Jak and his sisters ended up spending the rest of the day in Haven Forest, and that included doing into the night, were they were the guests of the Neo Metal Heads, who had built a temporary camp of sorts in the forest, even if that meant that all of them had to make a hidden hideaway that wouldn't be seen on the scans of everyone inside the city, meaning whatever Vin had seen must have been the result of the Scouts the Metal Head Leader had sent to see how all of the defenses were holding up and if he could break down the Eco Dome. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were still getting used to the fact that their father was actually the Leader of the Metal Heads and the fact that he was in a war against the Baron, meaning the three of them must have fled the Nest without even understanding everything about themselves, much less their own forces, even though Jak was positive that they were definitely close to his age and Daxter's age, but one thing they figured out was that the Leader must leave the Nest for long periods of time and only came back when something important happened. Of course that meant that whoever was left in charge of the brothers, or the Crown Princes as Shade, the Scout who intercepted them earlier, referred to them as, was either terrible at their job or had been outsmarted by Simon in some manner, allowing the brothers to access sections of the Nest that they weren't ready for and, eventually, fueled their desire to flee to bring down their father, even if they had no idea the Leader was their parent. Twilight was able to tell that there must have been a number of failures in the Leader's attempts to bring down his enemies, or something important must have happened to fuel his desire to make the Neo Metal Heads, a new breed that would have replaced the rest of his forces and brought ruin to all those who opposed him, but after the brothers fled the Nest, which seemed to have fueled the desire for the rest of their kind to follow after them at a later date, and she was more than willing to learn more about Shade and her kind, given that they were just like Alvin and his brothers, or at least it looked like that, and they had been using Haven Forest as a hideout while they looked for their leaders.
Such a thing also gave the siblings a fighting force of about one hundred new allies that were going to be doing their best to take down the Metal Heads that were sent to the other important parts of the city, such as the Drill Platform and any of the other places, even if it took them a while to get to their destinations, to which Jak accepted their aid and knew that, at one point in the future, Alvin and his brothers would be used to being known as the Crown Princes, the new rulers of their kind if they beat their father, meaning the future was going to be quite interesting for all of them. Twilight knew that many would be taken aback by that information and the supposed idea of allying with those that tried to bring down their city, as people were stupid at times and would only see the Neo's in the same light as the rest of their kind, so they needed to do something to make the residents of Haven City accept that there were two types of Metal Heads and that the ones with the blue Skull Gems were allies, which would take time and effort once the Baron was taken down. There was also the fact that allying themselves with Metal Heads meant that Dark Cozy needed to understand who was an ally and who was their enemies, something that she seemed to understand since they didn't see the dark side of their sister emerge after seeing all of the Neo Metal Heads, which was a step in the right direction given that Torn, the Shadow, and everyone else would be harder to sell whenever they got around to sharing this information with them, which they would worry about later, as in when they had some time to do such a thing. One other thing that came as a surprise to Jak and his sisters was the fact that several of the Neo Metal Heads seemed capable of actually cooking some of the meat that they had on hand, or on claw given their forms, especially since everyone knew that the Metal Heads in general loved raw meat, even if Alvin and his brothers had gotten used to cooked food, but this actually displayed the intelligence of the new breed of Metal Heads and gave them an idea of what the rest of the Neo's might be able to show them.
Even with everything they were learning the siblings found that nighttime came and that it was best if they remained with the Neo Metal Heads, to which the group took up positions around the makeshift camp and got some sleep, so they would be ready for whatever the next day had to throw at them, and when morning arrived their hosts made sure to have a light meal made for them, that way they could return to Haven City with full bellies and be ready for whatever missions they might be sent on... something that became apparent when they passed through the Door Lock, as Torn had sent them a marker for Ashelin's position, inside the section of the Bazaar that they happened to be near, and sure enough they found her standing near a few Krimzon Guards, who happened to be ignoring their presence.
"How's it riding in the hood, red?" Daxter asked, because he felt like teasing her right now, even though they now knew the identity of her father, something that none of them were going to hold against the lady since she seemed much smarter than the Baron happened to be, though at the same time Jak and Starlight parked their zoomers outside the dead end the marker had brought them to, just in case something happened in the next couple of moments, where the group found that Ashelin seemed annoyed by the fact that they were here.
"The lot of you need to get out of the area, this is Krimzon Guard business!" Ashelin stated, while at the same time she had to move one of her hands for a moment and caused one of her allies to stop pointing their gun in the group's direction, a guard they had missed by the looks of things, before she faced them and thought about things for a moment, where she figured she could share a bit of information with them before returning her focus to what she and the guards were doing at the moment," One of Vin's Eco tankers is coming in from the Wasteland, but the clearance transmission sounded fishy, like the driver was scared of something... we're going to check it out, just in case the Metal Heads tried to attack it so they could steal all of the Eco the tanker had."
