through the minions in question the other two used a Glob Lobber to lower the shields so the last member of the group could deal massive damage to the station, the first falling within a few minutes of them reaching the machine.

They also discovered a second obstacle to move around, black platforms that were shocked with electricity every now and then, in fact they glowed before being struck, a warning for the workers no doubt, something that the group used to their benefit as everyone avoided the lightning that was in the air around the machine.

Even with the newest obstacle it was only a matter of time until they reached and destroyed the second charging station, even though another new minion type showed up, a large one that fired missiles, which they tore down before moving up to a series of fans that they had to power down before progressing. The challenge was ensuring they had enough time to reach the fan before it turned back on, even though Autumn was sure that they would remain unharmed if they failed to complete any of the time trials, which ended up breaking the fans once a set was completed. At the end of the path they found the third and final charging station, which the group wiped out in no time at all, though upon doing that they heard the Steward mention that everything was failing and that the station would fall out of the air soon. Autumn put a tracker on one of the walls as they headed into the heart of the massive machine, as once this adventure was over she was going to salvage it, before discovering that the escape vessel was a massive raft with four fans on it.

After climbing onto the raft the group was ejected from the massive weather machine, which started to break down not a few moments after that, before they crashed into the water below them, where they had to use the four fans to navigate the water between where the raft landed and the lighthouse.

Once everyone was fine, and they checked to be sure of that, the group carefully navigated the reefs they were in, while at the same time blasting any explosives that were resting in the water, likely to keep the sepiads in one area, though at the same time they watched as the weather station crashed nearby. The moment it did so Autumn made sure to make sure it's new beacon was working, so she knew where to find it, before focusing her effort on carefully moving through the rest of the water between them and their destination. The group noticed a lot of overturned boats, no doubt victims who fell when the weather station was hauled into place near the lighthouse, and several ruined sections of the town, meaning it had been far larger than they originally assumed and that the Master had much to answer for. Of course there was one thing they actually stopped for, that being the fourth of Croid's six labs that were scattered around Magnus, to which they climbed off as Starswirl wrapped around his magic around the raft, so it wouldn't float away while they claimed the next RYNO VI piece.

Sure enough the lab was the same as before, escort the critters to the very end while they listened to Croid talk, or at least welcome them to the structure in question, and it was easy for them to complete this one in record time, granting them the other arm of the RYNO VI Protosuit before they departed.

With that done the group resumed making their way through the rest of the area, navigating around the hazards, taking care of the minions that happened to attack them and their raft, and actually relaxing a little, for the first time since they were brought to Magnus, since the stop at Susie's place was more for rest. Autumn let the others move the raft, as there happened to be a number of machines either below the water or around them that she made notes on, since most had to be made by Nevo, hence why she sent her scans up to Cronk and Zephyr to confirm her findings. An interesting fact was that there were area that they had to stop in and let a ring fall behind them, preventing the raft from moving so they could walk for a time, allowing them to recover yet another holo-diary after beating up a group of minions. This one continued from where the other left off and revealed that twenty-two years had passed since the last entry, as odd as it sounded, so they had to wonder if Croid was mad, before discovering that he repurposed an old servitor drone into a search pod that would look for Mr. Dinkles, the start of Ephemeris.

"So Croid created Ephemeris and the Master ended up stealing and modifying it into the station we saw." Autumn stated, as that was what the various holo-diaries had revealed to them since they came to Magnus, and she was sure that one of the next ones would confirm that fact, before she sighed, "The only question is why..."

Since there was no answer to that question, not until they found the Master and confronted him, the group continued on their way through the area, dealing with some more slorgs and minions that happened to be standing in their way, before finding a new raft to use. As such they used it for a short time, all of two minutes, as they were able to use some machines to propel themselves over some hazards as they tore apart some more minions who were flying by, and once those two minutes were done they were able to dock at another ring and walk once more. From there they crossed a graveyard that was made out of Octonok Cay's various boats, using the various Swingshots to carefully make their way across the area as they kept an eye out for their enemies, with minimal encounters. At the end of the path the group discovered another cannon to propel themselves over to their destination, which they used without delay, only to land in a ruined town area so they could rest a little before moving forward.

The Vendor allowed them a chance to restock their ammunition before moving down the path and head towards the next foe they would be facing on this planet, where everyone watched as the King Sepiad, a massive sepiad, emerged from the water and crushed part of the walkway they were on, before the Tharpod from behind boated by and they grabbed onto it with their Swingshots.

Following that the Tharpod rode around the area that the lighthouse was in, where he avoided bombs as they paid close attention to the King Sepiad, who tried to swing it's tendrils at them to knock them into the water, before Virtuous learned that they needed to use the shock towers that were around the area. In order to actually use the shock towers they had to let go of the boat for a time and use the speed they had been going to power up the towers in question, linking up to one and transferring their speed over, which was rather easy since the devices had Swingshot links for them to use. Once one of the towers was ready the King Sepiad tried to eat them and got shocked by the device, forcing it to back off while they continued around the bay as the Tharpod tracked down all of the other shock towers his people had installed in the past. The third tower seemed to sink it for good, based on how it went down, but Autumn and the others knew better, so they kept their guards up as they skied over to the broken dock and let the Tharpod leave before anything else happened, as all of them knew their foe would be back in no time.

As they started to climb the lighthouse, however, the King Sepiad returned and devoured the Tharpod, showing that their foe had caught their ally before he could leave, giving the group a little more fuel as they activated the devices that were in their way so they could access the top of the lighthouse. At the peak they discovered what needed to be done, they had to use a number of slorg to power up the potent system of the lighthouse to blind the King Sepiad, followed by stuffing some into it's mouth to constantly shock it. Autumn and Starswirl confirmed that it was a crude method for dealing with one of their enemies, but it was effective and they were able to supercharge some of the ones being eaten to deal some massive damage to their opponent. What was interesting was that the King Sepiad actually got heartburn or stomachache and it tried to upchuck everything it had eaten so far, in vain no less, before they delivered the knockout punch and knocked the beast off the lighthouse, allowing them to take a platform down to where it had fallen, finding that the Tharpod was fine, as odd as it seemed.

At the end of the walkway they found a hatch that had a ladder that brought them right to where the rail system station was located, to which everyone relaxed for a time as it moved off in the direction of Terrawatt Forest, their next stop in the search for Croid and their quest to stop Ephemeris' master.

All 4 One: Terrawatt Forest

Despite having a direct connection to Terrawatt Forest from Octonok Cay, the rail platform took it's sweet time getting to their destination, allowing Autumn, Starswirl, and Qwark to rest and relax for a time, even get some light sleep while Virtuous kept watch in case they were attacked. He claimed that it was good to have a robotic companion, as they didn't need to sleep and could keep an eye on things while everyone else got the rest they needed, which he knew Nefarious would have ridiculed at some point, just to stick it to Qwark. Autumn also kept track of everything they had discovered, checking off what had patents and what didn't, to figure out if Nevo had overstepped the boundaries or not, but for the most part he seemed to have done everything to make sure no one came looking to slap a lawsuit on him. It was quite interesting, as the vast majority of the inventors weren't this good at making sure they were on top of the various rules, with her being one of the other three for a total of five in total, but for the most part all she could figure was that he'd be tried for being used as a villain's unwilling aide.

Eventually, however, the platform reached the start of Terrawatt Forest and everyone got ready, while the warbots quickly switched to the emergency channel due to some electromagnetic interference, causing Autumn to check on the odd large clue crystalline rocks that were scattered around the area.

"Holy... these are emitting some sort of aberrant energy signature... eight hundred decatones... twelve hundred... it just keeps climbing." Autumn remarked, as this was the first time she and the others had discovered something like this, which meant this was a source of energy that was unlike anything the universe had seen, and if Croid and Nevo had found it that told her that they had either found what made the Master show up or it was a new source of energy that would change the universe, to which she wrapped her magic around one and warped it into her storage area.

"You were worried about her working on the Dimensionator... I'm more worried what she'll do with that energy, since it's new to her." Qwark said, speaking to Virtuous as they moved towards where a Vendor had landed in this place, because he didn't want Autumn or Starswirl to get upset with him, all while they took out a couple of red insects that came from Sargasso, as they had seen them before.

While the Vendor didn't have any new weapons to add to their arsenal the group quickly restocked on ammunition before discovering a new device in front of them, an Orb-o-Matic, which was designed by Croid as a child's toy to safely navigate parts of the world. What it did was surround the users in metallic spheres, hence the name, and they could use those new shells to link electricity from one post to another and access new platforms that propelled them forward, allowing them to connect with raised platforms before bouncing to another one in the set. There was also another beast for the group to face off against, a pale four legged critter with crystals on it's back, which seemed to draw power out of the ground before it tried to do battle with them, as it summoned spikes out of the ground as it's attacks. Breaking the crystals on it's back took away part of it's power and allowed them to lay into the creature, defeating it in no time so Autumn and the others could use some bounce mushrooms to move forward.

This time around the group found that they were able to make their way through Terrawatt Forest without really too much happening, besides facing more of the shard beasts and the insects from Sargasso, while also finding more places to use the Orb-o-Matic to progress. Autumn continued to take multiple readings of the areas they were passing through, finding that the unusual energy was roughly the same as she and the others made their way through whatever happened to be in front of them, where she confirmed that it came from the crystalline stones. Of course she had to pay attention to all the creatures she and the others had to fight, as the shard beasts were definitely the troublesome foes of this place, since all of the sections of Magnus seemed to have one such foe for them to face, or 'boss' in some cases. There were even some minions who tried to trap them in part of the beginning of Terrawatt Forest and destroy them, to which the group opened fire on their enemies and wiped all of them out in no time at all.

"The Steward must have tracked us down... this isn't good for us." Virtuous commented, as the discovery of minions told all of them that they had to be swift about moving through the forest, otherwise the minions would overwhelm them, as he and Qwark knew that Autumn and Starswirl were high up on the Master's long list.

"Then let us move on with all the haste we can muster!" Qwark stated, to which he tapped the Orb-o-Matic that was right in front of them and transferred himself into the sphere that surrounded him whenever he used these devices, causing the others to simply glance at each other before following his lead.

Starswirl and the others quickly linked up the two power stations and raised a platform with a launch device, which all four of them got on without delay and allowed it to launch them through a series of points, only to come to a stop near an area with a device to raise a platform, but as that happened a boss minion showed up and was crushed by a massive robot who woke up and spotted it.

"Whoa... that's a Guardian." Cronk said in awe, as the large dulled silver robot used some gravity modulator inside it's eye to lift the boss minion into the air so it's hands could crush the life out of it, breaking it in a matter of seconds, before they watched as it entered a sentry mode, scanning the area for additional enemies before it was allowed to shut down for a time, "Croid must have been expecting a serious assault to have one of those positioned near the forest entrance... stay sharp rookies, there are bound to be more of them in your path."

With the Guardian activated they had to avoid a tractor beam, otherwise the robot would drag them up like the minion it had been awakened by, before discovering a minion who climbed into a dark purple robot to do battle with everyone, who just stood there for a moment, to give him some time, only to open fire when he was ready. It took them a few moments to destroy the robot and the minion inside it, allowing the group to access a few buttons to move a dish down so it could serve as a platform that would bring them to the next portion of the forest. After that they found an area where some odd small purple flying critters rested, who seemed interested in attacking them and carrying off critters, though as they tore them down Cronk revealed that they were Razermoths. No one was surprised when the battle was over in moments, due to how prepared the group was for a battle, allowing them to move over to where another Guardian was keeping an eye out for potential dangers, forcing them to pause for a moment before making their way around the tractor beam that the robot was using.

After that the group made their way to where another purple mech was stationed, where they opened fire on it and tore the robot down before it really had a chance to hurt them, allowing the group to access an area that held another Orb-o-Matic and the devices it was attached to. Autumn noted another Guardian off to the side, making her wonder how many Croid had positioned between the start of Terrawatt Forest and wherever he happened to be hiding himself, though she also had both Cronk and Zephyr look into them, just in case they found one she could repair. There were also a few more shard beasts and the red insects from Sargasso in their way, simple enemies that the group tore through with ease, before finding yet another Guardian protecting what looked like an important structure. All they had to do was wait for the tractor beam to move out of the way before accessing the three buttons in front of them, revealing a ramp for them to use to enter the structure, which appeared to be a gate of some kind that they passed through with ease, bringing Autumn and the others to what looked like the outskirts of the Exploratorium.

"Welcome, strangers and science fans, to the Frumpus Croid Exploratorium of Scientific Wonderment!" a Tharpod said, an odd fact since they weren't expecting someone to be this far away from the rest of their kind, save for the boater they found in Octonok Cay, before he rubbed the back of his head for a moment as he realized something important, "It's... well, it's not much to look at right now, but years ago this place used to be full of wonderment... it used to be to 'What did I step in?', oh, that's just wonderment."

"Fascinating. Is Dr. Croid around by any chance?" Virtuous asked, as he figured that if they presented themselves as fans of science, which at least two of them were and might be three if he counted Starswirl, due to his magic studies, the Tharpod might answer their questions and point them in the right direction.

"He sure is... I mean, I think he is." the Tharpod replied, where he gestured out to the massive area that was beyond him, as it looked like a chuck of a meteor, radiating the same energy of the crystals, was out there, hence why Croid likely built this place and the structures that were around it, "I know he locked himself in the Hall of Paradoxology and he hasn't come out for some time... in fact, I'm beginning to think that it might be best if I start looking for another job... haven't had a paycheck in years."

When questioned about how to access the Hall, since it seemed like part of their adventure was almost over, the Tharpod told them that they would have to use a nearby tour cart, a platform, to access Rossa Fields before crossing Gorthon Crater to access the main campus, and, more importantly, to cross the latter they needed a Guardian. With that in mind the group quickly restocked their ammunition and empowered their weapons some more before accessing the platform, which moved as if it had been well maintained, likely the Tharpod's job in case visitors came to the Exploratorium. There was a brief video from Croid and Nevo, basically welcoming whoever was on the platform to a new adventure, even though the group used their weapons to wipe out a group of Razermoths so they could move on without having to pause for anything. Such a thing brought the discovery that a Class-D comet, pretty big in the grand scheme of things, struck Magnus with enough force to create everything they had seen so far, before discovering that Rossa Fields was a dark place and that they had to haul one of the special light devices around the area.

Autumn was interested in the new machines, especially since they used the power of the comet fragments to power up the main device that was dispensed for them to carefully move around this area, where everyone learned that the device also served as a power source.

"They gave us the item we need to power a Guardian... calling it now." Qwark stated, as it seemed far too convenient for the four of them to just haul this item around the fields, as a light source, and with the mention of it being a power source he had a feeling that their main problem had been solved before they had a chance to think about it.

The others nodded as they used their Vac-Us to carefully move the shard container, which actually caused the creatures that were lurking in the darkness to hide because of the intense light, while at the same time they could suck up a number of small comet fragments and launch them back at their container, to restore some of the shard's energy. In addition to that they found a number of charge stations that allowed them to instantly restore the power that was contained in their shard, especially since Razermoths tried to fly in an devour some of the energy that was coming from it. The group wiped them out with ease as they carefully navigated the unnaturally dark area that they were having to traverse, which seemed to be due to massive comet fragment, as if it was altering reality or something, which caused Autumn to jot down her notes since this was far more interesting than she originally believed it to be. One thing that supported her theory was that the planet had been twisted into dark monstrosities that ate everything that dared to come near them, which was why she and the others were using the comet shard as a light source and attacking them, but that seemed to be the only other odd thing in this area so far.

While the group moved there was one thing they agreed on, the Razermoths were an annoyance and Starswirl focused on wiping every cluster of them out with his magic, allowing everyone else to focus on moving the comet shard through the rest of the fields.

Eventually they found an area that they couldn't pull the comet shard up, but did discover a device that would move it over to the next part of the path, so Autumn made sure it went off without a problem before finding that it provided light on the stairs that rested nearby. As such they followed the light and made sure to take care of any enemies who wanted a piece of the comet shard, before discovering an Orb-o-Matic and used it without delay, powering up the devices in front of them that raised some platforms for them to jump across. After crossing that gap the group quickly found that they had caught up to the comet shard and that it was being deposited for them to haul around again, which was what Qwark and Virtuous did as Autumn and Starswirl kept an eye out for potential enemies, the Sargasso insects and Razermoths so far. When they came to a stop at the next charging station the message Croid left informed them that they had passed through the fields and now they were approaching Gorthon Crater, allowing them to recharge the comet shard before making their way across a rather short walkway.

As they approached the edge of the walkway an inactive Guardian raised up and they quickly found where to install their comet shard, sending it right into the robot's chest, though as they did that Autumn called for the warbots to send down an item they had likely procured after discovering the first one earlier, a cranial mood reshifter that allowed them to cancel out the Guardian's murder mode.

Such a thing allowed the robot to return to the more passive guide form that it was supposed to be awakened in, though it also deployed four fusion turrets on top of it for the group to use, so they moved up onto it's back and took their positions as the Guardian started to move along the predetermined path it was supposed to follow. According to what they and both of the warbots discovered Croid had set up defenses to keep the collectors away from the Hall, so Autumn, Starswirl, and their friends blasted their way through the obstacles as the Guardian continued to move along the path. It was actually fairly amusing when they noticed an army of Razermoths coming to try and take down the Guardian, due to the fact that it had power that seemed to be their favorite food, even though some of the tougher minions came to assault them, which fell as the group targeted them before they could fire at the Guardian. There were even fusion cannons, more powerful than their turrets, that tried to take down the Guardian, confirming that Croid didn't want visitors, but they tore their way through each of them, and when they reached where the power station was built they found that all of the other Guardians were eager to bring them down, as a few tried to fight them and they forced them backwards.

When the army of Guardians converged on their location their own Guardian decided to eject them and launch the group over to part of the power station, and once everyone was safe he jumped down into the fray to make sure the Guardians didn't bother them as they made their way to the Hall of Paradoxology.

As the group moved over to a Vendor that Cronk and Zephyr sent down, to arm them for the dangers ahead, Autumn found another of Croid's holo-diaries, discovering fifty years had passed and the rescue plan had failed, Nevo and the Master had Ephemeris, where the sad doctor watched as it was readied for interplanetary travel. As it brought all sorts of new creatures to to the regions of Magnus, something Croid, like the group, was confused by since they had no clues that would actually tell them anything, he claimed that he was going to Uzo City to speak with the Tharpods. After that Autumn and the others restocked their ammunition before making their way further into the power station, listening to Croid's old message for visitors as moving forward, blasting into the minions that dared to get in their way, before discovering that this was where the Steward AI had originated from. As it turned out the nearby launch platform brought them to an area where they had to link the power source up to certain devices to restore all of the power, to reset the lockdown, and while they did that it seemed like the Steward believed that they were employees of the Exploratorium.

Moving ion conduits into position was rather interesting, especially when several other items were thrown at them, either because this place was complicated or it was how Croid designed it back when he and Nevo were still friends, but due to Autumn and Virtuous being with them they were able to pass through these areas with ease. Starswirl and Qwark kept an eye out for enemies, allowing the others to focus on solving the various puzzles and pointing out where one of them had to stand to help them out, though what worried them was the overall lack of minions. Sure, there were a few that came in to attack the group, following Spog's orders no doubt, but there didn't seem to be a large amount of enemies this time, to which everyone focused on reconnecting the various power sources while using the Orb-o-Matics to either move to the next part of the structure or reconnect two power towers. Eventually they found an area where they could use one of the forward propelling devices, like how they linked the comet shard to the Guardian's chest, and this allowed them to link up part of the power, opening the way for everyone to launch themselves to the next section to continue their work, all while Cronk called the device a 'cable cannon'.

From there it was just a simple matter of studying the puzzles in front of them and attacking them as accurately as they could, all while Starswirl glanced at the crater that was around them and found that their Guardian friend was currently in the middle of facing the others, keeping him and the group safe for some time.

As such they were able to get through the power stations between them and the first cable cannon, reaching the second in no time at all and connecting it back up to the main building, something that allowed them to use another Orb-o-Matic to launch themselves further along the exterior of the power structure. More minions and Razermoths showed up to take them down, not that it mattered since Autumn and the others were more than able to take them down in no time, but the main obstacle here was simply figuring out where each component of each puzzle went. This place almost looked like it had been changed since the video and the message were set up for visitors, meaning Croid must have been hoping that all of this might slow Nevo down, even though there was a possibility that this wouldn't have done anything to stall him or his Master. Upon linking up the third cable cannon Autumn and the others watched as the Halls of Paradoxology became open for visitors, as noted by a dome opening on the mesa above where the crater rested, to they made their way over to the path that lead right to the main door of the structure.

Sure enough the Guardians seemed more interested in taking them down now, before they discovered that the door they needed to use was locked, something that caused their Guardian to open a number pad, which it shielded from them so they didn't see it, and even glanced their way once, before it input the code to let them inside, something they did while it returned to facing the other Guardians.

"Good evening, Nevo." Croid said, which appeared to be another message that played when they entered the Hall, after Autumn made sure that the door closed behind them, recorded for his friend in the off chance that he was sent here by his Master, "I recorded this message in anticipation of your pathetic assassination attempt... this lab, as you no doubt have discovered by now, is a decoy, as I have moved everything to the Phonica Moon. I know what you are planning, Nevo, and I will not let it happen!"

"He turned into an idiot after losing his companion... but, at the same time, it works for us." Autumn said, where she and the others glanced at the vehicle in front of them, a ship with three thrusters and enough room for all four of them, that she made sure of by looking inside it, "Shall we get this show on the road?"

Starswirl and the others nodded before climbing into the ship, finding that there was a spherical sitting area for them, and the moment everyone was inside Autumn activated it so they could blast off for the Phonica Moon, as it was time to find Croid and get some of the answers to their questions.

All 4 One: Phonica Moon

Upon blasting off Autumn informed the others that, according to the information that was on the computer she had used to activate the ship, this was a prototype ornithopter, designed from travel between Magnus and it's moon, though the rest of the group said nothing as they left the planet behind. For a time nothing happened as they flew through the atmosphere, though when they reached a certain point they found that the spherical insides became active and that it looked like they would be controlling it for some time, like a drone or small ship to get them to the moon. After that the outside layer of the ship fell off like it was simply plating to make sure the insides reached the point where one could carefully fly through all of the asteroids that were between Magnus and the Phonica Moon, even though it was weird for there to be four seats, unless he somehow knew four people would follow in his path. A few moments later the lunar module released itself from the rest of the debris, allowing them to assume direct control over the vessel so they could survive traversing the asteroid field, all while making sure not to end up like Cronk and Zephyr.

Each of them controlled one of four thrusters that extended from their vessel, where Autumn quickly determined that they didn't have enough gelatonium to reach the moon, though Virtuous made a note of the crashed ships that were around the massive asteroid field and determined that they could siphon what they needed from all of the wrecks. As such that caused everyone to carefully navigate their way through the asteroid belt, which was easier said than done since there were a fair number of small asteroids and a decent number of larger ones in their way. It meant that avoiding them was far harder than what they originally expected, since at first it seemed like they could just fly to the moon with ease, where Qwark remained silent as he focused on the path ahead of them and listened to what the others were saying. To ease their travel, and avoid being wrecked by the asteroids, Starswirl focused his magic a little and simply moved some of the more offending obstacles out of the path, allowing them to move with some level of ease.

He also explained that using too much magic might be a bad thing, since the Master wanted him and Autumn, before finding that they had already punched through the asteroid belt and were floating down to the moon's surface, allowing them a few moments to see that Croid had set up obstacles to prevent Nevo from following him.

"Well I'll be, it looks like there's gravity and oxygen up here... definitely not the norm for most moons." Autumn commented, meaning that none of them had to take their O2 Masks out, even though Virtuous didn't need such a thing, though at the same time she and the others climbed out of the vessel that had brought them here before starting to follow the path that was in front of them, "Either Croid did it so he could survive up here, or this moon was already like this when he decided to build a hidden lab outside of Nevo's reach."

The Vendor that Cronk and Zephyr sent them gave the group a chance to restock their ammunition and empower whatever weapons still needed to be upgraded, before continuing down the rest of the path and jumping up some platforms, all while listening to Croid's message for Nevo. Apparently he was disappointed in his former friend, mentioning how he was willing to be an assassin for 'those things', meaning he likely knew Nevo wasn't totally behind his past crimes, though such a thing did make them wonder what in the world was going on now. After that they came into contact with a resident of the moon, a rocky centipede that stood as tall as the halfway point to their knees, a Craterpede according to the warbots, though while it's defenses were greater than what they were expecting, likely due to it's nature, they brought it down in no time. That was followed by the barrier in front of them lowering so they could move forward, keeping an eye out for additional enemies and whatever defenses Croid might have installed to make sure Nevo didn't get close to his hiding spot.

Sure enough the enemies they ended up encountering were more of the bugs from Sargasso, which were easy to take out, and the new Craterpedes, where aiming at their tails seemed to do more damage to them, at least according to Cronk and Zephyr, who seemed to be enjoying their front row seats to the battle.

They also discovered that Croid had installed a number of Swingshots for them to use, such as the spinning ones that sent Autumn and the others flying to another part of the moon's surface, though while they were sure that Croid had used them to avoid the Craterpedes they found that he had more and more messages for Nevo. The way he talked about 'Them' told the group that the Master might be some sort of energy monster, like they thought at one point during their travel through Terrawatt Forest and the areas connected to it, with those odd energy readings Autumn had discovered. In addition to that they found a beast with multiple eyestalks in the acid pools that they eventually reached, Lurkers they were called, and while these new enemies were also tougher than most of their previous enemies they went down in no time. It sure felt like Croid had chosen the moon for the native creatures, and some he had most likely stolen from Terrawatt Forest, to ensure Nevo couldn't reach him, though in the off chance of him succeeding the group knew there had to be robotic defenses of some kind waiting for them, somewhere along the path they were following.

Traversing the path also allowed them to constantly confirm that Croid liked the various Swingshot devices, as they were set up all over the surface of the moon, meaning he either used them to get from point to point or was providing a path to ensure Nevo's demise, but Qwark claimed that such a thing didn't matter in the end, as either way they were going to use them to their advantage.

The interesting thing was that the purple mechs they had seen previously were here as well, meaning they weren't part of Nevo's army and were actually part of Croid's forces, so Autumn guessed they could be called 'Croid Mechs', though they went down with ease as the group moved through the various walls that were in the way. After taking down the first group of bots, however, they discovered something interesting, electric riot shields that could reflect things, which was why they were called Reflectors, which was perfect for reflecting lasers and protecting them from harm. The reason they were great for that was because that happened to be the next obstacle they had to deal with, as Croid had set up some ion turrets to protect the various walkways that were in front of them, where the Reflectors protected them from some ion beams that were fired from the turrets. Fortunately the turrets had to go down for a few moments, to make sure they didn't overheat, and those instances allowed them to move again, though whenever they reached the end of the path someone tore down the turrets, just to make sure they weren't used against them in the future.

Autumn was pleased to have something like the ion turrets as an obstacle, as they made things more interesting for her and the others, forcing them to slow down and ensure that no one was harmed by any of the beams, though the number of ion turrets confirmed one thing, Croid was expected an attack and had prepared for it. It was also a nice change of pace for everyone, since doing the same thing repeatedly got annoying over time, which was why they had been a little eager to tackle the comet shard obstacle in the fields before discovering the unpowered Guardian. This adventure, as a whole, was fresh and new for them, as there were so many new things for Autumn and Starswirl to try, especially with people neither of them really fought alongside, mostly because Qwark had been a coward for a time before breaking that part of himself and Virtuous was usually busy tracking down villains. The only question they were interested in figuring out was who the villain of this adventure was, as the Master was a mysterious figure and there could be more than one, based on Croid's various messages, meaning they were eager to see who or what this 'Master' was.

Eventually they discovered what appeared to be a sealed air vent leading into Croid's hidden lab, a large one that defeated the purpose of it being 'hidden', to which they used their Reflectors to smash the power sources and unsealed it, allowing them to find that it was a sudden drop and quickly activated their Jet Packs.

Sure enough they found that Croid's defenses were waiting for them, even though they could use the thruster feature of their Jet Packs to break certain items to open the way for everyone to head deeper into the lab, though this time around none of them could use their Reflectors to cancel out the ion turrets. As such they moved around where the beams were located and simply avoided each turret, where Qwark noted that some of the small robots using them hung their heads in shame for allowing them to make it passed them. The shaft was longer than they expected, meaning there were a larger number of ion turrets than they expected, but, eventually, the group reached the end of it and dropped down onto what looked like the start of another gauntlet, this one having more ion turrets between them and Croid's final position. As such the group proceeded like normal, using their Reflectors to protect them from the ion turrets while someone else fired on the defenseless robots that were controlling them, eliminating a threat to their current plan, while finding some odd light purple water below them that Autumn was sure was some sort of poison.

As they did that, however, Qwark pointed off in the distance and they realized what it was, he had spotted the fifth of the six hidden labs that Croid had deployed all over Magnus, meaning another RYNO VI piece was within their grasp, which caused them to plan on making a slight detour once they reached it.

Croid's defenses were many and even slightly challenging, even though Autumn and Virtuous, with their intelligence, were able to figure out how to solve each section they came across, something that left their defenses to Qwark and Starswirl, who did so to the best of their ability. So far it looked like the only real enemies in this place were the ion turrets, save for a lone mech that happened to be guarding part of the cavern that the lab was built into, so the pair smashed it to pieces as the others focused on breaking the remaining generators to lower all of the barriers in their way. After that they found where the lab was located and entered Croid's fifth critter lab, where they started up the trial and followed the path that was in front of them, solving the various puzzles the insane doctor had set up to keep the RYNO VI out of Nevo's hands, or at least it sure seemed that way. In the end, however, the group claimed the fifth piece of the weapon, the right leg of the mech, and with it in hand they teleported back to the path they had been following earlier, where they discovered that the platform that would take them forward fell out and caused the group to use their Jet Packs once more.

It was actually amazing how much Croid had put into his own security, even though he must have salvaged what he could from all of the minions that fell near his various bases, otherwise none of this should have been possible, and made them wonder how long it was going to take to actually reach him. This time around the group had to head upwards and avoid all of the saws in their way, since there didn't seem to be any path heading downward, while also avoiding grinders that were doing nothing, even if they had been used to clear out this area once upon a time. After a while they found an opening to escape through with ease, using some Swingshot targets to ascend through the section of the hidden lab before pushing a spinning level to raise a platform that allowed the group to leave the defense area that Croid had set up. After that it was a simple matter to use the Reflector with the Glob Lobber to break through the laser defense that seemed to be powering the next door, bringing them to the outskirts of the real hidden laboratory, a replica of the Hall of Paradoxology, a rather foolish move since Nevo would be able to find him instantly if he looked hard enough.

Sure enough the path leading to the hidden lab held a number of purple mechs and instances to use the Reflector, all of which seemed designed to slow down whoever happened to be invading the moon, but, like always, Autumn and the rest of the group tore through them, opening the way into Croid's lab... where the very first room had a number of chambers and a few references to something interesting.

"Planet Toranux?" Qwark inquired, as this was the first time he had heard of the planet in question, then again he wasn't a scholar like Autumn, Starswirl, or even Virtuous and his counterpart, hence why he glanced at the others for a moment, as it looked like Croid had done a lot of research on it.

"I've heard of it, but the Lombax archives tells that it was wiped out by the Cragmites." Autumn remarked, though in that moment she found that the planet in question looked like a light green planet with several blue islands scattered around it's surface, which had to be one of the few images that remained of it, before she snapped some scans of the screens in front of them and sent them up to Cronk and Zephyr, "Guys, see if you can find anything else about Toranux and send me what you find... this might hold a key to solving the mystery of who the 'Master' is."

In that moment they heard Croid talking to himself down the hallway and found that he was wearing a tinfoil hat on top of his head, speaking of creatures inside the 'rocks' that needed vessels, though he seemed somewhat confused by the fact that they were there and, when Autumn tried to explain things to the insane Tharpod, all he said was that she was hungry and wandered off.

"He's definitely insane... but there are answers to be gained from his lab." Virtuous remarked, as he had walked over to a computer after seeing that Croid was staring off into space during Autumn's explaination, where they found that he had a useful discovery, that Ephemeris uses a versatron charging station and used a sonic ping to prevent ships from getting close to it, "This is child's play... I've already triangulated the location of Ephemeris' charging station to the Vilerog Plateau, and, according to the computer, there's a pod we can use to return to the planet's surface... it even claims that there's a 'Shard of Toranux' nearby."

Starswirl found it as soon as Virtuous mentioned it, the blackened shard with a crimson core and was as big as the vessel they used to reach the moon, to which he sealed it inside a cage of magic and warped it into his magical study area before everyone boarded the pod so they could return to Magnus and put an end to this adventure.

All 4 One: Polar Sea

As the group used the pod to return to Magnus they discovered something troubling, Ephemeris was returning and their new vessel happened to be flying near it, so the massive ship tried to snatch them and ended up hitting the backside of the pod, sending them down into another section of the planet, an icy area to be exact. It was actually quite annoying that none of Croid's machines had noticed it coming, alerting him or anyone else to it's presence so they could delay whatever they were doing, but they were going to have to deal with it. Starswirl used his magic to make sure their vessel didn't suffer as it crashed into the frozen wastes that they had been sent to, while at the same time Autumn used hers to make sure none of them suffered any whiplash from their pod crashing into the ice. Once both of them were sure things had settled down, and nothing was happening to the area that was around them, Virtuous found the pair withdrawing their magic so they could open the hatch and head outside.

Sure enough they were in a massive frozen area, which appeared to be in the middle of one of Magnus' seas based on what they had seen from space, before Virtuous spotted what looked like more collector structures, like what they had seen a few times during their adventure.

"We might have been derailed by Ephemeris, but I'm willing to bet there's a rail station for us to use around here... we just have to find it." Virtuous remarked, though at the same time he noted that Autumn tried to contact the warbots and she mostly got static, with a few words from the pair, meaning there had to be some interference with this place, since Cronk and Zephyr had been able to contact them all over Magnus.

It appeared that the area they had landed on was one of the outer edges of the entire area they had landed in, though to move forward they had to use one of the launchpads that propelled them over a small gap, just like what Autumn had seen in the past, where she and the others accessed it without delay. Qwark discovered that it launched them over to a curved path that seemed like a pipe of some kind, in how it was shaped, so they slid down it for a time, avoiding the bombs that had been placed along the way, either to carve out the area or deter something. At the end of the path they got a chance to see one of the bouncer minions holding down the lid of a large creature container, where the beast inside it broke out and just left before anyone had a chance to see what it was, even though after that they found a barrier being created around them, no doubt originally meant for the creature. As such the four of them combined their weapons and wiped out the minions that were coming to do them harm, as there was nothing new for anyone to worry about, even the boss minion was simply melted by their combined might, allowing Autumn and the others to move forward.

After that they used another launchpad and slid down the frozen path in front of them, where they found that the bombs definitely were active and blasted new holes for them to avoid, a little bit of a challenge for everyone, before spotting the large gorilla monster that looked like it was part reptile, as it was moving through the area as well. Autumn identified it as a Grungoth, a native creature to the polar regions of Ebaro, not that they were surprised to find that it was from one of the other planets of Polaris, since all of the planets these creatures were from were in this galaxy. So far it didn't look like they would have to worry about the Grungoth, though at the same time everyone kept an eye on it, just in case it happened to come over and attack them, even though it did pound on an ice wall and the group avoided the snowballs that rolled down the path. After that their path switched from ice to an actual frozen over pipe that was still spewing fire into the air, though Autumn and the others avoided the flames as well as they jumped from one section of pipe to another, as several ended in dead ends, making them wonder why someone bothered placing them like this, before eventually reaching the end of the line near some ice sheets in the water.

On the other side of the area Qwark spotted a large minion who seemed to be destroying the ice sheets, why they had no idea, other than it helped simulate the natural habitat of the Grungoth, though when it turned on them the group tore into it with their weapons, avoiding it's attacks in the process, despite the fact that they tore it down in moments.

"Clearly these robots weren't designed for combat... oh well, at least it was an interesting change of pace." Autumn said, as she was always interested in new enemies, since fighting the same ones repeatedly got boring after a while, though once all of her studies were done, and she had some fragments for later, she and the others got moving once more.

The launchpad on the small piece of land in front of them sent the group all the way up to a new area that had a couple of minions that were guarding the path forward, ones that could be broken by hitting the green section of their head, just like during their training in the first structure they had woken up in. Other than that there weren't too many enemies for them to worry about, as the group blasted their way through all of the remaining minions that happened to be in their way, before finding a second launchpad that sent them onto another icy slide area. This time around they had to dodge some icicles that were falling from the ceiling, in addition to everything else they had seen so far during these segments, and reached the end in no time at all, allowing them to break a few crates before jumping over some floating ice to reach an ice wall. Before they could even pause, to take a break and regain themselves, part of the wall melted and one of the larger minions burst through it, where it looked like it had been designed to use flamethrowers to torch ice and modify an area for the Grungoth.

The Scorch minion torched the ground and made it so that they couldn't get near it, intending on keeping them at a fair distance so they would be forced to use their weapons, though because they were pressed for time Autumn and Starswirl combined their magic into a blast that tore the minion apart.

"And this is why you don't anger people like them." Virtuous commented, as he remembered how his other side had acted before discovering that Autumn and Starswirl existed, and the fact that he had enraged them to some degree, but now he was pleased to be on their side, especially since it meant he wouldn't have to worry about being the target of their powers at any point in time.

The group said nothing for a moment as they made sure to put out the flames before moving forward, jumping over some pieces of ice so they could make their way towards the rail system that they hoped was out there, even though there were a few minions on a few pieces of ice for them to fire at. No one was even surprised when more minions came at them the moment they reached a larger piece of ground to fight on, to which they faced the four directions and laid into every foe that dared to come at them, which they were getting used to after everything they had been through. The large amount of minions meant they had to be getting closer to where the rail system was located, or at least they hoped so since they had no desire to stay in this part of Magnus for any extended length of time. The moving ice also proved to be interesting, as it meant they had to be careful when jumping from place to place, least one or more of them fell into the freezing water that was around them, but it proved to be nothing too serious as they tore through some more minions and kept an eye out for the rail system they were looking for.

Even moving through some of the more dangerous areas, fragile ice fields that would break if hit too hard, proved to be a challenge as they focused on making sure that their ground remained in one piece, so Starswirl used his magic to make it happen while Autumn, Qwark, and Virtuous focused on wiping out their foes. Eventually they ran into another Scorch minion, who just dropped down out of nowhere, causing the group to sigh as they tore it apart with their weapons, mostly because using magic all of the time would just tire two of them out if they did it too much. In the end, however, they took it down and progressed further through the area that the minions had prepared for the Grungoths, even though that meant they had to use some drifting ice and protect it from the smaller bomb minions and whatever else decided to attack them, which was why they were grateful for an ammunition station before jumping onto it. As they did that, however, Autumn and the others discovered that their large floating section of ice broke apart over time, causing everyone to get closer than before to avoid falling into the water, though other than that there wasn't much for them to worry about as they wiped all of the bomb minions out.

During that ride they also discovered that there were more than one Grungoth in this place, as there were four watching them from some icy ridges, three being bluish in color while the fourth was more of a reddish one with spikes, an alpha of sorts, before one of the blue ones swung down onto the solid group they were on and attacked them. The Grungoth leapt up into the air and slammed down on other sections of the makeshift arena that they happened to be fighting in, causing all four of them to carefully follow it before firing, hitting it whenever it decided to pause for a moment. It fought more like a monkey, a large one anyway, though in the end the four of them blasted it into the water and it drifted away from where the platform was resting, only to discover that they weren't done yet, as the other two blues dropped down to right them, even if it was one at a time. The alpha dropped down after the other three had been defeated and were knocked into the icy cold water, which they were used to no doubt, but other than being a Grungoth there was no real difference between it and the other three that had been beaten, allowing the group to deal with it in no time at all.

As they crossed over to the more solid ground one of the Vendors burst out of the sky and landed in front of them, where Autumn was pleased to hear that Cronk and Zephyr were able to reestablish their communication link as they used some of their resources to empower their weapons further... only to find that the rail system was nearby and that the platform had been knocked off by one of the Grungoths.

"You know, I'd say something dramatic about dying in a frozen wasteland, but there's hardly any point with you two and your magical powers." Qwark commented, though as he said that Autumn and Starswirl stepped forward, the latter lifting the platform back onto the track while the former used her knowledge to see what sort of problems needed to be taken care of this time around.

"Qwark, are you wishing that I wasn't here? It seems like you're wishing Nefarious was here." Virtuous remarked, because he could tell that there was something up with the large man that was aiding the siblings in fighting their way through the dangers of Magnus, where he suspected that Qwark might have been wishing for his rival to be here so they could bond with each other during this journey.

"Maybe at the beginning, but I've grown to like you, Virtuous, and I'd say our bond is stronger than whatever Nefarious and I had in the past." Qwark replied, showing Autumn and Starswirl that he was oddly mature about all of this, given the past events that they had experienced with the man in question, before he picked up an odd wrench that was resting near the tracks, which seemed somewhat important.

"You know, I had my doubts about you, but hanging with the siblings has done wonders for you." a voice said, where the siblings found that the Plumber was standing nearby, looking exactly like what they remembered from the last time both of them had encountered him, before he held his hand out to Qwark, who put two and two together quickly as he handed over the wrench, "Normally I wouldn't be here, since I work on pipe and toilet related problems, but home office sent me to fill in for the guy who normally works on these sorts of things."

"Ratchet is going to freak when he hears that you were here. Is there anything you can do or say for our brother?" Autumn asked, even though she had a feeling that the Plumber would remain neutral and let everything play out so they focused on the adventure they were currently on, which would only annoy Ratchet even more.

"Do? No, there's nothing I can do for him... but tell him to endure the pain for a little longer." the Plumber replied, almost as if he was focused on something else as he quickly fixed the broken versa-fuse that was in front of him, as if he had the power to see into the future, or whatever it was that made him so unique among the races of the vast universe, "It's almost time for IT to happen..."

As Autumn opened her mouth to ask what he meant, as it sounded important, the Plumber smiled and said that they had a one way trip to Uzo City, which was followed by the platform departing from this end of the track, moving towards one of their final destinations of this adventure and, more importantly, the true villain that was waiting for them.

All 4 One: Uzo City

It took some time for the rail system to leave the frozen wasteland that their pod had crashed into and arrive at their next destination, though it did give Cronk time to translate the text he had purchased so they could understand the fate of Toranux better, so they didn't have to rely on Croid's information. Apparently there was a race that lived on Toranux that were called the 'Loki', evil energy spirits that, according to the text and the one who wrote it, sought the end of all living things, meaning they would bring about the end of the universe. The hero of the tale, the Cragmite called Bagogg, crashed into the planet with his ship and ended up spending years in hiding, repairing his ship so he could eventually return to his home world, Reepor, and when he accomplished his goal he returned to Toranux and destroyed it with a class three planet smasher. Autumn had some ideas on what might be going on now, after hearing that information, and it made her wonder if Croid had figured out a connection between the planetary shards, the tale itself, and the critters that called Magnus home, but for the time being she decided to shelve her thoughts.

Her reasoning for that was because the ruins of Uzo City were approaching them, their platform was reaching the end of it's path, and once it stopped they disembarked from it and stepped onto a ruined walkway as they readied their weapons, as it was only a matter of time until minions attacked them, especially since the Steward announced their arrival for the entire city to hear.

"You know, if we get the chance to break her, I'm taking it." Autumn remarked, as the Steward was more annoying than all of them previous thought, even if she was possibly the easiest target to trick into believing whatever they wanted, even if she eventually figured it out, usually too late to stop the group from completing their tasks.

The others said nothing as a Vendor appeared in front of them and they took a few seconds to double check everything, to be sure their weapons were empowered and they had all of the sixth tier weapons Autumn had created, while hearing the Steward mention that they came from the Polar Sea, naming where they had been earlier. With that done they walked by a lone Tharpod, who seemed surprised to see them in a place like this, while Zephyr informed them that their destination, Vilerog Plateau, was just beyond the city, meaning that they would have to fight through an army to get to Ephemeris and it's dark master. The first thing that they had to do was insert one of the small energy beings into a nearby socket so that a bridge could extend, though upon walking into the next area a beacon of sorts was sent down and seemed to be calling in all sorts of minions to their exact location. As such Starswirl raised his hand and crushed it with his magic as Autumn and the others laid waste to everything else that came along with the beacon, because none of them wanted to have a swarm of enemies zeroing in on where they were positioned, even with magic on their side.

After extinguishing the first group of enemies the four of them continued down the path, jumping over gaps and using a spinning Swingshot to launch themselves over to the next section of the city, passing by some sentries that they smashed before using another type of Swingshot to launch themselves up into the air and land on another platform. From there it was a simple matter to use the Glob Lobber to lower a barrier to connect one of the small energy beings into it, calling up more spinning devices for everyone to use to make their way through Uzo City, which was totally ruined, just like what was in Croid's holo-diaries. After that they found a series of Swingshot targets that they had to use, as in several spinning ones, a few normal ones, and even some of the ones that propelled them up towards another gadget for them to use, before they ended up outside a barrier that was easy to bring down by hitting a target above them. On the other side they found more minions to deal with, as in far more than what they were used to since there were beacons calling in even more foes to face, where this time Starswirl focused on wiping out all of the beacons so Autumn, Qwark, and Virtuous could deal with the rest of the approaching enemies.

It was in moments like this that Qwark was glad to have fully upgraded weapons, as they tore through the attacking group of minions and opened the way for them to move further into Uzo City, extending another bridge to using a Swingshot to ride down to another section of the city.

After that they used a set of pipes to reach the next area that they would be fighting the minions in, breaking a pair of the bomb dispensing minions and a shield minion that happened to be in the middle of the ruined building, before heading to their right and continued breaking the enemies who dared to fight them. No one was surprised to find that the more they explored of Uzo City the more minions came to destroy them, as each force they encountered seemed larger than the last, hence why they were happy to have the ammunition pads to restock between each wave, otherwise they would have had to fall back on Autumn and Starswirl's magic. It also gave them multiple chances to confirm what had been in the various holo-diaries, homes and businesses had been ruined by Spog's attack on the city, fueling their desire to break every single minion that dared to cross their path, even though everyone kept an eye out for more beacons so Starswirl could break all of them, just to keep their fights to a minimum. There was even a Scorch minion that broke down a weakened wall to fight Autumn, Starswirl, and both of their friends, where they lashed out at it with their weapons, pushing it backward while it tried to do any sort of damage to them, which ended in the siblings, Qwark, and Virtuous breaking the minion into pieces so they could use the path it had made for them.

Such a thing brought them to an area where someone had to use the Reflector to keep them safe while one of the others used their weapons to take out the sentries that were watching parts of the path, including the enemy powering the ion turret, which likely meant Nevo knew about them and copied Croid's design. After that two of them powered up two more sphere devices and powered the platform that they happened to be on, taking them up to another area that was overrun by minions, though what was more important was the sixth and final Croid lab off to the side. As such the group wasted no time in waging war on the minions that were in front of them, doing everything in their power to clear out the area that the lab was in, mostly to give them access to the last RYNO VI piece without being worried about enemies closing in on the area they were in. Once the last of the minions fell, and they were sure that no one were coming to bother them, the four of them walked over to the lab and entered it, as it was time for them to see what sort of tests Croid had placed for those seeking the RYNO VI, a weapon he clearly stole from Gadgetron somehow.

This lab seemed to involve using the Orb-o-Matic to link power towers and use platforms to move throughout the place, a reminder of the forest they had crossed through some time ago, while also messing with a few power pylons to power up some devices so the group could reach the end, earning the last piece in no time.

After that they were warped into an area that instantly outfitted everyone with their own RYNO VI Protosuit, where Croid revealed how he got the plans, the Smuggler sold him the plans and he modified it as such, before he revealed that the best part was that the immense power of the Protosuit was multiplied when others were in use, meaning they could mow down enemies in no time with the RYNO VI. As such they fought off the waves of enemies that were thrown at them, just to give them a field test of the weapon, and Autumn found that they could fire rockets with ease, the shells were fine after a foe hit them, and, sure enough, the base power was far more that the RYNO V. Combining the four RYNO VI's unleashed pure devastation on the enemies coming at them, they spun around in the air and released a number of rockets that just wiped out everything and everyone around where all four of them were standing. Qwark and Virtuous glanced at Autumn for a moment, now utterly worried about what the RYNO VII might do when it was unleashed upon the universe, especially when they considered that she was also making one more after that.

With the weapon in hand they returned to Uzo City and made their way through a series of ion turrets, utilizing the four Reflectors they found on Phonica Moon, before reaching a platform that ended up being covered by minions, which was the perfect moment for Starswirl to shroud the area in his own barrier as they unleashed their RYNO VI's... causing them to walk away from a wreckage caused by the massive destructive power of Autumn's weapon.

"I would like to restate my earlier point: stay away from the Dimensionator!" Virtuous said, as while he knew that Autumn wouldn't do such a thing, since she wanted to help her brother out, he dreaded to wonder what might happen if she made a weapon with the power of the Lombax's legendary weapon.

Autumn chuckled for a moment as they boarded the last of the rail system platforms, as they had to launch themselves from one to another to move forward, before using a Swingshot to propel themselves over to the outskirts of Uzo City, a fact that allowed them to start walking towards Vilerog Plateau and Ephemeris, only to find Suzie and two of her friends standing on a nearby cliff.

"Suzie? What are you three doing here?" Starswirl asked, as he wasn't expecting her and some of her friends to appear in the area near Ephemeris, and if they knew the way he was curious as to why she didn't offer to show them the path, given that they were working to free Magnus from the Master's dark grasp.

"Leading an assault on the enemy base." Suzie replied, almost too sweetly for someone her age, causing Autumn and her brother to sigh for a moment, as they remembered being her age and dreaming of adventure, either on Veldin or on one of the other planets, and with Clank's arrival all three of them got their wish.

"Trust me, we understand how you feel, but you're too young to mess with Ephemeris... but how about you guys guard this spot for us?" Autumn inquired, as Suzie was smart, far more than she ought to be for a child her age, which meant she was either a genius or the ordeal had forced her to grow up too much, but what they were about to do was too much for someone like her and her friends to deal with.

In the end Suzie agreed with joy and the girls backed off, causing the group to chuckle a little as they glanced at the area in front of them and prepared themselves for the end of this adventure, as it was time to meet the Master and bring an end to their dark plans for Magnus and the rest of the universe.

All 4 One: Ephemeris

After making sure that Suzie and her friends would 'hold the perimeter', Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous walked over to the launchpad they had been standing near and used it without wasting time, where it propelled them over to a rail that seemed to go straight into the charging station. Zephyr informed them that he was downloading the blueprints for the quadrant they were moving through and should be able to guide everyone to their destination, while Cronk seemed to be in the middle of reviewing the information on the Cragmite story about Toranux. At least that was what it seemed like at first, until Zephyr mentioned that it was Cronk's fault that they were heading for the defenses, which everyone was fine with since it would help cripple Ephemeris, though he seemed to be doing well as he moved pipes into place. Such a thing meant that they were able to reach the end of the line without anything funny happening to them, even though they could see that the alarms were starting to sound, no doubt the Steward informing the minions that intruders were here, to which they stalled for a moment to access a Vendor.

With that done, and all of their weapons were upgraded to their highest potential, the group started their assault against all of Ephemeris' defenses, firing on the minions that zeroed in on where they were standing or happened to be there before they showed up, such as the bomb dispensing minions near the Vendor.

While they did that Autumn and Virtuous noticed that there were an enormous amount of pipes, platforms, and all sorts of devices that were designed to power something like Ephemeris, which seemed to be slumbering right now since it had just come back from another planet. It was a good thing, because with the ship still here they had a chance to take care of the Master before he was able to complete his dark and mysterious plan, which Autumn was sure she had figured out, as both Croid and Nevo figured out that the critters of Magnus had some sort of energy inside them. Since the comet shards were pieces of Toranux, they had to be after everything she thought about, that meant some of the Loki must have found a way to survive the destruction of their home world, and one of them had to be this 'Master'. If that was true than that meant Ephemeris was bringing hosts for the Loki to possess, powerful and dangerous creatures to enslave the rest of the universe or destroy it, and it even applied to her and Starswirl, two of the strongest figures in the universe.

If she was right, and the Loki possessed either of them, it was the end of everything, as her power would burn everything around her and Starswirl's would allow the figures to all sorts of things to the rest of the universe, so she hoped she was wrong about this.

After clearing out the initial area they found that they had to cross a broken bridge and came face to face with one of the scorch minions, which was odd since they figured such a foe would face them later, instead of at the start of the area, but none of them complained as everyone opened fire on it, taking it down in no time at all. One thing it confirmed was that Ephemeris was guarded by the strongest of the minions and a large number of boss level foes, because this happened to be the most important place in the Master's territory, so it was possible that they would have to tear their way though a lot more than just a few boss minions and their soldiers. Another thing they uncovered was an easier way to trample most of the boss level minions that were scattered throughout the area, by utilizing multiple Arc Lasher they could inflict damage on them and, at the same time, open holes in their defenses that utterly destroyed them. Such a thing allowed them to deal with those opponents without wasting too much time or ammunition, so Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous tore through all of the lesser minions that were in their way, even though they could see that what happened in Uzo City had repeated itself in the charging station, each wave was greater than the last.

Such a thing told them that the Master was trying to make sure Ephemeris was safe from harm, a good call since it had to be the only one of it's kind in all of Magnus, and an important piece of the Master's plans, though minions collapsed while the group made their way through the charging station. As they did so, however, Autumn could see that there were next to no actual entrances for them to use to get inside the massive vessel that was their destination, meaning either most of the openings had been sealed after the ship landed or they were too far away for them to access right now. She suspected that there was an area for creatures to be moved through, which very well might be their only opening after studying the rest of the side they could see right now, but getting up there meant accessing something that would allow the Master to know that intruders were coming. With that in mind she focused on them pushing through the minions that were trying to stop them in their tracks, blasting enemies to make sure they weren't overwhelmed as they solved the various puzzles that extended all of the bridges that had been added into this place.

During their battles Cronk contacted them and, in an odd twist, informed them that they were sending in some backup to aid them in this mission, an unexpected ally to be exact, and when they cleared out another area they found Spog, of all the beings of Magnus they had encountered, flying towards them.

"Greetings again, interlopers. Your friends in the sky have informed me that you would like a word with the Master." Spog stated, his tone having lowered so only they could hear him, no doubt to keep their presence hidden from the Steward, a figure they all loathed more than they were willing to admit, and he happened to be carrying a large glass container, which had to be how they were going to get inside Ephemeris, "I hope you'll permit me to facilitate an introduction... I assure you all, I mean you no harm, as I decided to retire earlier than planned and, oddly enough, the Master was willing to accept my request to retire early."

"You do realize that we're likely to beat the Master, right?" Starswirl inquired, though at the same time he and the others slipped down into the container that Spog had provided for them, as it was the only way forward at this point, so they had no choice but to trust him.

"It is possible, but He might also win... either way, it is irrelevant to me now." Spog replied, causing them to glance at each other for a few moments before the lid was sealed, meaning they had no choice but to wait for the container to be taken to the part of Ephemeris that the Master happened to be in, allowing them to see a lot of machines around them, not to mention all sorts of creatures, "Amazing, isn't it? Over twenty-two thousand predators have passed through these halls since Ephemeris was created, each one catalogued and studied... it's unfortunate that the Master wishes to use them for such a dark endeavor, but I suppose that's just his nature. I do have one favor to ask, interlopers: should the Master fail in his mission, and you survive, would you find and destroy that annoying Steward?"

"Sure, I want to tear her apart as well... maybe we can bond over it?" Autumn stated, as Spog, despite being on the side of someone like the Master, seemed like a nice warbot to have around and she was sure that they might be able to convince him to be a hero after all of this, with some upgrades anyway.

Spog chuckled as he left them to head into Ephemeris, the container bringing them to an area that they could be moved into, a hallway that told Autumn that the container might have known they were more along the lines of 'staff' and quickly brought them to an area they could use to find their target. Zephyr was sure that the group was approaching the core of the vessel, as there was a large power spike near their current position, though Autumn and the others found instances to use their Reflectors once more, breaking some of Ephemeris' outermost defenses so they could travel deeper into the vast ship that picked them and the Z'Grute up some time ago. After that they used an elevator and found that it took them up into the insides of the large ship, oddly enough without anything attacking them for some odd reason, and when it came to a stop the group found that they had to use a moving Swingshot to progress into the core. As they did that, however, it was far too easy for them to find that the core of Ephemeris was a circular arena with several machines around it, not to mention a number of fragments from Toranux, making Autumn wonder if her thoughts about the Master's plans might be the truth, even if she severely hoped not.

As the Swingshot reached the core, and they dropped down onto a circular platform on the edge of it, only to find Nevo standing in the direct center of the main platform, who paused for a moment as he heard them approach and turned to face the direction they were in, only for him to freak out.

"What are you doing here? You two have to get out of here!" Nevo stated, zeroing in on Autumn and Starswirl the instant he laid eyes on them, partly confirming what Autumn had considered on the way here, all while gesturing to a pod that was floating above the center of the core, "If he gets a hold of you he'll..."

"Nevo, you didn't tell me that we were expecting guests." a voice said, where they found that the sinister speaker was the small critter known as Mr. Dinkles, who was hanging out in the main seat of the pod, like it was a throne, before his eyes lit up as he laid eyes on the siblings once more, "However, I will forgive you, as the final pieces have returned to me, which I have been looking for for some time."

"Let me guess: you're going to use the predators as vessels for the Loki of Toranux?" Autumn asked, where Mr. Dinkle just paused for a moment as she said that, confirming that all of this was for bringing new hosts to him and the rest of his foul kind, even though the readings she got indicated all of the fragments were dark, meaning all of them must be inside the feline in front of them.

"Nevo and Croid were right, you're far too smart for your own good." the Loki Master stated, where he took a seat on his pod throne and engaged the weaponry system of his seat, while at the same time pressing a button that raised one of the containers, a far larger one with a rather imposing monster inside it, up near the pair of machines, "I know you two won't use magic against me, since it would give me free reign to possess your bodies and become the ultimate being in the entire universe, so we'll have to do things the old fashioned way: through pain!"

Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous waged war on the minions that were brought into Ephemeris' core, blasting them apart while keeping an eye on the Loki Master, since he seemed to be enjoying the battle that was unfolding before him, who enjoyed talking about how everything was mostly Nevo's design. After all of the minions were taken care of the Loki Master opened fire on them with the intent of knocking down Autumn and Starswirl, since they happened to be his targets right now, where it was easy to see that he had a shield that had to be taken down first. It was another instant where they had to use the Reflectors, blasting their foe's own laser attacks back at him and breaking the barrier in question, though it was funny that he was annoyed that they had broken the shield as he repaired things to the best of his ability, giving them time to break the machine with their weapons. Eventually, when they did enough damage to his hoverthrone, the figure floated out of range so his minions could engage them once more, causing the group to restock their ammunition at one of the two provided stations before laying waste to all of the new minions that were coming at them.

What was interesting was that the Loki Master was saddened by the fact that the Cragmites were no more, as before their defeat he had been planning on sending some of his kind to Reepor to torment them, but as he talked they shattered the rest of his minions and toppled his hoverthrone, causing him to frown for a moment.

"You know, this isn't working out as intended... Steward, bring in the Grivelnox!" the Loki Master stated, though Autumn paled as she heard that, as she now remembered the monster they had seen in the large container, an alpha predator that called Rykan V home and happened to possess the power to absorb the powers of whatever it digested.

Her worst fears were realized as the Loki Master used the machine Croid and Nevo invented to extract himself from the body of Mr. Dinkles and allowed him to surge into the body of the Grivelnox, which woke up a few moments later and just broke out of the container without much delay. While their foe likely expected this to be enough to make them submit to his will, and let him take either of the magical siblings as his ultimate host once he was done with the Grivelnox, they had other plans in mind, as the group summoned their RYNO VI Protosuits and engaged the large worm like creature that had squid tendrils as it's limbs. Autumn smiled as she and the others blasted into the Grivelnox, showing the Loki Master that sometimes technology was superior to pure brute strength, as with the final weapon of the sixth tier of weaponry the four of them were able to inflict great damage to the massive monster that was trying to squish all of them. Nevo, joined by the sudden arrival of Croid, they weren't questioning his appearance in this place, ran off with his friend and Mr. Dinkles, as it allowed them to focus on tearing into the monster without having to worry about bystanders getting caught up in the fight that was going on.

Eventually another container came out and the Grivelnox ended up eating a Wigwump, gaining it's powers, though it didn't do much against the power of the RYNO VI Protosuits, causing the Loki Master to call up the Z'Grute and eat it as well, just repeating the process while giving the beast powerful regeneration powers... something that caused Nevo and Croid to use the device once more and started to extract the Loki Master from the Grivelnox.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Qwark asked, as he knew that they could lay waste to the massive monster, but the spirit of the Loki Master was another thing, one that he suspected Autumn didn't have an answer for since this was the first time they had encountered something like this.

As the Loki Master was separated from the Grivelnox it rushed at them, intending on claiming it's host in Autumn, though as a few seconds passed by a dimensional crack appeared nearby and burst open, revealing a purple hand that looked like it belonged to an anthropomorphic cat which possessed some odd purple energy as it pointed it's first two fingers at the spirit, causing it to glow before breaking down, as if it was being erased or something.

"That: aid from another dimension... I guess." Virtuous remarked, as he wasn't sure what to make of the situation, though one thing was for certain, the barriers between the dimensions was weakening despite Kaden's efforts to ensure nothing terrible happened to their universe, meaning the villain doing it was still out there.

Autumn said nothing as the Loki Master disappeared from existence, by a power stronger than it, though she dismissed her protosuit as the others did the same, as it was time for them to rest, relax, and make sure everything was fine with the planet they had been brought to, all while looking forward to what might happen next.

Interlude: The New Prisoner

Following the defeat of the Loki Master, and his utter destruction by someone from another dimension, Autumn spent a bit of time with Virtuous, Croid, and Nevo on fixing the sections of Magnus that had been wrecked by the Loki Master getting everything ready for the other creatures. In addition to that Starswirl discovered something interesting when he studied the remaining fragments of Toranux, while they possessed the same fearsome energy that the scientists had uncovered, he found that none of them possessed any Loki spirits, meaning the Master must have drawn them into himself to silence any of his rivals to fulfill his dark plan. If that was true the sudden destruction of the Loki Master meant his race was no more, a fact they could rejoice about since it meant none of them would have to worry about the remnants of the Loki hunting them down to exact revenge or use them to conquer the universe. It also gave them some time to help construct new places for the Tharpods, to fix everything that had been broken during the siege of Spog and his minions, though along the way they also discovered where the Steward was resting, thanks to Nevo helping them.

Spog took great pleasure in crushing the Steward, a small little round drone that was usually plugged into something, as the others watched, though with that done he fully retired and left Magnus, as he couldn't stand the Tharpods, even if they, despite the harm he did to their world, tolerated him.

After making their way through the asteroid belt Ratchet was happy to see that his siblings were safe, in fact he knew that none of them had to worry about Autumn and Starswirl, but he was a little sad that he missed this adventure, especially since they had tackled all of them together since the first one. Of course he wasn't too happy to hear that the Plumber had no additional information to tell him about Rivet, that annoyed him the most, but since his parents were sure she was fine he said nothing on the matter, letting the man off this time. He was, however, worried about the fact that the man told his siblings, in a roundabout way, that something was going to happen in the near future, where he suspected it might be the event that his father was worried about, a dimensional cataclysm, even if he hoped he was wrong. Other than that he did spend some time on Magnus, seeing the sights that his siblings had gone through as they informed him about the entire adventure, allowing him to understand everything they had done since Ephemeris abducted them and the others, along with the now eaten Z'Grute.

Autumn and Starswirl also put the empowered Grivelnox to sleep, so it wouldn't wake up and devour the rest of the vast amount of predators that were in Ephemeris, while creating a lone facility on the moon for it to be contained in, just in the off chance it woke up and broke free.

Once they returned to the rest of Polaris, and picked up where they left off, Autumn resumed constructing the seventh tier of weapons that would be available whenever their next adventure was upon them, including the RYNO VII, a weapon that was even stronger that the last version. In addition to that she and Starswirl assisted Kaden and Orvus with tending to the damage that had been caused so far, healing the temporal damage that had been done and trying to mend the breaks in the dimensional barrier, which was next to impossible with the villain still out there. Of course Kaden and Millie were sure they were drawing closer to the one responsible for this mess, since it meant that they couldn't fix or even attempt to use the Dimensionator, not without undoing all of their hard work to fix everything. Ratchet, on the other hand, continued to keep all three of the galaxies safe, keeping his ears open in case threats showed up, though usually the other heroes were able, allowing him and his wives to relax and spend their time maintaining the peace or helping rebuild the parts of the city that the Z'Grute had wrecked after being awakened.

What surprised them was that Nefarious seemed to disappear entirely, as if he wanted nothing to do with them after their latest adventure, but they knew better, as he had to be tracking Qwark's movements and was likely preparing to attack at the best moment possible, or maybe he was focused on Ratchet and his siblings, meaning it would be some time before he showed himself to them.

Due to their heroics many of the citizens of Polaris wanted a museum of sorts for Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and many of the individuals they had come across in their long travels, such as Slag and the Pirates, the Cragmites and Tachyon, the Zoni and the Great Clock, and even things from Solana and Bogon. Qwark was more than willing to allow such a thing, due to the fact that, with Autumn's aid, the budget allowed for such a thing and he had it built on Igliak, in a place where any and all could visit it, after paying a fee of course. He included plans to build all sorts of wings and exhibits, complete with a natural history section, a Bolt exhibit, the Raritanium wing, not made of the actual substance since he knew someone in the universe would try to steal it, a Groovitron experience room, a room to experience part of Solana's history, the hall of villainy, and a hall dedicated to the Lombaxes. In addition to that Starswirl created a statue of Tachyon with what looked like the Dimensionator, though he assured them that it wasn't the real deal, it was just a hat, modified to fit on Tachyon's head, that was under an illusion spell that made it look like the ancient artifact.

He knew that villains would come seeking it if they left the real one on display, hence why a fake of sorts was installed in the new museum, though at the same time he also knew that many would ignore the signs and try to take it anyway, just to if they had foolishly left it on display, meaning they were for in for an unpleasant surprise.

Other than that not a lot happened across the universe, at least for the siblings, until something happened six months after the end of the adventure on Magnus, where Pollyx Industries was attacked by a pair of assailants, an infamous pair known as Vendra and Neftin Prog. The guards reported a vicious assault on the building they worked in as the siblings tore into the entrance, wounded many of those who stood in their way, and Neftin, a hulking brute who was the muscle, made off with Pollyx himself while his sister, a shorter figure, stayed behind to cover his escape. In order to do that she used her own telekinesis to mess with those coming to capture her, no doubt assuming that she would be able to escape after the guards were taken care of, only for a guard to get a lucky shot on her backside and knocked her out. Autumn, of course, was called in to create a containment cell that would keep Vendra contained, cancelling out most of her powers, and even a cryo system to ensure she stayed asleep, though to ensure no damage was done to Vendra she also set up systems that let her awaken for an hour every now and then.

The interesting thing was that Vendra, while being fitted for her new cell, something she complied with oddly enough, had a single request for the officials, she wanted to speak with Ratchet before she was put under for some time, so he did and discovered that she had a slender body and was roughly his size, wearing a purple clothing and her reddish pink hair was done up in two ponytails that looked like horns.

"Vendra, I hear that you wanted to talk with me?" Ratchet inquired, where he stood outside the spherical prison that his sister had created for Vendra, while at the same time Clank had gone off to aid the others in making sure the cell had no problems so they could put her under once this was done.

"Yes, I did. I heard that you recovered the Dimensionator, but refused to use it to find your family." Vendra replied, which was the story most of the universe knew, even though the truth was that it stopped working before he could use it to find the one person that was important to him, though she tilted her head a little as she continued to levitate in the center of her cell, "Why? Weren't they important to you?"

"Of course finding the Lombaxes is important to me, as I've been looking for them since I met Angela and learned more about my race," Ratchet said, where he crossed his arms for a moment as he considered the information he could give her and the information that was better left close to his heart, all while finding that Vendra's skin was pale colored, she had light green eyes, similar to his own, and she had slit eyes, "however your information is outdated, as I'm married to one of the remaining Lombaxes, I found another Lombax during my second adventure in Polaris, and discovered my parents at the end of that adventure. Do I want to meet the rest of the Lombaxes? Sure, I'd love nothing more... but I can't."

"And why not? You have the Dimensionator!" Vendra remarked, almost as if she was silently accusing him of not seeking his race, like she loathed him for some reason and wouldn't tell him why, as he could see the icy look in her eyes, which only made him wonder what in the universe was driving her and Neftin, "You have the key, and yet you abandoned your search for your own kind."

"With how the barriers between dimensions are weakened, doing so would result in the utter destruction of everything, or at least so my father says." Ratchet replied, as he remembered what they had talked about when he asked why he and his siblings couldn't just repair the Dimensionator and use it to track down the dimension his sister was in, though he found Vendra raising her eyebrow at that statement, "We've been tracking the villain behind it, as my siblings and I are certain that someone is purposely messing with the barriers between dimensions, but until they're taken care of, and all of their damage is undone, I can't use the device. I haven't abandoned the search for the Lombaxes, rather I've put it on hold for the time being... after we do that, well, I'll use it to track down where Autumn and Starswirl came from, since there has to be a planet out there that they came from..."

He noticed the look in Vendra's eyes and informed her that the simplest way to explain things was that they were sworn siblings, much like Liu Bei and his oath brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and they grew up on Veldin before heading out into the universe after Clank found them, where his tales of his time with Autumn and Starswirl greatly interested Vendra as she listened.

"You know Vendra, you're lucky to have Neftin... must be nice living and working with your sibling." Ratchet said, where he thought about Rivet and everything that they could have done together, if the Plumber had bothered to open the way for him to rescue her, even after the attack that took off her right arm, causing him to stare off into space for a moment as he thought about Rivet again.

"Ratchet?" Vendra inquired, as she noticed the sudden change in his body language as he thought about her and Neftin, all while knowing that Autumn had likely run tests to confirm that she and her brother were, in fact, related, though now she had to wonder if she had broken him without trying to.

"Most of the universe knows that I have two siblings, but they don't know everything... I have a twin sister, and I've been on a mission to find her for a long time." Ratchet continued, something that caused Vendra to pause for a moment, due to the fact that, as he claimed, this was news to her since it wasn't in the bio he had posted on Gadgetron's site, just like both of his siblings had done in the past, "I figured it out after discovering that the pod I landed in had another name on it, one that was smashed off during Tachyon's attack on Fastoon... her name's Rivet, which I learned during my adventures... and I have been searching for her, in vain, for most of my life. During my first visit to Polaris I even got a chance to see her, on the other side of a breech in the barriers between dimensions, and despite my efforts I was unable to bring her over, and when I got my hands on the Dimensionator it stopped working after I sent the Cragmites back to the dimension that my father originally sent them to. Rivet... she's the first one I'd open a portal to if we stabilized the barriers and repaired the Dimensionator... I haven't forgotten about her, rather I've been hunting the villain messing with the dimensional barriers so I can safely go to her, without risking the entire universe."

"Ratchet..." Vendra said, though in that moment one of the guards opened the door and informed him that it was about time for them to activate the machine and place her in cyrosleep for some time, but as Ratchet got up to leave, before all three of the moving rings could activate, he heard something he was sure he wasn't supposed to hear, "...I'm sorry..."

Ratchet really had no idea why she would say something like that, though he seriously hoped she wasn't the one behind all of the damage his father had been fighting, before rejoining his siblings as they activated the machine, placing Vendra in cyrosleep while they waited for the judges to decide her final fate, even though none of them had any idea what the future held in store for them and the now slumbering Vendra.

Nexus: Nebulox Seven

Ratchet, Clank, Autumn, and Starswirl found that, for the next six months, they were the guardians of Vendra Prog, whose cell had been installed in the Nebulox Seven, a prison ship designed for maximum security prisoners, especially those who were incredibly violent. As such one of them were aboard the prison ship at all times, with Cronk and Zephyr, as Talwyn and the galactic defense force felt much safer with the siblings watching over Vendra, maintaining a watch over her cell, all of the systems, and everything else that happened to be aboard the ship. Part of their reasoning was because Neftin was still at large, they had no idea what he was planning or why he wanted Pollyx so badly, and whenever they pulled Vendra out of her cyrosleep, to make sure she sustained no damage from extended time in such a position, she refused to say anything about him. In fact the only thing Vendra preferred to talk about was the Lombaxes, speaking to Ratchet when he happened to be near her prison cell, either because she was interested in his race or she wanted to learn more about the Dimensionator, even though he was the wrong Lombax to ask since his father was the expert on it.

Of course it took a long time for the galactic courts to go over the vast crimes that Vendra had committed, figuring out the ones she and her brother had done and which ones were done by someone else, so much so that it took them those six months to figure out her sentence: a quintuple life sentence in the Vartax Detention Facility.

