Nova immediately jumps down to the ground, not bothering to wait for the platform to fully drop. Darting her gaze around the room, she immediately activates her personal weapons pool, shifting the tools around to find a better suited arsenal for this particular fight. "Need something mobile, something strong. Electric's a good idea," she mutters to herself as her fingers dance across the holoscreen. "Thundersmack, Tesla Coil? No, clip's too tiny. Blackhole Storm, yeah, that's good too. No point in shield pods, he's too quick."

Clank pipes up from his perch, pointing towards the red button. "I believe it is time to bring out the big guns." His partner pauses in her shuffling long enough to notice him; the button is pressed, and Nova gets a better look at each of the super weapons on the wall. Although the markazian once looked at them with a fear of their power, she now seems to smirk at one of them.

"Oh yeah, that one's definitely coming with us."

The lights begin to fade and flicker as if the garage's power is beginning to overload, then it settles as if nothing ever happened. Silence fills the room, except for the whir of the elevator's controls being overridden. Puppet Ratchet stares at them both, narrowing it's optics as the platform lowers to a stop.

She looks over to the weapons rack, and notices that a good chunk of them are gone now. Which ones, she's unsure, but the specifics don't matter. The young markazian eyes it down in return, then her voice carries loud and clear. "I understand now. There's enough of you in there, I can see it."

It raises an eyebrow.

"I'll give you the fight you're looking for, but there's not enough room in here to make it really interesting." It seems to get the message; shuffling it's feet to the side, it allows her the space to stand beside it, and the elevator raises once more.

Her opponent ignores the current state of the garage's main floor, silently stepping out into the plateau. Nova, however, immediately turns her attention to the damaged markazian robot just outside the elevator. "Ross! Are you okay?!"

His flickering optics raise to her frazzled eyes, and he places one arm over his side. The other, however, is now a sparkling mess that could be compared to a crushed soda can. "I-I'm fine. Nothing that can't be fixed. I'm sorry, I-"

"Hush."

Saros' eyes widen as Nova gently cradles his face, her voice soft and low. "You did everything you could, and I'm so proud of you. I promise, I'll be back to fix that arm." As she leans in and kisses his forehead, there's a flash of light in his vision he can't explain.

The colors of the desert rocks and sky, and the sparking of parts as pieces are welded in place again and wiring is carefully twisted back together fills his mind.

Nova's face tells him all he needs to know, a shocked confusion that he's almost certain he wears as well, although she verbalizes it anyway. "Did you see that too?"

A resounding clang of a wrench smacking against the doorframe distracts them both, and as a result, she moves to stand once more. Before she gets too far, Saros grabs her wrist with his good arm. "Take it with you," he says, gesturing towards Alister's omniwrench.

With a sigh, the markazian grips the tool in her hand. Powering it on, she shivers at the energy held within it, making a slightly uncomfortable face as she could swear she feels the static. But it's a powerful charge, and that's unfortunately what she needs. "Stay here, and hide in the bunker. I'll handle the faker," she says, eyes narrowing towards their target.

"May the Zoni guide you two to victory," he responds, watching as the heroes step outside to begin the fight. Taking in a moment to 'breathe', he begins to assess the damage. There's a deep dent in his abdomen, one that if he were his usual self would have absolutely resulted in organ damage; his robotic programming specifies that their structural integrity has weakened to 32%. His core is thankfully intact, seated far above the impact site where his own heart lies.

Running calculations he didn't exactly ask for, his systems give a very generous timer before the worst of the damage becomes a real problem. His arm, as he expects, is entirely offline.

Squinting at the area, something begins to highlight; a side effect from Nefarious' meddling with his mind and eyes. There's a handful of torn wires and cracked paneling that, if reconnected, would at least temporarily reroute power to the arm; not perfect, but functional at least. He wonders to himself if this would affect his timer, and it nearly halves that window of time.

He looks out through the doorway, out into the world his friends are fighting for, and makes his decision.

...

