//------------------------------//
// Renegade: Underground Work 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Jak, Twilight, Cozy, Starlight, Daxter, and the Ottsel brothers spent the night in Keira's place, since she stayed in the garage she worked in, due to it having a resting place for a pit crew installed and she used it all on her own to make sure no one saw what she was working on, but when morning arrived, which they discovered due to the time that Keira got up at, the siblings were able to leave the stadium before the rest of the civilians or the guards were up, even though she made sure to see them off and that they had some of the more decent food to share with themselves on their way to either Krew or the Underground's hideout. Of course Keira made sure their Communicator was outfitted to inform them when she was calling, or when she set something up for them to aid whatever she was working on, as she was definitely against what the Baron was doing and wanted to bring him down, or at least figure out how to return him to what he used to be, since this version of him was night and day from the older version, and she was sure that his medical records, which she was still working to get since they were carefully hidden and even Krew couldn't get them, would hold the key to that. At the same time the siblings made sure to tell Keira that none of them would tell anyone who she was and that they knew her, that all they had done was spend the night helping her with her vehicles, something she could confirm with logs and, to their total surprise, altered video feed, either created by her or by Vin, since they seemed to be friends in some manner and talked every now and then, but until she revealed her secret none of them would say a word to anyone else. As such they made sure to have something to eat while they carefully headed back to the Slums, since none of them wanted the guards to see what they were doing or discover the area that the Underground hideout was resting in, but based on what all of them could see the guards were either sleeping or were in the middle of changing the night guards for the day guards, which did give them a window of opportunity that none of them were willing to miss at this point.

Thanks to that fact Jak and Starlight were able to get them back to the location of the Underground hideout and as soon as they came to a stop a barrier sprung up behind the zoomers, mostly in the chance that someone had noticed something happen in the last couple of seconds, even though Twilight dispelled it not a few moments later and followed her siblings into the hideout, where they found Torn pacing around the chamber once more, even though all of them were sure he had gotten little sleep or he was irritated by something as he turned and looked at them.

"Good, you guys are back... took you longer than expected." Torn commented, referring to the fact that he expected them to return to the hideout after doing whatever Krew wanted them to do, as he had been thinking it was a simple mission or something like that, instead of being gone for the rest of the afternoon and the entire night, which meant he hoped they had a good excuse for being missing for the last couple of hours, especially since Keira had turned off their Communicator so she could do her changes to it.

"Yeah, well, the Mechanic had a lot of work for us to do so we could be considered for her racing team... or rather, for Jak to be considered for the position," Twilight replied, as that was basically the truth of the matter, they worked with Keira to make sure her vehicles were just fine and up to her standards before even daring to present one to the Baron, but it also told Torn next to nothing about what actually happened while they were in the stadium, before she shrugged as Jak and the others faced the man that was in front of them, "nothing important happened, plus Krew wanted someone to fill the open position in her racing team, hence why he signed Jak up and made sure all profits went to himself, so even if Jak won something he wouldn't get any of it... that's what took us so long to get back."

"Well, while you guys were doing that, some things have changed," Torn remarked, which made sense to the siblings when they heard it, since it was a brand new day and the Baron had taken the time to reflect on everything that had happened in the last few days, before he focused on the map once more as the siblings wondered what was going through his mind right now, especially given his earlier expression, "The Baron has sent one of my old guard comrades out to the Pumping Station and we opened a secret line so the two of us can talk in private... but there's been no word from her, since she was the only one sent out on the patrol, and after what you guys ran into out there, based on Twilight's report of your mission with Sig, I'm afraid she may need some help."

"Did you say 'she'?" Daxter inquired, because now it sounded like Torn had a crush on someone and was worried that all of the Metal Heads that were out in the Pumping Station might have done her in, which would crush him and, at the same time, demoralize the Underground once someone learned that their second in command was heartbroken or something, even though he smiled for a moment, as while some might like the fact that Torn had more emotion than what they had been originally thinking, he was more interested in who Torn's crush was.

