Ace Hardlight

Ace Hardlight, known as Inmate Number 510D in Zordoom Prison, was a once famous superhero who had mysteriously vanished from the Solana Galaxy, never to be seen again. However, reasons lead to suspect that it was at the time of his disappearance that he'd been kidnapped by the Vox Media Empire, to become one of the many contestants on Gleeman Vox's reality show DreadZone.

During his time as a contestant, Ace began to enjoy working for Vox. He moved on to become a fearsome DreadZone gladiator, having eliminated many other contestants as part of his job. Over time he became the five-time grand champion, and the new captain of the Exterminators.

He was later defeated by Ratchet, a short time before the destruction of the DreadZone Station. Ace Hardlight did survive his defeat; however, and ended up being sent to Zordoom Prison. Ace was later released from prison.

Early Life
Ace was born into tough times and sent away to an orphanage on the distant planet of Bolden III. He also had his first birthday at the orphanage. Ace was there for another four years before he was adopted by a group of heroes known as the Sonic 6. They had accidentally blown up a planet while saving a starship, and they wanted to improve their public image.

As Ace grew, he became the biggest, strongest and smartest among the group of superheroes. He went on many successful missions with them and soon they were known as the Sonic 7. Ace Hardlight by now had become a famous intergalactic superhero. For a while he was unbeatable and unstoppable. However, another mission went wrong and it resulted in the accidental destruction of Bolden III. Ace and his team had blown up the same planet that he was from. The orphanage that had taken him in was gone. Ace fell into a deep sadness and disappeared, never to be seen by his team again.

A short time after disappearing from the public eye, Ace came across Gleeman Vox. He then became a contestant on DreadZone, a reality combat blood-sport where heroes were forced to fight for their lives, all in the name of entertainment. Eventually the surviving heroes would be pitted against one another to the death. It is unclear if Ace was captured and forced to compete or if he willingly volunteered to join as a contestant. Nonetheless, he ended up becoming the most successful competitor at DreadZone. Becoming an ExterminatorEdit

DreadZone
Over time, Ace Hardlight became the top ranked and most feared gladiator in DreadZone, being the grand champion over the next four seasons. He was loyal to Gleeman Vox, carrying out orders and allowing Vox to take advantage of his name and likeliness.

Ace was fierce and merciless, cutting down any hero who dared to stand up against him. He claimed to enjoy killing other heroes for the fun of it, and not just for the fortune. None of the other captured contestants could surpass his ranking at the time. At least until a hero by the name of Captain Starshield was captured and forced to compete.

He beat all of the DreadZone records ever set within a matter of weeks. And he rose to become a higher ranked contestant than Ace was. This angered Hardlight and prompted him find a way to eradicate Captain Starshield from the competition. While Starshield was competing on Catacrom Four, Ace snuck up and shot him coldly in the back with his gun, which killed him instantly. Ace had used an illegal one-shot, instant-kill weapon, known as the Quantum-Demoleculizer. It was a weapon that Vox News anchorwoman Juanita had smuggled in his locker. Ace gave off a sadistic laugh at the death of Captain Starshield. This was his thirteenth hero-kill of the season, which allowed him to become the Captain of the Exterminators.

Questionable Popularity
It is unclear if Ace was a well-respected gladiator before Ratchet was captured. But the lack of sales for the Hardlight merchandise suggests that he had always remained notorious, despite his status of being the five-time grand champion of DreadZone who is scoring the highest number of kills and having the most Dread points at the time.

The sales were so poor that the Ace Hardlight toy manufacturing plant on planet Torval had to be shut down and transformed into a DreadZone Battlecourse.

The arrival of Ratchet, Clank, Big Al and the resulting formation of Team Darkstar led Ace to become even more disliked by viewers. This in effect caused nobody to buy the Ace Hardlight merchandise, which was quick to anger his boss - Gleeman Vox. Many crates of the unsold merchandise piled up around the DreadZone station, even inside Gleeman Vox's quarters. Vox was enraged at the fact that nobody was buying the Hardlight merchandise, which resulted in him throwing fits and yelling obscenities at Ace. Vox threatened to replace him if he would not do anything to try and make his merchandise sell—even pulling Ace's hair before telling him to get out his sight.