As such the three of them, Clank, and the two warbots were assigned to the ship shortly after the decision was made, due to the fact that there was a galactic crime wave, to which Talwyn authorized them to use a different route to get Vendra to the planet the facility had been built on. It involved flying through the Cerulean Sector, which Ratchet did without delay, even if it meant passing through an asteroid field as a shortcut, as his siblings were aboard the ship and he knew that they would be able to deal with most of the problems that were around the ship. Of course they went easy with their powers, since they had no idea what Vendra and Neftin had been up to before assaulting Pollyx's business and kidnapping him for their dark plans, while the two warbots stayed on the bridge to make sure everything was fine, leaving the captains seat vacant for Ratchet. Unfortunately a few small pieces got through their defenses and dealt a small bit of damage to part of the Nebulox, on the underside to be exact, where Autumn revealed her new suits for them to wear, which doubled as the new sets of armor to keep them safe, before Ratchet walked out with Clank on his back, using the newest version of his magnetic boots to head outside.

While he did that he double checked his gear and found that he already had everything he needed to make his repairs, as it should be an easy fix this time around, unlike some of the other things he had been forced to repair, allowing him to use the jumping feature of the new boots to reach the damaged area, where he and Clank agreed that they simply needed to recouple the ion convertor.

Hey Ratchet, I... a voice said, where Ratchet glanced up for a moment as a hologram of Talwyn showed up in front of him as he worked on the slightly damaged portion of the ship, though in the following seconds she grasped her neck, as if she was lacking oxygen, to the point where she even collapsed on her knees for a moment, No oxygen. Life flashing before my eyes.

"Nice one Talwyn." Ratchet replied, letting out a light chuckle as he listened to her for a moment, while remembering that she had done the same thing not that long ago, while Angela and the others were doing their best to maintain the peace on their own, as in without the siblings there to lay waste to their opponents, "What's up? Calling to check in on us?"

Yes, our sensors picked up some damage to the power grid on deck three. Is everything alright? Talwyn asked, though while she could easily speak with Autumn, who was no doubt monitoring Vendra to be sure everything was fine with her, she wanted to talk with Ratchet, since it was likely his fault that something had happened, unless Neftin had returned to save his imprisoned sister.

"Yeah, I was trying to save some time... which worked, mind you... by piloting through an asteroid belt." Ratchet answered, as he had weighed the pros and cons of the idea in question, in addition to asking his siblings what they were thinking at the time, before going through with his plan and succeeded in gaining some time, "According to Clank we'll arrive at the Vartax Detention Facility in about two hours... provided nothing else happens to slow us down. Autumn should be getting ready to start thawing Vendra for the last time..."

Just be careful... I've never seen someone like her, so cold and empty. Talwyn said, especially since they had no idea where Neftin was, which worried her more than she was willing to admit, so even with the siblings guarding Vendra she was worried that something bad might happen, even with Autumn's preparations, Contact me if anything happens.

Ratchet nodded before the link was severed, allowing him to head back inside the Nebulox with Clank, though as they did so he passed by Autumn, who happened to be working on Vendra's bindings, and Starswirl, who was talking with the last person of the crew, the Plumber, who had nothing new to tell them about Rivet. After passing by them he quickly entered the bridge and found that Cronk and Zephyr were sleeping, where he tapped them with his wrench and woke them up, to which he informed everyone that it was time to wake up their guest, even if the warbots didn't want to. As Autumn started the process, ahead of the warbots reaching her, she detected a power failure and watched as Vendra's eyes snapped open as she stared right at one of the cameras, indicating that she must have figured out a way to build her power while the cell was in use. Even the gravity broke for a moment, to which Ratchet and his siblings used their new boots to move over to a magnetic strip and headed into the depths of the Nebulox, as they had a feeling that something was happening and that they had to make sure Vendra was contained before reaching their destination.

Autumn was actually amazed by how much power Vendra was using right now, despite the fact that it had been a total of three weeks since her last talk with Ratchet, which manifested as purple energy that did whatever she wanted, like moving down a hallway to mess with whatever she was targeting. Ratchet, on the other hand, was more impressed by the additions that had been made to their boots, as when there were breaks in the magnetic floor they could actually target a new area and leap towards it, unlike in the past where one had to stay on a track until the end. Of course they also got a chance to use one of the seventh tier weapons, the Omniblaster, which worked like all of Autumn's previous blaster weapons and allowed them to break through some obstacles so they could quickly press onward, since there was no telling when Vendra would break out of her cell. Vendra displayed that her power was stronger than they believed as she forcefully opened one of the blast doors and ejected them into space, either to kill them or simply remove them from her path, but thanks to Starswirl latching onto the side of part of the exterior, and catching everyone with a net, he saved the three of them before placing them on another walkway on the right wing.

Cronk and Zephyr were worried about them, especially since they believed that Vendra shouldn't have woken up like this in the first place, but Autumn made sure to order both robots to attach their personal warp devices, because if things went south they, at least, should warp to safety and tell Talwyn the news.

It took them a few moments to traverse the surface of the right wing, avoiding small asteroids while navigating through the flames that came from the three thrusters that happened to be in front of them, which the warbots temporarily disabled so the siblings could pass by them, allowing them to enter the ship once more. Even with most of the power disabled, which was a bad thing for a ship of this size, Vendra was able to hack into the PA system and speak to Ratchet and his siblings, all from the comfort of her cell, though she was glad that they would have some time to talk before they reached their final destination. She also unlatched one of the elevators that the siblings were moving by, since the path back inside happened to follow one of the shafts, and let it move down, as if she was trying to crush them all with it, but she wasn't too surprised to find that they survived, by leaping over to another magnetic strip before crossing back over once the elevator was no longer a danger to them. The maintenance bots were also possessed by fragments of Vendra's power, who tried to take the three of them down with all of their tools, though the siblings simply blasted their way through them with their blasters and made their way towards Vendra's cell, who seemed to be having fun as she waited for their arrival.

After that they reached the containment area that Vendra was being held in, who was flexing her power while Autumn found that the proton was definitely disabled and two Battery Bots were wandering around the chamber, where Ratchet stood in front of the cell while his siblings found their targets and returned them to their sockets.

While Talwyn was convinced that Vendra was cold and empty, a danger to the universe, Ratchet had seen another side that was buried under the surface and he could tell that she was having fun, as she knew that none of her changes would take them down and was simply doing this to pass the time. After fixing the proton field, and Autumn was sure it was working as she designed it, Cronk informed them that the power had been rerouted to an exterior generator, which happened to be their next target to ensure Vendra remained in her cell. As they headed for the next airlock Autumn smiled as she found a fragment of the RYNO VII holoplan, where she told her brothers that the Plumber had broken it for safekeeping, meaning he felt it was too dangerous, much like her ideas for the RYNO VIII, and there were nine fragments, so it was worth searching for all of them. With that claimed they headed through the airlock without delay and headed outside to restore the power so Vendra didn't escape from her cell, which was a simple matter since it was not a few seconds away from the airlock, where Ratchet turned the Bolt Crank and completed his task without delay.

As soon as he did that several rockets slammed into the side of the Nebulox, dealing damage to the prison ship while also knocking them off of the magnetic strip, causing them to launch themselves at another one so they could head inside once more, while Zephyr exclaimed that Neftin was attacking and that he had hired Thugs-4-Less.

"Thugs-4-Less? We haven't seen them since our days in Bogon... wonder what they've been up to." Autumn remarked, as she spoke the truth, after the leader of the organization was taken out the Thugs had gone into hiding, no doubt waiting for the three of them to head back to Solana before making their move, before she shelved her thoughts as they headed inside the ship, while witnessing a Thug ship pierce the side of the Nebulox.

Upon heading inside Autumn also revealed the second weapon that was available right now, the Fusion Grenade Glove, yet another weapon that followed a specific type that was common among the tiers she had created, because it was the newest Bomb Glove she had created. With that in hand the three of them entered the next chamber and found that the Thugs had brought small orb bots with them, ones that fired laser beams at the ground, though they were far too easy to take down, a single hit tore them apart, allowing Ratchet and his siblings to move back towards Vendra's cell. Unfortunately the cell and most of the chamber had been wrecked, where they could see Vendra floating off with one of the Thugs, a lizard race that must have moved into Polaris to get away from their failed reputation after dealing with the siblings during their second adventure. There were a few more hanging around where the cell was located, no doubt guarding the place to ensure none of the siblings made it through the area, and while Ratchet could tell that they had gotten better over the years he also knew that the same applied to him, Autumn, and Starswirl, as they won the first fight and moved forward.

As they did that, however, the computer informed them that pyrocidic bombs had been detected aboard the ship, though none of them needed to be told what that meant, one or more of the Prog siblings were planning on blowing the Nebulox up so they could flee without the only enemy ship in the area pursuing them.

Such a thing was confirmed in the next chamber of the ship when the siblings found some Thugs moving the bombs into position, making sure not to drop any of them when one of them noticed that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were closing in on their position and called for the others to open fire. As such the siblings fired on their enemies while making sure not to hit the pyrocidic bombs that were scattered around the ship, in fact he found that his brother and sister shielded them as they figured out how to safely remove them, as most were armed with connectors to make sure they were unmovable once one was in place. Neftin even took a few seconds to utilize the PA system and informed the crew that the ship would be blasted if anyone dared to follow him and his sister, even though it was clear they were going to arm them anyway, as there were too many of them for the Prog siblings to be bluffing. At the same time Ratchet knew that Cronk and Zephyr would stand down in this situation, as the warbots knew they were no match for either of the siblings, plus they had a way out, which they might have used by now since things were going south fast.

As they approached the bridge, however, the siblings heard Vendra and Neftin talking, where Vendra asked where Pollyx was and her brother informed her that he was on the planet called Yerek, working on a 'device', before inquiring how long she had been stuck aboard this ship.

"I know we planned on you only being struck in cyrosleep for three weeks, but, well, I ran into some complications," Neftin replied, where Ratchet stopped his siblings outside the door to the bridge, as he wanted to see if Vendra would reveal any additional information that might aid them in figuring out what in the world they were up to, "please don't be angry, but you've been in the custody of Ratchet and his siblings for six months."

"SIX MONTHS?! You left me in here for SIX MONTHS?!" Vendra shouted, clearly showing that she was enraged by what she was learning right now, and to be honest Ratchet couldn't blame her for being angry, as they had expected Neftin to make a move a lot sooner than this and had been surprised when he stayed in the shadows until now, to the point where she grabbed Neftin's chin and shocked him a little.

"This wasn't easy you know: I had to bribe elected officials to even get the routes this ship would take, coordinate a wave of crime that spanned an entire galaxy, hire extra muscle...." Neftin replied, though his tone revealed that this event was more common between him and his sister, that they argued about many things and that Vendra usually won, even if he made some good points on the matters they talked about, all while rubbing his chin after it was released, "I tried all of the tricks I could think of to get them away from this ship, but they refused to leave you unattended..."

"Figures. Anyway, we had better get out of here... Autumn designed warp devices for the warbots, so it's only a matter of time until reinforcements show up." Vendra stated, informing the siblings that Cronk and Zephyr had fled after her escape from her cell, the wisest move available to them at the time, while bits of her potent energy danced around the fingers of her right hand, "You can come out, Ratchet, I know you and your siblings are watching us... fair warning, we're leaving this ship and there's nothing you can do to stop us."

In that moment the siblings opened the door and moved up the stairs, where Vendra swung her hand and sent out bits of energy at them, while at the same time Starswirl did the same thing, though as the two energies slammed into each other they mixed into a purple and blue vortex that rested between them. Autumn paled as she scanned it, their magical power and Vendra's nether magic, as that was what she and her brother called it, seemed to be antithetical to each other, to the point where they were violently reacting to each other. Vendra was surprised by this discovery and backed off, just like her brother did as soon as the collision happened, causing Autumn to call for her brothers to get away from the bridge before the explosion happened, as the moment the three of them and Clank were clear she warped them deeper into the ship, to get away from the blast. The following moment a terrifying explosion rocked the Nebulox Seven, where the detonation of the rift, combined with all of the bombs that had been planted, tore the entire vessel to pieces in a matter of seconds, a fact that was followed by Autumn ejecting them into space to avoid being consumed by the explosion.

They didn't have a lot of time to marvel at the destruction, as they started to stealthily move through the wreckage of the ship and Autumn tapped into their communications, finding that the Thugs were doing everything in their power to clean up after the explosion. The interesting thing was that Vendra didn't want them to kill Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, as it sounded like they were on a deadline, now strained by her lengthy time in prison, and they needed to get out of here with all the haste that they could muster, while leaving no signs of their engines for authorities to follow. Despite that fact they still wanted to be sure that the siblings were either unable to do anything or had been consumed by the explosion, which caused the three of them to remain silent as they eventually reached the side of a Thug ship. In that moment they quickly engaged another function Autumn designed for them, cloaking shields to make sure they remained hidden, causing the Thugs to declare that they were either dead or had teleported out, where Neftin informed them that they would be going to Yerek and transferred the coordinates to all the Thug ships, all while the siblings slipped into the ship.

In that moment they slipped into the ship, without the captain noticing them, before stowing themselves away inside the crates that were in the back, as it would no doubt bring them to their destination and let them figure out what in the world was going on, they just had to be patient and wait for the Thugs ships to reach Yerek.

Nexus: Yerek

It took some time for the Thugs to reach their destination, though when they did so Ratchet and his siblings found that the crates they had stowed themselves away in were dropped into the portion of the planet that they were supposed to be in, and once all of them came to a stop they opened the lids.

"So, this is Yerek." Ratchet commented, looking at the ruined and abandoned city that they had been dropped in, all while the Thug ships continued deeper into the area that Vendra was directing them to, causing him to sigh as the others took a moment to dust themselves off as they studied the area, "Talwyn's not going to believe this."

As Autumn and Starswirl studied the area, especially the gaps in the ground that looked like the earth had collapsed under the weight of something at some point in the past, Ratchet walked to a clear area and quickly tapped the center of his chest armor, calling Talwyn so they could make their report, and sure enough a hologram of her appeared in front of them.

Ratchet! Thank goodness you guys are alright... we discovered the wreckage of the Nebulox Seven, thanks to Cronk and Zephyr informing us of the attack, but didn't find you guys. Talwyn stated, where everyone could see the two warbots off in the back, no doubt describing the attack to the authorities, even though it was easy for them to tell that she was pleased her warbots had gotten out before disaster had struck them, before she noticed something, Your nav units indicate that you guys are in the Zarkov Sector.

"Yeah, Vendra and Neftin hired Thugs-4-Less and we hitched a ride to Yerek." Ratchet explained, which he knew to be one of the Alpha-9 disaster class destinations in the entire universe, abandoned and haunted according to what his siblings had told him before they even took on this assignment, "Look, we don't know what they're up to, but we're going to figure it out and see if we can't stop them, maybe even reason with Vendra to stop this madness... she had multiple chances to hurt us during the Nebulox's destruction, but didn't take them, meaning we might be able to convince her to stop her plans and turn herself, and her brother, in."

Talwyn didn't seem convinced with his reasoning, but said nothing as she wished them well, since the Prog siblings were incredibly dangerous, and then disconnected the link so they could start their adventure on Yerek, though Autumn made a comment about the sector being abandoned twenty years ago. Starswirl guessed that Vendra and Neftin were behind all of the news that was linked to this planet, to have a private area so they could do whatever it was they were planning, but for right now they should get moving, since there was no telling when the Prog siblings would discover their existence on this planet. Autumn was sure that this was Meero, which was said to be where the pair were found and raised before they turned to their life of crime, but after clearing all that up the three of them crossed over the couple of rock pillars in front of them, allowing them to enter the city as they readied their weapons. As they reached a flat walkway to walk on Autumn stopped them as nether energy caused part of the path to collapse, even though it registered as an earthquake, which was something Yerek didn't have, so the damage they had found had to have been caused by the Prog siblings.

When it happened again they were forced to carefully glide down to a sewer entrance, where Autumn had upgraded their basic suits so she and Starswirl could do so without using their magic, before finding large chunks of Raritanium in part of the sewer pipe, which they smashed as she collected the material for later, to upgrade their new weapons. On the other side of the busted pipe Ratchet found a Terachnoid being bullied by some Thugs, to which he and his siblings lashed out at them before they were able to do anything to the figure, who, of course, ran and hid as they fought their foes. Finding one on Yerek reminded them that a few members of his race had been abducted by Vendra and Neftin, even though the news only focused on Pollyx since most of his work force had been left alone, so they were eager as to who he was and if it was possible to assist him. Autumn was particularly interested in the Grav-Tether that the Thugs had mentioned, since new gadgets were interesting to learn about and allowed her to focus on something else for a time, though when they approached the Terachnoid he practically handed over the device, as he was a fan of Autumn's and wanted to see her in her element.

By that he meant outfitting each member of her family with the Grav-Tether before they even left the area that they were in, to which Autumn chuckled as she handed one over to Ratchet and Starswirl as she explained how they worked, just so they understood, before she used the device to create the stream of gravity that moved them from one point to another, even if it ended with them being back at their starting point.

As another tremor shook the area, dragging the rock pillars down into the depths, the Terachnoid informed them that the last time he saw Pollyx was when he was making his way to the Azeril Caverns, which was great information to have since they really had no leads, causing Autumn to download a map of this place. She thought it was best to have some idea as to where Vendra and Neftin might have gone, which Ratchet agreed with as Starswirl used the new device to set up a path to another section of Meero, the direct center of the city by the looks of it. From there she found that they had two options, as there was a outpost off to their left that might be worth looking into, since none of them had any idea where Vendra or her brother had wandered off to, or they could take the main route to their right and head through the sewers. As Ratchet thought about it, however, Autumn also found a Vendor and activated it without delay, allowing her to find two weapons were available for purchase, the first being the Temporal Repulsor, a shotgun weapon powered by quantum energy, while the second was the Nightmare Box, a device that scared and attracted enemies below blowing up.

"Autumn, I feel that I must repeat what Virtuous said during the last adventure: please don't weaponize the Dimensionator or make a weapon based on it." Clank remarked, as it was one thing to make normal weapons, like blasters and gloves to throw bombs, but it was another thing to weaponize quantum energy and made him worry that she'd try her hand at the device that was the key to finding Ratchet's sister.

Instead of saying anything Autumn merely chuckled as Ratchet picked the outpost path, both to eliminate potential foes, to avoid being flanked, and to see if there was anything over there, to which he and the others started to make their way over to the damaged path he had picked. Sure enough they discovered a number of Thugs guarding the area, with several of the blade spheres that had attacked the Nebulox, though there was also a surprise for them, several of the dropships also flew in and deployed more Thugs to fight them. Ratchet also discovered a few turrets along the way, where both of his siblings proved that they didn't need magic to fight back as they avoided it's blasts and took out the Thug operating it, allowing them to push through the area and discover that Pollyx had installed a number of devices that allowed one to use the Grav-Tether to move around. In addition to that they all approved of the Grav-Tether, as it was a wonderful gadget to have and the brothers could see that Autumn was already thinking of ways to incorporate it into other things, but for the time being she was focused on tearing through the Thugs and their defenses.

While they did all of that one of the Thugs informed the others that the 'Destructapalooza' was in need of contestants, a fact that informed the siblings that a new arena might be coming up in their future, and they even mentioned that it was on planet Kragg. Ratchet determined that if they found an Infobot, or something that handed over coordinates, the three of them would make a pit stop of the planet and see what they could win, since anything would be nice since they had no idea what sort of obstacles would be in their way this time around. The best thing about facing so many enemies was that it was a boon to their overall mission and, at the same time, their weapons, as when the Omniblaster reached it's third rank it split into two guns of the same size, boosting their combat power even more than before. Of course the Thugs had heard of the siblings and were likely expecting them to have lost their touch, the skills and abilities they had used during their time over in the Bogon Galaxy, only to be disappointed in the fact that they were just as dangerous as the tales claimed, allowing them to tear through the ruined area that was their outpost.

Someone out there is beating up all of our Thugs... Ratchet, is that you? Vendra asked, as she was transmitting over the frequency that their communicators were on, confirming that she knew it was the three of them that were tearing through part of Meero right now, even though Autumn was sure she was likely teasing her brother right now, Wow, you really are as tough as the stories claim... I have to say, it's kind of impressive... and kind of hot, in it's own way. Honestly, I'm happy to see that you, and your siblings, survived what happened on the prison ship... anyway, what do you think of our old planet? Nef and I grew up here, but honestly I would have preferred another galaxy, like Solana for example, as things would have been much more... interesting... sorry, I'm just imagining what I'm going to do to you when I... when we... finally corner you.

"She's definitely flirting with you... who would have known that speaking to her every now and then, over the period of six months, would have affected her so much." Autumn remarked, where she spoke up once the broadcast was over, though at the same time it was just weird when she thought about it, Vendra almost sounded like she would have preferred landing on Veldin, even if she mentioned Solana, to grow up near Ratchet, Starswirl, and herself.

"I think she was planning on being threatening and started down another path." Ratchet replied, as he had listened to what Vendra had said and that was his take on her broadcast, either she was desperate for companionship or had been drawn in by all the stories of him, turning into an obsession of sorts that had been brought to life thanks to their talks and the new adventure they were on, "Who knows, we might be able to talk her down without too much difficulty."

At the end of the path they found an ion turret and used it to break down the gates to return to the Vendor, where Ratchet found an Infobot that contained the coordinates for Kragg, along with an advertisement for a new gadget that seemed like it would be important for their adventure, a new pack for Clank. After claiming the little red robot, reminding them that the Infobots of Polaris were different from the ones in Solana and even Bogon, Ratchet and his siblings returned to the Vendor for a few seconds to restock their ammunition before heading down the sewer path to the right. What they discovered was that there was a Serathoid infestation in the sewers, which were one eyed spider creatures that dug into the walls to avoid fighting the group, even though they knew that they would engage the siblings if they felt threatened. Other than that they used a Bolt Crank to open a sewer hatch before entering what looked to be Azeril Caverns, where Clank suggested that the group should keep an eye out for Pollyx's equipment, since it should lead right to where he was working.

While they carefully made their way through the cavern, which was darker than they expected at one point, Autumn found another fragment of the RYNO VII and quickly summoned the rest of it to her, giving her all of the pieces at once, before she stored it away and told Ratchet she'd make the weapon later, when she was sure they needed it.

Sure enough they reached a point where the Serathoids turned aggressive, causing the siblings to turn their weapons on the critters for a time, allowing them to carefully move through an area while keeping their eyes open for additional enemies or even items that might be useful to their adventure. The interesting thing was that Azeril Caverns shook every now and then, no doubt a common occurrence on Yerek after all of Vendra and Neftin's experiments, so whenever that happened Ratchet and his siblings braced themselves for a time, only moving once things had calmed down. With the amount of Serathoids in the caverns Starswirl wasn't too surprised to find some of their nests spread out throughout this place, which they had to tear apart to make their way through the area they were in, before finding a way outside that also gave them a view of the rest of Meero, utterly destroyed based on what Ratchet could see. As they walked along the rocky path, however, the siblings discovered a Thug ship off in the distance, one they decided to follow since it might lead them to where Pollyx was being held right now, who had no idea that the three of them were even in the area, a useful benefit in the long run.

While they carefully glided through the area, and used the Grav-Tethers to move from point to point, they had to wonder what Vendra and Neftin had forced Pollyx to work on, all while carefully wiping out the groups of Thugs that were in their way as they reached another cave opening, which brought them right to Pollyx's lab.

"What are you doing here?" a voice asked, where they found that Pollyx was definitely working in the area, or wandering at the very least, and beckoned for them to follow him for a moment, so they could hide behind some large crates, meaning any of the patrolling Thugs wouldn't notice what they were doing at the moment.

"We're here to rescue you and stop the Prog Twins." Ratchet replied, keeping his voice low, just like Pollyx had done when he first noticed them, while at the same time he knew that his siblings were ensuring that their enemies didn't notice them at all, though if Vendra or Neftin arrived they all knew they would discover them instantly, "Can you tell us what was so vital to them that they abducted you from your own building?"

As Pollyx opened his mouth they heard the Thug ask him what he was doing and, to their amazement, the Terachnoid had a plan for that, he acted like multiple people were here, a book club of sorts, and even offered a book to the Thug, though as he declined and walked off, however, Pollyx ushered them into his true lab, full of his equipment.

"I've been working on a transdimensional portal device... a duplicate of the original." Pollyx answered, where he found that the siblings were as smart as the stories claimed, they instantly realized what he was talking about, the Dimensionator to be exact, before ushering Clank onto the platform of a new device he had created in his time on this planet and activated the machine that installed some new software into his body, "I understand that you have quantum software installed in your body, though I have added some special transdimensional software... should allow you to understand the nature of dimensionality better... however, back to the main point. Yerek is filled with dimensional rifts to a reality the Twins call the 'Netherverse', and the software I installed will allow you to detect the frequencies of those very rifts, allowing you, Clank, to enter them and use them in some manner, likely opening new passages that weren't there before."

There happened to be one nearby and Clank entered it, where Pollyx explained that these rifts were created by the large explosion that the Great Clock was created to maintain for the safety of the universe, before revealing that the key to all of these rifts was that Clank had to lead a Nether Beast back to the rift, which he did and caused the wall to break open in a matter of seconds, opening a way out of this place.

"So, the sector is haunted by Nethers." Ratchet remarked, as that explained some things and opened new questions for all of them to think about, though as Clank returned to his position he turned towards Pollyx, who was getting ready to leave, a good idea since the Thugs would be coming to investigate the noise of the wall collapsing, "You said they're working on a Dimensionator... where are they?"

"The Orphanage." Pollyx replied, though while he seemed interested in the fact that he had been kidnapped to work on a copy of the Lombaxes greatest invention, one that even their enemies were interested in obtaining, he also understood that, in the wrong hands, it could likely destroy the universe.

By heading through the opening they found their way back to Azeril Caverns and another rift, allowing Clank to slip inside it and, in no time at all, cause another earthquake that revealed another opening for them to use to progress, only to find a Bolt Crank that moved some Swingshots into position near the Vendor. While they carefully made their way over to the front steps of the orphanage, which was shattered like everything else in Meero, Autumn found a red recorder that was an audio one, from the days of when Vendra was a little girl, where she and Neftin were bullied by the other children, only to be punished with detention when she told a teacher about it. Such a thing was sad, that the pair were so full of hope and all of Yerek seemed to turn against them overtime, which made Ratchet understand why Vendra had mentioned wanting to grow up in Solana, no matter what planet it was, before she encountered 'Mr. Eye', whoever that was. The fact that this Mr. Eye was found in the very caverns where the Twins were found, which had to be a rift location, combined with the fact that he claimed he had plans for the pair, meant he had to be the true villain, it just screamed that someone was using the pair for their own purposes.

As they reached the front of the orphanage, however, a large mech with a shield arm and a flamethrower on it's other arm dropped down to fight them, though the siblings weren't too amused as they tore it down with their weapons and noticed that the way forward involved climbing up the face of the building. The reasoning for that was because it looked like the main entrance had collapsed overtime, meaning the Twins had been flown over the building's roof and dropped into it as soon as the Thugs reached their destination, so Autumn and Starswirl held off on using their magic to make sure Vendra didn't sense them coming. Once they entered the building, which took a bit of doing, the siblings found a second audio journal that Autumn claimed for their understanding of the situation, where Mr. Eye revealed that the Twins had been in this dimension too long and wouldn't be able to survive in the Netherverse, while the Nethers wouldn't be able to survive if they came to this dimension. Such a thing told her all they needed to know about the situation, Pollyx must have been brought in to finalize the armor that the Nethers needed to wear to survive in this dimension, because if he designed the device to send someone to the Netherverse she was sure he could have made a way for them to safely traverse the weak barrier and come into this dimension.

The next recorder they discovered confirmed that the Twins were behind the sector being evacuated, giving them space to experiment on weakening the barrier between the dimensions, causing Ratchet to sigh, as he had been hoping the Twins weren't responsible for what his father was investigating, but now he knew otherwise.

They found Vendra's old room, or the one that she drew all sorts of pictures of Mr. Eye in, a terrifying Nether whose form likely scared off the bullies, for fear that it might come eat them in their sleep or something, before the ground opened up and revealed a way down into the caverns. Sure enough they found that all sorts of Serathoids were down there, causing them to open fire on the nests and the insects that came from each one, though they did their best to avoid making too much noise, because if Vendra was down here they didn't want to reveal themselves just yet. While they did so, however, a crack in the dimensions appeared nearby and Ratchet was surprised to see that it he was staring down at himself as he moved through Meero, with that odd lavender mare with the wings and horn, a pony Autumn had called her, with a pair of ghostly robots that looked like Cronk and Zephyr, but before they could remark on it it closed in seconds. Ratchet sighed for a moment, as the situation was getting worse as time passed, before pressing onward as the three of them carefully made their way through the rest of the cavern, before having Clank use another rift to open a passage deeper into where the Twins were silently working.

After that the siblings found their destination, Vendra explaining how to use the Dimensionator to Neftin, who put it on his head and activated it with the call 'Find the Nethers' as his sister boosted it's signal with her powers, causing dark cracks in reality to appear as dark purple beings, clad in special metallic armor, jumped out of them, a few to be exact, before they spotted a large figure lurking behind the largest crack, as it was unable to pass through it.

"We're getting closer... we'll have you out soon." Vendra said, speaking to Mr. Eye, almost in a sense that she was more of a servant and less of someone who was doing this for her own personal goals, even though Ratchet understood that she was seeking her family, just like he had done, and finally realized why she had been so interested in him, enough to call for him to talk with her when she was originally captured.

Mr. Eye talked in a tongue unique to the Nethers, which Autumn jotted down as they listened to him speak, while Vendra assured him that the barrier between dimensions was getting thinner by the day and that no one knew of Silox, almost as if she was a terrified child being scolded by her own parent. It was a sad sight to see, the imposing Vendra brought low by a glowing eye figure from another dimension, while Neftin said nothing, he couldn't either out of fear or a desire to keep himself hidden, and it made Ratchet want to put an end to this by snatching the Twins, taking them far away, and utilizing the Great Clock's facilities to help them recover. Eventually Mr. Eye noticed that they had uninvited guests and Neftin was the first to turn, followed by the Nethers who had emerged from the now closed rifts, but Vendra, the last to turn, looked like she was torn between ordering their demise and just giving up entirely. In the end Starswirl dared to use his magic as he summoned a thick smokescreen, covering their tracks as he and the others moved down another path, heading for the outside area of the caverns, where, fortunately for them, they found Qwark flying in with Aphelion, allowing them to jump over to their ship and fly off before their enemies had a chance to find them.

As they flew off into the depths of Meero, to shield themselves with a cloaking device for some time, Ratchet could only wonder if there was a way to save the Prog Twins from the darkness they were being tricked into releasing into this plane of existence, though he was sure he and his siblings would figure something out in due time.

Nexus: Kragg

After fleeing the caverns that Vendra and Neftin were working in, and picking up Pollyx since his part in this seemed to be over, the siblings departed from Yerek without delay, finding that Qwark had even brought the Helios with him, allowing the two ships to dock for a time. Autumn engaged the cloaking device, so Vendra didn't find them, before Ratchet contacted Talwyn and informed her and Qwark about the situation, that the sector wasn't haunted, it was remnants of the explosion that the Great Clock was built to contain, including the possibility that the Twins were being used by the true villain. None of them were surprised to find that Talwyn didn't totally believe the story, in fact most believed that the Twins were monsters, but she trusted the siblings to do what was necessary to stop someone from breaking the barriers between dimensions. In addition to that Qwark escorted Pollyx back to his ship, after allowing him to take a shower since it had been some time since he last had a chance to do so, before they departed from the sector to show people that he was fine, allowing Ratchet, Clank, Autumn, and Starswirl to focus on their next objective.

While they knew that they should head to Silox, to see what in the world Vendra and Neftin were planning with their makeshift Dimensionator, the siblings decided to head to Kragg first, as the gadget for Clank would no doubt be needed to bypass some obstacles on the next planet.

"We're going to go to Kragg, beat the challenge, claim the prize, and get out to catch up with Vendra... yeah, that's not going to happen, is it?" Ratchet remarked, where he piloted Aphelion to the planet in question, which looked like a molten world and not an asteroid, like Annihilation Nation had been, while his siblings were readying themselves for whatever might be on the planet in question.

"Give our experiences of the other arenas, we'll be here for some time." Autumn answered, in fact she would be a tab bit disappointed if they didn't clean out the Thugs of everything that they had to offer them as rewards, just to make sure they had everything for their assault on Silox and the city that the Twins were working in.

"We'll likely be able to convince them to allow us to do everything in one visit, since they're being paid to take us down so the Twins can work in peace." Starswirl added, as he agreed with his siblings on the matter, there was no way they would just finish one cup and then leave the planet, to come back whenever the next ones were available to be challenged, and he found that his siblings agreed with his reasoning.

Clank didn't have anything else to add to their comments, not that it mattered since Ratchet found Kragg and took them in for a landing, where it was easy to find the massive arena the Thugs had set up, the Destructapalooza, only to find that a contestant was launched out of the arena by a challenge. Such a thing caused them to chuckle as they landed on what had to be the outskirts of the area, where Ratchet ensured that Aphelion was safe as his siblings climbed out of the ship, as he didn't trust the Thugs to keep their hands off her, but she insisted that she would be fine, causing them to approach what looked like the terminal to access challenges. After using the conveyor belt to reach the terminal Ratchet found that there were two Vendors waiting for them, one for weapons and one for armor, where they found the Winterizer, a weapon that was designed like a Morph-o-Ray, and Mr. Zurkon were available for purchase, which Autumn claimed without delay, as it boosted their arsenal for whatever the challenges had to offer them. The armor Vendor had what critics had dubbed the 'Thug' armor, even though it was made from Sargassian Troglosaur hide and metal, hence why Autumn decided to call it the 'Troglosaur Armor', but the critics won that brief argument, not that she cared too much, to which they purchased the light blue pieced attire to help them in the future.

With that done the siblings entered the Bronze Cup, finding that the first challenge the Thugs had for them was simply a fight against three waves of Thugs and dodging the various hazards, though as Ratchet and his siblings tore through their enemies they found that the hazards part was more like a typo, as there were none. With six of the twelve seventh tier weapons in their arsenal, a feat for sure since Autumn wasn't expecting to have half of them so soon, it took them no time at all to crush the first challenge, claim the reward, which was just Bolts, before they moved into the second challenge of the four that were in this cup. The second was them surviving against the Mangler, a death trap that was designed to take out anyone and everyone that happened to be in the area, even though it was a circular device in the center of the arena and they avoided it's hazards with ease. After that they found that the third was just culling Serathoids, like Kragg had an infestation of sorts and were using them against challengers, though, just like before, the siblings crushed them with their weapons, won the challenge, and moved onto the fourth and final challenge of the Bronze Cup, fighting what the Thugs called the 'Blazebot'.

Upon finding that it was just the robot they had fought on Yerek, however, the siblings found themselves disappointed just a bit as they fought and crushed it with their weapons, earning them the Jetpack, which happened to be what they were here for and Autumn added it to Clank's systems, before modifying her and Starswirl's boots to do the same thing that he could now do for Ratchet.

The Silver Cup started with a time limit where they had to fly through rings and take down a number of Thugs, which was far too easy for the siblings to do, because none of their foes really moved from their positions, opening the way for them to take down each one before reaching the end. After that it was another fight against multiple waves of enemies while dealing with the Mangler once more, which the announcer had claimed had been boosted in power, meaning some of it's safety restrictions might have been undone, but it was single in one spot and they won in no time. The third was more of a repeat of the first challenge, flying around and defeating moving Thugs, while finding that the fourth was five rounds in a specific time limit, though both challenges were finished in no time at all, much to the amazement of their foes. After that the Thugs sent out a Gargathon, a massive ball shaped creature with a serpent tail and tiny wings that lifted it into the air, at them, where Autumn informed them that it came from the planet Thram, which they might visit at some point during this adventure.

The Gargathon was tougher to fight since it was flying through the air, requiring them to use their new devices to follow it to some degree, but, in the end, they brought down the massive being and caused all of the observers to cheer for them, showing that they approved of the battle.

After that many of the Thugs persuaded the officials to allow the siblings to compete in the Gold Cup, the last of the three they had, and the first challenge was a trek through Doom Canyon as the Thugs tried to stop them in their tracks, even if all of their enemies failed in the long run. The second one this time around was using weapons to knock enemies back into the Mangler, an interesting twist that they quickly passed through with blazing colors, while the third challenge was more about surviving two rounds of Thugs while using their new toys. After that the fourth challenge required that they use no weapons, save for their melee weapons, to fight through their enemies, before discovering that the fifth one surviving two waves of enemies and the Mangler. If the siblings were being honest with themselves there was no reason for the three of them to be involved in a challenge, because there were times where Ratchet was more than enough to deal with their foes and other times where all three of them were involved in crushing the challenges.

The last one involved them fight the 'Prog Bot', a metallic robot that resembled Neftin and wielded two maces that were actually flails, which told the siblings that the Thugs must have invented the bot to get some enjoyment out of beating up their boss, without actually approaching him, but, like always, they took it down and cleaned up shop, adding more Bolts to their total as they returned to Aphelion.

"You know, after the Agorian Battleplex, I was expecting something... more." Autumn commented, as while the nature of the Destructapalooza was interesting, and some of the challenges were sort of neat, it was nothing compared to the rest of the arenas they had been to in the past.

Ratchet chuckled as they climbed into Aphelion and set off for Silox, as it was time to see what Vendra was up to and what they could do to bring her down before she accidentally set of a dimensional cataclysm and destroyed everything in the entire multiverse.

Nexus: Silox

After clearing out the Destructapalooza, and earning a bunch of Bolts for later, Ratchet and Aphelion navigated their way to Silox, the planet that seemed to be the main one in whatever Vendra and Neftin were planning with the Nethers, all while Autumn and Starswirl simply rested. They knew the Twins were trying to find their family, that much was easy for them to see by just studying the audio journals, which Autumn was keeping as evidence to show people the truth, that the Twins were, in fact, being used by someone else for a much darker purpose. Mr. Eye, from what little they had learned of him, almost seemed like a conqueror and that this dimension might be the next target he was after, hence why he might have sent the Twins ahead of time to prepare the way for him and his army to invade this dimension after some time, especially with all of the armor the Nethers had prepared. They were positive about all of that, even with the limited information that they had on the situation, and Ratchet was sure that while Vendra was putting on her usual villainous face for the Thugs, the one most people were used to seeing, he also suspected that he and his siblings might be able to convince her and Neftin to turn themselves in at some point.

As they soon discovered Silox was a large oceanic planet that was already halfway covered in Nether energy, the lower half to be exact, and that there were large cities that dotted the landscape, where Aphelion found where the dimensional energy was coming from and landed on the outskirts of the city in question.

Hi Ratchet, I know you and your siblings are following me, Vendra said, speaking through their communicators for a few seconds, where it was hard to tell if Neftin was near her or if she was alone right now, but Ratchet could tell that they were right about one thing, her voice seemed split between pleased that they were here and saddened by that fact, Honestly, I'm not even surprised by that fact, rather I'm glad that you guys are here: we're about to change the face of reality and, well, I'd rather not lose people like you... maybe, if you lower your weapons and leave us to our operation, I could speak with Mr. Eye and convince him to spare you guys. I'd... rather not think about the alternative...

"Ratchet, she's totally crushing on you." Starswirl remarked, keeping his voice low so only his siblings and Clank could hear him speak, since they didn't want to give Vendra any ideas before she was done talking, all while his brother nodded, as he had come to terms with that after his first few talks with Vendra, before they heard Neftin in the background, no doubt in the middle of getting things ready.

When Nef and I first got here there were so many people... people who didn't go through the same hardships that we went through, so we scared them off. Vendra continued, though at the same time Ratchet understood the unspoken piece of her statement, she was going to mention him and his siblings, since they had grown up without parents or knowing where their respective races were located, All that's going to change soon.

"I've found the source of the dimensional energy, as it nearly matches the true Dimensionator's signature." Autumn stated, speaking once Vendra cut off the connection, even though she could see that it was located deep inside the city, not that any of them were surprised by this piece of information, causing her to sigh as they climbed out of Aphelion, who was scanning the planet and sending the data to the Great Clock, to aid Kaden in trying to repair this mess.

"Good, then let's get to them before they break reality... or set off the Dimensional Cataclysm." Ratchet said, as his father had put some emphasis on the term at one point and he knew that it was important, hence why he had avoided trying to put together the original Dimensionator until everything was back to normal, which would no doubt happen once they put an end to Vendra's plans.

After saying that Ratchet walked down the path in front of them and found that they had to glide over to an area that had an old grav-train station, not to mention a Vendor, where he, Autumn, and Starswirl walked over to the Vendor and found two more weapons to add to their arsenals. The first was the new and improved Plasma Striker, as it was far stronger than the one Autumn had made during one of their previous adventures, while the other one was the Nether Blades, a weapon apparently created by Vendra, the holo-plans stolen and integrated into what Autumn worked on, and improved to be a viable weapon. With both in hand Ratchet surveyed the area that they were in, finding that to move the downed grav-train out of the way one needed to find a Battery Bot, which might not even exist since it's been some time since anyone had been to this place, before locating some Serathoid nests, allowing them to test the Nether Blades on them. Ratchet quickly found that they sort of acted like the Buzz Blades, it fired a rotating blade out that bounced around and hit multiple foes before breaking, and it allowed him to locate the Battery Bot as his siblings smashed the rest of the crates that were in this part of the city.

With the Battery Bot returned to it's socket the train moved out of the way, revealing that they could walk on the rail, even if it meant fighting the Nethers that had followed Vendra and Neftin to Silox after their last experiment, though as the pair of Nethers fell they expected Vendra to be angry and noticed that she didn't contact them.

One thing the siblings discovered was that there were a few turrets that were still active, as one loosed a laser at a couple of Serathoids that were roaming the area, cutting through them with ease, but since the spotlight wasn't moving the three of them were able to avoid it without too much trouble and moved into another part of the city. After discovering a couple of turrets blocking the way forward Ratchet asked Clank to scout ahead, as in he activated his Helipack and flew above the spotlights, though upon his return he informed them that he found a Thug communicator that they might be able to use if he hacked into it. As such they decided to head down the path to their left, even though a Battery Bot was required for the nearby socket, which raised some Swingshots for them to use to make their way around the spotlights, before finding that a pair of Thugs were talking and one of them felt that this was a big mistake, summoning Mr. Eye into their world. It was a little odd to see mercenaries talking about how their bosses were doing something stupid, though after what happened in Bogon, during their second adventure, it seemed that the surviving Thugs had learned a bit and were now a little cautious about who they worked for.

Such a thing didn't lead to the siblings sparing them, rather they blasted the pair and the others that happened to be near where they had stopped, before gliding down to what seemed to be the Water Works of this city, where they discovered that it was partly flooded and Talwyn informed them of what needed to be done. Basically they had to find Battery Bots to activate the pumps and move the water from one spot to another, so while Ratchet focused on finding the little robots his siblings cleared out the area without wasting too much time, as there was no telling when Vendra would activate her plan and the makeshift Dimensionator. The fact that there were Grav-Tethers along the path they were following meant that someone out there knew of the path Ratchet and his siblings would be taking and outfitted it with the devices they would need to progress, meaning either the Plumber or someone else was behind this. Of course Vendra or Neftin sent more of the Thugs to stop them, or at the very least slow them down since one seemed to know that the Thugs were nothing when compared to what Ratchet and his siblings were capable of, but they blasted them into submission before moving deeper into the city.

There was a Bolt Crank that, when turned, started to pour more water into the area of the Water Works that they were in, to which the siblings raced up some new platforms to escape the rising water, though as they did so a few Thugs actually drowned off in the distance, causing them to shake their heads as they escaped the area.

After leaving the Water Works, by using a magnetic strip to escape the rising water, Ratchet found some Thugs in front of them that were talking, discussing how he and his siblings bested Nefarious with a Sonic Eruptor or how they took down some of the other villains they had encountered over the years. One thing was clear to them, some of the Thugs might be scared of what they were capable of, and sure enough some fled at the sight of Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl walking up to where the mercenaries were currently standing, allowing them to clear out those who wanted them dead. Neftin was, of course, amazed by how hard they were to kill as the Thugs reported their problems to him, where Ratchet was sure he heard Vendra chuckle a little, which their help would no doubt see as humor towards the Thugs getting wiped out, though he knew that she was pleased with what they were currently doing.

Not even the dropship that was brought to bare against them remained in their path for too long, as they crushed it with their skills and weapons, just like most of the enemies that decided to attack them, before reaching another area that had a number of Grav-Tethers and spotlights to avoid. Autumn studied the area and quickly determined how to get around all of them, tracking down a Battery Bot to use to open a doorway that was blocking the path, though her brothers and Clank weren't even surprised by this. As they did that Vendra called again and talked about Mr. Eye for a time, her tone similar to what she had used when the massive figure had talked to her back on Yerek, where Ratchet asked her not to do this, as he had a feeling that Mr. Eye was going to betray her and Neftin the moment he was on their side of the barrier, and while he got no rebuke for his words he understood that his words were bothering Vendra. It was all he could do right now, talk to her and try to convince the Twins not to pursue the path that they had set themselves on all those years ago, by listening to the whispers of Mr. Eye, while blasting the Thugs out of the way so they could progress.

After that they reached an area were multiple Thugs dropped down into, along with one of the fighter ships that had been called in to bring them down, though Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl wasted no effort in covering each other as they tore through their enemies and escaped from the platform when the Thugs tried to sink it.

From there they navigated more of the Grav-Tethers and avoided the spotlights that happened to be in their way, before reaching the relay station that Clank had seen earlier, allowing them to ambush several Thugs in the process and clear the area of enemies, which allowed the siblings to set up a perimeter as Clank hacked into the terminal. Sure enough more Thugs rushed into the area to stop him from hacking into the terminal, mostly to confirm where Vendra was located and, more importantly, figure out what sort of obstacles had been placed in their way by the Thugs. The siblings opened fire on the ground and air reinforcements that rushed into the area, blasting whatever their enemies sent their way without any of them using too much of their energy or ammunition, and even then Ratchet left a Blazebot to his siblings. His reasoning for that was because Vendra called again, though this time around, even though she was trying to be menacing, he heard the other side at the same time, the side that suggested that she was listening to them, about using the makeshift device Pollyx had helped build to bring the Nethers into this universe.

It meant he might have succeeded in breaking through Mr. Eye's brainwashing, even though he hadn't known about that during their time on the Nebulox, causing him to push forward as they brought down another cruiser, clearing the area of foes for now as they returned to Clank's side.

In that moment he informed them that he had finished the hack and knew that to move forward their next task was to use three power stations to open the path through an aqueduct, which would bring them to the nearby Sky Train Station, the one that all of the dimensional energy was coming from. With that information in hand Ratchet and his siblings made their way over to where another Vendor rested, allowing them to restock their ammunition before spreading out to tackle all of their targets, as time was of the essence and there was no reason for them to waste what little they had. Of course such a thing caused the Thugs to be taken by surprise, as they were expecting Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl to fight together, just like they did during the days of their second adventure, but the siblings tore through the groups guarding each of the water pumps and returned all of the Battery Bots to their plugs. Such a thing allowed them to see that the city was partly damaged, as most of the structures were still intact, mostly for the Thugs to use as safe locations while waiting for Vendra and Neftin to complete their objective, though it meant that not much needed to be repaired in the future, for when those who called it home eventually returned.

With all three pumps restored the primary maintenance gate was opened and they levitated through it, heading into the aqueduct that would bring them closer to their target, though with the next door, on the right of the platform they stopped at for a second, locked they had to head down the path on their left. Fortunately there were also power cables for them to follow, even though Ratchet noticed that they through some fans that were powered down right now, which would likely be powered up once they tracked down the main power source in this section of the aqueducts. Of course there were Thugs in this part of the city as well, which none of the siblings were surprised by, though there was a smart one who seemed to like his time with the Terachnoids, as he was using big words and explaining things in a more scientific manner, so Autumn just tagged him with a teleport spell. When they attacked the group of Thugs, however, that one was warped out so they didn't kill such a prodigy, as he might become more than just a goon, and it wasn't long before the siblings were moving deeper into the aqueduct to find their target.

Once they found the main pump it took them no time at all to restore it's Battery Bot and activate it, causing the water in the area to rise as the siblings retracted their flight path and headed for the other door, before reaching another Bolt Crank that stopped the water from rising once it was turned.

From there it was a simple matter to fly through the next opening, bringing them to the courtyard of the building that held the Sky Train Station, where Ratchet and his siblings found more Thugs waiting for enemies to show up, causing them to open fire on Neftin's minions once more. Vendra, as per the usual, told them to come and get her, though Ratchet could tell that her voice was filled with doubt, as if she was seriously considering that this might be a bad idea and that she and Neftin could pull back before things got so much worse. As they fought yet another cruiser, which had to be the last line of defense for the Twins, Ratchet noticed that the barrier between dimensions was stretched rather thin in this area, just like Aphelion claimed according to her earlier readings, and he realized what was going on as his siblings tore down the ship. Both of his siblings weren't even surprised when he told them what he had discovered, in fact Autumn was sure he would have noticed due to the fact that his father worked on the Dimensionator and he was, likely, more attuned to it than they thought, but all of them kept quiet as they pushed onward.

As they entered the station Clank found another rift to use and entered it without delay, where it didn't take him too long to find a Nether and bring it back to shatter the opening for them, revealing the way to the control center so they could remove a ruined train and use the elevator to reach the building's highest point... right below a massive vortex of energy that was the result of countless years of experimentation and tampering.

"Can you feel it? Static electricity in the air... a side effect of constant transdimensional experimentation." Neftin remarked, walking out from one of the train alleys that would have been used when the city was populated, speaking as soon as he spotted the siblings arrive with the platform they had used to reach this point, "You see, we had to use a trick to reach this point in time..."

"Without the Dimensionator, the true one, you had to utilize multiple false ones that would slowly wear down the barrier between all of the dimensions." Ratchet said, as he had been paying attention to everything that his father and Autumn had to say about the powerful device they had rescued from Tachyon's clutches, especially the danger it posed with said barrier in the state it was currently in.

"Correct. I must admit, I took you for just a hero, but you are as smart as your sister." Neftin stated, where he walked out onto the circular arena that they were currently standing in, though as he said that Ratchet was sure that he and Vendra had talked about the calls she had been making while they were preparing for this day, "Of course, my sister is similar to you in some ways... can you imagine what she's been through, working so hard while her kind are right there, on the other side of a barrier, but impossible to reach?"

"Yeah, I can. Did Vendra tell you about my twin sister, Rivet?" Ratchet asked, noting that Autumn and Starswirl were just a little surprised that he had mentioned her to Vendra, though he did so to establish a connection of sorts with the prisoner, to see if they could gain any new information, or at least at first, but it had turned into much more, and he could see that Neftin did, in fact, know the story, "During our first adventure, where we reclaimed the Dimensionator, I had a chance to see her... one of the dimensional cracks my siblings and I have seen over the years revealed her to us, during a time when she was wounded and in need of assistance, and I did everything in my power to help her... I even pounded on the barrier until it shattered into a portal, but before I could do anything it sealed before I could rush to her aid. You two have been searching for your kind, while I have been searching for my twin sister... I understand you guys better than you might think when you consider everything I've been through."

"I... wow... I was not expecting that." Neftin replied, as he had understood what Vendra had told him earlier, but now, after all of this information, he realized something about Ratchet, he was, as he claimed, just like them, only he walked a path that was different from what he and Vendra had traveled down, "But still, you want to stop Vendra... I cannot allow such a thing to happen."

"That's admirable, but we don't want to fight... we just want to talk." Autumn said, as he noticed that Neftin had two flails that could be extended into larger forms, allowing him to transport them with ease and prevent his foes from seeing both of them until it was too late, and her words stopped Neftin in his tracks, though she was sure Vendra was listening before making her dramatic arrival, "You're right, using a makeshift Dimensionator will allow you to wear thin the barrier, just like you've been doing since you two put this plan into motion... however, the damage that's been done has reached a point of almost no return. If you use that Dimensionator to punch a hole in the barrier between dimensions, connecting this reality to the Netherverse to fulfill your plan, there's a good chance that you could set off what Kaden, Ratchet's father, calls the 'Dimensional Cataclysm', the literal end of reality."

"So what? You want us to stop, after everything we've done?!" Neftin declared, as he sounded unhappy about the idea no one had mentioned, even though the siblings were hoping that he or Vendra would see that they were here to help them keep themselves from doing something they might regret.

"To a degree. Do we want to preserve all of reality? Absolutely." Starswirl commented, where Neftin glanced at him while he glanced at the energy that was above them, as he and the others knew that someone else, likely Mr. Eye, was watching and observing them before the portal was torn open for him and his vast army, "However, we can offer you an easier way to carry out your plan: put down the makeshift Dimensionator and help us repair the damage you've done to the barrier between dimensions... I can guarantee you that we'll repair the true Dimensionator and open the way to the Netherverse so you can find your family."

"Do... Do you mean that?" another voice asked, where they found that Vendra, still holding onto the false Dimensionator, floated down to where they were standing, with hope in her eyes no less, something she and her brother hadn't had for a long time, at least hope provided by others and not made with their own hands.

"I do. With my parents and Orvus helping us, there's nothing we can't do... besides, you shouldn't trust that creature, the one watching us at this very moment." Ratchet replied, where everyone glanced up at the vortex and Vendra's eyes quickly widened as she noticed that Mr. Eye was actually staring down at them, which should be impossible since the device was offline right now, while he frowned at the creature, "Come on, break through the barrier... I know you've been using both Vendra and Neftin so you wouldn't have to waste your power on opening the way into our dimension... you wanted some pawns to do your work for you!"

It was a gamble if he was right or not, given what little they knew of the Netherverse, but in response to his words several Nether portals were torn open before their eyes, the forces of the other dimension surging into their reality as Vendra and Neftin looked on in sheer disbelief. Ratchet hated being right, especially in regards to things dealing with the barrier that existed between the dimensions and those trying to mess with it in some manner, but this just confirmed something for all of them, Mr. Eye was using the Prog Twins to open the door for him. Sure enough he found that the main vortex burst open and the terrifying monster that had been lurking on the other side of the barrier surged into their dimension, where they confirmed that he was wearing armor to make sure he survive in this reality. At the same time, however, Ratchet did notice that cracks were starting to spread out from each of the portals, confirming his fears about all of this, the damage was starting to spread and it was only a matter of time until irrepairable damage was done to the rest of reality.

In the following moment Ratchet's secondary fears were confirmed, some of the Nethers zeroed in on Vendra with a quick glance from their boss, to which he, aided by Starswirl's quick formed platforms, rushed into the air and swung his wrench at them, knocking them away from her as she dropped the false Dimensionator, though he caught her before pushing the both of them away as Mr. Eye crushed the device with a claw.

As Vendra and Neftin came to terms with the fact that Ratchet was right, that Mr. Eye saw them as pawns, the creature in question started to talk, where Autumn translated the message for all of them, that he was grateful for them being such great pawns in his plans to invade this dimension. Such a thing hurt the Prog Twins more than they were willing to admit, especially since they were learning that they had been deceived into believing that the creature was part of their family, or even a friend for that matter, and now wanted to kill them since they were the only ones capable of stopping him from his plans to take over this entire dimension. As the monster turned on them, however, Autumn loosed a large fireball into his face, blasting him backwards so they could descend to the base of the station with Neftin following them, while carrying a mentally hurt Vendra in his arms. The siblings weren't too surprised by that, especially since Vendra thought she had been doing everything right to find her family, and knew that it would be some time before she was ready to fight back, but as they departed from the building, however, Ratchet noticed that the Nethers were starting to depart and he had a feeling that he knew where they were going.

While they departed, however, Neftin asked the siblings to meet him and Vendra on Thram, as he had a plan and it was, at the moment, the best place for them to discuss what needed to be done, to which the siblings nodded before they let the Twins head off in another direction, allowing them to return to their ship and leave Silox without much delay.

Nexus: Thram

It didn't take Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank too long to reach Thram, though before heading down to the swamp that Neftin sent them the coordinates to they made sure to warn Talwyn about what happened, or at least leave her a message so they could see what sort of plan would help them beat Mr. Eye and his forces.

"Huh, so this is where the wreckage of the Nebulox ended up." Ratchet remarked, as they could see scattered pieces of the prison ship during their descent, in fact it looked like the vault section ended up in an area that looked like it was safe from all of the dangers that this planet possessed, so he touched down on the upper area outside it, "Neftin, we're on Thram. Where do you want to meet up?"

My apologies, we are... um... being delayed by personal problems. Neftin replied, where Ratchet was sure he heard someone crying in the background, though at the same time he couldn't fault Vendra for feeling the way she was right now, especially after being betrayed by someone she thought was her friend or even a family member, I know time is of the essence, with the Nethers traveling across the galaxy, and we will arrive on Tharm within the hour... go kill something to pass the time.

"I wonder what the galaxy would say if they realized that Vendra is only a little girl at heart." Autumn commented, where she spoke as soon as the link between them and Neftin was down, so their new ally didn't hear what they had to say about his sister, though as she said that they used the lift to lower themselves down into the area below them, "And would you look at that, the Smuggler is on this planet as well... what are the odds?"

"Oh, hello friends. Fancy meeting the lot of you in the Zarkov Sector." the Smuggler said, though his parrot seemed more interested in another part of the swamp, which was fine with them since it meant he might be seeing danger, before their ally glanced over all of them for a moment as he noticed that they were prepped for another adventure, "What can I do for all of you on this fine day?"

"Sadly, that's complicated. Why don't we just do some business instead?" Ratchet replied, because while he knew that the Smuggler might be able to point them towards the area that Neftin's base happened to be located in, in fact Aphelion had done a scan and might have found it already, he didn't feel like talking about it right now, "I'm sure there's some sort of creature that you're trying to gather either the soul of or components of to sell to someone in the galaxy... why not let us do a little hunting?"

"Well, I do have a client looking for some Gargathon horns... how about the usual deal, you collect them and I buy them by the time your done?" the Smuggler inquired, as he could tell something was bothering Ratchet, or at least he was the only one that seemed to be thinking about something else right now, and right now, after everything that had been happening in his own life, he decided to let the Lombax keep his secrets, "You'll be interested to know that you don't actually have to kill any this time around, as there are plenty of fossils scattered around the entire swamp... but, if the three of you want to fight them, feel free to do so."

Ratchet nodded before they checked the Vendor for new weapons, finding the Vortex Grenade, which utilized dark matter to wipe out those it was used against, and the Warmonger, an old favorite for sure, were available and they purchased the pair, upgrading them to their fullest like those that came before them. Once that was done he, Autumn, and Starswirl did as Neftin suggested, they departed from the safe zone and headed out into the wilderness for a time, seeking a couple of Gargathons so they could kill some time as they waited for their allies to arrive. As they expected they found more groups of Serathoids hanging around the swamp, which seemed to be a common enemy in this part of Polaris, though in addition to that they found some Blekkos, creatures who had evolved to explode when danger was near, which they decimated in no time at all with their weapons. Their main targets were, of course, the various Gargathons that were flying around this part of the planet, which were actually more aggressive than the one that had been in the Thugs' arena, though even they were nothing compared to the might of the siblings, allowing them to collect their horns once each fell.

In order to find all of the horns Ratchet found that they had to utilize their Hoverboots and their levitation devices in order to reach other sections of the swamp, allowing him and his siblings to scour the entirety of the area for the Gargathons that lived here and collect every horn that they could find. While they did that, however, Autumn and Starswirl could tell that their brother was distracted by what had happened on Silox, that their worst fears had been right, about the Twins being used as pawns by Mr. Eye since the day they were brought to this dimension. While they had a rocky start to their relationship it was easy to tell that he was worried about Vendra, about the fact that she was now in a vulnerable state after being attacked by someone she and her brother had thought to be their friend, ally, or even a family member. He also hated Mr. Eye right now and was likely considering their options on how to bring him down so they could save their universe, though there was only one route in his mind that made sense, given what was going on right now, and he figured he could wait until they met up with the Twins before revealing his idea to everyone.

Eventually they hunted down every Gargathon in the area and collected their horns, allowing them to turn them in and earn a fair number of Bolts for their efforts, but after that was done they got another call from Neftin, which they hoped was the one that they were waiting for.

Ratchet, we have touched down and are making for our base, which I've sent you the coordinates for. Neftin said, where it was easy for them to tell that he had tended to Vendra, who wasn't crying anymore, though this informed them that he must have landed while they were hunting the Gargathons for their horns.

With that information in hand the siblings made their way to the area in question, a cliff edge of sorts that was close to the area he had picked out for Aphelion to land in, and what they discovered was a decent sized passenger ship, perfectly sized for Neftin to stand in, that looked like it might have crashed, and, sure enough, Neftin had the door open, which he closed as soon as they were inside.

"How are you two holding up?" Ratchet asked, as when they entered the cruiser he and his siblings discovered that most of the inside had been removed to make room for Neftin, so he could move freely, while possessing a pair of beds, separate from each other since one sibling was large and the other was small, before discovering that Vendra was looking down at the floor right now.

"...we're fine..." Neftin answered, which meant they weren't fine at all, something the siblings expected after the shocking discovery that they were just pawns of the true villain, causing Ratchet to walk over to Vendra's bed and sit down near her so she could place her head on his lap, mostly since it was the only thing he could do without Neftin freaking out.

"What are you looking for?" Starswirl inquired, as he found that the moment Neftin answered Ratchet's question he turned and started searching several crates that were near the wall opposite of where his sister was sitting, while Autumn stood near the doorway, since there weren't a lot of seats to pick from.

"A tourbot for the Museum of Intergalactic History. We, um, swiped one of them when we learned that you decided to move the original Dimensionator there." Neftin replied, where he turned around and revealed the little robot to them, all while his comment revealed that they might have been planning on tackling the museum to obtain the true device, before he and Vendra decided on kidnapping Pollyx to get the job done, "I've thought about our situation and have determined that we need the original if we want to send the Nethers back to the Netherverse, but Mr. Eye will likely put up a fight, as he put a lot of time and effort into this plan, hence why it'll be up to you two and Vendra to take him down. I'll need to fix up the Dimensionator, to be sure it can handle sending the Nethers back to their dimension, which is where you come in, as I'm sure you guys can get to it in no time... I mean, you are far more nimble than I'll ever be."

"Yeah, about that: the original Dimensionator isn't in the museum... we just said that since people were expecting it to be somewhere safe." Autumn remarked, causing the Twins to glance at her for a moment as she used a bit of magic to show them what she meant, revealing the way to where she and Starswirl had safely stored the artifact, causing her to glance at Neftin for a couple of seconds, "We'll need to contact Kaden as well, as he worked on it before becoming it's Keeper, so he'll be able to help you accurately fix the device... or at least this version of it anyway... but even if we take down Mr. Eye, and save the galaxy, there are people who are going to call for you two to be punished for your actions."

"You mean... after everything we've been through, we'll be thrown in jail?" Vendra asked, where they found that she wasn't too interested in such a thing, in fact all she seemed interested in right now was either enjoying her time near Ratchet or just wanted this adventure to be over, and she glanced up at Ratchet for a moment.

"Not if we can help it... now that we know you two were being manipulated by the true villain, well, I'm sure we can find a way to help you, we just have to talk with Orvus and Alister." Ratchet replied, because Clank's dad had access to time itself and would be able to view everything that the Twins had done or been through since arriving in this dimension, while he knew that Alister, after calming down after Autumn talked to him about the Great Clock and everything, might be willing to help the pair.

As Vendra and Neftin opened their mouths to say something, however, everyone paused as they heard something crack, causing Aphelion to open the line to them and informed them that the breach on Silox was starting to spread, which was when Ratchet asked her to call his father, opening a line into the Great Clock.

"Dad, the breach on Silox is getting worse. Is the Dimensional Cataclysm getting closer to happening?" Ratchet asked, as his father was the best person to ask about this subject, given that he was the Keeper of the Dimensionator, or had been before Tachyon's attack, and he had to be tracking the damage Mr. Eye's breach was causing.

"No, but we're building up to it... I estimate we have four hours before we reach the point of no return." Kaden replied, all while he tapped several controls and looked at the screens in front of him, constantly working to fix the barrier that rested between the dimensions, where Ratchet noted that Vendra and Neftin were staring at him with some interest, likely due to the area behind him, "I take it you already have a plan in mind?"

"Vendra and Neftin made a makeshift Dimensionator, so Neftin should be able to repair the original and I was hoping that you'd come help him out." Ratchet said, as he understood that the Twins were the keys to defeating Mr. Eye, while he and his siblings would likely be the decoys for the most part, plus he suspected that if his father worked on the true device he would be able to save them some time, since it seemed like they were running short on it right now, "I'll be fighting Mr. Eye for a while... that's the villain that's been using the Twins for his own purposes... while Autumn and Starswirl will be joining forces with Vendra to, hopefully, destroy Mr. Eye."

"Okay, I'll join you in Meridian City... be quick, that creature is coming and he's weakening the barrier even more as time goes on." Kaden stated, where he did a double check on what Mr. Eye was doing, which seemed to be heading for the last area that the Dimensionator's energy had come from, the museum that they claimed it had been left in, though that also meant they had to warn Talwyn and the others about what was coming.

Ratchet nodded as the call ended, to which he beckoned for the Twins to join him and his siblings as they returned to their ship, as it was time to head back to Igliak and put an end to this short adventure, while hopefully fixing the barrier so they could safely use the Dimensionator later on, but first they had to deal with Mr. Eye and his plans and was eager to bring him down for everything he did to their brand new friends.

Nexus: Igliak

Talwyn and Qwark, as Ratchet and his siblings expected, weren't too happy with the fact that they were now working with the Twins, especially given everything that Vendra and Neftin had done since running everyone out of the Zarkov Sector, but, due to the nature of the threat they were facing, remained silent on the matter. From what they could tell Mr. Eye was in no mood to destroy things that were meaningless to his plans, confirming that his only mission right now was to ensure that they couldn't use the Dimensionator to return him and the Nethers back to the Netherverse. His target was Igliak, where the museum holding a fake copy of the device, purely cosmetic for the sake of an exhibit it was built for, rested, so they had to get to the planet first, hence why Ratchet was seeking an area close by that was void of buildings and people. He didn't want anyone to get caught in the crossfire of the battle that would unfold once their target arrived, so Talwyn found them a spot to do their battle in as Qwark did his best to warn everyone about the incoming danger, causing some of the population to flee to bunkers that had been made in case of another invasion.

Vendra and Neftin, however, were surprised by the amount of reinforcements that the siblings could call on, especially on such short notice when she thought about it, and simply watched from their seats as the Helios reached Igliak in no time at all, causing the Twins to be simply amazed by the siblings once more.

An area's been cleared, ready for your fight with Mr. Eye, or whatever his name is. Talwyn said, speaking to the group as they touched out on the outskirts of the area in question, a large area that would house someone of Mr. Eye's size, all while having several towers that could house several people that could work on the Dimensionator, We've got word that he'll be here in no time at all, so everyone had best get ready.

"Right. Autumn, Starswirl?" Ratchet inquired, where he turned towards his siblings for a moment and they watched as the pair opened the way to the magical storage area that the true Dimensionator was housed in, which was withdrawn from it's resting place without delay and handed over to Neftin, "Good. Now, from what I can tell, my dad has set up shop in one of the towers, so let's head over there and get ready for this fight.

What was interesting was that inside the tower the group discovered another Vendor, carrying the Netherbeast weapon, a new addition that Autumn had made in such a short period of time while utilizing a lesser Nether, likely a pet of some kind in it's home dimension, while containing the resident energy of the Netherverse to preserve it.

"I know you're an inventor, but... wow, I wasn't expecting this." Vendra remarked, as she had never seen one make a new weapon in such a short period of time, much less from a new source of energy that they were only just now encountering for the first time, all while wondering what else Autumn might be capable of in the future.

"If you think that's impressive, just wait until you see this." Autumn said, where she tapped a button and a container, one large enough for a very specific weapon, floated down to where they were standing, revealing a large dark grey weapon that had purple highlights, causing Ratchet to pause for a moment as he realized what he was seeing, especially since the Twins followed suit, "The RYNO VII, possessing multiple barrels that the bullets will fly out of and having far more power than even the RYNO VI Protosuit from our last adventure... and it plays Night on Bald Mountain while firing, just for a little extra flare."

"And that's not counting what she's got planned for the RYNO VIII... she's confirmed that the plans for it exist, as terrifying as that sounds." Ratchet commented, as he knew that Clank and a few others were worried that she was planning on the eighth weapon in the RYNO series being a Dimensionator style weapon, and if that was true it would be devastating in her hands, or whoever hands it ended up in, and the Twins seemed caught off guard by this new discovery.

"I know you two are interested in her weapons, but we need to focus." a voice said, where Ratchet found his father waiting in the center of the tower he had picked out after hearing that his assistance was required, with the equipment he needed to work on the Dimensionator, causing him to beckon Neftin over so they could get to work, "As soon as we start working on the device that creature is going to sense us and come running, so you guys had best get into position before he and his forces arrive."

"The device is in worse shape than I thought it would be... just look at these markings." Neftin remarked, gesturing to a set of burn markings on the exterior, which Ratchet was sure had come from Tachyon, before he and Kaden opened it to start their work on the insides, though the grim look on his face spoke volumes about the Dimensionator's condition, "This is a technological marvel... just look at everything that went into making the device and powering it to the point where it can safely punch holes in the barrier between dimensions... and something snapped off the primary reflux coil, which isn't the best thing to see at the start of our work."

"Indeed, though we have the three and three quarters cubit hexagonal washer that we used back when it was damaged in the fight against Tachyon." Clank said, where he opened his chest compartment and withdrew the item, as he had pulled it out after the second adventure to prevent someone from using it, just in case something happened to it before either of the siblings could store it in their storage areas, which he handed over to Neftin.

"Ratchet... you aren't going to like this: even with Kaden helping, we'll only have enough power to open the portal back to the Netherverse, and maybe a little more to push the Nethers through it." Neftin commented, as he could tell that there was far more damage to the insides of the Dimensionator than any of them even knew, and from what he could see even Kaden was in the dark about it, mostly because he was trying to stop him and Vendra from breaching the barrier that Mr. Eye had passed through, "After that... there's a chance that we'll burn it out completely."

"Neftin, no! Please, we can't ask him to make that kind of sacrifice!" Vendra said, because while she was more than willing to do anything to repent for her crimes against Polaris, especially since she and her brother had allowed Mr. Eye to invade this dimension, she understood what her brother hadn't said, especially after learning about Ratchet's quest.

"You said there's a chance, probably fifty-fifty... we'll just have to risk it." Ratchet replied, as while it was sweet that Vendra was concerned about his quest to find Rivet and bring her home, or help her secure her dimension with no way back, he knew that sometimes sacrifices had to be made, for the good of all dimensions, so this was a gamble on his part, though as some of them opened their mouths an alert sounded, "That's our cue. Let's do this!"

Vendra floated there for a moment, noticing the look in Ratchet's eyes, a brief flash of pain that he hid from them, and as she opened her mouth to say something he and his siblings jumped into the space on the northern side of the tower, as it allowed them to descend into the arena they had picked out. Sure enough Mr. Eye and his Nethers showed up, causing all of the assembled heroes to open fire on their targets, pulling the small force away from the creature as the siblings fired on him, informing Talwyn and the others that the battle was starting at last. What they discovered was that Mr. Eye's claws released small shockwaves from where he struck, which they had to dodge as he tracked them, either because he wanted to end Autumn or Starswirl or he deemed Ratchet far more of a threat than his siblings. Another thing the siblings had to be mindful of was the fact that Mr. Eye was capable of destroying buildings with a swing of his arms, the armor looking far more sturdy than some of the structures around them, hence why they eventually took to the air with their devices, which made it impossible for him to target the various buildings.

As they did that Kaden and Neftin worked on the Dimensionator as Vendra waited for her moment to shine, which came as Ratchet and his siblings knocked Mr. Eye back at long last, something that spurred Neftin into donning the device, with Kaden's approval, before flying out as her brother readied himself.

"Autumn, Starswirl, join me!" Vendra stated, where she gathered her power and didn't have to hope that they understood her idea, as they jumped back and gathered their own energies as well, allowing them to mix the two types of magic into a single mass while Ratchet stood below them, watching as Mr. Eye regained himself.

"Dimensionator! Find the Netherverse and send the Nethers back home!" Neftin declared, activating the device like he and his sister did when one of them used their makeshift one, where reality shuddered for a moment as a series of cracks in the barrier appeared nearby, before bursting open into a large portal that started to suck in the remaining Nethers, just as he told the device to do.

In that moment Autumn, Vendra, and Starswirl loosed their attack, a magical surge of energy that was protected by all of Vendra's, so they wouldn't have to worry about damaging the barrier even more, that smashed into Mr. Eye and sent the creature screaming into the Netherverse, and once it was far enough away it exploded and tore him apart, which they were able to see before all of the portals closed.

"The deed is done." Kaden said, though at the same time Neftin undid the Dimensionator and handed it to him, since he was the only one capable of determining whether or not it was still operational or not, before he sighed as soon as he saw it and handed it over to Ratchet.