"Don't even think about it, Daxter." Alvin stated, as he and his brothers had gotten used to Daxter's remarks and various comments since they grouped up with Twilight and Starlight, especially when it came to the opposite gender since they had seen his few glances at the lady who had been with Torn when they first joined the Underground, and knew that him hearing this must have interested him to some degree, hence why he and his brothers were stopping him before he did anything that pissed off Torn.

"Listen, this friend of mine has helped the Underground many times in the past, even if she might not totally be on board with our decisions at times, and I haven't had the chance to repay her." Torn stated, something that drew the attention of everyone once more, as they knew he was serious and this was likely someone that the Baron could use to bring down the Underground, if he managed to figure out what was going on between her and Torn, even though they focused on what else he had to tell them, "So I want you four to go back to the Pumping Station and take a look around, see if you can find her patrol vehicle or any Metal Heads that need to be taken out... also, if she's in danger, I expect you to assist her and see what sort of mission the Baron assigned her, as it might give us an idea on how to get ahead of him."

Jak, Twilight, Cozy, Starlight, and the Ottsels nodded their heads for a few seconds, to show Torn that they understood his orders, before they turned around and headed back up the stairs so they could return to the Slums, which was when they used their zoomers and departed from where the hideout was located, allowing the door to close and hide the secret that the Baron and his underlings hadn't discovered yet, something they were planning on keeping that way for as long as they could, since they knew that the moment the Baron figured out where the hideout was located he would send an army to wipe out the Underground. From there Jak headed over to the Door Lock for the Pumping Station and his sisters followed him, even if one rode with him, though since there wasn't a lot of traffic this morning they were also to reach the Water Slums and come to a stop outside the section of the wall that was their destination, to which they braced themselves for a few moments as they opened the Door Lock, since none of them had any idea what might be lurking in this area or if they would find that Torn's friend had been killed by the Metal Heads. Once they were on the other side of the Door Lock, and starting to walk around the start of the Pumping Station, the siblings found that there happened to be nothing waiting for them this time around, as Twilight noticed that there were no Glubs, Znorkles, or even Metal Heads, meaning they were either sleeping or hadn't returned after Sig's run through this area, but despite that fact all of them kept their weapons at the ready, just in case some enemies came at them from a hidden area or something. At first it seemed like nothing had changed in this area, based on everything they could see at the moment, but as they headed over to the area that Sig had found the fifth Crab Head in, however, Jak and his sisters noticed that there were some trees on the highest point of this section that looked like they might have been cracked recently, as in after they had been here with Sig, and there were a few pistons moving now, over in the area that lead right to where the valve that controlled this place was located, which made them wonder what in the world was going on in this place.

It took them a few minutes to reach the new pistons, as all they had to do was climb down the path that was nearby and then climb up the set of pistons Sig had used to reach the river that he had passed by earlier, before finding that they just so happened to bring them up to where the trees had been located, even though there were a number of ammunition crates that contained enough red and yellow cartridges to restock all of their weapons, which was when they climbed up to the highest point and found a Krimzon Guard vehicle, the larger one, resting near the edge of the area, though there were no guards around it. 

"Who the hell are you people?" a voice asked, which was when Twilight watched as the female Krimzon Guard officer she had seen in the past, with Errol no less, drop down behind them as they took a moment to investigate the zoomer, which wasn't damaged based on what she could see, though it appeared that she landed behind Jak and was ready to blast him in the head, despite the fact that one of her arms was wrapped around his neck at the moment, meaning she was ready for anything and everything.

"Easy, we don't want any trouble... Torn asked us to help you." Cozy stated, though as she said that her senses were aware of a number of enemies that were in the area, where she had no idea, and right now it was a tossup between them being ambushed or her letting her Dark Form out to play before they were attacked, while her sisters remained at the ready as well, since they knew Torn suspected that there were Metal Heads out here and they hadn't seen a single one since they had come to the Pumping Station.

