Time to welcome Ratchet & Clank back into the Gameverse! The last time we were in Solana Galaxy was Seven Lights, 8 years ago! Also, in this universe, the planets that comprised the three galaxies in R&C are mixed into three respective planets. With some exceptions.
In fact, it's important to note that only the PS2 Ratchet games are canon to the Gameverse (up to Size Matters). The plot-lines for the PS3 games are adapted in my NECSUS story, under a different context that doesn't involve Ratchet at all.
Cover Image: Kid hanging onto the string of a giant Ratchet balloon in a parade. Star chases and cries out to the excited lad!
The W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. flew into the great dark-yellow vortex that was Solana. They passed by a few planetoids, one of which had a shack. A Vullard waved at them like tourists (a cybernetic reptilian with a large cannister pack), so the boys waved back.
"This is Channel 64 News with Darla Gratch." The radio already tuned in to the frequency as the screen featured a robotic anchorwoman with black hair and a pink suit. "Vilgaxian forces continue to run rampant across the galaxy, and thanks to the spatial rifts that have been popping up everywhere, threats can appear anywhere at any time. The Solana Rangers are trying to utilize the rifts to cover more ground, but many have only gotten lost, with some going missing entirely." The screen showed clips of soldiers walking through rifts into a bathroom, where a woman was showering, some walking into a Kraken-like mouth, and some winding up in Thugs-4-Less' crosshairs. "The rangers have even resorted to commissioning children and gamers who are good at puzzle games to help them map out these portals."
"Maybe they'll hire us, Kid. We sure have experience by now, don't we?"
"If by that, you mean headaches. But does Solana have its own Kids Next Door?"
"Not really… but there was still a GKND operative recruited from here back in the day. Maybe we'll hear the story when we meet him again."
"'Again'?" Kid cocked a brow.
"You'll see. Aside from that, Solana has its own heroes." Star smiled, hoping the news would show them soon.
"The rangers have also sent a call for superhero Captain Qwark to assist with the invasion. Qwark had this to say:"
"Yeah, uh, I'm not exactly a 'war' guy anymore, ya know? More like a war veteran. Which typically means 'been there, done that, not going there again!' Um, ahem, ahem, but do not fear, good citizens, your hero will happily serve you at the Meridian City soup kitchen… where it is hopefully nice and safe."
"Oh, you mean that guy!" Kid beamed.
"Yeah…" Star drooped. "That guy. …Oh!" There was an alarm. "The Riftdar's going off!"
"Really?!"
"It's aiming us in a different direction from IRIS. Change of plans, Kid, I want my spacebending back!"
"Haha, OKAY! …" Kid looked toward their destination with confusion. "Is that a planet, Star?"
"It's… part of one?"
It was a hemisphere of an oceanic planet, rugged and ripped at the bottom with asteroids afloat beneath it. Judging by its size, it used to be a dwarf planet. Waterfalls poured off the edge of the broken world, only to disperse in space, float up, and pour onto the ocean again. There were islands around it. "This must be one of the worlds Chairman Drek destroyed."
"What?" Kid perked up at the dramatic piece of info.
"He was a business criminal who tried to build his own planet by harvesting pieces of others. Even just reading about it feels terrible. But by the looks of things, what's left of some planets can still survive. It might even be because the Heart was located in the piece that did."
The sea was wrought with darkness and dotted with floating sailboats. They flew the colors of a skull with "X" pupils, robotic antennas, and protrusions on the lower side lobes. "Well, Jason's gonna be sad he didn't come on this adventure."
"Is this a pirate world?!"
"An adventure is never complete without pirates, Kid. And unlike the Unilu, these ones will try to rob us the traditional way. Better turn on the car's cloaking this time." (Play "Pirate Base Barracks" from Ratchet: Rift Apart!)
Stage 8: Polardolis (emphasis on the ARRRR!)
Mission: Acquire a new spacebending power.
Star parked the car in an alcove on a cliff. A pirate base was nearby, and a massive skull mountain loomed in the distance. Its left eye socket shone a pink ray of light while the right was blue, pouring a waterfall. Because pirates were never far from skull-shaped mountains. Star and Kid used Gravity Shift to cross the cliff between their alcove to the base. Gunfire was breaking out: the robotic, skull-headed pirates were battling Thugs-4-Less. "We'll make ye think twice afore settin' foot on our turf!"
"It ain't our fault that rift links your base with our breakroom!"
"And what good be the word of a mangy Vilgaxian sell-out?!"
"Oi, mateys!" Sea-Leg Sam alerted them to the operatives. "Thar be two spies approachin' from the cliffs!"
"We'll have 'em for stew, we will!"
