Yay! 3:15 is much better than 5:14. Especially with an exam tomorrow. But I made myself a promise to post each chapter on time, so I'm sticking to it for once.

Reviews are always welcome :3

And yeah, enjoy the story! :)

I eventually managed to pull Talwyn out of the ship after she tried to avoid the inevitable of seeing Qwark again. I tried to tell her it wouldn't be that bad, that he'd matured slightly of our latest adventure, but she didn't but she didn't bite. And it's not like I believed myself either - Qwark was Qwark, no matter what he did. His ego would be as big as ever…

But nevertheless, we needed to see him. He did for once help in the attack against nefarious, well technically the second. But it's still not something he does that often. Maybe on the next adventure he'll actually help all the time…

"What all this?" Talwyn gestured to all the green lettering splayed across the roof.

"From above it said 'Welcome home cadets,' so it was Qwark obviously." She rolled her eyes.

"You could tell it was Qwarks doing from a mile away. So you're telling me he actually tamed an Agorian War Grok?" she did nothing to hide the disbelief as she challenged part of my story I had told her before the Frey attacked. I gave her a strong nod.

"'Snowball'" Was all I said to the stubborn woman who still didn't seem to believe me.

"I'm sure the man himself will take great pleasure in telling you himself. To be honest I don't know half of what he went through after they got off Vorselon's Ship, so I'll listen in on the story too."

We neared the buildings roof entrance as I said this, and I grasped the handle to the stairway door and pulled, but unlike when I last used these stairs, before Clank and I crashed my old hoverbike, the lights didn't turn on automatically.

Qwarks definitely got some sort of surprise planned.

"Clank, you got a light?" I asked my friend beside me. But he already had deployed his mini-light Al invented.

"Way ahead of you, Ratchet."

We continued down the stairs for a while, as our apartment wasn't up as close as we had originally intended when we bought the place. The building itself was prehistoric in the face that it didn't have a elevator too. We would definitely be moving sometime soon. I had the money at least. The amount of money that was literally just lying around the place sometime… And the amount of bolts I get from robots and thugs I beat up helps too.

As we made our way down the 18 flights of stairs, not much was said after Clank turned his light on. The echoes from our feet were the only noises we could hear coming from the entire building. Though not many people lived up there anymore, it was still unusual for no one to be about and I found myself thinking, Did Qwark really go through all this trouble for us? Then again. We've been away for a while...

Finally we had made it down to floor 182, which held our apartment, and another one that I used for storing bits and pieces. It was pretty much a garage - I even had a teleporter in it, though since that's against the rules of the building, the landlord doesn't know…

The dark green wooden door had our number on it - 728, in plated gold. The door itself was locked, but I gave it a knock because there was a good chance that Qwark was in there. But I got a bit suspicious when Qwark didn't come barging through the door, pulling us into a four way hug. Clank fished the key out of his storage system.

With a small whiz, the door unlocked itself, and I pushed forward to get through. Our apartment was in pitch black. The curtains were down, and the lights were turned off. From what Clanks light could show us the place was near spotless. Definitely not how we left the flat at all. Alarm bells rung in my head and I took a cautious step into the room.

The floor creaked at my weight on in as I edged towards the lights which again, where normally motion activated at this time of the day when the curtains were down. Clank and I had modded our house to be smart around that sort of thing, and it was handy. Though right now someone had turned the system off.

Then all of a sudden I found myself being squeezed almost to death. Some weird welcoming song was playing in the background and the place was brightly lit. But with all this going on, the most of any colour I could see, was green.

Qwark.

I pushed against the big man, escaping a prolonged hug which I didn't want, but when I was out of his grasp, Talwyn and Clank were in, and I did nothing to help as I regained my breath. Seconds later they were doing the same.

"How've you been, cadets? It's been too long!" The man in green nearly shouted. I looked around the house, letting Clank reply. The place was clean, and most of our stuff was still here, but Qwark was alone. You'd think he'd have invited half of Solana to the welcoming party. Then again, it's not like I was complaining. The less people, the easier it would for us to get them out. Relaxing sounded much better without Qwark, and I'm sure he had stuff to do. Feed Snowball, perhaps?

"We have been fine, Qwark. You?" Clank took up the lead on our side of the conversation, which I was grateful for. Not that I doubted Qwarks ability to talk to us without us responding.

"Been here and there. Fighting off mutant space ninjas one day, training in the ancient art of Kama du Rai the next. You know my lifestyle." I couldn't tell if he was kidding or not, and before I knew it I had rolled my eyes.

"Sounds interesting, Qwark…" I replied, trying to sound like I meant it. He was now staring at me expectantly, like he was waiting for me to give the signal for him to talk, and I stumbled across a sentence to give him just that signal.

"So what happened to you after the Nefarious Space Station exploded?"