"I don't need any help, regardless of what Torn says," the lady stated, but even as she said that she took a moment to look at the cracked trees that were across from where she had parked her Krimzon Guard zoomer, which was followed by Cozy, Twilight, and Starlight hearing something as they did the same thing, causing all of them to turn their attention to the trees for a few seconds as they noticed a number of Crab Heads and Juice Goons emerging from their hiding places and starting to march on the area everyone was standing in, hence why the lady let go of Jak and pointed her small gun at the group of enemies coming their way, "But it looks like you guys might need some help."

Before their enemies reached them Twilight made a quick count of what was coming their way, counting thirty, maybe up to forty, Metal Heads emerging from where they had been hiding, way more than Dark Cozy was used to fighting, even if one were to count her and the rest of their siblings, especially with a newcomer who was going to be totally surprised by what was going to happen once their foes started to attack them, before she smiled for a moment as she weaved some of her magic through the air and quickly summoned a barrier around the lady, trapping her inside it while also adding a little extra to the mix. Since this battle was going to have some surprises, especially for her siblings, she didn't want a stranger to see what was going on, so the extra bit of the spell was designed to make the lady see the four of them take down the Metal Heads with punches, kicks, and intense weapon action, something she would make sure to tell her siblings as soon as everything was over, while also obscuring the lady's vision to make sure none of their surprises were revealed to her, even if she heard the lady banging on the barrier as the Metal Heads came at them. In the following moment she nodded to Alvin and his brothers, who replied in kind and jumped off the shoulders of those they had been riding on since their departure from the Fortress, which caused Jak, Starlight, and Dark Cozy to pause for a few seconds as a dark mist started to emit from Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, something that stalled the Metal Heads in their tracks for a few seconds, as this had to be something they weren't expecting to discover, leaving her siblings to take a step back as the three Ottsels walked out between them and their enemies. Eventually the dark mist covered all three of them and shrouded them from sight for a time, even though it was followed by the sound of some bones reshaping and the mist growing larger until it was at the height Alvin had been when Twilight first found him, back in the forest, where she kept the smile on her face as Alvin and his brothers, in their glorious dragon forms, emerged from the mist and roared at the Metal Heads, who staggered backwards for a moment, before they rushed forward and started to tear apart their foes, along with frying them with a burst of their fire breath.

Jak, Daxter, Starlight, and both versions of Cozy, since Twilight was sure her sister and her Dark Form were sharing their sight right now, just stood there with a look of shock on their faces as they watched what was going on, shifting over to her for a few seconds as they revealed that they were surprised by the secret she had been keeping from them all, but for the most part she kept her eyes on the battle that was coming to an end in front of her, as the dragon brothers were tearing and burning down all of their enemies, while making sure not to torch the area, and it only took a few moments for them to take down the Metal Heads, to which they returned to their disguises and let Twilight lower her barrier a few seconds later, all leading to a very confused Krimzon Guard lady.

"What in the world was that?" the lady asked, no doubt referring to what she had seen, if Twilight's illusion spell had gone what it was supposed to do while she was trapped inside the barrier, while at the same time she glanced between the four of them, their Ottsels that were walking away from the piles of Metal Heads, and all of the defeated Metal Heads that were in front of her, something that she would have to come to terms with at some other time, even though she didn't look at all impressed by what had happened, no doubt due to wanting to fight the enemy force herself.

"Jak, Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight beat the Metal Heads for you!" Theodore stated, as he figured that Twilight had made it seem like they had done the deed and that there were no odd Metal Heads, him and his brothers, who did the deed, while at the same time the named individuals followed Twilight's lead on the matter, though while might be concerned about a lie being told they were still in the presence of Dark Cozy, so that could be explained as the reason that none of them were all that exhausted right now.