"So much for working out a parley!" Star said. Three pirates charged at them with cutlasses. Star puffed out a cloud from the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F., and when the pirates foolishly sliced it to pieces, those pieces produced mirages to trick the pirates further. Using 2 Gold Bolts, they had upgraded the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. to achieve this effect! Kid stunned them with the P.O.G.O.S.H.O.C.K. while Star used the S.C.H.O.O.L.. Afterwards, they focused on KOing the other pirates and thugs, both of whom were already weakened from fighting each other.
The boys crossed a bridge to Plunder Marketplace, where they could purchase ammo, pirate clothes, or pillaged goods if they desired. They jumped some crates to get atop a curtain-roofed stall, using the bouncy roof to spring to a higher layer of the market. This layer seemed covered in barbed wire, but there were tiny space lights to form small Blocks along the wire. They certainly made platforming a pain for Star, especially when the stall owners tried to throw light grenades on the platforms. Kid had no problem traipsing the wires of course. Afterwards, they could grapple across a sequence of fishing hook cranes and land on a beach.
The boys carefully crept up on four pirates standing guard at the Nether Rift. It was barred up by a mechanical gate, locked with a terminal. "Can't believe none of our weapons put a dent in that droid."
"Ya think this door will even hold it?"
"It doesn't chase us outside the portal. But Ay ain't stickin' around to find out! Let's hit the Blackstar Landing!"
"ARGH!" The pirates scurried off.
Star and Kid approached the gate. "We'll need to hack this gate to get in. Time to put Ed's Tomato to the test." Star plucked out the small tomato and planted it on the computer.
"Ahhhhh! Sav'saaba, my little terminal! Let's see what Ed can do with you." The terminal displayed an 8-bit platforming level. A sprite of Ed jumped across pirate ships, evading floating skull bombs. Her sprite would press a button at the end. The computer's light turned green as the gate opened.
"Thanks, Ed!" Star put her back in his pocket. "Well, Kid, time for more fun with E.M.M.I.. The C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. should be able to shield us from its iris just like the Thayserix fog. But if it's already chasing us, it won't work."
"We better be careful then." With that, they entered the rift.
The spatial cavern was littered with barrels, chests, and mounds of rope. Full of hiding places for the E.M.M.I. to ambush them. "BEE-boop-boop, booboobeep." They were startled… but confused. Its sound was different; gruff. It sounded like Mr. Krabs imitating a robot. "Booboo-bop?" Star held the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. ready as they tiptoed forward. "Bobobo…booboo-BEEP!"
They heard it about to crawl out from a chest against the wall, so Star quickly puffed out a cloud to hide them. The E.M.M.I. scuttled like a crab and was red like one, too, snipping its claws as it scanned the cloud. "Booboobeep-boop…booboobop?" The cloud wouldn't last forever, so they were silently ushering it to go away. Finally, it scuttled into another chest, and they could hear its gruff sailor voice echo down the passage. "Beebooboobeeboobop…"
The boys sighed and proceeded. There was a right passage over a river, in which Star could form Space Blocks to cross it. They would land at the foot of a mountain of treasure, with chests to serve as platforms up to the exit rift. "These E.M.M.I. don't cut us a break, do they?" They were wary to jump each chest without disturbing the pile; until Kid's left foot slipped on the edge of one. He flailed his arms to maintain balance, but his foot wound up kicking the pile. "Kid!" A small avalanche of treasure poured down.
"Bobeebeebeep?!" The E.M.M.I. appeared from a crevice and crawled up the pile frantically. "Beebeebeep-booboobeep!" Star puffed out a cloud and yanked Kid inside. Unfortunately, the disturbance already compelled the android to scuttle into the cloud. "AH!" Star yelped; its left claw grabbed his arm before he knew it.
"MONEYMONEY!" The other claw grabbed and pinned him down. Just as it jutted its face needle out—"MONEYMONEY!" Star barely managed to kick its chest and cause the E.M.M.I. to glitch up. He and Kid jump-sprinted up the chests, not caring how much treasure they kicked down. "Moneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoneymoney!" The crustacean droid scuttled after, snipping its claws in a frenzy. It was barely an inch from grabbing them before they were through the rift. "Bobobeep…boobop-beep." It seemed sad.
"Haaaaah!" Star and Kid sat down for a rest. "At least nothing on this planet is scarier than that."
"ROOOOAAAR!" A dinosaur stormed at them from beyond the shrubs, with glaring yellow eyes and two sharp protrusions from its jaws. Native to Sargasso, it was a Grunthor.
"AAAAAHH!" The boys hugged in panic!
"HRAAAAH!" Another, more humanoid-looking dinosaur, brown and broad-shouldered, jumped the first one's back and wrestled it down.
"Star, are we back on Dinosaur Planet?!" Kid surveyed the tropical, swampy surroundings. (Play "Sargasso" from Rift Apart!)