"Mr. Eye is gone and the Nethers have been sent back home... at great cost." Ratchet added, as he could see the truth of the situation, the Dimensionator was totally screwed, burned out from forcing open another portal after everything both he and Tachyon had used it for all those years ago, causing him to drop his hands as he left the device in Clank's hands for the time being, "I... need some time before we assess the damage the Nethers caused."

That instant pained Vendra more than she was willing to admit, Ratchet looked like hope had died or something and it told her that the Dimensionator was done for, though as he walked off, to come to terms with this before focusing on another method to fulfill his quest, she was determined to fix her mistake and help him find his sister, after whatever sentence she and Neftin would be charged with in the very near future.

Author's Note

And so ends the Nexus arc... next up, the one I've been eagerly waiting for.

Interlude: The Plan

Vendra and Neftin, following the battle with Mr. Eye and his Nether allies, allowed themselves to be taken in by Ratchet and his siblings, more for the galaxy to know that they had been 'captured' and that they were no longer a threat to the rest of Polaris, basically repeating what should have happened when she was previously captured. True to Autumn's word they were brought before Orvus, who watched over the Great Clock and Time itself, Alister Azimuth, the highest ranking Lombax, not counting Kaden, and Virtuous, another version of Nefarious that required some explanation for them to understand his specific situation. The rest of Polaris was fine with them, Qwark, the siblings, and the remaining members of Ratchet's family declaring what sort of punishment they would suffer through for a long period of time, since Vendra was expecting them to be serving a sentence for a long time, especially after all the damage they did to the barrier between dimensions. Based on what Vendra could tell the only reason for this was because Orvus and the Zoni were the watchers of time, so they could see all of their sins, while Alister and Kaden, like all Lombaxes, were known for their logical minds, so this was to ensure they suffered a punishment that was appropriate of their crimes.

What she discovered, however, was that their charges were basically dropped, as they didn't harm the people of the few planets they had forced people to evacuate, most had enough possessions to start over without too much trouble, and, in the end, Mr. Eye had manipulated them, so everything wasn't totally their fault. It was unbelievable, even though Vendra had a feeling that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl had a hand in figuring everything out, as they had been in 'custody' for a week before the 'trial', before they got onto their punishment, since one was required to ensure that they weren't a danger to the rest of reality. She only half listened to what Orvus had to say on the matter, even though she did catch that they would be working with Kaden and himself to fix the damage they had caused to both the barrier between dimensions and the rest of the universe, since their experiments had other consequences than they knew. Their punishment was far more acceptable than she was expecting, especially since she had plans to make it up to Ratchet, after some time, and to do so they needed to make sure the barrier was safe and sound, that was the first step anyway, hence why she needed to speak with Clank, Kaden, and Ratchet's siblings at one point.

After the trial on Fastoon, a planet the Twins never expected to be brought to, they were transported to the Great Clock, as Orvus wanted to make sure they were nearby while they worked, even though he also insisted that they actually take care of their bodies, before revealing something shocking to them.

While the portals between this dimension and the Netherverse were open a few Zoni slipped through, back on Silox, and when everyone fought Mr. Eye they returned once the other portal was torn open, allowing him to discover a truth he had hoped was avoidable. Apparently, when the Twins were too young to remember what had happened, their parents, who were rebels fighting against the tyranny of Mr. Eye and his dark rule, found a breach in the barrier that allowed them to send Vendra and Neftin through. They fought to keep them safe and sound, so that no one would find them until either they brought down their foe or he slew them, only their father, a genius who made the armor Mr. Eye would later wear all over his body, was enslaved while their mother was chained up with the rest of the rebels. In the end both fell in the wake of Mr. Eye's desire to conquer all of the Netherverse, even though he eventually found where they sent the Twins, causing him to start lying to them when he realized that he could use them as pawns in his conquest of every dimension.

Vendra, while glad that their parents had loved them and upset that they were no longer around, found some joy in the fact that she and Neftin had gotten their revenge on Mr. Eye, both for betraying them and for killing their parents, while Neftin was glad that they were no longer being manipulated by the figure in question.

Following that discovery Vendra and Neftin got to work repairing all the damage they had done to the universe, focusing on the barrier between dimensions for the most part, while also updating several machines around the Great Clock with either Kaden or Autumn, or even both, helping them do so. Virtuous also suggested that they undergo therapy, since the Twins had been through a lot since coming to this dimension, and while they did so he discovered something interesting, Vendra loved to spend some of her time with Ratchet and his existing wives, while Neftin was just happy that his sister had embraced the new live that had been offered to them. Of course he also spent some time hanging out with Autumn, mostly to see what else she was capable of, but for the most part Neftin focused on his studies of the Great Clock and doing his service, as he knew that his sister had a plan and wanted to help her fulfill it. Neftin also refrained from saying anything to Ratchet or his siblings, as this particular surprise was to make up for everything they had done since starting their experiments, though it all hinged on whether or not Clank and Vendra could convince Kaden of their desire.

Vendra didn't enact her plan immediately, rather she spent the first month seriously enjoying her new life, even if she had to work hard to undo the damage that their experiments had done to the barrier, before deciding that it was time to set things in motion, hence why she and Clank met up before stopping at Kaden's workshop.

"Kaden, we need to talk." Vendra said, though she was impressed by the section of the Great Clock that was his workshop, an area that contained all sorts of machines and devices that would either go into maintaining the massive station, keeping track of the barrier's health, or whatever else he and the others designed them to do.

"If it's about your community service, you've still got a lot of time to cover before you and Neftin will be free to head back out into the universe." Kaden replied, because he knew that there were multiple reasons that she would have come to talk with him, save for her interest in his son since she had asked him about that in the first week, and figured that it had to be about everything she and Neftin had to do before their sentence was done.

"No, it's... about the damage we've done and how I plan on making it up to Ratchet." Vendra stated, as while Neftin might be interested in wrapping up their community service, to prove to the rest of Polaris that they weren't a threat, her focus was on another matter entirely, causing the Lombax to turn towards her and notice that Clank was standing next to her with a familiar device in his hands, "Clank and I have a plan, and to fulfill it we need your help."

"You are the only one who knows the inner workings of the Dimensionator... I know Ratchet thinks it's dead, but I do know that you can rebuild it." Clank added, because while many might find it insane to work with Vendra on a Dimensionator, after everything she and Neftin had done with their makeshift device, he agreed with her plan and came with her to see if they could convince Kaden to give his son the greatest gift of all.

"This version is fried, there's no way it'll work... damn it Mags, I told you not to mess with the Dimensionator." Kaden said, only it was more like a comment as he accepted the device from Clank and stared at the mess that it was left in, though he was pleased to see that, despite all of the damage that it had taken from the modifications Mags made and the abuse that it suffered while in Tachyon's hands, the Phase Quartz was intact and unharmed.

"Wait... this 'version'?!" Vendra asked, as this was the first time she had heard that there were different versions of it, and she had refrained from asking Ratchet about it out of fear that he would discover what she had planned, causing her to glance from Clank to Kaden as she waited for one of them to say something.

"During one of our previous adventures, Ratchet informed me and his siblings that there was a previous form that it took, a gun of sorts." Clank explained, though he understood Vendra's interest and confusion on the matter, as he had shared it when Ratchet recalled the memory in question, though that caused him to focus on Kaden, who was looking deeper into the device now that it wasn't needed to stop an invasion from another dimension.

"I, along with several other Lombaxes, made the original, while Mags made this one to fulfill a task that the Council tasked him with," Kaden said, where he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked into the systems of the Dimensionator and found that, despite all the damage it had suffered, it wasn't as badly damaged as he or Neftin believed it to be, it was just burned out from it's form and all the modifications Mags made, "It'll take some time, and some real effort given everything that Mags added to make his design work, but we can revert it back to it's original form... most of the systems are, in fact, intact, a few things need to be changed out, and I need to run a systems check to be sure the core integrity is stable... wouldn't want it to blow up and put us one step closer to the Dimensional Cataclysm."

"How long will it take to remake it and fix the barrier? I'm thinking of throwing a celebration for Ratchet on his birthday, and this seems like the best present I could ask for." Vendra asked, because time was the key to this plan, if it took longer than eleven months, which would put them on Ratchet's birthday, the same day that most of their adventures happened, it would ruin everything and put it off for another year, but if it was under eleven they might have a chance.

"If we work hard, eleven months... ten and a half if we're lucky." Kaden answered, though at the same time he noticed the gears in Clank's and Vendra's heads turning as he said that, causing him to beckon them close so he could listen to their plan, every detail of it, because if they were going to do this he needed to know everything.

In the end, however, he agreed with the plan and they got to work, as they still had to fix the barrier between dimensions and repair the Dimensionator to it's previous form, but he knew that it was time to finally set things right and reunite his children, he just had to be patient and hoped Ratchet would like his gift when the time came.

Rift Apart: Celebration

Ratchet found that he, Autumn, and Starswirl were able to relax for the first time in a long time, as usually they were doing all sorts of training or patrols to make sure the galaxies were safe from criminals, and he felt happy that he was allowed to do so without having to worry about anything. His parents and Orvus had confirmed that there were no villains for him and his siblings to take down, as Nefarious had gone into hiding shortly after his attempt to end Qwark with the Z'Grute, so the other heroes were able to pick up their slack for the first time in a long time. In addition to that he found that he was able to spend more time with Angela, Sasha, Nika, Talwyn, and Vendra, sometimes just him and one of them and other times all of them just hanging out, enjoying the peace that the galaxies were enjoying right now, without any galactic threats to worry about. Such a thing reminded him that Vendra and Neftin were no longer seen as dangers to the rest of the universe, all due to their hard work fixing the damage they had done to the Zarkov Sector, and were allowed to actually explore the rest of the universe that they were calling home these days.

He also discovered that Vendra was generally happier than when he first met her, even Neftin had improved greatly, so it made things better for him in the long run since they didn't have to deal with all of their trauma, since Virtuous claimed the pair had nothing more to worry about on that front.

Ratchet found that going on a tour of the other galaxies was of great interest to the Twins and they enjoyed traveling in the Helios for a time, especially since Autumn had created most of the systems that it used, in fact Vendra set aside a day just to see everything that was inside it. He was able to show them Veldin, causing the Twins to wonder why Kaden had picked it in the first place, even though Ratchet explained that it was to make sure Tachyon didn't discover his existence, like how Angela had been sent to Bogon and hid her tail for a long time. Another thing he discovered during their travels were that the Twins were interested in the stories of everything he and his siblings did, and the second one, involving the trio meeting Angela, along with the seventh one, meeting Alister and his parents, were the ones they were far too eager to hear. He understood why, of course, as he had encountered members of his race and either learned more about them or improved his life in some manner after doing so, though those stories also brought some sadness with them, since there was one member of his family that he was still searching for, despite his failures.

While he did that, and the Twins finally finished their community service, he did notice that Clank was much friendlier to Vendra than he was expecting, as they would often talk about things and work together from time to time, but since they seemed to be talking about complicated stuff he left them to their discussions.

As time went on he found that his parents actually went out into the galaxy, instead of staying inside the Great Clock like they did in the past, though he was interested in why they picked Corson V as one of their frequent destinations, which made him wonder what they might be doing. Since they were his parents, however, he decided that it was best not to pry into their personal lives, as now that the barrier was fixed, something his father told him about, ten months after Vendra and Neftin helped bring down Mr. Eye, it meant they were no longer tied down by part of their duties, at least until one of the next villains damaged it again. Qwark also came by once and said that he was planning something big in the future, a festival of some kind, and Ratchet wished him well, because it was likely going to be mostly about the man and everything he had done since becoming a hero, as while he knew Qwark had matured he also knew that their friend enjoyed having people cheer for him. He was also surprised by the fact that Virtuous and several others were helping him set up his big event, even his parents were getting involved, while he was mostly ignored, though Angela and the others helped him turn his attention to other things so he didn't have to think about the festival Qwark was throwing, at least until it happened since he found it to be a little interesting.

The oddest thing about this was that even Clank was involved in some manner, everyone save for him seemed interested in helping Qwark set things up for the future, even though it was scheduled to happen on the date that was the birthday of himself, Autumn, and Starswirl. He wasn't one to jump to conclusions, but it seemed weird that Qwark would set up a festival on that date, instead of picking a date before or after it, though it did make him wonder what in the world he had planned, since he usually had some odd plans, especially since everyone he knew was helping him out. Still, he let them do whatever it was that they wanted, as he wasn't interested in bothering them when they were busy, not over something as odd as this, especially since he'd be brought in once the big day was upon them. Ratchet decided to go on patrol anyway, just to be sure that the other heroes had everything under control and didn't need assistance, though he found that many of them were interested in attending the festival, making him wonder how many people Qwark was planning on inviting to his event.

In the end, however, Ratchet just focused on enjoying the break from heroics and let some time pass, even though he did know what when the date eventually arrived he and his siblings were going to have to do some damage control, given the man's plans in the past, and hoped it was everything Qwark had hoped for.

Eventually the day of the Festival of Heroes arrived and Ratchet found that a good chunk of people, from every galaxy, had come to attend the celebration that Qwark had planned, though he did suspect that something was up when Clank brought him to what appeared to be a dead end.

"Hey Clank, don't you think it's weird that he'd throw a celebration on our birthday?" Ratchet asked, as while he didn't care all that much about the fact that it was happening today, of all days, he did think it was odd and was hoping Clank might shed some light on the situation, or at least offer an opinion.

"Ratchet, the Festival of Heroes isn't about Qwark... I mean, he's got a small role in it, but he's not the main attraction this time around: you are." Clank replied, because it was time for him to drop the ball and reveal what was going on, in part, to his best friend, who turned and looked at him with a look of surprise in his eyes, all while they could hear Qwark speaking to the crowd, "You, and your siblings, deserve something special on your birthday and Qwark decided that this was the best he could do, celebrating all of your accomplishments."

As Ratchet formed a remark in his mind, however, he heard the door behind him start to open and Clank took his place on his back, though this time around he was only wearing his casual clothing, his normal attire, which his siblings would have done as well, but as he noticed what was on the other side he stopped. The turnout for the event was far larger than what he originally expected, there were stands packed to the brim of people from Solana, Bogon, and Polaris, as he was sure that Mr. Fizzwidget and the residents of their home on Veldin had come to see the event. There were parade floats that formed a line and seemed to tell the story of how he and his siblings met Clank, went on their first adventure, and saved the galaxies more times than anyone could count, since there were floats from each galaxy. The fact that this festival was for him, and not Qwark like he expected, had put a smile on his face as he stepped out of what he had assumed was a dead end, which he now knew was an access point for him to take part in the event, just as everyone had planned.

He also spotted Qwark, Skidd, and Pete standing on some circular platforms, likely the hosts of the event, while he spotted Angela and the rest of his lovers all over the place, no doubt addition security since he even located Alister and his parents keeping an eye out for trouble, all while Qwark informed everyone that he and Clank were the Grand Marshals of the whole parade, as odd as that sounded.

"Yes, folks, we have a momentous day in store for all of you, which started with my opening act," Qwark said, speaking into a microphone as the three floating platforms headed down to the first float, while Ratchet took his place on the main one so he could get this event started for real, before he gestured towards the pair for a moment, "though it will end with a surprise gift from Clank to Ratchet!"

"Wait... you actually got me a gift?!" Ratchet asked, because in all the years he and his siblings had known Clank he hadn't given them anything, which was fine since Autumn and Starswirl were hard to shop for anyway given their positions and all of the magic they had access to.

"Yes, it is waiting for us at the front of the parade... I also expected Qwark to mention it, so I'm not annoyed that he partly ruined the surprise." Clank answered, something that caused Ratchet to wonder what in the world he might have picked out as a gift, given their history, though he also knew his friend well enough to know that he wasn't going to say anything until it was time to do so.

He found that the Veldin float depicted him, Autumn, and Starswirl in the days before they became heroes, leading up to an image of them meeting and befriending Clank, putting a smile on Ratchet's face, all while he activated a few fireworks that Qwark had set up, to set the mood for everyone watching. After that he used another platform and let it bring him over to the next float, the Blarg invasion of Kerwan, where he actually had to throw his wrench at the gate blocking the way and let it break apart, allowing him to find that his siblings were waiting. In that moment Autumn handed over the first weapon of her eighth tier, a blaster known as the Burst Pistol, allowing him to collect some ammunition before taking down a trio of floats that represented the Blarg ships that attacked the planet that day. As he did that, however, he and his siblings noticed that there were a few unscheduled ships flying through the air, in fact Ratchet knew this area had been cleared out before the festival had started, causing them to wonder who in the world was trying to ruin this day.

What surprised them was the marking on the ship, as it was the symbol of Thugs-4-Less, or Goons-4-Less since Autumn had noticed their newest commander had rebranded after being beaten by them twice, and some dropped down to attack the siblings, even though they were more interested in Ratchet.

"So, someone put a bounty on us... or on me, I guess." Ratchet commented, as these Thugs, or Goons he guessed, weren't anything to worry about and with his siblings backing him they were able to clear out the first pair of enemies while the ship flew off to another part of the parade route, to set a trap for them, "Nefarious?"

"Has to be, since he's the only villain left." Autumn replied, though she wasn't too surprised by this, in fact she and Starswirl had expected someone to come and try to ruin the event that they had put together for Ratchet, to which she readied her weapons once more as the others did the same.

They were so used to being dragged into adventures that this barely bothered them, to which she and Starswirl used a pair of platforms, designed for them, while Ratchet followed the rest of the route that had been planned for him, even though all three of them knew that playtime was over. He didn't get too far as one of the Goons blasted his platform and sent him flying over to the next float, the Kalebo III float, where he utilized the Grindboots and Magneboots features of his boots, which Autumn had adjusted and implemented in his normal shoes, like she did to hers and their brother's, in case something happened when none of them had armor on. Fortunately Skidd deployed a Swingshot target for Ratchet to use to get to the next float, even though he did drop him so he could jump across some balloons and blowups, as there were a few of himself, Clank, both of his siblings, Al, and even Qwark, though a Goon blew one of Al's up and caused him to glide down to the Ardolis float. Of course they had to fight through a few more enemies, this time being joined by Robomutts, of all things, before they were able to move onto the Great Clock float, giving the siblings a chance to battle the dropship that was trying to kill them, causing Qwark to set his note cards away as he fired on some Goons as well, just like what the other heroes and guards were doing.

In the end the siblings overcame the challenge and destroyed the dropship, allowing Ratchet to ride the main platform up to what seemed to be the final parade float, all while his siblings used their platforms to do so and Qwark made sure that the coast was clear as Ratchet and Clank reached the end of the line.

"I had a short speech prepared, but, due to the assault, I'll have to scrap it and cut to the chase: Ratchet, I do not know where I would be without you or your siblings, and I know you have sacrificed much to..." Clank said, taking a moment to touch down on the ground as they approached the main part of the final float, a flat surface with a raised section, before he decided to just skip most of his remaining speech entirely, to which he tapped a small hidden button and gestured to the ring that was opening, "We have repaired the Dimensionator, so that you can use it to find your twin sister."

Ratchet's eyes widened as he looked at the device, as it was no longer the helm he remembered it being recently, rather it was the gun version with the crank and controls that he remembered seeing when he was just a baby, and he understood why everyone had gone to such lengths to make today a special day... but before he could even say anything a metallic claw grabbed the Dimensionator and brought it up to a Nefarious balloon, which was actually a robotic head with the very villain they had been looking for.

"I should have known you'd survive the assault, despite the bounty on your heads." Nefarious remarked, confirming that he was the one behind the Goons showing up to take them all down, even though it seemed to be on Ratchet's head right now, but he seemed happy and they knew why as he reached down to claim his powerful prize, "No doubt all of you are wondering what I want: allow me to demonstrate!"

In that moment Nefarious spun the crank and, without using any of the other controls, fired the Dimensionator right at the space in front of him, causing a series of purple cracks to appear some distance in front of him before it broke open into a breach in the dimensional barrier, as if a section of glass had been removed from a window. This was the far more stable version of what Ratchet and the others had seen, allowing them to stare into the swirling mass of energy for a time as Nefarious waited for something to happen, only for a fish to hit the front of his vessel. Such a thing enraged him as he swung the device and hit the controls of his odd ship, forcing it to move and get tangled with two of the tethers keeping a Qwark balloon held down, while pulling their platform away since the other two were still connected to it. Unfortunately it also caused the structure to be sundered in half as Nefarious flew out into the city, forcing them to grind on a rail to keep up with him, though since dimensional energy was involved his siblings refrained from using their magic, so Ratchet used some of Qwark's pyrotechnics to blind Nefarious.

Even though it was temporary his actions caused the doctor to alter his course and their ruined platform went flying down toward one of the buildings, causing Starswirl to use a bit of magic to make sure no one was harmed before they jumped off, landing near a train station. As they regained themselves, however, they found that Ms. Zurkon was nearby, as she, her husband, and her son were now no longer weapons to be bought and used by heroes, rather they either sold the rest of the weapons or whatever else they wanted to do with their lives. Ms. Zurkon was a weapons Vendor now, allowing the three of them to find two new weapons were available, the first being the Shatterbomb, a grenade weapon that was far stronger than those that came before it, and the Enforcer, a double-barreled plasma cannon, which they claimed without wasting time. With the new weapons in hand Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl wasted the Goons that dropped down into the area that they were in, making sure that the citizens moved out of the way so they weren't caught in the crossfire, so it wasn't long before the way to the station was open.

As they moved through the small station, however, Nefarious raised his ship nearby and even lowered the protective shell as he stared at them, no doubt slightly annoyed that they had bested all of his Goons, though they had to get the device away from him, before he did something dangerous with it.

"Put down the Dimensionator, Nefarious, before you do something you'll regret." Ratchet stated, though even then he had a feeling that the doctor wouldn't listen to him or his siblings about the matter, because he had the key to the dimensions in his hands and likely wouldn't relinquish it no matter what.

"No! Today, YOU will see and understand what losing feels like... spoiler: it's exhausting." Nefarious remarked, though as he said that he glanced down at the controls of the powerful device and seemed to be fiddling with part of it, the section that the coordinates to the other dimensions could be input into, "I just have to figure out these stupid coordinates..."

In that moment Ratchet pulled out his Burst Pistol and fired it at Nefarious' chest, intending on knocking him down before he could use the Dimensionator, only for the doctor to make a stupid decision as he swung the device at them, allowing the blast to strike the crystal core with ease. As Nefarious shouted at him, as if it was Ratchet's fault and not his own, the crystal exploded with enough force to knock him and the ship backwards from where he had been standing, though it also sent Ratchet and his siblings backwards into the train station. In the following second they realized the danger they were now in as dimensional rifts, both small ones for small creatures and massive ones for larger creatures, started to phase into existence all around them and the city, where small prehistoric birds flew through the sky and one of the large docile critters of Sargasso crashed into the bridge in front of them, breaking it in half. In addition to all of that Autumn found a purple crystal shard near where they landed, something she picked up before handing it to Ratchet, who just stared at all the damage that was being done, knowing his father was going to be cross with him once this was over.

As it turned out the Phase Quartz shard allowed Ratchet to interact with certain rifts, allowing him to traverse the gap that had been left after most of the bridge had been broken, to which Autumn quickly found a few more pieces and outfitted them into their right gloves, allowing all three of them to use the rifts. Such a thing seemed to make some fights easier, as one Goon tried to fire at them from above and Ratchet surprised him by using a gift to get behind him, allowing them to take him down before entering the building that more Goons and Robomutts were coming from. Autumn noticed that the rifts they could use turned reddish orange when one of them raised their new gloves in their direction, giving them an idea when to use them and when not to, though as they entered the building more portals to other dimensions opened up for them to observe or deal with. Some summoned plants that captured some of the civilians, another brought Sandsharks out, a third actually dragged a poor guy into it, and the fourth snatched some Goons by way of kraken limbs wrapping up the two and capturing them without delay, before another massive one brought out a large mech that smashed the rest of the path they were following.

Such a thing caused them to drop down onto another area and utilize another path to get up to the taxi station, since it seemed to be the only thing that got close to where Nefarious' ship had crashed, so the siblings dealt with the Goons that were in the way. With that done they were able to use the taxi and get closer to where Nefarious had crashed, though as Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl did so another dimensional rift opened and some sort of metallic centipede, armored to the teeth by the looks of it, surged out and moved through the air, though they didn't have to worry about it as it went into another one and disappeared. After reaching the outside of where Nefarious was located the siblings opened fire on all of the Goons that were guarding the way to their target, blasting them into submission as each group tried to claim the bounty that Nefarious had placed on their heads some time ago. The most interesting thing about these Goons was that in a year they had actually improved all of their skills, forcing the siblings to dodge more often than they were used to, but even then it didn't matter as they blasted through all of them and walked into the area their target was in.

"See, this is why I need an assistant!" Nefarious stated, where he picked himself, and his armed ship, up from where they had crashed and growled when he noticed the siblings coming his way, causing him to engage the defenses and ready any weapons he might have installed inside his vessel, just in case this happened.

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl found that he was capable of firing a fair number of small rockets at them, usually hitting a certain patch of ground that they were able to avoid, there was a laser he could fire at whoever he deemed to be the most important target of them all, and backing off to allow either Amoeboids or Sandsharks to attack them, but it took them no time to break his machine, much to his annoyance.

"You think a quick, crushing defeat is enough to stop me?!" Nefarious remarked, where they could see that his vessel was on fire and should be destroyed at some point, though as everyone informed him that each of them believed such a thing he pulled out the Dimensionator once more, "Well think again! We're going to a dimension where I always win, so you can finally understand how defeat feels!"

As Ratchet opened his mouth, to stop him from using a damaged Dimensionator, Nefarious blasted the air and opened a dimensional rift, one that actually sucked in his vessel and caused him to disappear not a few seconds later, causing the opening in question to close after he vanished. He had no time to consider what that might mean as a portal burst open in front of him and dragged both himself and his siblings into it, causing them to enter a reality where there were all sorts of portals to a number of dimensions, a plane between planes he guessed. After that they were flung through more portals, one bringing them to a planet that looked like Torren IV and put them on a grind rail, another forced them to just slide down a skyscraper on Corson V, while the next caused them to land on some flying lizards above what appeared to be another version of Torren IV. Not too long after that they flew through another with their mounts and entered a robotic city that seemed depressing, all while Nefarious suffered the same fate that they were suffering as he was pulled through dimensions, before they were bucked off the flying lizards and went through another portal, landing on a pirate ship on what had to be Ardolis, and as the pirates attacked the kraken they were fighting ignited some explosives and knocked the siblings through yet another portal.

This time they crashed into the ground on a balcony, in what appeared to be the same city they had passed through not that long ago, and as they regained themselves another portal opened and spit Nefarious out, along with the device that had started all of this.

"Did I do it or what?! Is this..." Nefarious said, sounding like he was going to announce his victory before he had actually beaten them, before he stopped as he noticed something odd about the city, there were a large number of neon signs, as if whoever ruled this place liked them, "What's with all the neon?"

Ratchet declared that this was the part where Nefarious would lose, just like he lost in the past, but as he rushed at him all of them brought their attention to the impending terrible nature of what he had done, as the Dimensionator was starting to shudder. It wasn't the ordinary shudder of something in use, it was the violent type that meant something was wrong and that they were in terrible danger, and that wasn't the only terrible thing, it was leaking dimensional energy, with dark purple smoke building around it as Clank tried, in vain, to do something to stop this. Normally either Autumn or Starswirl would use their magic to seal an explosive in a separate space, protecting them from the danger, but given the nature of what was going on right now neither of them could, not unless they wanted to do more damage than Nefarious had done earlier. All they could do was watch as it violently shuddered for a few more seconds before the inevitable happened, the Dimensionator detonated with enough force to send everyone flying and released enough energy to deal some serious damage to the dimensional barrier.

Clank, however, found that he appeared elsewhere in the city they had landed in, though as he discovered the damage the Dimensionator's destruction had caused he also noticed that his right arm was missing and he was locked in his backpack form, as he couldn't release his legs.

"No... what have we done?" Clank asked, though he did hear a groan and found that Autumn had landed nearby, meaning at least one of the siblings was with him right now, which was great since he had no idea where they were and had no idea on how to fix the mess he, Kaden, and Vendra had allowed to happen, before he heard another sound.

"...what have we done?" a feminine voice inquired, where Clank turned his head and his eyes widened as he laid eyes on the one person he wasn't expecting to see, so soon after everything had happened, Rivet herself, though her right arm had been replaced by a metallic gold yellow appendage she must have made to replace it.

"Clank, thank goodness you are..." Autumn said, as she was able to recover from the explosion without discovering any damage to her body, though as she walked out of her landing area she paused as well, noticing the figure that was near her and her brother's best friend, "Rivet?!"

"How do you know my name?" Rivet asked, showing that she didn't trust strangers, especially those who already knew her name, though she also had her weapon at the ready, a large hammer that looked like something a Lombax would use as a melee weapon, given the more mechanical nature of it.

"That's... complicated. If you know a safe place, we can explain on the way." Autumn replied, though she knew that Ratchet was going to throw a fit when he learned who she and Clank had bumped into, especially after everything he had done to find his sister and make sure she was fine.

Rivet stared at them for a few seconds before beckoning for Autumn to follow her, though she did pick up Clank and place him on her back, much like Ratchet did during their adventures, before heading off into the city, causing Autumn to follow as she hoped that her brothers were fine and hoped that they could stop Nefarious before he did anything else.

Rift Apart: Nefarious City

Ratchet groaned as he opened his eyes and found that he was in what appeared to be a small scrap area of a city, the very same that they had flown through with their lizard mounts, before hearing another groan as he spotted Starswirl off to his right, but as both of them picked themselves up he found a wanted poster nearby.

"No way... we found Rivet's dimension!" Ratchet remarked, forcing himself to stand once he noticed the familiar picture that was on the surface of the poster, an image of his sister, no doubt a rebel or hero that someone wanted to take out, which meant that Nefarious, in some way, helped fulfill part of his quest, "Clank! Autumn!"

"Are not with us." Starswirl stated, as he had looked around for their sister and their friend after realizing that he was okay, that nothing was wrong with him after the dimensional explosion that occurred not a few moments ago, though he felt that Autumn and Clank were okay, given how he and Ratchet had landed, "We had best start looking for Nefarious, since there's no telling what he might do now that he's in a new dimension... especially if this is the one he's been looking for."

Ratchet nodded and found that there was a single path forward, up some steps and around a corner, leading them to an area that they had flown through with their mounts not that long ago, though as they did that some of the robotic citizens talked about an 'Emperor'. While one could easily assume that they might be talking about Nefarious, due to the doctor wanting to find a dimension where he was 'always the winner', but given that they had no idea who or what might be in the other versions of reality there was a chance that it was someone else. Just to see if they knew anything Ratchet asked a pair of robots if they had seen Clank, describing him in detail, though they had seen no one like that, causing him to thank them for their time before continuing after Starswirl as they found a short tunnel to move through. Other robots talked about all of their hardships or were gathering scrap from a few piles they passed by, so they were focused on what they were doing and didn't notice the pair as they used an elevator to reach a sealed path with a Boltcrank, which was turned a few seconds later.

It allowed them to see a large bazaar that seemed to be the heart of the city, with a large statue of someone who looked a lot like Nefarious, filled with robots going about their day as they were required to thank Emperor Nefarious whenever they purchased items, as in before, during, and after the transaction.

"Oh this can't be good." Ratchet commented, because if their Nefarious realized how this dimension's version of him ruled with an iron fist it would likely spur him into trying to either replace him or wait until he encountered his counterpart, no doubt to make a deal of some kind.

Starswirl nodded his head before noticing that they had to glide down to the bazaar, in fact the lift was dead, which was what they did and he was thankful that Autumn had outfitted their boots with every boot gadget she had access to, but as they landed a familiar face, Ms. Zurkon, noticed them. She seemed to think they, or more accurately Ratchet, was one of her customers and ushered them to her shop in the center of the bazaar, though Ratchet knew that she was thinking he was Rivet, especially since she talked about a 'resistance' and how it wouldn't last if he wasn't careful. He was glad to hear that his sister was fighting the good fight in this dimension, especially given the start of what he and Starswirl had seen so far, though, to speed things along since there was no telling how long they'd be here, they simply went along with it. While Ms. Zurkon talked they noticed that she spoke differently than the one in their dimension, though while they listened to her something interesting happened, there was a commotion where some of the guards, white floating saucers that had a head piece like Nefarious, were chasing someone.

What he discovered was a scene he wasn't expecting to see, Autumn running by them with none other than Rivet leading the way, bringing her and Clank, who happened to be on his twin sister's back, to a raised area as an odd ship landed for them, as she let Autumn take the passenger seat before tossing Clank to her, climbing inside, and taking off, all while Rivet ignored Ratchet's cry of 'sis'.

"Is there any way off the planet?" Starswirl asked, as this Ms. Zurkon had a well of knowledge for them to gleam all sorts of information from, especially since they had no idea what was going on with this dimension, though Ratchet joined him not a few moments later, as while he missed his chance to speak to Rivet he at least knew she was okay, including the fact that her missing right arm had been replaced at last.

"Is this a test? Only royal starships are allowed to leave, anything else is..." Ms. Zurkon started to say, though in that very moment another ship tried to leave the planet and was gunned down by one of the large metallic centipedes they spotted during Nefarious' acquisition of the Dimensionator, causing her to pause for a moment, "Well... maybe the Phantom, one of our members, can help you! Just follow the beat to Club Nefarious and you will find him."

"Club Nefarious, got it. Oh, and great work secret agent Zurkon." Ratchet replied, letting her know that he was pleased to obtain the information she had given him and felt that she had done well in doing her spy work, causing her to spin for a moment in excitement, allowing him and Starswirl to focus on their current objectives.

The reasoning for that was because their new ally had something else to tell them, there was a Resistance Spybot over in a factory that rested behind them, they just had to use another path to get up to a maintenance hatch, and while there was a chance it wasn't critical to their mission it might help them learn about the ongoing threat. Ratchet, while wanting to go find Phantom so they could get to the royal starship, admitted that claiming the spybot might be worthwhile in the end, as they usually found RYNO fragments in the oddest places, because everyone had been keeping the celebration from him and he was sure that Autumn might have spread the RYNO VIII plans out before it happened. In the end he decided to see what might be up there, though before doing so he found that they were able to buy weapons, as if this dimension and their home were linked in some manner, allowing him to purchase a set of Mr. Fungi, a fungus version of Mr. Zurkon that distracted enemies, and the Negatron Collider, a beam weapon of incredible power. With those weapons in hand, and he made sure they restocked all of their ammunition, Ratchet and Starswirl climbed up a nearby magnetic strip to reach the level above the bazaar, with some stairs that lead to what appeared to be a small train station.

In the next moment they discovered some Troopers, as Ratchet wasn't really in the mood to figure out a good name for the enemies they were facing, trying to find the Spybot so they could find it and destroy it, declaring that it posed a direct threat to the Emperor's rule. With their extended arsenal it didn't take the brothers too long to bring down the first group of foes, though Ratchet did collect some Raritanium that was resting nearby, before they traversed a gap that the train would have stopped in and found some walls to jump up. Fortunately there were multiple small rifts scattered around for them to use, as that was how they crossed the gap and then reached a Boltcrank that allowed them to open a side passage into the large building that Ms. Zurkon had pointed them towards for the Spybot. Some of the workers were surprised to see them in the first place, while one even complained about all the work he had to do, along with finding a missing Raritanium shipment, but none of the workers got up to help the Troopers, showing them that they didn't like the Troopers and wanted them all to suffer or something.

In fact one of the more loyal workers could be heard making a remark about having found the 'Rebel Lombax', meaning that most of this world had to be stupid since there was no way so many people could confuse him for Rivet, especially since the two had different colored fur and were different genders.

"I guess she really is your twin if everyone is confusing you for her." Starswirl remarked, though this was one of those times that he found to be amusing, Ratchet getting annoyed at people who thought he was Rivet, where his brother sighed for a moment as they finished exploring another part of the factory.

"Very funny... I just hope she, along with Autumn and Clank, are okay." Ratchet said, since there was no telling where Rivet might have gone with the others and meant that they would have to find another Resistance member to tell them what was going on, or at least where one could find their leader, since that was what Rivet seemed to be.

Starswirl knew that Ratchet was concerned about the others, though he wasn't too surprised to find that Rivet was the main source right now, as he knew Autumn would keep herself and Clank safe for a time, but he said nothing as they found their way to another area that trains could stop in. Sure enough more Troopers were waiting for them, searching for the Spybot that seemed to have moved through this area at some point in the last few minutes, causing him and Ratchet to open fire on them without delay, as they knew the robots were aggressive and figured firing on them first was the correct call. The more interesting point of these enemies was that some of the Troopers could actually separate their head containers when their body took a massive amount of damage, allowing them to stay safe as the bodies exploded, but it just made them an easier target for the brothers. Even with reinforcements joining the Troopers it wasn't long before Ratchet and Starswirl won, as all of their enemies were scattered on the ground, pieces laying everywhere, though they were impressed by the weapons that Autumn had made and were glad they could buy them all, as it made things a little easier.

With that done they claimed the Spybot, which was an Infobot they usually found in Polaris, before sliding down the pipe it was in front of, which returned them to the bazaar's upper area, so Ratchet restocked their ammunition before heading off to the path on their left. His reasoning was because there seemed to be three paths from Ms. Zurkon's position, the right one that they had just cleared out, the northern one that they couldn't access without another device, and the left, which seemed to be the one they needed to use to find Club Nefarious, due to the thumping music. Sure enough there were some robots waiting to get inside the building that housed their destination, one looking like he or she might have been here for several hours, but, oddly enough, the bouncer style robots let them in without cards or anything. It was weird, but neither of them wanted to argue with the results, even though they were a little weirded out by the large hologram of who had to be Emperor Nefarious watching everyone in the club, actually moving his eyes and arms as he surveyed his domain.

Ratchet kept quiet as they searched for the Phantom, as it seemed like he was on a mission right now, and Starswirl knew that he was banking on a Resistance member thinking he was Rivet, though as they entered the building they were actually followed by a pair of Troopers, who ignored them and fired on a large red robot, which was a hologuise for a figure that looked like a Rilgarian.

"So, the Phantom is Skidd's counterpart." Starswirl remarked, as they were discovering that nearly everyone in their home dimension had what Autumn would call a 'dimensional counterpart', save for Ratchet since they knew the history of his race, so it was easy to figure out that the Phantom had to be Skidd's.

All Ratchet did was nod his head as he opened fire on the Troopers, who were firing on the fleeing Phantom, though they knew he had some interesting gear on that helped him maneuver around the areas that he was sent to, which meant that he was faster than the Troopers were. Of course the Phantom wondered who they were, since he had been in the middle of a mission before either they blew his cover, by entering the club, or he was discovered by a device the Troopers had, though he did seem to know that Ratchet wasn't Rivet, even if he did think they were new members of his group. Neither of them bothered to correct him on that fact, even though Ratchet was thinking of joining his sister's cause once they fixed the damage that Nefarious had caused to the barrier between dimensions, so they didn't have to worry about the rest of reality being destroyed. One thing he and Starswirl agreed on was that Phantom might have switched from his mission to a test to be sure they could handle whatever the Resistance threw at them, in terms of assignments, before leading them to a courtyard for an apartment area, which had Troopers with metallic orbs as fists.

It was clear that the Phantom was testing them and using them to clear out the Troopers that were chasing him, though at the same time neither of them minded since it would allow him to understand that they were on his side, and it didn't take Ratchet and Starswirl long to break the small group of Troopers so they could approach their target.

"Nice work, new guys." the Phantom commented, speaking as the brothers approached him, as he was next to what had to be a security door that looked like there was a passage behind it, though he followed that up by grabbing onto their right hands and gave them something new, a new glove that actually merged with what Autumn had made, before taking a stance as he rushed forward and seemed to phase through the barrier, "Alright, try out your Phantom Dash, so named because the enemy can't catch what doesn't temporarily exist."

Ratchet and Starswirl smiled for a moment as they rushed forward and utilized the new feature, allowing them to do the same thing that the Phantom had done, causing him to beckon to them as he followed the path and brought the pair to an opening that lead deeper into the city's citizen living area. He helped the brothers learn how to utilize the new feature, as it allowed one to cross gaps and even latched them onto a wall, a metallic one that had arrows pointing in the direction it would send them in, which made them realize that Autumn was going to have a field day with the new technology, once she discovered it's existence. While they copied his movements, learning how to utilize the Phantom Dash for movement and imagining what they might do with it in combat, the Phantom nodded his head as they overcame the couple of tests he had for them, all while Starswirl noticed that they were moving through an alleyway right now. Despite everything else that was going on Ratchet had to ask about the royal starship, because that was the whole reason they had tracked him down in the first place and he wanted to make sure the Phantom could point them in the right direction.

All the Phantom told them was that they had to stay close, meaning he either didn't have the information they needed or he was pulling the pair around while thinking about what to do with them, something that eventually caused Ratchet to step in front of him and block the way.

"Can you help us get a royal starship or not? Because we were told that you could." Ratchet stated, because he didn't like being yanked around at all, especially since Rivet and the others were getting further and further away from from as they wasted time on this planet.

"Lombaxes... you, my friend, are just as stubborn as she is." the Phantom replied, as if that solved everything, though that just told them that stubbornness was common in Ratchet's entire family, as his parents were like that at times and now it looked like Rivet was the same way.

"Well, at least we know you have more in common with Rivet than we thought." Starswirl remarked, where they stopped for a time to use a lift to reach another section of the alleyway, complete with more instances to use their new toy to move closer to another area, though at this point he and Ratchet were lost.

"...how do you know that name?" the Phantom asked, showing them that Rivet likely only gave her name out to those who joined the Resistance or those she personally saved from danger, or maybe he was just on guard since they had, in some way, helped ruin his mission in the club.

"This is going to sound crazy, but I'm her twin brother, Ratchet." Ratchet answered, though before the Phantom could say anything he reached into the top of his shirt for a moment and carefully withdrew his necklace, something that caused the figure to stop for a few seconds as he stared at the item, "Our father, Kaden, gave these to us when we were younger, half to me and half to her, before we were separated by an attack on our home planet... I went to one location, Rivet went to another... that's part of the reason why we need the royal starship, so we can follow after her, especially since she's got Autumn and Clank with her."

The Phantom stood there for a moment before sighing as he pointed down the alleyway he had been leading them down, informing them that he wanted them to help take control of a nearby blimp, so he was asking for assistance and would be giving over what they wanted, before informing them that Rivet usually went to Sargasso after missions. With that in mind the brothers bid him farewell for now, as apparently he had tools he needed to get, before crossing over the roofs of the alleyway he had brought them to, blasting a few Troopers out of their way. While they did that they passed by a group of robots who had been waiting in line for thirteen hours, for what they had no idea, but instead of wasting time on them the pair continued to move across the rooftops as they neared the building the Phantom wanted them to access. Such a thing brought them to another area where Ms. Zurkon had set up shop, meaning she was following her ally and listening to his remarks on where they were going, and this time she allowed them to upgrade their weapons with Raritanium, which was a good thing since there was no telling what might be waiting for them.

As it turned out they used an elevator to reach the Nefarious Day Spa, though while they opened fire on the Troopers that were up there, causing the citizens to flee before anyone got hurt, the Phantom got to work hacking into the blimp so he could do whatever it was he was up to. Starswirl noted that it sounded like he was talking about some sort of code or that the people had to rise up against the Emperor, to be honest it was hard to tell what he was trying to say since they he and Ratchet were in the middle of combat. They were able to confirm that the Troopers were far more difficult to fight than a number of enemies they had faced in the past, which made sense considering that they had been designed to deal with all of the Resistance members they came across, meaning they did have to use a bit of nanotech every now and then. In the end they were able to overrun the rest of the spa, much to the annoyance of some of the fallen robots, before they went offline, and by the time they were sure that everyone had been taken care of the Phantom rejoined them, who was very impressed by their abilities.

Before he could actually say anything one of the flying centipedes fired a laser and blasted the blimp down, even though it would have been better to just hack into it once the Phantom was done with his message, but the brothers guessed that it was all part of the Phantom's plans.

"It seems like I touched a nerve... anyway, a deals a deal." the Phantom said, where he reached into one of his packs and withdrew a little device that displayed a little spider mech that looked like it was designed to hack into items, which was handed to Ratchet not a moment later, "That, my friends, is Glitch. She'll help you get into the Emperor's private shuttle, which will take you into Nefarious Tower, the only place in the city where you'll find a royal starship... of course, you'll have to access the access console, which is located in the huge statue of the Emperor in the center of the city. While you two go get your ship, I'm going to tear this wretched world down from the inside."

As Ratchet opened his mouth the Phantom jumped backwards, like he was making a bold escape, and was hauled off by a pair of Troopers that caught him, which seemed to be part of his plan, to which he and Starswirl sighed before using the nearby Boltcrank to lower a rail that would bring them back to the bazaar. With that done they raced down the rail, due to it being faster than what they expected it to be, and returned to where they started after seeing Rivet and Autumn go by, to which they faced the northern path and quickly restocked their ammunition. After that the brothers approached the last path and found that they moved up to prevent normal people from reaching the statue, though with their new device it was easy for them to cross the gap and reach the golden statue. Of course it was guarded by a massive robot, one that looked a lot like the one that attacked them from a dimensional rift back on Fastoon, when Tachyon was ripping rifts open with the Dimensionator, who declared that cutting in line was illegal and started to attack them.

The Juggernaut was far tougher than the other Troopers, as it had armor that was stronger than what they were used to fighting against, though as Ratchet and Starswirl fought it something interesting happened to them, a dimensional rift burst open and dragged them to another dimension. With how everything was breaking it was hard to tell if they were in Rivet's dimension or if they had been brought to another one entirely, even though they landed on a more peaceful planet that looked like a mesa or plateau, at least in the area they appeared in, and Ratchet noticed a few large devices off in the distance. He wasn't able to enjoy the scenery as another dimensional rift burst open and the Juggernaut jumped out of it, sounding happy that he had located them as he fired a beam of purple energy at them, forcing them to dodge with the new ability they had gained. As that happened Starswirl noticed the mutant crab creatures of the Blarg, which he and his siblings had faced during their first adventure, resting in the area and one snipped at the robot, though they were pulled into another rift and returned to Nefarious City, followed by their foe.

In the end they were able to best the Juggernaut and he blew apart with all the damage they had done, allowing them to catch their breath for a moment before Ratchet walked over to the console, only to find that Glitch seemed annoyed by being handed over to someone new. Starswirl noted that Glitch's face changed to show her emotions, meaning she was more than an ordinary program, like they might have thought at the beginning, before Ratchet told the little spider bot of the fact that they were in need of assistance and that she was the only one who could help. When she winked at him he turned her container towards the infected console, as it had some sort of purple vines around it, and Glitch went into it a few seconds later, where the brothers waited for a few moments, giving her the time she needed to hack the system and open the door for them. It took her a bit of time to deal with whatever was tampering with the console, a virus of sorts as far as the brothers could tell, but when she returned she did a little dance as Ratchet cheered her on and the mess cleared up, allowing them to enter the personal lift.

Ratchet and Starswirl braced themselves as it shot off towards Nefarious Tower, reaching the structure in no time at all, so the moment it came to a stop the brothers carefully rushed into the structure and started to look for the starship, which did bring them to what appeared to be the Emperor's main office.

"Death traps, warbots, five planet destroying cannons, and a surveillance state covering the entire city... now I really want to meet the Emperor." Nefarious remarked, indicating that there was more to the army of Troopers than they had seen so far, with the third item being something to tear down if they ever came back to this city in the future, given that wiping out planets was a bad thing.

Ratchet planned on leaving Nefarious alone, so they could steal the ship in peace, but when he zeroed in on a screen, one that had Rivet and the others on it, he moved into position and tapped the chair for a second, causing his foe to quickly turn around as Ratchet smacked him in the face with his wrench, though as Troopers were called in he joined Starswirl in the hanger, boarding a ship like the one Rivet used earlier.

"Why isn't it working?" Ratchet commented, as they needed to leave, like right now, but the ship refused to blast off or do anything he was imputing right now, which was when the console gave him a recording from a robot that like made these ships, asking for a password, something that happened to be on a red square near the controls, "'Why do I need a password I'm the Emperor how about I obliterate you instead hahahahaha.'"

That, against all odds, worked and he was able to fly out of Nefarious Tower, leaving Nefarious behind to do whatever he wanted as he and Starswirl focused on trying to meet up with Rivet, Autumn, and Clank, as they needed to figure out how to repair the barrier between dimensions before worrying about anything else.

Rift Apart: Sargasso

Autumn and Clank spent most of the trip out of Nefarious City, located on Corson V oddly enough, explaining things to Rivet, who spent most of the flight in silence as she listened to what they had to say, taking turns telling her about the fact that they were from another dimension, the Dimensionator, and everything else that was important. Of course they had to cut out a number of details, like the old adventures that came before this one, even though they did have to mention to barrier between dimensions so she understood why this was happening now and not a few years ago. Autumn knew that there was just too much information to share with Rivet, especially since she informed them that they were heading to Sargasso, so she and Clank really had to give her the rundown on what Nefarious was up to. The only downside to all of this was that she didn't seem too happy with them suggesting that she had a brother, though they did refrain from even mentioning the painful day that she lost her arm, as that seemed like it would damage everything they were trying to do right now.

When they got closer to Sargasso, and the end of their tale, Rivet started to talk and, in a way, recite the information she had been given, as if she was making sure she had gotten everything right, but it was clear that she was incredibly stubborn, just like Ratchet was from time to time.

"...and then this Dr. Nefarious stole the Dimensionator, which, according to what you said, brought you two and your brother, and mine as you claim, to Nefarious City before being destroyed." Rivet continued, showing that she had an idea of what they were saying, even though it was painfully clear that she didn't really believe everything they were telling her right now, causing Autumn and Clank to remain silent as she continued repeating their tale, "So now you need to meet up with the others of your group, who are who knows where, before figuring out how to, as you put it, 'save the day'?"

"Precisely." Clank replied, as it sounded like Rivet understood the situation that was unfolding right now, even though he and Autumn could tell that it would be some time before they convinced her of several things, especially the fact that they had brought her brother to her dimension.

"You guys must seriously think I'm an idiot... Look!" Rivet remarked, where she gestured out of the cockpit of the ship with her right hand, pointing at a trio of dimensional rifts that happened to be in the air, one staying for more than a couple of seconds while the other two closed after she pointed them out, "As real as I'm sure that this Dr. Nefarious is, this has the Emperor written all over it... it's hard to imagine that anyone else could be behind..."

She never got to finish her statement as she got a transmission from the residents of Sargasso, not the Kerchu as Autumn and Clank were expecting, rather it was some sort of short race of near identical beings with hardhats and uniforms that indicated that they were gelatonium workers. It seemed that they were under attack, though as Rivet told them to hang on they were knocked around by a metallic centipede that seemed to be patrolling the swamp they were flying over, forcing her to tell Autumn to brace for impact, which she did as she held Clank tight. A few moments later the ship crashed into the ground, on the outer reaches of the swamp based on what Autumn could see, though while it seemed undamaged, as no real harm had been done to it, she could tell that some of the systems were damaged. As such they had to climb out of the ship, where Rivet insisted on taking Clank, either because she didn't trust Autumn or because she felt that he was far safer on her back, though she wasn't about to argue with Ratchet's sister, not when she was determined to save her own friends from whatever danger they were in.

As Rivet made her way towards the gelatonium factory she informed them that she was taking them to her hideout, since she still had a job to do, and mentioned that the enemy vessel was a Seekerpede, which wasn't a good thing, while telling them that she was going to have to use a Speetle to get to her destination, only to be surprised by something.

"Hello sugar! I've got some goodies for you." Ms. Zurkon said, speaking as soon as they reached her, as she had set up her shop on the outskirts of the swamp, near where they had crashed, where Autumn discovered that she handed over a few weapons, likely those Ratchet and Starswirl had purchased earlier.

"Wow, these are amazing... and those... weren't in my account last time." Rivet replied, as while she found several of them to be to her liking, without even firing them, she did notice a few new weapons were available, the Topiary Sprinkler, which turned enemies into plants for a time to stun them, and the Ricochet, a weapon that hit someone multiple times in a row with a little ball.

"Oh, that's because I added our mutual friends from Nefarious City." Ms. Zurkon stated, confirming Autumn's own thoughts on the matter, that her brothers had purchased the weapons and they had been added to Rivet's account, while also giving them what appeared to be fully upgraded, mimicking what her brothers had done.

"Well, thank you for making these available... they're wonderful additions to our arsenals." Autumn said, making sure to buy both weapons and do what she could with the Raritanium that was in her own account, where she was pleased to find that she could use her funds, despite the fact that she was from another dimension, before noticing that Rivet was caught off guard by this new discovery, "I design weapons and gadgets back home, which heroes and citizens buy... Ratchet has said that I have too many Bolts and that I'll never spend them all, even after fully outfitting everyone during our various adventures over the years."

Rivet stared at her for a few moments, clearly debating something in her mind, before deciding that it was better to get a move on and not waste time talking about Autumn's money situation, where she explained her plan to them, or rather the fact that Speetles were incredibly fast and usually hid from people. Catching one while it was above ground was hard, not impossible she informed them since she had done so several times in the past, so they were either going to have to be far more careful than they were being right now or find one of their nests to encourage some to come out. Autumn and Clank quickly found that such a decision wasn't up to them, as a couple of purple toads and wasps that spat poison scared them off, causing Rivet to groan in annoyance for a few seconds before firing on the enemies that were in front of them, which Autumn did as well. She also found that Rivet's hammer wasn't for decoration, as she swung it at one of the toads and hit it into the acid water that was off to their left, though as she noticed all of the machinery, different from her dimension's version of Sargasso, he paused for a second as she noticed how Rivet fought almost like Ratchet did.

If it wasn't for the fact that she knew Rivet and Ratchet were twins, confirmed many times over their adventures, Autumn had a feeling she would have thought they were dimensional counterparts, though her thoughts were interrupted as two Speetles rushed into a dimensional rift that partly sealed itself behind them.

"Why is that rift glowing?" Rivet asked, because this was the first time she was doing anything with dimensional rifts and the fact that it happened to be glowing right now, and was still partly visible to both her and Autumn, and likely Clank as she thought about it.

"May I?" Autumn inquired, gesturing to Rivet's arm for a moment, the robotic one, where the Lombax stared at her for a second or two before switching her hammer to her left hand so she could hold her right arm out, allowing Autumn to take a look at it, just long enough to figure out what was going on, "Just as I suspected, you have a piece of Phase Quartz inside your arm, which the rifts are reacting to... you might be able to open the rift, in addition to utilizing them to move from one point to another."

Rivet raised an eyebrow for a moment before watching the movement Autumn had done when she and her siblings used the Rift Tether, as she was calling it, back on their Corson V, where she did the same thing and focused on the rift, causing it to burst open before their eyes. It opened the way to what seemed to be a pocket dimension that looked like part of the planet had been duplicated and placed in here, a symptom of the Dimensionator's destruction in Clank's eyes, though as Autumn agreed with him Rivet just wondered how they kept coming up with stuff like this. Fortunately they did find one of the Morts', that being what the new inhabitants of Sargasso were called, Helperbots, a blue bot called Maynard, though as he flew off they had to find a way to follow after him and not get trapped by the acid water that was in front of them, and Autumn had a solution. In front of them rested an odd shaped nest that shuddered when Rivet hit it, causing a couple of Speetles to pop up, though she directed Autumn on how to ride them, by sitting on their shell backside and using both of their eyestalks like the handles of a ship, before speeding off.

Together the two of them raced through the pocket dimension, following a path that Maynard must have charted while he was stuck in here, and Rivet told Autumn how to boost to the Speetle's highest speed, allowing them to shoot back over to the opening and pass through it, returning them to Sargasso with ease. After that Rivet followed Maynard through the rest of the swamp, crossing over the acid water with ease as Autumn made notes about the Speetles and their abilities, a fact that Clank wasn't even surprised by as he noted that she was able to keep pace with Rivet, even while partly distracted by all the new stuff she was discovering. One thing Autumn added was that there were a fair number of Speetle nests in this portion of the swamp, showing her how Rivet could have learned how to tame one of them and ride them with the degree of accuracy that she had, before they passed by a Troglosaur, or under it's body since they rode by it's large hooves, a fact that caused Rivet to tell them that she didn't always crash. A while after that Rivet found an area that they had to stop in, due to Maynard reaching what looked like the outskirts of the gelatonium factory, and she jumped off the Speetle, which Autumn did as well once she got up to where her new family member was standing.

With that done they walked through the short cavern passage and discovered what was going on with the Morts, a couple of Goons were harassing them, as one flying Goon, using a jetpack, started to threaten one of the workers, something that ticked Rivet off as she charged into battle. Autumn found that her virtues were similar to Ratchet's, she fought to save the worlds of her dimension, for the good of the many while tearing down the army of evil that ruled over her home, she did all she could for everyone who was threatened by Emperor Nefarious and his forces, and anyone who threatened those she cared about were torn down. She was definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, Ratchet's twin sister, there were far too many similarities between them for her to say otherwise, something that put a smile on her face as she heard Rivet taunt the Goons by mentioning that she was a Lombax, causing her to rush into battle as well. Sure enough the Goons were still the same Thugs that Autumn remembered beating during their last adventure, they fell for it easily enough as she opened fire on them as well, since she didn't want Rivet to think she was slacking.

It didn't take the pair too long to take down the Goons and their Robomutts, allowing them to clear out the area and make sure that the Morts were safe, though as they walked up to a group of them Autumn noticed that there was a pulsing orb or dimensional energy on a nearby landing strip.

"Mort! Good, you're okay." Rivet said, speaking to one Mort that didn't have a hardhat on, though only she knew how to tell one of them from another, something Autumn was interested in learning about if she was willing to help her out, but for the time being she kept her thoughts to herself.

"Us?! Oh, when we heard those fellahs were after a Lombax, we were worried about you!" the Mort replied, speaking in a feminine voice, while Autumn noticed that some were talking in a male voice, before deciding that, once again, she would have to defer to Rivet to figure everything out, "Next thing we know, you're here saving our behinds... to be honest, some of the Morts are stuck in that purple mess over there, the only thing we know about it is that it keeps growing. Between that and our new neighbor up there, we aren't doing too good."

Rivet glanced up at the Seekerpede for a moment, as she was annoyed that it was here in the first place, before telling them that she had something that would keep them busy for a time, a vital component of the ship that Mort was working on, only the Mort in question happened to be stuck in the purple mess. They also informed Rivet that, due to the arrival of the Goons and the Seekerpede, they had locked up her hideout so no one could stumble upon it and take something that was valuable or important to her, where Autumn noticed that Rivet raised her hand to her neck for a moment. It reminded her of what her brother did every now and then, making sure that the necklace was still there and that nothing had happened to it, so it told her that Rivet valued her half of it as well, before she focused on informing the Morts that she'd fix the problems they were facing right now. Such a thing caused some of the Morts to lower a bridge to another section of the swamp, likely in the direction of her hideout, where Autumn noticed that a Grunthor was wandering around, either looking for food or just out for a walk, even though Rivet had other concerns right now.

When she tried to access the dimensional mass, however, it let out a little shock that caused her to lower her hand, before it did anything else to her, and made her wonder what in the world she had to do to deal with this problem, causing Clank to offer his services on the matter, where Rivet turned around so he could study it and Autumn could see that his mind went into the anomaly, meaning it would be fixed in no time.

Clank was surprised to find that the dimensional anomaly was like the Nether Rifts he had entered after his systems had been upgraded by Pollyx, before discovering that he was in some sort of other realm, a mechanical one to some degree, all while his body was more like a phantom's. In that moment he realized that his mind had been projected into the anomaly that Rivet and Autumn had discovered, causing him to look at himself for a few moments, finding that his right arm was back and that his legs weren't stuck in the locked position. Clank also noticed something weird not a moment later, there were a large number of copies of himself running down a path, a path that looked more like a puzzle that had to be the key to fixing the anomaly, or at least that was what he assumed based on his previous experiences. Floating behind him was a figure he hadn't seen before, as while it looked like a Goon, sharing the same species anyway, he was dressed more like a mystic, as he was floating with only his tail supporting him, he was reading from a book, he had a necklace with some sort of eye on it, and a special looking headpiece on his head.

As he turned the page in his book, however, the lizard man paused for just a second as he noticed something weird and let out a yelp of surprise, causing him to actually drop his book and take a normal stance, mostly because he wasn't expecting to have company, before he brought his hands together, one a fist and one open.

"Greetings. Welcome." the lizard man said, where it was clear that the gesture had been more like a bow, either to show a bit of respect or to make Clank feel like he was with a friend, though he did like to use his hands to gesture a little, mostly so he could beckon to what was around them, "Um, how did you get in here?"

"My companions and I discovered a dimensional anomaly on Sargasso, and when I studied it I projected my mind into it, or at least that's my assumption." Clank replied, where he took another moment to look around the area they were in, as it was far different from any of the other areas that had been caused by the Dimensionator's destruction, before turning to look at the figure again, "We're inside the anomaly, right? Or are we somewhere else?"

"Oh, you don't know? Well... to be honest, I'm not sure either." the lizard man stated, showing Clank that this had to be his first time seeing a place like this as well, all while he picked up his book and made sure it was okay, even though he was also a projection and no damage had been done to his tome, "I think you might be right about this being a dimenional anomaly, a space between dimensions... it could be nothing, or it could be a cascading entropic fissure that will soon turn the universe, and the rest of the multiverse, into a formless soup... time will tell."

Clank wasn't too pleased with that fact, that he, Vendra, and Kaden might have actually set off the Dimensional Cataclysm, or at least forced the start of the early stages of the terrible event, and he offered his services to the Lizard Sage, while making sure to tell him his name. Such a thing caused his new companion to resume his sitting position as he opened his tome for a moment, to resume his place inside it, before introducing himself as the 'All-Seeing Cosmic Prophet of Inter-dimensional Sector 2-2-5-5 Phase Omega', whatever that meant since it was lost to Clank, and then clarified that he could just call him by his name, that being 'Gary'. After that Gary turned the page and started to read up on Clank's exploits, about his past, where he had been designed as a warbot before becoming what he was now, about how he had teamed up with several Lombaxes over the years, and, more important in Clank's eyes, that he happened to be a friend of Gary's father. That told him all he needed to know about the figure, he had to be the Plumber's son, even if they looked nothing alike and meant he must have taken all of his mother's genetics when he was growing, but he kept that information to himself for the time being.

Gary, impressed by the tome's information, accepted Clank's offer to help fix the dimensions and started to explain what he could to him, starting off with the copies of Clank being his Possibilities, which were the key to fixing the anomaly that they were in, before asking him to pick up the nearby red sphere. It was a Lift Sphere, something that actually reduced the gravity of anything it touched, so if he hurled it at a metallic circle on the ground it formed a ring of energy that the string of Possibilities could use, or if he used it on items they would be affected by it's powers, confirming that he had to solve puzzles to move on. Clank did take a moment to ask how many types of Spheres there were in these anomalies, where Gary informed him that there were only four, the one he was using now, the green Speed Sphere, the blue Heavy Sphere, and the yellow Electric Sphere. It gave him an idea as to what sort of challenges he might face in the future, since he had faced multiple puzzles in the past and knew that he'd encounter more anomalies in the future, so this gave him a chance to understand the concepts of the Spheres and their abilities, so he'd be ready for whenever he actually encountered any of the other anomalies.

The Lift Sphere allowed him and his Possibilities to float into the air for a few moments before landing on the platform in front of the 'Meta-Terminal', as Gary called the end of the area they were in, so he cleared the area of crates as Gary told him that his Possibilities looked like him because that's how he interpreted dimensionality. Clank was able to figure out that guiding the copies to the end of this portion of the anomaly allowed him to repair the damage that had been caused so far, at least in this one, and when the tunnel was opened it warped Clank to another section he needed to work on for a short period of time. As he started to fix the second section, utilizing a Speed Sphere to break some barriers down so he could get to a Lift Sphere, Clank learned that Gary didn't live on Sargasso, he actually lived on Savali and was studying the content of the Archives, the greatest repository of dimensional knowledge in existence. Clank had a feeling that it was one of the devices or structures left behind by the Lombaxes, before learning that the only way to stop what was happening in the multiverse, to stop the Dimensional Cataclysm before it happened, they needed the device that caused this problem in the first place, the Dimensionator.

Clank had several ideas in mind on how to do that as he reached the end of the third and final section of the anomaly, an impressive feat in Gary's eyes since it meant it had been repaired, allowing Clank to wish Gary well before walking through the last Meta-Terminal so he could return to his body and continue on their adventure.

Clank discovered that no time had passed since he entered the dimensional anomaly, meaning for him it might have been a couple of minutes while maybe a few seconds had passed for Rivet and Autumn, though he found that the anomaly just shrunk until it was totally gone. Such a thing revealed another ship, identical to the one they had crashed on the other side of the swamp, that had three Morts working on it, who resumed talking not a few seconds later, meaning they had no idea they had been stuck inside a dimensional anomaly or that time had been paused for them. Rivet, of course, was happy to see that her friends were safe, even if Clank couldn't accurately explain everything to her right now, before she talked with the now freed Morts for a couple of seconds, where Autumn discovered that lemonade was their alcohol, or at least it sure seemed like it given the discussion they finished up. Rivet even shared a little dance of sorts with one of them, consisting of a couple of high fives, a hip bump, and some finger shaking, before delivering the item she had claimed from pirates, no doubt before her mission in Nefarious City, while her friend informed her that they'd have everything ready in no time, so she could leave and do whatever she wanted for a time.

With that done Rivet started to walk over the nearby bridge so she could reach her hideout, causing Autumn to follow her as they found that some Goons were fighting the Grunthor they had spotted earlier, where they found that both groups of enemies stopped and turned on them.

"I can understand the wildlife wanting a piece of me, but the Goons as well?" Rivet remarked, where she opened fire on all of the enemies that were in front of them, a little more than she was expecting since usually the Grunthors fought alone, or at least the majority of them did from what she recalled.

"They're looking for Ratchet. Unfortunately, they aren't the smartest tools in the shed and think you're him... I bet he had the same thing happen in Nefarious City." Autumn replied, making sure to blast a couple of Goons with her weapons, once more finding that they worked as she intended and it made her eager to see the others when they came out, before her targets fell and granted her the ability to fight the Grunthor as well.

"Right... yeah, sorry, but I ain't buying that part of your story." Rivet stated, once more showing how stubborn she was, as she refused to believe that she had a brother just because someone told her she did, even though Autumn suspected that if Kaden or Millie had been here, well, it would have been a different story.

Autumn shrugged for a moment as she used the Topiary Sprinkler to stop the Grunthor and inflicted more damage to the beast, allowing Rivet to do the same thing, before eventually bringing it down so they could safely explore the rest of this part of the area and see what else needed to be done. As it turned out there were a few Morts nearby who informed them that some Goons were bothering the Morts who had finished locking up her hideout, over on the nearby platform, a pump as Autumn glanced at it, so they had to use some buttons to activate a lift. After that Rivet got a chance to use her new Rift Tether and move from one point to another, which she actually enjoyed since it put a smile on her face, though as the pair crossed over to the pump they heard the Goons being surprised that the Lombax here was female, since they were going after a male. Since all of the Goons were messing with the Morts the pair opened fire on them, blasting every foe that was in the area as the Morts cheered for them, and in the end they cleared out the area of foes, allowing River to utilize a new device, new to Autumn anyway, a Hammercrank that was linked to the bridge leading to her hideout, where the bridge in question broke and fell into the acid water.

Since there was a ramp, provided by the now ruined bridge, Autumn offered the idea of using the Speetles to cross over the new gap, causing Rivet to nod her head as they crossed back over to where the Grunthor had been resting, where one of the nests was located. It didn't take them too long to reach the nest or call out some Speetles for them to ride for a few moments, though as they sped over the gap, however, Autumn, Rivet, and Clank discovered another Grunthor resting in the area that Rivet wanted to head in, who woke up as they sent their rides off into the acid water. Sure enough it was just as aggressive as the other one they had faced and it had some reinforcements, a force of purple toads that seemed to be looking for a quick bite, scraps from whatever the Grunthor didn't eat, causing the pair to open fire on them and the large beast. It was just as tough as the last one they fought, and with smaller enemies to contend with they had to be smart with how they fought them, utilizing both the Topiary Sprinkler and Mr. Fungus to cull the toads so the pair could focus on the Grunthor that was chasing them.

In the end they were successful and Autumn found one last obstacle, pressure buttons that needed a Speetle to cross to activate all of them, which Rivet did without delay and unlocked the outer door of her hideout, allowing her to use her own Swingshot to get inside a familiar cavern, the very one that lead to a testing site for the Dimensionator.

"So why are you so hesitant to trust us?" Autumn asked, as it was interesting that Rivet was more than willing to fight with her against her enemies, while at the same time not trusting some of the things she and Clank had to say, especially the items that involved her.

"Look, no offense, but robots aren't my thing... regardless if they're tearing apart my galaxy or not... and I'm not stupid enough to trust someone claiming to know my 'brother'." Rivet replied, though at the same time she used her hammer on a Hammercrank to open the final door of her hideout, allowing the lights to turn on as they headed inside as Autumn and Clank found a bed, a couch with a television, a few pictures, and a few other things that seemed personal to Rivet, before she came to a stop at her large workbench, "Okay, time to figure out what sort of secrets you and this Infobot have for me... we should be safe for the time being."

Clank, of course, objected to what Rivet had planned for him as she connected a cable to the Infobot's side, before doing the same to him and pressing a button, hacking into his memory banks with some level of ease, while Autumn stood off to her right as she watched the screen. Rivet remained silent for a moment as she watched the screen in front of her, seeing the scene of Dr. Nefarious using the Dimensionator and dragging them into the dimensional rift that brought them here, Clank's unveiling of the device, and, more importantly, Ratchet himself. Rivet paused for a moment as she laid eyes on the Lombax that Autumn and Clank had mentioned repeatedly, finding that their tales weren't too out there, they could pass as twins if they were near each other, before Clank regained himself and moved things along. He showed her a scene that involved Ratchet pulling out his necklace, the other half of Rivet's since she pulled hers out as well, just to confirm that it was the other half, before moving onto a scene that stunned her, a scene Autumn remembered all too well. It was when Ratchet woke up screaming, at the same time Rivet was wounded and caused her to rub her right arm, before he moved onto the event of Ratchet pounding on the barrier between dimensions, to rush to her side when she was hurt, which was when her eyes widened in surprise.

In the end Rivet pulled the plug out of Clank and he took the hint, cutting off the feed so she didn't have to see more of the events that happened in the past, though it was clear that she needed some time to come to terms with what she had just seen on the screen.

"You knew?!" Rivet asked, as it was an event that had help shape her life, given that she lost her right arm in the process, and not many people really knew what she had done while she was tending to her wounds, causing her to look at them like she was accusing them.

"Not the events leading up to it... we didn't say anything since you would have been suspicious of us from the start, if we told you about that day." Autumn replied, where it was clear that Rivet raised an eyebrow for a moment, as if expecting a better explanation than what she was getting right now, causing her to focus on how to ease her suspicions and earn her trust for real, "Ratchet, he... woke up screaming the night you were wounded, as he felt what happened to you, and that caused him to keep looking for you, even harder and more desperate than before. Rivet, your brother has been looking for you for years, tried anything and everything he could think of to come and help you, so Clank and I, along with both of your parents and everyone else we knew, figured out how to help him achieve his goal."

"Ratchet..." Rivet said, showing that, despite how she felt right now, the side of her that wanted to know her family won out in the end, especially since she gripped her own necklace for a moment, before the Infobot started to beep and drew her over to it.

Such a thing bad a negative side effect, the Seekerpede zeroed in on their location and used it's front pincers to tear the massive metallic door of Rivet's hideout out, before engaging a tractor beam that sucked in metal items, namely her arm, Clank, and the Infobot, the last one Rivet catching as Clank was captured. Rivet, now knowing how important Clank was to Autumn, Starswirl, and Ratchet himself, stashed the Infobot away before she and Autumn jumped outside, landing on two Speetles that happened to be nearby as they chased after the massive Seekerpede. As they raced across the acid water the pilot of the enemy craft informed them that he would be utilizing explosives to 'neutralize the hostile furball', showing that he knew Rivet was the more important target right now, hence why Autumn followed her sister's lead on the matter, as she was more experienced with these things than she was. Her plan was to race along the water and then use a ramp to launch herself up onto the back of the Seekerpede, where either of them could crash into it's flight module and disable it, allowing them to crash it into the ground or water and open fire on it.

The plan was, surprisingly, successful as Rivet knocked their foe out of the air and landed on a loading pad, where Autumn let hers ride off as she jumped onto where her sister was standing, allowing them to open fire on the Seekerpede when it emerged from the acid water. The Seekerpede had some interesting skills, such as using the device that used the tractor beam to fire a beam of energy at one of them, it could shift either of it's pincers to perform a swiping attack, which both of them had to avoid as it crushed several items to pieces, and faster melee speed than Autumn was expecting. After a few moments the flight module came online and the pilot took off, forcing the sisters to find more Speetles to chase after him, rushing along another portion of the outer reaches of the swamp to keep pace with him, forcing Rivet to figure out where another ramp was to bring him down. When she did so Autumn had to resist the urge to chuckle, as it was an area resting near the gelatonium factory, though she caught up with Rivet and they tore into the Seekerpede as it regained itself, while the pilot loosed some bombs in an attempt to destroy them, which Autumn and Rivet avoided before blasting open the cockpit of the entire machine.

