Chapter 11! :) I ended up rewriting some of chapter seven, and while it's only a short part that's changed slightly, I would recommend rereading to prevent confusion in future chapters.

Also, I'm sorry this is so short. Next one will definitely be longer.

. . .

The minions are easily destroyed, and we circle around a metal barrier to the other side. Oh, yeah, Zurkon blew up again at some point in the battle too. Poor guy...

There are some more critters running around. I look at Ratchet, who's capturing one of them with his Vac-U, and ask, "So… why are we collecting these critters again?" Ratchet explained his reasoning to me last night, but I still don't get it.

"Uh…" Ratchet scratches his head. "Well, like I said before, the more creatures we have, the less that'll be available to Spog's minions."

"Right," I say. What would Spog's boss need with a few tiny creatures? I just let my friends take the remaining critters and we move on down the path.

"Huh," Zephyr says. "For a second, I thought that building to your left was the sorting facility, but… according to this geo-scan, that building appears to be a… crate factory?"

"So that's where all those crates come from?" I ask. "Huh. I was expecting something a little more… mysterious?"

"That makes two of us," Zephyr replies.

Then I see we've got the longest chain of Hookshot targets I've personally encountered so far. "Sometimes I wish Insomniac wasn't so fond of anything even remotely related to Swingshots…"

My friends look at me strangely. Then Nefarious asks, "Say what? Who or what is 'Insomniac?'"

Oh dear. I really don't want to explain that right now. "Uh… can I get back to you guys on that?"

Ratchet raises an eyebrow, then shrugs. "Okay." Then he leaps to the nearest Hookshot and grapples onto it. He swings to the next one, then the next. We all follow him, copying his movements. Then we reach one of those spinning Hookshot targets. We latch on, and it slingshots us to a piece of land not far away. Then we use another set of Hookshot targets to launch ourselves to the top of a cliff ahead.

Then we hear Zephyr say, "The satellite feed shows some kind of power conduit that stretches from your sector to the N.E.S.T. loading bay. That could be your ticket into the compound!"

"Thanks, Zeph," Ratchet replies. Then we see a long metal pipe way down below the cliff ahead of us. That must be the power conduit. It's connected to a large platform.

I look down at the pipe, then at Ratchet. "We're gonna have to jump, aren't we?"

He nods. "Yep. And I'm pretty sure that our jetpacks are recharged by now." The Lombax then jumps off the cliff and falls in a skydiving position.

Then Qwark follows, equipping his jetpack. As he does this, I get an idea.

"I think I know a way I can get down there without you having to carry me," I say to Nefarious as our companions glide gently down to the platform. Without waiting for a reply, I equip my Hookshot and shoot the grapple towards the ground. It sticks. Then I turn and jump off the cliff. I'm hanging by the cable now. I can only hope the cable is long enough and strong enough for me to do this.

I look at Nefarious, who's watching me. His jaw is dropped with surprise. Guess he didn't expect a squishy to think of that. He quickly regains himself and says, "Er, right. Better hope that cable holds, squishy. I'm not saving you if you fall."

I smile at the robot knowingly. "Aw… you do care."

"Shut up or I'll kill you myself."

I propel myself down a ways. I'm about two thirds of the way down when I run out of cable. So now I'm just hanging there. I look down at my friends. Of course Nefarious beat me and is now looking up at me with a smirk.

"Uh," I say. "I don't suppose one of you could equip a Vac-U and catch me before I end up a pancake down there?"

Qwark naturally steps up. "I can do it! I save damsels in distress all the time!"

"I'm NOT a 'damsel in distress,' you moron!" I say. "Ratchet, you've got good aim. You think you can do it? Because I really don't want my butt in Qwark's Vac-U. Who knows what he's sucked up with it…"

Ratchet nods, then equips his Vac-U. "Ready."

I disengage my Hookshot and Ratchet easily catches me with his Vac-U. Then, after shooting me out (without launching me off the platform, obviously) we equip our Grind Boots.

"These Grind Boots have magnetic bottoms similar to Magne-boots," Ratchet tells me. "But it only works on metal objects that are shaped like a very long cylinder, because of the way they're designed. You'd have to have Clank explain it to you, because I don't know all the technical details. Basically, don't worry about falling off."