"Whatever... I don't have time for this anyway." the lady said, where she returned her weapon to it's holder and returned to her zoomer for a few seconds, though while someone would have expecting Daxter to try and make a move on her, a bad call if ever there was one since she was a member of the Krimzon Guard, the Ottsel in question remained silent, due to the fact that he and the others had learned something very important, before the lady turned around as she started up her vehicle and it started to lift off the ground, "Also, be sure to tell Torn that Baron Praxis is planning something big... and I think it has to do with that symbol."

"What is it?" Starlight asked, referring to the carved yin yang symbol that was resting in a stone that the lady had parked her vehicle near, or maybe it was an infinity sign of some kind, though even as she said that both she and Twilight took a moment to think about it, as they were both sure that they had seen it somewhere in the past, or at least read about it in some article or book, especially since they had spent three years learning about the city and the history they had missed out on since they left Sandover Village.

"It's the seal of the House of Mar, the founder of Haven City." the lady replied, almost like she wasn't concerned by what they had said, as if she was used to people having no idea what she was talking about, though that gave them some good information to share with Torn, that the Baron had to be looking for artifacts from the time period of Mar, since houses were normally named after those who founded them, in some manner anyway, before she shook her head as she took a seat in her vehicle and tossed something to Jak, "We're being sent out on suicide missions to locate artifacts from the time of his rule, since most of the areas we're being sent to are infested with Metal Heads. If curiosity's worth dying for, you can ask the blind old soothsayer in the Bazaar named Onin, as she might know something about all this, or at least I think she might have a clue... either way, here's my Bazaar access Security Pass."

"Your name's Ashelin, huh?" Jak commented, as that was the name that was on the Security Pass, which was a surprise to him since he wasn't expecting her to just give them another item like this, something that would allow them to access the rest of the city and would have made Krew's race trial all that much easier since he would have been able to cut through most of Haven City to reach the stadium, but this gave him and his siblings some information that they weren't expecting to discover while they took on this mission.

"We're even now." Ashelin stated, meaning that while she didn't need their help, as she told them, she also didn't want to be in the debt of those who were sent to aid her in some manner, even if Torn had asked Jak and his sisters to check out this area in the first place, but before anyone could say anything else Ashelin gripped the controls of her vehicle not even a few seconds later and departed from the Pumping Station without delay, leaving the siblings to whatever it was that they were going to do next.

Twilight waited for a few moments, to be sure that Ashelin was gone and that she wasn't going to come back to claim the seal that was near them, before she nodded and let Alvin, Simon, and Theodore revert back to their true forms, which was when they walked over to the pile of Metal Heads and started to devour them, as she had learned that, while they were in the middle of fleeing the Leader's Hive, the brothers ate any Metal Heads they killed, both to prevent one from following a path and to recover their energy, and this was a feast for them.

"So... Metal Heads that can turn into dragons and Ottsels..." Cozy commented, though she really wasn't sure what to make of this situation, despite the fact that her Dark Form was itching for a fight with the brothers now, given that they just so happened to be the one type of creature that cased her to instantly transform into her Dark Form and lash out at them at the same time, but for now she was able to hold it back for the time being, before she glanced over to Twilight for a few seconds as they took in the fact that she had known about this since she met the brothers, "When were you going to tell us about them and their secret?"

"When the time was right, and this seemed to be the best moment to do so," Twilight replied, even though she knew that her siblings had to feel somewhat betrayed by her hiding this information from them, but Jak seemed to understand why she had done it, as it wasn't her secret to talk about and there was no reason for her to tell them about it, before Twilight glanced back at the city for a moment as she stared at the Eco Dome, as she knew one thing that she could tell Cozy and their siblings, "we were looking for the best time for Alvin and his brothers to tell you this information, but since we were spending a good amount of time inside the city, and under the Eco Dome that protects it, they couldn't transform at all, as the barrier essentially trapped them in their Ottsel forms and they can only access their true forms outside the dome, but since I don't trust Ashelin, not yet anyway, I made sure that the barrier I used let her see nothing, so she won't be telling the Baron what happened here."