As it fell, however, Rivet charged forward, readied her hammer, and, in an impressive feat, launched herself up into the air as the Seekerpede collapsed in front of her, where she crushed the headpiece of the Trooper that was inside the machine, ending it's life as she landed on the rim.

"You okay, Bolts?" Rivet asked, where it sounded like she wasn't totally ready to use Clank's name, though Clank was fine with that since he felt that the fact that she came to rescue him, even despite the fact that she didn't trust robots all too much, all while extending her left hand towards Clank.

"You came after me... thank you." Clank replied, though this was a good sign in his eyes, as it meant that their show and tell earlier might have helped break through part of the shell that Rivet had been wearing or a long time, that she was now ready to accept what they were saying, and he made sure to accept her hand before she withdrew it.

"Yeah, well, we've got some unfinished business... got to get you a signal booster to call my brother." Rivet stated, where she pulled Clank out of the ruined cockpit and placed him on her back once more, because it seemed like the right thing to do after what she had seen earlier, before she glanced over to Autumn, "You coming, sis?"

"Count me in, sis." Autumn said, as while it might seem like Rivet had done a complete turnaround with her opinions on the matter, about having a brother and two additional siblings, the evidence they had showed her was hard to ignore, so she was pleased to see that they had been able to convince her that they were telling the truth.

With the Seekerpede defeated the trio returned to the gelatonium factory, finding that the ship was ready to leave, and as they climbed in Rivet found that the Infobot held a hit list of the Emperor's most important targets, herself and a couple of other rebels, so she posted the list to the Resistance network before blasting off, as they had work to do to set things right and stop the dimensions from crumbling.

Rift Apart: Scarstu Debris Field

As they flew to their next destination Rivet explained a few things to them, a way of thanking them for telling her all sorts of thing before she reached Sargasso earlier, and it was all about the Resistance that she was a key member of, though the very first thing Autumn and Clank learned was that there was no leader. Rivet and the other high ranking operatives were, in a sense, the leadership of the Resistance, joined by an AI that usually spoke to them when they were out in the field, and, based on Ms. Zurkon's words, Ratchet and Starswirl had bumped into Phantom, their undercover black ops operative and hacker. The other names on the list were friends or aquaintences of hers, such as Quantum, who had joined the Space Pirates some time ago, Moydoy, a skilled operative who had also joined the pirates to fight the Emperor in another manner that he felt was more appropriate, and Clatchky, one of their most skilled pilots, far more skilled than she was. Even though two of them were no longer members of the Resistance they were still hounding Emperor Nefarious' forces and operations, so it made sense that the Emperor would have their names on his hit list and she felt it was appropriate to warn them, just in case enemies came after them.

The flip side to that was that Rivet asked Autumn several questions about Ratchet and his quest to find her, all of which she gladly answered since she had nothing better to do during the flight, though Clank remained silent during the flight, likely thinking about the dimensional crisis they were in right now.

"Clank, is something wrong?" Rivet asked, as she had noticed that he was the only one who wasn't talking right now, likely because he was considering something else right now, where she spotted him glancing out at the area they were flying towards, causing her to sigh for a moment, "Come on, you can tell us what's going on."

"He's just worried that this might be our fault... you know, repairing the Dimensionator and allowing it to be destroyed, all of which made things so much worse." Autumn replied, as she knew Clank better than Rivet did, which caused the robot to nod his head a little, though at the same time she counted themselves lucky that all of Nefarious' madness had brought all of them to the very dimension Ratchet was trying to track down.

Rivet tried to cheer him up a bit by mentioning that they were going to fix his communicator, which was something in her eyes, though while it didn't really do anything for Clank it showed that she was trying to get used to having a companion that was a robot. She turned her attention to the area they were heading to, a refueling station for all sorts of ships that also had a gastropub and battleplex attached to it, where she introduced it as 'Zurkie's Gastropub and Battleplex' as she landed in a vacant space on the outskirts. Autumn noticed that it looked like the one in charge of this place might be Mr. Zurkon, or Zurkie as he was called in this dimension, due to the fact that part of the design for the gastropub looked like the device turned weapon turned citizen in her home dimension. As they climbed out of the ship she also discovered that a few races were present, such as the Vullards, a couple of Morts, a number of Blarg, and several others she wasn't able to instantly recognize, just confirming that there were more differences between their dimensions than one might think.

Of course they stopped at a weapon stand, making Autumn wonder how Ms. Zurkon was able to keep up with them and Ratchet's group, and purchased a Lightning Rod, a weapon that shocked enemies, adding it to their arsenal before they entered the gastropub. What surprised Rivet was that the entrance to the structure had been replaced by a dimensional rift, one that happened to connect to the hallway leading inside, though as they walked down the hallway Autumn found a square shaped arena off in the distance with stands floating around it, the Battleplex of this adventure. When they walked into the welcome section of Zurkie's place the greeter, or whatever his official title was, actually claimed every weapon the two of them had, melee and gun, something Rivet admitted that she never remembered until this point, but they handed over their weapons so they could enter the gastropub. What the pair discovered was that there were all sorts of people in the bar area, space pirates, Morts, a Blarg or two, several of the other races Autumn had seen outside, and even a sheep of all things, who seemed to be sitting at the bar at the moment.

There was even a mechanical bull type machine in the center of the room, allowing patrons to enjoy themselves for some time, either when drunk or sober, though Rivet seemed at home as she walked over to the bar and undid Clank from her back for a time, setting him on the counter as she waved at someone.

"Namaste and peace be with you, Rivet." the Mr. Zurkon, or Zurkie as Autumn reminded herself, said, bringing his hands together for a moment as he bowed his head towards her, either because she was a popular customer or because it was part of the persona he had created in this dimension.

"Hey Zurkie, seems like you've been busy. Have you seen our favorite first mate around?" Rivet inquired, referring to the person she was looking for, or robot since she mentioned someone who would be part of a pirate order and might be in this very chamber, due to Autumn finding a familiar robot, only blue colored and more professional looking, standing near one of the pillars of the gastropub, "I need a signal booster and he's the one who can help me find one without going through the Emperor's channels."

"Well well well, we meet again my wee cherie." the robot pirate stated, where Autumn confirmed that she and Clank knew who he was, in their dimension anyway, all while finding that his right eye seemed to be crossed out, like an eyepatch, he had a fancy hat on and his appearance was more befitting of a first mate, "Did you follow me here? Another fruitless effort to win my affection?"

"Just give me the part, Pierre. I'm stressed for time right now." Rivet replied, because after discovering that she did, in fact, have a brother she wanted to speak with him and maybe converse for a time, before worrying about the next step in their plans to stop the dimensions from breaking after the destruction of the powerful Dimensionator.

The robot pirate went on and on about how his 'heart was taken', no doubt because he was a pirate and they had a code that all of them lived by, so he might be referring to all the treasure and other items that his crew lived on or for, like how the ones in Autumn's dimension loved to dance and drink their grog. Clank, however, put a name to the robot, calling him Rusty Pete as he was talking, something that totally ruined whatever sequence the robot and Rivet were going for, though Autumn found that her sister didn't mind, rather she was hoping to end this quickly. Such a thing spoke volumes on just how much time she had spent dealing with the pirates and them interrupting whatever missions she was on, or at least all those that brought them into the area she was in, along with the fact that they must have annoyed her to some degree, hence why she wanted to get this over with. The pirate then stated that Rivet's friend had a saucy tongue and introduced himself as Pierre Le Fer, pirate extraordinaire, and that he was a high ranking member of Captain Quantum's faction, yet more confirmation on what Rivet had said before they came to this place.

When Rivet stated that she and Autumn would fight Pierre for the part, something that drew the attention of the pirates and several of the patrons for a moment, Zurkie informed them that his domain was a violence free zone and informed all of them that if they wanted to fight they would have to take it outside, into the arena to be exact.

As Pierre stated that he was 'more lover than fighter', but always made an exception for Rivet, the duo grabbed Clank and walked over to the terminal that combatants used when they wanted to fight in the arena, where Autumn watched Rivet for a moment as she accepted the challenge. Such a thing caused the floor to open below them and dropped them into a dimensional rift that replaced whatever had been there beforehand, allowing them to drop into the arena with ease, but in that moment Autumn discovered where Zurkon Jr. was located, he was the announcer. Zurkon Jr. informed the crowd as to what was going on and seemed to be offering commentary on what was happening inside the arena, using a rather small platform to move around the arena, though Pierre, apparently being a coward, informed Rivet and Autumn that, in order to get to him, they had to go through his crew. The sisters were fine with that fact, as it would allow them to try out their new weapon and some of the upgrades they had purchased, again surprising Rivet with just how rich her family was, that they could afford so many weapons and enhancements, but instead of worrying about that they focused on Pierre's challenge and his robotic crew.

Autumn also noted that this Zurkon Jr. had a different voice than the one in her dimension, in fact the entire family seemed to follow that fact, and determined that he must have picked a cartoon character of some kind, likely a well loved one, but decided not to pay too much attention to it as the battle started.

Rivet opened fire on the enemies that emerged from the various dimensional rifts that were now opening in the arena, a fact that caused her to remark that they were always finding new ways to cheat and Pierre, while surprised as well, claimed that it was a true pirate signature, tearing through the fabric of space time. Autumn found it odd that there were a fair number of rifts in this place that were spitting out pirates for them to fight, including small spinning robots which looked like the blade bots from the Agorian Battleplex critters, but, once more, decided not to question all of this. With the Dimensionator's total destruction there was no telling what might happen or where these rifts might spawn, so she guessed it was possible that all of this was just a coincidence in terms of their recent placement, allowing her to turn her focus on their enemies as both she and Rivet blasted the pirates into submission. Due to their skills in combat Pierre had some interesting comments to say on the matter, like openly wondering if the weapons of his crew were broken or ordering them to fire on their targets, though the sisters simply turned him out as they blasted their enemies and tore down the waves coming at them.

What confirmed that he was a coward in Autumn's eyes was that, once all of his crew mates were defeated, he pretended to have a sprained ankle for a time, enough for Rivet to be rewarded with an armor sphere, likely a design anyone could wear, before stating that they would be fighting someone else. As it turned out his 'less attractive stunt double' happened to be one of the larger and bulkier pirates they had seen when entering the gastropub, the cannonball firing guys from when she, Ratchet, and Starswirl dealt with Slag's crew, only this one was colored blue, unlike the red she was used to, one who went by the name Francois. For the most part it seemed like Francois only had two types of attacks, the first being leaping from an area and using the force of him landing to use a shockwave to hurt his enemies, while the other was more of a bouncer ball, as in his cannon arm fired out decent sized bouncer spheres that separated into smaller ones that zeroed in on them, not that it mattered since they dodged with their Phantom Dash. Autumn had to admit that this addition was a worthwhile one, allowing them to fight better than ever before and not have to rely on magic, which she couldn't use in this situation thanks to all of the dimensional rifts that were opening, closing, or staying open around them, as it would have a negative effect on everything, a warning Kaden had given her and Starswirl many times in the past.

In the end it wasn't long before they brought down Francois, who staggered before breaking into a pile of scrap, causing the crowd to cheer for the excellent battle that had taken place in the arena, and Autumn was pleased to see that Pierre was just surprised by the scene in front of him.

"A... defeat?! But now?!" Pierre stated, almost like he was acting out some sort of scene, as his movements suggested such a thing as Autumn focused on him for a time, especially since he changed his stance to show the crowd that, which he might have lost, he was being a good sport about it and already had plans for the future, "Eventually, and dramatically, I will have my revenge! But here, take your part!"

There was a large smile on Rivet's face as she caught the signal booster, as she loved putting on a show like this, before she and Autumn left the arena, allowing her to guide them to a seat so she could open Clank's insides for a few seconds and slip the device in, all while pausing for a few seconds, due to him giggling, before completing her work.

"Eureka, she's gone it!" Rivet said, the smile lingering on her face for a moment as she finished installing it, which was easier than creating an entire arm to replace her lost one, while Autumn sat nearby in the spherical booth that patrons used, as she didn't feel like standing while they talked to Ratchet, "You should be able to contact Ratchet now."

"Ratchet? Starswirl? Can you hear me?" Clank asked, making sure to activate the function he was trying to use, and not make a fool of himself in the process, while at the same time noticing that Rivet was hoping for good news, especially since she had now accepted that she had a family and two of them were still looking for her.

Clank! Are you guys okay? We saw you guys take off in Nefarious City and have been trying to catch up to you for some time now. Ratchet replied, as there wasn't much delay from Clank asking his question to the response, meaning either Ratchet or Starswirl must have input the signature that was assigned to their friend and had been scanning for any and all communications that might be coming from him, Is Rivet okay?

"You bet I am... brother." Rivet answered, where it was easy to see that it wasn't easy for her to say such a thing, likely due to all the years she had spent as a single child in a galaxy that was on the verge of being conquered by her Nefarious, even if she had called Ratchet her brother while speaking with Autumn and Clank, "Oh, Clank and Autumn are fine as well."

I'm relieved to hear that. Ratchet said, where they could hear him let out a sigh of relief, meaning he must have been worrying about all three of them since he had watched them run off, though at the same time Rivet understood that he and Starswirl must have claimed their own royal starship to leave Nefarious City.

We have news: Dr. Nefarious has just crowned himself Emperor of this dimension... whether it means he's standing in for the real one or purely taking over, we don't know. Starswirl stated, as there were things they needed to talk about, now that the connection had been established between both groups, because with this development they needed to form a plan of attack to put things right.

"Oh no... I have my hands full with my own Nefarious!" Rivet remarked, though she wasn't too surprised by this sudden turn of events, because after everything she had seen in Clank's memories of Dr. Nefarious she suspected that this might have been his desire from the very beginning, "We have to do something about him!"

We will, but... in order to fix everything, and get him out of here, we would need the Dimensionator, and dad's back in our own dimension. Ratchet said, showing them that he had been thinking about how to deal with the events that were going on right now and, sadly, none of his plans would work without the very device that allowed them to find Rivet in the first place.

"I'm afraid that we'll have to build a new one." Clank replied, where he could see that Autumn and Rivet were worried, as one knew how dangerous the device was and the other only had a slim idea of what they would be getting themselves into if they did this, all while Autumn noticed a white robot, about Clank's size, floating near a table with a menu, but quickly decided not to pay it too much attention, "While we were on Sargasso I dealt with a dimensional anomaly and was able to meet a Prophet from Savali named Gary, who said that he had access to the Dimensional Archives, which I'm sure are an ancient Lombax artifact left behind in capable hands... if anyone would know what to do, I'm positive he's the one to ask."

We're only a couple of sectors away from Savali, so we can check in with him when we get there. Starswirl stated, as it meant he or Ratchet must have checked the coordinates of themselves and the planet in question, discovering that they were closer to the planet than they must have thought, and, if Autumn knew Ratchet as well as she thought she did, he was likely changing direction right now.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Rivet asked, because she didn't want to sit around and do nothing while the rest of her family, at least her brothers, went out into the dangers of her galaxy to face whatever trials stood between them and remaking the Dimensionator.

"Do you have the planet Blizar Prime in this dimension?" Autumn inquired, as she had learned much from Kaden during the months of working on repairing the Dimensionator and restoring it to it's original form, just as Clank and Vendra had, so her question was to help them track a specific item down.

"Yeah, though I've never had a reason to go there. Why do you ask?" Rivet replied, where she was interested in what sort of plan the family was putting together before her very eyes, as it looked like they knew exactly how to go about saving the dimensions from the danger that was threatening all of them.

"Kaden told me that the Phase Quartz used to power the Dimensionator can be found there." Clank replied, where Rivet instantly put two and two together, that while one group went and forged the new device another would have to do and claim the power source, so they could then regroup, put the two together, and save the dimensions, "If my calculations are right, we should be able to reforge the device and save the dimensions in no time."

"Hey, quick question: you guys aren't going to leave once the Dimensionator's made... are you?" Rivet asked, as while she knew that the device was important, especially given what she had learned about it so far, she also knew there was a slim chance that she'd be fighting her battle on her own after it was complete.

No, we aren't. We're going to save the dimensions and bring our Nefarious home for imprisonment... once that's done, and dad confirms the barrier is safe, we'll be right back. Ratchet replied, where Autumn could tell that his response put a smile on Rivet's face, as it meant she'd have a chance to speak with her brother about things, and whatever else she was thinking about right now, just like it put a smile on her and Clank's faces, After seeing what you're dealing with, there's no way I'm leaving you to fight Emperor Nefarious and his forces on your own... I'm sure our siblings and Clank would also agree with me on this fact.

Rivet was happy to hear that and wished Ratchet and Starswirl luck in figuring out how to forge the Dimensionator, which allowed Clank to stop the transmission for the time being, though Autumn found that her sister wanted to check out the rest of the challenges in Zurkon Jr.'s Bronze Cup. Apparently fighting Pierre's crew and trashing Francois counted as two of the five, as usually he made them so that there were five challenges for his 'fiends', as he liked to call people seeking battle that, to tackle in their quest to sake their thirst for battle. The third one was actually far more challenging than Autumn or Rivet thought it might be, it was one where they could only use a single weapon, the Enforcer, against a group of Goons who were either using jetpacks or just standing on the platforms, as Autumn also discovered that the arena changed to fit whatever fight was going on. As such this time it was four squares in the four corners of the arena, one main platform, and a few items to help them move from point to point, the walls that utilized the addition to their gloves, small circular jump platforms, and even rifts that required their Rift Tethers to use to get around their enemies.

Even while dodging attacks and blasting their foes, once more showing that these Goons had greater accuracy than those Autumn had faced in the past, she and Rivet bested them after a time, allowing them to claim the reward before returning to the battle terminal. The next challenge was more of a single person challenge, it was a Speetle course through several rifts, causing Rivet to tackle it and speed off as soon as she climbed onto the critter's back, where Autumn found that the various rifts connected to the underside of the gastropub's exterior, Nefarious City, and Sargasso. Rivet, as she suspected, won the challenge and regrouped with her before seeing what the fifth and final challenge might be, where Zurkon. Jr. told all of them that the individual in question once ruled the swamps of Sargasso ten squillion years ago, allowing them to find that it was an undead Grunthor named Sue. Sure enough, true to his word, a skeletal Grunthor, joined by packs of what had to be skeletal Sandsharks, emerged to fight the sisters for a time, where he had gotten one they had no idea, but both focused on the familiar fight and hit it with everything they got.

Since it seemed to be an identical fight to what they did on Sargasso, with not changes at all, Rivet and Autumn emerged as the victors and collected their reward, more Bolts and an armor container for the Carbonax Advanced boots, which was just another collectible for Rivet. With all of the challenges done, and Rivet confirmed that after a few moments in front of the screen, the sisters headed for the exit, collecting their weapons from the robot in charge of greeting visitors as they left the gastropub at long last. Rivet made a stop at Ms. Zurkon's shop to inform her that Ratchet and Starswirl, who were her brothers as she recently discovered, were on their way to Savali, mostly because she knew the robot would want to sell some more weapons and this was the best way to tell her where they were going, since Rivet now knew that her family could afford anything and everything that was offered. In addition to that she got a call from the Morts back on Sargasso, as Trudi was in need of assistance and they were calling to see if she could spare a moment to help, where she said that they'd be there in no time, before telling Autumn and Clank that it was on the way to Blizar Prime, causing them to nod for a moment as they climbed into their ship.

That came with a message from Dr. Nefarious, where he was offering a clearly fake amount of money, also fake, for Rivet and Ratchet, deeming them more important right now, effectively putting a bounty on their heads while informing the rest of the empire that they were heading to Blizar Prime and Savali, where they said nothing as they blasted off at long last, all while hoping Ratchet and Starswirl were able to figure out what to do next on their end.

Rift Apart: Savali

During the flight to Savali it was far too easy for Starswirl to see that Ratchet was happy, especially after the call that they had with Clank not that long ago, though he couldn't fault his brother for whatever he was feeling right now, because all of their hard work had been successful. Ratchet, at long last, was in the same dimension that his long lost twin sister was in, he knew that she was safe, and was traveling with Autumn and Clank, and that she was willing to help them reforge the very device Clank had intended to give him earlier that day. Part of his personal quest, to find his sister and bring her home, was actually over, at long last, and for his brother such a thing meant everything to him, far more than Starswirl originally thought when he agreed to help set up the birthday celebration. The only part about this that could even ruin his mood was the fact that he and Rivet hadn't met yet, in fact the only time one had seen the other was back on Nefarious City, which just so happened to be when he caught sight of his sister, but Ratchet wasn't letting that get him down.

In fact Starswirl was sure that this was the happiest he had seen his brother in all the years they had saved the galaxies from the various dangers each of them happened to be facing, and he agreed with Ratchet, once both groups were done with their missions, and the multiverse was safe, they'd come back to help Rivet.

"Savali, straight ahead." Ratchet said, spotting the planet in question as their ship headed for it, where he looked at it for a few seconds and wondered if they had been here before, when they were fighting the Juggernaut in Nefarious City and were dragged around by the dimensional rifts, "So, where do you think we'll find this Prophet?"

"Hm, it's hard to say. Based on Clank's brief explanation, I'm going to assume he's like the Plumber," Starswirl replied, as he had been thinking about it since the call that allowed them to figure out what they had to do next, especially the part where Clank mentioned the Dimensional Archives, which just seemed like something their oldest ally might be linked to in some manner, "if that's the case, we'll likely find him near the landing pad so we can learn about whatever is going on with his planet... because whenever have we gone to a planet and not dealt with a problem... and if he's not like him we'll likely have to search part of the planet to find him."

"Okay, let's hope it's the former and not the latter." Ratchet commented, as it would make things easier for them in the long run, since they wouldn't have to run around the entire mesa that seemed to be the designated landing spot in their ship's navigation system, before he braced himself as he took them down to Urfdah Mesa, causing him to wonder who in their right mind named the place.

As Ratchet took them down Starswirl found himself agreeing with his brother, this planet definitely looked like the area they had been brought to while fighting the Juggernaut, as he spotted the four large machines that they had seen before having to fight the robot again. From what he could see it looked as if things were normal, no one was attacking the planet or chasing them down, but, like everything they had experienced in the past, he was sure that things would change after they landed and purchased some new weapons to add to their arsenals. A few seconds later they landed and the brothers climbed out without delay, where they found Ms. Zurkon waiting a little bit ahead of them and, more importantly, she had new weapons to hand them as soon as they stopped in front of her, the same ones that Rivet and Autumn had bought not that long ago. In addition to that they added one more to their arsenal, the Drillhound, which fired drilling seeker missiles, in the form of drills, before making sure to upgrade it with some of the Raritanium they had gathered over the years and their many adventures, which she was eager to take in exchange for her services.

Once they were done, and outfitted for whatever the near future held for them, they walked down the path that was right in front of them, finding that it seemed to be heading towards a village, even though it was a slim path with nowhere else to go, with massive chasms around them, before they spotted someone, a Goon whose attire suggested he was more at peace with himself and the world.

"Excuse me, we're looking for a Prophet named Gary." Ratchet said, speaking as they came to a stop near the figure, who seemed to be in the middle of flipping through the book that was in his hands, clearly thinking about something right now, meaning he might not even hear them say anything to him for a time, "We were told that he could help us figure out how to make a new Dimensionator."

"Ratchet?" the lizard inquired, where he turned around for a moment and his eyes widened as he realized who had come to visit Savali, he even closed his book the instant he spotted them, tucked it under his arm, and gestured to him, as if he was surprised to see them so soon, or something to that effect, and he even did the same to Starswirl before pointing to himself for a few seconds, "Ratchet! Starswirl! I am Gary... I must say, your reputation precedes you! You'll need to go to the Dimensional Archives, where my apprentice can help you find what you're looking for... but..."

In that moment, as Gary gestured to the blue topped building, no doubt the Dimensional Archives, there was a small scale explosion in or near the village, which allowed them to see Troopers were definitely inside the area that happened to be near the structure they needed to investigate.

"Let me guess: the village is under attack?" Starswirl inquired, once more confirming what they had said before landing on the landing pad, whenever they visited a planet during their adventures things usually changed in some manner, just like how the peaceful planet was suddenly under attack, even though it seemed like the Troopers had been getting into their positions before attacking.

"Town, actually. How did you know?" Gary asked, where it sounded like his mind wasn't all there or something, as if he was seeing multiple things while he stood there, or maybe they were imagining things right now and it was just how he looked all the time.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it." Ratchet replied, because it seemed like it was the first step to figuring out how to forge a new Dimensionator, since this mesa was massive and revealed that they would be here for some time, fighting the rest of the Troopers and doing whatever needed to be done on this planet.

After speaking with Gary the brothers started to move down the path in front of them and discovered a sniper Trooper, as in a floating spherical robot designed to snip enemies, complaining about how this situation was unfair as it loosed a laser as it's targets, Sandsharks and the pod that they emerged from. While it was distracted with it's sulking, being miserable with the area it had been assigned to, the brothers opened fire on it and tore their target down with ease, before it even knew it was under attack, allowing them to turn their attention on the Sandsharks. While doing that Starswirl found what appeared to be mushrooms that one could bounce on, as they allowed him and Ratchet to jump up and reach the entrance of the town that the remaining Troopers were currently besieging right now, a place that seemed empty since no one was running for their lives or anything. Interestingly enough they discovered that none of the Troopers were expecting a surprise attack from behind, as the first few fell before the others even knew what hit them, and even when they did turn on the brothers their power was diminished thanks to all those who fell within the first few moments.

As such, with their combined arsenals and their skills, it wasn't long before the town was safe from the Troopers and they walked over to the earthen ramp that would allow them to enter the Dimensional Archives, though as they did so it sensed a dimensional rift and started to move, no doubt to protect itself, causing a small Clank sized robot to fall off of it, one that was yellow colored, had two bulbs on it's head, and a triangle made of three blue orbs on it's chest.

"Are you okay? That was quite the landing." Ratchet asked, though his initial though was that they had just found the robot that was Clank's dimensional counterpart, she was the same size, as they heard a female voice coming from it when it talked about being embarrassed over the fall, and Starswirl likely agreed with him.

"Who are you two? Why are you looking at me like that?" the robot inquired, showing them that she was fine, because she was able to stand up without too much trouble and dusted herself off after doing so, though with that done she brought her hands together as she took a step back, either due to being shy or whatever problems she internally had.

"You'll have to forgive us, we know someone that you instantly reminded us of." Starswirl replied, remembering when Clank first joined the family and they shared their first adventure together, likely recalling the first few days to be exact, before he got to the matter at hand, since they were stressed for time, "You wouldn't happen to be Gary's apprentice, would you? We came here to learn how to make a Dimensionator and he said that you would be able to help us."

The robot confirmed that she was, in fact, Gary's apprentice and that there wasn't much she could do since her Archives were, at that very moment, walking away from them, though what was interesting was when Ratchet mentioned teaming up with her she instantly shied away from him. Her reasoning was that she 'wouldn't be a good partner', meaning something must have happened in her past to make her like this, though Ratchet and Starswirl had an idea, the same one to be exact, a promise that they'd stick together for this adventure, as in this planet, and if things went badly they'd go their separate ways without asking any questions. She stared at them for a time, clearly debating her choices since it was clear she couldn't get up to the Dimensional Archives without their help, or maybe she could if she asked Gary, before she agreed to join them for the time being, no doubt to help them figure out how to reforge the Dimensionator. She also informed them that they would need a pair of Hoverboots to cross the chasm, to reach the mesa, where the brothers surprised her by revealing that their boots had the function, explaining that their sister, Autumn, installed their old Hoverboots inside them, before speeding up the ramp and using the booster to propel themselves over to the mesa.

The Assistant, for lack of a better name, informed them that the Emperor's forces were attacking and that they needed to go to all three of the temples that were scattered around the mesa, those being the Mountain Temple, the Primeval Forest Temple, and the Temple D'Badlands, or the Badlands Temple as they called it. The reason behind going to those areas was to track down Gary's acolytes, as they would be able to help them reach the Dimensional Archives, causing the brothers to nod their heads as they headed for a small town, as Starswirl spotted Ms. Zurkon off in the distance and figured that they could make a quick stop. The Assistant also introduced herself as KT-7416, causing them to introduce themselves as well, since they didn't want her to give them any weird nicknames, before she spotted one of the senior monks standing off to the side, near a building that was made out of stone, while being large enough for him to live in. The figure was actually a peaceful Goon, meaning the Monks were this dimension's version of the Goons, there was no denying that fact, and he was actually overjoyed to meet a Lombax, leading to him calling him 'brother', in terms of seekers of truth and knowledge, while gesturing to a nearby object.

Ratchet and Starswirl discovered that it was, as the figure claimed, a Lombax shrine, dormant since the day it was installed in the ground of Savali, which was as tall as Ratchet was and was shaped in the vague form of a Lombax, though as soon as he walked up to it the shrine activated, revealing a silver and blue sphere for him to pick up.

"Oh, that's a Lorb... the other Monks told me that they hold precious knowledge on Lombax history." KT-7416 stated, as she was interested in what all of the Lorbs might possess, because there were twelve shrines scattered throughout the mesa, all dormant since no Lombaxes existed on this planet, though with Ratchet here she suspected that they might be able to learn whatever was contained within them.

Ratchet said nothing as he carefully tapped the side of the Lorb and it came to life before their eyes, causing KT-7416 to jump off his back, where she ended up after agreeing to join the brothers on their quest, as they waited for it to reveal the information that was contained inside it.

So I had a weird meeting this morning: Kaden came in to chat with me. a voice said, where Ratchet's eyes widened for a moment as he traveled back to when he and Rivet were babies, just like the time when he recalled the true form of the Dimensionator, as he partly recalled the voice in question, as their father had talked with him a few times, Apparently the Council liked my mapping work on Savali enough that they want me to expand it... by mapping every dimension... as in everything that exists in the multiverse... yeah, that might be completely impossible.

"He must be referring to the Dimensional Map, which is the most important artifact we have in the Archives... most of the senior Monks felt the Lombaxes made it and it seems they were right." KT-7416 remarked, as while the information inside this Lorb wasn't what she was expecting, because she was hoping for something more about Lombax history itself and not about some of their artifacts, she was happy to have discovered it.

Ratchet returned to the Monk that was watching them and asked if he could pinpoint the other shrines for him, because while they were here he intended on finding all twelve to see what sort of story they weaved together, which he handed over without delay, seeing the fire in Ratchet's eyes no doubt. With that information in hand Ratchet decided to focus on the three temples that they needed to visit, to see if the other Monks were fine or if they were under attack, though while they did so KT-7416 asked the brothers how they got here. Starswirl informed her of the situation, that he, Autumn, and a number of others had repaired the original Dimensionator, so it could be given to Ratchet as a present so he could find his long lost twin sister, before it was stolen by Dr. Nefarious, the dimensional counterpart of Emperor Nefarious. While such a thing worried her she also asked Ratchet if he knew why his people would have left the buildings and structures behind, like the Dimensional Archives, where he revealed that he really didn't know and had to guess that it was to ensure that the information on the Dimensionator and this Dimensional Map were safe, out of their enemy's hands.

Starswirl agreed with that idea, because Kaden had been worried that Tachyon might claim the Dimensionator and seek to invade the other dimensions that existed in the multiverse, so keeping a Dimensional Map, which likely pinpointed where the Lombaxes went, safe seemed like something they would do.

The Badlands Temple happened to be near the leftmost edge of the mesa, where they found that the Troopers had put all of the Monks in an area behind a shield that rested in the middle of the entire area, so Ratchet dropped KT-7416 off right in front of a command terminal. As she hacked into the software, to power down the shield so the Monks could be freed, he and Starswirl fired on the Troopers as they realized that their targets had come to the area that they were guarding at the moment, though Ratchet still thought it was strange to see the differences between the Goons of his dimension and the Monks of this one. Both brothers were still surprised by the fact that all of the Troopers liked to talk, either taunting in nature or simply having a discussion amongst themselves while they were fighting all of their enemies or targets, though it was of no consequence to them as they blasted all of their foes apart. In the end the brothers were able to wipe out all of Emperor Nefarious' Troopers, since Ratchet refused to admit that they were Dr. Nefarious' forces, allowing KT-7416 the time to finish up her hacking and freeing her Monk brothers from their prison.

When it came time for them to leave, to head back to 'Monktown', the Monks actually used a dimensional rift to teleport back to their homes, one directed by their power and not set to random like all of the others they had seen so far, and the moment it was done, with the rift sealing itself behind them, KT-7416 returned to Ratchet's back so they could move on to the other two temples.

As Ratchet and Starswirl explored the rest of the area, as there were Lorbs to acquire, some surrounded by enemies while others were protected by either force fields or a moving platform that floated above the ground, they asked KT-7416 is she had a nickname of some kind. It was mostly because while they could remember her given string of numbers and letters, in fact both used it when addressing her every now and then, Ratchet knew that giving her a nickname might help her out in some manner and make things easier for them. She admitted that she was called 'sister', which was more of a title given by the other Monks when the brothers thought about it, so while they traveled Ratchet tried to give her one, where he had a few ideas in the form of Kaytee, Sunshine, and Kit, all of which she just thought about while saying nothing in response to him. She did, however, tell him that they shouldn't try to give her a nickname or try to be her friend, where Ratchet and Starswirl sighed for a time and told her that, in the short amount of time that they knew her, that Gary trusted her and the Monks liked her, so she shouldn't put herself down like this.

At the same time Ratchet collected a few more Lorbs and activated each one as they did so, the second revealing that the Lombax his father talked to considered the order over his lunch break and determined that it wasn't as impossible as he originally believed, he just needed the Dimensionator, a year and three weeks, and to never sleep again. That one was the day he remembered so much, when his father handed over the dimensional device to another Lombax for a mission, only now he understood part of the mission the Council gave him. After that Lorb they discovered that a few were about some of the dimensions that he ended up mapping, one being a place with beings that looked like Lombaxes, even though the figure he described sounded more like an anthropomorphic raccoon, a thief since he had a mask, a cane, and was pulling off a heist at the time of the mapping session. Such a thing caused him to track down most of the Lorbs, before worrying about the remaining two temples that were out there, finding dimensions with creatures made of relics that broke apart and were still alive, one with smart cubes, one with humanoid creatures that had one spinning around while firing a gun at his enemies while something hung on his shoulder giving live commentary.

During all of the messages they recovered Ratchet discovered when the unknown Lombax made his changes to the device his father kept hidden, changing the Dimensionator from a gun by turning it into a hat, before discovering something far more interesting, whoever his father had assigned the mission to might have mapped more than he expected.

"It has long been theorized that there's a special dimension, maybe even a multiverse, that exists on the other side of an impassible barrier, the Xeno Dimension." KT-7416 commented, though at the same time she was amazed by what she and the others were learning right now, as it almost sounded like this other Lombax might have actually discovered that it did exist, which, if such a thing happened to be true, would be outstanding.

"Dad likely had a hand in making sure these Lorbs were hidden, waiting for a Lombax to return." Ratchet said, because his father had done everything and anything in his power to make sure important or even forbidden knowledge was hidden, either to be found by him at some point or kept out of the hands of those who would misuse them, before he considered that idea for a moment, "Knowing him, there's likely a Lorb that was left out or kept somewhere safe, likely in the hands of one he trusted, that might help explain this whole 'Xeno Dimension' to us."

Starswirl had nothing to say to that, he agreed with Ratchet since he was sure that there was something Kaden hadn't told him and the others while they worked to get everything ready for the big day they had in store for his brother, though not a few seconds later he and Ratchet reached the Forest Temple. Sure enough there were more Troopers keeping a number of Monks contained behind a barrier, guarded by a Juggernaut no less, to which they opened fire on their enemies before any of the Troopers knew what was going on, even if they were delighted by discovering rebels to punish. Both brothers were surprised to find that the personalities that the Troopers had, that they were so giggity when it came to dealing with all those who opposed their Emperor, confirming that the one Juggernaut that burst out of a dimensional rift on Fastoon had come from this dimension. Despite being outnumbered they were able to wipe out the Troopers that were guarding the area right now and allowed KT-7416 to approach the terminal that was connected to this particular prison dome, only it would take her some time to hack since it was an older model.

While she did that more Troopers arrived and assaulted the area, causing the brothers to restock their weapons with the ammunition crates that were nearby, as while Ratchet would have preferred to have Starswirl teleport to Ms. Zurkon for a time, to restock, he wasn't about to risk further dimensional cracking by doing such a thing. As such they made sure to use their weaponry appropriately, trapping many of their enemies in a single area to maximize the usage of their ammunition, a fact they had done several times in the past before not needing to worry about such a thing. Even with that hazard they were able to clear out the Troopers that were coming at them, while KT-7416 dealt with the terminal and undid the barrier around the Monks, allowing them to teleport out of the area and return to Monktown like the others. With the area taken care of Ratchet and Starswirl returned to Ms. Zurkon and restocked their ammunition, because both of them had a feeling the last one might be just as harsh as the second was, all while their new companion was silent as she thought about what was going on right now.

After making sure they were ready to go, and Ratchet was sure that they had all of the Lorbs before the last temple, they started to cross a wooden bridge and jumped over some gaps, only to find something surprising, Gary was off on the side, standing on one leg as he balanced himself in some sort of meditation.

"Ratchet, Starswirl, I see you've found my apprentice, and you have Hoverboots, which means you're ready to enter the Mountain Temple." Gary replied, speaking as soon as they came to a stop near him, as there was another path off to their right that lead up to where the last Lorb was located, which Ratchet wanted to get so they had all of them, though that was when Gary considered something, "Well, both of you are emotionally ready to enter. You will need to overcome the temple's elaborate defense system, or, as we lovingly call it, the 'Gauntlet of Trials Slash Doom'."

"Oh, I hate slash doom!" KT-7416 remarked, where Ratchet and Starswirl couldn't tell if she was being serious or if this was an attempt to inject some humor into what they were doing, given the invasion that was going on right now, but she stuck to Ratchet's back as they moved away from her master.

Sure enough, due to Ratchet's desires, they used a few rifts and a short rail grind to reach the final shrine, where he just waited for a few moments to claim it from it's resting place, where he found that it revealed something he suspected, the Lombaxes were attacked and scattered, while the majority was in one place. The Dimensional Map, according to Mags, as that was the mysterious Lombax's name, would point them to the dimension that they would be gathering in, thought it, in itself, was just a copy of the true Dimensional Map that must have been taken with the Lombaxes. It was hard to tell if KT-7416 knew that fact or not, and if she did she didn't say anything about it, though with it in hand the brothers returned to the gauntlet, where they found that it was a series of timed trials, as pressing a button revealed a path they had to use their Hoverboots to get across quickly. Both brothers found some of them to be rather easy while a few more were rather hard, as the very last one of them all happened to be the longest one that required them to switch from their Hoverboots to their Grindboots, then back so they had enough speed to actually grab a Swingshot with their devices, and it even had a set of the walls they found in Nefarious City, all to get to the end.

A few sniper Troopers were guarding the last group of Monks, in an area shrouded in fog no less, allowing the brothers to destroy all of their enemies before they even had a chance to understand what was going on, and once both of them were sure that everything was fine they walked up the stairs. This time around the terminal KT-7416 needed to hack into had what she called a Zeta virus inside it, exactly like what Ratchet had seen in Nefarious City before he asked Glitch to help out with the terminal so they could get into Nefarious Tower, causing him to pull her out again. What he discovered was that she was more than willing to assist them this time around, to which he held her out and she surged into the terminal, allowing them to rest for a while as she did her work inside the device, blasting away the virus that had infected it. While they waited for her to do that Ratchet thought about his sisters and Clank, wondering if they had already found the Phase Quartz they needed to power the Dimensionator, as it sure seemed like the easier task, but with no communications for the time being he just had to wait and hope for the best.

When Glitch returned the virus dissolved into nothingness and KT-7416 was able to lower the barrier, allowing the Monks to warp back to Monktown, only this time they opened a portal to drag the brothers and KT-7416 with them, dropping them in front of Gary's position.

"Ratchet, Starswirl, KT-7416, you made it!" Gary said, though based on how he was standing and how he acted Ratchet was almost certain that he knew they would come out on top, while the other Monks continued to meditate now that they were no longer trapped inside their various prisons, "Thank you for freeing my brothers."

"Gary, we must get inside the Dimensional Archives... it is very urgent." KT-7416 replied, as while she was happy to lend her fellow Monks a hand, and saved them from whatever Emperor Nefarious' forces had planned for them, she knew that the quest Ratchet and Starswirl were on was important.

Gary nodded and informed his brothers that it was time to 'grease some dimensional wheels', allowing them to open yet another dimensional rift in front of them, which seemed to connect to an earthen ramp of sorts and another rift, which had to be a series of them to make sure they built up enough speed to launch themselves at their target. With that done Ratchet and Starswirl activated their Hoverboots before speeding off, surging through the rift and racing down the path that was in front of them, and there were even boosters for them to use to increase their overall speed. Sure enough Ratchet found that he was right about the path, the rifts brought him and Starswirl to different sections of the mesa, even an underground area they hadn't been to during their time helping the Monks, before reaching what seemed like the end. The brothers raced up the ramp that was the end of the path that Gary and the others had prepared for them and launched themselves into the air, allowing them to soar over all of Urfdah Mesa for a short period of time, before noticing that even all of that wouldn't be enough to reach the top of the Archives.

Fortunately there was a rift on the balcony that KT-7416 had been on before it started moving, allowing them to connect to it and pull themselves over to it, only to find Troopers were tearing down the walls in an attempt to either bring the Archives down or get inside to obtain the information it contained.

As such Ratchet and Starswirl opened fire on the enemies that were around them, focusing on tearing down the larger ones first, since they were tougher than the others were, leaving the smaller ones to be wiped out by the crossfire, though they also found that KT-7416 was enraged by what the Troopers were doing. It made sense, considering that Gary had put her in charge of this device, or maybe it was a temporary assignment for her, and the brothers suspected she was making him very proud of her, even if she wasn't fighting their enemies herself. Such a thing caused Starswirl to wonder something, that if she was Clank's dimensional counterpart, which he and Ratchet agreed on, did she have a warbot mode, like Clank's giant form, though if that was the case it was possible that, as a Monk, she had to swear off violence and never use it, not unless the need was truly dire for her. In the end he decided not to pay too much attention to the possibilities as they tore through all of their enemies and used a bounce pad near one of the edges to get up to the highest point, where the brothers had to fight not one but two Juggernauts at the same time, which would be slightly easier thanks to their expanded arsenals and all of the upgrades they had purchased so far.

It took a bit of doing, especially since they had to dodge two lasers until the first was taken down, but the brothers wiped out both Juggernauts and opened the way into the Archives, allowing KT-7416 to climb off Ratchet's back so she could see if there was any damage and make sure everything was okay.

"Good. The Dimensional Map is perfectly safe." KT-7416 said, referring to the floating mass that was above a shrine, one that was large enough to be a crescent disc of sorts, though as they took in that it was a mass of stars, the dimensions to be exact, while Ratchet and Starswirl walked over the walkway in front of them, taking in the sites.

"So, this is where dad hid the information on where to forge the Dimensionator." Ratchet commented, as he spotted the language of the Lombaxes on the area below the Dimensional Map, causing him to sigh as he wondered what his parents were thinking right now, given that it looked like he was supposed to inherit the position as it's Keeper from his father at some point during the celebration, "He gave everything to protect it, and almost gave up his life to keep it safe from those who would misuse it... I must be an embarrassment to him, letting it be taken and destroyed."

As KT-7461 scanned the information in front of them she asked if Ratchet missed the rest of his race, where he told her it was complicated, as part of him did and another part didn't, due to having his parents and a few others to learn from, all while Starswirl said nothing, he really had no idea what to say to his brother, before they learned the information that they needed to know.

"We can make a new Dimensionator, but the forge to do so is located at Kedaro Station, one of the heavily guarded places in the galaxy." KT-7416 replied, though as she saved the blueprints in her memory, so they could be used later, she noted that Ratchet and Starswirl were leaving and that one was still using her serial code as her name, causing her to make up her mind on what they had said earlier, "Ratchet? I think... Kit is my favorite."

As the brothers smiled for a moment, because it was nice to help her break out of her shell like this, they head something explode outside and Ratchet put Kit on his back as they headed outside, finding more of the Trooper ships flying through the air, firing at the legs that allowed the Archives to walk like this. Kit was, understandably, enraged by the scene that was unfolding before her eyes, to the point where she refused to go with Ratchet as she walked forward, causing Starswirl to hold a hand out to stop his brother, as it seemed like she was about to break her Monk code. Sure enough she paused for a few seconds, as if accessing that other side of herself, before her arms and legs were pulled into her body as she briefly touched the ground for a few seconds, where she swiftly expanded outward, a larger body forming as massive feet quickly replaced her own, her main body bulked out, and her large arms emerged. Her warbot form was outfitted with what had to be two plasma guns, one on each arm, and she had a jetpack, no doubt to fly if she needed to do so, where she quickly targeted all of the flyers and opened fire on them, loosing bursts of plasma energy that zeroed in and smashed each of her targets into oblivion, leaving nothing behind.

It was shocking how surprising she was in this mode, that she could decimate the invaders and actually stuck to her code for as long as she could, though as the sky cleared, and they determined that no more enemies were nearby, she turned on them for a moment as leveled one of her guns at Ratchet, before suddenly coming to and reverting to her smaller form once more, only looking ashamed of herself.

"I told you... I do not make a great partner... you two would be in constant danger." Kit said, hanging her head low as she walked up to where they were standing, clearly ashamed of the fact that she had nearly blasted two of Gary's allies with her weaponry, which both brothers were sure she only used when the need was great, "You would not understand, I was built as a weapon... to keep the Emperor's galaxy 'secure'. One night, when I was in Nefarious City, I spotted a rebel in the Imperial Zone, so I tried to 'stop' them by using the weaponry that was installed inside my body... I am sure I hurt them, as I heard a cry while it happened. It was... what I was built to do... to hurt... so, when I came here, I realized I could keep the galaxy safe from my programming."

"You're just like Clank... he comes from a series that was designed to destroy, but he's a hero in our dimension, so I bet we could help you like we helped him." Starswirl remarked, as while he understood Kit's story, in fact he was sure they might have discovered what happened to Rivet's arm, something Ratchet didn't want to think about based on the look he found in his eyes.

Kit, of course, was surprised by their inability to be scared of her other form, or the fact that they were in danger with her traveling with them, but, at the same time, she was filled with joy to have new people accept who she was, so she quickly accepted Ratchet's hand as she returned to his back, allowing them to use a rift to return to Monktown. Ratchet, on the other hand, turned and headed back for the town that was resting in the middle of the mesa, as he wanted to hand over the last Lorb to the Monk who had asked for them, just to cross that task off their list. Kit was happy about that, as while all twelve items had information that she wasn't expecting to find, Ratchet and Starswirl had filled in the blanks for her so she could understand what was going on with Kaden, Mags, and the Lombaxes at the time. At the same time Starswirl was interested in the Xeno Dimension that Kit had mentioned, figuring that they could ask Gary before departing for their next destination, since he was smarter than most of the Monks they had run into during their time on Savali.

Sure enough they found that the Monk asking for the Lorbs was surprised and nearly speechless when he realized that all twelve were now in his possession, though he headed inside his hut for a moment before returning, which meant that he must have some reward for them.

"A Lombax left this is our care, said that 'two lights of his life' would hold the keys to opening it." the Monk said, where he revealed what looked like a Lorb, only this one seemed to be bronze colored, meaning it was likely more important than the ones they had risked their lives to obtain, before Ratchet noticed a slot that a familiar shape could rest in.

"They weren't necklaces... they were keys! Dad must have discovered some sort of secret about the Xeno Dimension and locked it away like this." Ratchet commented, though as he pulled out his necklace, confirming that it could fit into half of the slot, he and Starswirl noticed something weird, this Lorb had some designs on it, like nineteen spheres around what looked like a blazing sun, before he faced the Monk, "Keep it safe. Once Rivet and I, and our siblings and friends, save the dimensions we'll come back and open it... I can only imagine the information that stored inside it."

As the Monk nodded, and stored it away once more, Ratchet could only wonder what in the world his father might have found before the attack that scattered most of his race, before sighing as he returned to their ship, as it was time to head to another world and forge the Dimensionator, all while he hoped Rivet, Autumn, and Clank were doing alright.

Rift Apart: Torren IV

As they traveled to Torren IV Rivet shared all the stories she knew with Autumn and Clank, allowing them to understand that the Fixer was a being of importance in her dimension, even if most people couldn't confirm his existence since the Vullards didn't want everyone else to know of his existence. The pair had to admit that what she was sharing with them made both of them more eager to see if the stories were true, because there was one tale of where the Fixer actually mended a broken world with his powers, putting it back to normal before stopping what triggered it's destruction in the first place. Once they actually saved the dimensions, and didn't have to worry about everything falling apart on them, Autumn promised that she would help Rivet put her Blizar Prime back together, though while it wouldn't bring the fallen back they could fix the problem they discovered in the other dimension they had been to. That seemed to put a smile on Rivet's face, even though she was worried about what they might find on Torren IV, as she also claimed that Pirates loved to frequent this part of the galaxy and there was a chance that Pierre might try to stop them from visiting the Fixer.

Clank was silent for the majority of the trip to Torren IV, though he did tell Autumn the news that Gary was the son of the Plumber, which meant explaining a couple of things to Rivet so she understood who they were referring to, even though she said nothing about that as she reached the atmosphere of their destination.

"You know, in the grand scheme of things, this should be the most straightforward mission possible." Clank remarked, as it sure seemed that way, just fly down, locate some Vullards, get directions to the Fixer, and then repair the Phase Quartz so they could return to Zurkie's and meet up with the others.

"Listen, I'm not sure how things go in your dimension, other than what you've told and shown me, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that improvisation is very important." Rivet replied, taking a moment to snap her fingers as she said that, meaning it was a skill she must have learned while working all on her own, before she turned her eyes back to the area she was planning on setting them down in, "Trust me on this, things never go according to plan... especially in this part of the galaxy, away from the majority of the patrol paths the Troopers use."

"Well, you won't have to worry about that, as we're skilled at improvising as we go." Autumn stated, which was the truth, as she and her siblings usually had plans in mind and, when things went sideways, they modified them accordingly to ensure either they would survive the danger or overcome an enemy's plans.

Rivet chuckled, as she had a feeling that was the case, before touching down on the outskirts of the area, allowing them to climb out of the ship and stretch for a moment, though once they were done the sisters started to head down the path in front of them. All three of them were hoping that the Fixer actually existed, that this wasn't a wasted trip, and that he could repair the Phase Quartz, because it would put them one step closer to saving the dimensions from the danger that was now coming their way, or at least Gary confirmed Kaden's suspicions on the matter. As they discovered that the bridge was out of order, which would have brought them to the town that was in front of them, some toads and crabs attacked them, which caused the sisters to open fire on their new foes for a few seconds, as they weren't anything to be worried about. Rivet told them that the broken bridge had to be due to a Pirate raid, in fact she was sure of it after everything Pierre had done in the past, before she and Autumn used two Swingshots and a magnetic wall to reach the edge of town.

What they discovered was that every Vullard in the area seemed to be closing up shop, meaning they must have found yet another threat in the nearby area and had to be preparing for their arrival, though while neither sister was surprised to find Ms. Zurkon here, in fact it meant more weapons, they did find one Vullard at the edge of the town to talk to.

"New tourists?!" the Vullard remarked, where Autumn and Clank noted that he spoke differently than the ones in their own dimension, in fact that seemed to be a common trend that they were discovering, where he focused his full attention on the trio, who found a large chasm in front of them, a path to their left, and, more importantly, a massive robot that looked like it was being worked on, "Welcome to the 'jewel' of our galaxy. Please, enjoy yourselves... did you know that Molonoth means paradise in Junkish?"

"Is that so? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but we're not tourists. We're looking for the Fixer." Rivet replied, as while she knew that many of the Vullards were hoping that they were here to buy some items, to earn money to buy other things, the scene in town, with everyone closing their doors or windows, meant they didn't have a lot of time, "He's here, right?"

"He most definitely is... great guy, one of the best, and he's single in case any of you are interested." the Vullard said, which earned him three frowns as Rivet, Autumn, and Clank stared at him, as they couldn't believe that he was trying to set one or more of them up with the figure they were looking for, "What can he do for you?"

"We were told that he could fix Phase Quartz. That true?" Autumn asked, because if the Fixer turned out to be a lie, and that he couldn't do as the stories claimed, there was no reason for them to stay here, since it meant they would have to track down another piece of the material they needed to power the Dimensionator.

"He most certainly can... Phase Quartz, blaze quartz, any quartz, anything!" the Vullard stated, where it sounded like he had rehearsed part of his statement in case anyone arrived and happened to be looking for the figure in question, though after saying that he turned and beckoned to the giant robot that was clearly offline, "But, uh, we've been having a lot of problems with Pirates lately and asked him if he was willing to help us out... because, as you can see, he's a big guy and incredibly powerful... but after a few days of totally crushing them he just, well... broke."

"Autumn, perhaps you could fix him?" Clank inquired, which would be wonderful if that was the case, since she was one of the most skilled weapon, device, and even robot designer in their dimension, the best in every field she worked in, so this seemed to be a good turn of events for them.

The Vullard informed them that to move forward they would need a Hurlshot, one of which just so happened to be in the smelting pits off to the left, though the sisters returned to Ms. Zurkon and purchased a few new weapons, two old classics as Autumn discovered, the Buzz Blades and the Glove of Doom, allowing them to upgrade both before starting to make their way over to the path they needed to take.

"So, I have to ask: after this are you guys and Ratchet going to head to the dimension the Lombaxes are in?" River asked, as it had been bugging her since she discovered that the Dimensionator existed, especially when she learned that there were other members of her kind out there, and it caused her to ask a question that had been on her mind for some time, all while carefully climbing up some stone platforms to start their newest mission.

"Maybe. It all depends on Ratchet... you have to remember that he's had his parents, his wife, and even an uncle figure to learn from, but not the person who mattered the most." Autumn replied, taking a moment to blast the crabs and wasps that were in front of her and her sister right now, as it seemed like they and some toads were coming to hurt them, so she beat them to it and caused Rivet to join in a second later, "He's been so focused on finding you, and making sure you were okay, that I don't think he's even considered tracking down the other Lombaxes... however, after spending some time with you, he'll likely agree that it's time to find the others as well. Time, as they say, will tell."

Rivet nodded as she turned her guns on another critter and wiped out more of the enemies that were coming at them, as Molonoth Gulch had more foes than she thought, before they reached what appeared to be the edge of the area, finding that to move forward they had to use a series of grind rails. It was humorous that they were doing this again, though both sisters said nothing as Rivet jumped onto the rail and Autumn followed after her, finding that they were racing across the other side of the chasm, heading in the opposite direction of the Fixer. This time around the sisters had to avoid carts full of junk, either stalled on the various tracks or coming their way from one of the other destinations, though for some odd reason parts of the tracks were removed, as if the Vullards were reinventing every system that existed in this place, but at the moment they either jumped over gaps or moved to another rail. While they did that Rivet explained why the Hurlshot might be located inside a smelting pit, as they apparently fractured the spines of those who used them and had, rather quickly, been recalled so they could be destroyed, so she was expecting Autumn to work on it as soon as they found it, as she didn't want to experience such a thing.

The end of the path came to a pipe that allowed them to slide down onto a pile of moving junk, granting them a chance to use a Swingshot and reach the smelting pit that happened to hold the Hurlshot, a silver container that was suspended just above a pit of acid that would likely destroy it, but before they could move Pirates started to attack the settlement.

"Avast, ahoy, yo-ho yo-ho. Our time has finally come!" one of the Pirates sang, where a pair of ships arrived and several members of the crew stepped off into the area that the sisters were interested in right now, though what interested both Autumn and Clank was that these guys loved to sing, as opposed to the dancing of the pirates in their dimension.

"Let us plunder like mad, and go break bad, for the Fixer is all but done!" another continued, confirming that they loved to sing, which was either the favorite pass time of this breed of Pirates or it was a requirement of their captain, either option was possible right now.

"Look here mateys, this looks useful. In fact I've a notion it be crucial." a third added, though this one was pointing right at the Hurlshot that the sisters were here for, meaning they either knew about the item in question or they thought it might sell well if they got their hands on it.

"It seems that fate has brought us together again, ma petite Rivet." Pierre said, while at the same time ignoring Autumn as his ship came to a stop above them and he took off his hat so he could bow a little towards her, either because he liked her or this was his way of showing respect to someone he saw as his rival.

"Listen Pierre, as much as I've love to appease 'fate' by kicking your butt with my sister, we've got a task to complete and we need that Hurlshot." Rivet stated, though as she said that both she and Autumn got ready, as they could see that the Pirates that were around them weren't too happy with her choice of words, despite the fact that it was true, she usually beat him and his crew, so she was trying to save them a beating.

Unfortunately Pierre didn't see it that way as he put his hat back on and ordered his crew to attack them, something that caused his ship to take off so they could likely plunder another part of the area they were in, though neither sister was even surprised as they opened fire on the Pirates. This gave Rivet a chance to see the Glove of Doom in action, seeing the Agents, the small biting robots that were deployed when an orb was thrown, as each group of four circled around each of the targets that their owners were fighting, allowing them to bite on their heels before knocking them down. Once again she had to admit that her sister's weapons were wonderful, each had a unique or powerful ability that made battle easier for both of them, as the Agents were able to get around the shields that some of the Pirates used and tore them down in a matter of moments, much to Pierre's annoyance. With that done, and they were sure that all of their enemies were done for for the time being, Rivet used a Hammercrank to lower the Hurlshot down to their position, allowing Autumn to look at it for a moment and discovered that it was an orange sphere that could be integrated into their gloves.

It didn't take her all that long to figure out what the problem was, there was some coding that was messed up and she was able to fit it, allowing her to carefully copy it with her magic, since she and Clank found no rifts nearby, and once both of them had the item they used it on the nearby Hurlshot target, a yellow Swingshot. Rivet found herself being impressed by her sister once more, something that was becoming more common as they found more things for Autumn to work on, as she wasn't expecting her to actually fix the problem in such a short period of time, but her spine survived using the new device. In fact, despite the fact that they had to spin around at high speeds for a few seconds, their bodies survived using the Hurlshot with no harm to their spines, meaning her sister had been successful, just as she claimed, and as they safely landed on a tip of the broken mesa, a flat surface far above where the smelting pits had been, the sisters found even more Pirates to do battle with. As such they opened fire on their enemies, blasting those that were on the ground that they had landed on or those that were on all of the smaller ships, reminding Autumn of the transports that Slag's crew used back on the planets they either owned or attacked.

The larger ships, on the other hand, were totally new to Autumn and Clank, as neither of them had seen ships that looked a lot like the pirates ships of old, or at least the Old Earth version, though while they tore down the Pirates Rivet explained that they were likely here looking for buried treasure, giving that Torren IV was a junk planet.

Sure enough Pierre was annoyed with both of them, as in Rivet's constant interfering with his plans, even though she was positive that it was the other way around since he kept arriving unannounced on the planets she had work on, and he felt the same way about Autumn, she was just an annoying figure like Rivet. That fact, alone, was enough to convince him that they had been telling the truth about the pair being related, which was the weakest excuse imaginable, though the sisters paid him no mind at all as they tore through all of the Pirates in their way and launched themselves over to a second ship, surprising the crew. Of course the Pirates and their smaller bladed robots tried to take them down, only to fail thanks to their empowered arsenals, though as the last of this ship's crew fell Pierre had another of the larger robots emerge from the cargo hold to attack the sisters with everything he had. The only difference between the first one and this one was the fact that this one was called 'Wee' Roger, as in he wasn't any stronger or tankier than Pierre's partner in the arena, so Rivet and Autumn were able to tear him down in no time at all, though Autumn had the idea to turn the ship against their foes, to clear the skies of Pirates so they could focus on the Fixer.

Pierre, whether or not he heard her remark on the matter, somehow convinced his crew to fire upon the ship that they had taken over, where it sure seemed like the Pirates of this dimension weren't supposed to do such a thing, causing the sisters to take Clank's suggestion and jump overboard, gliding down to the town while avoiding the destruction of the ship that was above the chasm.

With that done, and the Hurlshot in their possession, Rivet and Autumn restocked their ammunition before using a nearby yellow Swingshot to launch themselves across the chasm so they could finally fix the Fixer, all while Pierre growled as he realized that they were still alive. More crabs and wasps tried to take them down, showing that they would be traveling by an area the wildlife called home, though they did find that more and more Pirates were gathering in the area that was in the middle of where they were and where the Fixer rested. Autumn had to note that their enemies were foolish, because it was clear that the Fixer was offline, meaning he was unable to fight back, they really should have attacked him first to be sure he was dealt with, just in case someone got around to reactivating him or fixing his systems, but decided to keep that thought to herself. Once they cleared out the rest of the wildlife in the immediate area, where Rivet, Autumn, and Clank agreed on that matter, the sisters used a pair of Hurlshot targets to reach the edge of the chasm that the Pirates had put a number of their forces in to stop them from reaching the Fixer's location.

As they tore into the Pirates, however, Pierre made several remarks about them, like how Clank was a 'sassy backpack' or how would he be able to go without his greatest foe, or how Autumn was a 'smart aleck unicorn', even though she was a kirin and had told Rivet as such after she learned to trust her. Pierre went on to talk about how great the Fixer was, that he fired beams of energy from his eye and that he could crush anything with his bare hands, where Rivet asked him if he had used his words to put down the Fixer, only to discover that even the Pirates had no idea what had happened. Autumn did know what Rivet was doing, she had figured that if the Pirates had been linked to the downfall of the Fixer they might gain some sort of information from Pierre by forcing him to talk in the most roundabout way possible, but while it didn't work out she was grateful that her sister had tried to get her more information for later. Eventually the other tank Pirate tried to take them down with the remainder of the crew that came with him, where the sisters dodged his attacks and lashed out at him, knocking him down and blasting him apart like all the rest, before using a few Hurlshot targets and a short grind rail to reach their destination.

The moment they reached the main switch, a Hammercrank that was linked to the Fixer's systems, Autumn found that the Pirates were pulling back for now, meaning they had to be quick to restore the massive robot and get the Phase Quartz, all while searching for a way to end this without any additional problems.

"So, I'm guessing you need him online to fix him?" Rivet asked, as she really had no idea what went into repairing robots, due to her fast dislike of them and the Emperor that most of them served, either willingly or not, though at the same time she slammed her hammer into the slot and started to turn it, since Clank was silent on the matter.

"Depending on what broke, reactivating him might be..." Autumn started to say, though as she said that she turned for a moment and found that the crank was pretty much activated, not that she was even surprised since Rivet seemed to act a lot like her brother, without thinking about her actions.

In the next moment the Fixer's eye came online and he started to move before their eyes, pushing through the metallic bits of scaffolding that were in front of him, scattering metal everywhere as he stepped out into the chasm, which was just confirmation that he was massive since he was taller than the entire area.

"Hey, excuse me! Are you, um, okay?" Rivet shouted, because if he was fine that meant they could move on and get off this planet after dealing with Pierre, who might flee now that the Fixer had been restored, though if he was still broken, well, Autumn could look at him and see what was wrong.

"No... I am broken, as is everything... nothing can be fixed." the Fixer replied, where it sounded like he was saddened by something, instead of being damaged from the attacks that happened in the past, though in that moment they all found three more large Pirate ships coming their way, causing him to fire a beam of red energy that struck the middle ship and tore it apart in seconds, causing the others to flee as he glanced at Rivet and Autumn, "NOTHING!"

The sisters dodged as he fired at them, the beam tearing into the landscape behind them in the process, before finding a path forward, a cable that could be used as a grind rail that seemed to head back to the town and their ship, so they took it before he squashed them. As they traveled along the path, dodging the carts full of junk that happened to be in the way, the Fixer attacked him with either his laser beam that tore apart rock and metal with ease, use his thin pincer like hands to crush or grab anything he might be interested in, or just breaking stuff with his arms. At the same time he informed them of many things, that destruction was their natural state of being, that he noticed Clank was damaged and that he had to 'accept his brokenness', something that triggered Rivet since she told Clank that if he was 'broken' than so was she and, to be honest, she thought all of them were pretty awesome. Autumn, however, realized what was wrong with the Fixer, the assaults that he repelled had allowed him to understand that there was good and evil in the dimensions, or greed when it came to the Pirates, and it damaged his morale, meaning he must have shut himself off to think about all of this, to figure it out on his own, which meant they had interrupted his process.

It didn't take them too long to reach a Hurlshot that propelled them through the air, sending them back to the town, but as they did that Rivet and Autumn found the Fixer reaching up for them, causing Rivet to push Autumn back for a moment as she stopped the finger from crushing them, which was due to him not applying a lot of pressure, though it was more than enough to cause her to struggle as she fell to one knee.

"I am fixed!" Clank declared, as he had been silent since Rivet's comment about them and had been listening to the things that the Fixer said, revealing that he felt that he understood how to solve this situation, though as Rivet glanced back for a moment, or at least tried to since she had to prevent them from being crushed, where he silently informed his friends that he was going to improvise, "I may be different now, from what I was when I was created, but you have helped me realize that I am still Clank!"

"I... am quite relieved." the Fixer replied, where they could see the relief wash over his facial features, in fact his eye area was more expressive than what they were expecting, before he eased his grip and allowed Rivet to relax as she let go and helped Autumn onto her hooves, since she had landed right behind her sister's legs, which had stopped her from falling into the chasm below, "When the Vullards asked me to protect them from the Pirates, and the other dangers of the galaxy, it opened my eyes to a great many broken things... so very many..."

"I get it. It made you distressed." Autumn said, as she and Clank now understood what was going on with him, while it did take Rivet a few more seconds to realize everything that was going on, which was followed by the ground shifting as the Fixer changed how his hand was positioned.

"However, being able to fix another, to see that all is not lost..." the Fixer continued, shifting his stance so they could slide down the finger and come to a stop in the center of the town, something they did without delay before turning to face the massive robot as he pulled his arm back so he could stare down at them, "How can I ever repay you?"

Clank produced the fragments of the Phase Quartz, all of them since he left no shards behind on Blizar Prime, and asked if the Fixer could mend it, where they watched as he used a special purple beam made of rings that zeroed in on the shards and picked them up, causing them to fuse back together in seconds, as if it hadn't been broken in the first place. With the restored Phase Quartz in hand Clank thanked him for his aid, where the Fixer said that it was he who should be thanking all of them, as they had given an old giant robot the gift of hope, the greatest gift of all. That put smiles on their faces as the sisters restocked their ammunition once more, where Rivet thanked Clank for his timely aid, as without the power of Autumn's magic she wasn't sure she could have held out for too much longer, but this allowed them to do more than what they originally believed. The Phase Quartz was fully restored, Autumn confirmed that with a quick scan, they had saved all of the Vullards from the Pirates and Pierre, and the Fixer was back to his former self, meaning this was one of their more successful missions, especially given what they had come to do.

With the Phase Quartz in hand, and smiles on their faces, the sisters and Clank returned to their ship and set off without wasting time, as it was time for them to head for Zurkie's and meet up with their brothers, who hopefully had the newly reforged Dimensionator so they could put an end to the immediate danger and fix the dimensions.

Rift Apart: Cordelion

The flight from Savali to Cordelion, which was where they needed to go to make the new Dimensionator, gave Ratchet and Starswirl some time to think about what they had been through so far, or at least since Dr. Nefarious ruined the event that was supposed to be big for everyone in their dimension. Ratchet continued to wonder what Rivet, Autumn, Clank were up to, even though he knew they were seeking the Phase Quartz, and the fact that he had failed his father as the next Keeper of the Dimensionator, by allowing it to be taken and destroyed by one of their enemies. Starswirl, on the other hand, turned his focus to what they had barely learned about during their time on Savali, another dimension, possibly an entire multiverse outside of the one they were living in right now, that was so important that Kaden hid everything he and the Lombaxes knew about it in a special Lorb. It seemed strange to consider such a thing, especially after everything they had been through so far and everything they had learned since coming to this dimension to find Rivet, but once this adventure was over he was sure that they would return to figure everything out.

At the same time Kit, who sat in Starswirl's lap since there were only two seats available in this ship, informed them that this would be her first time visiting another planet, not counting her arrival on Savali, while preparing herself for whatever might be in their way when they reached their destination... a large water world with next to no land.

"This... is an ocean!" Kit remarked, pulling her attention away from what had been on her mind since leaving Savali, due to the fact that a lot of things had happened since the Troopers showed up and she didn't have a lot of time to think about all of it, where she stared at the water in awe, since she was used to the desert of Savali.

"It's pretty cool, right? And just think, when the dimensions are safe, you'll be able to see more like this." Ratchet said, as he knew there were other things in the universe for Kit to take in, especially when it came to the other dimensions that were out there, all while Starswirl nodded his head in agreement.

"Ratchet... how are you and Starswirl so unafraid of the future?" Kit inquired, because she had noticed that during her time with them, both brothers seemed unfazed by everything that was going on around them, especially with the barrier that existed between the dimensions cracking as they made a new Dimensionator, "Especially with all of it's unknowns?"

"Kit... you asked me many questions back on Savali, about the Lombaxes and my desires... including if I wanted to find the rest of my kind." Ratchet replied, recalling everything she had asked him, not to mention his brother since he was one of the most unknown figures to her, and the answers he gave her before they figured out how to get into the Archives and gain the information on how to forge the Dimensionator, "I've thought about it long and hard, especially after everything my siblings and I have been through, and I've come to realize that, after being reunited with Rivet, I would want to find the Lombaxes... but... the closer we got to such a thing the more I started to wonder 'what if they aren't what I expected' or 'what if I'm not what they expected'? After the destruction of the Dimensionator, well..."

In that moment both Kit and Starswirl reached out to him, Kit touching his right hand while his brother rested a hand on his shoulder, before he glanced at the area they were flying to, a small research station situated above part of the ocean, meaning it had an elevator for them to use. It had to be Kedaro Station, where they could find the forge needed to make the new Dimensionator, to which he pulled them in and landed on the lone platform that had a few components on it, no doubt items that would be taken into the facility at some point. Of course there were a few Troopers guarding this section of the facility, unaware that the targets they were keeping an eye out for were currently coming towards them, though he parked the ship and they jumped out of it. He had to admit that stealing a royal starship had it's perks, because it allowed him and his brother, Including Kit for that matter, to get close to their target without their enemies realizing what was going on, or at it sure seemed that way as Kit informed them that the Rubion Forge had to be somewhere in this facility.

With that in mind the brothers found themselves lucky that they had restocked their weapons back on Savali, as there was no sign of Ms. Zurkon out here, though that didn't stop them from using the nearby lift and ride over to the main section of the upper portion of the station. The Troopers were surprised to see that enemies were approaching, though as soon as the first shot was fired they activated a lockdown, sending the main elevator down into the depths, before even trying to fight the brothers, even though the elevator did return for a short while to dispense more enemies before disappearing for real, a bad sign for sure. Still, such a thing didn't stop them from blasting the remaining Troopers with their weapons, clearing the area of enemies for the time being, since there was no telling when reinforcements would arrive, and without a way into the the station the brothers could only head to the highest point. There was one more foe for them to take down up there, who was interested in what all of the noise was about, though with him taken care of the brothers discovered a pleasant sight, as Ms. Zurkon was waiting nearby and she likely had all sorts of weapons to give them.

In addition to the weapons Rivet and Autumn had purchased they got a few others, such as the Cold Snap, a freezing bomb launcher, an old weapon in the form of the Pixelizer, and the Bombardier, a device that hovered and rained death on their enemies, though with their arsenal upgraded the brothers moved and discovered something new.

"Blizon, on this planet?" Starswirl inquired, as at the peak of the station they found a large purple crystal that was floating in the air with several instruments reading what was going on with it, where he could tell that it was packed full of dimensional energy, almost to the brim after everything they had seen so far.

"Indeed, it is a common element for storing energy... too much dimensional energy, on the other hand, causes them to just explode." Kit said, though she studied the material for a moment as Ratchet and Starswirl stood there, clearly waiting for her to tell them what she knew and what her guesses on what was happening might be, "If we were to hit it we would either shift into another dimension, or explode and take the whole area with it."

Ratchet sighed for a moment, as it was amazing how often they got into situations like this, before he and Starswirl struck it with their melee weapons, where they found that they were pulled into a new dimension, a snowy and offline version of the one they had just been in. As Kit studied the changes in question the brothers headed outside so they could see if they were lucky, because if the elevator was up here in this dimension than luck was on their side, even if it meant sliding down some of the slick ramps thanks to the ice that had formed with the falling snow. Fortunately the elevator was up here and, as odd as it seemed, it was still operational with nothing for them to work on to fix it, allowing Ratchet and Starswirl to step inside before the elevator took them down into the station. While they rode it down into the depths Kit told them that she was just like them, she had never met her family either, though in the grand scheme of things the Emperor was the worst of them all, so she figured the Lombaxes and Starswirl's kind would be far better than her 'father'.