I nod, and Ratchet hops on the pipe, sliding down it. The rest of us quickly follow. As we slide down the pipe, we hear Zephyr say, "Stay sharp, rookies. We just got visual confirmation of Commander Spog." Then we see Spog flying above us. Oh sweet mother of Zoni… he's massive. We're lucky he hasn't seen us.

Then Cronk says, "Strange… his design doesn't appear to be on file at the Hall of Knowledge. That's a violation of galactic statute thirty-nine delta!"

"I wouldn't worry about that right now," I say. "Right now, we have more important things to worry about."

"She's right, Cronk," Zephyr replies. "We'll issue a citation when we find out who built him. For now, let's concentrate on taking him down so the Tharpods can return to their homes."

"I would have to agree," Clank says.

Then we reach the end of the power conduit, landing on a platform. Then Cronk says, "The sorting facility entrance is just around the bend! You should be able to infiltrate through the main loading bay."

"Alright," Ratchet replies. Then he looks at us. "Ready to blow up some stuff?"

I nod, grinning. "Heck yeah!"

Qwark is picking his nose. He quickly stops and looks at Ratchet blankly. "Uh, yes! Always ready!"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Nefarious says unenthusiastically, shrugging.

We head down the platform, across a bridge, and smash and slash a few minions when Zephyr says, "Ah, kid, I tell ya- I wish we were with you right now. Exploring a strange new world, off on a new adventure. Cronk and I don't get out much these days."

The "exploring a strange new world" part makes me think of Star Trek, and I let out a chuckle. I wonder what my new friends would think of that show. Qwark would probably hate it, while-

Cronk interrupts my thoughts by saying, "Speak for yourself! Just yesterday I infiltrated the lair of the evil Count Microbolt! He had amassed an army of penguin cyborgs, and was planning an attack on the city of Meregon Nine!"

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong," I say, "but yesterday you both were stuck in an asteroid belt above Magnus- same as you are today. Cronk, did you fall asleep watching a cartoon or something? Penguin cyborgs… then again, I'm not one to talk, because I'm nineteen and I still watch reruns of SpongeBob…"

"It was a rerun of Unicop, ya darn fool!" Zephyr shouts. "You fell asleep while it was on last night! Now stay focused! Commander Spog could be anywhere!"

"Unicop?" I ask blankly. Then I shake my head. "Never mind."

We cross a bridge onto an elevator, which takes us up to a set of spinning Hookshot targets. We use them to slingshot to a platform some ways away. We encounter another set of Hookshots, which fling us to an elevator, which takes us up to another platform. Not much blowing up of stuff so far.

Up ahead is a large metal building with a door in the middle. Next to said door is a pad with strange symbols on the buttons. Nefarious immediately runs up to the pad and starts tapping away at the keys.

"Ha!" he says. "A three-pass delta key encryption device? Amateurs…"

"You sound like Big Al when you say that," Ratchet tells him.

"Who?" Nefarious asks. Before Ratchet can reply, the door slides open. The robotic doctor strikes a goofy victory pose. "I win! Victory!"

"Maybe dial it down a bit, Nef?" I say. "We don't want to announce our presence to Spog yet."

"You mean you're in?" Cronk asks. "Good going! Commander Spog is in charge of this entire facility, so keep an eye out! He's bound to be around here somewhere."

"Will do," Ratchet replies. "Keep us posted." Then he looks at us. "Okay, now are you all ready to blow stuff up?"

"I'm ready," I say. I look at Qwark and Nefarious. "What about you guys?"

Nefarious crosses his arms and says, "Yeah, whatever. Only because I want to see the green idiot standing next to me get shot."

"Hey!" Qwark says indignantly. "I'll have you know I won last year's Galactic Idol competition!"

Nefarious glares at him. "You WHAT?!"

"Hey!" Ratchet and I say at the same time. We look at each other, then back at Qwark and Nefarious. Ratchet continues, "Let's focus on Spog for now, and we'll worry about your silly singing competitions later."

"I second that," Clank says.

"Me too," I say.

Nefarious growls. "Fine. But how could someone so stupid win one of the most difficult competitions in the known universe…?"

. . .

As you've probably noticed, I skipped a good portion of the level, as I felt it unnecessary to the plot. Plus, aside from the hilarious Unicop thing, that segment is pretty boring to say the least. Anyway, see ya all next time! :)