Jak nodded his head as they listened to what Twilight had to say, as it made sense to him, before determining that none of them would say anything to Torn as well, not until they were sure that the second in command of the Underground would keep a fresh mind and see the Ottsel brothers as allies, instead of potential enemies, before they found that Alvin and his brothers had finished off every Metal Head body and Twilight had made sure to claim the Skull Gems for later, but once that was done they returned to their disguises and rested on the shoulders that they usually rode on. Once that was done, and they were absolutely sure that they weren't leaving anything behind, especially since Twilight pried the seal out of the stone with her magic and tucked it away for later, they returned to the Door Lock and entered Haven City once more, to which Jak checked to see if either Torn or Krew had something that needed to be done, while at the same time Twilight made sure to tell Torn they had assisted Ashelin and that he had been right to worry since there had been a large force of Metal Heads in the area. That was when they discovered something interesting, Krew hired someone new for the Hip Hog, to pull in new customers in a different way than just showing off Metal Head trophies, so since Torn was still trying to see what was going on with the city and the Baron's forces, to determine what sort of mission to give the siblings, Jak started to head back to the Port so they could see what was going on, as it almost seemed like Torn might have sent their fellow Underground member to Krew, or something like that. Twilight suspected that, due to how long it took them to get back to Torn with the information they found, he might be sending Tess over to the Hip Hog as a new employee to quickly inform him of anything they might discover while working with Krew, or at least that was her thoughts on the matter, but instead of pitching the idea to her siblings she decided to keep it to herself and see if she was right or wrong, hence the reason she was focused on Jak maneuvering through the traffic as they headed to the Port, all while avoiding the Krimzon Guards at the same time.

It took them some time to reach the Port, which was understandable since it was on the other side of the city, from where the Pumping Station rested anyway, though it took Jak no time to return to their destination and park outside the Hip Hog, something that Starlight followed before all four of them and their Ottsels climbed out of their vehicles, though when they entered the building Twilight found Tess working behind the bar, cleaning it and preparing many of the bottles for when some customers came to have a drink or relax, if any showed up anyway, since it seemed like this place was dead most of the time and they hadn't seen a single customer so far.

"Hey sugarplum, you new here? Well whatcha got that's uh, hot and..." Daxter started to say, though that was when he and the rest of the group, namely Jak, Starlight, and Cozy, realized who was standing on the other side of the counter, staring at all of them with a smile on her face like she had never met them before, where it was a good thing that Krew wasn't in the area at the moment, as if he overheard them he was going to go crazy or something, "Wait, we've seen you before...  you're with the Underground, the girl that was with Torn!"

"My name is Tess, and Torn sent me to spy on Krew." Tess replied, taking a moment to put her fingers against the front of Daxter's mouth for a few seconds, like she was shushing him and making sure he didn't say anything else, even though it did look a lot like Daxter was staring somewhere else at the moment and he might not be paying too much attention to what the lady was saying, but Twilight had the feeling he might have found someone to impress, which was never a good thing when she recalled what happened in Sandover Village all those years ago, "Play along, and I may be able to get my hands on a few of Krew's secrets."

Daxter, in that moment, declared that he loved undercover work, which was news to the siblings since he didn't like to do any of the work, for the most part anyway, but before anyone could say anything he declared that two agents were better than one and leapt behind the counter that was between them and Tess, where he made a mental note of the fact that he found a lot of bottles and that each of them seemed to be interesting, one he felt might have real gold floating inside the liquid and one having some odd purple stuff, though he didn't seem to be drinking anything at the moment, since he had no desire to piss of Krew, who floated down to where they were standing and found that Tess had gone back to cleaning the counter after Daxter joined her.

