It's 5:17 :o Too late? Nah (Too early actually :P )

But here is a chapter all ready for everyone :D

Oh, and by the way. One more chapter to go ;D And talking of that chapter, since it's twice as long I'm going to be giving myself a bit longer. I expect to release it on the 2nd of December at the latest :)

But for now, enjoy this chapter!

My eyelids felt heavy as I tried to pry them open when I woke up. I could still feel my fur tingling with electricity from the Mag-Net I had been caught in earlier. And now I had the slightest feeling I wasn't home in bed with Talwyn. I doubted I was even on the same planet, I doubted everything till I opened my eyes and confirmed them all. A deja vu feeling confronted me as I looked around at the bright silver walls. I was in this room, Again, and I didn't like it. The first thing I noticed was the new additions to the room...

Four glass tubes were lined up in a row, reaching from side to side of the modest white cell. Qwark, Talwyn, Clank, and I were locked up, each in a separate tube. Clank seemed to be shutdown, which would not be a first from the recent events. Talwyn was looking fierce, banging against the glass tube like her hands could piece the refined sand. But Qwark was the most off putting, he was sitting on the floor with his arms around his legs, huddled up and visibly shaking. His green suit was torn in places, showing parts of his tribal past, and he had a ragged beard not unlike the one he had back on Florana after his mind went for a wonder in the Nabla forrest. How long had he been holed up here…?

I tried to speak, to gain the others attention, but my throat was dry. I felt weak from everything; My bones ached, my head was constantly pounding. Liquid Nanotech would be heaven right about now. I tried shouting out through my rusty throat once more, and though my voice sounded like a piece of chalk on a blackboard, it did what I wanted it to do. Talwyn spun around at the sound of me, and she gave a defeated smile.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked, and sat down when I nodded. Her posture was slouched and she looked tired.

"Still breathing." I managed to get out of my rusty voice. It sounded like two old bits of metal being grated against one another.

"How are you?"

"Tired," she admitted, "and I could eat a horse. They haven't brought us any food since we got here."
"And that is how long?" I asked, feeling the hunger myself. When this is all over that dinner with Sasha would be great. A gourmet dinner paid by the government.

"It's been almost two days, Ratchet. I can only assume that the mist in your tube was cryosleep, though you didn't seem to be sleeping very well…"

"Two days!?" How is that possible? I swear every time I get knocked out, the people who do it don't want me to wake up after the first day. Am I really that bad?

"Yeah, that long. The Frey haven't even been in the room since we were put in here. Well, in my waking hours at least." I gave her a tired nod. It seemed like they were leaving us here to starve, which seemed like one of the worst ways to die to me. Long and painful, rather than short and near painless. But I pushed those thoughts aside, the Galactic Rangers would come after us sooner or later, would've they? Anything for the savior of 3 galaxies, I could guess. In a way it'd be ironic as for once it would be me that needed saving, rather than the whole galaxy. Though I'm sure if they didn't save me, the galaxy would be to pay with Cragmites free to roam the place.

And after all those thoughts swarmed through my head, and I had officially woken up, I looked over to the tatty man in green. He do not look like he had been here for two days, I was certain his beard wouldn't grow that much in 48 hours. More like a week…

"How's Qwark going?" I asked Talwyn, who shrugged in return.

"Hungry and bored as far as I can tell. But the fact that he's got a vocal modulator strapped around his neck means he can't talk. Both a curse, and a blessing." I found the energy to laugh at that.

When our laughter subsided, so did our smalltalk as we both decided to conserve our energy, as who knew how long we'd be here. The steel floor was cold and hard, making it impossible to get comfortable, that and the fact that my tail was being squished. I needed to stretch. Luckily, the tubes went all the way to the ceiling, allowing me to stand up, which I did. Before I stretched, my hand went to my wrench out of a lifelong habit, and I was actually shocked to feel - and see - that it was still there! Excitement surged through me as I thought maybe this could be just enough to break the glass, with enough force of course. I pulled the wrench back and twisted my body as much as I could to get the most power out of the hit. But it would not be enough.

I found myself bouncing around the glass cell from the power I had put into the wrench. It had simply bounced off the glass, which now that I think about it was probably bulletproof.

Then an eerily familiar laughter came from the now open door, and the three of us looked up and the ugly figure we knew was Varl. The Cragmite had a weird grin on his face, similar to the one Dr Nefarious gets when his 'plan comes together,' though Varl made his a lot more like the smile of an insane man.

"Greetings," The man tried to contain himself, and I found myself wondering how does someone get like this?

"What do you want, Varl? I'm sick of your games." I looked at his face as I said this and saw that his eyes were cracking, no, bursting from insanity.