"No… this is the Sargasso country on Planet Polaris, one of Solana's core worlds! This valley's home to dinosaur species—WHOA!" They ducked when the humanoid dino threw the other right over them. The behemoth saw the tiny humans and raised its fists. Star and Kid split up as the former shot Bomb Spores at its head, passing the S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R. to Kid so he could freeze its feet. This slowed the beast down enough to dodge its fists, but it still took a lot of effort to K.O. it.
"That's a Vaxasaurian from the Vil Galaxy." Star said.
"A Humungousaur!"
More alien dinosaurs; Humungousaurs, Ultimasaurs, and Astrodactyls, rampaged the valley, seemingly trying to flatten small forces shooting lasers at them. A Pterafoid graced the sky; a winged multi-eyed creature with a yellow rhino-like horn. It spat fireballs down at the ground dinosaurs and impaled the Astrodactyls with its horn. There was someone riding the Pterafoid; they could vaguely make out a pair of furry pink ears. "Star! That truck is in trouble!" Kid pointed.
A six-armed dinosaur with a stone-gray body and red head chased a small truck, shooting webs from its forehead protrusion in attempt to stop it. "It's a Kaosseffexx Ultimasauria!"
"A Spidersaur!"
"Fair enough!" They pursued the Spidersaur with Shinespark, jumping pits of swamp. When they got close, the Spidersaur stopped and faced them—Star stopped and Shinespark Jumped right into its stomach, the beast vomiting and toppling down. Kid froze its web shooter with S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R.s while Star had the S.C.H.O.O.L. deal the finishing bites to it.
The truck parked as its drivers climbed out to greet them. "Thank you! We were in a real sticky situation, eh?" They were short aliens with reddish-brown fur, white mouths, yellow construction helmets, and black and green mechanic uniforms.
"Wow! Talking gerbils!" Kid wasn't expecting that in a dinosaur region.
"We aren't gerbils, we're Morts, eh?" They spoke in Canadian accents. "And you seem like more GKND ops, aren't ya?"
"There are other operatives here?" Star asked.
"Yeh. They were hangin' out at Rivet's place just down the way. Clive and Valdi, I think their names were."
"Really? Where is Rivet's place?"
"You should talk to her yourself first. She's fightin' those monsters on Trudi right now." The Mort pointed at the Pterafoid across the valley. The boys recalled its furry-earred rider.
"Okay! Let's go, Kid!" The best way to close the distance was more Shinesparking. They zoomed up a ramp to leap over a large portion of swamp, landing on a large fallen trunk that angled up and curved left, from which they leapt to another piece of land. The route curved right, where it seemed they would go up a slanted rock over a small mount. "!" This "rock" was the head of a Troglosaur, a massive four-legged dino with a green body, but stone-armored feet and back. The Troglosaur brought its head up to fling them on its back, Star running across and leaping to a rigger built on the swamp. Judging by the green substance in their tanks, Star conjectured, "These must be Gelatonium rigs."
"Ooooo! Is that tasty?"
"No, it's vehicle and city fuel."
"Ew."
"At least I warned you before you tried it. Others aren't so lucky." A lower pipeline seemed to be leaking as Gelatonium cubes flowed across the swamp. They served as trampolines for the duo to spring across the swamp, all while Fendersax Wasps shot acid at them. Kid took them down with the H.O.M.E.R.. There were more gel blocks far to their left, but they had no way of reaching them. From the last block, they landed on the shore of a shrubbed path. They followed it to an open area where a Humungousaur and three Astrodactyls ambushed them.
"AYAH!" The furry-earred figure leapt off her Pterafoid and bashed the Humungousaur in the crown with a mechanical hammer. She landed and turned to Star and Kid. "Need a hand?" She had light-purple fur with stripes on her big, catlike ears, standing at 4'10" like Star. Her right arm was a yellow, mechanical prosthetic, she wore an orange scarf, and tight black and gray combat attire with boots and goggles. She also had a fluffy tail.
"Are you Rivet? We're GKND ops!"
"I thought so! Let's talk after trashing these guys!" Rivet fired missiles at the Humungousaur with a Warmonger. The Astrodactyls landed to directly attack them with their wings. Star deceived them with the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. and shot Bomb Spores, while Kid pelted them with the Z.A.P.B.L.E.R.. With them electrified and confused, Rivet lent some aid by shooting Buzz Blades at the alien pterosaurs. The Humungousaur recovered and swat her away with its fist, but Kid bounced onto the beast's back with his P.O.G.O.S.H.O.C.K., sending jolts through its body until it passed out.
"You alright?" Star ran to help Rivet to her feet.
"I'm fine. …Wait, aren't you Supreme Leader Star?!" Her blue eyes grew wide in amazement.
"Oh, yeah! Did Clive and Valdi tell you about me?"
"N-No, I… My mom sort of did."
"Your mom? …Now that I think about it, you're a Lombax!"
"Lombax?" Kid questioned.
"Yep." Rivet replied half-chirpily. "Not many of us left."