"Ahh, yes. I stuck on a floating rock in space for five days after that, accompanied by a hungry War Grok. That was a rather… Unpleasant experience I'd rather not talk about, but from then on it was great. I was picked up by my movie producer, who had come to the stations ruins to film a movie, which I then guest starred in after a meal. It was then when I learnt that my next movie, Unicop, was to be made into a holovision series, rather than a movie, which got me excited at the thought of having more screentime. From there on it was a bit hazy, being in and out of various action. When I heard from Cronk and Zephyr about you three ending up here, I instantly sent over the Supremely Awesome Edition of My Blaster Runs Hot, which I assume you watched?" We each nodded, which for once was actually the truth around situations like this. The smile we got from Qwark in return was over the top, which did sum the man up. But he didn't continue, so that must've been everything important. Only half of much lies included that I would've thought, and no mention of a crotchitizer. Bonus. But the silence soon became awkward as we looked at Qwark who would normally be yapping on about something, and he looked back at us. We needed another conversation starter for this unusually quiet Qwark. Luckily plan B had arrived…

"How's Snowball?" I asked, and the Captain went off on a speal about the War Grok.

"Well after the incident at the space station, I put him on a vegan diet which seems to be going well. He got himself a desk job in Axiom city last week which has been going great - A change from the carnage he;s used to. And he has also picked up a lovely lady War Grok, who he has put an engagement ring on. The wedding is next week, and your invitations should be back at the Apogee Space Station with Cronk and Zephyr. I assume you will be going?" I nodded in a encouraging sort of way to try and hide the fact that I wouldn't be spotted dead there, But he'd drag me along no matter what, so there was almost no point arguing. But obviously on the day he wouldn't be able to keep track of everyone…

"Fantastic! I'll tick you off the list." The captain said almost too enthusiastically. And this time he was the one who changed the way of the conversation. From War Groks to;

"Oh, before I forget. Follow me, I have a surprise for the three of you!" And with that he walked out of the room, gesturing for us to follow. I gave Tal a questioning look, and she gave me one back, but we came to the silent agreement that the sooner Qwark shows us this and leaves, the sooner we can relax. The word made me want to collapsed on my bed, which was an infinite number greater than the old one back at the garage.

We followed Qwark out of the apartment, into the now lit corridor, though it still seemed empty , and void of any other life. Nevertheless we marched forth, going down yet another 7 flights of stairs to level 175, and I remembered suddenly that the complex had a parking lot of sorts every 25 floors. We should've just parked here initially…

Strangely enough when we got into the carpark, there were many cars. It was almost full infact… Maybe everyone above this floor had moved out simultaneously and left here cars here. How peculiar.

"It's in the far corner, since that was the only available space." Qwark said as an excuse, then left the three of us back to our thoughts. At some point during our walk, Talwyn had slipped her hand into mine. I had barely noticed I was so used to it now, but when I did notice it was always a comforting thought.

I looked around the dimly lit carpark to see some pretty expensive vehicles dotted around the area. I spotted a Alien Martian, a Ferocious, a Blarghetti. Even a Portals. They were some of the most expensive brands known to the galaxy… Though I would still prefer something homemade and easily upgradeable. I never could quite leave anything alone. Always adding features pr upgrading things… I definitely had the classic Lombax persona most people said I did.

"Something doesn't feel right…" Talwyns soft voice broke me from my thoughts. Her hand was tensed, and her whole body was the opposite of relaxed.

"What's up?" She gave my question some thought, like she was trying to figure it out herself.

"This feels like it's happened before. I think I dreamt it on the way here…" Surely she's not getting psychic thoughts about a car park? Then again, dreams can be weird. I know from first hand encounters.

"Well I'm sure it was just a dream, okay?" I have her hand a friendly squeeze, and I think it helped a bit, as she did seem a little less stressed out.

"Yeah, Im sure you're right." She tried for a smile, which came out unsure. But I dismissed the fact that she thought something was up. I almost always thought that around Qwark. He was a weird person to be around- not to mention he had the worst of luck. But my luck was just as bad, and it wasn't even 10 seconds before Talwyn let go of my hand and shouted at the man in green.

"Qwark, stop!" She screamed, but seemingly as she did this, Qwark was electrocuted by an unknown source, reminding me of my Mag-net Launchers. This was an ambush… But it couldn't have been Qwark, he was the first to be hit.

A horrible sound filled my ears as I heard Clanks voice wobble under the mass amounts of electricity storm though him, and he was quickly short circuited, as Qwark was knocked unconscious. That was where my mistake was. I was locked up in the moment of seeing my friends being hit that I didn't really respond to the situation myself. Pain emerged from everywhere as I was coated in electricity, and my last thought was;

So this is what it feels like to have a Mag-Net Cannon used against you...

The plot thickens...

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