"Well, a mutual friend sent us, figuring that you might need some help." Jak replied, knowing that mentioning Torn was a bad idea, especially with all of the Krimzon Guards that were scattered around this area, since it might ruin her position in the guard and could take away one of the Underground's key players, where they found that Ashelin understood who he was talking about and seemed annoyed that Torn was sending them to her once more, before she focused on what she and her guards were doing right now.
Cozy was sure that Ashelin wanted to say something about the fact that she 'had it handled', or something like that, but it was in that following moment that a vehicle burst through part of a building's roof and crashed into the ground in front of them, spilling a number of Eco barrels that knocked out pretty much every Krimzon Guard that was in the area, save for Ashelin since she dodged them, and Starlight threw up a barrier to protect herself and her siblings, allowing them to see that a hatch opened and a number of Juice Goons jumped out of the tanker. It was easy for the group to see that this was a sneak attack from the Metal Heads, a clever trick since the vehicle had the codes necessary to get through the Eco Dome and could cover these enemies from the barrier that would normally stop them from entering the city, though a couple of seconds later Ashelin called out for Jak and his sisters to lend her their aid, showing that she understood that they were a decent fighting force and that it was better than fighting these enemies on her own. From what the group could tell there were fifteen enemies for them to deal with, to which Jak punched one of them before blasting two more, Twilight weaved her magic and struck her foes down, Cozy kicked her foes in the back of their heads and knocked them to the ground, and Starlight blasted her targets with both her magic and some Blaster rounds, leaving Ashelin to kick and blast her own foes, even though it looked like she might be watching them fight, to compare this to what Twilight had shown her, to hide the true forms of Alvin and his brothers from her. Given that they were working quite well together, even if this was the first time Ashelin willingly worked with them, the siblings were able to bring down the Juice Goons that were launching a sneak attack on the city, allowing Twilight to gather all of their Skull Gems with her magic as they watched Ashelin check out the vehicle for signs of the driver, even though it sure looked like whoever had been assigned to drive this vehicle might have been thrown out by the Metal Heads at some point, likely when they passed through the Eco Dome, though Cozy tapped one of the barrels and heard a hollow tone, revealing the truth to them.
"We got them all, though it seems they stole our Eco before the tanker could reach the city," Ashelin commented, where it became clear to Jak, Starlight, Cozy, Twilight, and the others that she was annoyed about this situation, meaning the Baron hadn't told her about his deal with the Metal Head Leader, which made sense given that she was his daughter and it was likely that she wouldn't agree with his methods, before she rested a foot against one of the empty barrels and forced it to roll forward, all while having a frown on her face, "I've seen reports that they're getting bolder with each passing day, but for them to launch a sneak attack, to probe us for weaknesses, changes things... the Baron will want to know of this, even if he'll be displeased with the stolen Eco. Also... thanks for the backup... I don't think I would have been able to beat all of them without taking some serious damage."
"No problem. We can't have a bunch of enemies running around the city," Starlight replied, even though it was easy for all of them to know that she was referring to the Metal Heads that had been defeated, and not the Krimzon Guard, but that was when Ashelin turned and tended to her fallen comrades, since it appeared that they might have been knocked out, to which Jak and the others returned to their zoomers and departed from the area that Torn had asked them to check out, as it was time to see what their next mission might be.
Of course all of them were surprised by the fact that the Leader of the Metal Heads was being so brazen, sending some of his forces to steal the Eco that was being transported to Haven City and use the tanker to get through the Eco Dome, but the good thing was that this would anger the Baron and might cause some of his future operations to be weaker than the previous operations they had seen so far, though that was when the Communicator came out and Jak noticed that it was from Krew, to which he stopped his vehicle in a section of the Industrial Section and waited for the other zoomer to catch up, before he accepted the call.
"Jak, this is Krew," the obese man said, as if they couldn't read the device that allowed people to communicate across long distances and needed to be told that piece of information, before getting to the reason that he was calling them, but that was just followed by the siblings keeping their mouths shut as Daxter and the Ottsel brothers doing the same, just so they could figure out what Krew wanted of them this time around, "I just talked to my racing client, the Mechanic, and she told me you were pretty good with that JET-Board of hers, so much so that she gave it to you for further testing, which is great for me, as I have a new job for you. My sources have informed me that there is a shipment of Krimzon Guard equipment, eavesdropping equipment to be exact, that just arrived in the Port, and none of us, including the Underground you work for, want those devices up and running... it's not good for business. What I want one of you to do is ride the JET-Board out into the Port and destroy every Krimzon Guard crate you can find out there, which should be blue colored based on what my sources have told me, and there's also a defense perimeter around them, so watch out, eh?"