"Well, yeah." Star said, working it out in his head. "You wouldn't happen to be related to-"
"LOOK!" A trio of Thugs-4-Less flew by on jetpacks. "There's the GKND leader! He's even with the Lombax!"
"It's a two-for-one special, boys!"
"Don't you mean a THREE-for-one special?!" Kid shouted.
"Let this deal with them!" Rivet planted a sprinkler device down. "Quick! In here!" Her Topiary Sprinkler squirted water up at the thugs, trapping them in moss and flowers.
Rivet led them into a cave full of grass, shrubs, flowers, and large crates outside of a metal door with an overhead light. Rivet inputted a password on her computer and allowed her new friends entry. "There!" Star recognized a brown-furred Mobian rabbit repairing his chimp robot. "Good as new, Wrench!"
"Clive!"
"Star?! Whoa, it's good to see you!"
"Welcome to the party!" Valdi called from a couch, the Machina eating an oilburger. "We met Rivet after getting lost through the rifts. If it weren't for her, we'd have nowhere to rest."
"So, what brings you here, Star?"
"There's a Nether Rift in this galaxy, but we need to find another entrance to it. Only way we can do that is to keep navigating these portals."
"Can I help?" Rivet asked. "Most of these portals connect between Polaris and Ardolis. I can help you navigate. Plus it'll help me fend off the Vilgaxians."
"We wouldn't have it any other way! Clive, Valdi, can you take care of things here?"
"Anything to repay Rivet's kindness!" Valdi saluted with his mechanical arm.
"Hehe!" Rivet returned the gesture with her same arm!
Outside the hideout, there was a vertical tunnel on the ceiling above a large root, leading to a rift. They used Gravity Shift to walk up to it and emerge at the base of an orange and black factory. They were surrounded by a tropical coast with mountains and palm trees. "Oh, no. This is Kerchu City." Rivet said.
"Hey! More gerbil guys!" Kid approached a band of aliens with similar fur to the Morts. However, their bucktoothed expressions were more vicious, they had beady blue eyes, and heavy shoulder armor. "Hi there!"
"RAAAH!" The Kerchu curled up into spiked, armored balls and mowed the youth into a puddle.
"NO!" Rivet screamed.
"He's fine!" Star quickly shot them with the S.C.H.O.O.L. while Rivet summoned attack drones with the Glove of Doom. They KO'ed the band of Kerchu by the time Kid reformed himself.
"Sorry for not warning you sooner. The Kerchu are the Morts' deadly cousins."
"No kidding. They were about to Ker-chew me up." Kid thought his joke was worthy of a drumroll. Unfortunately, their only option now was to climb the Gelatonium plant, first jumping some pumps along the outer wall. The last pump raised them to a walkway leading into the factory, where Kerchu attacked them with flamethrowing tractors. The S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R. was great for cooling their jets, and Rivet had her own Cold Snap to assist.
A sealed door barred them from progressing further. "If we could get Gelatonium pumping through this pipe, this should open." Rivet said.
"Leave it to me!" Kid pulled open a hatch on the pipe. "I'll do it!" The blobbish boy wriggled through the pipe as easily as jelly.
"What species is he, anyway?"
"A Cosmic Kid." Star smiled.
Kid got mildly lost in a pipe maze, where Gel Munchers tried to gnash him from the side holes. He was able to find the Gelatonium, blocked by a cluster of tissue paper. "This is why you shouldn't flush too much at once!" Kid pulled the blockage apart. "WAAAARGH!" The Gelatonium flowed and pushed him right back through! Star and Rivet saw the door open, just as Kid was spewed out of the pipe hatch. "It's-a me, a-Kid!"
They entered a room with parallel rows of jelly towers. They were spaced far apart, but their bounciness allowed for wide Wall Jumps! They reached the other side of the room and grappled to a higher platform, where they had to bounce across the jelly tops while shooting down heli-pack Kerchu. Defeating them would open a door with a rift beyond. They crossed a rift onto a balcony, overlooking a dark ocean along with the familiar Plunder Market. "We're back on Ardolis." Star observed.
"This is the Blackstar Landing nightclub." Rivet said. "And it sounds like they're partying inside. If we're careful, we can sneak through without starting a fight." (Play "Drunken Sailor" from Rift Apart!)
With that, they slipped in through the door. The pirates were dancing to a cyberpunk "Drunken Sailor" remix. "Uh…" But what they saw onstage was anything from what they expected: three pirates scrubbing what seemed like old lady pirates in bubbled bathtubs.
"What do you do when your mom's unhappy, boyfriends left her feeling crappy, sing her a shanty nice and snappy, wash her in the bathtub~! WASH! WASH! Wash her VJ. SCRUB! SCRUB! Scrub her VJ. RINSE! RINSE! Rinse her VJ, next we'll do your tushy~!"
