As Aphelion entered the Korthos Sector, she gave an alert to Ratchet and Twilight. "There are hostile ships approaching," she informed them. "Should I give them a chance to state their business, or can I just obliterate them?"

"Let's hear them out, shall we?" Ratchet suggested, rolling his eyes. "If only so we know what to mark down in your score card."

"Affirmative!" Aphelion agreed, much to Twilight's amusement.

The comm screen came on, revealing beings that rather closely resembled Helga, but dressed for Wagnerian Opera as best as Twilight could tell. "Well well well!" the first, garbed in golden armor, greeted warmly. "What do we have here?"

"Looks like this Lombax is lost!" the second, garbed in blue, added, her voice just as sweet as the first.

"What do you say, girls?" the third, garbed in green armor, spoke in a more masculine voice. "Should we help him find his way?"

"That'd be great!" Twilight piped up. "Which way to Planet Lumos?"

"Aww...look at that adorable tyke!" the green armored being proclaimed happily.

Twilight looked back flat eyed. "I'm 16," she grumbled petulantly.

At that point, the figures engaged in inter-ship communication, and two of the craft peeled off to go after Azimuth. "General!" Ratchet called into his communicator. "We've got hostile ships inbound."

"I see them!" Azimuth replied. "They are Valkyries-"

"Were," Aphelion corrected as she shifted to mech mode and tore the larger ship in half straight down the middle, shifting back to ship mode to shoot away, leaving the two halves to explode.

"...I'm going to just focus on losing the ones pursuing me," Azimuth replied. "Just to let you know, they work for Nefarious, so you'll likely encounter them again. I'll meet you on Planet Lumos."

"Roger!" Ratchet agreed, leaning back in his seat. "Aphelion, how far to Planet Lumos?"

"Approximately 30 minutes at cruising speed," Aphelion replied.

"I'm going to take a quick shower before we get there, then," Ratchet stated, standing up. "And you should grab a bath, Twilight. We're both getting a little ripe."

"I didn't want to say anything, Daddy," Twilight replied teasingly.

"Incoming transmission from Captain Qwark!" Aphelion interrupted.

"What is it, BBBFF?" Twilight asked quickly.

"I'm in a bit of trouble," Qwark replied. "The Agorians somehow got the idea that I was a thrill seeking warrior with a thirst for battle!"

"Did you tell them you were?" Ratchet asked chidingly as Twilight giggled.

"I was just trying to make friends!" Qwark complained. "But now they've got me in their tournament, and I don't think I can do this!"

"Qwark, you can do anything physical you put your mind to!" Twilight scolded. "Even the physically impossible. What could they possibly throw at you that you can't handle?"

"Have you seen these locker rooms?" Qwark whined. "Skrunch wouldn't even throw his poo at it, it's so unsanitary! And the drinks are tap water, and the food is army reserve K Rations from their pre-space age!"

"We'll get you out of there as soon as we can," Ratchet promised. "Just find someplace to hide until we get there."

"Message received!" Qwark replied. "Qwark out!"

"Setting course for Agorian Battleplex!" Aphelion chimed in.

"Let's wait on shower and bath till after, shall we?" Twilight suggested delicately.

"I get the feeling we'll really need it by the time we're done," Ratchet agreed.

Once in the Battleplex, Twilight and Ratchet both quickly realized that it was yet another battle tournament, much like any other they'd faced throughout their journeys. They immediately began placing bets with each other over whether or not anything in them would be at all challenging. "At least it's a bit more impressive than the others were," Twilight commented as they entered the well decorated lobby.

The pair moved up to the Gladiator entrance to compete, stopping just long enough to hit the Grummel-net vendor to acquire Groovitron Gloves, the upgrade to the Groovitron gadget, turning it into a weapon that could also level up.

The Agorian audience seemed to find the pair laughable as they entered to fight. Ratchet and Twilight exchanged grins, both looking forward to making them reconsider that opinion.

The challenges proved just as easy as the pair expected. The first two challenges involved defeating five waves of enemies in different conditions, neither of which being at all problematic for Ratchet or Twilight. The third challenge involved defeating ten Agorian enemies with their own bombs. Ratchet actually brought a beach chair in to relax on while Twilight took care of that with her telekinesis, just for the show of it. The fourth challenge involved dealing with sinking platforms; Ratchet climbed onto Twilight's back, and the pair gave new meaning to the challenge's name, "Death From Above".

The final challenge was where they found Qwark waiting for them. "There you guys are!" he proclaimed happily as he saw them. "Let's give them a real show of what the Sparkle clan can do!"

Chuckling and rolling their eyes in sync, Ratchet and Twilight nodded as they prepped their weapons.

With the three waves down, the announcers proclaimed one last challenge. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...it's time for the War Grok!"

The War Grok turned out to be a massive four legged beast that seemed to be a cross between King Kong and a rhinoceros. Turning to the trio after callously casting aside the Agorian that had been holding its leash, it let out a roar, spraying saliva all over the place.

Twilight promptly hurled a strange cylinder into its mouth. The creature's mouth instinctively snapped shut on it, starting to chew. Not long after, it started panting happily.

"You were just hungry, weren't you?" Twilight cooed, climbing up onto the creature's back to rub it under its chin. "That better?"

The War Grok panted happily, pounding its right hind leg on the ground as Qwark joined in with rubbing its belly.

"Boo!" some of the audience members shouted. "No befriending! We want mauling!"

Twilight frowned, then attached something to the War Grok's back. The device slowly expanded until the entire War Grok was covered in Hyperflux Armor - still experimental and in testing with Grummel-Net - with all sorts of weapons and other armaments bristling over its body. "Snowball," she addressed the now heavily armored - practically giant bio-tank at this point - War Grok, "it sounds like they want you to maul them. Do you think I heard that right?" Chuckling, 'Snowball' nodded eagerly, his tongue flopping around.

The audience fell silent. "Yay, befriending!" one of them shouted desperately, and the entire audience quickly joined the cheer, much to the whole group's amusement.

As Qwark, Ratchet, and Twilight made their separate ways back to their ships - with a new Negotiator rocket launcher in tow for Twilight and Ratchet as their tournament prizes - Qwark promised to take care of Snowball until they next met.