"Alright, we'll take care of the crates," Jak replied, to which he waited for a few moments, to make sure the Communicator was deactivated for a time, until someone else called them with a new mission to give them, before he turned towards his sisters for a few seconds as he thought about the information they were given, even if Krew had no idea he had given all of them more than he had said, given who the 'Mechanic' was, "Seems Keira wants us to help the 'slimeball' out, given that she told him about my JET-Board skills... next time we see her, I'm going to have to ask her what her plan is and what we can do to help her out."
"Plus we have our magic, so we can divide and conquer our targets," Twilight added, as she had the feeling that the Baron might have made sure to have a bunch of devices arrive, so that way even if one or two fell the Krimzon Guard would be able to acquire the rest of them and take the equipment to another part of the city, meaning that if they split up when they reached the Port it would be a simple matter to wipe out the crates Krew had told them about, where she could see that her siblings were interested in what they might discover and headed out without delay.
Given their position in Haven City it didn't take them all that long to reach the Port, where they quickly found a number of blue cylindrical crates that appeared to be floating on the water, each of them surrounded by two to six red spiked orbs, mines of some sort, meaning that to get close to their targets Jak would have to use the JET-Board and maneuver himself so he avoided all of the mines, while breaking the crates, but that left Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy to figure out their own method to bring down some of the other targets. As such the first thing they did was take a moment to see where all of the 'crates' were located, as they sure looked more like altered mines or some other weapon that was being disguised so no one would lash out at them, though there was one area that happened to have way too many mines around it, like ten or twenty based on what everyone was seeing at the moment, before they returned to the part of the city that the statue of the Baron was in, allowing them to focus on their targets once more. From there Jak, after they deposited their zoomers and got the thin single seaters for his sisters, pulled out the JET-Board and threw it forward towards the ground, allowing it to enlarge into its true form as he jumped onto it, with Daxter resting by his feet, and rode down a ramp that let him touch the water that was in front of them, something that was followed by his sisters heading out with their zoomers, mostly so they could get into position before he struck his first target. Jak wasted no time in moving on top of the water and quickly struck the first of the blue devices with his new JET-Board as he avoided the couple of mines that were near it, where both he and Daxter found that he was able to smash through the crate without taking damage to Keira's new device, which was a surprise and they were sure that Keira would be pleased with this information, to which he focused on moving across the water so he could smash his way through the eavesdropping equipment and avoid the mines, even though he knew that his sisters were lucky that they didn't have to deal with this.
He meant that in the sense that none of them had to use the JET-Board to move over the water, since they could use their zoomers to separate and head out to their targets, where he noticed that Cozy, despite her magic being weaker than both of her sisters, had a plan for the devices that she happened to be hunting down right now, as she briefly called upon the power of her Dark Form and smashed her target with a short burst of power, allowing her to return to her zoomer, before it even hit the water, and headed for the next one so she could repeat the process, as each of them were taking out four of the sixteen devices. Starlight weaved her magic through the air and messed with the water for a time, causing spikes of ice to burst out from the depths and crush her targets with ease, showing Jak that magic was certainly stronger than the metal that went into making the devices they were crushing right now, though if the Baron created something that could resist magic he knew they would be in trouble, enough to cause Midnight to return no doubt, before she headed out to ensure that all of her targets were taken out. Twilight did roughly the same thing that Starlight did, only instead of using the water to make ice she focused on getting close to her targets and loosed a ball of magical energy downwards, effectively blowing away her targets with ease and even taking out some of the mines that were close to the devices, even though she went another step forward and took out the mines as well, just to make sure none of them were left for when the residents of Haven City came out to the Port, once more showing that the Baron really didn't care about his citizens. As his sisters took down their targets, breaking all of them before the Krimzon Guards even had a chance to come out and see what in the world was going on in the Port, Jak focused on moving across the water and smashed the rest of the targets he had taken, avoiding the mines that happened to be in the way with a level of skill that reflected Keira's training when they found her in the Stadium, as she had worked him hard to make sure the device worked as intended, before he found that all sixteen devices were broken and they regrouped near the Hip Hog, as it was time for them to meet with Krew and tell him that all of the eavesdropping equipment had been smashed.
As they approached the door of the Hip Hog, however, it opened before the siblings could reach it and one of the Krimzon Guards walked out, where he stared at them for a few seconds and seemed to be debating whether or not they should get involved with the four of them, something that meant the guards had to know of their combat skills and the powers each of them had access to, before the guard simply moved over to their right and let them enter the Hip Hog, choosing to not engage or annoy them in some manner, though once they were inside it was easy to determine that the guard resumed leaving the area, causing them to wonder what in the world had happened over the last minute or two.