Star and Rivet covered their eyes, and Star covered Kid's. They all crouched and crawled their way under the tables, both to hide from the pirates and keep from watching the musical number. One pirate moonwalked back-and-forth between two tables, so they timed their crawl accordingly. Afterwards, they crawled beneath a long table where the sitting pirates would kick their feet in accordance with the rhythm. Different ones would kick at every lyric, so the trio memorized the pattern before crawling. Then they had to crawl through a wide part of floor; the pirates weren't looking at them, but they were aimlessly throwing grog battles around that space. Star and Rivet sadly got hurt by two amidst their crawl, while Kid simply picked off any that glued to him.
They made it beneath a round window that was actually a rift. "AGH!" And they plopped right atop a table, squishing a cake. "Oh, great!" Star's clothes were ruined.
That's when a group of Thugs-4-Less came into the breakroom, wearing party hats. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Tom…my?" And their celebration turned to gloom… which, the operatives realized, would spell their doom. "RAAAAAH!" They riddled the breakroom with gunfire, the trio scattering and returning fire. Kid added bubbles to the party with Z.A.P.B.L.E.R., Star added fireworks with S.P.O.R.E., and Rivet invited Mr. Fungi to gas these goons. The breakroom was piled with KO'ed thugs… so, they decided to get a look at the presents. A purple-wrapped box was shaking. Star tore it open and freed a Spoof! She rewarded them a Gold Bolt.
"Hey! The Riftdar!" Star alerted. There was an exit door leading downstairs, and there the Nether Rift waited. Star first provided Rivet an overview on how the E.M.M.I. worked. With that, they braved its lair once more. However, it seemed pretty straightforward this time: a single corner turn led to a wide room with an exit rift, sealed by mechanical bars. "Oh, boy…" Star could see they needed to hack a terminal to get through it. But there were six different tunnels for the E.M.M.I. to crawl out of.
"Beebooboobop, booboobop!"
"It's coming!" Star gasped. "Wait!" He noticed the space lights in front of each tunnel. He heard the E.M.M.I. about to scuttle out of the middle-right one, so he quickly formed a Block over it. "BEEBOOBOOBOP!" It spotted the intruders, but it couldn't get through the Block. It went back in, and Star listened for which one it would crawl out next. He could only hold one Block at a time in this room.
"Kid, put the Tomato on the terminal and tell Ed to hurry!" His sidekick nodded and sprinted toward the device. As Ed began to work, her sprite would have to platform across some 8-bit pterodactyls. The E.M.M.I. was scuttling in the ceiling's interior to the other side, so Star rushed to Block the right tunnel. He thought it was changing to the middle, but it doubled back to try the right one again, the leader barely stopping it in time. It scuttled back to the other side, shifting between the three tunnels to confuse Star before attempting the left—Star Blocked it! "IT'S DONE!" Kid screamed. The gate opened, so the trio jumped through the rift before their foe could catch up.
"Phew! That wasn't so bad!" Rivet sighed.
"We got lucky this time." Star said.
They found their selves on an island's beach, surrounded by a vibrant ocean. "Is this still the pirate planet?" Kid asked.
"No, we're on Polaris again." Rivet answered. "Hoolefar Island. Still a hotspot for pirates, but the locals are nice though."
"Yeah, but before we do that," Star went for a dip in the ocean to wash the cake off. He'd rather be soaked in saltwater. "Okay, we're good."
They entered the island's village, inhabited by Hoolefoids; reptilian, purple-skinned aliens with bright blue eyes. As they peaceably explored the village, they noticed a weapons stand, operated by their familiar toad-like vendor. This time, he wasn't a hologram. "Hey, boys!" Numbuh 20x40 greeted. "Didn't think I'd be seein' ya on my home turf!"
"Home turf? You mean this is your world?!" Kid exclaimed.
"That it is, mah boy!"
"So, you're the GKND operative from this galaxy?"
"Heh, funny story behind that. Y'see, Kid, my species was actually cloned from the last living Grummel in the galaxy. Together, we operate the GrummelNet technology company. Supreme Leader Dimentia heard of our technical prowess and decided to 'recruit' a Grummel from his pod when he was still in the budding stages. And he's still serving GKND to this day!"
"Ha ha ha!" Star laughed. "Hearing it out loud, I feel a little bad…"
"Nah! Your grandma actually saved me, Star! Us clones don't have long lifespans. Heck, she made me think I had a worse version of the 'adulthood disease.' But thanks to Jirachi, I was able to live longer! He even let me have a normal lifespan after it was all done! So, no matter the era, I'm happy to serve GKND until the end!"
"That's so cool!" Kid beamed.
"For the right price, of course. For 11,000 bolts, the A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y. will send your enemies flyin'!" A gun containing small, green and yellow robot toys.
"11,000 it is!" Star agreed.
Galactic Kids Next Door: A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y.