Despite the chaos surrounding them, the markazian and metal lombax stare at each other, waiting for the other to move first. The crimson wrench crackles with energy, and a single credit bolt appears in Nova's other hand. Twirling the bolt between her fingers, she glares at her opponent. "Nefarious," she calls towards him coldly. "For every bit of pain you've put this galaxy through, that you've put me and my loved ones through, I intend to take you down. For good."

Then she sighs, and her face softens. Closing her eyes, she tries to sense the lombax's own personal energy signature…but what does reveal itself is faint and dimming with every passing moment. "Ratchet, if you're in there, I-I'm sorry. In my mind, there wasn't much left of you. I know deep down that you would want me to free you from this, no matter what the cost is, but I wish it didn't have to come to this. Whatever happens to you...I'm so sorry."

"Clank," she then asks, low enough so that only he hears, "When the time comes...please look away."

The bolt is thrown into the air, and both combatants watch it fly into the air, still as stone. Then it lands, and all hell breaks loose between them.

Flicking her wrists outward, Nova equips two whips, swinging them into a forward arc that leaves a wall of plasma for the puppet to backflip over with ease. As lines of light fly towards it, it equips the Bouncer in response, launching a huge bomb in her direction. The larger explosion goes off, exposing a dozen smaller bombs that scatter between her ankles and leave her scrambling to avoid them.

Ducking behind a dusty clump of boulders, the markazian takes a breather, peeking above cover to check on her opponent. The sound of a Negatron Collider being charged widens her eyes, and she quickly snatches Clank from his perch to shield him. A laser blast burns into the rock, surrounding her body with a harsh heat that makes her wince in pain and grit her teeth. A deafening boom launches a shockwave that destroys the rest of the boulder. Without a word, she takes the silence and chill of a free moment before the weapon is reloaded to immediately click Clank back into place, going back on the move.

A gold blur flies above the faker's head, and lands in the dirt to reveal a Dopplebanger unit. It's optics lock onto the mobile turret, and the rest of it's frame turns to face the new target. Orders come blaring through, although despite Nefarious' attempts otherwise, it remains locked in. "Ignore that thing! Focus on the girl and Clank!" With it's feet still frozen in place, it opens fire until the markazian's distraction is destroyed.

"Behind you, Nova! To the right!"

Nova's attention is immediately grabbed, equipping two Omblasters and opening fire into the metal lombax that seems not to be too phased by the bullets. It's ears perk up once more with an order, one that anyone hearing it can tell how much devilish glee it gives Nefarious to say it. "I think your opponent is at an unfair advantage! Wouldn't you agree?!"

'Bring it.' Nova watches, gritting her teeth as the puppet equips the Ricochet and planting her feet as she grips the general's wrench. The sound of some projectile being launched at light speed towards her face fills her ears, and with all her strength she knocks the silver ball away.

Then her eyes widen as a ping reaches her ears, accompanied by the ball striking her square in the jaw. Ping, ping, ping, it goes on, the last bounce slamming the orb into her legs and sweeping her off her feet. Despite there being two blurred lombaxes in her vision she swings once more, knocking the offending projectile to the ground and shattering its casing. Still, the world spins, and her eyes dart around looking for her companion.

"This way!"

Clank could swear his core goes cold for a split second as the metal lombax's gaze snaps to his own, and the Blitzer appears in its hands.

He hardly has the time to squeak out the tiniest of screams as the bellowing roar of a praetorian omniwrench blast interrupts him, as well as the attack that was headed his way.

To the right, his optics open, slowly panning over to the source of the shot. She glares through her opponent, imagining Nefarious standing close behind as she brandishes the wrench towards him. "Try that again, and I'll melt down your head glass into a candy bowl for the bakery's counter."

She'd missed the core, unsurprisingly due to the fact that her head's still very much reeling from the impacts, but it was certainly enough to leave an impression.

Despite the fact of the context, and knowing from his lie detection software that the markazian is absolutely serious, it takes all of Clank's strength not to giggle at the idea of being protected so fiercely, if only for a moment. Logic then returns to his mind, and he immediately jumps back into position, passing on a Nanotech orb. "Do not lose focus," he says, although deep down it's to remind himself as well.