After Shellshock was destroyed, Ace claimed that Shellshock was too slow and too stupid to be an Exterminator. He disregarded the fact that Ratchet could be a real competitor, believing the lombax was only lucky. Vox did not share the same opinion as Ace however. He said that Ratchet reminded him of when Ace was in his heroic youth. Ace was infuriated at the idea of being compared with Ratchet, firmly telling Vox that the Lombax had only gotten lucky.

Conflict with Team Darkstar
Within a short amount of time, Ratchet had gained a high amount of Dread points. He took down Ace's team of Exterminators one by one and gained immense fan support. Ace was becoming progressively more frustrated at seeing the Lombax succeed.

A while before the defeat of The Eviscerator, Vox discovered that Clank and Al had found a way to remove the Deadlock Collars - which was strongly prohibited. Ace was ordered by Vox to wait for the right moment to strike Team Darkstar.

A short time before Ratchet arrives back at the Containment Suite, Al successfully manages to remove Clank's Deadlock Collar. This prompted Ace to sneak up and shoot the former roboshack owner in the back with his gun, inflicting life-threatening injuries. Ratchet tried to grab a nearby Lancer in retaliation, but Ace was quick to react. He had the remote for the Deadlock Collar - pressing a button to activate the shock function of Ratchet's collar, thus disabling him on the spot.

Fall and Redemption
Later when Ratchet had gathered the required Dread points and medals, Ace Hardlight was set to go face to face with Ratchet in the Liberator Tournament. While broadcast live on Vox News, Ace claimed that the fight against the Lombax will be messy, and that nobody would even remember who he was.

Juanita Alvaro; being one of the few fans Ace had left, supported him for his violent remarks, telling Ace that the galaxy is rooting for him. He thanked Juanita and appeared to show some feelings towards her.

After an intense battle between the two gladiators, Ratchet defeated Ace Hardlight. Ace would not give up though; barely being able to get onto his hands and knees to further insult Ratchet, by calling him a half-sized rodent with a big wrench.

Ratchet ignored his insults and told Ace to stay down and stop embarrassing himself. The Lombax then told Ace that he used to be a hero once – words which caused Ace to have a sudden change of heart.

Ace had used what seemed to be his last breath to warn Ratchet not to let Vox do to the Lombax, what he had done to him. He also told Ratchet that he was the real hero now. Now defeated, Ace Hardlight seemed to have redeemed himself.

When Ratchet refused Vox's offer to replace Ace as the new Captain of the Exterminators, he used Vox News to slander Ratchet further; by falsely claiming that he had killed Ace in combat. It wasn't clear if Dallas & Juanita knew if Ace was dead or not, although Juanita was clearly grieving over the loss of Ace Hardlight.

Either way the news was propaganda by Vox to try and sell the large amounts of Ace Hardlight merchandise lying around the DreadZone Station. Gleeman Vox expressed his 'sympathy' to try and coax fans into purchasing a memorial Ace Hardlight Action Figure for 299 bolts. Vox News also made up accusations that Ratchet had cheated against Ace and used performance-enhancing drugs. This led people to believe that Ace was 'deceased', as stated on the Rank-O-Meter in the DreadZone Station. However, this was later proved to be false, as Ace had simply been thrown out DreadZone shortly after his defeat.

Zordoom Prison
While it is unknown what Ace did after being exiled from DreadZone, he was nevertheless, captured by authorities and placed into Zordoom Prison on planet Viceron for his crimes. A few years pass by when Ratchet breaks into Zordoom to free Talwyn, of which happened during the events of Tools of Destruction. Ace Hardlight's name was heard via a PA announcement, reporting him to kitchen duty in the mess hall.

Release from Prison
Sometime around the events of Ratchet's search for Clank, Ace was released from Zordoom Prison. News anchor-man Kip Darling reported on his release and was about to chat with him on live radio.

Role in the series
Ace Hardlight, though he had apparently reformed, is being asked with the chance to join Team Nefarious because they know deep down, he was having trouble since nobody forgave him for what he did in DreadZone, especially a high-praised Captain Starshield. Though eventually, when failing again goes too far to the point where he is foreclosed of his own apartment and several other consequences, he feels that nobody will forgive him and thus he might possibly join, along with Stewart Zurgo and Shiv Helix.