"Ah, Jak, there you are. I need you and the talking rat to go around and make a few collections for me." Krew stated, even if part of his statement made the siblings think that the obese man was of the opinion that they should be working for him all the time and that they should be inside the Hip Hog, just like Sig was whenever he wasn't on a mission, who was absent right now, though in that moment Jak turned around and nodded his head, mostly because he was interested in what sort of items they would be collecting and this gave Tess something to report to Torn later, "Listen, I have six clients around the Port and the Industrial Section, clients that are about to make money drops for me, payments for this and that, but none of you have to worry about that. I need you to collect each of the fourteen money bags as fast as you can and take care of any guards who get curious, hmm? Get to a money bag too late, and some townie might pick it up, which will make things more difficult for everyone in the future... so get them and we have any problems."

Jak wasted no time in heading outside and, once more, found that Krew had prepared a single seater zoomer for the job he wanted one of the siblings to do, though this time around Twilight and Starlight joined him as Cozy headed out to part of the Port, as she had a plan to draw the Krimzon Guard to her, something that was followed by Jak leaving the Hip Hog as he flew out to locate the money bags Krew wanted him to find and recover, while at the same time his sisters found a single seater zoomer so they could catch up with him. The reason for that was so that either of them could lash out with their magic and use a bit of magic to knock their foes out of the way, provided some of the Krimzon Guards came at them since they figured out what Cozy was doing, as their remaining sister found the part of the Port where the majority of the guards were located and shifted into her Dark Form to start beating them up, this time apparently holding back and giving her foes an excuse to call in additional forces, removing enemies from Jak's path. They found the first money bag, a white sack with a brown rope near the top and had to be containing whatever the money system of Haven City was inside it, in the middle of the street and appeared to be heading right in the direction of the Industrial Section, just like Krew had said, and there were a few guards coming at them, with the vast majority heading over to Cozy's location based on what they were seeing at the moment, though Twilight stunned one with a small paralysis spell and Starlight made the other pause for a few seconds and turn his head in confusion, as it was a spell to confuse someone and it worked quite well. Of course she only held the confusion spell for a few seconds at most, to give them time to get by him and his partner before they heard a splash, figuring that he fell into the water that rested throughout most of the Port, before Jak focused on collecting the next money bag, as the first had been near the Gun Course and the second was near the border between this section and the Industrial Section, though as they headed into the section that was in front of them Daxter, in an odd twist, pulled out Jak's Blaster and opened fire on a Krimzon Guard vehicle that happened to be coming right towards Jak, doing enough damage to knock it to the side without exploding.

From there he did his best to help Jak and his sisters out as they headed through the Industrial Section, blasting the couple of guards that happened to be in their way and tried to stop Jak from claiming every money bag that had been dropped in the spots Krew's clients had put them in, before eventually reaching the other end of this part of the city and found that they would have to turn a corner so they could head back to the Hip Hog, even though it didn't take them long to get back over to the border between this section and the port, giving Jak enough time to retrieve the rest of the money bags and then stop outside the Hip Hog.

"You are quite the collector, Jak... I might have a use for your skills in the future, eh." Krew said, though at the same time he eyes the couple of money bags with greed in his eyes, to which he reached into a bag or something that was on his chair and tossed a few items towards Jak, who caught them and tossed over the bags that contained his payments, even though he noticed that what he had been given were weapon mods and that there were four of them in total, one for him and his sisters, before the obese man smiled for a moment, "That's a gun upgrade, one that will increase the rate of fire of your Scatter Gun and might save your lives in the future... now get going, I need my beauty sleep."

Jak said nothing as he rejoined his sisters and headed outside, where Twilight and Starlight weaved their magic for a few moments and he watched as Cozy seemed to vanish before his eyes a few seconds later, with a false version of his sister appearing elsewhere and caused the guards to case after it, even though he knew that it would disappear in due time as the real Cozy reappeared near them, before they headed over to the Gun Course to see what sort of damage they could do with these rate of fire clips, all while waiting to see what sort of mission might come their way next.