"You wanna know what I want? What I want right now, eh? I want your head on a pike!" I recoiled slightly at the sudden outburst. But it didn't stop there.

"Throughout my life I always struggled to understand us. The two outcasts, yet we hated each other. The two opposites, always one step ahead of each other, yes one step behind. The two people that horrid planet who didn't belong. Then it changed even more, with one of us going into a life of heroics, whilst the other in a life in crime. I still struggled to understand us even throughout those first years of our parting. 'Why did I want to kill you all the time?' was the most frequent of questions I couldn't answer over the years. Then Tachyon showed up and the answers were unveiled, the questions gone. I finally had a purpose to my seemingly animal instincts.

I learnt about the Cragmites as you did the Lombaxes. I learnt about my great and undefeated race, how they stormed through space at the top all those years ago. But it was your kind which put a stop to them. You're kind which ruined their entire story of how they became the best, and your race that came out on top of the rest at the end of it. Eventually though, you would be your own demise by bringing up Tachyon. It was ironic that the last Cragmite came back to win the war. Then it doubled over and the Last Lombax won it back.

From the moment you killed Tachyon, I knew my purpose. I knew why I was here, brought up around you. Brought up to hate you. My fate is to resume the old Emperors work, to bring back the Cragmites once more. But after knowing you, observing you, researching you for my entire life, I can succeed in the one place he didn't. Killing you, that is my fate, my purpose in life, my gift to the galaxy. The Cragmites will be reborn!" The Cragmite finished his well rehearsed speech with a few heavy breaths, and a small laugh at the shock on our faces. It was in his blood I guess, he was just as crazy as Tachyon. But he was right, he did have an advantage of knowing me. We scrapped a lot when we were kids, sometime I would emerge victorious, sometimes he would and I couldn't help but think that was a sign that this could go either way. The fate of the galaxy was up to the flip of a coin.

But what was the point of having a coin if Varl was on both sides? He had the advantage. I was in a locked tube which he could probably will with acid to get rid of me right now. It would take a stroke of luck, and stupidity on his behalf for me to win. The galaxy needed the coin to land on the small edge between the faces, an almost impossible task.

"But for now, it must wait. I have the… execution, all mapped out for you." The man laughed maniacally once again before walking off and locking the door behind him.

"He's insane!" Talwyn shouted to no one in particular as the Cragmite left our presence, and she wasn't wrong. I agreed with her as much as I agreed to the fact that I was hungry. But instead of responding, I slumped back down to the floor, sighing. How was I going to get out of this one? I thought to myself. And it was a question I didn't quite know how to answer. But I had gotten out of DreadZone, hadn't I? With that under my belt surely I could escape if the maniac was stupid enough to let me out of this glass tube.

I wondered how I could get myself out. What had I done in the past that may help… explosives would kill me, and aren't available. My swingshot won't make me go through glass. There was no hacker terminal… But I did have Clank! And he had been fitted with a Geo-Lazer by the Zoni when were were invading the Apogee space station!

"Yes!" I shouted aloud, causing both Qwark and Talwyn to turn their heads.

"Clank has a Geo-Laser! I bet it would be able to cut through this glass." I turned my head to my unconscious friend, and said his name a couple of times to reactivate him. It took a short while as he had to do a quick internal check since it was an 'Unintentional Shutdown,' but we eventually got there. When Clank first awoke from his slumber, he was confused at the recent events, but quickly grasped the idea of Varls intentions.

"So Clank, do you still have your Geo-Laser the Zoni gave to you?" I got round to the main questions after explaining everything to him. He gave me a nod, with a wide smile whilst equipping the Geo-Laser itself. The antennae like gadget replaced his right arm and was easy to navigate with whilst in use, seeing as it came with a built in Sixaxis Navigation System.

"Stand back everyone, and I'll get them all at once." The robot said, and we followed his orders, backing as far as we could into the opposite end of our small domes. There was a long green flash and a continuous buzzing noise for a while as I watched Clank cut through the multiple layers of bulletproof glass. I guess lasers this powerful didn't quite qualify as bullets, so therefore they didn't apply the rules of the glass.

As soon as the glass had fallen to the floor, I grabbed my wrench again and rushed to the door, the only exit to the place. How we were going to escape Varls wrath with just a wrench I didn't know, but I felt as though today the universe had one again beete tipped in my favour The coin had landed on the middle spot.
"Are you guys ready for whatever's next?" I asked the group as we gathered around the door. Clank had already hopped onto my back, his Geo-Laser disables, and the other two gave me a reassuring nod. After all the things that Varl had done over the years, this was by far the most outrageous and the most annoying. I was going to make sure that the Cragmite got what he deserved in prison. I also felt that his judgement day was going to come sooner than everyone expected.

Sleeptime for me! This happens too often now :/