Abduction Bot Dances Upward Catching Terrorists Off Yield
They climbed stairs behind the village and overlooked a bay with grind-rails looping around islands and a wind turbine. "I see another portal on that turbine." Star pointed.
"There's a spring pad that can take us up it, but the power seems out." Rivet said. "I can use my hammer to drive a power circuit through the rails." They saw blue and white, jellyfish-like aliens float up from the sea. "If those things weren't in the way."
"More Vilgax minions. Those are Amperi."
"Ampfibians!" Kid declared.
"We'll follow you and shoot them down while you work."
"Thanks!" All three began grinding (with Kid riding Star). Star tried out the A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y., sending the small robots to fly around before stopping above the enemies. They would trap the Ampfibians in a tractor beam and hold them in place, allowing Kid to shoot them more easily. On each rail, Rivet would scrape her hammer along it; there were patches of blue energy that would be caught on the hammer and be spread across the rest of the rail. Winding around the small islands of the bay, all the rails were soon sparking light-blue. The energy was channeled to the catapult, flinging them above the turbine and perfectly into the rift.
"PWUH!" They splashed into a flowing river inside a gaping tunnel. "Where are we now?!"
"Waterfall, that's where!" Kid panicked.
"AAAAAHH!" They went pouring down the waterfall… of Skull Mountain's right socket. The same mountain they saw upon first landing on Ardolis! "GRAPPLE!" They noticed a grapple point just in time, swinging onto a path beneath the mountain's nose. The walkway was guarded by shield pirates, but the S.P.OR.E. and A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y. would be beneficial in striking them from the air. Kid could also goo-slide under their shields before surprising them with the Z.A.P.B.L.E.R.. From the path's end, they had to grapple a series of targets looping up around the left socket. A Nether Rift was shining against the purple light inside its core. (Play "E.M.M.I. Zone" from Metroid.)
The trio faced up a vertical chamber with four layers and interior passages leading up to them. "Beebooboop." They already heard the E.M.M.I. after going up the first staircase. It would come out of a tunnel, so they ran out onto the second floor walkway, dropped to hang from its ledge, and Star would puff out the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F.. The E.M.M.I. came, its squat legs just inches from their fingers. It scanned the cloud for a moment, but its iris detected no life signs. "Boobeep." It returned to the stairs' tunnel, and they listened until its sound faded. They climbed back up, but the stairs to the next layer required Rivet to Ground Pound a switch. The loud sound would immediately fetch the E.M.M.I.'s attention again. They hurried up and across the walkway, passing a crate. "Wait, can we use this?" Rivet wondered as she pushed the crate off. It smashed on the bottom floor, catching the E.M.M.I.'s attention as it scuttled down.
From there, they entered another interior zone and found a Gelatonium pipe squirting small droplets. Kid had to squeeze into the catch and navigate the pipe down to the bottom floor. Once more, he pulled apart some tissue paper and let the gel push him back through. However, the E.M.M.I. heard the gushing sound and followed it to the top. The end of the pipe pumped out a gel block, allowing the kids to spring up to the 4th layer, just as the E.M.M.I. spotted them. "CRUD!" Thankfully, after a few more turns, they would make it into the Omega Core room.
"There it is! The E.M.M.I. won't get us in here, we just have to destroy it!" The trio unloaded their ammunition on the floating armored eye. The armor was destroyed, exposing the blue brain underneath, and a few more hits took it down.
"BAM!" Rivet gave it one final smash with her hammer. "Is that the end of it?! Whuh…" The Omega energy seeped onto her hammer.
"Now we need to use that energy to destroy the E.M.M.I.. Looks like you'll have the honors this time, Rivet."
"So… I have to fight it, hammer-only?! Okay… shouldn't be so bad." Rivet worriedly stepped out of the room.
"MONEYMONEYMONEYMONEY!" The E.M.M.I. crawled up from beneath the foothold—Rivet frantically sprinted left. The crab scuttled after, but Rivet had room to deal the boomerang throw. "MONEEEY!" The Omega Hammer broke its left legs. It used its claws to crawl toward Rivet, snapping them one after the other. "MONEY—MONEY—MONEY—MONEY!" Rivet swat each claw as it came until both were snapped off. With that, she dealt the final blows to its eye. "MONEEEEY…MONEY…money…money…money…" (End song.)
The E.M.M.I. finally fell. Not only did 2,000 bolts come out of it, so did an orb of Space Chi. Star smiled at Rivet in gratitude and absorbed the chi. "!" All three were in awe as Star was encased in a ball, shrinking to the size of a toy ball. "Huh?"
"Hey, you're a ball now!" Kid rolled him around.
"It's like my Space Shrink, but… I never thought of using it like this. Now it's like Samus' Morph Ball! But can I still," Star dispelled the ball, puffing back to normal size and pushing Kid back. "Oh. So, only in the ball. At least I won't get smushed that way."