As the brothers thanked her, however, Ratchet came up with an interesting set of ideas, either they could track down the Rubion Forge in this dimension and use it to forge the Dimensionator, thereby eliminating some of the risk associated with this mission, or they could track down some Blizon to return to Rivet's dimension. Starswirl had to admit that both ideas, in their own ways, were possible to pull off, as even with the damage the station in this dimension had suffered he was sure they could find some way to restore the forge and utilize it, though for now he felt that the Blizon option was the best, with using this dimension's being the backup in case things went south. With that in mind the brothers carefully explored the rest of the station after the elevator came to a stop, finding that most of the Troopers were dead, some machines were broken, and there were a few pools of water, no doubt from broken pipes that no longer worked, as the tubes and windows of the underwater station seemed to be mostly intact. After checking the area around the elevator, finding nothing of use, both of the brothers headed down the hallway, as it was the only path forward right now, and discovered a few cylinders that had been broken by something else, though both of them were sure the scientists here weren't researching plants, given what they had learned of the Emperor so far.

Ratchet was surprised to find that there were still amoeboids in this station, after everything that had happened to it, but that didn't stop him or Starswirl from firing on them, especially since Kit asked them to hurry and eliminate them, as she didn't want to be devoured by the slimy creatures. They discovered something very interesting as they engaged the groups of amoeboids, the Cold Snap could trap most of them with a single blast and allowed the other brother to use another of their weapons to wipe them out, allowing the brothers to make good time as they carefully explored the station. The other thing they noticed was that coral and plant life, those found underwater anyway, were starting to grow in certain places in the ruined station, as if they were reclaiming it from those who invaded the ocean in the first place, which was ignored by all of the amoeboids based on what they were seeing. After tearing down another group of enemies they found their way over to a locked door, which was perfect considering the nature of this place, before recalling that there was a room just a few steps backwards and that it might hold something to help them get around the locked door, like a keycard.

"Juicy!" a voice cried out, as if welcoming a friend or something, which turned out to come from a red Helper that just so happened to have a cracked glass dome over it's eye, or his since it used a male voice, though his outburst caused Ratchet and Starswirl to ready their weapons, causing him to move his antenna hands quickly, "Sorry, sorry, sorry! I thought you guys were someone else, but you are not... haha. Anyway, where you looking for me? Because that would be great!"

"Well, I'm Ratchet, this is Starswirl, and this is Kit... and no, we weren't looking for you." Ratchet replied, where it was easy for them to tell that the robot must have been lonely, save for this 'Juicy' he mentioned, making him wonder how he could have survived for so long after the downfall of the facility, "We're looking for some Blizon."

The robot, who introduced himself as Junk Bot, informed them that he knew where to find one of the crystals and could, in fact, help them out, though to open the door he needed his access arm, which had fallen into the water that was in this very room, so now he needed to drain it and he had no idea how to do that. Junk Bot was so starved for attention that he apparently gave anything and everything nicknames, as he tried a few while Ratchet and Starswirl used a few rafts, which had been deployed in the water, to safely make their way over to a terminal that had to be linked to the systems that were in this area. Ratchet also informed their new friend that they were hoping to use the Rubion Forge in another dimension, causing Junk Bot to inform them that his was offline, due to the lack of power and a virus that had infected the machines in question, so, for the time being, their plan shifted to using the forge in Rivet's dimension. A few moments later Ratchet came to a stop in front of the terminal and showed Starswirl that he had learned some things from watching Autumn work on her projects, he was able to hack into the system and engage the pumps, draining the water so Junk Bot could claim his access arm.

With that done they returned to where they met him and followed the robot through the now opened door, allowing them to head deeper into the station before finding a ruined room off to their left, where some sort of vicious scaled creature, with spikes on it's back and scythe like blades for claws, jumped near the door and freaked Ratchet out, causing Junk Bot to close the door before anything else happened.

"Wha... What was that?" Ratchet asked, as that was the first time he had seen something like that, in fact it seemed much scarier than most of the creatures he and his siblings had faced over the years, far more than the ugly Cragmites for sure, though he accepted Starswirl's hand as he pulled him back onto his feet.

"That... is Juice... my best friend. He tries to kill me from time to time, but he's a great listener." Junk Bot said, as if there was nothing wrong with what he had just said, something that worried all three of them since it meant the monster might come after them at some point, even though the robot seemed more interested in something else.

That 'something else' happened to be the fact that they might become friends with Juice, going on about nicknames as he unlocked the remaining doors that were in their way, though as they did so Ratchet, Starswirl, and Kit noticed one of the rooms had a glass wall and Juice was walking behind it. Such a thing confirmed that he was hunting them, in fact he had to be a meat eater and this was likely the first time he had seen something worth eating, if there were no exits to the outside of the station, meaning they had to be quick since there was no telling when he'd catch up with them. Junk Bot ended up bringing them to a large chamber that had an elevator that would take them down to where the Blizon was located, but as he reached the elevator terminal he discovered that the power was out, even though he thought his device was broken at first. With that in mind the brothers carefully explored the chamber he had brought them to, finding that there were more groups of amoeboids waiting for them, even though it ended with the brothers firing on all of their enemies, freezing them solid so their other weapons could break the slime creatures into pieces.

In no time at all they found the terminal and Ratchet hacked into it, restoring some power to the area, enough to use the elevator and head down towards the area that Junk Bot said the Blizon was resting in, though as everyone stepped inside they got a nasty surprise as Juice appeared behind the glass and slashed into it, doing nothing to it as they headed down into the depths.

"Aw, I've never seen Juice so playful before... usually he just moseys around the station, doing his own thing while silently listening to what I say." Junk Bot said, though it was clear that he was thinking about the situation, or something else, while the brothers and Kit were regaining themselves after seeing Juice suddenly appear once more, before he decided to focus on something else entirely, "Anyway, it seems he's actively hunting you guys... I am jealous."

The brothers and Kit said nothing to that as the elevator came to a stop, revealing another partly flooded room that had a piece of Blizon, so they bid Junk Bot farewell before using the platforms around them to reach the crystal's position, as it was time to head back to Rivet's dimension. A whack later they were no longer in the ruined dimension and reappeared in what appeared to be a laboratory full of equipment, though a number of science bots were surprised by what happened, as they happened to reappear behind them. When asked about where they had come from Ratchet just told the truth, as it seemed so unbelievable that anyone listening to it would take them for a pack of fools, and, sure enough, one bot told them to tell 'George Bot' that he had better watch his back, showing that he didn't believe their answer. Kit informed them that the Rubion Forge had to be straight ahead of their current position, meaning they were so close to reforging the one device that could stop the Dimensional Cataclysm, they just had to fool the guards somehow.

As they walked into the main chamber, which had a large circular forge that was creating the components that went into making the Troopers and the Juggernauts, and whatever else Emperor Nefarious tasked his workers with making, a new and old face intercepted them, a pristine Junk Bot.

"What are you doing here?" Junk Bot, or more like Manager Bot given his attitude, inquired, where it was clear that he was annoyed by their sudden arrival in what was the most secure section in the entirety of Kedaro Station, though as Ratchet and Starswirl opened their mouths he waved his antenna for a moment, "I was not talking to either of you, squishies. I am talking to your owner. Can you tell me how you and your steeds got in here? Because we're in the middle of a lockdown."

"I... am inspecting your facility. How white it is... and orange... for I am an Interior Decorator, First Class." Kit replied, as she had read a few things in the past and decided to study the area while the newcomer was talking to her companions, all so she could have some sort of idea on what to say to him, "And the Emperor wanted this redecoration to be a surprise for you and your team... but now, you've ruined it!"

Manager Bot took the blow exactly as Kit planned, he rushed to tell her that he'd never do such a thing and that the three of them should consider his words towards them deleted so they could get to work, allowing Kit to take her place once more as they studied the chamber. In order to avoid drawing any unnecessary suspicion she quietly suggested that they take some time to listen to the other Helper Bots, which were the Emperor's science bots, as they were going to make it look like they were creating a new design while listening in on whatever they were planning. There was a chance that they might stumble upon some information that might prove useful in the future, like where some of the Emperor's weapons were being stored or what he was planning after he finally stopped the Resistance and the Pirates. What they discovered was that most of the robots were loyal to the Emperor, even when he forced them to work nonstop and without a single break, before learning that he also had them make something that was over a hundred stories tall and fired lasers of pure destructive energy.

Once Kit was sure they had spend enough time pulling the wool over the eyes of their enemies they made their way up to the controls of the forge, where she input the blueprints of the Dimensionator, set to be deleted after their mission was complete, and Ratchet spied something nice. That was the fact that there were two green buttons for them to use, where one had to be the main power button and the other had a skull and crossbones on it, the self destruct button in case the forge was ever compromised by their enemies, and an idea formed in his mind. As he executed it, by pressing the main power switch, blue sparks erupted from the forge as Manager Bot rushed up and informed them that they had run it with auxiliary power only, making the brothers wonder why the main power button was labeled with a skull and crossbones, as it seemed stupid. With the forge falling apart, which was what Ratchet had planned after getting the Dimensionator, they rushed down another passage that opened up and blasted the Troopers that were coming to apprehend them, though at the same time Kit was cross with Ratchet until he explained his reasoning, causing her to sigh as she realized that it did make sense with the information in front of him.

As they retreated the brothers agreed that now was the time to enact their second plan, using the other dimension's forge to make the Dimensionator, so while Dr. Nefarious got a status report on what was going on right now, which had to piss him off, Ratchet and Starswirl tore through the Troopers. While that happened the Rubion Forge tore itself apart, in the sense that it would no longer be usable, allowing Ratchet and Starswirl to flee through the other passages, blasting many of the Troopers into pieces as they tried to take them down. After a few moments they discovered an area that seemed to be a dead end, at least with everything that was around them right now, though there was a container with a Blizon crystal floating in the center of it, causing the brothers to open fire on their enemies to secure the Boltcrank that happened to be in the chamber. While that happened a few dimensional rifts opened, causing some angry puffer fish, like those from their first adventure on Pokitaru, to jump through and attack the Troopers that were coming at them, so they wiped out both groups of enemies and opened the way for Ratchet to open the container.

With that done, and before any of their enemies knew what was going on, they struck the crystal and disappeared within a few seconds, reappearing in a ruined version of the same chamber, meaning that, for now, they were safe, to which they quickly made their way through a short tunnel and found Junk Bot hanging out near the forge. Sure enough he was totally surprised to see all of them again, since he assumed they would have gone to another dimension and not come back, but before he got distracted Ratchet asked him about all of the problems he mentioned with his Rubion Forge. Part of it was that they had lost the power source, though even if they had access to that they would need to deal with the foul virus it had been infested with, a Zeta Virus to be exact, to which Ratchet pulled Glitch out and sent her inside to do her work, as this was totally something she could deal with. It took her some time to cut through the virus that had infested the console and was stopping them from using the forge, but when she finally emerged Ratchet and Starswirl found that Glitch did her dance as the virus was eradicated entirely, causing Junk Bot to be joyful as well.

After that he directed them down another tunnel, one that connected to some stairs that brought the brothers down to a button that activated some security doors, three for one button, something that worried them more than it should, as it meant the power source had to be somewhat dangerous. In that moment Starswirl had to wonder if Juice was, in fact, the thing he and Ratchet were looking for, as they headed through a dark passage and found a ruined chamber that had to be where the energy was generated for the forge, with ruined Troopers resting all over the place. As they discovered that he and Ratchet did, however, come up with the same idea, they could return to Rivet's dimension and steal the power source from Emperor Nefarious' station, provided it wasn't Juice since that would make things more complicated for them, given what they saw previously. Kit, while agreeing with their idea, clearly thought they were insane for wanting to go back to a dimension where an entire station was hunting for them so they could deliver all three of them to their precious Emperor, but she said nothing as they carefully made their way through the rest of the ruined tunnels.

At the end of a tunnel Ratchet found Juice at the edge of a room, slurping at some yellow liquid that was in a number of cylinders, which Kit identified as Slurpion jelly and realized why Juice had been hunting them earlier, he was hungry and this seemed to be the only thing around, or maybe it was more convenient than hunting. With that in mind Starswirl did a quick check of the dimensional energies that were on this planet, gauging whether or not he could use magic, before using a bit of his power to lift a container and hurled it at a wall, causing it to shatter and spill jelly everywhere, drawing Juice to where it landed. While he did that Ratchet opened the next doorway and they slipped through before the creature even noticed them, though knowing Juice they were sure that he would track them down at some point, so this was more like a head start for the group. In the following chamber the brothers discovered something else, there were two paths and two switches that needed to be activated, though instead of splitting up they stayed together and tackled the one on the left first, finding that it brought them to a large room with an access terminal and some computer screens.

As Ratchet hacked into the terminal Starswirl blasted some amoeboids down with his weapons, clearing the area so his brother could work without being interrupted, before Kit found a video from Junk Bot, labeled as 'trash', that displayed a day where he observed Juice in his natural habitat as the other robots shocked him into submission. A few seconds later a window shattered and the beast himself burst into the chamber they were in, causing them to carefully move while Juice followed them, either eying them hungrily or out of pure interest, allowing them to escape through his opening. After that they quickly headed for the other doorway, finding that it brought the brothers to a room with a Boltcrank and a pair of small rifts that their tethers could use, to which Ratchet got to work as Starswirl kept an eye out. Sure enough Juice burst into the room without delay, showing that he was clearing interested in them, though as soon as Ratchet was done both of them waited for Juice to leap at them before using the rifts to escape, breaking more of the canisters as they quickly headed through the door they had opened.

A few moments later the brothers reached the end of the tunnel and discovered a button that was keeping a door shut, though this time around, due to the water that was slowly pushing through the door, Starswirl suggested putting on their O2 Masks and Ratchet followed his lead.

Sure enough it was the right call to make, as the moment Ratchet stepped on the button the door opened and water just rushed into the chamber they were in, while at the same time the one they had unlocked sealed itself, so Juice was stuck in another part of the ruined factory, for now. In addition to that Ratchet and Starswirl used their Magneboots to walk along the surface that was in front of them, as the tunnel on the other side of the door was shattered, as in the rest of the station had been broken, either by juice or by someone shooting the wrong thing. While they carefully walked along the depths of the trench the station had been built in, where the brothers were thankful for Autumn's modifications to their masks, Kit had a few words to share with Ratchet, as she had liked her life on Savali and had been afraid to join them after everything that had happened. It was a direct link to his worry about the Lombaxes, about how he'd be perceived if he went looking for all of them, and she informed him that she could be the one who believed in him now, causing him to sigh and thank her as they dealt with a few more crabs who were guarding the way into another part of the station.

Neither brother was surprised when Juice, in all his glory, dropped down near the Blizon crystal that was in the chamber just beyond the entrance, waiting until the water was drained before showing up, though the brothers avoided him and struck the crystal, returning them to Rivet's dimension. From there they found that they were near the chamber that contained the power source, though with Ms. Zurkon resting nearby, neither of them were about to argue with her presence, they quickly restocked on their ammunition before heading into the next chamber. Sure enough they found some Troopers talking about them, referring to them as interior decorators even though that had been proven to be a total lie, and one was worried that his prized possession, a signed autograph from the Emperor, would be stolen, while his companion said that even if such a thing happened he could likely buy a new one at great cost. The brothers simply waged war on the Troopers, surprising the robots in the process as one called for more reinforcements, but neither of them cared about that too much as they fired on all of their enemies, tearing them down and opening the way for them to reach their target.

Of course they were surprised to find that the power source was none other than Juice himself, confirming what Starswirl had thought of earlier when they entered this part of the station, and it explained why he was so angry all the time, he had been tortured by the Emperor's forces for a long time.

With that in mind Starswirl tore down the enemies that were coming their way as Ratchet accessed the Boltcrank, which did mess with the machine that was shocking Juice and draining him of his own potent energy, drawing back all of the rods so he wasn't in pain anymore. Once the machine was in a standby mode Juice seemed to understand what was going on and was quick to tear his way through the glass in front of him, causing an alarm to sound as more Troopers entered the chamber, one even claiming that the power source wasn't scheduled to have hope today. It just made Ratchet dislike Rivet's foes even more, that the Emperor was willing to destroy innocent species to build his weapons of war, and made him want to tear all of them down with her, but for now he focused on fighting with Starswirl and Juice as several Juggernauts came in to restore order to the station. Juice was a formidable force, he slashed through the robots that dared to challenge him, while at the same time trusting the brothers to take care of some of their other enemies, and Ratchet could hear the voice of a robot just booing at them as they tore through all of their foes.

A few moments later they escaped through another tunnel, Juice following them and freeing the Blizon crystal that allowed them to return to the ruined dimension, where they found Junk Bot at the mercy of his own friend, but this time neither of the brothers had to do anything. That was because their new friend jumped out of the hallway and landed nearby, which caused both versions of Juice to look at each other for a time as they circled around part of the area that the forge was in, as if a fight was about to go down, before they nuzzled each other and their spikes turned purple, which had to be a peaceful color for them Ratchet guessed. As Starswirl guessed that they were two different members of the same species, and not the same one like they had originally thought, the two creatures summoned their energy powers for a time and stabbed the forge's base, not to destroy it, like one might suspect, but to power it up. Such a thing caused them to spring into action as everything came online, Kit uploaded the schematics for the Dimensionator once more, Starswirl checked the readings to be sure nothing else was damaged or in need of repair, and then, once they were done, Ratchet pressed the skull button and activated the forge, which got to work on the device.

Eventually some energy was released from the forge and everything stalled, allowing the creatures to pull back as Ratchet, Starswirl, and Kit approached the base, something that caused a smile to appear on their faces as Kit pulled out the newly forged Dimensionator, which she handed to Ratchet without delay.

"Thanks for all your help, um, Junky." Starswirl said, as they couldn't have done this without Junk Bot telling them what had to be done to repair the forge, even though the virus part had been easy to see as soon as they entered this chamber, and it seemed to put the robot in a good mood as he tended to his new friends.

As Junk Bot wished them well, and said they could come again since he had fun hanging out with them, the group used a nearby lift that, according to their new friend, would take them back to the surface, though as they did that Ratchet gave Kit the signature of Clank and called him immediately, who picked up without delay.

"Clank, Rivet, Autumn, we've got good news: the Dimensionator's been reforged." Ratchet stated, as their family needed to know that part of the mission had been completed, which meant that all they needed now was the Phase Quartz and to put the two items together, before using it to end the dimensional damage that was going on.

We knew you would succeed. We have obtained the Phase Quartz as well. Clank replied, which only made their smiles widen as they heard it, because with both items in their possession it meant they were in the clear, as there was no way Dr. Nefarious knew how close they were to putting the Dimensionator back together.

Yeah, ugh... meet us as Zurkie's and we'll put the pieces together. Rivet said, where it sounded like she had something she wanted to say, or maybe she was just worried because of the fact that this was the first time that anything was going so well, given the state of the Resistance.

As Ratchet confirmed that fact they cut off the call and used a Blizon crystal to return to Rivet's dimension, though as they returned to their ship Kit asked what to do when they encountered Rivet and the others, causing the brothers to fill her in on how to meet someone as they blasted off, as it was time to set things right at long last.

Rift Apart: Meet up at Zurkie's

Rivet was silent for most of the trip back to Zurkie's, while Autumn and Clank were excited because this meant they were one step closer to bringing an end to the dimensional damage, though her silence was due to the fact that she would be meeting Ratchet for the very first time. She was, understandably, nervous about this, as she had seen and heard good things about him from both Clank, who was his best friend in his dimension, and Autumn, one of his sworn siblings who had been on many adventures with him over the years. To him she would be a complete stranger and there was a chance that both of them would be expecting something totally different from the other when they finally met each other, even though Autumn had told her that she was just as stubborn as Ratchet was. That seemed to be the only thing they shared in common, other than the potential of people mistaking her for him and him for her, since Autumn and Clank were sure of that based on what Ms. Zurkon told them back on Sargasso, so she really didn't know what to expect.

By the time they neared Zurkie's, however, Rivet found herself trying out phrases to lead with when she finally met her twin brother, something Autumn and Clank had noticed awhile ago, as they could tell she was nervous, but decided to remain silent for the most part.

"Hi Ratchet, I'm Rivet... nice to meet you..." Rivet muttered, where she had to resist the urge to groan, nothing sounded like it would work for the situation that was vastly approaching her right now and she was afraid that she was going to make a fool of herself in front of her brother.

"Nervous, sis?" Autumn inquired, because she had to do something before the big meeting, as Rivet was going to end up giving herself a heart attack if she stressed about this for far too long, all while Clank was clearly staring at Zurkie's, or, to be more exact, the second royal starship that was parked nearby.

"...yeah, I am. I mean, I'm meeting my twin brother, after so many years of being separated... a lot can go wrong and there is a chance I could ruin this." Rivet said, showing them that she was nervous about many things, though at the same time Autumn and Clank knew there was no reason for her to be like this, especially given everything they knew about Ratchet and his personality.

"I would say that he's impressed with everything you've done, Rivet, especially after discovering the state of the dimension you've been living in." Clank stated, as that was the most impressive part, the Lombax was a fighter, even against the evil that was Emperor Nefarious and his army of loyal followers, and even with losing her right arm, and who knew how many of her friends, she never lost the hope that was burning inside her body, "Trust us, you two will hit it off."

Rivet smiled for a moment as she landed their ship and turned it off, allowing them to jump out and make their way over to the entrance, though she did stop at Ms. Zurkon's for the weapons her brothers had purchased after her visit to Torren IV, including the Warmonger, before heading inside... finding a male Lombax, a unicorn like Autumn, and a small yellow bot standing in front of the counter, turning to face them no less.

"Hey... um, hi... I'm..." Rivet started to say, though before she could get too far she found that the other Lombax rushed up to her and embraced her without wasting even a single second, which confirmed what she had been thinking, he was her twin brother, in fact she noticed some resemblance before he did this.

"Rivet... I am so glad that you're alright." Ratchet said, because while he knew that she was fine, after the discussion they had about the Dimensionator and the fact that Gary knew how to proceed, part of him had been worried regardless, due to her previous injuries and the dangers of this dimension.

"Yeah, I'm fine... and I'm happy that you're alright as well." Rivet replied, though for a few moments she hugged Ratchet in return, finding that Autumn and Clank were right, she didn't have to worry about this meeting at all, before they pulled apart and she shifted her stance, allowing her to disengage Clank from her back, "Also, don't worry, I've been taking good care of Clank since I found him and Autumn... she's, um, interesting to travel with."

"I can imagine." Starswirl commented, as Autumn's intelligence and knowledge on devices made her an incredible ally to have on hand, and Rivet, while clearly having enjoyed her time traveling with Autumn, was having a hard time explaining it to those who were in front of her, before he and Ratchet noticed something.

"Don't be alarmed, Ratchet, I am perfectly fine... in fact, I am starting to like my new look." Clank said, as he knew that this was the first time that his friends, or at least Ratchet and Starswirl, had seen his injured form, his missing right arm and the fact that he was stuck in his backpack mode.

"That's good. Once this mess is sorted out, we'll have your father take a look at it." Ratchet stated, as Orvus seemed like a good person to ask about Clank's overall condition, and maybe they'd ask Kaden as well, before he considered something as he accepted Clank and gave Kit a little push with his left hand, "Rivet, Autumn, this is Kit, Gary's apprentice. She helped us obtain the schematics for the Dimensionator and helped us reforge it on Cordelion."

Rivet found that Kit was very excited to meet all of them, to finally meet everyone in Ratchet's immediate family, despite the fact both of their parents and the remaining two other Lombaxes were stuck in his dimension, before they focused on why everyone had gathered here. Ratchet nodded and set Clank on his back for a moment, which seemed natural for the two of them when Rivet watched it happen, before he pulled out a device that was identical to the one she saw in Clank's memories, the gun version of the Dimensionator. After showing it off, and Rivet got a chance to study it for herself, she carefully produced the Phase Quartz that she, Autumn, and Clank had put a lot of effort into acquiring, but said nothing about the fact that it had been broken and required a detour to fix it. Such a thing put a smile on all of their faces, as this meant they were one step closer to stopping the Dimensional Cataclysm, they just had to get Dr. Nefarious back to their home dimension and talk with Kaden, then Ratchet would be back to help Rivet with her foe.

As they headed for the door, to head into the gastropub to combine the two and set their plan in motion, Clank gestured between Rivet and Kit for a moment and Rivet actually asked if Kit wanted to ride on her back, though as she took her spot the door opened and, shockingly, they found Troopers waiting for them. It was unbelievable, as Dr. Nefarious had been so many steps behind them that they couldn't even imagine him catching up like this, but there he was, standing near one of the windows that overlooked the arena, while a white and purple robot floated nearby. They would have done something to attack them, had the rules of Zurkie's not taken their weapons and locked them behind some glass walls, plus a pair of Troopers stepped into the entrance behind them, forcing them to raise their hands as they threatened the group, as this was the worst thing imaginable. Sure enough Rivet watched as the Assistant practically ripped the Dimensionator out of Ratchet's hands, who growled as it was taken for the second time in a week, before the robot approached her, causing her to frown as well as she placed the Phase Quartz in the hand that was in front of her.

With the pair of items, which they had spent a lot of time to acquire, now in the hands of their enemy the Assistant turned for a moment and floated over to where Dr. Nefarious was currently standing, who turned as the smaller robot bowed her head and presented the items to him.

"You know, this dimension clearly loves me... as in the Emperor... because everything is brought to me in no time, which includes a new Dimensionator." Dr. Nefarious stated, where he seemed pleased with himself as he picked up the Phase Quartz and studied it for a couple of seconds, before picking up the device and opened a slot that allowed him to slip the crystal in, which he closed to push the crystal into the main slot, "Finally, the Dimensionator is back in my hands... there's so much I can do with it."

"How many times have you beat this guy?" Rivet asked, as the version of Nefarious that was in front of them didn't seem too terrifying, in fact he seemed to be riding off of her Nefarious' power right now, which would piss off the Emperor when he learned what was going on.

"Clearly not enough." Autumn replied, something that caused Ratchet and Starswirl to nod their heads in agreement, as all of them thought he would have gotten the message after the last couple of stunning failures he had suffered, though that caused her to glance at her sister for a moment, "Shall we?"

Rivet glanced her siblings, all of them to be exact, and found that everyone was in agreement, maybe losing to her, as in Ratchet's equally skilled twin sister, might knock some sense into Dr. Nefarious' head, to which they waited for a second or two before she and Autumn charged into him, pushing him through the glass. Sure enough he knocked them down into the arena that was below them, where Rivet landed with her robotic arm and used it to spin herself into a standing stance as Autumn rolled onto her hooves, though they were pleased to find that their weapons returned to them. As the sisters did that Ratchet and Starswirl clashed with all of the Troopers that were inside the gastropub, as Zurkie was kind enough to allow them to have their melee weapons in this situation, allowing their sisters to focus on Dr. Nefarious. Their foe, on the other hand, wasn't too pleased to have to deal with them right now, not after having stolen the Dimensionator, which he could use to do whatever he wanted, a bad thing given the damage to the barrier that needed to be fixed, but for right now it looked like they were going to have to fight him for a time.

In the next few moments Rivet got to see some of Dr. Nefarious' weapons, as he had outfitted himself with a blade of red energy in both of his hands, could fire spheres of green energy at whoever he was targeting, and, if he focused both of his jets in his feet, he could heat up the area below him in an attempt to hurt them.

"You know, Lombax, you are just as annoying as your brother and his siblings." Dr. Nefarious remarked, where he found that his attacks seemed to miss the newcomer and Autumn, though he was used to that when he considered the latter for a few moments, who likely saw him as predictable at this point.

"First off, my name's Rivet... and secondly, how did you know we are related?" Rivet replied, though at the same time she and Autumn dodged the incoming attacks and blasted the robotic doctor in kind, where she found that her newest toy, the Warmonger, was a wonderful weapon to have in her arsenal.

"He was floating overhead before stealing the first Dimensionator, remember? He likely heard Clank's comment about you before he made his move." Autumn stated, where she dodged an energy blade and blasted the doctor in the face, which knocked him backwards for a moment, though while he was in possession of the device they had put back together she did have to be careful, least she make things worse.

"You know, I think it's time I turned up the heat on you... how about the heart of a supernova?!" Dr. Nefarious stated, as he pulled out the Dimensionator and fired it without delay, where he and his foes found themselves being dragged to a very familiar place, for Rivet and Autumn anyway, in the form of the alternate Blizar Prime, "Why doesn't this go where I want it to go?!"

"The Dimensionator is designed to move from one dimension to another, not teleport things into supernovas, black holes, and other dangers." Kit said, where she was amazed by the power of the device they had forged, because this was the first time she was seeing it in action and it interested her greatly, though she found that Dr. Nefarious wasn't too happy with her remark, even if it helped him understand how to use the powerful device.

As Kit said that they reached the top of the building that the Chief Engineer worked in, which Autumn told her about since this was her first time seeing it, before Rivet focused on figuring out whether or not the Emperor had been dealt with, due to the fact that Dr. Nefarious had taken over the most powerful position in this dimension. He admitted that he had done nothing, as the Emperor was out conquering his remaining enemies, the Resistance leaders to be exact, which meant that the doctor could focus on them and claiming the Dimensionator, the perfect gift for the true Emperor. That idea worried Rivet and Kit more than they were willing to admit, as the idea of Emperor Nefarious getting his hands on the device and using it would most likely put the entire dimension in jeopardy, much less all of reality thanks to the barrier cracking due to the first Dimensionator's destruction. Such a thing didn't seem to worry the doctor, however, rather he seemed to have an idea in mind already, to fix the problem that was currently ongoing right now, or maybe he was just going to ignore all of the damage he had done, but either way they needed to get the device he was holding.

After some time Dr. Nefarious opened another dimensional rift and brought them back to Sargasso, Rivet's anyway since they recognized the nearby factory, before finding that a Grunthor was resting nearby and it decided to attack them for interrupting it's private nap since they were on where the Seekerpede crashed. To be honest Rivet and Autumn weren't at all surprised by this and opened fire on the creature as it tried to eat them, all while noticing that Dr. Nefarious flew off to watch the battle from afar, no doubt hoping that one or more of his foes would perish here. In no time at all the Grunthor was down for the count and they fired on their true enemy once more, switched to using more missiles this time around, as if that would change anything for him, though as the sisters expected it didn't do anything for him. After another bout of thrashing, much to his annoyance, Dr. Nefarious readied the Dimensionator and tried to dispose of them once more, as he didn't care about Kit's comment at all, only to return them to Zurkie's, where they knocked him to the ground for real, causing him to groan in the process.

For a few seconds after that Zurkon Jr. played Rivet's victory tune, for whenever she was in the arena, though as the three of them realized that the Dimensionator was within their grasp the lights dimmed and a new figure emerged, a taller and white version of Dr. Nefarious that had orange highlights and floated down like he was the master of them all, and the only thing that clued them in to his arrival was the fact that Ratchet and Starswirl were tossed into the arena.

"Wow, what a battle!" Emperor Nefarious stated, where he sounded different to his dimensional counterpart, as he was far calmer and more composed than the doctor had been previously, though at the same time fear seized their hearts as he picked up the Dimensionator, almost as if he knew what it was, a bad sign for sure, especially since he wound it up for a moment as he pointed it right at Rivet's face, "Are we done having fun? Come now, give it up for Rivet and her first very victory! Really... no one? Fine. I'll have you know that I wish I could have gotten here sooner, however, I have some good news for my loyal citizens: I am thrilled to announce that the majority of my opposition has been crushed... with only two exceptions in the form of Captain Quantum and you, Rivet. Anyway, when I heard that the 'rebel Lombax' was 'fighting me' I had to..."

"Come here the universe celebrate your defeat?" Rivet asked, as she couldn't help it, because it would be good to rub this in his face and show him that there were more people that wanted him dethroned so life could return to normal, just to see if there were more people who'd join the Resistance.

"Who's celebrating? You mean them?" Emperor Nefarious inquired, almost in a mocking tone as he turned the device on one of the stands and activated it, sending a bunch of people into another dimension, though as the family took a step he engaged some sort of gravity power in his eyes, ensnared them, and sent them flying off to the side as he faced his own dimensional counterpart, "Do you have anything to say, imposter?"

"I am your humble servant, my Emperor, and I will do anything to help you take down your enemies." Dr. Nefarious said, a fact that surprised Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank, as this was the first time he was willing to bow his head towards someone else, much less him from one of the other dimensions, meaning the power had gone to his head "I can also help you master using the powerful Dimensionator."

"Ah, my strange fan wants to help? Tantalizing." Emperor Nefarious remarked, where he actually picked Dr. Nefarious up onto his feet and directed him to the hollow center of the arena, taking a moment to use his gravity power to push Rivet and the others into the floor for a few more seconds to show his superiority, before opening another rift, "Why don't we make this interesting? A home game, perhaps?"

In that moment Dr. Nefarious, taking the hit, jumped into the rift as the Emperor turned for a moment and smiled at Rivet before falling back in style, which was followed by the rift closing behind them and freeing the siblings from his hold, even if Ratchet and his siblings were surprised by Emperor Nefarious' powers.

"He's going to Sargasso... I have to get there first!" Rivet stated, as she knew what the Emperor was talking about, as he must have known where she was hiding for some time and had been waiting for a good excuse to deal with her and those who kept her location a secret.

"Not without us. I'm not letting you fight that maniac on your own again." Ratchet replied, because while he trusted Rivet and her skills, as they had kept her alive for all this time, with the Dimensionator in the Emperor's hands there was no way for them to tell what was going to happen next, with how quickly he used the device.

"No, leave Sargasso to us. You two and Clank should focus on Captain Quantum." Autumn said, as the last of the rebels on the Emperor's list was now in danger, far more than ever now that he had the device in his possession, which caused her to turn towards her sister for a moment, "How do we find him?"

"Go to Ardolis and find Pierre... this dimension's version of 'Rusty Pete' as Clank called him earlier." Rivet answered, which was the fastest way to find her former ally turned pirate, talking to his second in command was the best thing they could do right now, hopefully to get him to safety before the Emperor found him, "Trust me, he'll point you right to him."

"Okay, Ratchet, Clank, and I will head there and find Pierre, while you guys head back to Sargasso." Starswirl said, which in his mind seemed to be a fair division of labor, given the situation they were now in, causing the others to nod for a moment to show that they agreed with their plan of attack, "We should meet up back here once everything is said and done, so we can figure out what to do next."

With that done the family returned to the gastropub, which Zurkie was now starting to clean after the mess that had been made, before departing from the area as they collected their weaponry and headed for their ships, as they had a planet to save and a pirate to find, before worrying about the Emperor and the Dimensionator.

Rift Apart: Battle for Sargasso

Rivet paused for a moment to watch as Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank climbed into the other royal starship and blasted off for Ardolis, knowing that they would be able to find Pierre, hopefully without having to go through all of the Pirates on the planet, before climbing into her own ship, where Autumn and Kit were waiting, and taking off.

"Are you sure we should leave without doing the challenges in the arena?" Kit asked, as she knew about it thanks to what Autumn told her while they were waiting for Rivet to enter the ship, so she was speaking of the prizes they might earn if they stayed behind to tackle whatever Zurkon Jr. had in store for them, "We should gather as many resources as we can."

"If my planet wasn't under attack, I'd consider it." Rivet replied, because while she knew that Kit meant well, otherwise she was sure her brothers wouldn't have brought her along with them on their mission, her focus was on Sargasso and the fact that it was in immediate danger.

"Given that we have no idea how long it will take for Ratchet and the others to complete their task, we might have time for the challenges once Sargasso is secure." Autumn said, as it seemed like a worthwhile compromise to her, focusing on the main task right now before worrying about anything else that was going on, and her sister, plus their new companion, just nodded their heads to show that they agreed.

As they flew to Sargasso, however, they had many new things to either talk about or items to ponder, like the fact that the Emperor already knew how to wield and use the Dimensionator, meaning he must have uncovered some information about it at some point in time and committed it to memory. Kit was unsure of what to make of that fact, because she and Gary knew that all of the information related to the dimensional device was locked away in the Archives on Savali, so either their foe was smarter than they gave him credit for or there was a lost deposit of Lombax artifacts he had found and studied in case he found the Dimensionator. Rivet, on the other hand, focused on the fact that Kit was clearly Clank's dimensional counterpart and that the two of them were destined, in some way, to team up to save the day, even though it was clear to Autumn that both of them were still awkward about the idea, as if nervous about working together with new people. It was easy for her to tell that both Rivet and Kit were worried that this might be temporary, that they would only be together until the downfall of the Emperor, or that they would stop being allies before that point in time, but she had to hope that they would learn to be teammates for real, like Rivet had learned from her and Kit had learned from Ratchet and Starswirl.

Thanks to Rivet flying much faster than before, showing her desire to save her planet, they were able to reach Sargasso in no time at all, where they found a large red and black warship with several smaller, but still imposing, gunships launching an assault on the planet, confirming that the Emperor was now able to move his forces with ease.

"The Morts are under attack." Kit remarked, where she found that some Morts wanted to be peaceful about this, despite being attacked for no real reason, other than harboring Rivet and hiding her existence from the Emperor, and offered the Troopers some lemonade, where the Troopers declared that the Emperor despised lemonade since nothing should be sour and sweet, apparently.

"No one messes with the Morts! Come on, sis." Rivet stated, making sure to land the ship near an area that was currently under attack, an area that Ms. Zurkon was in since they had told her about the attack before leaving Zurkie's, meaning she might have more weapons for them to obtain, something that brought a smile to her face, "Wow... what is that?"

"The Blackhole Storm, a machine gun style weapon that literally punches chunks out of enemies." Autumn replied, where she purchased a pair of the new weapon and made sure to acquire all of the available upgrades Ms. Zurkon had right now, though she knew there weren't a lot of toys left to obtain, though she did grab the new and improved Bouncer to add to their arsenals.

Rivet looked at the new weapons for a moment before they engaged the enemies that were waiting nearby, firing on the Troopers that were bothering the Morts in this section of the swamp as she found out what the new weapon was actually capable of, as she liked the Blackhole Storm. While they did that, however, more dimensional rifts opened and Troopers poured out of them, confirming that the Emperor had more control over it than Dr. Nefarious did, or they had combined their knowledge on the item together to do this, though the sisters opened fire on their enemies without pause. Kit made a note of the amount of ships in the air, the ones that had attacked the Archives on Savali when the brothers came after Rivet, Autumn, and Clank called them and informed them about the schematics. The fact that he and Dr. Nefarious were doing that was a bad thing overall, as Autumn could tell that the dimensional cracks were getting worse as time went on, a side effect of not repairing the dimensional barrier and then using the Dimensionator without concern for the rest of the dimensions.

This worried Autumn more than she was willing to admit, because with the rate that the barrier was degrading she was almost positive that the Dimensional Cataclysm would be triggered before they actually recovered the Dimensionator, a fact that she didn't want to think about since that was the ultimate disaster. Kit, being more attuned to this than Rivet was, had to agree with Autumn, the circumstances were escalating at a rather alarming rate, where she informed them that it might be in their best interest to speak with Gary, if he was even aware of the ongoing threat. Rivet quickly told her that as soon as Sargasso was safe, and they didn't have to worry about it being destroyed, she'd set a course for Savali, since she had to agree that talking with the Prophet, who pointed Ratchet and Starswirl in the right direction, might be the best for all of them right now. Autumn and Kit were fine with the plan, as for right now they were focused on the Troopers that were coming out of the couple of dimensional rifts that the Emperor had set up for them earlier, before exterminating all of them and causing all of the rifts to close so they could check in on the pair of Morts near the edge of the area.

"Rivet, I'm sorry that you and your friends had to come save us again." one Mort said, while most of the others in the area seemed to be cheering for her timely arrival, letting Autumn see that they truly loved her and were willing to aid her in all of her various ventures, before she beckoned to the Seekerpede the sisters had downed not that long ago, "We tried to hold our own for once, even managed to fix up and restore the downed Seekerpede, but, well... it's stuck in some sort of dimensional thingamajiggers is preventing it from taking off."

"First off, none of this is your fault, as the Emperor hates me and wants to punish my friends as punishment. Second, I'd like to reintroduce Autumn, she's actually my sister and I've got two brothers." Rivet replied, where she smiled as she and the others found that the Morts were surprised by her statement, though Autumn was glad to hear it since it meant Rivet had fully embraced her, Ratchet, and Starswirl as her family, "And third, leave that anomaly to Kit... we just have to get to it for her to work on it."

Sure enough the Morts understood the situation as Autumn quickly explained it, she and Starswirl were sworn siblings of Ratchet, who was, in fact, Rivet's twin brother, while also mentioning that the reason they were separated was because a villain attacked their home planet, ending up with them in two different dimensions. In addition to that the Morts were happy to meet Kit for the first time and were already treating her like part of the family, not that Autumn was surprised by that after what she had learned about them earlier, before they raised some short pointed magnetic strips for them to run on as they followed Maynard. Apparently the Helperbot would lead the way to where the Seekerpede had been stationed before being trapped by the dimensional anomaly they had been shown, though as Rivet and Autumn jumped off of the last magnetic platform they landed in an area where a large group of toads that were being assaulted by some Troopers who were enjoying themselves. At the same time they heard the Assistant informing the residents of Sargasso that the Emperor sent his warmest greetings, with a subtle hit of condescending derision, especially to Rivet and Autumn, which told the sisters that he knew they were here and were fighting against his forces.

Even with the concerning number of rifts opening, to dispense more Troopers for them to fight, the sisters tore through all of them before heading up a ramp, only to find that the Emperor had sent down two hologram displays, one for him and one for Dr. Nefarious.

Rivet, Autumn, it is a bit tasteless of you two to disrupt my welcome wagon. Emperor Nefarious remarked, sounding as if he was faking being annoyed with them, as Autumn could tell he thought this was more like a game, while they found that Dr. Nefarious was standing still, like a loyal minion or follower, which had to be annoying him right now, I hope you don't mind that we watch from a distance... I'm just so exhausted from eliminating your allies, and the Doctor is still in the middle of recovering from his earlier battle with you.

"A lot of talk for a hologram." Rivet replied, as she wasn't too pleased with the Emperor right now, in fact with the theft of the Dimensionator he became even worse in her eyes, since he didn't care about anything other than himself, and she was sure that Gary would say the barrier was getting closer to collapsing.

Why would we waste our energy fighting? Emperor Nefarious inquired, though at this point Autumn could tell that he was mocking them, he didn't see any of them as a legitimate threat to him or his empire, like this was a game to him, one he likely assumed he was winning right now, Soon you and your rebels will be nothing more than a memory, along with this sludgy excuse for a planet.

Sargasso needs to Sargass-go! Dr. Nefarious added, as if he was the one with all the humor right now, though such a thing caused him and his new partner in crime to chuckle over his poorly made joke, though it told Autumn more than she needed to know, the pair of robot rulers were planning on destroying this planet.

With the first conversation done, as they all agreed that more hologram devices were scattered around the path they would be taking, Rivet used a nearby Hammercrank to raise some more vertical platforms for them to use, which she and Autumn did so without delay so they could move forward. Such a thing lead them to an area that was being set on fire, with several of the Troopers taunting both the wildlife and the Morts with incarceration, even though it seemed more like incineration at the moment, though the sisters were happy to see some enemy ships had been downed by the wildlife. As they clashed with some of the Troopers, however, Kit spotted another set of holograms and found that the two evil robots were talking while watching Rivet and Autumn tear through the Troopers with their weapons, as the Doctor informed the Emperor that most, if not all of their weapons, were made by Autumn. He also understood why Rivet was giving his new master so much trouble, as he had seen the same skills and stubbornness in her twin brother, Ratchet, who hailed from his dimension and caused him to tell the Emperor that the twins had been separated due to an attack on their home planet, causing Kit to frown, as it wasn't good that their enemy knew the connection between Rivet and Ratchet.

What worried them was the fact that Dr. Nefarious mentioned that there were big expansive plans for Sargasso, which had to mean that he and the Emperor were planning on blowing the planet up, even though Kit said it was just a way for the Emperor to instill fear into those who dared to challenge his rule.

As they made their way to where a Grunthor was tearing down the Troopers that dared to wake it from it's slumber, even if they had to use their Rift Tethers to get across a gap to reach it, only to find that the Troopers detonated themselves on top of the Grunthor, killing themselves and the creature in an instant. One thing that really worried them was the number of ships that were attacking Sargasso, as there were hundreds of small fighter ships, several gunships, and a single large command ship, even though Kit knew the Emperor had dozens of warships in his army. Rivet was still amazed by the fact that all of Sargasso was fighting back, as in the critters who usually gave her a hard time were now fighting to preserve their way of life and not conform to the dark rule of the Emperor, while at the same time ignoring her and Autumn, which was good since they could focus on the Troopers. The bad thing about this was that their enemies could clear out more of Sargasso by gathering in a single defensive area and firing at their targets as they came towards them, though that meant the sisters would be zeroing in on them as well and made sure to tear through the Troopers who dared to stand in their way.

Even the Juggernaut guarding the path to another of the buildings that the Morts had set up in the past went down due to the power that Rivet and Autumn brought to bare against it, allowing them to approach the anomaly that was preventing the modified Seekerpede from leaving.

"So, you ready to crack this anomaly wide open?" Rivet asked, as she had the feeling that Kit could do the same that Clank did a few times during their adventure together, interact with the anomalies and clean them up so they disappeared, to allow them to do whatever they needed to do next.

Kit nodded her head as she disengaged from Rivet's back and approached the anomaly, where she raised her right hand for a moment and braced herself for what was going to happen next, as she had read about this in the past and was ready for the tests that were inside the large anomaly.

A few seconds later Kit, or at least a projection of herself, appeared inside the anomaly, where she found that it was just as Gary had told her, after his first meeting with Clank in the first anomaly that appeared on Sargasso, a place that looked a lot more like a mechanical construct of some kind.

"Kit! You're alright!" a voice exclaimed, where she found Gary's projection floating nearby, just like he usually did during her time on Savali, though as he regained himself he glanced around, no doubt expecting to see someone else standing in the spot she was now standing in, "Where's Clank?"

"He has rejoined Ratchet, who is on his way to Ardolis with Starswirl." Kit replied, though she wasn't upset by the fact that her mentor was looking for Clank, as he had been helping him clear the anomalies that appeared in his path, though now it was her turn to do so and help bring some form of stability to the growing madness they were experiencing with the barrier between dimensions, "I am traveling with Rivet and Autumn, now, and we are on Sargasso, fighting off the forces of the Emperor."

Gary was impressed by her actions, to do everything in her power to stop the Emperor, before he asked her if she wanted to help fix this anomaly, to which she quickly grabbed a nearby Electric Sphere and used it on a device to form a current that she and her Possibilities could use to move through this part of the anomaly. She found another one along the path and a button that lowered a platform that held another sphere, so she kept the first current up, something that allowed all of her Possibilities to hold down the button so she could collect the Gravity Sphere. Kit then discovered a Spinnergizer off to the side of the path leading to the Meta-Terminal, which was connected to a symbol that would redirect her other selves, so she powered it up and then used the Gravity Sphere to form a launch platform, one that was across from where it had been resting previously. With that done she temporarily undid the first Electric Sphere, just to cut down on the number of Possibilities going down the main path, and once she was ready Kit tossed it back into position as she stood off to the side, which allowed all of her other selves to traverse the new path before ending at the Meta-Terminal.

Once that one was fixed she and Gary moved onto the next section of the anomaly, though as they did so Gary informed her that he was proud of her, as she was a fast learner, like Clank, and her actions were worthy of being recorded as well, but before they did anything else there was something she had to ask.

"How is the dimensional barrier doing?" Kit asked, as she had a feeling it wasn't good, with the cracks they were seeing at this point, not to mention the fact that all sorts of rifts were starting to open up, she was worried that the barrier was close to breaking open, the trigger for the Dimensional Cataclysm.

"Well... I'll be honest, we're in a pickle. We're circling the drain, as more cracks and rifts are appearing, at a rather alarming rate." Gary admitted, as this was one of the rare times where he knew that telling an untruth, or outright lying, would be more harmful than telling the truth, and since Kit was traveling with Rivet and Autumn he was sure they'd be able to figure out how to stop what was coming their way, "The Dimensional Cataclysm is coming, far faster than I anticipated when the first sign showed itself."

"I'm assuming that the damage has been caused by the Emperor stealing the new Dimensionator and firing it off in a far more reckless fashion than his counterpart?" Kit commented, because she knew that Gary must have seen them lose the device to the Emperor not that long ago, as he was just like his father and usually saw most things as they happened, or at least all of the important things that helped him keep their dimension safe.

As Gary nodded his head, confirming her suspicions, Kit sighed before moving onto the next portion of the anomaly, but this time she focused on the task at hand, because there was a chance that they might be able to steal the device since the Emperor was still on Sargasso, or so she hoped. While Kit worked she found that Gary wanted to keep her mind off of the theft of the Dimensionator by conversing with her, mostly about her opinions of Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, Rivet, and Clank, even though she had only met most of them not that long ago and only knew a bit about each of them. Despite all that, however, Kit found that they were some of the best people she could have asked to encounter, because Ratchet and Starswirl accepted her, even her warbot side, while Rivet and Autumn trusted her to be able to do what Clank had done during his first visit to an anomaly. Gary, while not having had the pleasure to meet either Rivet or Autumn, felt that all of them were great heroes and that they were lucky to have them on their side, otherwise he was sure the Emperor would have his way with all of reality, be it one dimension or everything the Lombaxes discovered.

One thing Kit noticed was that she and Gary were still nervous about their own things, her leaving Savali and Gary trying to stand in for his father, so Kit turned the conversation to that as she worked, finding that they had many things to say on the matter, especially when Gary realized that they were doing well on their own, and when it came time to leave Gary and Kit wished each other well before she left the anomaly behind.

Upon Kit's return to her actual body she, Rivet, and Autumn found that the anomaly disappeared before their eyes, which allowed the modified Seekerpede to stop squirming as it moved down to where they were standing, where the Morts, the ones they had talked to earlier, thanked Kit before climbing inside and took off.

"You know, the Morts are really taking a liking to you and Clank." Rivet remarked, as while they were some of the most friendly of creatures, or among those she had encountered across her dimension so far, it seemed like they really liked the two robots she had been carrying on her back since this entire series of events started, before finding that the Morts used the beam feature to blow up a gunship, "Hey, there's another gunship nearby... want to blow it up?"

"We could be persuaded." Autumn said, though this time all three of them smiled, because the idea of wrecking another piece of Emperor Nefarious' forces meant his overall army would be weakened by some degree, to which they headed over to Ms. Zurkon, who had come over after the Juggernaut's defeat, and restocked their ammunition.

With that done they used a Hurlshot to get over to the structure that was below the gunship, where they found a grind rail that cut through the building to reach the top, even though the Emperor and the Doctor had a few things to say while they did so, making them wonder how many hologram pads had been deployed. Apparently they believed that Rivet, Autumn, and the Morts should be embarrassed by the fact that they were using one of his Seekerpedes against him, though at the same time Autumn used she could actually use her magic since she'd love to dismantle one and reshape it into something far deadlier than what they fought earlier. The Emperor clearly viewed this as a show and wanted to see just how far Rivet would go before he eventually broke her spirit, showing them that he felt there was no way for anyone to beat him, even if his forces were the ones perishing in the face of the skills that Rivet, Autumn, and their brothers possessed, something he wasn't even concerned with. The sisters, however, showed him that they weren't to be underestimated as they used the nearby Hurlshot to launch themselves over to the gunship's deck, where Rivet and Autumn opened fire on the Troopers that were guarding it without delay, surprising them in the process even though they were told to expect them.

What disappointed Autumn was that whoever designed the ship left the power source wide open, even if it was in some sort of protective casing, especially since there was a Hammercrank in front of it, so once the rest of the Troopers were taken out Rivet inserted her hammer and caused the core to tear itself apart, without harming them in the process.

Splendid. What a show! Emperor Nefarious said, clearly showing them that he saw this as more of a game and less of a serious assault, because if it was the latter he would have brought a lot more to this battle, before the Doctor showed him something and a smile appeared on his face, Let's make things more interesting, shall we? All Cruisers, activate your Destruct-o Beams!

Planetary devastation... FINALLY! Doctor Nefarious exclaimed, confirming what the sisters had considered earlier, the surprise was that the two mad robots were going to blow up all of Sargasso in an attempt to punish Rivet, or even take her out of the picture entirely.

Autumn noticed that there were four more Cruisers that were between them and the main battleship, which were starting to power up their main weapons, to which she decided to break the rule that she and Starswirl had when it came to magic and dimensional rifts, she teleported down to a cliff near the ships and threw up several barriers in the air, stalling each of the four beams in the process. Rivet, while surprised by her sister's sudden usage of magic, since she hadn't used any of it since they started adventuring together, decided not to question it as she climbed on Trudi's back and took off, using her new ability to spit fire to tear through one ship's core. As her target when down the Emperor had his forces engage their barriers to protect them from harm, which were some of the hardest to crack in this galaxy, though the Morts happened to have the answer, gelatonium bombs, something that Autumn noted were incredibly potent in her dimension and that these were likely the same. Sure enough Trudi reached down and grabbed onto the first one, as there were some clamps that could be used for her talons to wrap around, and when she hurled it at a Cruiser the bomb detonated with more than enough force to tear apart the ship that was below the shield, confirming that they were incredibly powerful and were the key to saving Sargasso.

The third Cruiser didn't last much longer as a second bomb was thrown at it, where the Morts used the Seekerpede and it's beam to protect Trudi, Rivet, and Kit from the attackers, allowing them to find one more bomb and hurled it at the last of the ships, which just so happened to fly right into the side of the warship, causing a chain reaction that caused part of it to explode as it crashed into another part of the swamp.

Autumn breathed a sigh of relief, as powerful four shields had been a strain, since she had to empower them to the point that they could stop the beams in their tracks, and when one Cruiser fell she incorporated the power of that one's shield into the other three, while making sure not to go overboard. Her worry had been that if she used too much magic near so many dimensional cracks, which were still spreading as Emperor Nefarious used the Dimensionator, that she'd cause far more harm than good, especially after what she and Rivet had witnessed during their time on Blizar Prime. Once Rivet, Kit, and Trudi had down the last of the Cruisers, not to mention the downfall of the warship, Autumn released her power and smiled as she found that the Morts were cheering for their success, one that would severely harm the Emperor's ratings if it was ever known to the rest of his empire. The moment she was sure everything was fine, and there were no side effects from what she had done, Autumn found that Rivet had flown back to the ship and Trudi dropped her off, though before anyone could do anything the Emperor appeared, said something, and used the Dimensionator below Rivet's feet, sending her to who knew where.

Sure enough Autumn teleported back to the ship in time for the Emperor to disappear, though a few moments later she found a few cracks appearing as Rivet burst out of a pocket dimension, which sealed itself behind her, though after that her sister beckoned for her to join them as they took off, as they could talk at Zurkie's once Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank were done tracking down Quantum.

Rift Apart: Ardolis

Ratchet and Starswirl spent most of the trip to Ardolis telling Clank about what they've seen in this dimension, including all about Kit since she was a new face for all of them, while he, in turn, told them about his time with Rivet and Autumn, as he knew once they reached Ardolis they'd be busy. Ratchet knew from how the Resistance spoke of his sister that Rivet was a hero that this dimension needed, otherwise they'd lose hope entirely and fall into the darkness that the Emperor was trying to impose upon everyone, and listening to Clank made him smile. Rivet was, without a doubt, Ratchet's twin, that was the conclusion that Clank had come up with while traveling with her and Autumn on their quest to claim the Phase Quartz, as there were so many things that the two had in common that drove him to make that decision. It also made Ratchet really want to have some time alone with his sister, so they could talk and get to know each other, without the fate of the entire multiverse hanging in the balance, since the Emperor seemed to be recklessly using the Dimensionator.

Such a thing was reflected in the fact that, as they approached Ardolis, a world that looked like part of the crust had been removed while the rest of the planet had been destroyed, a few rifts opened in their path and Ratchet had to divert their course a little to avoid flying into one.

"I can't believe how bad the dimensional damage is getting... the rifts are multiplying!" Ratchet remarked, though he had a feeling that his father was either working overtime to try and stop the Dimensional Cataclysm from happening, given all of the rifts out there, or he might have given up to wait for them to save the day like usual.

"The Emperor is misusing the Dimensionator, and the Doctor is encouraging him to do so." Starswirl stated, which was an odd thing to say, since he and his siblings expected their Nefarious to turn on the Emperor once he lost the device that he had stolen from them in the gastropub, but instead he was working for this dimension's version of himself, like he might get a reward out of his servitude, "That's why all of this is happening."

"Yes, I am afraid that the Dimension Cataclysm will come sooner than we thought." Clank added, as he had a feeling that Gary was likely discovering this fact for himself or was already passing the news onto Kit in some manner, given that they were Master and Apprentice, meaning all of them were in the loop right now, or would be soon enough, "However, while the situation is truly dire, I know that we will not fail the multiverse... we do have a habit of beating the odds, after all, and I have the feeling we'll do so again."

Ratchet and Starswirl chuckled as they turned up the radio, which was a nice thing the ship came with since it also picked up on signals or broadcasts from the planets they had to visit in this dimension, giving them a heads up on what might be happening, and the catchy some that was on got interrupted by a Pirate broadcast.

Ah, what a tune! the Pirate said, sounding like she actually enjoyed the song and was sad to see it end, reminding the brothers about the radio station that Slag set up after he went into retirement, allowing Pete to take over, even though a lot of Pirates in their dimension saw the siblings as their true captains, In unrelated news, Ardolis be closed today fer a private event: the execution of Pierre Le Fer! All trespassers will be shot and or stabbed on sight, and remember Article 4 of the Pirate Code: never blow up your own blooming ship!

At this point none of them were even remotely surprised, as Clank did mention the fact that Pierre ordered his crew to blast the ship that Rivet and Autumn had taken over on Torren IV, most due to some of the looks he noticed on the faces of his crew, so it stood to reason they were punishing him for his actions. After landing on what appeared to be a landing area, again Ratchet marveled at what existed in this dimension and made him realize that Autumn would want one so she could tear it apart, the brothers climbed out, put Clank on Ratchet's back, and walked over to Ms. Zurkon. They found that she had some new toys to add to their arsenals, thanks to Rivet and Autumn, while also having the Headhunter, a sniper rifle, available for purchase, which the brothers collected and upgraded as well so they had more options for whatever challenges awaited them on this planet. Once that was done they found some Pirates down the way that were actually in the middle of talking about Pierre, where it seemed like they disliked his 'horrid' singing voice and many of his comrades were eager to see him be executed in the near future.

Of course they also found that the Pirates weren't too happy to see them either, since the first group drew their weapons and started to attack the brothers, who retaliated as they realized that they might have to fight through Quantum's army to get to Pierre, which was a bad thing since he might turn on them as well. At the same time, however, Starswirl knew it was only a matter of time until the Emperor made his move, as he had the Dimensionator and with how well he was using it right now, thanks to the Doctor helping him out, so there was no telling when he'd rift into Ardolis to whisk Quantum away to wherever he held his prisoners. Clank voiced his own thoughts on the matter, as he was sure Zordoom existed in this dimension as well, which would be the best place to store potential prisoners until it was time to execute them, just to install fear in those who thought about resisting, a fate that the Emperor likely had in store for Rivet. Ratchet didn't want to think about what this dimension's Zordoom might look like, given everything he had seen of the Emperor's other locations, so he focused on tearing his way through the Pirates that were in front of them, all while finding a telescope that happened to be viewing an area where Pierre was being held captive.

With that in mind they made their way a nearby cave, finding that some Pirates were torturing another one with out of sync singing, which really annoyed him until the brothers blasted through his comrades, as he was contained in a cage, though as they leapt into the cave a kraken reached up and snatched the poor soul.

"You know, when all of this is over, I think I'll fulfill Rivet's other wish first." Ratchet commented, as Clank had said that Rivet wanted to find the rest of the Lombaxes at some point, especially now that she knew their kind was still out there, somewhere, and that the Dimensionator was the key to tracking them down, "We should be able to do that, right?"

"As long as we stop the Dimensional Cataclysm and recover the Dimensionator." Clank replied, because sometimes Ratchet liked to think about his twin, and everything they could do to make up for all the years they had been separated from each other, and either he, Starswirl, or Autumn would have to bring him down to reality, though it was good to see that he cared about his sister so much, "You changed your mind on the matter?"

"Well, I never really cared about finding the rest of the Lombaxes... I have my family to thank for that... but Rivet has been longing for such a thing and I want to help her out." Ratchet replied, where he blasted the crabs he and Starswirl found in the cave, along with the Puffoids, normal ones, that happened to be in the area as well, showing them that he was focused on the task at hand and wasn't being distracted by his own remarks, "After we do that, well, I'm thinking it'll be time for me to uphold my other promise: finding out where you and Autumn came from, as the Dimensionator seems to be the key to helping you guys out as well."

Starswirl had to agree with that, as the planet he and his sister came from was either in an unknown galaxy of this very dimension, which they hadn't found yet, or they were from another dimension and had somehow found their way into this one somehow. He and Autumn had talked about it for a time, over multiple instances, and neither of them were sure what the answer was to their question, there was no information for them to go off of, save for the fact that they had just appeared near Ratchet when his pod landed on Veldin. Such a thing made him think about something interesting, that if Tachyon had attacked sooner or later than he originally did there was a chance that Rivet would have been sent to Veldin like Kaden had originally planned, instead of them being sent to two different locations. It would have changed the course of this entire adventure, as he was sure they would have sought out the Lombaxes if Rivet had been with Ratchet at the beginning of their lives, though Starswirl decided to say nothing on the matter as he blasted their enemies and they made their way through the rest of the cave.

While they were making their way through the cave, however, they overheard some Pirates mentioning that they knew that the Emperor had the Dimensionator and that it changed nothing for them, because of the fact that their captain was always one step ahead of their foe. Such a thing made them wonder if the statement was true, because if he had a way to stay ahead of the Emperor it made one take a moment to think about why Quantum wouldn't share such a device with Rivet or the rest of the Resistance, to make sure they toppled the Emperor. One would think that both the Pirates and the Resistance would benefit from taking down the one who controlled the entirety of this dimension with an iron fist, but, as Ratchet considered it, he realized that Pirates were only in it for the Bolts and if their major target was taken out they'd no doubt lose out in the long run, or at least that was his thoughts on their reasoning. At the same time, however, it made all three of them wonder if they could convince Quantum to hand such a thing over to them, so they could figure out how to get the Dimensionator out of the Emperor's hands by getting ahead of him and laying a trap he wouldn't see coming, but that meant finding the person in question.

One section of the cave that they passed through was like the one in their dimension, heading up into an area that had a number of doors, and in their version of Ardolis there had been a pirate door they had to get through to progress, though this one was full of Pirates waiting for the execution to start. There was even a new Pirates in a cell before that room, all of them locked up in some manner, with a female robot trying to convince a Robomutt to hand over the key to her bindings, a rather large key that looked more like a blade that was styled in the manner of the Lombaxes. Starswirl had no idea if it was actually a Lombax weapon or if it was something made to mimic what the species used, but he snatched it with a bit of his magic, teleporting it over to his hand and making it disappear before anyone noticed what had happened, allowing them to enter the next room without the prisoner knowing what was going on. After that they found themselves under attack once more, Pirates assaulting them once more as the door behind them closed up, meaning that their foes had to be taken down before the brothers could advance to where Pierre was being held, which was nothing new.

As they fought the Pirates, however, Clank reported more dimensional energy spreading and they all watched as several rifts opened up on the level that was above them, where Goons jumped out, spotted the Pirates, and one group attacked them for something that happened in the past, leaving the others to attack the brothers. This was further confirmation that things were getting worse, because now that the Emperor had the Dimensionator he was overusing it and that was causing all of the damage to spread at an alarmingly unsafe rate. The theft of the device would have been fine had they been able to deal with the Dimensional Cataclysm first, since they wouldn't have to worry about all of reality being totally destroyed, but he had taken it before they could do that and now he and his siblings were rushing to do everything in their power to stop the multiverse from unraveling before their eyes. Ratchet wasn't sure how Quantum would help them defeat Emperor Nefarious, but Rivet seemed to trust him, despite him being a Pirate and her being a Resistance member, meaning he should trust his sister and hope they could get to the figure without tearing the Pirates apart, since that would make things easier for their enemy.

Eventually the brothers overcame the enemies that were in front of them and exited the building they had been in, where they started to make their way to what looked like a market of some kind, though a kraken tentacle crushed a cruiser that came to a stop nearby, allowing them to launch themselves over to where Pierre was resting.

"Come on, that ship had to go boom on Molonoth!" Pierre stated, all while hanging with his head down towards a wide opening, where the bothers found some tendrils emerging from it and one even seemed to get close to the robot, who was clearly freaking out right now since it meant his life was about to expire, "One could even say that it destroyed itself! Um, if anyone wanted to save moi, now would be a good..."

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but we need to have a word with Pierre." Ratchet said, drawing the attention of the Pirates to him, Starswirl, and Clank as they landed near the area that the robot in question was going to be executed in, though he was a little surprised that these Pirates were willing to listen, instead of attacking them, "We need to speak with Captain Quantum and Pierre's the only one who can show us the way... or at least Rivet said he could... oh, and for the record, I'm not her protege or whatever you're thinking: Rivet and I are twins."

Pierre was, of course, shocked by this piece of information, in fact all of the Pirates were since they assumed Rivet was the only Lombax in the universe, or their dimension since they were now understanding that there were others out there, but as one started to open her mouth an alarm sounded. Apparently they had a way to determine when some of the Emperor's forces were nearby and it was all hands on deck to be sure that his Troopers didn't get close to the ruined planet, which did mean that, for the time being, the execution was on hold. With that in mind the Pirates released Pierre and pushed him into their care for now, as once everything was said and done they were going to execute him anyway, but at least he could help them track down Captain Quantum and have that conversation, hopefully before the Troopers showed up to wage war on the planet again. Pierre didn't seem too pleased with that idea as the floor was sealed and he was released from where he had been hanging for some time, but, since it meant he wouldn't be executed for some time, he had to live with the idea of showing them the way to his Captain.

As they moved away from the marketplace Pierre informed them that to gain an audience with Captain Quantum, since they weren't Pirates, they would have to complete the 'Pirate Trials', a tradition that was as old as grog as he put it, and that to do so they had to head to the base of Skull Mountain. With that information in hand the brothers followed him over to one of the ramps that had launched them over to the marketplace, after making sure to restock their ammunition since Ms. Zurkon was nearby, before using it to head over to a lighthouse. Of course with Pierre no longer seen in the light he used to be seen in, at least by Pirate standards, they couldn't use one of the smaller ships that he used to use, rather they had to utilize the pad and some Speedles to reach the base of Skull Mountain. Clank discovered that, while neither Ratchet or Starswirl knew how to ride the little speedy bugs, not like Rivet did, they quickly learned how to do so and were able to reach the main path that Pierre lead them to, even though the kraken from before seemed to be following them, as it broke the bridge, forcing them to use a Swingshot to reach their destination.

What they discovered, however, was that there was an area that looked like it was the start of an amusement park, as the brothers found a bored Pirate standing behind a stall which had all sorts of pirate accessories, guns, weapons, and even costume pieces, where Pierre rubbed the back of his head as they approached the stall.

"Welcome to the Pirate Trials... now, who will be swashbuckling with us today?" the Pirate asked, sounding as bored as she looked, in fact she was likely silently annoyed by the fact that she was stuck with this duty while the others were busy with their looting of other planets, before she noticed who was with them, "Pierre? Shouldn't you be in the middle of being executed right now?"

"Allow me to introduce Rivet's brothers... and I am temporarily safe due to the impending Trooper patrol, as the others wanted to be sure we weren't being attacked." Pierre replied, showing them that he was going to offer them some help, as that was his task before the rest of the Pirates captured him and tied him up again, even if he was hoping to save himself before that happened again, "We're here to see Captain Quantum, so they're tackling the Pirate Trials."

All Ratchet could say to this was 'What?' and the systems for the entire Pirate Trials started to refer to him as What, as if it was a valid name for someone to have, causing him and Starswirl to walk down the path in front of them, which seemed to be wooden planks leading right to some barrels with theme park robots attached to them. By activating the button right in the middle of the area they discovered that the first thing that needed to be done was that they had to sing a shanty, while at the same time blasting the robots in the correct order, and Pierre handed them the pistols that were part of this whole thing. What was surprising was that the shanty the robots had them sing back was about girls in respectable positions of power, making them wonder if Emperor Nefarious being in charge had been the cause of the song's creation, before moving onto how they lingered by the shore. While they were confused as to the true nature of the shanty, Pierre and the robots were impressed by their singing abilities, especially given that they weren't robots, before a bridge lowered, allowing them to step into an elevator shaft that would bring them to their second trial.

This time around Pierre was more frightened as he accompanied them, for they would be facing the Terror of Bokkubokku Bay, the Destroyer of Moon 34-B, the inspiration behind every midnight tale, every shape in the shadows, and all that was unholy in the galaxy, a creature known as Snoojax... which turned out to be a dead Grunthor.

Pierre was, of course, surprised to find a pile of bones where the creature had been resting, even though this was mostly a Grunthor sized arena with no real food or water, though as a robot informed them that the second trial was out of order, so they could turn back or keep going, Ratchet spotted a console with a Zeta Virus. This time around it wasn't vital for them to do anything with it, but, at the same time, he knew that Glitch got stronger whenever she fought the virus and there was no telling when they'd need that strength on another terminal, so he paused for a few moments to let her do her thing. Sure enough he and Starswirl didn't have to wait long as she restored the Grunthor feeder to it's former glory, which was when the brothers headed down the rest of the path and entered the last chamber, a circular area with four boats, exhibits in the walls, and likely something resting right in the center. Pierre stood by the door as they dropped down onto one of the four moving boats, finding that this was a 'treasure hunt' trial as holograms of Pirates appeared on the other ships, and a few even jumped out of the water to attack their own ship, causing Starswirl to take the attackers down as Ratchet swung from ship to ship so he could blast the holograms.

After taking them down an impressive inflatable island, sturdy as a real one, burst out of the center of the water and they found a hologram of one of the heavily armored Pirates waiting for them, to they opened fire on it while Pierre watched, no doubt realizing that they were just as skilled as Rivet was. Once that hologram was taken care of, and a few Puffoids that were also holograms, a surprise attack of sorts, they were able to use the Boltcrank to open the final door, allowing Ratchet and Starswirl to leave the Pirate Trials at last, while Clank mentally chuckled at how shocked Pierre was. There was another Pirate at the end of everything, in another stand and looking just as bored as her counterpart at the beginning, but she did inform them that Captain Quantum was just down the elevator and across the wooden bridge, meaning they were close to succeeding in their mission. Pierre, wanting to avoid being captured by the rest of his former allies, joined them again as they rode the elevator down to where the bridge was located, only to discover that the kraken was still, for some odd reason, following them, to which the brothers engaged their Hoverboots as Ratchet grabbed Pierre, allowing them to rush across the bridge before using a Swingshot to reach the deck of a ship that was docked in this area.

Standing nearby was a figure who was just as tall as Qwark was, in fact, as the brothers looked at him as the kraken tore the bridge apart, they discovered that it happened to be this dimension's version of Qwark, who was wearing bits and pieces of metal in certain places that made him look more robotic, with a bucket with a painted face on it that had a large black captain's hat on top, all to complete his guise.

"So Captain 'What'... what brings ye, and ye companions, here?" the figure asked, where the brothers and Clank were able to tell that it was a organic person playing at being a robot, rather well if he was able to deceive the Pirates, while noting his red attire, as opposed to Qwark's green clothing, as he turned towards them.

"Rivet asked us to come find you, because you're in terrible danger. The Emperor has..." Ratchet started to say, though as he started to mention what this dimension's version of Nefarious had in his arsenal now he and Starswirl found that the Captain raised his hand to stop him, all while Pierre stood near a door, no doubt to keep out of sight in case some Pirates came to speak with their boss.

"A Dimensionator?" Quantum finished, showing them that he, against all odds, already knew about the device and the fact that he was one of the last targets that the Emperor was seeking so he could bring despair to this dimension, to which he chuckled for a moment, upon seeing their expressions, as he tapped the side of his 'head', where the helmet projected a live feed of the Emperor and the Doctor, the latter giving the former a lesson on using the device, "We bugged him! It was, and still is, the greatest job we have pulled off to date! So actually, he's the one in danger!"

Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank realized that the Pirates had bugged the Assistant, the annoying robot who had been near the Doctor when he stole the reforged Dimensionator from them, meaning Quantum could listen in on the orders that she was given and react accordingly, explaining how they stayed one step ahead of the Emperor.

"Amazing. Would you mind sharing the system with us, given the state of the dimension?" Starswirl asked, because he had a feeling that it would come in handy, allowing them to potentially get ahead of their foe and reclaim the Dimensionator before he did something incredibly foolish with it, and he refrained from saying anything about the helmet, allowing the Captain to see that they were playing along with his scheme.

"Give me a moment to think... Pierre, stay here and keep our friends company." Quantum stated, where he turned off the device and walked into his ship, using the door that was behind him, which was likely going to be locked once everything was said and done, though the brothers hoped he made up his mind quickly.

