Sons of Damas

by Tatsurou


Brink: Don't Know What to Say the Monkeys Won't Do

It didn't take long for the ship to reach Far Drop, and Jak, Shining, and Daxter decided to explore the town while Phoenix took care of whatever brought them there. To assist them in their exploration - and to acquire new supplies - Jak was provided with a Vulcan Fury mod for his gun staff.

As soon as they stepped off the ship, however, they were confronted by a short, portly, blue-skinned Lurker. "Me Barter!" he greeted immediately. "Big smuggler. Me a top dog in Far Drop."

Jak glanced around, noticing several large creatures, white with green crystals embedded in their flesh, all but engaged in combat. "What are those?"

"Dark Eco mutants," Barter grumbled. "They show up few months ago. Been fighting them big time ever since. I need strong fists to protect me goods. I pay you well."

"Sidequest time," Daxter chuckled under his breath.

"We only really need supplies," Shining pointed out.

"Hmm..." Barter considered. "You keep mutants from breaking Barter shop, Barter give you all supplies you need. Deal?"

"Or maybe not," Daxter mused.


The Dark Eco mutants were relatively easy to track down through the narrow paths of Far Drop, but proved to be incredibly durable. It took a lot of firepower to even take one down, and there were four of them. Thankfully, Shining was fast enough to get to the structures before the attacks began, and used his shield to protect them, leaving Jak and Daxter free to take their time with the mutants to minimize damage taken.

When the four mutants were down, Barter sent them a message. "Hurry! Mutants attacking generator! Use Aeropult!"

The Aeropult turned out to be a catapult that ran on air pressure rather than wire tension. Once enough pressure was built up, the trio hopped on and was launched to the path to the generator, which was a metal walkway with electricity arcing over the platforms. "Green crystal formations," Jak pointed out quickly. "I can probably make platforms-"

Shining quickly surrounded them in a spherical shield.

"Or we can roll," Daxter admitted as they rolled forward, the electricity not hitting them.

Once at the control center for the generator, the electricity arcs were no longer a danger, but the mutants were. Shining quickly tried to project a shield, but the mutants slammed bodily in it, their crystal constructs damaging the shield and forcing Shining to withdraw it. "Dammit..." he growled angrily. "How am I supposed to..." His eyes lit up as an idea struck him.

Conjuring a shield bubble, he proceeded to fill it with charges of Eco Amplifier before sending it rolling towards the mutants. They immediately attacked the shield, and as they breached the barrier, the compressed charges went off, incinerating the mutants while containing the explosion.

"Nice!" Jak praised, giving Shining a thumbs up. He then raced over to a valve and turned it, shutting off a damaged power coupling to stop the arcing electricity.

Behind the electricity was another Precursor Totem. As Jak and Shining approached, it energized them with Blue Eco. "That's four colors," Shining mused. "Guessing that's gonna be all, given the problems with Dark and Light Eco around here."

Staring at the waterwheels before them with very fast moving platforms, Jak narrowed his eyes. "Time to try the new power out." Focusing, he drew out the Blue Eco.

The world around him seemed to slow down. Realizing this ability enhanced his perception and reflexes to make everything move slower to his mind, he rushed forward, leaping across the platforms. Shining wasn't far behind, having used the new Eco Reflexes as well.

Once across, they spotted another monkey-shaped mutant heading towards what looked like a vertically aligned greenhouse-type enclosure, somewhat resembling a hanging planter but on a much larger scale.

"NO!" Barter screamed out in terror. "My cabbages!"

Shining tilted his head. "I feel like that should sound familiar..." he muttered, unsure why. For some reason, it connected somewhere in his mind to a sensation that was...warm and fuzzy.

As it turned out, the cabbages were being devoured by ravenous, floating eel-like mutants. These, thankfully, went down much quicker than the monkey shaped ones. Once the greenhouse was cleared of eels, the group took another aeropult to another part of Far Drop.

Barter's next message proved more concerning, as it was revealed the mutants were attacking an orphanage.

"You guys catch up when you can!" Daxter shouted, shifting to Light Daxter mid sentence and racing ahead.

When he got there, he found five of the monkey mutants attacking the orphanage. He cracked his knuckles. "Alright then...let's dance!"

By the time Jak and Shining caught up, only one mutant remained, and he met them partway back down the path, running in fear of Daxter. "That new form's really upped your combat capabilities!" Jak praised. "Nicely done!"

"Glad you left something for us," Shining joked.

"Still takes a lot out of me," Daxter explained as he shifted back, dropping onto Jak's shoulder. "Especially if there isn't much Eco available in my environment."

"Then take it easy now," Jak told him, leading the way to the next Aeropult.

This landed them near the docks, where even more monkey mutants were attacking the crane. The strategies Jak and Shining had developed so far continued to be effective, especially when they went back to back to keep from getting flanked. Four of the six were on the crane itself, rather than attacking the outside. Jak used an Eco Construct to jostle the crane enough as it swung to knock them off two at a time. With the six down, all that was left was the one black skinned monkey mutant with purple crystals on its back that they'd been pursuing since the beginning.

Once cornered, the Dark Monkey attacked by trying to grapple either Jak or Shining before attempting to crush them in its embrace, smashing them with clenched fists, or by hurling barrels and crates at them. The attack pattern didn't vary much, so the only difficult part of taking it down proved to be just how durable it was. The only change came as it started to weaken, when it added a new attack to its arsenal: leaping into the air and smashing the ground to unleash a Dark Eco shockwave.

Once the monkey was down for the count, the trio made their way back to the tavern to get the supplies. Barter was quite grateful. "You best protection money can buy. Supplies already on ship."

"Thanks for that," Jak replied gratefully.

"Just...one more thing Barter need," Barter began softly.

"Any chance it's a bar brawl?" Shining asked curiously. "Because I'd love to have a fight without the stakes being too high, just to blow off some steam."

Noticing the huge grin on Barter's face, Jak cracked his knuckles. "Time for some fun." Turning, he picked up a chair and threw it in a random direction, ready to vent.