Star learned the Space Ball! By shrinking into ball form, he can easily avoid enemies and enter small passages! He can take other people and objects into his ball, too!
"You know, we can use this to get through the tunnels those E.M.M.I. use! That'll help us quickly travel between parts of a planet!"
"Good idea!"
"I can't believe Vilgax took your bending." Rivet said. "Even with the Netherverse Heart, I never thought he could do that."
"What, are you an expert on the Heart or something?"
"Well, actually-" Rivet's communicator rang. "Oh, one sec." She answered it.
"Rivet! We're under attack!"
"Kit? Who's attacking?"
"I presume they're allies of the Vilgaxians. They're crablike aliens."
"Just hold the fort until we get there!" Rivet looked up at her new friends. "I know you guys have other plans, but-"
"Saving people is always a hero's plan!" Kid declared with a flutter of his cape. "We'll help!"
"Yeah! Where are we going?"
"Awe, thanks, guys! We're going to Urfdah Mesa. Let's find a rift there pronto!"
Star compressed the three of them into a Space Ball to roll through the E.M.M.I. tunnels, going down to the second layer back to Hoolefar Island. They swam under the coast and found a tunnel narrow enough for the Space Ball. Star compressed them into a ball and rolled through. They entered a rift and wound up on a narrow passage high above a lava pit. "This is Molonoth Hollow!" It was a Vullard settlement and refinery, built inside a vast cavern. They avoided flamethrowers and rode up-and-down pumps before the passage let them out on a foothold where they could resize in the Vullard town.
There was an explosion at the main gate, followed by blasts of fire. Fiery humanoids made of molten rock stormed the town. Star knew them as Pyronites from Halcandra, but Kid would classify them as Heatblasts. The trio used the S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R. and Topiary Sprinkler to douse their heat, quelling the invasion. Exploring the Hollow, they had two potential options with the Space Ball. First, they used to ride up a stairway of steam vents, their ball light enough to float in their updrafts. They found a platform with a Gold Bolt! That only left their next option, crossing a narrow steel beam where buzzsaws moved up and down against it. They had to proceed quickly beneath them while staying balanced on the thin bridge. Their efforts were rewarded with a rift.
"We made it!" Rivet beamed as a great canyon brightened their horizon, with unique rock formations and a temple built in the center of the trench. "Urfdah Mesa!"
"And I think I see the crab!" Kid pointed at a giant mecha crab trampling the left valley. "It has… a really tiny head."
Star looked through binoculars. "Oh, gee."
"Mwahahaha!" Chuck, the announcer-voiced Klaxian, was in the cockpit. In fact, it seemed his upper body was fused with the mech. "Monks of Urfdah Mesa, feel the might of the Vilgaxian Empire! 'My, Chuck, you represent the empire's power well!' 'Oh, great leader, you jest~'"
"It's going to crush the Vault of Knowledge!" Rivet exclaimed.
"We'll get there first!" Star declared, grabbing onto Kid before busting into a Shinespark. "Hey!" He saw Rivet matching his speed with her own hoverboots. They sped through the village of Monktown, built into the small canyon, and mowed down the Klaxians terrorizing it. They jumped rocky spikes along the road until they were finally adjacent with the temple.
"Sister Rivet!" one of the monks greeted. He was a light-pink reptile with a purple-feathered crown, situated on his tail with his legs crossed in meditation. He and his fellow monks were a branch tribe of Snivelakians. "You're just in time!"
"We'll take care of things, Gary! Just put up the barrier!" The trio cut across the temple's balcony, confronting the crab mech.
"Ah! Star Winkiebottom!" Chuck acknowledged. "We meet again! Ever since our last epic battle, I've traded for a new pair of legs! Tremble before their awesome might!"
"Yeah, I think I knocked you out in one hit, first of all… Also, how do you plan to use the bathroom with that body?"
"Once I've defeated you, Emperor Vilgax will give me a KING-SIZED toilet! And the first ones I flush down it will be YOU!"
"You just don't get battle declarations like that anymore!" (Play "Boomsday Machine" from Mario Galaxy!)
Boss fight: BUFF Chuck
The mechs legs rapidly stomped and cast streaks of electricity along the ground. The kids dodged and attacked the legs; Star fed them to the S.C.H.O.O.L., Kid fried them with the Z.A.P.B.L.E.R., and Rivet pierced them with drills from her Drillhound. With all the legs on this side weakened, the mech slanted on its side. Star noticed a slot open on one of the legs, so he shrunk his friends into the Space Ball to go into it. The tunnel exited at the roof of the mech. "HEY! Get off my pelvis!" Chuck yelled, attempting to crush the intruders in the mech's claws. As they dodged the bulky pincers, Star shot an A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y. up into the air. It locked onto Chuck, flew above, and tried to draw him into its traction beam. The Kraxian drew a laser gun and shot it down, but he did get slightly pulled from his base.