Sure enough they had Pirates who flew in on one of their smaller ships, where one glared down at them as they found that Pierre was still alive, however they did know that Ratchet and Starswirl were only here to talk with their Captain, so for the time being they were tolerating their presence on Ardolis.

"Captain, we've encountered Troopers near the planet. What are yer orders?" one of the Pirates said, showing them that most of the robots here were under the assumption that Quantum was just like them, and not someone pretending to be a robot, while knowing that he was inside his personal quarters.

"Gather the others and prepare to intercept them. The Emperor isn't sending an army, so we won't have to worry about fleeing to another outpost for a time." Quantum replied, his voice coming from inside the ship, though it showed that he was either smarter than Qwark or he was just as cowardly as the man from their dimension, but at least the Pirates were quick to obey his orders, "As for Pierre, bring him along and put him to work."

"As you wish. And the three newcomers?" another asked, as he was staring at the brothers and Clank right now, while at the same time Pierre sighed as he walked over to the ship and jumped up onto it, no doubt cursing his luck since it meant he'd either die fighting the Emperor or die to his own allies.

"Leave them be. I have business with them that I'd like to finish up." Quantum stated, something that caused the Pirates to bow their heads before departing from the area that he had set up his ship in, which was when the brothers found that it started to move as well, but neither of them said anything as it moved, simply waiting for their host to tell them what was going on, "So, it looked like you guys knew me... care to explain?"

Starswirl informed him that they didn't know him, rather he reminded them of Captain Qwark, their dimension's version of him to be exact, and he spent some time telling the pirate captain about the figure, since he seemed interested in the person that his dimensional counterpart had become over the years. Ratchet and Clank, on the other hand, kept an eye out for any potential rifts that the Emperor might use to ambush Quantum before he was able to get off the planet, due to the fact that it seemed like this particular set up seemed designed for the pirate captain to flee before he was caught by any of his terrible enemies. After getting a fair distance away from his hiding spot their host emerged and they found that Quantum really did look a lot like Qwark, only there was a fire in his eyes that seemed to indicate that he was braver than his dimensional counterpart, especially since it took Qwark some time to muster the courage to stand before their foes and do the right thing. He quickly informed them that, just in the off chance something happened, he had multiple helms prepared and each one happened to be equipped with the bug, so in case a foe broke one he had something to replace it with, so he was able to hand one over to them with ease, though if the Pirates returned he was heading inside to be sure they didn't see his true face.

Ratchet happily took the device, since it would be vital for them to figure out what was going on with the Emperor and the Doctor, before he turned it on to make sure it worked, not that he didn't trust Quantum, and found that it worked like a charm, which turned sour as he noticed what was in front of them.

"And there. You. ARE!" Emperor Nefarious said, where they found that he was diagonally above them, complete with the Assistant no less, both emerging from a dimensional rift as he charged up the Dimensionator, causing the brothers to realize that, with the device in hand, he was able to do so much more now.

Sure enough the Emperor fired down at the water and they found a rift opening below them, where it looked like it might be linked to a darker version of Zordoom, where Quantum picked them up as the Emperor laughed and hurled the pair off into the water, claiming it was 'hero work' as he and his ship fell into the rift. Fortunately not all was lost as Starswirl made sure his parting gift was intact, the device was nearby, and some Pirates did fly by after the Troopers left, allowing them to climb out of the water before informing them that the Emperor had kidnapped their leader. Pierre declared that they had to get back at their foe, one way or another, and all of the other Pirates agreed, so they delivered the brothers and Clank to their ship before flying off, no doubt to prepare for total war with the Emperor's forces. The three of them were still a bit surprised by all of this, how different Quantum was from Qwark and the fact that he instilled such loyalty in his men, to the point where they'd willingly charge into battle to free him, though Pierre promised that they'd stop by Zurkie's to meet up with Rivet, who was their best chance to get their captured Captain back.

With that done, and having nothing else to do on the planet, Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank climbed back into their ship and blasted off without delay, as it was time for them to return to Zurkie's and see if Rivet had an idea as to what needed to be done next to stop the Emperor in his tracks.

Rift Apart: Back to Savali

While Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank were flying back to Zurkie's, so they could meet up with Rivet, Autumn, and Kit so they could figure out their next move before the Emperor destroyed all of reality, a red light appeared in front of them and the hologram screen they had seen earlier appeared.

"My people... I did it!" Emperor Nefarious stated, where they found that he was already back in his office, which Ratchet and Starswirl had moved through to get the ship that they were currently using right now, where they found that he had a few screens set up that showed Rivet, Quantum, the Resistance, and the Pirates, "At long last, the Pirates are vanquished, the Resistance is broken, and this galaxy is finally MINE!"

As he said that skull markings appeared on the screens, showing that he believed his foes were taken out and that his hold on this dimension had been secured at long last, causing him to jump onto the desk and dance, much to their surprise as a party started, but he quickly stopped and gestured at the next, severing the feed and caused Starswirl to raise the device that Quantum had given them to see if there was anything else.

"That's it?! Where's the joy... the bliss... the murderous enlightenment?" Emperor Nefarious remarked, where they found that all of the Helperbots that were assigned to camera duty departed as he turned down the Assistant's offer of some wine, all while Doctor Nefarious sat in a chair, pondering something that only he knew about, "Why don't I feel any different!?"

"Your Excellence, if I may?" Doctor Nefarious asked, once more surprising the brothers with how he acted after watching his counterpart in action, as he seemed to be treating the Emperor as a god or something, which wasn't good for his ego, and it caused the figure in question to glance at him, before nodding, "I thank you. The reason is simple: you've conquered this dimension, that is true, but there are more out there... I, and the heroes from my dimension, have shown you that there is more to conquer."

"You're right... you're absolutely right: I haven't really won yet!" Emperor Nefarious stated, as he understood what he was hearing, though at the same time Ratchet, Starswirl, and Clank paled, just like they figured that Rivet's group was doing as they listened in through Clank's communicator, before he stood up with a smile on his face, "There are so many different dimensions just waiting to be conquered by my hand!"

"I'd say 'good luck finding them', but I have something far better." Doctor Nefarious said, where he held a hand out and his dimensional counterpart found that he was looking at an orb with a number of stars that were scattered around it, or at least an image of something Ratchet and Starswirl had seen during their time on Savali, "All we need is a map."

"A map... the Dimensional Map!" Clank stated, as that seemed to be all of the message that the pair had, causing them to lower the device so they could realize that they would be in a world of trouble if such an item was allowed to be taken by one of their greatest foes.

"We found it in the Archives... they're going to Savali!" Ratchet remarked, though in that moment he made sure that the link to the others was open, even though he suspected that it was, because with how important this was he wanted to be sure he only said it once, "Rivet, Autumn, you guys get all that?"

"Yeah, we got it. We'll meet you guys there." Rivet replied, as she knew that Kit would be able to tell her and Autumn why the map was so special, but if Emperor Nefarious was after it it meant she needed to make sure he didn't obtain it, as it seemed like it might help him expand his influence.

With the conversation down, and they were sure the Emperor and the Doctor didn't have anything else to say, Ratchet put the ship into high gear and flew to Savali as fast as it could handle, allowing them to see that one of his larger warships were resting above the mesa as they landed. He and Starswirl were instantly shocked by what they noticed, the Archives had been downed before their arrival, another disadvantage of fighting someone who had the Dimensionator and knew how to use it, which was why they were grateful Tachyon didn't have this skill. This was also terrible, as the Dimensional Map had been inside the Archives and, if the machine had been downed, there was a chance that it was already gone, a fact that would make everything even harder since the Emperor would be able to go to whatever dimension he wanted to attack first. None of them needed to be told which one he'd target first, he was likely going to target their home, mostly to ensure that the Doctor was in his debt forever, though as they landed in the lower part of the mesa, near the machine in question, Starswirl quickly informed their sisters of what was going on right now and that they were going to check out the Archives.

Kit, of course, was more worried about Gary and the Monks, which made sense due to the fact that she had lived with all of them for so long and they were like family to her, where Ratchet informed her that they'd keep an eye out for them, as there was no telling what might have happened to them this time around.

Sure enough they found a number of Troopers guarding the area between where the brothers landed and where the large machine had collapsed after it's legs had been taken out, there was one resting on a ledge above them, to which Ratchet and Starswirl opened fire on them without delay. As that happened Rivet informed them that she was going to head for the warship, once she reached the planet anyway since she and Autumn had been further away from it than the brothers, since they might be able to catch both the Emperor and the Doctor before they got away. Once everyone knew what was going on the brothers opened fire on all of the Troopers that were currently in front of them, who had been expecting them, no doubt the Doctor having informed his new master of the fact that they'd be on their heels in no time at all, but neither of them paid much attention to that. The only good thing about all of this was that Starswirl spotted the barrier that he and Ratchet had deactivated to get inside the Archives, back during their first visit, meaning the attack had caused it to activate, meaning they could dare to hope that their foes didn't get the map just yet.

As they did that, however, Starswirl detected a dimensional shift as the ground in front of them cracked, a new rift being opened against it's will, another sign that the barrier between dimensions was becoming far too unstable as time went on, before they watched in horror as skeletal Goons, fueled by the energy of death, burst through the cracks and entered their dimension.

"Okay... Bone Goons, that's... new." Ratchet remarked, though at the same time he discovered that the skeletal beings had no love for any living creatures, as they hunted down the Troopers and also charged at him and Starswirl, but as the pair blasted them he made sure Clank connected to the others, "Guys, we've got trouble... the barrier between dimensions is getting even weaker, as we've got Goons from what looks like a dead dimension coming through to kill whoever they want... the only good thing is that they hate the Troopers as well, even if they hate us at the same time."

Kit theorized that it was possible that this undead dimension was closer to Rivet's dimension than all of the others, so by using the Dimensionator on Savali so much, a center of learning and using dimensional knowledge, it was likely that those figures were now crossing over. Ratchet really didn't want to know what life was like in the other dimension, even though he could guess that it was a universe filled with skeletal beings that existed solely to spread the influence of death itself to every corner of it's reality, before focusing on their enemies. The Bone Goons were just another force they had to worry about, since they didn't care much for anything that wasn't already dead, hence why the brothers blasted them as well as the Troopers that were still in their way, making it a three way war to get inside the Archives, or even reach it. What came as a total surprise was the fact that, despite the lack of skin and even armor, save for the shoulder straps that bared the emblem of the group and jetpacks that some wore, the skeletal enemies were tougher than their living counterparts, so it took a bit longer to wipe them out than they were used to.

In the end, after some doing, the brothers were able to take care of the Bone Goons and the barrier lowered at long last, to which they quickly rushed through the dimensional portal of the Archives and found an alarming sight, the Dimensional Map was nowhere to be seen.

"Rivet, Autumn, Kit, we're got some bad news: the map's not in the Archives anymore." Ratchet stated, as Clank knew to open the communicator so they could speak with everyone else, while at the same time he and Starswirl started to leave the Archives so they could scour the area, "I don't know if the Emperor got here first, or if Gary found out he was coming and moved it... we're going to see if we can find any of the Monks before we do anything else."

"Got it. We're closing in on his flagship right now." Rivet replied, where she, Autumn, and Kit flew through the air while she locked onto the side of the ship in question, as one of the good things about the Imperial ships was that they were able to enter the Emperor's various structures and even his ships, a loophole she loved to exploit, "Trust me, if the Dimensional Map's aboard the ship we'll get it back... if not, well, I'll take great pleasure in breaking it from the inside out."

"And if the Emperor or the Doctor are there, well, we'll take them down in no time." Autumn added, though given what was going on all over Savali, as the Troopers were scattered everywhere and seemed to be doing battle with their brand new foes, confirming that the barrier between dimensions was breaking at an alarming rate, she was sure that both of their targets were here, somewhere.

After those words let her mouth Rivet docked the ship inside the Emperor's flagship, allowing them to climb out of their own ship before making their way down the short hallway that was in front of them, though as the door in front of them opened the sisters discovered a lot of dimensional energy rolling around the center of the flagship. As Autumn noticed that the only way up was to use a platform, which Rivet agreed with, she noticed that dimensional rifts were allowing Emperor Nefarious' troops to move out of the ship and were currently attacking whatever planet the mad robot was after. The sheer scale of what he was doing, however, was alarming on it's own, because with the strain he was putting on the barrier between the dimensions it was only a matter of time until everything came crashing down, which they were trying to stop since there was no telling what sort of damage he was about to unleash. In fact Autumn was sure that some of the Troopers were currently returning from what looked like this dimension's version of the Great Clock, which, if that was true, meant Rivet's home was in dire danger, because if that detonated from the quantum strain, with the barrier in it's current state, the destruction the explosion would cause would be unimaginable.

Sure enough the Troopers noticed that they had arrived and were using the platform to move from floor to floor as they headed for the highest point, where the sisters blasted the robots that dared to get close to them, all while listening to the reports that some of the Troopers on Savali were giving their masters. They found that Ratchet's report was correct, there was an army of undead from another dimension that was currently stalling the Emperor's seizure of the Dimensional Map, or the Monks that called the planet home, to use as leverage against however held the device. At the same time, however, they discovered what Doctor Nefarious was up to, he was tracking down the other archives, looking for more weapons and other valuable Lombax information that could be used to further the Emperor's reign over this dimension and his invasion of the others. It was still shocking to find that the Nefarious from Autumn's dimension was so willing to serve another and was helping him by basically destroying everything in his path, especially given what they were discovering so far, though such a thing fueled their desire to bring the pair to justice as they blasted their way through the Troopers and ascended to the top of the ship.

Upon reaching the top, where the Emperor's chair was located, Rivet got ready to hit the robot, though before she could do so Kit realized something and tapped a button, revealing that Gary was sitting in the chair, restrained, though it looked like he had been meditating before their arrival and came back as they turned the chair.

"Ah, good, it's you guys. I was hoping you'd find me..." Gary said, though as he said that he stood up and it seemed like he pulled his back getting up, causing him to yelp in pain for a moment as he touched his back with one hand and held up the other to stop them from stepping forward, "ah, sorry, coming back to one's body mid meditation can be rather painful... ah, that smarts."

"Gary, what are you doing aboard this ship?" Kit asked, because she knew that he would never side with the Emperor, in fact the previous assault on Savali proved that to everyone that witnessed it, though she also had an idea as to why he was here in the first place.

"The Emperor and the Doctor imprisoned me here when they discovered that I had hidden the map inside an anomaly, one I personally designed." Gary replied, though while he talked he made sure to stretch his arms and legs, to work out the few kinks that remained from returning to his body before the proper time, before focusing on what they were after and what they needed to know to move forward, "They haven't found it yet, but they've been opening countless rifts willy-nilly to get to it, almost as if they don't care about the dimensional damage they are causing."

Upon learning that piece of information Rivet and Autumn informed their brothers as to what the situation was, all while Ratchet and Starswirl blasted more Bone Goons out of their way as they made their way towards where the little town was resting, when they collected the various Lombax Lorbs. Gary made sure to inform them that he had hidden the anomaly in the Catacombs, which they needed to activate one of the massive drills in the desert temple area, even though that meant they had to track down and activate three pressure plates to do so. Starswirl remembered where they were located, as he had spotted at least two of them during their time dealing with the Troopers, back during their first visit, though he didn't need to lend a hand in that department, as a large number of Bone Goons were guarding them. It was either due to them knowing that they were important or they had overheard the conversation and didn't want anyone to touch them, or this was just a coincidence and the undead were hunting them down to the best of their ability, after wiping out any Troopers who might be here.

With the sheer danger coming from the undead dimension, as there were cracks that the Bone Goons were using to cross over to this dimension, the brothers remained near each other while blasting the enemies that happened to be in front of them, since there was a chance they could be overwhelmed on their own. The sheer volume of undead made them worry about the state of the barrier, since Bone Goons were constantly pulling themselves into this dimension, intent on ending all life based on what everyone could see, though Gary did inform them that the anomaly allowing such a thing was the same he had used to hide the map in. That meant that if they found it, and retrieved the map, the threat would be sealed for the time being, hence why Ratchet and Starswirl focused on tracking down the pressure plates to activate the device inquestion, even though they were surprised by the fact that it was basically a massive drill. Such a thing made the three of them wonder what the Lombaxes had been planning for the device, or the Monks since they had taken the place over, but right now they focused on their foes and less on why such a place had been made, or what the purposes of the other two structures might be.

It took some time for them to actually track down the three pressure plates that were required for them to power up the device, but when such a thing happened it charged a small blast and tore through the ground, revealing the way down to the entrance of the Catacombs. Ratchet found that Glitch seemed interested in a nearby terminal and let her hack into it for a few moments, allowing her to deal with the Zeta Virus in no time at all, since that would allow her to deal with more viruses in the future. After that he used the nearby Boltcrank and opened the main door, allowing them to see the larger underground area they had passed through to get onto the Archives, with the rivers of green substance, meaning they had to ride some Speetles to get around the 'Aqueducts'. This time around they ignored the Bone Goons that showed up, instead they ran them over and found that it was easy to crush them with their rides, allowing the brothers to make their way through the underground area and reach what appeared to be the main chamber.

On the other side of the door the brothers found a large number of Bone Goons gathering around the massive anomaly, though in the following seconds another crack appeared and a massive undead Grunthor with large spikes on it's body, a monster that was far more terrifying than any living creature they had seen so far.

"Oh my goodness." Clank remarked, as this was far different than the one that had appeared in the arena, the one that Rivet and Autumn had faced, in fact it was far more monstrous than most of the monsters they had faced so far, which also meant it was likely far stronger than what they were used to.

Ratchet and Starswirl opened fire on the undead without delay, just like they had done in the past, though at the same time they knew that magic couldn't be used, since they were too close to the anomaly for it to be used, so their weapons were all one of them could use. Starswirl did everything in his power to make sure the Bone Goons were wiped out, a fact that proved incredibly hard to do since more and more were emerging from the rifts, which was why the Monks were in the middle of sealing the rifts, steaming the tide to be sure they were successful. Ratchet found that he was the Grunthor's target, it wanted to munch his bones and kill him, which was perfect because it allowed him to control it's aggression while blasting it as best as he could, and when several of the rifts closed Starswirl was able to join in after dealing with the army of Bone Goons. Once all of the rifts were actually dealt with, and the Monks also sealed the one that allowed the massive undead Grunthor to enter this dimension, the brothers turned everything else in their arsenal against the beast, tearing into the empowered bones that gave it it's unnatural life, before it finally collapsed and dissolved.

With that done the rift was sealed entirely, temporarily preventing the undead from breaking into this dimension, though in the following moment Ratchet rushed up to the anomaly and turned around so Clank could do his thing, while Starswirl stood at the ready in case their foes showed up. In the following moments they were caught off guard as the Emperor and the Doctor emerged from the shadows, using a cloaking device to keep themselves hidden, meaning they knew that Clank was capable of solving these things and had simply waited for them to show up. Before either brother could do anything to stop them the Emperor grabbed Ratchet by the neck and lifted him into the air, not hard enough to choke him, while at the same time Starswirl found that the Doctor had his blade arm pressed against his neck. The unspoken threat was real, if either of them even tried to resist it would be the end of one of them, Starswirl no doubt, even if they only needed one hostage to obtain the Dimensional Map, but both brothers remained still, knowing there wasn't anything they could do to stop what was happening.

Sure enough Clank was able to obtain the Dimensional Map, though as he claimed it Emperor Nefarious revealed himself to the robot and informed him that if he wanted to be sure their heads remained attached to their bodies, and not be sent to Torren IV, he should hand it over, though as soon as it was handed over Ratchet and Starswirl were thrown into a rift he opened a moment later.

"Don't worry, we'll be hosting a viewing party of my victories in Zordoom Prison!" Emperor Nefarious stated, sounding like he was on cloud nine or something, as with the Dimensionator, the Dimensional Map, and an infinite army thanks to his counterpart seizing control of this dimension's Great Clock, he had everything he needed to take control of all of creation, a fact that made him chuckle.

As he said that, however, Rivet and Autumn rushed into the chamber as Kit jumped onto the ground, where the sisters were knocked onto their backs as the Emperor integrated the map into the Dimensionator, releasing a burst of energy in the process, though since they hit some stairs it caused them to be slow getting up. In that moment Kit informed the pair that they should run, and that she was sorry, as she was looking at Rivet when she said it, before rushing towards her new targets, intending on putting an end to this. As the sisters regained themselves, however, they were too late to stop Kit from transforming into her battle form, which neither of them had known about since Ratchet and Starswirl had kept it in the dark, in fact they might not know of it either, before Rivet fell back. In that instant Autumn noticed the look in Rivet's eyes, she recognized Kit's new form, in fact she had some phantom pain in her right arm and verbally accused Kit of being the one who took her arm, something that actually made Kit sad, before the warbot rushed at the Emperor.

She blasted the Dimensionator out of the Emperor's hands, by hitting his arm, but as she leapt into the air, to blast him into oblivion, he was saved by Doctor Nefarious using the device to send her to another world or dimension in an instant, though as Autumn tended to her sister, to calm her down, both figures disappeared, but she knew that they'd cross paths again in the very near future, once Rivet was ready to move again, anyway.

Rift Apart: Viceron

When Rivet was ready to go, getting over the shock of the fact that the little bot she had been carrying had been the one to take her right arm and the flash of phantom pain it brought, Autumn followed her sister out of the Catacombs and quickly returned to their ship. Neither of them said anything as they climbed into it, where Rivet paused for a moment, her mind torn between defeating Emperor Nefarious and going after their captured brothers, before she let out a sigh as she made up her mind and pressed a button on the console. Autumn noticed her sister's chosen destination, she was heading for the planet of Viceron so they could assault Zordoom and save their brothers, including anyone else who might be trapped inside it, since there was no telling how many people were stuck inside it's walls. This time around neither of them said a word during the flight, as Autumn could tell that Rivet was upset and she was annoyed, so she left her sister to her thoughts as she considered what they were going to do once their brothers were saved, and Kit if they found her.

This dimension's Zordoom was darker and more foreboding than what Autumn was used to, in fact the sections she could see made her think it was more like a citadel of evil or something, though Rivet landed far away from one station, no doubt to keep their ship undetected.

"Its been a while since I've been to Zordoom... used to raid it with a good friend of mine, before she lost her life." Rivet said, where she remembered the last time she came to this place, which just so happened to be the time she was talking about, though instead of allowing herself to succumb to the memories she opened the hatch and climbed out, finding that Autumn did the same thing without wasting time.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Autumn stated, though there wasn't much she could say in this situation, as it seemed like her sister had already gotten over the event in question and that she didn't want to talk about it anymore than what she had said so far, causing her to face what seemed like a broken path, "Come on, let's go save our brothers and our friends from whatever devices the Warden has installed."

Rivet nodded, even though she didn't consider Kit to be a 'friend' right now, as they carefully made their way across all the junk that formed a walkway right to the exterior of the facility she had landed near, which was designed to dismantle ships that were imprisoned as well, to incorporate the metal back into the Emperor's army. Sure enough they found Ms. Zurkon in the first chamber and restocked all of their weapons, since there was no telling when they might find a chance to do so again, before rushing at the energy wall that was in front of them, slipping through it thanks to their Phantom Dash, which was one of the more useful gadgets Autumn had found. Fortunately there were only some of the small Troopers, as in the head ones, so they were able to take care of their enemies within a matter of seconds before Rivet approached a terminal that was near a ledge, one that caused a piece of the satellite array to move. Such a thing allowed them to use a Swingshot target to cross the gap in front of them and then use their Rift Tethers to cross the rest of it, drawing closer to where Rivet was sure their brothers were being held in, where she stopped as she listened to some Troopers that were around the fence from where they landed.

Such a thing made Autumn wonder how dumb the Troopers were, as they were in plain sight, there was nothing to hide behind, and yet none of their enemies had noticed what was going on right now, allowing them to listen as they quickly talked about the movement of the array piece and that everyone was confused by it.

As the conversation stopped, however, Rivet opened fire on the Troopers and Autumn joined her, though they found that there were some sniper foes off in the distance, causing one to focus on their immediate enemies and the other to focus on wiping out those in the air. Fortunately they discovered that there weren't a lot of Troopers for them to worry about, for the time being anyway, though the downside was the fact that Rivet discovered that the main door was locked, which came as a surprise since she had been able to raid this place multiple times and they never locked the door. That meant it was either a recent change or the Warden had done so due to the arrival of Ratchet, Starswirl, Clank, and Kit, but she did have an alternate route to take, which was using a nearby piston, which would launch them into the air, along with some vertical running walls to reach the air duct of the second building. Autumn found that her sister was correct, the path in question would allow them to get around the blockade the Troopers had set up, though as they did so Rivet found that a familiar kraken, one the Pirates called 'Bubbles', was here as well, meaning he must have been caught in the rift that had been used on Ardolis.

Somehow none of the Troopers realized that they were in the air ducts, allowing the sisters to carefully make their way to where the prisoners were being held and dropped down, finding that there were Pirates, Goons, civilians, and Amoeboids, for some reason, in the nearby cells. As Autumn took that in they found a cell that held some of Rivet's friends, such as the Phantom and a man who had to be Quantum, though their first action was to break the nearby Troopers, who were in the middle of preparing the incinerator to dispatch Clank. With their timely arrival they were able to save him from what was about to happen, even though it looked like the Troopers had knocked him out for some odd reason, something that also allowed the captives to be released as well. Autumn had to wonder why the Emperor had locked up some of the Morts, a number of miners, and even the sheep from Zurkie's, but figured that he was just insane in some manner and that there was no reason behind most of his actions, rather it was because he wanted to, just like most tyrants she, Ratchet, and Starswirl had dealt with so far.

"Rivet... Autumn... thank you." Clank remarked, as it took a few moments to regain full consciousness, where he found that he was back on Rivet's back as she and Autumn cracked open the door leading back the way they came so Quantum and Phantom could ensure the safety of everyone else, especially since there were a number of ships still intact in the previous building so they could escape.

"We weren't about to leave you here, even with the multiverse at stake." Rivet said, because he was important to Ratchet and that meant he was important to her as well, especially when she took Autumn and Starswirl into the equation, but she was pleased that the inmates seemed to appreciate being freed and were planning on joining her back at Zurkie's for the final battle against the Emperor.

In that moment Autumn, as they continued out the backside of the building, discovered that the Warden was none other than the Assistant, which was kind of weird given her position, but even as she ordered the door closed they blasted open a new hole in the window to the left and left it. After that they found the spherical device that held a honeycomb shaped item inside it's handles, the cell that Ratchet, Starswirl, and Kit were currently locked inside, finding their way to an area that was full of cages with energy bars, containing Goons, miners, citizens, and even a Grunthor. It really made Autumn wonder what was up with this place, since there seemed to be far too many inmates for one prison to have, even if there was a way to cut down on the number of cells that were needed, but it just confirmed that the Emperor was insane, which worried her more than she was willing to admit. Fortunately some of the other warriors came out as well and that allowed her to hack into the cages, allowing more Goons and Pirates to join the battle as the non combatants fled, meaning that a full scale riot was going to happen at some point, where they were pleased to see more allied ships flying in to save the innocent civilians before something happened to them.

Once the first wave of enemies had been taken care of a door to the left opened and the sisters opened fire on the new Troopers who were being deployed to stop them, opening the way for them to invade the building with their new allies, a fact that the Assistant hadn't discovered yet. Autumn found that it confirmed something, Rivet was seen as the savior of her dimension, people flocked to her side whenever they were able to, meaning they might be able to gain an army for the final battle with the Emperor, with her sister leading the charge. Clank had the same opinions, though he was amazed and disturbed by everything they were seeing, the scale of this dimension's Zordoom versus the one they were used to, not to mention all the people that were currently trapped in it's walls. Still, they were able to tear their way through the Troopers as the now freed Goons and Pirates joined the battle, allowing them to find one of the Juggernauts that was protecting the cell that their brothers and Kit were in, which fell to their combined might.

As that happened, however, the cell started to move and they had to use their Swingshots to latch onto a target under it, to which they held on for a few moments as it surged down a path and reached the final structure of the entire prison, as Rivet recognized it, before they dropped down and walked towards a closed door.

"Based on what I've seen, Kit must be very worried about what is going on right now." Clank commented, as he spared a few glances at the trio as they were taken away and knew that the other bot must be terrified, since she seemed to be in a sitting position while the brothers tried to break open the force field itself.

"Yeah... listen, Clank, Kit is... she's the warbot that took off my arm." Rivet said, showing that she was still thinking about it and that part of her didn't want to save Kit, not for the damage that had been done to her body all those years ago, while the other side did since she was important to all of them.

"A word of warning, Ratchet's likely going to ask that you forgive her for that... he's likely already figured it out, after seeing how depressed she's been," Autumn remarked, because that was her take on everything they had seen of the trio before they were taken inside the larger building, especially since her brother was smarter than he appeared, though Rivet just looked at her like she didn't want to hear about the issue, to which she held up her hands in surrender, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. Come on, let's save them first... we can worry about anything else after we've off this planet."

"Sorry, I... just get angry when I think about it..." Rivet said, because she knew that Autumn didn't mean anything by saying what their brother was going to do once he and the others were freed from their cell, in fact she was expecting Clank to say something as well, since he was the one who usually spent the most time with her brother, before she sighed as she focused on their mission.

The first thing Rivet did after that was toss her hammer at the switch on the wall and it lowered the door, revealing a large number of cells on the outer wall of a spherical chamber, while a large power source was right in the middle of everything, before they spotted Ratchet and Starswirl's cell. By following it they had to deal with the Troopers that were positioned here to be sure the prisoners behaved until it was time for them to perish, or whatever happened to those who crossed the Emperor, meaning more and more potential soldiers for the end of this war. Their foes stood no chance against them and their might, allowing them to track down the cell that their brothers were in, where Ratchet informed them that both he and Starswirl had checked their surroundings and found that it was unable to be opened from their side. Rivet sighed as she heard that, as she had a feeling such a thing was the case, before informing them that they would have to head up to the Warden's office to hack into the system, causing Autumn to follow after her as she tore through the remaining few Troopers that were on the other side of the chamber.

After that they made their way to a loading zone, where more creatures were housed in cages, finding that Ms. Zurkon had caught up with them and hadn't alerted the Assistant to her existence, to which they restocked their weapons before using some platforms and some oddly placed rifts to enter a large air duct that allowed them to enter the office that the robot in question was working in.

The Assistant, seeing them enter her domain, fled before they could crush it into dust, opening the way for Rivet to hack into the system to the best of her ability, only for Autumn to find that the Assistant had rigged it to input a self destruct code, destroying the power core and shutting most of the systems down. The VIP cells, however, were just fine, as the one that their brothers were in happened to be online still and moved out of the chamber it was in, but, at the same time, the sisters found more Troopers warping into the area to deal with them. As such Rivet and Autumn fought off their enemies with all of their weapons, blasting the Troopers before they were able to do much damage, other than break the window they entered through, and when everything was said and done they emerged with ease. After that they found a platform that allowed them to return to the area that the cell had been resting in, where a Goon informed them that no 'furballs' were allowed, before laughing as he blasted a power switch and dropped the barrier that was stopping them from walking into the room.

Sure enough Autumn found that she was correct, the Pirates and Goons swore to join the fight against the Emperor, even if it meant working with her, and the citizens did what they could to ensure that they survived, in fact, even as they made their way along the ruined path of the spherical chamber's insides, they tore down a Juggernaut so the sisters could follow after the cell.

After tracking down the cell Rivet found that her brothers had no other ideas on how to break the cell and Kit claimed she had none to offer, where she growled and found that Ratchet was surprised, meaning he was piecing everything together on his own, before the computer activated the 'Giggle Gas Protocol'. Autumn engaged her helmet as she started to work on the nearby buttons, while Rivet just allowed it to happen since she needed a giggle, especially after everything she had encountered so far, before the door opened. Such a thing allowed them to use their Hoverboots to burst down the rather long passage in front of them, forcing them to grind on pipes and use rifts to even cross some of the sections, all while Rivet simply laughed at everything that was going on. Autumn understood her desire to be gassed up, it allowed her to take some of the weight off without having to sit down and talk to people, though at the very least it was temporarily, and once they were out of the gassed area her sister was able to shake off the effects with ease, allowing her to focus on their current mission once more.

Such a thing meant boosting themselves off the edge with a ramp and a boost platform, before using a Hurlshot target to launch themselves over to the last platform in the entirety of the prison, one that was large enough for a large force to try and defend, while the cell was slowly being claimed by another vessel.

This time around Rivet and Autumn gave the Troopers everything in their weapons, tearing through them at a slow pace due to the fact that there were a large number of them and they were split up in smaller groups, and even with that there were more warping into the area around the platform. While that happened they could hear the Assistant declaring that this was their end, that there was no way Rivet or Autumn would survive what was going on right now, though they tuned her out as more Troopers fell before their might. Of course there were more dimensional rifts breaking open around the area, meaning Autumn couldn't use their magic to combat their foes, but right now the sisters were just fine without her being able to blast or explode the Troopers, even if their enemies outnumbered them. In fact the Assistant called in a pair of imposing looking dropships that seemed like escorts for the ship that the she was aboard, causing the sisters to split up and open fire on their targets, hitting them hard enough to do some serious damage that caused them to crash right in the center of the arena.

With that done the sisters regrouped in front of a Hammercrank and Rivet activated it, allowing her to turn and drop the cell nearby, allowing Ratchet and Starswirl to emerge with ease, though before anyone could say anything the Phantom landed nearby with a heavily modified imperial ship, with enough room for everyone.

"Ratchet, could you guys give us some room?" Rivet asked, because this was something she had to do before they left the planet entirely, even though the others wanted to fight the Emperor as soon as possible, where her brother simply gave her a nod before retrieving Clank so he, Starswirl, and Autumn could climb into the ship as she walked up to where Kit was still sitting, "Clank and Autumn said that I should forgive you... honestly, I've been thinking about that since I learned who you really were, and... um..."

"I am going back to Savali... I never should have left in the first place." Kit said, as she could tell that Rivet had things she wanted to say, all of them that she deserved since she was the one who had cost the Lombax her arm, in fact it amazed her that Ratchet didn't try to break her after discovering her dark secret, so she wanted to cut the unneeded name calling and accusations out.

"Wait, you're just going to leave and hide again? Now, of all times?!" Rivet remarked, which was unbelievable, as Kit said she would stand before the Emperor and help take him down, so the universe could be free at last and the dimensions could be repaired once they got their hands on the Dimensionator, and now, after her secret had been revealed, she was just going to hide from her and the rest of the universe.

"I am very... truly, I am sorry for what happened, Rivet... for everything I've done to hurt you." Kit replied, doing her best to dodge the question and just get on with everything, since this was the last time she planned on seeing them, even though she was sad that this would be the last time she traveled with Ratchet, "I... I do not make a good partner..."

"Well maybe you could be! If you had just stopped to help me that night, instead of running away, things could have been different!" Rivet said, in fact she nearly snapped at Kit for her remark, because she was angry right now and it was clear that talking wasn't the answer, not in the manner that Ratchet and the others were hoping since they clearly wanted the pair to patch things up before leaving this planet, "Or maybe if you just told me the truth of who you were, maybe I'd..."

"Why don't any of you understand? I am broken... I will always be BROKEN!" Kit snapped, surprising Rivet for a moment, as she certainly wasn't expecting the little robot to get onto her feet and nearly shout at her in her own depressed anger like state, before she turned her back to Rivet and hugged herself, showing her that the conversation was over.

"Fine... be that way. Go hide and pretend this isn't happening... WE have a universe to save... multiverse, whatever." Rivet said, because now she knew that there was no getting through Kit's mental state, she was stuck in a rut and there was next to nothing she could do for someone in this state, though as she started to turn around, to head to the ship, she paused for a moment, "I didn't need a robotic partner anyway..."

Rivet said nothing as she climbed into the ship, save for telling the others that Kit wasn't coming, before she blasted off and left Zordoom behind, leaving everyone to their thoughts as she tried to focus on the Emperor and how they were going to take him down, before he wrecked everything beyond repair.

It took them some time to get back to Zurkie's, where Rivet found all sorts of newcomers parked outside, Goons, Pirates, and all sorts of allies that might be useful in the upcoming final battle with the Emperor, which they had to prepare for now that her family was safe and sound, though she said nothing as they landed and climbed out of the ship.

"Rivet, we shouldn't have left Kit behind... she would have wanted to see the end of this adventure." Ratchet said, as he had been thinking about what happened at the end of their time in this dimension's Zordoom, it was the only thing that came to mind after everything that they had been through, and it just didn't feel right to leave her behind, even if that was what she apparently wanted.

"Ratchet, she's a dangerous warbot who should have been destroyed... besides, she said she didn't want to come with us, so I granted her wish." Rivet remarked, because she had considered the fact that the object of her pain had been near her, at long last, and all she did was lecture her before leaving, meaning if someone else got hurt it was going to be her fault, but as her brother opened his mouth she held up a hand to stop him, "Don't even mention that I'm 'afraid of her', because I have every right to be... she's the warbot that blasted off my arm and nearly killed me. What about you? You haven't searched for the rest of the Lombaxes because your scared of how they'll react to you, right? My fear makes more sense!"

Autumn, Starswirl, and Phantom stood off to the side, observing the twins as they argued, though this was something that they needed and there was no reason for them to get involved at all, hence why all three of them patiently waited for them to wrap up so they could head inside the gastropub.

"I didn't search for the other Lombaxes because there was someone more important to me that I had to look for... I had all sorts of Lombax experiences thanks to Angela, Alister, and our parents." Ratchet said, showing Rivet that, while he could have taken offense to her words, he was calm and willing to talk with her about what was going on, though at the same time his comment reminded her that she had been the one he sought for a long time, "Maybe you're right, maybe I was scared of the possibilities of what might happen if I met more of our kind... but I was more worried about you, so I was able to bury those potential fears..."

It was clear that, while there was so much more they wanted to say, the twins simply stopped and stared at each other for a few seconds, ending in them apologizing to each other before making their way to the gastropub... where they found more people inside the bar, including Pierre, Quantum, Gary, and many others, including some Morts that Rivet interacted with as a smile appeared on her face.

"Ratchet, Rivet, I know there are preparations to be made, but there is information to be gained." Gary said, where he knew that Quantum was coming up with a plan of attack right now, which the siblings would likely counter once they heard it, so for now he had something to distract them for a few moments, causing him to withdraw the special Lorb that Ratchet and Starswirl had seen not that long ago.

"The special Lorb, left behind by dad and protected by two special keys." Ratchet remarked, though first he removed Clank and handed him to Starswirl, so he could see what was about to happen, before he accepted the Lorb and removed his own necklace from where it rested.

Rivet, upon seeing what he meant, in fact it surprised her to discover that their necklaces were actually keys, pulled hers out as well before holding it near Ratchet's, where they linked together with ease, before they inserted it into the slot, causing a number of gears to activate before the Lorb lifted into the air and created a hologram below it, one of their father, who her brother recognized, and another Lombax scientist.

Ratchet, Rivet, I do not know if I'll be alive whenever this Lorb is activated, but there is information that you need to know, in the event that a Dimensional Cataclysm starts. the projection of Kaden said, where Ratchet understood what their father was talking about, he had suspected an attack was coming and this was his way of ensuring that this knowledge was passed onto them, which meant he had high hopes for them, As you know, the Council and I tasked Mags here with mapping the entirety of the multiverse, locating the positions of each and every dimension that's out there... it was during that mission that we discovered something shocking. Mags?

As you no doubt know, the Dimensional Map contains the knowledge of every dimension that's in our multiverse, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Mags, the other Lombax, said, where the lights dimmed on their end and a number of stars, just like what Ratchet and Starswirl had seen in the Archives not that long ago, appeared around them, where each dimension had a locational name and a nickname, no doubt Mag's way of keeping track of things, During my mapping I discovered the existence of a second multiverse, which we have nicknamed the 'Xeno Dimension', a collection of nineteen universes that, according to what we can see, if overseen by a child-like ruler who destroys whatever he wants. In addition to that we uncovered the presence of what we've determined to be a liminal barrier, a wall that prevents things from this multiverse from passing over to the other one... however...

A Dimensional Cataclysm... we're fairly certain that if such an event is triggered, it'll sunder the barrier and allow people to travel to another multiverse, at the cost of this one. Kaden finished, showing them that the brightest minds at the time had gone over the findings and knew what was at stake, which told Ratchet far more than he was expecting, since it told him why his father had insisted on leaving the Dimensionator alone until his friends and family talked him into restoring it so he could find Rivet, It's purely hypothetical, mind you, so there's a chance that we might be wrong, but... well, just to be safe, we're making this message to warn you two, and your allies, of the danger of such a thing. If someone is misusing the Dimensionator you must stop them, before irreparable damage is done to our multiverse... and before they do something that will endanger all of creation.

Ratchet and Rivet glanced at each other as the message ended, as this wasn't what they were expecting to hear, but this just confirmed that they needed to stop Emperor Nefarious at all costs, before he destroyed everything that they held dear in his mad crusade to rule over every dimension.

Rift Apart: Dimensional War

After listening to the message that their father had left for them, and retrieving their necklaces so they could be returned to their proper resting places, Ratchet and Rivet joined Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank as they rested from their ordeals, due to the fact that they had no idea what was coming up next, and, sure enough, Autumn had a new toy to show off, thanks to her talk with Ms. Zurkon.

"The RYNO 8, the most powerful weapon in our arsenal... well, mine anyway." Autumn said, where they stared at the three pronged weapon that looked like it was definitely based off the Dimensionator and her studies of dimensionality, so she understood how to make something that wouldn't tear the fabric of the universe apart, "I could only make one, given that the core is a shard of a Phase Quartz and there aren't that many left in our dimension, but don't worry, this won't rip the fabric of the dimensions apart, rather it will carefully open rifts, pulls in something from another one, and uses it as ammo for a blast that will rock our enemies... and the item will return to it's dimension as if nothing had happened to it."

"Geez sis, is there anything you can't turn into a weapon?" Rivet asked, because the weapon was impressive, in fact it looked more like something one would see in a holofilm or an Old Earth movie, but it told her that Autumn was capable of turning just about anything into a powerful weapon, which explained why Clank was worried when he told her about the other weapons in this particular series.

Autumn was unable to say anything as Quantum spoke up, saying that he had an idea on how they could take down the Emperor and his counterpart, though as he claimed that it was an undercover job, with someone going in as a robot to find him, the lights went dark and the screens switched to the Emperor's feed, which was dark right now.

"Do you know what that sound is? Listen 'closely'... is it fear? Hope? The slow inevitability of death? No, it's the sound of me. Winning!" the Emperor said, where the scene cut to him standing on what seemed to be the exterior of a warship, like the one above Savali that Rivet and Autumn infiltrated to retrieve the Dimensional Map, which was resting near Corson V, and the robot looked extremely pleased right now, while his counterpart held the Dimensionator, "You might be saying 'What else is new', and to that I say your quite right... however, 'you' are only a part of 'one' dimension, one universe to be more exact. 'What about the rest', you might be wondering... well, maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I think 'everyone' deserves a little subjugation."

The screen zoomed out to show that they were surrounded by an armada of ships, no doubt containing hundreds, if not thousands, of Troopers and hundreds of Juggernauts, an army beyond anything the siblings had seen so far, before the camera returned to the Emperor's side, who had some wine glasses in his hands.

"So to celebrate such a momentous occasion, I would like to honor the good Doctor who inspired this journey in the first place," the Emperor continued, where he handed one to his counterpart and they actually toasted each other, showing that Doctor Nefarious knew exactly what was coming and was keeping his excitement contained, before downing their drinks as he refocused on the topic at hand as the Dimensionator was handed to him with a bow, "by invading his home dimension 'personally'. Our first stop: Megalopolis... or, as I like to think of it, New Nefarious City!"

In that moment the two insane robots laughed as the Emperor wound up the Dimensionator before blasting the space in front of the planet, breaking open a massive dimensional rift, more like a dimensional portal, that lead right to Ratchet's dimension, which his fleet was heading through as the imagine finally cut out.

"When do we leave?" Rivet asked, because her brother had said that he would stand beside her and clear her home of the Emperor's taint, even if it would take them some time to do so, and now, with his own dimension falling under siege, she could repay his gesture by helping him save his home.

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl found that everyone in the gastropub, no matter who they were, stepped forward as soon as the message was over, showing the siblings that this wasn't a war they had to fight alone, those they had helped were here to help them save the dimensions, causing them to smile.

"Right now." Ratchet stated, where he returned Clank to his backside as he, Rivet, Autumn, and Starswirl headed outside, making sure to collect their collective arsenals from the desk robot, while their new allies marched out behind them, the leaders of the various groups issuing orders to get ready to leave.

A few moments later the group, having restocked their weapons beforehand, left Zurkie's, as it looked like the Goons had found Ratchet's ship on Savali and returned it, allowing him and Starswirl to take one as Rivet and Autumn took another, with everyone else using their ships to follow after them. It took some time for them to return to Corson V, where it was far too easy for them to find that the massive dimensional rift was still open, as if the Emperor was taunting them in his own sick way, like he was welcoming them to challenge him so he could crush them. With that in mind the siblings quickly flew through the rift and Ratchet lead Rivet down to his version of the planet, finding that the warships were already in the middle of their attack, with parts of the city having collapsed already while parts of the Emperor's version of the planet were in the middle of merging with this reality. It was a shocking sight, though it confirmed that their foes were insane, as none of this was fine and if things progressed too much more all of creation was going to suffer, though as they and their allies moved out he opened a line of communication with the city's defenders.

Sure enough Angela and the others were holding back the army that was laying siege to the planet, and more heroes were on their way to the planet to aid them since this seemed to be the only target right now, so he quickly sent the others all the contact information he had on the other allied ships, that way the defenders didn't attack them.

"Hey, Angela, you might want to call my parents as well... Rivet's home!" Ratchet remarked, as that was the one light in this entire dark event that was going on, he had found and had been reunited with his long lost twin sister, which would make his parents overjoyed when they heard the news.

Angela was happy for him, she really was, but she had to ask him what he and his siblings were planning, which right now was tracking down both the Emperor and the Doctor so they could recover the reforged Dimensionator they had stolen, because as long as it was in their hands reality was in jeopardy. After that he and Starswirl climbed out of their ship as he landed it near the area that one of their scanners indicated that the Emperor was in, blasting open more rifts to allow more of his Troopers to enter this dimension, where they readied their weapons before charging into battle. This time they had allies backing them up, as Goons and Pirates joined the fray without wasting time, blasting the Troopers while the majority of their forces went elsewhere, as there were more battles happening and they needed to stem the tide of the Emperor's army, least he overwhelm everyone. Rivet, however, had her own idea to grab the Dimensionator and Autumn was helping her do it, so for now they had to focus on wiping out the Troopers and the annoying sniper cannons that were with them, while at the same time Pierre and Quantum were meeting up with Qwark to discuss what to do next.

Fortunately with the aid of the other heroes of their dimension, combined with their new allies from Rivet's, the brothers were able to overcome the Troopers and the Juggernaut they brought in to take them down, allowing them to march up to the area that several civilians had been trapped in, who rejoiced as they fled to safety, a fact that caused the insane robots to stop what they had been doing.

"You know, I just remembered what you told me earlier: that these two, along with their sister, were the best heroes of this dimension," the Emperor remarked, though while he clearly wasn't impressed by what they had to offer, since he had been able to overcome Starswirl and Autumn with the additions he made to his body, he was overjoyed that they were here to see his victory as he primed the Dimensionator, "You know, this calls for a SPECIAL sort of annihilation! I've been looking for an excuse to wear my new suit, and you've just given it to me!"

Sure enough he used the device and both he and the Doctor were sucked into the rift, which was seconds before Rivet flew overhead on one of the flying lizards, as she had intended on swooping in to grab the Dimensionator, but now they had no idea where their foe was located. Autumn flew nearby on a hoverboard, again of her own design, as they searched for their foe, while at the same time Ratchet and Starswirl regrouped with Qwark's group, who happened to be headed right for the middle of the massive city, which had been turned into a battlefield. As they did that, however, Rivet quickly spotted what looked like a massive dimensional anomaly, though that was before she discovered the truth, it was more like a massive rift that was about to open, which is what happened as a massive battle mech, easily a hundred stories tall, burst out of it and let out a mechanical roar. Such a thing seemed to effect the barrier between dimensions as Rivet was bucked off her mount and sent through one, which placed her on a restaurant terrace, due to the tables around her, before the robot turned to face her as Autumn tracked her down and landed beside her.

The Emperor displayed his newfound control over the Dimensionator by somehow integrating it's powers into the mech, as he was able to send the arms and even the head through rifts so they could fire down on where the sisters were standing, just to show them that he didn't need to be near them to fight them. At the same time they discovered that the pincer hands had screens on the palms, which happened to be what fired purple beams of destructive power, that did some damage to the mech whenever they were struck, same as the glass of the head's eyes, but it wasn't enough to actually do anything, no doubt because it was made of Raritanium. While that happened the Emperor taunted them, mostly Rivet actually, by saying things about how she was no longer in exile and that she was finally home in her true dimension, just in time to watch it be conquered as well, but they weren't the only ones attacking the mech, as Rivet found three older Lombaxes, two males and one female, hitting it with their own empowered weapons. Autumn, upon seeing them, informed her sister that two of them, the ones in the more civilian attire, despite it being armored, were Kaden and Millie, her parents, while the warrior Lombax was Alister Azimuth, a close friend of the family since he was her father's best friend.

Rivet smiled at that, as she knew from Clank's memories that they were alive and had been hoping to meet them, though for the time being they needed to topple the mech and save the multiverse before that happened, and even when they did a lot of damage the sisters could just hear the Emperor taunting them.

"Rivet, Autumn, come!" Pierre stated, as he rode in on one of the smaller Pirate vessels, just in time to see the damage done to the Emperor's foul machine, before he beckoned for the sisters to join him and his crew on their ship, while another was flying nearby, causing them to make up their minds, "There is a battle to be won!"

As they started to move she found that Ratchet and Starswirl had stacked the other small ship, which Quantum was piloting right now, with enough explosives to tear apart any other ship in existence, meaning it was a bomb they were going to push straight into the mech's metallic face. Quantum had some words for the Emperor, saying that his 'campaign of destruction, cruelty, and wanton snobbery was over', even though it seemed like he had gotten a few lessons from Qwark and Ratchet just before they blasted off, no doubt so he could say something epic before this happened. With everything aligned Rivet understood why there were two ships, the two Captains jumped over to where she and Autumn were standing as Ratchet and Starswirl remained behind to direct it right into the mech's face. In fact Pierre had them move to the left and the mech head followed them, only to turn back as the Emperor realized he had been tricked, which was when the brothers jumped off the ship and fell into another rift, allowing them to avoid being caught in the explosion that rocked the mech, though it only did enough to damage the gem in the middle of it's forehead.

Fortunately they landed on an area that held a number of Pirates that were fighting more Troopers, though they found that he repeated the exact same attacks on them, using rifts to attack them from afar with the head and the pincer hands, so the brothers only had to repeat what their sisters had done previously.

When they did enough damage, this time looking like the shoulders of the mech were breaking, they were pulled through two more rifts, one dragging them to the upper reaches of where the massive machine was walking while the second just pulled them to safety, some rock platforms that formed a path that lead towards the mech. Such a thing allowed them to see that they had done more than they thought, the mech's eyes were broken as well, though as they ran across several of the platforms Rivet called, informing them that Gary had an idea to help them out. He and his Monks were going to open a rift that would allow them to enter the very core of the mech, the heart chamber, which should allow them to take it down, so the brothers dodged the incoming attacks and made their way to where the Monks were gathered, on some floating bits of rock at the end of their path. Sure enough another rift opened and they had to use Autumn's Hurlshot to get inside, in fact Gary even provided a target for them to use since they didn't exist in Ratchet's dimension, but the plan worked like a charm, they were able to get inside the heart chamber in no time.

At the same time Gary told Starswirl to go crazy, because with the threat of reality collapsing there was no reason for any of them to hold back, he even called Autumn to tell her the same thing, where lightning danced around his arms without delay as Ratchet took care of the guardians inside the chamber. He tore through the beating heart of the mech, using his power to shatter and break anything that looked important, where blue lightning danced around each side of the area as his brother made sure he was out of the way, since power like this could be dangerous to allies. The shell shattered not a few moments later, revealing the more important core that powered everything, where he switched to hurling powerful fireballs at it, dealing damage to everything around them as even the Troopers fled before they were caught up in what was coming their way. By the time the Emperor and his ally noticed was what going on it was far too late for them to take action, where Starswirl's fine attack caused a surge of destruction as several major systems were damaged, and Ratchet quickly called for Gary to help them, where a rift to the outside opened and they rushed through it before they were caught by the explosion.

As that happened Rivet, who ended up in a circular area that could serve as a arena, watched as the mech's chest blew up and it toppled before her eyes, collapsing with it's head resting a fair distance in front of her while an arm landed nearby, but after that she found that the Doctor climbed out and handed the Dimensionator to his foul master, who turned and glared down at her.

"You think YOU can defeat ME?!" Emperor Nefarious shouted, his tone revealing that he was annoyed, in fact he had to be outraged by the fact that he was failing to take over a single planet in Ratchet's dimension, while Rivet stared up at him as her sister got ready to deal with her version of the insane robot, "I will bring in ALL of my armies, All of my followers... you WILL bow before ME!"

In the next moment the unthinkable happened, the Emperor turned the Dimensionator on the skies above them and just let loose with it, blasting dozens upon dozens of rifts into the space above Megalopolis, something that caused the sisters to pause for a moment as they took it in.

"He's going to destroy the dimensions..." Rivet commented, though as she said that it literally rained Troopers on the area they were in, all of them laughing with their sick sinister laughter as their master called upon them to lay waste to those who opposed him.

Even with Autumn and Starswirl being allowed to use their magic again Rivet suspected that this army would be the end of them all, but even then she held her hammer at the ready, showing their enemies that she wasn't going to bow before the Emperor or his madness, and when one moved forward a bunch of energy bursts rained down on them, causing them to look up and find Kit, in her warbot form, as she crushed a Juggernaut with a first to the face.

"You were right, I can not run away anymore." Kit stated, showing Rivet that she had thought about what they had talked about on Viceron and came to a conclusion, in fact it had come at the best time possible since it meant their army had one more fighter to throw at the insane Emperor.

Rivet wanted to say something, in fact she was going to, though before she could actually open her mouth the air shook and she watched as a silver crack appeared beyond where the new rifts had been opened, causing her to realize what was going on, as it confirmed what her father said. There was a barrier beyond the barrier between dimensions, the Liminal Barrier as her father called it, and the Emperor's recent actions had just cracked it, meaning if they failed to retrieve the Dimensionator there was a chance that he'd destroy all of reality. As that happened more rifts burst open in another part of the city and they found that more versions of Nefarious, all evil by the looks of them, were marching out with their dark armies, where Rivet started to realize that things were quickly getting worse, the barrier was getting thinner as time went by and rifts were opening at an alarming rate. It was hard to tell whether or not all of the different versions of Nefarious were allied with the Emperor or if they were against him, though right now it seemed like they shared one goal, destroying the city and it's defenders, and one even had a mech that wiped out an entire chunk of the city, creating a flat ground for people to fight in.

As they took in just how many foes were standing before them, even surprising the Emperor to some degree, more rifts opened on the other side of the battlefield and near where she and Ratchet were standing, where she found a new army walking out, one that consisted of dragons, humanoid dragons, alien creatures she had never seen before, and several people like Starswirl and Autumn stood among them.

"Someone is threatening reality... how nostalgic." a voice said, where Rivet found a heavily armed person that looked a lot like Starswirl, only she had a long horn and a pair of majestic feathered wings that looked like they belonged to someone who was allied with death, especially since her armor, helm, and greatsword seemed to radiate death energy.

Rivet barely had time to figure out what was going on as the figure spread her wings and took off, flying down to the army that was gathering to face the Nefarious Coalition, where she noticed a few oddballs that stood out among the good guys, or at least she hoped they were on their side. Three of them were anthropomorphic dragons, two with purple scales and different colored chests while the other was a blue dragon, who seemed to be the leaders of the entire force, one looking like they were a mage, another a warrior, and the last one a aviator, before they were joined by a female black dragon, making it two males and two females, and two warriors as well. They were joined by an array of races, from fauns to what looked like anthropomorphic cheetahs with bows, along with anthro birds and slugs, even a rabbit girl who seemed to be a mage, as she wore an open robe and carried a trident into battle. In addition to all of them, including others that simply surprised her, Rivet found a female figure who seemed to be half faun and half dragon, wearing some great metallic gear to protect herself in battle, as she fought like a warrior based on what she was seeing.

After that she noticed another figure that looked demonic, a female goddess of demons she guessed, while another one, who looked like her hair and tail were identical to flames, stood beside her with six different colored wings, though both seemed to be the leaders of their own forces. Their army consisted of blue skinned creatures with hooves for feet, wolf people that seemed ferocious in battle, what seemed to be elves of all varieties, humans, dwarves, shorter people that had to be gnomes, and all sorts of other races that would make someone's head hurt. In addition to all of that she found large dragons, who walked on four legs and had large wings, and anthropomorphic dragons fighting beside the figures and their forces, blasting foes with potent energy blasts and bursts of fire, while even healing their wounded allies so that none of them fell in battle. That group, in her mind, seemed to be the most used to war, especially when she found large bulky figures, orcs she guessed, who were working alongside the humans, like a red and blue faction working together, all while their foes fell before their might.

Rivet also discovered another pair, one looking like a bipedal pegasus while the other looked like a bipedal unicorn, who had six small furred creatures near them, which seemed to be a cross between a weasel and an otter, only each had their own color, like a rainbow of sorts. Near them fought people with red, blue, and yellow armor on, in addition to people who looked like they lived in the wilderness of a desert, all who seemed to be very skilled in the art of battle, along with a fair number of odd creatures who had glowing gems in their foreheads. Their leader seemed to be a young man with pointed ears and hair that almost looked like flames, at least design wise, while he carried a gunstaff, as in a weapon that doubled as a gun and a staff, and wore some pretty decent armor and seemed to control the same powers as the six odd critters off to the side, with one riding on his shoulder. Not only that, but he carried a sword into battle as well, so in case some of his enemies got close to him he could deal with them accordingly, all while the critters held no weapons as they beat down their opponents, showing that they weren't to be underestimated.

In addition to that she found all sorts of other figures joining the battle, like a large robotic owl, a deadly one at that, who had an anthropomorphic pegasus flying near it, who had pink hair and seemed to be dressed like a thief, though a male racoon, with the same body as her, who carried a cane was using a jetpack to fly with them. After that were two more of Autumn and Starswirl's kind, who didn't have wings or horns, that wore some interesting black clothing and fought near a group of four high school students, one who had a blue energy bow, another who had some sort of odd fist weapons, a girl with energy shields, and a orange haired boy with a large sword on his shoulder. She also discovered a being who had no shirt on, showing off his abs for some reason, who wore black pants and whose hair and tail were pure flames, even if it didn't hurt those around him, with a pair of curved horns on his head, like he was a demon of some kind. That one had a pair of golden gauntlets on his hands, which looked like they would be painful to be hit with, though the left one had six indents that were filled by six different colored stones, which radiated power, and those who stood before him fell before his terribly might.

In addition to all of them she spotted a figure who seemed to be half human and half elf, carrying a sword that seemed unlike anything she had seen so far, a being who fought in another part of the city and ignored everyone else, though she had a feeling there was something off about him.

With all of this going on Rivet turned her attention to her own Nefarious, blasting him with her weapons while Kit took to the air, though she and the newcomers weren't alone as more Lombaxes joined the battle, no doubt their machines had sensed the disturbance and they were returning to set things right. Her foe, however, zipped around where his mech had crashed and did his best to actually avoid fighting her, even though he did use the Dimensionator to pull rocks out of one of the other dimensions and hurled it towards wherever she was standing, causing her to avoid them. She also dodged his energy punches, as there were instances where he actually did attack her on his own, though this confirmed that he was a coward and she even told him that everyone could finally see his true persona, a coward who refused to accept the reality of the situation, especially with the multiverse's safety on the line. What worked to their advantage was that he was angry with how everything seemed to be failing, almost as if Ratchet's dimension was where villains lost no matter what, though she didn't believe in that sort of thing as she blasted him repeatedly, doing everything in her power to bring him down, all while making sure not to damage the Dimensionator.

The Emperor, however, was still quick to anger and that meant if things went south for him, past a certain point, he was bound to do something stupid, hence why she was looking for a way to get the device from her foe before it happened, and she was able to knock him backwards, causing several of his counterparts to jump in and place themselves between them.

"While I have enjoyed this game, Rivet, my true prize awaits: the seat of power that will make me a god, to rule over all of creation!" Emperor Nefarious stated, where he tapped a few buttons and Rivet could see that he was started to overclock the Dimensionator, though at the same time the other versions of him paused for a moment as he said that, causing him to sigh for a few seconds, "One must stand above the others, though you who have come to secure my victory shall be rewarded with your own empires... my Lordlings, who only answer to my decrees... an All-Father surrounded by the other major gods that serve them."

"Please, don't listen to him! If he breaks the barrier between the multiverses, everyone will be doomed!" Rivet said, as this was the last thing they needed right now, the other versions of Nefarious to be bought by promises of power, since each of them seemed to have the same goals as her foe did.

They had no time to react as the Emperor, at the height of his annoyance with this dimension, did the dumbest thing he could have done, he spun around and loosed a powerful blast of dimensional energy at the silver crack, where Rivet and all of the Lombaxes called for everyone to brace as they anticipated what would happen next. For a moment nothing bad happened, it was as if the crack had simply absorbed all of the energy fired at it, but as the blast ended more cracks, all of which smaller than the main one, started to branch out from the massive crack before surging outwards, like a window being shattered by a rock. The following explosion caused her and everyone else to watch as space itself was torn asunder before their eyes, fragments falling like fractured pieces of a window, while a void rested beyond those pieces, meaning they were at reality's end, and everyone was forced to their knees with the pressure that was unleashed. The strangest part about it was that there was something on the other side of the open silver rift, what appeared to be a house shaped in the Kanji for 'All', which happened to be floating above the flat head of a massive blue jellyfish, though the area around it was flat and held nineteen floating stones, each with a blue orb above their heads.

As they stared at it, however, a burst of silver energy landed nearby, where her and her siblings found another pony figure standing nearby, who wore baggy pants, a sash and a collar, the latter having the All symbol while resting over an orange shirt, while she had an amber coat, cyan colored eyes, and whose hair and tail were red and yellow colored. Standing near her was a sky blue skinned male, who was shorter than her, wore some sort of dark blue cloth attire and had a light blue halo floating behind his head, and his white slicked back hair, and his attire was complete with a red sash and white boots, though his hands were behind his back. Rivet had no idea who the figures were, though the female did nothing and they felt that the pressure stopped, in fact she was sure that the Dimensional Cataclysm had stopped in it's tracks, allowing all of them to stand, though the Emperor, as she expected, was displeased with her presence. The lady barely turned, in fact she stood still, as something struck him in the chest and crashed him into the side of the mech's head, though she did lift her hand and showed them that, somehow, she had taken the Dimensionator from him.

"Of course, I should have known... the Dimensionator. Grand Priest, make a note for me to take the one in my multiverse when we get back." the lady said, where it was hard to tell if she was disappointed or annoyed, though she did seem sad that someone was threatening reality by doing something stupid like this, like she was some sort of creator god that was displeased by how people were treating their dimensions, much less their entire multiverse.

"As you wish, Lady Sunset." the male, the 'Grand Priest', replied, though at the same time he noticed that several of the insane robots seemed ready to do battle with them, a mistake in Rivet's mind since she could tell that the magic users she knew couldn't sense either of their powers, based on their expressions.

Sure enough several of them attacked Sunset, who simply handed the Dimensionator over to her servant before turning her head, where the blasts and rockets veered off course on their own and blasted the attackers, where Rivet realized that the figure must be moving at incredible speeds, to the point where she couldn't see her move. As that happened, and the other versions of the insane robot were knocked backwards, Sunset shifted her left hand and those who were hit by their own attacks were sent flying through the fragmented rifts they had emerged from, while their armies followed, much to the surprise of everyone watching this scene. She was capable of seeing which reality they came from and sent them back with ease, without wasting time or even moving her body to indicate that something was happening, which made Rivet wonder what else she was capable of, while at the same time her servant just stood there, letting her work with a smile on his face. There was some history between them, that much she could tell, though the attacking robots suffered losses as each and every version of Nefarious was sent packing in no time at all, until only two remained, Doctor Nefarious and the Emperor who nearly destroyed reality.

Doctor Nefarious, as they discovered, was captured by Ratchet and their allies, while Sunset captured the Emperor within a spherical prison that he couldn't escape from, though that was before she whispered something to herself and a purple aura surrounded the Emperor, who broke apart like he was disintegrating, until nothing of him was left.

"The threat has been neutralized." Sunset said, though at the same time she lifted her left hand and white energy started to gather above it, in the form of an orb, showing them that there was something else she had to do before they left and returned to their own multiverse, "Now then, a multiverse like this must be corrected!"

For a moment Rivet worried that she was going to destroy this multiverse for endangering all of creation, and even if that was the case there was nothing they could do to stop her, before she released a wave of white energy that washed over everything and everyone watched as they remained untouched, rather the energy touched the fragments and reversed all the damage that had been done to the multiverse, all in the span of a few seconds.

"With that much damage a universe had to be sacrificed to save this multiverse... fortunately, many of it's planets could be moved to a new home." Sunset stated, where she walked up to where Rivet was standing and handed over a tablet, which described the planets that were moved into this dimension and the list of races that called them home, before producing a silver key that radiated energy, "I would love to stay and chat, but I have a few people that I need to talk to before we head home... also, don't worry about the barrier between multiverses, as I've repaired it back to it's previous state, and I can use this to go home without endangering all of creation."

Rivet said nothing as the Dimensionator was handed to her and the pair surged into the air, disappearing as quickly as she and her servant had appeared, before finding that the rifts, true to what the lady had said, were closed, reality was fixed in the blink of an eye, leaving her and the others to clean up the mess before worrying about what the immediate future held for them.

Author's Note

For anyone confused, here's a list of characters that appeared in this chapter:
Four dragons - Spyro, Spike, Ember, and Cynder, from the Spyro games
Demon pony and six winged figure - Rainbow and Spitfire, with their allies from World of Warcraft
Pair with six Ottsels - Cozy Glow and Starlight Glimmer, with Sci Twi split into six forms and accompanied by Jak and Daxter
Pink Pegasus - Fluttershy with Sly Cooper and Clockwerk
Two Earth Ponies - Limestone and Pinkie Pie, with Ichigo and friends from Bleach
Death Goddess - Sunset Shimmer, Jailer of the Damned
Gauntlet Wearer - Tirek, from Dark Souls 3
Lady Sunset - Sunset Shimmer, Queen of All, from the Universe 13 series

Interlude: Battle's Aftermath

Following Emperor Nefarious' defeat, and apparent destruction since there was nothing of him left, Rivet was able to let out a sigh of relief at long last, as she had finally shown everyone that he was a coward and that his rule was something they didn't have to be intimidated by anymore. While she was happy to finally bring this long battle to an end, and knew that the Resistance would be allowed to disband at long last, part of her mood was soured by the loss of the dimension she had called home for a long period of time, even if many planets had survived. She was still unsure as to how the mysterious godly figure had been able to do everything she had done, sending their enemies back through the rifts that they had come out of while also having the power to move multiple planets into a new dimension, placing them in perfect orbit so nothing bad happened to their races, but at least those she had fought to protect were just fine. Even the planets that were part of a numbered system, like Corson V or Torren IV, had their numbers altered already, in the span of a few seconds, which was impressive and rather shocking that the figure had been able to do so much so quickly.

In addition to all of that she ended up sitting on Kit's left shoulder, as the two of them had decided to talk after the battle had ended, because there were a few things they had needed to get off their chests before worrying about the future, even if there were some people she needed to talk to.

"Rivet, our parents are here." Ratchet said, as he had given his sister some time to think about the information they had just obtained, in fact he was still trying to wrap his head around the figure's powers, since they were so far beyond what he was used to seeing with his sworn siblings.

Rivet nodded, as that was something that had come as a surprise to her, even with Clank's memories and what Ratchet had said before this point, where she slipped down Kit's arm, in fact it made a good slide when the warbot was still, and found the two Lombaxes that had caught her attention earlier. She couldn't help but cry at the sight of them, as she had thought for the longest time that she was an orphan or an unwanted child that had been abandoned, even with some vague and hard to recall memories of her early years, but Ratchet had burst those ideas to pieces and seeing her parents caused her to rush into their arms. Ratchet smiled as he stood there for just a few seconds, letting Rivet finally meet the parents that he had told her about, before joining them as well, because this had been his goal for the longest time, finding her and bringing her home, and now his family was finally put back together. Autumn and Starswirl, on the other hand, remained nearby with Clank and Kit, the former needing some work to be restored to his previous state, though they were happy to see that their brother was overjoyed by what was going on, as he had worked hard for this and they weren't about to interrupt, not after everything that had happened so far.

As they stood there, however, both of them glanced out at the other members of their kind that were still lingering over in the battlefield area that their foes had created, though the only one who was no longer present, save for the one who had saved both multiverses, was the Death Goddess.

"So, any idea who that was and why she was able to do all that?" Autumn inquired, because that had been on her mind for a while now, a figure whose power they were unable to feel and whose power was powerful enough to allow them to do all sorts of mysterious things, especially restoring the barrier between dimensions, moving planets to a new position in a new universe, and containing all the damage in one universe before erasing said damage in seconds.

"No... and I have the feeling we'll never know the truth." Starswirl remarked, which both annoyed and interested him, since it meant there was more to the universe than what he and the others knew right now, but there was a boundary that neither of them would be able to cross, a whole realm of knowledge that would be unobtainable to them, before he focused on the good news, "However, it does seem like we found our people as well... maybe we can learn more about where we came from and maybe meet our parents as well."

"Maybe I could be of assistance?" a voice said, where they found that the purple dragon mage was standing nearby, with the rest of his group of four landing right behind him, no doubt because one or more of them had something to discuss with them and Ratchet, though Starswirl found that he carried a powerful staff in his right hand, "Allow me to introduce myself: I am Spike, with my sister Ember, our brother Spyro, and his girlfriend Cynder... that's with a 'y', not an 'i'. I've spent some time studying the magic that displaced Ember and I, along with the magic that caused us to regress to a younger state so we could grow up with Spyro, and be the same age no less, and I'm fairly sure that I can undo the magical seals on your memories."

Starswirl and Autumn glanced at each other for a moment before deciding that this might be a good thing for them, since it was possible that this dragon knew them before whatever brought them to Veldin, though as they agreed with that their brother and Rivet collected Clank and the Dimensionator. Once that was done they backed away as Kit returned to her base form, allowing everyone to gather near where the other dragons were standing, allowing Spike to work his magic on them as he focused his magical energy and they found that the staff glowed as well. In the following moment they found magical runes forming on the ground around their hooves, forming a circle around each of them so the memories of one didn't mix with the memories of the other, though what surprised Starswirl was the amount of control that Spike held over his power, meaning he had to be an incredibly powerful mage. Following that thought he found that the energy formed blue cylinders around him and Autumn, which surged into the air, and he discovered that they had white bits inserted into the mix, no doubt to help the spell, where he closed his eyes as he allowed the spell to work it's magic, just like he knew Autumn had to be doing as well.

"That should be good enough: Memory Recall!" Spike stated, where the energy vibrated before their eyes, pulling closer to the pair of Equestrians they had discovered after finally uncovering the source of the cracks in reality, though he smiled as he felt the spell work, awakening the long forgotten memories that were inside the pair.

Ratchet and Rivet found that not a few seconds went by before the spell disappeared, allowing their siblings to emerge without delay, though while Ratchet could see that nothing was different about them he noticed that there was a ever so slight change in how they walked and talked. It was a sign that their old lives had been restored to them, or the memories based on what Spike had said, where he could see that it would take some time for them to get used to everything that had been restored to them, to which he handed the Dimensionator to his father before picking up Clank. Ratchet's first action was to repair Clank's missing arm and fix his body so he wasn't stuck in his backpack form, something that was easy for him to do since he had some experience doing this, in fact Clank trusted him enough to do so, but the little robot did want a golden arm, causing Rivet to chuckle. Orvus did show up during the work and helped link the new arm back to his old form, allowing him to take on his own warbot form once more, something that surprised Rivet when she saw it, not to mention she was disappointed that this had been kept from them since it would have helped with the Pirates, but at least he was back to his own former glory.

Orvus also offered to restore Rivet's right arm, since he suspected that she might be torn between keeping the metallic one she was used to or going back to her missing limb, where she decided that, for the time being, she would remain on the fence about it, though Ratchet knew she'd stick to the robotic arm. As he considered that, however, he also knew that Rivet might ask Autumn to either make her a new or upgrade her existing one to a new level that was beyond what she was used to using, where he was actually curious as to what Autumn made for her. Kaden and Millie, however, were fine with their daughter's decision, since it was hers to make, while Alister informed her that he wanted to train with her in the future, as he wanted to see how she fought with her hammer, since it wasn't a weapon that most Lombaxes used, which they could confirm due to the other Lombaxes they could see. Rivet asked her father what was going to happen now, due to all of their race returning to this dimension, where he informed them all that he would have to speak with the rest of the Council, as this wasn't in any of their projections on what might happen when the Dimensional Cataclysm happened, before getting back to them on the matter.