Chuck shook mech and flung the three off. The mech leapt and would've crushed them, had Star not conjured a Block to shield them. Chuck scuttled off to view their flattened forms, only to be disappointed. Chuck plowed his other set of legs into the ground, striking the trio as they sprouted up from below. Chuck retracted them to reenact the action, but Star used the Space Ball to quickly maneuver away from the erecting legs. Afterwards, Kid and Rivet froze their bases with the S.N.O.B.O.M.B.E.R. and Cold Snap, leaving them vulnerable to more weapon fire. Chuck retracted the claws, but they were already too damaged. Star saw another tunnel for their Space Ball to fit in, returning to the mech's roof.
Chuck aimed to rapidly snap him in the mech's claws, but Star used the C.L.O.U.D.B.L.U.F.F. to veil himself. The cloud split into mirages, confusing Chuck as Star released another A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y.. The toy pulled Chuck out a little more before the Kraxian shot it down and shook Star off. Chuck scuttled far away and chucked boulders at his enemies. Star and Rivet closed the distance with their high-speed shoes. Chuck fled from them, grabbing boulders as he did and throwing them along their path. The kids were skilled at evading until they saw an upcoming, natural ramp. The ramp didn't give them enough height to reach Chuck, so Rivet grabbed Star and gave him and Kid the throw they needed!
Kid pelted Chuck with the H.O.M.E.R., knocking the ray gun out of his hand and knocking Chuck dizzy. Star sent out the A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y. one last time to finally pluck Chuck from his station. "No! NO!" His half-body whirled in the air as the A.B.D.U.C.T.O.Y. carried him to the stars. "You haven't heard the last of me! Soon, your galaxies will fear the name, CHUUUUuuuuuck…!" (End song.)
The giant crab collapsed dead with no one to power it. Star and Kid slid down to regroup with Rivet. "We DID IT!" Kid exclaimed, high-fiving Star.
"Uh…not yet!" Rivet alerted them to the hordes of Kraxians, surrounding them with cocked lasers.
But their attempt at revenge would be foiled when an electric sphere rolled past them. It drew them in with a magnetic coil and electrified the Kraxians into unconsciousness. Rivet gasped: that was the Dynamo of Doom. That could only belong to…
"Is everyone okay?" a neutral voice asked.
"Yeah, Clank. Looks like Rivet had things handled." A yellow-furred man replied, smiling.
"DAD!" Rivet beamed.
Star was in awe. He was a Lombax Star recognized very well. "Star, what's with you?" Kid asked. "You know him?"
"Well, yeah! Those are the galaxy's greatest heroes!"
"What? You mean that's Captain Qwark without the mask?!"
". . ." All four of them cast disbelieved glares at the youth. It was a petrifying gaze that lasted a whole minute. "…Ahem, you're Star Winkiebottom, right?" The adult Lombax broke the tension with a friendly smile.
"Y-Yeah! And you're… Ratchet and Clank!"
"A pleasure to meet you." The small robot on Ratchet's back greeted. Kid only seemed more confused.
"Oh, that's right! We need to check on Kit!" Rivet rushed back to the temple.
The others joined her just as she met up with a small yellow robot, resembling Clank, with blue eyes and red bulbs on its head. "I'm sorry for not being out here to assist you. A few of them snuck into the archives. I had to stop them."
"It's alright, Kit." Rivet smiled, squatting to give the feminine robot a headpat.
"We heard about a few other operatives coming to this galaxy." Ratchet said. "Some went to help with the invasion on Pandora. Others went to investigate this snowy comet."
"That must be IRIS!" Star realized. "We came here in the first place because we needed to ask her something."
"Then we'll make sure you get to her safely!" Rivet said. "It's the least we can do for helping us this much!"
"Then we're officially an alliance of heroes!" Kid declared.
Elsewhere on Polaris
Rick and Morty parked their car in the ruins of Fastoon City. "Lombax Ruins…" Rick surveyed the crumbled town. "They were pioneers of technology… the kind that could build weapons of mass destruction. Their home was raided by the alliance of Chairman Drek and Dr. Nefarious to steal their technology. Most of them died… others scattered to distant corners of the universe. Nothing we haven't heard before." Rick withdrew a gun with a capsule containing X Parasites. He began to shoot the gelatinous parasites into different buildings. "Of course, their most ancient secrets are kept hidden to this day. But they'll share them with us one way or another."
Morty cowered at the sound of moaning, the rubble pushed aside. Behind it were black, oozing Lombax-shaped zombies. "I-I don't know about this, Rick…"
"I do, Morty! We're turning Solana into a zombie movie! Remember ZombiU, Morty?" Morty jumped as some zombies sprouted out of the ground. "'Course you don't, no one does."