While they talked Starswirl found that the Plumber had returned as well, though he spoke with Gary about everything that had happened so far, but he suspected both figures would steer clear of Ratchet for some time, to be sure he didn't hit either of them for allowing Rivet to be hurt all those years ago, if he still cared about it anyway.

Once he and Autumn were done thinking about their old lives, in fact Starswirl was surprised by how many years he had to go through, they joined the others in cleaning up the mess that Emperor Nefarious and the enemy army had caused in their attempt to take over all of reality, even if it meant sacrificing an entire multiverse to do so. Now that neither of them had to worry about the dimensional damage they were able to use their full magical power at long last, where the pair did so to help move rubble or tend to anyone who was wounded, since a number of soldiers had been wounded during the battle for the multiverses. Kaden did have to correct one thing, Emperor Nefarious had been about to endanger the omniverse, as in all of creation, though he was happy to see that, in the oddest way possible, that their foe had been taken care of before he could do any real damage with the Dimensionator. He, much like the rest of the group, had no idea who the visitors were, the ones who put a stop to the end of the omniverse, and suspected that Lady Sunset was quite literally a creator god who had the power to create and destroy whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, but it was hard to confirm his thoughts since she had disappeared so suddenly.

In addition to that Ratchet and his siblings got a chance to speak with Spike's group as they fixed what could be fixed and helped those who were in need of assistance, finding that the four dragons and their friends, of which there were many due to the number of adventures they had been on, were the heads of a massive army. Spike explained the situation to them as they worked, as there was a gigantic demonic army, somewhere in their vast universe, that was apparently in the process of getting ready to invade their home planet, Equus, and the planet, somehow sensing the impending danger, had selected all sorts of heroes to displace. The goal was to not only solve the problems of the area they were sent to, the adventures that they went on, but also to gain all sorts of skills and allies so that when the demons finally attacked they would be ready to defend themselves and return the favor. There were plenty of others who needed to be found and convinced to return to Equus, which was currently what Discord was doing right now, as he was traversing the universe to track down the rest of the Displaced so he could convince them to come home for a time, at least to learn this information before returning to the planets they had called home for a time.

"Take Tirek, for example, Discord said that he's taken control of an entire world and has no interest in our plight... yet, if you paid attention earlier, you would have seen him anyway." Spike continued, as there was so much to cover and he could tell that Starswirl, at the very least, was following his explanation and even nodded his head, showing that he understood what they were being told, with Autumn making notes on the matter, "It stands to reason that he sensed what was coming and came to see what was going on, either to help prevent it or to gain more power for himself... given who we're talking about, well, I'm guessing it's the latter."

"He was ever the problem, and it seems like that's still true to this day." Starswirl said, though he wasn't surprised by this information, as Tirek was definitely a problem child, in a manner of speaking, and he was also expecting him to have plans for the rest of the omniverse, especially after the display of power that Lady Sunset had demonstrated, before something caught his attention, "Tell me, who are the strange humanoid dragons who joined the battle? The ones who are standing near the blue skinned individuals with hooves, the muscular green skinned figures, the little fox people, and the rest of the races that they're currently standing near."

"Oh, the Dracthyr? Recent additions from Azeroth, the planet Rainbow and Spitfire were sent to... we're still learning about them, so there's not much to tell you." Spike replied, which was the truth, Azeroth was full of mysterious beings and races that everyone was still learning about, even the displaced who had been sent there were still trying to figure everything out, even if it took some time to do so, and the Dracthyr were the strangest race yet, "Anyway, it seems that everyone has been accounted for and the civilians have been accounted for, so I guess it's time for us to head back as well."

"I can help with that." Kaden said, where he lifted the Dimensionator as the Plumber stood nearby, meaning they likely knew where to open some rifts to, allowing everyone to head back to their homes before they worried about the next crisis that endangered all of reality.

Sure enough Kaden was able to use the Plumber's knowledge of the dimensions to pinpoint the various worlds that many of the allied heroes had come from, allowing the group to watch as the Death Goddess and many others returned to their new homes, before Starswirl and Autumn braced themselves for whatever awaited them on their home planet.

Epilogue: Old Friends, New Futures

"Wow... this is your home planet?!" Rivet asked, because after the rest of the army had been sent back to their homes, at least until they were called upon to deal with another threat, her father had opened the way back to the planet that both Starswirl and Autumn had once called home, allowing them to see it for the first time.

Equus, as it was called, was a planet unlike anything she had seen so far, it seemed far more pristine than the others and all of the inhabitants seemed to be friendly with each other, as if it was influenced by harmony or something, before she paused as she found a city built on the side of a mountain in the distance. According to Spike there were many regions of the world, such as Equestria, the land that most ponies called home, the Frozen North that housed the Crystal Empire, along with the crystal ponies, the Dragon Lands, where the dragons and other creatures lives, and many more. He also told them that there were changelings, griffins, yaks, and all sorts of species on the planet, in fact Ponyville, where he lived, was the center of friendship, as in it was where races wouldn't have to worry about discrimination or racism, something that was due to Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the Elements of Harmony. Starswirl's ears perked when he heard that information, as he recalled meeting them at some point and it seemed like they had managed to do what many others had thought to be an impossible task, especially since befriending Discord was seen as impossible and one had succeeded in doing so.

Spike also went on to explain that they had set up an area for the portals that connected to the worlds that the Displaced had been sent to, or at least those who came back and didn't stay in their new worlds, meaning they would have to set one up in the Polaris Galaxy, which Ratchet and the others could help find a position for.

"Also, Starswirl, you might want to prepare yourself for the arrival of some scholars... they'll be ecstatic when they hear that you've returned, given all the knowledge you might have." Spike commented, as he knew that Twilight, for example, would have had a heart attack in this situation, or she would have screamed in joy before rushing up to the figure, though he also knew he would have been the same, had he and his siblings not crossed paths with a certain someone, "You're quite famous in this world, as 'Starswirl the Bearded', one of the greatest magic users in the entire world, who joined forces with the rest of the Pillars to do many great things."

"Yes, my friends are going to be quite envious of my restored youth," Starswirl remarked, as he had been the oldest of the six members of their group, seven counting Stygian, who brought them together to face the Sirens, so he was expecting one or two of them to be upset over his youth being restored, before he considered something, "Tell me, Spike, why haven't you overreacted to who I am? I mean, you seem like a scholar, as well as a mage..."

"It's because he's matured over the years... plus, he's encountered and has been trained by one of the greatest heroes of our world: my father, Malefor, the first purple dragon." Cynder stated, where she recalled how Spike had acted when he and his siblings first encountered her father, after a battle for the fate of their world no less, an event that would allow him to grow in power and gave him a chance to actually figure out which tales were false and which were true, only to discover that all of them had been true, "If you want a full rundown on everything my father has done over his long life, from fighting the Dark Master to destroying the Destroyer, than ask Spike... he'll talk your ears off for hours on end."

"While that sounds like fun, there are places we have to visit and old friends we have to see." Autumn said, though while she had no idea that Starswirl was so famous, in fact she had never known that before they were sent to Veldin so they could grow up with Ratchet, she also knew that he was more interested in seeing the world before worrying about what the next few days held in store for them.

Spike nodded his head as he glanced back for a moment, as Aphelion, the family ship, had carefully followed them after they used the rift to return to Equus, even though he suspected she could have flown here on her own, which would allow Autumn, Starswirl, and their family to dead out and do whatever they wanted. He, Ember, Spyro, and Cynder had already gotten some confirmation from Alister that they would be joining the universal army so they could deal with the demons when the battle for Equus finally started, and he was sure that people from Solana, Bogon, and Polaris would join in when the time came. As such he handed over a map of the planet, or a copy of what they knew so far, which would help them track down any areas of interest that they wanted to see, especially since it had magical notes to help them out, one of his own creations after studying magic in Spyro's world. It was updated with all the information that was available to him and the other scholars, even though there were dragons out there, from the lands of Spyro's world, who were exploring and adding new information every day, so they were always learning new things with every discovery.

Rivet quickly discovered why their new friends were fine with them bringing Aphelion, her father's ship as Ratchet told her and Kit, because there were a few crystalline ships from Azeroth hanging above the planet, reinforcements that were now on their way back to their own home planet. Ratchet shared her shock, as they were used to there being three galaxies, as no one had found any others, but this told them that their universe was more massive than they thought, especially since they had no idea what the other Displaced were up to. With the likes of the Draenei and Eredar joining the alliance of the worlds that were banding together to deal with the demonic threat, and there were all sorts of races doing the same thing, there was no telling how many galaxies there actually were anymore, something they would have to look into after making sure Rivet's planets were safe. He didn't doubt Lady Sunset's rather insane powers, since they were unlike what he and everyone else had seen from Starswirl and Autumn, but, since some of the people on those planets were important to his sister, he felt that checking on them was the correct move, once his siblings were done with their home planet.

Autumn picked out the first destination, a village located in a forest that was at the edge of the map, where they found all sorts of ponies that resembled her, as they had bushier manes that wrapped around their heads, slightly longer ears, all of them had curved branch-like horns on their heads, scaly carapaces on their muzzles and backs, thin tails, and tufted cloven hooves.

These were the Kirin, Autumn's people, and while they were surprised by her appearance, since she was now the only one of them who stood on two legs, they were overjoyed to find that she was just fine, as one day Autumn went out and never returned, to the point where Rain Shine, their leader, went out to find her. She asked them where Rain was and found that she was now missing, in fact the ponies they had asked had no information on her whereabouts, as if she had just gone out for a walk and simply never returned, but none of them had found anything in the forest. Ratchet and Rivet glanced at each other for a moment, as Angela and the others were back outside Ponyville as they chatted with the residents about what to do next, and knew that if Rain Shine was missing it meant she was likely one of the Displaced, one that not even Spike or the others had any useful information on. Even with that in mind Autumn and Starswirl asked the Kirin about Rain and what she had been doing before her disappearance, just in case there was any other information to be gained, before asking Aphelion to scan the forest for any other Kirin, since her boosted systems could do it with ease, only to find that all Kirins were in the village.

Autumn planned on coming back in the next few days, as there was so much she wanted to catch up on with those who were still in the village, but she also promised that she'd ask about Rain Shine, since Spike and those in Ponyville had to know something, and even if they didn't she would do everything in her power to find their leader.

After that they returned to Ponyville and Starswirl found a special group hanging out nearby, with a buff stallion who was more like a warrior, an elderly looking unicorn mare with a flowing mane and tail, a pegasus wearing silver armor that was designed to light for his speed, a pegasus mare who looked like she came from a desert based on her attire, and an earth pony mare whose hair was done up. These five were the other Pillars of Old Equestria: Rookhoof, the Element of Strength; Mistmane, the Element of Beauty; Flash Magnus, the Element of Bravery; Somnambula, the Element of Hope; and Mage Meadowbrook, the Element of Healing, while Starswirl himself had stood as the Element of Sorcery with them. They were, of course, surprised to find that he was fine and, more importantly, that while he had retained his memories, thanks to Spike's aid in the matter, he was far younger than they remembered him being, which could be considered unfair in the grand scheme of things. Stygian, who had brought them together to defeat the Sirens, was absent, as he was an author these days, writing their adventures down into actual books for all of Equestria to read from, and Mage informed him that Spike had a copy of each book, confirming his scholar status once more.

He had new stories to tell them, everything that he did with his new family and friends since it was clear that his older friends really had no idea what had happened to him, and he would do so in due time, though for now he had a few things he had to do with Ratchet, Rivet, and the others, causing them to smile as they looked forward to what the future held for them and all of their friends.

Prelude: Crash Landing

It was a peaceful day in Ponyville, which the residents had come to treasure, especially when dealing with the like a swarm of magically altered Parasprites, or when Cerberus left his post and the headache that followed, or whatever Discord felt like spreading on that fateful day, so it was easy for others to see why they treasured peaceful days. It was on such a day that the ponies of the town found Starswirl the Bearded, a myth made real, walking down one of the streets, who wore his equally legendary cloak and wizard hat, though he wasn't here to take in the sights, rather he had set himself a task and he intended on completing it. His task was to head into the heart of the Everfree Forest and investigate some happenings he had become aware of recently, though as he walked he found that many of the citizens moved out of the way and let him go about his business, as he seemed to have an air of authority, no doubt due to his reputation and the fact that he had taught two of the Princesses at one point in time. The reason for him setting himself this task was because of a string of disappearances that had happened in this part of Equestria, all sorts of ponies had vanished and some were important to the survival of their world, so he was trying to find some information before seeing if he could track them down and bring all of the missing back.

Of course as he thought about that he recalled the fact that Discord was using his power to move the sun and moon, just to make it seem like nothing was wrong, though he hoped that his task worked and that they would be able to return their world to normal in due time, which was incredibly strange and was part of the reason for his decision to do this, hence the reason he was walking towards the forest.

Starswirl also knew that someone was following him, as he had spotted a pony-like mare some distance behind him at one point and had pretended not to notice her, due to the fact that she was a Kirin, a race that usually wasn't seen outside the area that they called home, so it made him curious as to why one would be following him. Kirin, from what he recalled, had scales on their backs, their manes were bushier than what ponies had and even wrapped around their heads, their ears were slightly longer as well, they had curved horns that looked like branches, and had cloven hooves, or at least that was what he recalled about them. The interesting thing, in addition to her following him, was that she was hiding behind a few carts, behind a corner of a house, and a few other places that made the citizens of Ponyville raise their eyebrows, but they seemed to figure that she was no threat to him and that he could deal with her on his own, though most of his attention was on his task and not on her. Of course he planned on talking to her at some point, after he visited the cave that was his final destination, so he wasn't too worried about her following him and sneaking around like she was curious about what was going on right now, hence why his focus was on the street and what might be waiting for him when he reached the Everfree Forest.

Eventually Starswirl came to the edge of the forest, a large dark place that most of Ponyville seemed to ignore or stay away from for the most part, where he engaged his magic and caused his magical aura to form around his horn, just in case the creatures who called this place home came out to attack him and his companion, who had caught up to him and stayed as close as she could without giving herself away.

"You had best stay close, least the dangers come after you." Starswirl said, knowing that there were dangers in the forest he was going to be traveling through, though not a few seconds later he noted a bit of movement behind him and found that the Kirin had decided to trust his judgement, as she rushed up to where he was standing and stayed close, no doubt worried about the forest now.

With that done they carefully made their way through the Everfree Forest and remained silent, as both of them decided not to talk for some time, though Starswirl wondered if it was true that the Kirin had taken a vow of silence, to not speak and keep their emotions to themselves, but that was something he would have to worry about later, once they weren't in any danger. He expected there to be a few Timberwolves on the path he was following, given that they roamed the forest in packs, though all of the more dangerous beasts would be deeper in this place, far from the path he had been told about some time ago, though even a well traveled path made his wary, just to be on the safe side since there was no telling what the animals might be up to. As such Starswirl kept his magic at the ready as his companion glanced around the area that they were walking through, no doubt because this was her first time in such a place, but neither of them said anything as he head the way, following the path that Twilight's friends had told him about as he sought out the ancient castle known as the Castle of the Two Sisters. His reason was because the cave he was looking for was just below the place that both of his old students had once called home, before Nightmare Moon reared her head and Celestia had to banish her to the moon, so by finding one he could find the other and complete his task in no time, or at least that was his plan right now and it could change in a matter of seconds.

It took him sometime to find the area he was looking for, even when he followed the path, and he smiled a little as he and his companion laid eyes on a ruined castle that rested on the other side of a bridge, but that wasn't where he was going, rather he turned to his right as he reached the other side of the bridge and headed down a diagonal path that lead to the bottom of the dried up riverbed that once ran through the area, which allowed him to find the cave he was looking for in no time.

"What's so special about this cave?" a voice asked, where Starswirl paused for a moment as he heard the feminine voice and turned to face the Kirin for a moment, who seemed shocked by the fact that she was able to speak, meaning she must have taken the vow of silence like the rest of her kind, according to some of the stories he had heard anyway, where he could see that she was pleased by this sudden turn of events, "I... I can talk?! I can talk again!"

"So it would seem... though to answer your question, there is an ancient tree in this cave, and some powerful magic still sleeps near it," Starswirl replied, deciding that the best thing he could do right now was just continue with his mission and check out the Tree of Harmony for signs of tampering, hence why he continued walking and heard the sounds of hooves coming after him, though it didn't take him long to find the crystalline tree in question, "I would have to guess that being in the presence of this tree, so named the Tree of Harmony, has overwritten the vow of silence that you and the other Kirin took, allowing you to speak again, and that when we leave you'll be forced back into the state you were in earlier. I came here to figure something out, to help Twilight and her friends prepare for what the future has in store for them, and I will answer any questions you have once my task is complete..."

As he said that, however, Starswirl heard the sound of something hitting the ground and turned around instantly, finding that the Kirin mare had knocked herself out from all the excitement she had been experiencing, making him wonder how long it had been since the Kirin had taken their vow, though as he turned his head away from her, so he could focus on his objective, a wave of magic washed over him and he felt tired all of a sudden. In that moment he glanced at the Tree, which was either pulsing or glowed like it normally did, before a new idea came to mind as he determined what was going on, as he had figured out part of the puzzle that he wanted to solve, but before he could leave a clue for anyone who might come to this cave in the future, to warn them about what might happen to them, he fell to the ground and blacked out, falling into the enchanted slumber that had been pressed onto him and the Kirin as he remembered nothing more.

It was an ordinary day on Veldin, a backwater planet located in a remote corner of the Solana Galaxy, where the people worked hard to maintain the farms and settlements that were scattered all over their world, which was difficult at times since the ground was rocky and hard to work with, most of the planet was covered in a vast desert, and there were only a few bodies of water scattered around their it, which were protected at all costs, at least from some of the more dangerous critters who lived in the desert. Of course the size of the bodies of water limited the amount of people who could call this world home, as the colonies were tasked with trying to improve Veldin to the point where it could sustain like without too much hardship on those who would call it home in the future, but for now everyone focused on carving out a life on this planet and didn't focus on why someone would send all of them to this place. They did have to worry about the wildlife from time to time, which was part of their day to day lives at this point, but that was why each colony had a set of workers who fought back against the wildlife and defended their homes as best as they could, though there was also a building set up on a plateau that was right in the middle of where all of the colonies were build, a daycare of sorts so the children that weren't of age could play and have fun while their parents worked. Sadly there were times where some parents would fall to the wildlife and leave their children without anyone to care for them, so whoever it happened to would end up living in the daycare, which became both that and an orphanage, while some of the colonists cleaned up the residence that they used to live in so some new colonists could move in, as the one who watched over them and maintained a steady stream of essential supplies, like machines, usually had new people moving in a week after someone passed away, but he made sure not to send too many, given the status of the planet.

Today, however, was one of the more peaceful days for the colonists, as there were no aggressive wildlife for them to even worry about and they were able to do all of their work without anything interrupting them, though as they focused on their work in the farms, so they could ensure everyone had food and maybe store some inside their storage containers, one of the Helper Bots who watched over the children noticed something odd, a purple crack appeared in the air, like it was made of glass, before a small pod flew through the opening it created, where the pod crashed into Kyzil Plateau as the opening just vanished entirely... and before it could process the event in question a comet of sorts crashed into the area as well, to which it filed a report to the higher ups of the colony and got back to work.

A few minutes later some of the colonists headed out to check out Kyzil Plateau, as they saw the notice and wanted to see what the Helper Bot had discovered while it was working, though the group consisted of a robot miner, who happened to be nearby when they heard the message, another was a blue skinned humanoid who focused on protecting the farmers from the wildlife, and another was a feline humanoid with dark brown fur that had a few stripes on her arms and legs, and she also had sharp ears that looked like a fox's as her tail swayed as they walked up to their destination. She was a Cazar, a race that was similar to an extinct race known as the Lombaxes, though her species usually held offices of power, like in the government for example, so it was odd to see one of her kind in a colony, even though she was the Major who talked with their Investor from time to time when he wanted reports, but she felt that it was the best thing for her, since it was far more rewarding than being involved in politics. It was odd for something to crash into Kyzil Plateau, since the only thing that was in that area was an old storage shed that she was thinking of clearing out in the future, once they had a purpose for it anyway, hence why she was heading over there to check on whatever might have crashed into their world, even if it was on the outskirts of the colony, though what surprised her and the others was the fact that there was a pod resting in the open area they were coming up on, which seemed big enough for two babies, up to two years old based on what she was seeing. Near the pod in question, something that appeared to be made in the style of the Lombaxes, as their tech was unique in some instances, rested two smaller containers that looked like a basket that someone used to leave orphans in, even though they were big enough to contain kids that were the same age as whoever was in the main pod, which was a fair bit larger, though she had her companions spread out, to be sure there wasn't anything they had missed during their trek to this place, all while she checked out the pods.

What she discovered in the pair of pods were two anthropomorphic ponies who appeared to be two years old, as neither of them looked like horses in her eyes, though one appeared to be male and the other was female, where the former had a light gray coat while his mane and tail were brown colored, though the interesting thing she found was that he had what she had to assume was a unicorn's horn, a small one to match his size, in the middle of his forehead, making her wonder if he could perform magic, like the stories said. The female, who she assumed was the boy's sister since they arrived with the main pod, had a light goldish gray color to her body, with a moderate tangelo mane and tail that were different looking than what her brother had, and her horn was curved and looked like a tree branch, nothing like a unicorn's horn, though it was a deep red color and had two crimson lines near the base, though it looked like she had grayish green apple colored scales on her back, not to mention on the area between her eyes. When she turned her gaze to the main pod, however, it was in that moment that she paused, as resting in the pod was a two year old male Lombax, who appeared to be sleeping like the pair he had arrived with, his siblings she guessed, where she found that he had yellow fur with brown stripes on his ears and his arms, though all three of them seemed to have bundles wrapped around them, keeping them warm while they slept. She then discovered what she guessed were name tags on the smaller pods, where the boy's had 'Starswirl' on it while the girl's had 'Autumn Blaze' on hers, before she noticed an inscription on the Lombax's pod, written in what she assumed had to be the language of the Lombaxes, which was a bunch of markings that looked like wrenches and maybe a few gears, but from what she could see it revealed that the Lombax's name was Ratchet and that there was an 'and' that was followed by some damage, making it so she couldn't read it.

As she did that, however, she also spotted what appeared to be a small necklace resting near Ratchet's head, one that she knew he would likely come to wear at some point in the future, when he was old enough, before finding that it had what looked like half of a flat orb, cut diagonally in half, which happened to be roughly about half the size of one's palm in her eyes, attached to it, to which she assumed that his sibling, whoever that was, would have the other half of it, but that was something for Ratchet to worry about when he was old enough to do something about it.

"Mayor Brooke, what should we do?" the mining robot asked, who spoke in a male voice, though at the same time he did discover the trio of newcomers who had crash landed near their settlement, all while the Cazar, Brooke, moved her hand over part of Ratchet's pod, which she discovered was definitely set up to have someone else inside it, before finding what had to be an indent that she couldn't open, meaning it had to be for Ratchet and might open up when he was old enough for whatever was inside it.

"We'll take them back with us, so they can grow up with the rest of the children," Brooke replied, as it was the only sensible thing for someone to do in this situation, though she would have to tell their Investor about this discovery, just so he had an idea of things, especially since one of them was a Lombax, a race that everyone thought was extinct based on what the last bit of news from the Polaris Galaxy revealed to them, to which she reached into the main pod and carefully extracted Ratchet, as well as making sure to grab his treasure so it wasn't stolen.

As she said that the mining robot carefully did the same for Starswirl as the Captain of the Guard, purely a title since there was no real guard and he was the one who lead his fellows in making sure everyone was safe, did the same for Autumn, to which the three of them turned around and made their way back to the colony so the newcomers could be placed in the orphanage, and so some of the Helper Bots could focus on them while she and her fellows focused on making sure things were fine, though she had the feeling that things were going to get more exciting in the days and weeks to come.

R/C: Novalis

During the flight to Novalis, which was somewhat close to where Veldin was, the first thing Ratchet and his siblings did was take a moment to glance back at the planet they had been stuck on, since this just so happened to be the first time they had seen it from this angle, before Ratchet found that the little robot wanted him to pull his attention back to the controls and he did so without delay, just so they didn't hit an asteroid or something and ruin their adventure before it even started, despite the fact that he was sure that his siblings could break such a rock with their magic. After that Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn took some time to come up with names for the little robot, such as Silver, due to the coloration of his body, Clank, based on the sound his feet made when he walked, X-Jay, which were the first two letters of his designation changed to be more like a name, and a few others that didn't seem to stick at all, at least until the little robot decided to pick one so they would stop with the distraction and let Ratchet focus on piloting the ship. As it turned out he went with 'Clank', as it was unique and he was sure he would grow into it, in a manner of speaking, causing the siblings to acknowledge his decision before focusing on what might happen when they reached Novalis, since it looked like Chairman Drek would be attacking the planet when they arrived and it meant the three of them, four counting Clank, would have to be ready for whatever disaster might be waiting for all of them. Other than that Autumn turned her focus to working on one of her weapon schematics, which interested the newly named Clank since he wasn't expecting to learn such a thing about her, while Starswirl pulled out one of his books and continued his studies, in case he learned something new that might help them out during their adventure, another thing Clank wanted to ask about since this was something he hadn't encountered before.

Ratchet explained that Starswirl was a unicorn, hence why he could use magic, something he didn't bother to question since it was beyond everything he knew, and the colonists back on Veldin claimed that Autumn was one as well, though her horn and some of her features were different from her brother's, so while Clank was welcome to investigate the magic that his siblings used he also warned him that he might not get anywhere at all, before turning his attention back on what he was doing to make sure they arrived at their destination safely.

"There, Novalis straight ahead!" Autumn stated, as not even ten minutes later she found the dark green planet with green colored landmasses, making the former water and oceans, in front of them and it caused everyone to smile, as it meant they had reached their destination and she even had a destination for Ratchet to focus on, taken from the Infobot that had been in Clank's storage compartment, though later she intended to think about the vastness of space and that they knew next to nothing about the rest of their galaxy.

"Yes, now be sure to remember to extend the landing gear, after we breach the atmosphere," Clank commented, which was common sense to those who piloted every variety of space craft that was in existence, or at least he assumed so since his knowledge on the subject was limited at best and would need to consult someone to learn more about everything that was in this galaxy, before he noticed that Ratchet was sweating, as if he realized that something had gone wrong with the ship he had put so much work into.

"Yeah... about that..." Ratchet said, where he revealed that he had messed up when they left Veldin, as he had been far too excited by the fact he and his siblings were leaving the world they had been stuck on that he actually forgot to raise the landing gear, meaning that it was likely shot or totally gone, though that was when they heard something and Clank took a second to confirm their fears, that the broken landing gear had been torn out and opened the way for the ship to be torn apart by their reentry, which was enough cause for them to panic.

In that moment, before anyone could panic over Ratchet's mistake, Starswirl made his move and weaved his magic around all four of them within seconds, where he waited for a few seconds before teleporting them out of the ship, dropping them on a loading platform that was on a cliff that overlooked the rest of the crater-like area that they had been heading for, all while the ship they had been in, which no longer held any of their belongings and no one was inside it, crashed into part of the mountain wall that rested nearby, smashing it to pieces.

"Well, there goes our ship... I knew I missed something," Ratchet said, though he was annoyed with himself, as he should have known to raise the landing gear before they breached the atmosphere of Veldin, especially since their plan had been to fly around as much of their galaxy as possible before getting homesick and returning to their shed, or stopping Drek if that became a thing, before he and his siblings glanced over the rest of the sunken area that was in front of them, where it looked like a whole bunch of ships were attacking the planet, "Anyway, it doesn't look like we'll be leaving the same way we entered... which means finding another ship and convincing the locals to give it up."

"Not to mention finding some clues for when we find Captain Qwark," Autumn remarked, where she glanced at the area all of them were in and found three paths for them to take, one that went into the waterworks to their right, one that seemed to head into the caves behind them, and a lift that headed down into the more open area, which seemed to be where the attacking forces were focusing on at the moment, before she spotted a Gadgetron Vendor nearby, a blue cube that used a hologram to display what was available right now, "So, what should we do now?"

"I would suggest seeing what's in the waterworks, in case anyone is in need of help, before striking down Drek's forces and seeing what we can learn from it," Starswirl suggested, because for some reason he knew that someone was inside the waterworks, though how he knew that he really had no idea, and given the message they had been show it sounded like Drek wanted anything and everything from all of the planets that he planned on attacking, to make his world perfect, and it seemed like a sewer system might be one of those things.

Ratchet agreed with the idea and found that Clank was staring at the back of his harness, possibly the odd hexagon, so he figured that Clank knew about what he had done after his ship crashed into Veldin and shifted his stance so Clank could jump up onto his back, transforming into the smaller backpack form so he could move without making them worry about him, though once that was done the siblings turned towards the Vendor, as a new weapon or two might be useful since it looked like they would be dealing with enemies soon. Autumn discovered that the Pyrociter, basically a flamethrower that held a decent bit of power, something she built after witnessing a spell Starswirl used in the past and she had sort of used a few times as well, was available and that their discounts were definitely in play for the weapons and ammunition, so they had enough Bolts for Ratchet to buy one without actually having to worry about making a dent in their savings, and even she and Starswirl purchased one each. Clank inquired why they felt the need to buy such a weapon when they had magic to aid them, accepting it more quickly than Ratchet had, though Ratchet informed him that it was just in case either of his siblings burned through their magical energy, something that caused the little robot to nod his head before they headed inside the metallic entrance of the waterworks at long last, finding a steam of water leading to a drain in front of them, not to mention a few rock platforms that lead to a doorway. Of course the fighting going on caused some of the stalactites to fall and create a few more areas to jump on, which they used without delay and then jumped on a pair of pistons to reach the doorway, finding a small square shaped chamber with a pair of small bird shared robots, Peckbots anyway, though the pair were taken down with a single hit of their melee weapons and it allowed them to ransack the stack of crates that was resting near them, before heading up through a set of stairs to reach a slightly smaller chamber.

Inside it stood two large robots that had bird heads, so Birdbots, who took two hits to take down, meaning they were more durable than the enemies they had faced so far, before they used a piston to reach a short hallway that lead to a far larger chamber, which didn't have any foes for them to take down and proved to be rather easy to cross, especially with Starswirl using his magic to form walkways over the gaps that allowed water to move through this area, before using another pair of pistons to reach a metallic path that lead to a set of doors, which brought them to what appeared to be a high point that overlooked all of the crater.

"Someone's actually up here?" Autumn inquired, because on the other side of the second door they found a person who had gray skin and seemed to be dressed up as a plumber, though she, along with Starswirl, realized that the figure in front of them was different than the people they had seen on Veldin, but what that something was she had no idea, while both of her siblings nodded their heads for a moment, because when they decided to check this place out none of them had suspected that someone would actually be up here.

"What's that?" the plumber asked, where he straightened himself for a moment, as he had been working on the machine that was in front of him, before turning around to look at them, allowing them to see that he had a brown mustache and a short brown beard, while at the same time he stared at all three of them for a few seconds, something that lead to him actually pulling out a few pieces of paper, "I was only expecting two of you to show up... the other two are a nice surprise, given how everything's been going lately, though it means the script has changed... that's going to cause some problems down the line... oh, and she's fine, my dear Lombax."

"She is?!" Ratchet said, though as he said that he reached up to his neck for a moment and touched the necklace again, as he instantly had an idea as to who the plumber was talking about, causing Starswirl and Autumn to remember what all of them had been told, that Ratchet landed in a pod designed for two individuals, himself and a sister, though they only now knew the gender of his missing sibling thanks to the person in front of them, which caused him to glance up for a moment as he considered something, "Wait, you know where she is? Tell me... please."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, son. I may be the Plumber, but there are certain things you aren't ready to know," the figure, or the Plumber as he called himself, replied, something that clearly devastated Ratchet, as this was the first person they had found that knew something, anything, about his missing sibling and he was refusing to say anything on the matter, only that she was fine, wherever she was at the moment, which did give him a glimmer of hope, "I'm sorry that I cannot be of more help, but right now none of you are ready for the answers that you want... you'll be ready in no time, once all is said and done."

Since it was clear that the Plumber had no information for them, at least on Ratchet's missing sister, Starswirl asked why he hadn't left the planet yet and the man replied that it was due to socioeconomic disparity, meaning he didn't have the Bolts needed to leave on the transports, which was odd considering he knew where to find their missing sibling, since both Starswirl and Autumn considered Ratchet's sister to be theirs as well, before Autumn transferred the five hundred Bolts he needed into his account. Such a thing put them in his good graces and earned them something in return, an Infobot for one of the other planets in their galaxy, causing him to depart once it was in their hands, even if he headed down one of the large pipes they had passed over to get to this window filled area, before the Infobot revealed that it was for a planet that was called Aridia, Outpost X11 to be exact, and that it happened to be where Skid McMarx, a pro Hoverboarder that Ratchet knew from the news, had crashed. As they retraced their steps back to the entrance of this area, so they could see to the invading force, Ratchet informed Clank that while it was unlikely that Skid knew Captain Qwark, given that one was a hero and the other was a sport person, heading to Aridia might earn them something that would aid them in their quest to find Qwark, like a weapon or gadget, but first they needed to find a ship, and if that brought them to a planet that was of more importance than Aridia he promised Clank they could check it out first, before tending to Skid. With that done they finished retracing their steps and came to a stop near the Gadgetron Vendor for a few seconds, as they had to wait for the lift to come up so they could take it down to the battlefield that was raging below them, where a large number of Peckbots and Birdbots happened to be attacking the city that was in this area, unaware of the danger that they were in, hence why the siblings readied their weapons and assaulted their enemies.

Clank, being the newest member of the group, had to wonder who was so important to Ratchet that he would temporarily forget about Qwark and their mission, though he quickly learned why the siblings were able to beat the robots that had chased him to Veldin, not counting the magical powers that two of them had access to, as Starswirl spun his staff around while occasionally tossing bombs at his targets, Ratchet smashed any who dared to get near him as he either bombed his foes or flamed them with his new weapon, and Autumn stayed back to study their fallen enemies and how they worked, all in the name of new weapons for the future. Sure enough he found that Drek's forces weren't enough to stop Ratchet or his siblings from making their way around the town that was under attack, even if they had to be the weakest ones he had at the moment, especially when he considered all of the magical abilities that Starswirl and Autumn had, given that one seemed to be a master of multiple elements and one seemed to be good with fire, or at least he thought that was the case since Autumn had only used flames so far. Starswirl, on the other hand, took advantage of the river they happened to be fighting near and channeled some of the water into icy spears that took down several Birdbots, though that was around the time that they found a set of platforms that lead to a bridge, one that had holes in it from a ship blasting it a few times before Ratchet and his siblings reached it, but that didn't stop Starswirl from using the river to create hands of ice that he used to crush the ship in question. With that done they crossed the bridge, taking down a few more Birdbots and some of the Peckbots, before reaching another set of steps on the other side of the town that was under attack, on the other side of the river to be exact, causing the siblings to go on the offensive once more as they smashed their way through the few remaining enemies that were in front of them, making their way to a crater that happened to have a rectangular ship, and a few Birdbots, land a few seconds later.

In the following moments Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn smashed through the remaining enemies that were in the area, something that allowed the ship to open its main door and reveal an elderly person who was male and seemed to be one of important status, given his attire and rather impressive looking cloak, and he happened to have a cane that helped him walk, though he did seem surprised when he saw the three of them, four counting Clank since he had jumped onto the ground for a time, staring at him.

"Don't hurt me, please!" the Novalis Chairman exclaimed, showing that he was terrified of them and that he didn't want to be attacked by them, no doubt thinking that they were enemies of his planet or something, especially since he hadn't seen them fight Drek's forces and save this part of Novalis, all while an Infobot floated behind him as he stared at them, which might help them with their adventure, "What are you people? Mercenaries? Torturers? Assassins? I'll tell you anything you want to know! Here, take my infobot, it's all I got left!"

"Look, we're not working for Drek, if that's what your thinking... not that we can use your Infobot, since our ship has been destroyed and we can't leave Novalis." Ratchet replied, as he figured telling the Chairman the truth was the best course of action, because it might convince him to aid them in their adventure in some manner, even if he didn't like admitting this was all his fault since he had forgotten to raise the landing gear on their own ship, a mistake he would endeavor to never make again, if they left this planet anyway.

The Novalis Chairman, either not getting what Ratchet was saying or wanted to think him for their efforts, granted them a ship to use, a courier ship according to his words, which landed on the landing pad they had crashed near earlier, and he also handed over the Infobot before heading back into his ship, allowing them to see that the Infobot had the coordinates for Metropolis, after showing a commercial for Qwark advertising Al's Roboshack in the city in question, which meant they might have a chance to meet the Captain in Metropolis, or at least gain more information from Al. With that done Ratchet and his siblings made their way over the metallic walkway that extended as soon as the Chairman was safe, allowing them to use the lift to head up to where their new ship was waiting for them, a green ship that was slightly longer than the one Ratchet had made and was a little thicker in both directions, though it held enough room for all four of them, so Starswirl and Autumn climbed in back as Ratchet and Clank took their pilot seats, before taking off and heading for Metropolis, on the planet of Kerwan, to hopefully find Captain Qwark and give him the news.

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.

Commando: Maktar Resort

As Ratchet made his way to the Maktar Resort, so they could take out the jamming array the Thugs had set up and see if they could find some new information on where the Thief might have gone, he found himself wondering what Clank was up to, since it was odd for him and his siblings to be on an adventure without their friend, especially after everything that had been through so far, before sighing as he focused on the mission. Starswirl continued his studies on magic, just to see if he could learn anything new from it, while at the same time Autumn was already starting up her tablet and already had a few piles open, the third generation of weapons for Gadgetron, as being in Bogon was inspiring her and she couldn't wait to see the look on Wendell's face when he saw what sort of weapons she had come up with during their time in this galaxy. Of course Ratchet wasn't too surprised to see that she was already creating a file for the RYNO 3, or the RY3NO as the file seemed to be called, though it made him wonder if they would find and claim the second one at some point in time, since he had to assume she had created one at some point in time, with Gadgetron making it for her, even if she didn't have it at the moment. It did make him wonder if Megacorp had a weapon that was inspired by Gadgetron's most powerful, not to mention highly dangerous, rocket launcher, and if they could get their hands on it at some point in time, though he knew they would figure that out in due time, since such a powerful weapon wouldn't be given to them in the early stages of their mission for Mr. Fizzwidget.

When they got close to the Resort, however, Ratchet discovered that the Thugs were waiting for them and ambushed him and his siblings when he flew towards an asteroid field, to which he grinned as he altered his course for a moment, where Starswirl and Autumn found that he was luring them into a dangerous area before he opened fire on the Thugs, though it meant that those that followed him in had to avoid his blasts and the asteroids to survive. This allowed Ratchet to prove that he was the better pilot as he flew around the asteroids, using each and every one of them for cover as Autumn found some Raritanium inside one of the floating pieces of space ice that Ratchet used as cover, before he took down one of the ships that was trying to take him down, to which she teleported it into the space in front of her as Starswirl used his power to form ships to protect them. Based on what the siblings were seeing right now it looked like the Thugs came with two waves of ships for Ratchet to take down, the first one that he was currently dealing with, and decimating with ease, while the second one was on their way, though it didn't take him all that long to break down the first set of foes and then focus on the other set that happened to be heading towards them. Sure enough he found that none of their enemies had even learned anything from how he took down the first set of enemies, meaning Ratchet was able to open fire on the Thugs that were coming at him without them really doing much to his ship in return, and once the second wave was wiped out, and he was sure of that, Autumn finished collecting the Raritanium before they headed for the resort.

A few moments later they landed on the outskirts of the resort and Ratchet switched off the ship, where they found that there was no need for any of them to worry about oxygen, as there seemed to be an atmosphere of sorts being created for everyone that happened to be here, be they visitors or employees, to which they stood there for a moment as each of them looked out at the station.

"So this is Maktar Resort... seems like a nice place." Ratchet remarked, though at the same time he found that there were two paths for them to take, would have been three if the middle one was open, and based on what they could see the one on the left seemed to head towards the arena, which he was interested in, while the right one seemed to head to a ship that would bring them to the jamming array, "So, take out the array first and deal with whatever the arena has once we're done with that?"

"Sounds like a plan." Starswirl replied, where he stopped looking at the Vendor, as there were no new weapons and they were able to restock the ammunition they had spent back on Oozla, before finding a Thug waiting down in the area that was just beyond where Ratchet had landed, who he blasted into some explosives behind his target and took him out, but as soon as that was done they headed to the right and followed the path in question.

As the siblings headed down the right path, and headed for the ship that would take them to the jamming array ship, they found some small light blue robots that reminded them of several enemies they had faced during their first adventure, like the robotic mutts for example, only these ones had two legs and seemed to bit at whoever they deemed to be enemies of their master, which included them since they were enemies of the Thugs. Fortunately the ankle biters were easy to take out, as in a single blast from one of their weapons, like the Lancer or Chopper, was more than enough to wipe them out in a matter of seconds before they moved down the walkway that was in front of them, before finding an opening that was plugged by a large cylinder, which also had a Tractor Beam icon on it, to which Autumn stepped forward. She had quickly tinkered with both her Tractor Beam and Dynamo during the flight to this station, finding that Megacorp had messed up in making their gadgets and weapons, as she was able to make several modifications without any alarms coming up, to which she created a cylindrical shaped item that integrated with her armor, allowing her to use either gadget without having to actually pull out the items in question. Such a thing allowed Autumn to fire a beam of Tractor energy and move the object out of the way, impressing both Ratchet and Starswirl, even though they had been expecting such a thing given her track record, before they headed inside the building that had been blocked and resumed exploring the path they had picked out after landing at this station.

On the other side of the opening they found a locked door that could only be opened by forcing a red robot to stand on a pad, using the Tractor Beam, so Starswirl did that so Ratchet and Autumn could head down the path that was opened not a few seconds later, finding a spherical bomb nearby and a passage that had some ankle biters inside it, to which Autumn opened fire on their enemies. As she did that Ratchet moved the bomb down to the other side of the passage and allowed it to blow through the door that was in their way, finding a Thug on the other end that he blasted into one of the walls so his siblings could catch up to him, before discovering that they had to launch the inspector bot up to another door, hence why they waited for a few seconds so it could catch up with them. Once it was nearby Autumn latched onto it with her new gadget, which she would have to name at some point, before launching it up to the door, where it unlocked the door and let them climb up a ladder to reach it, even though they then headed down a passage and blasted their way through a few ankle biters, not to mention a Thug after that, bringing them to a chamber that had a sealed door. Fortunately there was a passage to their left that allowed one of them to track down a bomb and bring it back over to the obstacle, hence why this time it was Starswirl's turn to do so and he wiped out the obstacle in a few seconds, allowing them to see that they were near the ship they had seen earlier, before discovering that they had to remove four floating devices that happened to be powering a barrier of some kind.

As such the siblings took a few seconds to launch the explosives at the generators and take down the barrier, though once that was done they climbed into the ship and let it take them out to where the Thugs set up the jamming array some time ago, a small spherical rock, either a very small moon or a decent sized asteroid, that had all sorts of machinery and several towers resting all over the place, though before they left the ship the siblings made sure to activate their O2 Masks.

Once they did that the siblings started to explore the jamming array, finding that the ship had landed in front of one of the power towers, to which Starswirl opened fire on all of the ankle biters he found near the structure as Ratchet used a Bolt Crank, showing them that the Bogon Galaxy had reverse engineered Lombax technology as well, which raised the tower up so they could access it's power rods. With the tower risen all it took was one of them to attack it with their weapons, like Ratchet whacking it with his wrench or Starswirl striking it with his staff, which caused a chain reaction that quickly tore the transponder apart, though Autumn received a notification that there were five more targets for them to take out, no doubt from someone who worked at Megacorp and had been tasked with identifying how many transponders they had to break. As such she and her brothers resumed exploring the rest of the jamming array, finding that there were a few craters that they had to be careful of, especially one filled with molten rock, meaning this place had to have a core, though when they jumped over a gap Ratchet found that he and his siblings could jump higher, likely due to the gravity when he considered things, and it was further boosted by some jump pads that allowed them to launch up onto some raised platforms. It also allowed them to move around this place much easier, without falling into some of the holes or being struck by the ankle biters and some of the chainsaw security bots, as Autumn had uncovered that both of robots they had faced on the ship the Thief used as a diversion were actually Megacorp security bots, as odd as it sounded.

Tracking down the rest of the transponders actually proved to be an easy task, as all they had to do was follow the green beams that were coming from each one, take out the guardians that happened to be guarding them, and then quickly use a nearby Bolt Crank to open the weakness of each target, allowing them to break them down and weaken the jamming array until it was totally offline, allowing them to return to the resort with a mission complete.

"Good work my boy!" the holodisplay said, revealing that Mr. Fizzwidget must have realized that they were heading for the jamming array and was using the device inside the ship to speak with them, especially since he appeared on the other side of it, and he seemed pleased with their actions, "You and your siblings are proving to be invaluable in this underwear. Anyhoo, it appears the Thief is now under the protection of Thugs-4-Less, but I may have found a way for you to insinuate their operation."

"I hope it's dangerous." Autumn remarked, because so far she didn't think the Thugs were that hard to take down, that all of the enemies they had faced when tracking down Drek were much harder than this, but as she thought about it she had to think that it was the commando training speaking and not the experience they had gained while dealing with the Blarg, not to mention every plan Drek had come up with.

"No, no, no... er, well, uh, actually yes it is." Mr. Fizzwidget replied, where it sounded like he was planning on informing all of them that it wasn't as dangerous as they thought it might be, so they didn't chicken out and demand to be sent back to Solana with all haste, before deciding that he might as well trust them by revealing that the mission was going to be very dangerous, possibly more than the other parts of their mission.

"Good, we could use a challenge." Ratchet said, because right now the Thugs were proving to be somewhat easy for them to take down and he was thinking it was more due to there being three of them, even though there were more enemies in Bogon than there were in Solana, so he guessed that it balanced each other out in some way, while Starswirl said nothing as they left the jamming array behind.

"Take a look at this." Mr. Fizzwidget stated, where his image disappeared and they witnessed a commercial for the Desert Riders, a hoverbike gang who seemed to be the number one leisure choice for the Thugs-4-Less, which meant that they could get some new information if they used a membership card that their boss included to participate in a few races, as the Desert Riders used Megacorp hoverbikes and he was able to pull some strings to get the item for them.

With that done, and there was no other information for them to gain from Mr. Fizzwidget, Ratchet and his siblings waited for a few moments before they landed on the docking area that the ship had been resting in before their arrival, where a walkway formed that allowed Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn to return to the heart of the outside area of this resort so they could head down the other path. What the siblings discovered was that a few slot machines rested along the path in question, ones they ignored as they found a Thug using a weapon which fired out ankle biters, so while Ratchet dealt with all of the smaller enemies Starswirl and Autumn blasted the Thug so they could search for the entrance to the arena, since it might have something useful for them to use on this mission. One thing Autumn discovered was that each slot machine required a ten Bolt payment to play, as she simply read the front panel before following after her bothers, after they took out two more Thugs, allowing them to use a lift to reach an upper are of the pathway they were following right now, and found an area with a few more ankle biters, not to mention a few Thugs. As such the siblings opened fire on them without wasting any time, surprising some of their enemies despite the fact that they had been visible for a few moments before they started facing their foes, though once that was done Ratchet found another ship, much like the one that took them over to the jamming array, that took them over to another part of the resort.

Once the ship came to a stop they found that it had brought them to an area that was a sheer wall, one that required them to jump onto the ledge that rested in front of them and climb over to the left, to climb up a few more ledges to reach what had to be the next part of the path they were following, to which they took turns doing that before reaching the upper part of the wall. With that done Ratchet and his siblings found a number of Thugs and ankle biters that were guarding the next part of the path they were following, complete with a dropship that deployed a fair number of Thugs, though it only gave them more targets to focus on as the siblings blasted their way through the foes that happened to be standing in their way at the moment. Sure, the superior number of the Thugs made things more interesting, especially after everything Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl had been through during their first adventure, but right now none of them felt that the Thugs were much of a challenge in the grand scheme of things, especially when Autumn crushed the dropship with her magic so they could use a set of walls to reach a higher point of the path. That brought them to a chamber that had a few Thugs and yet another walkway that seemed to connect to the backside of the arena, once more lined with Thugs, to which Ratchet and his siblings blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them and made their way towards the arena's back entrance, finding that it took them a few seconds before reaching their destination.

The next thing they did was restock their ammunition before heading into the arena, where Ratchet and his siblings were observed by an announcer who declared that they were here to take on a 'Mega Battle', though they ignored him as each of them pulled out their weapons and focused on all of the gladiators who were brought out to fight in the arena, coming from carrier devices. As they faced off against the enemies that were in front of them Autumn focused on what seemed to be the prize of the opening match, an Electrolyzer, whatever it was supposed to be since they weren't familiar with all the gadgets that existed in the Bogon Galaxy, but they knew that nothing was going to stand in their way as they blasted every foe who happened to be part of this challenge. From what they could see the enemies happened to be some of the sphere bots they fought on the Thief's ship, the security bots, both of them to be exact, and some humanoids who had green skin and were covered by decent looking armor, and they came out of the containers in groups of between three to six, which seemed to depend on which type of foe was picked for each device. Other than that there wasn't much for them to worry about, as the combination of their adventuring experience and their commando training had turned Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl into good combatants, to the point where their enemies found next to no gaps in their defenses and were taken out in due time, eventually allowing Ratchet to gain a gun shaped gadget that had two prongs in front, the Electrolyzer he guessed, before the announcer claimed that they could tackle more challenges if they wanted to.

Instead of leaving right away, and following up on the lead that Mr. Fizzwidget had given them, Ratchet decided to stay in the arena for a time, because they could always use any of their earnings on equipment, for either them or their ships to be exact, and maybe receive some additional gadgets to help them in their mission, where Autumn and Starswirl joined in the matches since the announcer didn't seem to care. Eventually Ratchet and his siblings faced off against Chainblade, the gladiator that had been on the announcement that they had been shown on Oozla, where they found that he was fast and very deadly with his large swords, which doubled as extending blades, hence the name 'Chainblade', and happened to be a challenge for the siblings, where he nearly clipped them several times before being defeated. B2 Brawler, however, was an easier challenge since it only targeted one person at a time and had to pick who was more of a threat, even the attack that allowed it to sink to the ground and spin it's legs proved to be easy to dodge, not to mention it moved slowly in this form, so they were able to take it down as well. After those two battles the siblings faced a few more challenges, earning a fair number of Bolts in the process while putting on a show for everyone who happened to be watching, before Ratchet came to a decision, as he exited the arena and his siblings followed him outside, finding that they were on the end of the middle path they had seen earlier.

One thing they discovered was that to move forward Ratchet had to use the Electrolyzer, which was a hacking device as he and his siblings quickly determined, something that allowed him to bypass whatever defenses the terminal had and used it to extend a bridge, allowing them to step onto the transparent walkway and let it carry them to another platform, one that had another terminal on it for Ratchet to hack through, along with something else.

"Hey, do you think this would make a nice souvenir for Clank?" Ratchet asked, figuring that since there was a picture taking machine nearby, and it was on the way back to where their ship happened to be resting, they might as well take a couple of seconds to take a picture or two before departing for Barlow so they could see what was up with the Desert Riders, as it was the only lead they had right now.

Autumn and Starswirl glanced at each other for a few seconds before telling Ratchet that Clank would likely appreciate the gesture, especially since he was relaxing and enjoying his time off, to which they stepped forward and allowed it to take all of their pictures, before the image distorted and revealed the Thief's head over the person's who had used it last, only for it to turn into a live feed to a chamber of some kind, their target standing there with Clank in the background, tied down to a chair of some kind.

"You have no idea what you're involved in. Return to your own galaxy immediately, or this will happen to you!" the Thief stated, where she seemed like she was tired of them already, even though they had hardly done anything, or maybe she was interested in one of them and wanted to get rid of them before the person in question got hurt, which was when she pressed the red stop button, instead of the green start button, something she noticed before pressing the correct one not a few seconds later, "...or, this will happen to you."

In that moment Clank was shocked, knocking him out, and the transmission ended with the Thief saying 'farewell', though as the siblings growled Ratchet hacked into the next terminal and opened the way back to their ship, as they were heading to Endako to save their friend, while Autumn claimed the photos for later, though once that was done the three of them climbed into their ship and blasted off for Endako with all the haste they could muster.

Commando: Gorn, Snivelak

It took Ratchet an hour or so for them to get from Aranos and arrive at their destination, the planet Gorn, which he and his siblings found was a world with a rather stormy looking atmosphere, though according to what Autumn gained from her reading of Megacorp's provided information there was no one living on the planet, despite some structures that had been built in the past. Autumn had to assume, after taking a few minutes to read that information, that the Thugs were in control of the planet and used it as a base of operations, for this section of the galaxy anyway since their usual base was located in the Feltzin System, and after what had happened on Boldan she was sure that they might be flying into another trap, which was something that Ratchet agreed with. This time around he had Clank make sure that the weapons and defenses were at the ready, mostly to make sure that the Thugs hadn't done anything to their ship after capturing them, because the last thing any of them wanted was to fly into a trap and have no way to defend themselves from what might be waiting for them, save for magical means anyway. Starswirl, on the other hand, said nothing as they got ready for the upcoming battle, even if he and Autumn would be stuck inside the ship for some time when they breached the planet's atmosphere, though it was also for a potential fight that might come after facing the Thugs' fleet, since there was a chance that Angela might not be on Gorn and could have been moved to another planet while all of them were trapped on her flying lab.

Sure enough, when they breached the atmosphere and followed the trace of the transmission they had received, Ratchet found a number of Thug ships down in an area that had been built into some mountain peaks, though in addition to all of the normal ships they had seen in the past there were four larger ships that seemed to be transport ships, which had to be their main targets, before several ships fired at them.

"As we expected: Thug ships dead ahead." Clank stated, seeing the vast amount of ships that were flying around the area that the transmission had come from, enemies that Ratchet focused on as soon as they reached their destination, where he activated the weapons and prepared their defenses, all while Autumn and Starswirl took a moment to ready their magic for the battle that was about to begin.

"Good, because it's payback time." Ratchet replied, where he opened fire on the Thug ships that were in the area, without wasting time since they had no idea if Angela was here or not, while his siblings quickly weaved their magic into barriers to protect the ship, something the Thugs didn't seem to understand and still didn't know how to deal with it, which was just fine with Ratchet since it would make things easier for them.

None of them were surprised to find that some of the ships, the transports to be exact, had weapons that fired at them, though as that happened Autumn decided to change her tactics as she teleported outside the ship and weaved her magic to levitate through the air, like she was flying, and pulled out the RYNO II as she focused on one of the transports, which caused Clank to watch as she blasted the ship with her overpowered weapon. Sure enough the power of her weapon tore into the side of the transport and brought it down, though before that happened Autumn sent out a signal to track down Angela's, so she could figure out where she was and stop them from wrecking the entire fleet to find her, but she was able to figure out that Angela wasn't on the ship that she took down. As she did that Ratchet continued his assault on the ship he had been targeting, tearing into all of the defenses that the transport had to offer, before breaking it to the point where it exploded and fell into the depths of this area, though he only knew that Angela wasn't aboard it since Autumn had made sure that their ship had her readings, before Clank found that none of the transports had her signature. With that brand new discovery Autumn growled before loosing her magic at the other ship that was off in the distance, which seemed to be fleeing before it was knocked out of the air, while Ratchet fired on the fourth and final transport that the Thug Leader had left on this planet, and Starswirl channeled his magic into bolts of energy that rushed outwards and smashed into some of the lesser ships so Ratchet could focus on the ship he was targeting.

Eventually all of the ships, both the fighters and the transports, were wiped out and their ruins were scattered all over the area in question, where Ratchet frowned for a moment as he stared out at the surrounding area, all while Autumn came back to them and took her seat once more, though Starswirl found that his brother reached up and gripped his necklace, either to quell his anger or just to relax as he considered what they needed to do next.

"Clank, why don't you check the deep space channels for any transmissions?" Starswirl asked, because if the Thug Leader had a grudge with them, like he suspected he might since they had beaten him several times since coming to Bogon, there was a chance that he might use Angela as bait to bring them to a planet where he would have the home field advantage, or at least he would assume so, and this would give Ratchet some time alone with his thoughts.

What they discovered was a message for them from the Thug-4-Less Leader, who was outraged with them beating his men and trashing his operation, threatening all four of them for a time, that he would blast them to bits if they didn't head back to Solana, and he made a few remarks about being like the wind or something, but the siblings paid him no mind as they found that he gave them his exact coordinates, to which Ratchet set a course for the planet in question, as he was sure that Angela was being held on it and this would cripple the Thugs at long last.

While the siblings and Clank traveled to Snivelak, the planet that the transmission came from, they talked about things for some time, finding that the Thugs Leader was, by far, one of the dumbest people they had encountered during their two adventures across two galaxies, even if he cared about his employees and allowed all of them time off, good benefits, and even threw parties when certain things happened. The fact of the matter was that Qwark was far smarter than the leader of Thugs-4-Less, even if Ratchet didn't want to admit it, especially after everything he put them through back in Solana, just before they gunned him down and marooned him on Oltanis, before reporting him to the officials, but this time around all of them were planning on blasting down the Thugs Leader and saving Angela. Sure, this was definitely a trap and it meant that more of the Thugs were waiting for them, somewhere on Snivelak, but the fact that he actually transmitted his exact coordinates, while being a complete moron while doing so, made them wonder if it was intentional or not, though in the end it didn't matter since they were going to smash their way through however many forces he had, whatever trap he had for them, and then rescue Angela so they could get moving with their mission. Of course the interesting thing was that the planet in question was an orange-tinted planet with a dark red atmosphere, giving off a sense of danger as Ratchet made sure to target what had to be the landing pad, though what they found was that there was a sea of lava around a city of sorts, one with a large building, and judging from the readings this happened to be where the signal was coming from, so Angela had to be here somewhere.

"So, this is Snivelak... we had best be careful," Starswirl commented, where he and the others waited for a moment, all so Ratchet could bring the ship to a stop, before they climbed out, though of course Autumn growled as she glanced out at the area, no doubt seeking their target so she could put him down or knock him out so he could be arrested, to which he sighed for a moment as he turned towards Ratchet, "we have no telling how many enemies might be waiting for us... even with the Zodiac and all of Megacorp's weapons we might have trouble fighting our way through this place."

"I'm going to have to agree with you," Ratchet remarked, something that was followed by him and Starswirl checking out the Vendor to make sure there weren't any additional weapons for them to use against their upcoming enemies, only to find that there was nothing new, causing him to sigh as he faced the path that was in front of them, all while Clank jumped onto his usual place on his back once more.

The first thing they had to do was use the Swingshot on some targets to reach the structure that was in front of them, all while Autumn followed behind them as she focused on imagining what she would do to the Thug Leader, which meant her rage form might be waking up or something, before finding that there was nothing that needed to be done on this tower and used another set of targets to move forward. When Ratchet landed he found a glass wall that seemed too thick to be taken down by magic, even if Starswirl could likely teleport to the other side on his own, so he pulled down a grind rail and used it to head down to the base of another tower as his siblings followed after him, though upon reaching the base of the tower he found some Dynamo devices along a metallic walkway. As such he and Starswirl activated them while carefully walking up the path in question, with an enraged Autumn following after them, even if she was still in her normal state by the looks of it, which brought them to an area that connected to the main part of the path, with several helicopters being deployed based on what they were seeing, though not a few seconds later Autumn burst into the air and lashed out with her magic, breaking their enemies so her brothers could move forward with ease. Ratchet wasn't even surprised by this, or even worried for that matter since their sister knew what she was doing, where he and Starswirl caught up with Autumn and moved beyond her, which allowed them to discover a platform that sent them souring over to a long bridge that did look like it, which was crawling with enemies based on what they were seeing.

"Okay, that might be more than we were expecting," Starswirl commented, as it looked like an entire army was resting on the bridge and might be scattered around the city that was beyond this structure, which seemed to make sense due to the fact that this was a trap designed to lure all of them in and kill them, given how much the Thugs Leader didn't like them at all and wanted them out of his life.

"That might be so, but that's why we have these," Autumn replied, where she stepped forward and opened fire on the foes that were in front of them, choosing to use the RYNO II to start with since it could clear out far more enemies, while both of her brothers stepped up behind her and joined her in her assault, firing at the targets that she wasn't focused on right now, even though they kept their eyes open for anything linked to Angela.

What they discovered were that there happened to be a large number of Lesser Thugs, Elite Thugs, and Tanks resting on the bridge, not to mention the first part of the city that was behind the last of the first force of enemies the siblings found, even though they also had to avoid every missile and incoming blast from their enemies, as they wanted to beat them and claim whatever reward their boss had offered for their defeat. Another thing Ratchet and his siblings had to worry about, or at least focus on and avoid, were some traps that were actually lasers moving from one area to another and had some Thugs waiting on the other side of where it happened to be resting, not that the latter part mattered since it looked like a fair number of Thugs teleported into the area as well, confirming their suspicions on the matter. The Thugs Leader wanted all of them dead, or at least knocked out to the point where they could be contained in some sort of prison or cell, but that didn't stop Ratchet, Autumn, or Starswirl from opening fire on all of their enemies, as while Autumn was enraged by what their foe had done so far, not to mention what he might do next, she was still focused on saving Angela. While the siblings moved forward Clank found that they continued to meet heavy resistance, as a literal army of Thugs had been called in to deal with them, showing him something interesting, their Leader was taking this seriously, as there seemed to be a bounty on their heads and with the siblings constantly beating the Thugs it had to be ruining their reputation, maybe to the point where they might go out of business at this rate, but he remained silent as the siblings waged war on the Thugs and all of their diverse forces, including several Helicopters.

Another interesting fact was that the Thugs tried to trap them with electrical fences and ambush them, which caused them to focus on Starswirl's magic to wipe them out, before eventually rounding a corner after eliminating what seemed to be the third ambush, only to discover a massive mech that was taller than the highest building in the city, save for the rather massive one behind them, with the Thug Leader standing on the right shoulder of the mech and Angela seemed to be in a cage in the mech's chest.

"Greetings once more, morons!" the Thug Leader declared, with a laugh that showed them that he found this situation to be very funny, even if they had suspected that this might be a trap from the moment Clank found the transmission that had brought them here, before he paused as he looked down at them with a smile on his face, which annoyed Autumn as Ratchet found that Angela was safe and sound, for the most part, "I can't believe that my plan worked, to lure you three and your little robot to our base, with the perfect bait no less, and now, at long last, I can take you all out and restore our damaged reputation! Prepare to..."

"Bait? Please, I am no one's 'bait'!" Angela replied, though in that moment several things happened, she quickly pulled out her lightsaber and used it to slash open the cage she was standing in, allowing her to jump out of the mech's chest, though as she did that Starswirl used his magic to form steps so Ratchet could quickly climb up and catch her before something bad happened, along with a magical slide that returned the pair to where he was standing.

As the Thug Leader took that event into consideration Autumn decided that it was time to stop holding back and dipped into her rage once more, where Ratchet and Starswirl found that she shifted right into her rage form without delay, even if she dismissed all her weapons first before the beast inside her took over, and she let out a roar that shook the entire area that the city was resting on, reminding them that her magic was far stronger in this state. If it wasn't for the fact that she acted like a beast, relying on instinct or something, Ratchet would have assumed this form would have been a power up of some kind, but instead of staying near his sister, and getting caught in the crossfire, he pulled Angela back as quickly as he could as Starswirl teleported them up to the top of the bridge, allowing them to see what might happen next. Not even a few seconds later the Thug Leader took control of his mech and swung his right fist down at where Autumn was standing, who stood still as she raised her left hand and caught the attack, the energy behind her foe's attempt to harm her being transferred into the area around her, breaking the ground and sending cracks up some of the buildings, before she closed her hand on some of the metal of the middle finger and shattered it. The Thug Leader barely had time to register what was going on as Autumn went on the offensive, as she leapt into the air and swung her fist several times, releasing bursts of energy at the mech that slammed into the chest, arms, and legs without wasting any time at all, causing it to stagger back as small craters formed where she had struck it, with Autumn floating in the air and walking on air as she approached her target, even if it wasn't her true foe.

In the following moments the Thug Leader found that no matter what he did, as he swung and blasted his foe a few times, Autumn either dodged his attacks or shattered them with a wave of her right hand, to the point where she swung her own weapon at him, which transformed into a flaming blade, and cut through the left arm of his mech and the right leg, before she loosed a burst of wind that knocked it backwards, causing him to bail and leap out onto the ground of the city, even if it gave him a chance to see the mech fall into the lava before he faced Autumn.

"You moron, that cost over a million Bolts!" the Thug Leader stated, where he pulled out his own weapon, a gun that had a great deal of power inside it, and overclocked it, drawing out every drop of power that was inside it, despite the fact that it would mean he would have no ammunition left inside it, before firing a bolt of energy at his target once it was ready, as it should take her out and allow him to come up with another plan for the others.

Autumn raised her left hand and caught the bolt, shattering it in seconds, before using her magic to pull her foe up so she could punch him right in the face, causing him to stagger for a few moments as he seemed to realize that the punch felt like it lasted for more than a few seconds, like weeks or months, or at least it sure felt like it lasted far longer than what a simple punch should feel like. In the following seconds Autumn's dark side moved into a series of attacks, where she just punched and kicked at him while forcing him backwards, where he found that she was targeting every bit of his body and that each attack felt like the first, though in the process the Thug Leader had a moment of clarity, something he never had before and was sure that this would be the only time this might happen. He thought about all of this for a few moments, all while the beast smashed his body with the intense rage that seemed to be inside her, and had to wonder how in the world his life had come to this, going from being one of the biggest mercenary groups in all of Bogon and ending with him and his company becoming toys for such a powerful creature. As all that happened, which seemed to take a few seconds even though it sure felt like longer to him, Autumn pulled back and let him stagger for a moment, before she gathered all of her power into a sphere of magical energy that formed around her right fist, and when she punched the Thug Leader in the chest the energy of her attack transferred into the surrounding area, where the air cracked, the ground broke, a good number of buildings shattered, and the large building broke in half while a nearby volcano went off.

Ratchet, Starswirl, Angela, and Clank had to brace themselves as they witnessed what seemed to be an earthquake go off in the area they were standing in, one that even shook the bridge that Starswirl had picked out, though this confirmed that Autumn's rage form needed to be kept under control, especially since it looked like she was breaking the entire area, even though once that attack was done she delivered one more uppercut and knocked the Thug Leader out, causing her to let out a roar before collapsing as Autumn reverted to her normal form.

"Ratchet, as amazing as that was... not to mention terrifying... please give me a heads up when something like this is about to happen," Angela said, as while this was interesting to watch, Autumn taking down the Thugs-4-Less Leader like he was nothing, and she was sure that most of their enemies would be considered nothing to all of the siblings, Autumn's rage form was a force to be reckoned with and she didn't want to be on the receiving end of it's terrifying power.

Ratchet nodded his head as Starswirl collected Autumn, as while he had a feeling that this might happen, given the fact that his sister had been enraged when they landed on this planet, seeing it happen was another thing entirely, where he felt that he and his brother would have to figure out how to help their sister once this adventure was over, but for now all of them returned to the ship, using the levitation spell Starswirl had used previously, before blasting off for a safer place to rest and talk about what Angela had learned in her time away from the group.

Arsenal: Holostar Studios

On the way back to Annihilation Nation Autumn and Clank discovered something interesting, Mr. Hatfield had sent them a copy of a script he was working on, the next movie in the Secret Agent Clank series, and found that one of the things he was missing right now was someone to play the Baroness. Sure, there were actors lined up to get a part in the show, but it looked like he was having a hard time getting someone to play what was essentially a role they would play once or twice, which made sense when one thought about the situation. Many people, robots and organic beings, wanted to be part of the show and would do literally anything to get on it, and the pair knew that such a thing wasn't a joke when they considered what happened in the past, before they realized what was going on right now. The empty role was preventing the movie from being filmed, especially since Clank wasn't there to film it, and a quick search revealed that Courtney Gears was also a massive fan of the series, just like Nefarious happened to be, causing an idea to form in their heads.

Autumn pitched the idea to all of them, use the role of the Baroness to get whatever information Courtney Gears had on Nefarious, his whereabouts and whatnot, which might allow them to save Solana that much quicker if they could find their foe and remove him before he used the weapon they had discovered the existence of.

"And you think the plan will work?" Starswirl asked, as while he trusted his sister, they all did, this seemed like quite the risk for them to take, especially since Courtney could lie about what she knew to get what she wanted, and that wasn't counting the other part of the plan she had created, in case things followed the series of events she had thought about.

"She might be loyal to Nefarious, but she adores the show as much as he does, possibly even more than her partner, and we can use that against her," Autumn replied, though she knew that Mr. Hatfield would have things set up by the time they figured out if Courtney Gears took the bait or turned them down, where she was sure the former would happen once Clank talked to her, since she liked robots more than organic figures, "We just have to win the Annihilation Nation course, as they've likely made it harder so we don't win it as easily as we did the last ones."

As it turned out Autumn was correct in her assessment, the people of Annihilation Nation had set up a new DeathCourse for them, with the reward being what looked like another installment of the Qwark Vid-Comic series, though it was being given by Courtney Gears, just as they expected. This time she and Starswirl stood back as Ratchet and Angela faced the dangers of the course, finding that the very first thing that had to be dealt with was crossing some platforms that had bits of moving flame, so the two Lombaxes timed their movements with a surprising display of accuracy, or at least it was the case to the people watching. The magic users weren't surprised by this, as they had been traveling with them for a long time and knew all of the skills that Ratchet and Angela possessed, though both of them focused on the screen as the pair activated a button and opened the door on their right, all while readying their weapons for the enemies that might be in front of them. Most of the enemies they encountered were the same they had seen during their last visit to this place, as in the spinning blade robots, the laser robots, the spinning spike ball bots, and some of the ninja bots, though there was an addition, a tank that blocked one of the passages they needed to pass through, or at least it did for a few moments, as Ratchet and Angela blew it up before moving forward.

Between the two of them the obstacle course stood no chance and they were teleported into the ring once they reached the end, finding that it was the same as before, facing off against waves of enemies as they waited to see what sort of foe was the second boss of Annihilation Nation. A few moments later they discovered that what they had thought about was wrong, as it moved them right into the fight with the second boss, a massive tank-like robot that looked like a scorpion, only it had flamethrowers in place of it's pincers and it's tail didn't have a stinger, rather it had a saw that could likely cut through part of the ground as it sought out whoever the robot was fighting. This robot was known as 'Scorpio', a name the pair understood since it was a scorpion, before they separated from each other and opened fire on their foe, as standing in a single location would bring it towards them and being in two different places meant it had to fire at one of them, a fact that they used against it with ease. Of course it constantly switched between chasing Ratchet and then switching to Angela for a time, but for the most part it didn't seem to have much luck in figuring out how to deal with two opponents, which was a flaw on the officials end of things, as they had allowed the two Lombaxes to tackle the challenge together and now it was looking like a bad idea on their end.

In the end Ratchet and Angela emerged victorious, much to the surprise of the crowd since they were expecting Scorpio to do some sort of damage, though they cheered for them as the announcer informed them of their prize, a first edition of the third installment of Qwark's Vid-Comic, which Courtney Gears handed to them after the announcer spoke about her skills and talents, or lack of in some cases, not that she noticed the difference.

"My, you're even more gorgeous in person than you are on the Holo, Agent Clank." Courtney said, right after pushing the vid-comic into Ratchet's chest for a moment, showing that she didn't care much for organic lifeforms and preferred one of her own kind, hence why she was focusing on Clank right now, so Angela pretended to ignore her as she stood near Ratchet, "You know, I would do anything to play a part in one of your Holo-films."

Before they even had a chance to say anything Courtney Gears had lined things up perfectly for them, where Clank told her that she would be perfect for the role of the Baroness, though it came with revealing some information on the man she was partnered with, causing her to realized that he must have figured out her connection to Nefarious. The part that they found interesting was that she talked as if no one else was there, so while the heroes learned the information about her being on his side was accurate they also found out that she wasn't worried about someone else leaking the statement to the press. It told them one thing, Nefarious was likely using her for her connections and nothing else, as she was dumb at times and it made each of them wonder how the villain could put up with someone like her, but they said nothing as Clank informed her that if she agreed to help him out, making no mention of Ratchet and the others, he would talk with Mr. Hatfield about her taking the Baroness role. That was enough to light a fire in her, as she agreed to help him out if he helped her get the role she wanted, and with the bargain struck she put him down and went back to whatever she had been doing before this point in time, allowing Ratchet and the others to regroup aboard their starship so Clank could call Mr. Hatfield and tell him the news.

Once he understood why they were doing this, as Courtney Gears had information they needed, he agreed with the plan and went to work getting everything set up for the new cast member, giving Ratchet and the others some time to run a few more obstacle courses and arena challenges, just so they didn't draw attention to themselves for leaving after getting what they had come for.

It took some time for Ratchet, Angela, Clank, Starswirl, and Autumn to be done with Annihilation Nation, enough time to see that Courtney Gears got the news she was waiting for before departing with a smile on her face, though once she was gone they had no reason to stick around and they decided that they would come back later. Thanks to the improvements made to their starship they got to Holostar Studios ahead of Courtney, allowing Autumn to go over her plan with them, as she had an idea on how to trick both the star and Nefarious, assuming things played out the way she was thinking at the moment. It involved some of her magic, a fake duplicate Clank that Mr. Hatfield had created to be a stunt double for his star, which had been shelved after discovering that Clank was able to do things on his own just fine, a bit of Starswirl's own magic that would come into play soon, and a few things from the studio itself. The basic idea was to trick their foes, which wouldn't be easy since Nefarious was supposed to be one of the smartest minds in Solana, so in a sense this could be a battle of wits between them, while acting like they were planning nothing at all.

She admitted that it would be hard, though what worked in their benefit was that many of their foes expected them to act in a specific manner, so they wouldn't be expecting something like this in the first place, and if it worked they would gain all sorts of information on Nefarious, potentially enough to end his plans earlier than intended.

Courtney Gears wasn't the only one to arrive, as Qwark apparently noticed that they were at Holostar Studios and sent his monkey, Skrunch, along for the ride, as he had been part of the mission on Aquatos and Clank had decided not to mention working beside him, though once they were there both figures were pulled off to the side for a time. Courtney had to learn what her role was and whatever lines the producers had created for it, where Clank noted that the role might have been created for someone like her in mind, but he said nothing as she got ready and the others slipped into their roles, at least those who were involved with this film. For the monster part it was a pretty standard film for the series, as Autumn wasn't part of it and that meant the Nirik wouldn't be showing up, so it was mostly him, Ratchet, Skrunch, and Courtney, leaving the others to stand off on the side and watch as they put their plan into motion without their foes figuring out what in the world was going on. Mr. Hatfield was pleased to have them here and he got started when everyone was ready to go, while at the same time keeping the fact that he knew about the trap hidden, as there was no telling if Courtney would figure out that they had something planned, despite the fact that she was totally focused on her role as the Baroness.

Ratchet, as per his role as the 'bumbling chauffeur', was generally required to mess up the button presses for whatever scene they were shooting, just to add some comedy to the show and people had received it quite well, though there were times where the script called for him to be smart and this was one of them. As such he activated the cloaking device and moved through the area that had been prepared for him, slower than his normal speed since this was a spy thriller most of the time, and eventually came to a stop at the area that Mr. Hatfield wanted him to stop at. Such a thing allowed Clank to jump out of the ship and start to making his way through an area that had been set up for his combat skills, like a chase from the rooftops as he chased Maxmillian once more, which seemed to be what the Director wanted and that was what they gave him, to make the film as good as it could possibly be. He did have to fight a few of the small ninja bots, as part of the story was that his target was using them to stall him, and also used the banana launching gun to move Skrunch so the pair could progress, both making it look as realistic as possible.

Eventually Clank had to fight the 'Terror of Talos', a large monster with guns strapped to it's wrists and had wings that let it fly around the area, which meant he had to use his own Giant Form to save the Baroness, who was hanging onto the large creature for dear life, and he also had to contend with some larger ninjas who came to aid the Terror, but in the end he emerged victorious and shrunk down to his normal size.

As Autumn expected Courtney showed her true colors after doing her part of the show, which was the Baroness thanking Agent Clank for saving her from the Terror of Talos, though her actions also triggered her own trap, freezing the pair for a time and let her get to work. The first thing was replacing Clank with the double that had been created for him and made a slight alteration to the hotbot who tried to trick them so she could hand over Clank to her boss, which she wouldn't notice until later on, though once that was done she made a slight change to Courtney's inner clock so she wouldn't notice that she had been stuck in stasis for a time. With that done she backed off and restored the robots, watching as Courtney did a second thing that confirmed her allegiance to Nefarious, she happened to have a communicator that linked up to where the robotic doctor happened to be resting right now. Such a thing lead to Courtney heading to one of the trailers that were on the outskirts of the studios, where Nefarious was waiting, to which Autumn and her family listened in from the room they had set up before Courtney arrived to play her part in the new film.

What was amusing was that Nefarious was just like the President, thinking that 'Agent Clank' was a real person and that all of his adventures were real as well, including the 'mind-stealing snotbeasts' from Dimension X, something that was totally made up since Autumn knew they didn't exist. That was part of Autumn's job, when she wasn't playing the Nirik, coming up with believable otherworldly monsters for Clank and the other cast members to face off against, though none of them existed and she made sure of that before offering the ideas to Mr. Hatsfield, so it was amusing that so many thought that the species existed. Other than that piece of information it didn't seem like either robot had much to share, no plans they could learn about, but Autumn did learn about the 'surprise' that Nefarious had planned, another Clank that was built by one watching and observing the show, who emerged from the trailer and walked over to where they were positioned, but it never made it as Autumn shocked it into unconsciousness and set things up so Nefarious wouldn't know. Once that was done Courtney departed for another part of the Solana Galaxy, while Nefarious was heading for a star cruiser called the 'Leviathan', no doubt where they would find him at some point in the future, hence why Ratchet passed on that piece of info to Sasha and the others, so they could find it.

With that done, and they were done tricking their foes, the family returned to their starship and took off, as there were other places for them to explore and, hopefully, discover more information about their foe's plans while they were there, they just had to be patient and see what sort of dangers the next planet held for them.

Deadlocked: Orxon

After resting from their time on Shaar, and seeing that some of the viewers were excited by the display that the siblings brought to DreadZone, Ratchet joined Autumn and Starswirl when it was time to head out to Orxon, a planet that they had been to during their first adventure. The siblings found it odd that they were heading back to the home planet of the Blarg, a planet that Drek had tainted with all sorts of pollution so he could put his money making plan into motion, tear all sorts of pieces out of the surrounding planets to make a super planet. It was a plan that they had stopped and put the Blarg that was responsible for all of it in a cell, as he deserved, even though Ratchet recalled his siblings turning him into a sheep for his crimes, a fitting punishment, in addition to having all of his funds seized to help those who suffered because of his actions, and after everything else that had happened his race had no true leader. None of them were sure what happened after that, save for helping Sasha in the election against the Blarg that was running against her father, but that was all they could have done to stop Drek's race from causing more chaos in the Solana Galaxy, so they simply sat down and waited for the ship to arrive at their destination.

Upon approaching Orxon they found that the course was going to take place in one of the many mining factories that were scattered all over the planet, so all Vox had to do was modify each one for the contestants he was sending there, where this time Ratchet and Autumn teleported down to the start of the course.

We're here on the beautiful Blargian homeworld of Orxon, overlooking a massive raritanium mining facility. Dallas said, even though Ratchet and his siblings knew that this planet was beautiful once, before Drek arrived and polluted it into the mess that it became, and based on what Autumn was seeing there were no cleaners working, likely torn apart by Vox at some point, Each week challengers navigate their way through the facility with one goal in mind: Destroy it! DreadZone would like to thank the generous people of planet Orxon for, uh, donating a new mining facility every week.

"Well, this place still stinks." Ratchet commented, where he and Autumn walked over to the vendor as they stared out at all of the gladiators that had been positioned between them and their targets, especially with a pair of paths that had been built under the main walkway of the facility.

"I know. Its a shame that my fixes were broken by Vox's team." Autumn replied, finding that there were no new weapons to add to their arsenal, though with that discovery she readied her weapons as they focused on the path in front of them, which had two directions they could pick from.

Almost immediately they were assaulted by the gladiators that were positioned along this course, especially the ones that dropped down behind them at one point, where Ratchet hacked into the orbs on the left path as Autumn tore their foes down, allowing the pair to continue moving forward. On the other side of a rather short tunnel the siblings found some of the sniper gladiators aiming down at them, so Ratchet blasted them first and removed them so his sister would hack into a set of orbs, repeating what they had done not a few moments ago. Of course they had to deal with some large groups, not to mention an enemy Landstalker that had been placed in their way, before finding that it curved back to a small gap between where they were exploring and the main facility that they would enter in due time. From there they were able to tell that picking a direction didn't matter, as it was them basically going in a circle and taking out all of Vox's gladiators, not to mention a turret that was in their way, which would no doubt appease the fans that were watching them right now.

With the first challenge complete, even if they hadn't accomplished much due to the stupid nature of Vox's set up this time around, Ratchet and Autumn were allowed to move up to the raised area that was just outside the facility, where they had to fight for six control nodes so they could destroy the main drill and enter the facility.

This was where most of the gladiators seemed to be resting, a good chunk in the middle while some were guarding each of the control nodes, including some lasers that had been deployed once they learned that the siblings had survived the first round, no doubt to make things that much harder. As such the pair moved out and opened fire on their enemies, as each one blasted the robotic enemies Vox had deployed and blew each one up before they could really do anything to the pair, which was thanks to Autumn using her barrier to help them out. Seizing control of one of the nodes sent a chain of explosions, small ones, to where the drill was located and Juanita mocked them for doing no damage at all, where Autumn was tempted to just tear the drill out with her magic and hurl it at the pair, but decided not to do so as she focused on the gladiators who dropped into the area once the first node had been captured. It made sense, the first one was easy to take control of and the other ones became increasingly more difficult to reach, or at least that seemed to be the plan since the siblings were more willing to blast and tear their foes apart, especially with Autumn weaving her magic and launching bolts of energy that blasted her targets apart.

Vox wanted a show and he couldn't have asked for better contestants, as while Ratchet and his siblings tore the various gladiators apart, in a manner that could be deemed as 'unfun' or something, it was their magic that held the crowd and all of the viewers at home interested in the show, not that they cared as they tore through another set of gladiators, giving the pair control over another control node.

Eventually the sixth and final control node was captured and they watched as the drill was torn apart, which apparently caused some highly toxic drill fuel to leak out on the other side of the facility, though given that there weren't any people in the stands this time around, no doubt Vox didn't want to pay for so many O2 Masks, they lacked the incentive to head inside and continue the course. Of course they decided to just play along and headed inside without delay, where it was far too easy for them to see that the next challenge was to hack into a number of control orbs to open the way to backside of the facility, which had to be where the end of this course was located, given what they had seen previously. Based on what they were seeing there were twelve targets for them to take care of over the course of a few moments, and, just like all of the other challenges they had been through so far, it came with a massive number of gladiators who were tasked with destroying them and stopping Team Darkstar from succeeding in their mission. Ratchet and Autumn tore them apart, one using both his wrench and his weapons while the other used smaller spells to avoid causing damage to the area they were in, and whenever there were no enemies one would hack into the orbs while the other kept watch, making sure no gladiators snuck up on them.

Much to Dallas and Juanita's continued amazement the siblings smashed the challenge and won in no time, allowing the pair to head outside for what had to be the last part of their main mission, where they climbed into the Landstalker and took it out on a predetermined track. Based on what Dallas was saying, that DreadZone's fans were in danger, they found that the key to victory was to use the Landstalker's main cannons to tear apart some Raritanium chains that were linked to some anchors, all while dealing with more gladiators, turrets, and enemy tanks. Of course, since Ratchet had Autumn with him, there was also her magic that they could call on and that was what they did from time to time, laying waste to all of the gladiators who tried to join the battle, allowing Ratchet to focus on all of the turrets and tanks as she smashed the four anchors they were hunting down. Truth be told he didn't think that this was an overly hard course, it sure wasn't like what he and Starswirl faced on Shaar the prior day, and part of him even wondered if he needed his siblings for this one, given all that he had seen so far, but he simply shelved the idea and tore through the last of the obstacles, earning them one of the Blue Medals and, surprisingly enough, access to the next tournament.

Before heading back to their containment suite, and waiting for the call to be dragged into the next tournament, they took a moment to deal with whatever Dread Challenges existed on this planet, finding that the first one was called Swarming the Gauntlet, an interesting name for sure. What it was, as they soon discovered, was a challenge where they had to pick up weapons and make their way through the first section of Orxon's course, navigating the lower paths while taking out all sorts of small enemies, like the blade balls and the snappers, though it really didn't take Ratchet and Autumn long to win it and earn more points for their team. After that they focused on the second, and last, challenge, Scoring with the Blarg, a fact that landed them in the Landstalker once more as it followed a predetermined path and they had to fire on all sorts of moving targets, like what happened on Shaar, which surprised the siblings since they weren't expecting to repeat one of the previous challenges so soon, but they didn't say anything as they tackled it. As they discovered it was a simple course for them, as Ratchet could focus on the smaller enemies that got in their way, blasting all of the gladiators that dared to approach them, while Autumn accurate targeted all of the targets that were the requirement of the challenge, and, by the end of it, everything had been wrecked.

With another challenge complete, and Orxon had been cleared once more, the siblings returned to the transport ship so they could rejoin Starswirl and head back to the containment suite, as it was time to see what sort of challenges Vox had in the new tournament, not to mention the planets they'd unlock this time around.

Size: Quodrona

The planet that Otto's clone factory was on was a molten world, the mass roughly split between usable land and a mass of lava, though the coordinates brought them to one of the landmasses, meaning they didn't have to worry that much, as the starship was left beyond the atmosphere and they landed without delay.

"At least we're able to land in a city this time." Ratchet remarked, though the reason they were able to get here so quickly was due to the fact that Luna's previous destination was so close to where her boss was hiding out, even if she hadn't planned on such a thing.

"Indeed, and we don't have to go far." Nika said, as she had seen the others in battle and knew that she needed to keep up with all of them, or at least Ratchet, Angela, and Sasha, since none of them had access to magic, though as soon as those words let her mouth she raised her hands and revealed one of the small hovercars they had used earlier.

The group smiled as they shrunk themselves down to the appropriate size and used the vehicle to head towards the area it was connected to, no doubt having been reserved for Luna whenever she came to this place, finding that it brought them to a massive factory built near a lava river, providing power to the entire place.

"It looks like an interesting place, if slightly dangerous." Autumn commented, though at the same time she checked out the nearby Vendor and discovered that the Laser Tracer, a weapon that could vaporize most things, enemies and crates to be exact, instantly, making it nearly on the level of the RYNO weapons, where she only purchased one this time around, just to complete the weapon set for this adventure.

With that done they headed down the conveyor belts in front of them and stormed the factory, finding that all Otto had to offer them were turrets that either fired bullets or fired missiles at whoever wasn't supposed to be here, meaning their foe knew or suspected they'd reach this point and prepared accordingly. After taking those down, and Ratchet hacked into the lock in front of them by shrinking himself down again, Starswirl noted that there were points where other foes had been designed to stand, likely the Ratchet clones that Otto wanted to make. Since they smashed the medical station down, and cut off their foe's attempts to get his DNA, they wouldn't have to worry about the clones at all, in fact he was sure that this place was useless to Otto, so he'd either be here to stop them or he likely ran by now. When Ratchet returned he opened the door and they smashed their way through the enemies on the other side, robotic nurses armed to the teeth, though it was easy to tear them down when Angela and Sasha discovered that none of them could handle their weight.

As the group moved through the facility, however, Autumn fell behind as she hacked into the terminals and copied what she found on them, before deleting and destroying each one, meaning that everything Otto and the Technomites might have made was now hers to do with as she pleased, though she was thinking of finding ways to restore lost limbs for the people who suffered such a thing.

They passed by more rivers of lava and several rooms filed with tanks that clones could be kept in, where Autumn left all of the guards, nurses and defense sentries, as she seized their foe's information and shattered the machines so he had nothing to fall back on, if he somehow beat all of them. Everyone had to admit that if Otto had gotten his hands on some of their DNA, no matter whose it was, would have been bad for them, as an army of Ratchets would have been hard to take out, while an army of magic users, in their minds, would have been even worse, but this was fine. There were rooms made for training a force to bring down whoever was in charge of the galaxy, everything from wall jumping to dealing with a large force of enemies, yet nothing was using them, once more due to them ruining Otto's sinister plans. It also looked like Otto had plans for the clones to deal with Ratchet and the others, because of the existence of dummies that bared a likeness to everyone in their group, not to mention other heroes like Nika and Qwark, so he had left nearly nothing out of the clone training program, even if Otto would never be able to use any of it.

Everything they were seeing told them that Otto really wanted to dominate everything in Solana, so Autumn and Starswirl tore each and every machine down, ruining his hard work and preventing his machines from being used again, just in the off chance he had other allies they didn't know about, before finding a tower that lead to an arena.

"Ratchet, it is so nice to meet you and your family." a voice said, where they found a gray skinned figure, wearing a red suit that seemed appropriate for a ruler, much like Sasha's father for example, and whose black hair was thinned out and set into four points behind his head, all while standing on a floating platform fit for a single person, "I must admit, you are far tougher to deceive than I originally believed you to be, even if we took your siblings and the others out of the equation... I certainly didn't anticipate the plan being derailed and utterly ruined."

"You might as well give up, Otto, as your plans have been torn apart." Ratchet replied, though he kept his hands empty for the time being so they could talk, as he might be able to convince the Technomite to surrender without needing to fight him, like they did to the other villains they encountered over their adventures, all while Starswirl held off on using any of his magic, Autumn held her new power back, and the others kept their weapons down.

"Please, an army of you was only the first step, as I was planning on training them to..." Otto stated, where he lowered a screen for them to see some sort of machine that seemed to be connected to two different structures, no doubt what he was going to talk about for some time, as they could see that he was pleased with whatever he was planning.

"Kidnap the most brilliant and intelligent minds so you can steal their intelligence?" Autumn inquired, causing Otto to stop for a moment as he realized that she had guessed what his plan was, to which she pulled out a tablet and chuckled for a few seconds, even though the others were getting ready for battle, "You wrote it far too much in all of the documents I've found on your computers... also, it's a really cheesy plot when you think about it."

"Plus you would have had to get to Autumn or Starswirl, and they're not easy to take down." Angela added, since both of Ratchet's siblings were smarter than most people she had encountered over the years, especially after joining them and seeing all of the villains they had to contend with, "Honestly, your plan was a failure from the beginning if you included either of them in your list of targets."

"That may be so, but I have a trump card to take you down! Qwark, my son, capture them!" Otto declared, showing them that he must have done something to Qwark's search for his parents to make him come here, likely lying to the man to get what he wanted, and sure enough they found the idiot behind him, only he scooped Otto up in a jar and sealed it before the villain could do anything to stop him.

"Nice try, Otto, but I knew from the moment I met you that you weren't my father... in fact, I didn't believe anything you edited to make me come here." Qwark stated, informing Ratchet and the others that he had learned from his experiences with them and knew that the villain had been lying to him, though what was impressive was how he figured it out a long time ago, back at the start of this, and only pretended to go along to pull the wool over Otto's eyes, though he allowed the magic users to seal the container so Otto couldn't escape.

"Qwark... learned. I'm not sure if we should be happy, or afraid." Sasha remarked, since Qwark had been somewhat useful during the war with Nefarious, though she had considered it a one time thing because of who they were facing, meaning he must have been improving to be of use to Ratchet and the others.

Ratchet, however, was fine with this turn of events as he, his siblings, and his girlfriends joined Qwark as they headed out of the molten area that the facility was in, as they had to turn Otto in, ensure he couldn't escape his cell, and then get back to the vacation he had ruined before another villain showed up, but he had a feeling that they would have peace for some time and he was looking forward to their well deserved time off.

Tools: Viceron, Jasindu

"So the Zoni said that Talwyn's somewhere in this prison?" Sasha asked, as she wanted to be sure of the information that Clank had received, even though they also called upon Qwark to get the layout of the prison and, to their surprise, he was able to deliver, giving them everything they might need to tackle Zordoom.

"That's correct." Clank replied, all while they flew down to the edge of the prison area, so the sensors wouldn't detect them and alert the guards until they were already blasting their way through whoever was guarding this place, though he did have something else to say, "I know we should be going after the Dimensionator, but there must be a reason behind why the Zoni would tell us about Talwyn's predicament... other than her being a new friend. She must play some role in keeping Polaris, maybe even the rest of the universe, safe and staying here will deprive her of that fate."

Ratchet had nothing to say to that as he, his siblings, and the rest of the group climbed out of their ships, allowing them to look at the somewhat imposing prison, in fact the one Rivet had invaded years ago was far more imposing than this one, for a few seconds before Autumn bought a new weapon, the Negotiator, which was a rocket launcher and would be a fine addition to their arsenal. Sure enough they found that Tachyon's commandos were guarding the outer reaches of the large prison, who reacted violently to the arrival of Ratchet and the others, though they were nothing compared to their might, as they wiped out the commandos without any real effort, before he hacked into a terminal to fix the grind rail. With that done he and the others jumped onto the rail and started to move around the outer perimeter of Zordoom, finding that there were all sorts of obstacles for them to jump or slide over, showing that Tachyon anticipated people coming to invade the prison and set up traps, ineffective and useless traps. It was just another sign that he was incompetent and was probably one of the worst villains they had faced since starting their adventures, at least in Autumn's eyes anyway, all while hearing about some of the inmates, such as Slim Cognito and Ace Hardlight, which just gave them another reason to trash this entire prison.

Normally the group would try and sneak their way through the prison, or at least the defenses in front of them, but when they heard a message from Tachyon, revealing that he knew they'd come for Talwyn, they discarded all notions of stealth and laid into the guards in front of them.

The guards weren't expecting such an assault, not to mention all of the heroes that decided to wage war on them, though it was satisfying for Autumn, since she didn't like Tachyon all that much, and Angela, who had spent most of her life hiding to ensure the Cragmite couldn't find her, only to break her shell after meeting Ratchet. With the Negotiator in hand they were even more well prepared to deal with the commando guards that were between them and Talwyn's location, which Clank informed them was deep inside the prison, meaning their foe was smart enough to force them to traverse this place a lot to get to their destination. Of course Autumn pulled back when they finally entered the main structure and hacked into one of the terminals so she could get a full layout of the prison, allowing them to confirm the Zoni's information, not that anyone thought they were wrong given what they had been through so far, before tampering with the controls to just mess things up. According to the prison roster there were rebels in the depths of Zordoom, people who hated Tachyon, his rule over all of Polaris, and who knew what else, and they had gathered together with leaders and all sorts of things to wage war against him, before she grinned as she broke into Tachyon's informational folder.

"Oh, get a load of this: there's an entire resistance force trapped within Zordoom... a force that was winning before our foe managed to get enough commandos to imprison them." Autumn remarked, speaking as Ratchet blasted a commando out of the air and Starswirl tore another one down with his magic, while the others used their weapons to mow down the set of guards that were in front of them, and the next page caused her grin to widen even more, "It seems that Ace came here to explore and become a greater hero than he was before his, um, incident, and he joined the Resistance to save people from Tachyon's dark rule... it seems that we've found the perfect military force to add to our arsenal, and I know where all of their weapons are located as well."

"Can I say that he's an idiot?" Angela asked, swinging at a commando that approached her, on account of her being one of the Lombaxes that Tachyon had been looking for earlier, and smashed him to bits, allowing her to fall back a little as the others picked up her slack for a moment, where she found that Autumn nodded, "Good, because he's an idiot. What sort of ruler or tyrant imprisons people and then keeps all of their weapons in a nearby vault? That's... well, that's asking for all sorts of trouble if they're able to break out."

Attention all Resistance members: who feels like breaking out of prison and taking Tachyon down? Autumn inquired, where she broadcast her question to all of Zordoom, showing that her intelligence was far superior to the defenses that had been installed in Zordoom, but it wasn't long before they heard the sound of something stirring in Zordoom, which she found to be the imprisoned rebels, eager to fight against Tachyon once more.

Ratchet found that, as they moved forward, Autumn focused less on their journey through the prison and more on what she was doing, deactivating the cells to release the rebels, making it so they were let out near their weapons and armed all of them within a matter of seconds, much to the surprise of the foolish commandos. Of course she found that Talwyn was set to a different channel and only someone with Tachyon's clearance could override the commands, at least from one of the terminals, but if they found a terminal they could hack into, linked to her prison cell, she was sure that using their new hacker could do the job. There were terminals that Ratchet had to hack into, since Autumn was busy liberating the rebels to provide them with even more firepower, and he did so as the others watched his back, before they reached a point where they had to glide down to the lowest point while avoiding some lasers. After that it was a simple matter to wipe out the rest of the commandos before discovering the cell delivery line that contained everyone who had been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in Zordoom, where Ratchet hacked into a terminal as Autumn tracked down Cronk and Zephyr, finding out where they were resting with ease.

A few moments later one of the cells came to a stop in front of them and the door opened to reveal Talwyn, who used her jetpack to leave the container and landed in front of Ratchet, while the others opened fire on the incoming guards, though she wasn't too surprised by this turn of events.

"Wow, a jailbreak... you certainly know how to impress a girl." Talwyn commented, though it only made her wonder what in the world Ratchet had done to impress Angela, Sasha, and Nika, before she focused on the fact that Tachyon only recently captured her and hadn't announced it yet, "How did you guys know we were here?"

"The Zoni told us." Ratchet replied, where he turned around and opened fire on the guards as well, showing that, while he knew she had more questions for them, especially when she noticed that he was far more determined than when she met them, he was focused on trashing this place and getting out of here.

As Talwyn followed after them, letting the group wage war on the commandos while the rebels wrecked another portion of the prison, she wondered why the Zoni cared about her, enough to pull Ratchet and his family off the search for the device that they confirmed the existence of back on Rykan V. She guessed that she should feel honored that the beings saw fit to rescue her, even if it meant the Dimensionator might fall into Tachyon's hands, but she had a sneaking suspicion that the Zoni knew they could recover it before someone else stole it. After thinking about it Talwyn asked about her warbots, since they were in danger as well, only to learn that the rebels were breaking the prison by freeing the innocent before heading to their ships, where her warbots were among them and were currently ensuring that their ship was ready to go, so when they exited Zordoom they could meet up with the group. She nodded her head as Ratchet opened fire on the commandos while Starswirl ignited the power source of the prison, because with the rebels departing from the planet, waiting near the Heilos for them, that left all of the true criminals and Autumn went one step further by breaking all of the ships that belonged to the criminals, stranding them on Viceron.

Once they were outside the group climbed into their ships and headed for the Helios, where Ace contacted them and told them that the Resistance would be joining the war against Tachyon once more, to which they got moving as they headed for Jasindu, as it was time to meet up with Slag and obtain the Dimensionator.

On the flight to Jasindu, giving the group a short period of time to rest and regroup, Angela and Sasha explained things to Talwyn, as she had boarded their starship before entering warp space, especially why Ratchet was so focused, he had been given a chance to help his sister and it had been stolen from him.

"No wonder he seemed different, he finally had a chance to help Rivet and couldn't do anything." Talwyn said, as that was a lot to take in, including the fact that there was someone out there that knew of the barriers between dimensions and held back when Ratchet made his attempt, "Once we get the Dimensionator, provided it still works, do you think he'll...?"

"Use it to save Rivet? Yes, there is a ninety-three percent chance that he'll do so, the other seven being in case Tachyon or Slag take it and use it first." Clank replied, as he had been listening to them while Ratchet focused on ensuring they came out in the space near Jasindu and not another location, like a black hole or something, before he readied himself for what they were going to do next, "We had best get ready, as there is no telling what we'll find on Jasindu."

As Talwyn and the others got ready, however, Ratchet pulled them out of the warp space and found that Jasindu was under attack by Tachyon's forces, where the pirates were waging war on all of his commandos, to which he brought the ship to a stop as the rebel ships appeared behind them. In that moment he connected their communications with Slag's and told the robotic pirate that they were done with Zordoom, and, more importantly, they had unexpected reinforcements, in the form of the Resistance members, who he sent down to deal with the dropships. Once he was done talking they headed down to the city that happened to be where IRIS claimed the Dimensionator was resting, where upon landing Aphelion joined the assault, getting her revenge on Tachyon's forces for downing her all those years ago, while Autumn found a new weapon in the Vendor, the Razor Claws. It was a melee weapon, instead of ranged like most of the others, but they added it to their arsenals and followed the path in front of them, firing on the commandos as the Kerchu and pirates welcomed them to the fight, or at least they assumed that was what the former said since they loved to speak in their own tongue.

The first group of pirates informed them that Slag had gone into the middle of the city, a rather empty location save for a number of rails, a platform, and a few structures, as he was sure that was where the target was located, and it happened to be where Tachyon was heading right now. With the pirates aiding them on the ground, eliminating the commandos that were in the way, and the rebels tearing through the invading ships that were above the decent sized city, ensuring that the ground forces weren't overwhelmed, the siblings and their family tore through those who got in their way. Of course they knew that Ratchet fought with more determination than ever before, because the Dimensionator was the key to opening the way to Rivet's dimension so he could swoop in and tend to her injuries, not to mention get her out of there, and they knew that he wasn't going to let anything get in his way. As such the group waged total war on their enemies and blasted the commandos out of the way, using their weapons and magic to tear through anyone who dared to get in their way, all while finding that the Kerchu weren't too happy to have their planet invaded and, while not too happy about the intruders being here, they weren't about to complain as they tore into the commandos.

With their combined forces they were able to reach the center of the city with ease, where they found a severely wounded Slag resting near what looked like some sort of Kerchu machine, a mech of some kind, and a pedestal that likely held the Dimensionator at one point in time, something that caused despair to cross Ratchet's face before he rushed over to where their ally was resting.

"Slag! What happened? Where's the Dimensionator?" Ratchet asked, though as Autumn joined him, to try to tend to the massive cuts that were etched into the pirate lord's body, even though he was missing one of his arms, the right one to be exact, causing him to pay more attention to the head.

"Tachyon... came... took the... device..." Slag replied, where it was easy for them to tell that he was wounded and that they were short on time, in fact Autumn knew that there was no saving him at this point, especially when she found out that his old wound had ruptured and wrecked his lower body, hence why he had no legs, before he removed his hat and pressed it into Ratchet's hands, "Qwark, he... fought to defend the device... followed Tachyon... to... Reepor. Take the crew... tear... him... dow..."

In that moment Slag expired, his systems failing due to the substantial damage he had suffered to defend this area from their foe, though Ratchet growled as he took the hat and placed it on his head, as there was no telling what Tachyon might do with the Dimensionator, as with his family backing him he knew that the 'Emperor' would soon face defeat and they would claim the device, he just had to be patient to bring about that reality.

All 4 One: Aldaros Plains

When Autumn woke up she discovered that she, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous had been brought to a massive machine, the insides of it to be exact, that looked like a processing center for all sorts of creatures, given that the Z'Grute was asleep and was moving down one of the other pathways.

"I don't know if this is the inside of that moon sized starship, but this place is fascinating." Autumn commented, though she also found that, while she was being suspended upside down by some restraints, just like her brother, the blood wasn't even rushing to her head, meaning there had to be something in effect to stop that.

"Um, a little help here... I think mine is broken." Qwark said, where Autumn and Starswirl turned and found that his arms, not to mention part of his body, were twisted and locked by the restraints, like someone thought he was a beast and not an actual person.

"It is fortunate that I upgraded my head case and fixed the damage, otherwise I'd be playing a tune." Virtuous remarked, a reminder of what would happen to Nefarious whenever he got upset over something, namely whenever Qwark was part of the problem or issue, which he had fixed beforehand.

"'Scuse me?! Whatcha doin' up there?" a voice asked, where the group found a small girl with blue skin standing on a rather well placed platform that, if they were released from their bindings, they could land on without delay, and she had some sort of device in her hand.

"Hanging out, mostly. What's that you got there?" Autumn replied, as she had a feeling that, like their other adventures, it might be the key to completing some of the puzzles and challenges that they would face, meaning they would have to find a way to obtain them, or she could copy the girl's gadget for everyone.

"Lemme show you!" the girl declared, where she activated the vacuum device, as it acted like a modified Suck Cannon, to mess with a nearby device and allowed their restraints to deactivate, something that was followed by Starswirl catching all of them with his magic so they could land safely, "We should go before She finds out you guys are here. Come on!"

Since it appeared that they were in the bowels of the enemy's domain, based on what they were seeing, the group quickly decided that she was trustworthy and decided to place their trust in her for the time being, where she activated another spherical orb device. As she did so the girl identified herself as Susie and informed them that they should head through the Sector Seven air vents and that they should meet up on the south side of it, though once she was done with the orb it brought up a launchpad for them to use. Once she stepped away the group thanked her before propelling themselves across the gap between their platform and the air vent in question, where they found that there was nothing inside it save for a couple of crates and another platform. That one allowed them to connect with a lower rail system that would likely take them outside the facility, or take them to another part so they could fight their way through with ease, before it came to a stop and they were scanned by a nearby helper bot.

Organic life forms detected. a voice said, which had a feminine voice and seemed to be coming from another part of the facility, even though the group was sure that 'She' had already found them without understanding who the robot had discovered, Rerouting to creature pen for probing and experimentation.

"No probing required, as we're... um... new trainees!" Qwark stated, though at the same time he found that they had been thinking the same thing that he said, utter some nonsense to convince the robot into thinking that they were here to join it in whatever crusade it and it's master were currently on.

Very well. Rerouting to training lab for gadget certification training. the voice replied, where they couldn't believe their luck, one of the main followers of the villain of this adventure was stupid, even Virtuous was having a hard time figuring out why it believed what they were saying, while having a better understanding of why Nefarious always lost.

From there they were allowed to continue down a new section of the track, each one quietly praising Qwark for thinking of the idea, even if he knew everyone else had the exact same idea, and even Susie, who spoke through their belts, was also impressed by their actions, to the point where she claimed that she had left something for them up ahead. Eventually they came to a stop at an area they could way through and walked off the platform, allowing the group to follow the path that the AI had brought them to, which involved using their Swingshots to move across a gap designed to test them and also gaining a 'golden star' from the strange AI. Susie caught up with them, deemed an 'interloper' by the AI, and opened up a path for them to use with her gadget, which they took immediately and let her close it behind them, mostly to make sure the AI was confused as she headed down another path. The path she opened for them involved using the Swingshot some more, which they were used to at this point, before reaching a chamber with a central device and our of Susie's gadgets plugged into what seemed to be a charging station, complete with a macaroni letter.

"Apparently these are Vac-Us, and Susie claims they'll come in handy." Virtuous said, though as he said the letter he and the others claimed their new toys, but no one turned one on since they had no idea how to use them and didn't want to suck someone into it or hurt them in some manner.

Sure enough the AI allowed them to learn how to use their new toys, the Vac-U, and provided lessons for them to tackle, such as sucking up items and shooting them into an incinerator, destroy crates and pick up Bolts, solve puzzles, even heal fallen teammates with stored Nanotech, as it zapped Qwark to near death and Virtuous quickly healed him. Autumn was impressed with the Vac-U's abilities, as there were many and she was eager to get it home so she could tinker with it, all while hearing that the AI was preparing them to 'oppress the Tharpods', likely Susie's people. The other discovery that was made was the fact that the Vac-U's were capable of catching small critters and storing them inside a separate part of their internal machinery, reminding the four of them of Pokemon for a moment, likely where all of the inspiration came from, where Autumn confirmed that all of the four little critters were safe and sound. In no time at all Autumn, Starswirl, Qwark, and Virtuous became masters of the new gadget and completed all of the training sessions with ease, far quicker than any of them originally thought as they continued to make their way towards what they hoped was an exit.

Of course it was only a matter of time until the AI realized that they weren't who they said they were and sent minions to take them down, even resorting to removing all of their stars and marking their certifications with a frown, replacing the smiley they had been given, but the group paid it no mind as they found a way to leave the facility and took it, only to find an interesting sight on the other end.

"There must be an anomaly nearby, as gravity's broken in this area." Virtuous remarked, referring to the fact that there were a number of floating islands and pieces of earth for them to walk on, where Autumn nodded her head to show that she agreed with him, "Why, I do not know... but, given your adventures, I have a feeling we'll find out in due time."

In that moment Qwark pointed at the sky and they found one of the bullet satellites rushing through the air, where it just struck the area in front of them and deployed a message from Cronk, Zephyr, and Ratchet, as the warbots were currently trapped in an asteroid field surrounding the planet they were brought to, Magnus to be exact. These devices would allow them to purchase more of Autumn's newest weaponry, the sixth tier weapons as she called them, as this was their sixth adventure that took place on or near their birthdays, as well as restock their ammunition. Ratchet and the others were in the middle of holding down the fort in all three galaxies, just in case this was one of Nefarious' traps, but he knew that his siblings and their friends would be able to take care of this adventure on their own, without needing him to come rushing to their aid. With that information in hand the group restocked their ammunition, purchased whatever upgrades might be available for their weapons, and picked up a new weapon, the Arc Lasher that stunned enemies, before turning their focus to the area that the training facility was on the edge of, as it was time to get moving.

Susie also came floating by in what appeared to be a makeshift hot air balloon, where she informed them that all sorts of gravity machines were active in this area and that she'd lead them to a safer location, to which they started to navigate the area while keeping their eyes open for enemies.

Sure enough more minions started to attack them, which meant that their enemies knew where to find them, meaning the AI was slightly smarter than they gave her credit for, but none of them were worried as they carefully wasted their foes, in a way that conserved ammunition, before moving further into the gravity twisted region. While they did that Zephyr called and informed them that Cronk was going to sign up for an online subscription to the Hall of Knowledge, just in case they encountered any creatures they didn't recognize, as while he didn't doubt their intelligence he knew that their studies of the universe were far from completion, which the group appreciated. One thing Qwark noted was the number of foes that were being sent at them, as if someone really wanted Autumn and Starswirl, no doubt for whatever reason the villain of this adventure wanted all of the other creatures for, which the others agreed with. They also found a new type of what all of them assumed to be transport, as they had to latch onto four floating shot targets that launched them up into the air and let the group land on another floating stone island, making them Springshots in Autumn's eyes.

In that moment they discovered a new platform that had a number of critters on it, which the group surpassed with ease, where they discovered that it was a lab of someone called Frumpus Croid and that it was a testing area for people who he felt could join him in the fight against 'Nevo'. Apparently the test in question was incredibly simple, all they had to do was use their Vac-Us to activate the systems inside the hidden lab, which seemed to be in a pocket space of some kind, where Autumn took notes of what was around them before they got started on the test. As they activated the machines to start the test they heard Croid's message continue, revealing how this was project 'Last Resort', where Autumn assumed it had to be a RYNO weapon, as the RYNO VI was known by such a name, in fact it was supposed to be far more dangerous than the last two, especially since it could be turned into a mech. Virtuous had to wonder what in the world could have made her make such a weapon in the first place, though he had a feeling that he didn't want to know as they completed the test and claimed the first of six RYNO blueprints, the head compartment to be exact.

With that in hand they returned to the gravity fields and resumed their trek, finding that more minions were waiting for all four of them, or maybe their master wanted something from this area, and quickly crossing the unstable ground before using a spinning Swingshot device to hurl themselves at another section of the area. In addition to that there were patches of lava rocks that fell when something blew up above them, a minion dispenser that actually deployed bombs, and even discovered an interesting fact, those gravity robots did give the group messed up gravity for a time, allowing to jump as if they were on a moon with low gravity. Everyone was happy with the gravity, since Autumn and Starswirl didn't have to use any of their magic to help them across some of the gasps, before eventually coming into contact with the gravity machine as it tried to take them out. Since it was an illegal machine Autumn took great pleasure in breaking it with her magic, as in very carefully since she didn't want to break it, and when it was in ruins the gravity returned to normal, allowing her to do a bit of reverse engineering to use the pocket technology to store any interesting minions they came across, like the ones that warped into an area that they were exploring.

The next Vendor didn't have any weapons to add to their arsenals, so they moved on and continued their assault against all of the minions that were being deployed to this region, using the new Swingshot types to navigate from place to place, before reaching an area where they discovered a new obstacle, a Voltergeist. According to Cronk and Zephyr they were used to power certain devices, provided that they were placed in an appropriate socket, where Qwark fired it at the socket in question and a bridge extended for the group to move forward once more. There were also Gravoids for them to worry about, who latched onto sections of ground and swelled up like a balloon, allowing it to fly off with a portion of the ground that they had to walk on, so those targets needed to be taken out before there was nowhere to move. The problem with a Gravoid being here was that they were only found on the black rock moons of Ebaro, which, combined with the Z'Grute in the facility and all four of them, meant someone had to be collecting creatures from all across the universe, which made everyone wonder what Nevo might be planning.

Other than the minions there wasn't a lot for them to be interested in, at least not until they found a zipline that brought them to yet another area, where they laid waste to their enemies while keeping an eye out for anything that might help explain what was going on with this odd planet. They also clashed with a Gravoid Brute, which was a smarter version that had learned to make weak weapons and armor, though Starswirl wiped it out with a powerful flurry of wind slashes, which allowed them to keep the pace they were used to. Susie also floated by and directed them to a launched that actually put the group into four tubes before propelling them through the air, as she was leading Autumn and the others to her village, meaning a place to rest for a time before even worrying about the next stage of their new adventure. Autumn also found a few sections where they could use the Magneboots function of their Onmiboots, as Virtuous had outfitted himself with a pair in case he needed them, before finding a Vendor to restock on ammunition and empower their weapons.

With that done they entered the 'village' in front of them and found that the Tharpods were basically starving and eating whatever one could find, one even claiming to have eaten a shoe very recently, causing the group to spread out for a few seconds and delivered vital items that would allow them to survive.

As soon as everyone was done, and Virtuous praised Qwark for being able to follow him and the magic users in showing the Tharpods had to live and not be poisoned by what they ate, the group regrouped before heading down another path, especially since the main one seemed to be blocked by some plating a new gadget was needed for. As Susie floated by, all while the group used some bridges to move forward, a Gravoid captured her hot air balloon and dragged her off, where Qwark lead the charge to recover her as he blasted his way through the minions that appeared before them. Of course it was only a matter of time until they found another device that the orb activator was attached to, which grappled a piece of ground and pulled it over to where the group was standing, so they could jump up onto it and move forward. After that it was a simple matter to locate another new gadget to add to their arsenals, four Agorian Glob Lobbers, which were used to anchor ships in low gravity, so they were able to use them on all of the new icons they had seen in the village, causing all sorts of things to lower and form a path for them to utilize as they followed Susie and her kidnapper.

It took a bit of doing, but they found her crashed hot air balloon and that meant they had to be close to finding her, but as they did so a barrier machine trapped the four of them inside a prison and minions came in to defeat them, not that they were worried about such a thing as the group trashed their enemies. Autumn, of course, wrapped her magic around the machine in question and transported it into her new storage area for later, as she was gathering all sorts of new things to learn about, once this adventure had come to an end. After that they crossed a field of moving rocks, which was easy for the group to overcome, before Autumn raised an eyebrow as she spotted another of Croid's hidden labs, though none of them were surprised to find that they qualified to enter it and did so without delay. Once more they found that it was just a matter of moving the various machines to form a path for the critters to take, even using the new Glob Lobbers to move pipes into position, allowing them to complete the test and claim the chest piece of the RYNO VI.

After that they returned to their main quest, crushing minions and messing with the various machines to move further along the area, before coming to a section that had a number of moving rock platforms and they navigated it easily, but as they did so they spotted a large warbot, at least three times the size of the ones they tackled during the last adventure, off in the distance, complaining about his work.

Interestingly enough the orange plated robot placed a created in their path, something that looked like an octopus with some odd tentacles, called an Octomoth by Cronk, though while it seemed to have a hard outer shell it pierced the ground with it's spiked limbs, which they fired upon to weaken it. When they did enough damage the creature opened it's mouth and both Qwark and Virtuous stepped aside as Autumn and Starswirl combined their magic into a single charge and sent it inside the Octomoth's mouth, causing it to blow up on the inside and send the creature into the depths of the gravity area. Autumn assured the others that it was still alive, as she and her brother had held back to avoid doing serious harm to it, but with that done they found that Susie didn't need their help, she was bouncing on the Gravoid that had abducted her not that long ago, allowing them to chuckle as they escorted her back to the village. Or rather they would have since a creature came and took her to their destination, where the group quickly returned to the village and found that many of the Tharpods were pleased to see them, allowing them to meet up with Susie and her guardian for some rest.

It also gave them a chance to see the massive moon station moving overhead, ignoring them entirely, where the elder set up a campfire as night fell upon them and explained things, that the station was known as Ephemeris and that it had been collecting creatures for a hundred years, while the orange warbot was Spog, a commander. Such a thing told them that the next piece of the puzzle would be to confront him to learn how to stop Ephemeris, plus it would help save the village as well, so the group got a good night sleep before facing whatever was waiting beyond the village.

Rift Apart: Blizar Prime

Autumn and Clank found that Trudi was one of the flying lizards they had seen during the dimensional breaking that sent them to Torren IV, where she was hungry for Zurpstones, an item that grew in the swamps of Rivet's Sargasso, causing the sisters to head out and track some down. It was actually easy to find the first few, though when the Mort watching over her told Rivet that she could earn a few more items and Bolts by getting more she decided to help out, causing Autumn to take one and make a scanner that would help them locate all of them. After that it took them some time to move around the rest of the swamp, dealing with the remaining Goons that were stuck on the planet, toppling some Grunthors who decided to get in their way, and a few more bugs who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once they found all of the fully grown Zurpstones, which was an interesting name in Autumn's eyes, the Mort handed over the RYNO Spybot he had found and told Rivet something that excited her, that Trudi was expecting, causing her to smile as she promised to throw a party once everything was right in their dimension.

With the item in hand, and Rivet happy with the situation, they departed for Blizar Prime with all due haste, since there was no telling when the Troopers would arrive to do all of the people harm as they looked for the three of them, just as Dr. Nefarious had ordered them to do, and during that time Autumn knew there was something bothering Rivet.

"Back when we were going over everything you had planned to help Ratchet with, such as finding me, you mentioned the fact that you were planning on finding the Lombaxes." Rivet eventually said, after a long while of silence on her part, as it meant she wanted to consider her words carefully before speaking her mind, not that Autumn blamed her since it had to be nice finding another member of her species, "I never thought I'd see another member of my kind, much less find our 'home'... if you can call your dimension that... and yet here you guys are, bringing one of my dreams to life! Do you really think it could work?"

"No..." Clank stated, where he and Autumn had been looking forward while Rivet was flying, mostly to make sure their ship stayed on the path to Blizar Prime and didn't head to an entirely different planet, before they noticed something that was going to complicate things far more than they had originally planned.

"No?" Rivet sadly inquired, almost as if she thought he was actually answering her question and not seeing something that would complicate their mission, where a sad look appeared on her face as she faced the front of their ship, only for that expression to morph into one of worry and surprise, "No!"

Blizar Prime was no longer intact, as the planet had been shattered into so many scattered pieces, the massive right half off to one side as the remaining fragments were scattered all over the place, some keeping their original form while the rest were simply rocks or floating crystals. It was a surprise, an unwelcome one at that, especially since this scene meant that the Phase Quartz they needed to build a new Dimensionator might have been destroyed in the event that wiped out the entire planet, in fact, as Autumn thought about it, the rifts likely affected the material and set it off. It was possible that what they were seeing was caused by the material in question, though as she did that Autumn ran a program to see if she could find a trace of the Phase Quartz, only to find that there was no signatures for her to lock onto, meaning if the miners had pulled it out earlier it was long gone by now. With that in mind Autumn made sure they had their new and improved O2 Masks, now a breathing device for their mouth and nose while having a clear invisible shield around the rest of their heads, which she offered to Rivet and she took one without delay, as she was sure it was better than what she had, given what she knew about Autumn's inventions.

Rivet brought the ship down on what seemed to be the perfect spot to land, since there was no landing pad in the area registered in her computer, before they put their new masks on and she opened the hatch, allowing them to jump outside and land on the ground, finding that there was some light gravity despite the planet's destruction.

"What in the world happened here?" Rivet asked, though this worried her far more than she was willing to admit, since it meant she and her sister might not be able to find the item they needed to make the Dimensionator and repair the vast amount of damage that had been done to the dimensions.

"I am uncertain... though I do know that the crystalline substance near us is Blizon." Clank replied, referring to the crystal that was floating nearby, which was clearly pulsing with dimensional energy, which, if his thoughts were correct, might be the key to finding an intact piece of Phase Quartz, even if they had to go to another dimension to do so, "I would suggest hitting it with your melee weapons... if my calculations are correct, we will be warped into a new dimension, where we should be able to find some Phase Quartz."

Rivet and Autumn glanced at each other for a moment before striking the crystal, finding that their weapons did nothing to it while activating the dimensional energy that was contained within, warping them to an intact version of Blizar Prime, a hot world with an intense amount of machinery and a massive drill that required a massive cooling system, allowing the sisters to disengage their masks for the time being.

"You know, it's a shame that we need a specific piece of crystal, the Phase Quartz... I kind of wish we could pour the vast energy of the dimensional rifts into some Blizon and use that." Autumn remarked, though she had a smile on her face, as while her idea wouldn't work, and she would tell her sister and Clank why soon enough, the scene in front of them meant they should be able to find what they were looking for, "I asked Kaden why Phase Quartz and not Blizon, and he told me that too much dimensional energy inside a piece of Blizon would case it to explode... not as violently or as dangerous as what happened with the Phase Quartz, so no advancing the Dimensional Cataclysm, but the material doesn't have the sheer power to match what we need."

"Then we won't waste time checking on the Blizon." Rivet said, though as they walked over to the gate in front of them, a wall that closed as the native critters got close, they felt the ground shudder for a moment, another sign that the various dimensions were starting to crumple, something that really put the pressure on them to find the Phase Quartz and get it to Ratchet to fix the Dimensionator.

Autumn found that the native critters were the toxic crabs that she and her brothers had faced off against during their very first adventure, though she and Rivet opened fire on them while Clank kept an eye on their surroundings, just in the off chance that something cracked or started to fall towards them. Rivet informed them that they might also find some Puffoids, small little spiked critters who came in a variety of forms, such as the lava ones she was sure they might discover during their time on this planet, which was good information since they had no idea what to expect this time around. The moment the last of the crabs had been taken care of the barrier in front of them disappeared and they quickly entered the chamber that was in front of them, which contained Ms. Zurkon, a Blizon crystal, and another located behind some glass, where the second self destructed due to the dimensional energy inside it. Fortunately they were far away from it and were unharmed, though it did initiate a lockdown that sealed the door in front of them, causing the sisters to sigh for a moment as they walked over to Ms. Zurkon, who gave them more new weapons, thanks to Ratchet and Starswirl, before Autumn bought a new one, the Void Repulser, a shield weapon.

With the new weapon in hand the sisters engaged their masks before hitting the nearby crystal, returning to the broken version of Blizar Prime, only to find that someone had survived, a female miner, fully kitted out in a suit that allowed one to withstand the heat of the planet and the coldness of space, who was displeased with her situation.

"Haven't you punished me enough, you stupid universe?!" the Stranger remarked, as if she had been living a hard life up until the destruction of the planet she had been working on for some time, though as both sisters watched her she picked up a rock, a fragment of Blizar Prime, before staring out at the broken planet, "No job, no Phase Quartz... no 'planet'! What else do you want, huh?! My mind! Fine! You can take it!"

As she hurled the rock into space, however, Rivet informed her about the intact Blizar Prime they had come from and the Stranger jumped down to grab onto her, though before Autumn could intervene she seemed to understand what she was talking about, mentioning the Blizon as she let go of Rivet and ran off. After that they walked out into the ruined space that was in front of where the Stranger had been standing, where they discovered a metallic walkway that caused Autumn to pull Rivet back as she checked her boots, just to be sure she had the ability to walk on these surfaces. Once she was sure that her sister was outfitted with all the types of boots that both she and her brothers had used in the past, all within the span of a few moments, allowing them to walk on the magnetic surface, only to find that Troopers were here in mass, no doubt looking for them while hoping that they had been caught in the blast. The sisters dashed their hopes as they fired on all of the Troopers that were in their immediate area, which would allow a signal to be sent out so the others would be able to zero in on their position, but they intended on being in another dimension before that happened.

Rivet also found that the new additions to her boots were wonderful, as she was able to leap from one magnetic strip to another with ease, which was a reminder of what Autumn was capable of, before they found the crystal they needed and struck it after wiping out the rest of the nearby Troopers.

Once they were in the other dimension, now behind the security door that had lowered in their face, Rivet hacked into the nearby console and overrode the lockdown command, opening two doors, the one between chambers and the one that would bring them outside. Such a thing brought them to a broken bridge and some crabs, the latter being wiped out once they tried to attack the sisters with their sharp pincers, before they had to head off to their left and cross over a number of stone slabs that formed a path forward, or the tops of crystals growing out of the lava as Autumn noted. They were also attacked by some Puffoids, which were easily wiped out with their newest weapon and it's upgrades, allowing the sisters to make their way over to a platform that had a taxi that would take them down to where the mining hub was located, an area that would help them obtain the Phase Quartz. When they reached the platform, however, Autumn and Clank quickly sensed another dimensional rift and found that one opened near the area that they had stopped in, where they watched as a few Goons flew through it, this time using what looked like modified and upgraded hoverbikes.

The sisters learned that these guys were part of the most 'elite' group of the Goons, the 'Vroom Goons', which caused the pair to chuckle a little as they brought them down, as while they might be the most elite members of the organization, or so they claimed, Rivet and Autumn wiped out the group and walked onto the taxi so it could bring them to the mining hub at long last.

"Hey, um, I just wanted to say thanks... I'm not used to working with others like this." Rivet said, as while the journey was a short one, likely a minute or even less, she wanted to let Autumn and Clank know that she was grateful for their company, especially since it allowed her some time to talk with her sister and learn more about her brothers, both her twin and the one she hadn't encountered yet, "I mean, fighting beside others like this... I'm more of a lone wolf, even within the ranks of the Resistance, especially after the accident."

"Don't mention it... besides, it's nice to have some quality time with my sister." Autumn replied, which was the truth, she liked spending time with Rivet, not because she was her sister and that they could do things that she couldn't do with her brothers, but because she was an interesting person and she wanted to know more about her.

"While I agree with Autumn, that it is nice spending time with you, we must focus on the mission, meaning we'll have to find the Chief Engineer to access the drill." Clank commented, as he really hated interrupting them while they talked, due to the fact that he also liked hanging out with Rivet, because while she was like Ratchet at times he and Autumn could see that there were differences between them as well, but they needed the Phase Quartz.

As Rivet and Autumn nodded their heads, due to the fact that they agreed with him, the platform came to a stop and they walked into the mining hub, where they heard that another important figure to the area had gone missing and that those who had seen her claimed she had gone down the path to the right. A moment later the sisters were stopped by one of the other miners, this one looking like a sous chef thanks to the chef hat on her head, or on top of her mining helmet, who took a moment to ask them if they were heading towards the caves, because she was looking for Chef Tullio. They agreed to look for her, since it seemed like none of the miners were getting any food while her superior was missing, an odd thing for sure as they thought about it, before they headed down the path in front of them and blasted a couple more crabs that jumped out of the lava to attack them. While all of that happened Autumn found a call coming and noticed that it was from this very planet, not Ratchet and Starswirl, and when she answered it they discovered that it was none other than Chef Tullio talking on the other end, who seemed perfectly fine, even if she was in the middle of making the best dish of her life.

Such a thing meant they had to track her down and finish off whatever she was working on, so she could return to the hub and do her job, though as Rivet approached the cave entrance she found some Goons being harassed by the needle wasps that called this planet home. it was actually quite humorous seeing them run in terror, over creatures that she and Autumn were able to beat in no time at all, though after a few more moments of watching the sisters opened fire on them before they even knew what hit them, allowing them to clear the cave entrance. From there they had to fight a few more needle wasps before discovering that there was no walkway to get up to where Chef Tullio was resting, though they did find some Blizon in the area and activated their masks accordingly, allowing them to shift into the other dimension for a time, and this time there were no Troopers to worry about. With that in mind they were able to smack another crystal and return to the dimension that the crystals were linked to, allowing them to find a bounce platform that propelled them up into the highest point of this part of Blizar Prime.

As they walked out of the cave the sisters discovered an extraction machine that was linked to the cave, with a miner who looked like the sous chef, save for the honey pot in her right hand that she cradled as if it happened to be the single most important item in her life.

"I am Chef Tullio and, like all of the other great artists, I can only create beauty when I'm suffering." the miner stated, which was all the confirmation they needed that they had found who they were looking for, especially since she was the only one in this area, though instead of saying anything both Rivet and Autumn remained silent, "To make my greatest dish yet, I must harvest the Sirangian Honey that is below us, with this VAC-U-SUCK! But running the machine will take my full attention, so I'll need someone, or a pair of capable someones, to defend me from those who are allergic to brilliance... if you wish to be part of culinary history, just activate the Hammercrank to start the extraction sequence."

Rivet and Autumn merely glanced at each other before getting started, the former activating the crank in question while the latter jumped down into the area below them, finding that Chef Tullio had set up some flame traps for the local wildlife, to be activated with two buttons, one on either side of the small chasm she was working in. Once Rivet was done, and Tullio's machine activated, she jumped down and took up her position on the left side of the area as Autumn did the same on the right side, allowing them to pull out their weapons as they found crabs and Puffoids coming at them. That really seemed to be the only enemies they had to deal with, just wave after wave of those two critters, and whenever one wave fell they could hear the mad chef talking about culinary terms and what her plans were for the dish she wanted to make. It sounded like she was planning on using the honey in nearly every dish that would be made for the miners, a honey smorgasbord based on what they were hearing, though the Goons swooped in and tried to make off with some of the material, causing Rivet and Autumn to blast them as well.

In the end the sisters emerged victorious, finding that by 'suffering' Chef Tullio meant the suffering of others and that she had, in fact, been granted the vision needed to make a meal for the miners, though she did reward them with a Spybot as she wrapped up her work, allowing them to use a taxi to return to the hub.

"What's so special about these Spybots?" Rivet asked, as while she found that many had information on the planets they she and Autumn found them on, just like what likely happened when Ratchet and Starswirl found theirs, she was more eager to learn about the weapon that was contained in fragments, a shattered holoplan for something powerful.

"The last couple of RYNO weapons were so powerful that we had to scatter their plans, even though my brothers and I had to find them during our last couple of adventures." Autumn replied, something that caused Clank to sweat for a moment, as the eighth and final version of the RYNO series was, by far, the most powerful and most destructive one of them all, or so he and the others assumed when Autumn talked about it in the past, "They must have been pulled into this dimension during the cracking of the barrier, where the Resistance must have discovered them and edited them in some manner... or maybe Ms. Zurkon did so before they were lost to her. By the time we reach the end of this adventure, we will have likely found all ten of the fragments that make up the plans, especially given what my brothers and I have been through in the past... and then the real fun can begin."

Rivet found herself interested in what sort of weapon Autumn had created, to the point of it being broken like this, before they restocked their ammunition and headed down the path on their left without delay, allowing them to make their way to another taxi that brought them to the Chief Engineer's location, all while finding another dimensional rift that spat out some Goons and one of their dropships.

"Do you two hear that?" the Chief Engineer asked, as she had been kneeling on the ground with her ear close to the floor, almost as if she was trying to listen to something that only she could hear, though as the sisters told her that they hadn't heard anything, which was the truth, she started to stand straight once more, "Voices... I haven't been hearing them for too, but wherever the Purple is, they are too. First the quakes, then the Blizon, and now this..."

"To be honest I'm not hearing anyone say anything... other than someone asking if you'll be drilling for Phase Quartz in the near future?" Rivet replied, because they needed the Phase Quartz to fix the barrier between dimensions, where she had to assume that the Chief Engineer was hearing someone from either her dimension or one of the others that they were only now becoming aware of thanks to Dr. Nefarious' plans.

The Chief Engineer informed them that she wasn't allowing anyone to do anything until she figured out what was going on and that she had sent out three of her Helpers, modified to be Science Bots, out to study and scan the Purple, which had to be the dimensional energy they were seeing. Rivet and Autumn offered to go get them, since that seemed to be a step in the right direction, and she agreed with their proposal, to which she opened a line with the sisters before they headed out through the opening on the other side of the large building that the Chief Engineer worked in. Clank figured out that the bots in question must have intercepted a message from Rivet's dimension, meaning it had to be the Stranger, though that caused them to wonder what might have happened to her version of Blizar Prime, since they might be able to use her information to save this dimension's as well. With that in mind they carefully jumped over the rock path and pillars that were in front of them, avoiding the ones that also spewed lava out of them every now and then, before finding one Helper that was in the entrance of a cave, so they wiped out the nearby crabs before walking up to it.

Sadly the dimensional damage caused a cave in and forced them to make their way over to where a Blizon crystal rested, allowing Rivet and Autumn to warp back to Rivet's dimension for a few moments and find a crystal to return to the second dimension, though it caused the robot, B.O.B. according to their new ally, to head back to it's base.

From there they moved along the edge of the massive crater that the mining station was built into, as Rivet and Autumn could see that now that they were able to see everything at once, and found some Goons guarding the cave that lead to where the second bot. As the sisters did that they did get bits and pieces of the transmission, where the Stranger was in the middle of doing everything in her power to inform them of what happened to her version of Blizar Prime, though right now it was hard to tell what in the world she was trying to say, as 'danger' could meant anything. As such they focused on tracking down the Science Bots, J.I.M. and S.A.M., while blasting the Goons that happened to get in their way, though such a thing did allow the sisters to see another crystal shatter due to overloading on dimensional energy, before finding a way to get around to the second Science Bot. J.I.M., as they discovered after using some Blizon crystals to get around to where he was resting, only wanted friends and seemed sad when Rivet declined his request, causing her to feel a little bad in the process, before they started to make their way over to the third area that several Goons had crashed into after emerging from the dimension rift that brought them here.

Finding S.A.M. wasn't too hard, they just had to wipe out the Goons and wasps that were warring with each other before moving a crystal to warp over to her platform, though she spoke in two different tones, a normal one and a southern one, before heading back to the Chief Engineer, but when they joined her the protective barrier of the structure came up, as if enemies were coming at attack the area.

"Don't worry, this place was built to withstand the local wildlife." the Chief Engineer stated, as if this was nothing for them to focus on, that they could lower their guard for a time while she decoded the message from Rivet's dimension, though in that moment she noticed a few more sensors go off, "Except for the fact that motion trackers are saying that the targets are inside the house... the room... of course, the ceiling... I always forget to look up!"

In that moment the ceiling grate burst open and crabs and Puffoids walked into the building to attack them, before a new dimensional rift burst open in the center of the facility and a Juggernaut jumped out, reminding Autumn of what she and her siblings had seen back on Fastoon.

"Location: unknown. Life forms: unknown. Protocol: destroy!" the Juggernaut declared, exactly like the one Autumn fought in the past, though as soon as it stopped talking the sisters lashed out at it, blasting it in the chest while also focusing on all of the minor enemies so they didn't get overwhelmed by them.

Rivet discovered something that was interesting to her, with their new weapons she and her sister were able to tear apart the Juggernaut with ease, despite all of the minor enemies that were trying to tear them down as well, allowing the Chief Engineer to disengage the shield protecting her domain. With that done she approved of the sisters using the drill to mine for some Phase Quartz, in fact she knew that they were near some and her supervisors would be okay with this since they had just helped her solve all of their immediate problems, though she did have to send J.I.M. with them. This time around Rivet decided to accept his friend request, since he had the desire to ask again, causing him to float around with a happy tune, showing them that someone was enjoying themselves, despite the danger that they were in since they had no idea what had destroyed the planet in her dimension. Autumn and Clank were sure either the Chief Engineer would find out the cause and tell them, allowing the three of them to avoid the destruction of this world, or they'd do that and take down whatever the problem was, since that seemed to be how things went at times.

As they returned to the mining hub, however, they spotted a dimensional anomaly that formed right on top of a platform that controlled the cooling system for the entire drill, which was just perfect in the grand scheme of things, though at the same time Rivet wasn't too surprised.

"Clank, you're up." Rivet said, as she knew that he had done something back in the one on Sargasso and understood that he was the one that could crack it, all while showing that she trusted him enough to let him deal with this mess, especially since she usually didn't trust robots, given what was going on with her dimension.

Clank nodded as Rivet and Autumn came to a stop in front of the dimensional anomaly, where he raised his hand and let his mind be taken inside, knowing that it would take him some time to fix everything and make sure the way was open for the sisters to continue with their mission.

A few seconds later Clank appeared inside the inner workings of the dimensional anomaly, where he found that it was just like the one back on Sargasso, there were obstacles he needed to avoid, Spheres that needed to be collected and used to progress, and Possibilities to lead to the Meta-Terminals that were in his path.

"Ah, Clank, I've been expecting you." Gary said, as Clank had expected the Prophet to be somewhere nearby, in fact the figure seemed to be more like the Plumber than he originally thought at first, and it was nice to see him floating nearby, no doubt due to his specific type of meditation, "You'll be happy to know that Ratchet and Starswirl visited Savali, fending off an invasion of Troopers to get the information to forge the Dimensionator... they're both thinner than I thought, but I do feel that they are appropriately heroic in their own unique ways."

"That's good. I knew they could do it." Clank replied, which meant that his friends were on their way to whatever planet held the forge needed to remake the device, or maybe they were on their way to a Lombax world to put their machinery to use once more, he had no way of knowing that specific piece of information.

Clank found that there was something new he had to do this time around, he had to be mindful of devices that produced an endless amount of wind that pushed his Possibilities off to one side, not to mention himself for that matter, before he tracked down a Heavy Sphere. He paused for a few seconds as he considered his options, as he could help the endless stream of his Possibilities with the wind or he could lower a platform to continue the path towards the Meta-Terminal, a decision that, ultimately, was easy for him to make as he used it on the latter. As he lowered the walkway he found Gary off to the side with his book, something that caused him to ask what was inside it, where Gary chuckled as he claimed that it held the most up to date information of the multiverse, as in each and every dimension, all catalogued by his father no less. It was in that moment that Clank decided to mention that it was his belief that Gary's father had to be the Plumber, all due to some of the things he had seen and learned during their time together, and the Prophet confirmed that he was right on the money, before revealing that his father was on vacation for the first time, leaving everything to him and those he enlisted to him him out.

In the end it didn't take him all that long to open the way for his Possibilities to reach the first Meta-Terminal, even though he did have to move a saw to get rid of another barricade to make the path smooth, before they opened the way to the second area and he followed them.

Clank let his desire for more information get the better of him as he started to tackle the next couple of challenges, he had to know how Gary got the title of 'Prophet', where Gary informed him that he had decoded some of the Archives before a few of the Monks started calling him by that name. Apparently what he did was basically look at a bunch of stuff and told the Monks what each item was, like pointing out that items were a Blargian phone book, a Kerchu tooth, or even, and this was unexpected, a Terraklon love poem. Gary, despite knowing that Clank needed to focus on the task at hand, asked him how things were going with Rivet, even though they both knew he already knew what was going on, before Clank informed him that he and Autumn had to go through a lot to convince her that they were telling the truth. Clank also told Gary that he might want to apologize to Ratchet at some point, due to the fact that his friend might be cross with the Prophet since he was supposed to watch over Rivet and it ended with her being wounded, even though he was surprised by the fact that Ratchet hadn't slugged Gary, as he suspected his friend knew who the Prophet was.

Gary simply shrugged when he heard that, as while he wasn't concerned with that fact he was also sure that Ratchet had moved on and would forgive him, even if one of them confronted the other over the loss of Rivet's right arm, allowing Clank to focus on the obstacles that were in front of him. He had to admit that the dimensional anomalies were different than what he was used to, in terms of puzzle solving, though it put a smile on his face, as he had some fun traversing the Nether pockets during the last adventure, especially given how each one helped them progress, but this was nice as well, despite the fact that the dimensions were in danger. Clank was also glad that he was learning more about dimensionality as he did this, allowing him to understand how to fix the barrier before the Dimensional Cataclysm was triggered, so when they completed the new Dimensionator he could use this knowledge to fix everything in no time. That was their plan right now, plus it kept Dr. Nefarious one step behind them as he tried to take down both groups, because if he got his hands on the Dimensionator again Clank was sure that the Dimensional Cataclysm would come even quicker.

As he considered all of that Clank finished off the last of the puzzles in the dimensional anomaly and Gary informed him that he was pleased with his progress, causing Clank to nod his head as he pushed through the last Meta-Terminal and headed back to his body so they could obtain the Phase Quartz.

As soon as Clank returned, and the dimensional anomaly disappeared, Rivet found and used a Hammercrank to reactivate the cooling tube that was sealed shut, allowing the main door to open at last, revealing a lift that would help them get over to the drill, causing the sisters to start moving once more. As they did so, however, some more Goons flew out of a brand new dimensional rift, spotted them almost instantly, and destroyed the taxi that would have brought them right to where the drill was resting, something that caused the sisters to sigh as they opened fire on the new Vroom Goons. With the new pack defeated Rivet and Autumn found that only one path remained, using a grind rail that had a number of Blizon along the path, causing them to engage their masks as they found that some obstacles were in their way as well, confirming that switching between dimensions was the key to success. Once both of them were ready they jumped onto the rail without wasting even a second, as they needed to get over to the drill before anything else happened, while also discovering that they had to jump over some mine carts that were currently heading to the mining hub.

While they traveled down the path, however, they got a choppy call from the Chief Engineer and several screens of the Stranger from Rivet's dimension as she tried to dissuade them from something, she wasn't making herself clear enough for them to understand what she was trying to say. In addition to dodging mine carts they also had to avoid laser walls, a sheet of metal blocking the way, had to use the Swingshot and the running on walls feature of the Phantom Dash, and the ability to switch from one rail to another. Rivet and Autumn found that their thoughts had been correct, they had to jump from one dimension to another, avoiding hazards while bypassing barriers that happened to be in their way, especially in her version of the world since asteroids or debris smashed through parts of the railing and forced them to move back into the one they were helping right now. Other than all of the dangers they were facing the sisters found that this was more of a enjoyable ride, speaking to their skills on the matter, before rounding the corner and discovering that they were, at long last, at the platform that the massive drill was attached to.

"You know, one of my other lifelong dreams was to operate a drill that's a hundred times my size." Rivet remarked, though as she connected her hammer to the nearby Hammercrank, so they could get the show on the road and get the item they needed for the Dimensionator, she found that Autumn and Clank were surprised by her comment, "What? Specific goals are achievable goals."

Autumn thought about it for a moment before deciding that it was a good idea, Rivet's remark was valid, though as soon as her sister turned on the crank they watched as the drill came alive before their eyes, firing a beam of red energy down into a large chunk of uncut Blizon, shattering it as it started to drill for Phase Quartz. In the following moment, however, all of them got some bad news, the Chief Engineer had decoded the message from Rivet's dimension, where they found that activating the main drill had caused the destruction of her Blizar Prime, as it had been tainted by the dimensional energy and damage, causing it to split the world in half, with the other half breaking into fragments. As Rivet and Autumn tried to figure out how to deal with this problem, which the Chief Engineer was trying to work on to avoid shattering her world like the one she learned about just now, more Goons showed up with their dropship. Since it appeared that they wanted to crash the party the sisters turned their weapons on them and all of the remaining Robomutts that were sent at them, all while coming up with any ideas that might be able to save this version of Blizar Prime.

As that happened Rivet spotted the crystal they needed inside the beam and, while Autumn kept their foes busy, hurled her hammer at it, somehow knocking it free while sending the crystal flying towards her, though she disappeared a couple of seconds later. Autumn knew that she had been warped to her dimension and continued to trash the Goons, while also finding that the drill wasn't shutting off thanks to all of the damage the rifts had done to it, causing her to realize that they would have to wreck the massive device to save the world. When Rivet returned, thanks to a chunk of Blizon nearby, she offered her sister the exact same idea, using the dropship to dislodge the massive drill, so they split up for a time and just lashed out at it from both sides, intending on destroying one of the engines to send it into their target. The moment their work succeeded the sisters rushed for the edges of the area, to avoid being caught in the blast, though Rivet was knocked to the ground as Clank fell near the drill and the Phase Quartz landed further away, causing her to realize that both were in the path of the drill's beam.

Autumn, being too far away to help and couldn't use her magic with all of the dimensional energy inside the drill, could only watch as her sister picked Clank over the Phase Quartz, which, since it wasn't pumped full of energy from being used as the core of the Dimensionator, shattered into several pieces.

"Rivet... why?" Clank asked, as while he was grateful that she had saved him from being destroyed by the drill's beam, he figured it would saw him in half or melt him into nothingness, despite his body being boosted by his father at the moment of his creation, he wondered why she'd sacrifice the mission like this.

"Because you're important to Ratchet and I couldn't let anything happen to you." Rivet replied, because she was getting used to the idea of traveling with others, fighting beside them, and the concept of having a family, though after saying that she walked over to the fragments and picked them up, "You know, the Morts used to tell me stories of someone on Torren IV called the 'Fixer'... in fact they'd say 'If it's broke the Fixer'll fix it'!"

"Then we had best see if the stories are true." Autumn said, as she doubted that they would be able to find another piece of Phase Quartz with this dimension's drill broken like this or find another dimension to pay a visit to, so this seemed to be the only way to get the crystal fixed.

As Rivet nodded she decided to spend a few moments checking on the miners and making sure everything was fine, just to be sure there were no consequences of their actions, though once they were done the sisters knew they'd be leaving for another world and, hopefully, obtain an intact piece of Phase Quartz.