"The Baron sent his goons to harass me as usual, eh!" Krew commented, speaking the moment the lone guard had left the Hip Hog and was no longer within earshot, or at least it sure seemed to be the case based on what Jak and his sisters could see right now, but at the same time they remained silent as they listened to what the obese man had to say, even though they still had to tell him that the job he had given them had been completed and every single piece of eavesdropping gear that was in the Port had been destroyed, "Health violations, back taxes! Everyone wants a piece of me. Ah well..."
"Lucky for you, there's plenty of pieces to go around!" Theodore replied, something that had to be his true nature speaking for a moment as he stared at the man, meaning he and his brothers might be thinking of what Krew might taste like, due to his size and whatnot, but for the most part it looked like the obese man had no idea what in the world Theodore was even talking about and seemed to think that he was agreeing with him, about the 'pieces' part anyway, before Jak stepped forward for a moment.
"We've taken out the equipment you told us about." Jak stated, deciding to get to the point and not waste any time, as he wanted to get this over with and see if there was anything else Krew needed them to do, due to the fact that Torn and the Shadow likely needed their help more than Krew did, and the only reason he was being remotely nice to him was due to the fact that the obese man likely had a few more weapon upgrades to hand over so they could be ready for whatever the future held for him and his sisters.
"Destroying that cargo in the Port was more important than you know, eh? I've got a new project going, and I don't need anyone snooping around my shipments." Krew said, something that interested the siblings a little bit, despite the fact that all of them were sure that Keira might have a plan to see what sort of shipments Krew might have, hence why they stayed silent and waited for him to tell them what he wanted them to do, as there had to be another job he needed them to do before they left the Hip Hog, "Let's just say, if everything goes as planned, I'm going to corner the market in Metal Head trophies... anyway, I have another job for the lot of you to do. An associate of mine, Brutter, works with me in the forced labor trade of Haven City."
"You mean the slave trade?" Twilight corrected, as that was what it was, there just so happened to be a fraction of the city that had creatures that served as slaves, though the information she had obtained on the matter was low, meaning she only gained enough to understand that there were slaves inside the city, despite the fact that she and her siblings hadn't seen any during their time exploring this place, meaning the rich or whoever owned them were keeping them hidden from everyone else in Haven City.
"Uh, I prefer the term 'freedom-challenged'." Krew replied, even though it was clear that he had no love for the slaves and was only talking about them due to the fact that someone likely paid him to free certain individuals or something, to which the siblings decided that the moment no one needed Krew's services they would put an end to him, since he seemed to be a danger to the city and might do more damage than good, before Krew shifted for a moment, "Lurkers are the city's low class labor, and, as it just so happens, Brutter pays me handsomely to help him free Lurkers and get them safely out of the city. Ah, it lifts my spirit to help those in need... and I need his money!"
"Give us one good reason as to why we would help you free the Lurkers." Daxter said, reminding the siblings that part of him was still pissed off about a Lurker being one of the ones who had lead to his current form, as he had gotten over the fact that Jak also happened to be one of the individuals who caused his change into an Ottsel all those years ago, and that he still didn't like the Lurkers at all, even though it was possible that such a thing might change given that they weren't the same individuals he and the others were used to dealing with.
"You like gun upgrades, eh?" Krew inquired, as he knew their current weakness, even though it was a necessary one since Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy couldn't rely on their powers all the time, not counting the fact that two of them had their own Dark Forms to fall back on if they really needed that strength, to which Daxter nodded for a moment and it caused Krew to smile in response, meaning he was going to give them some information before they left the Hip Hop again, "According to my sources, there are three Krimzon Guard transports carrying lurkers to a 'project' the Baron has outside the city. Take out the transports, and bring the three Lurkers to Brutter's trinket stand in the Bazaar... once that's done, and Brutter has given me his payment, I'll hand over another gun upgrade for your weapons."
The one thing that Krew didn't tell them was where the three Krimzon Guard transports were located, which was rather important considering everything, though as Jak and his sisters headed outside they received an update to their map, one that showed Haven City and just so happened to be something that they didn't use it all that much, thanks to what both Twilight and Starlight learned about the city, which revealed that all three of the transports were located in the area that was right in front of the Palace, or at least two were and the third was located off to the side. Given the fact that they were supposed to be freeing Lurkers from the transports, all so Krew could get some money he likely didn't need at all, the four of them split up into three groups, Jak and Twilight forming the first one, Starlight being the second, and Cozy going on her own as the third, allowing them to use the larger two seater zoomers to transport their targets to the stand that Krew's client happened to be working at, though once they had three of those zoomers they headed out to find their targets and get the show on the road. It didn't take them long to reach the area that was in front of the palace, where it was easy to see one of their targets as they entered this part of the city, as it was one of the larger Krimzon Guard vehicles and had a large metallic cage on the backside, which just so happened to have a Lurker resting inside it, with its hands gripping the bars of the prison it was in, though as Jak and Twilight readied themselves for what they were going to do Starlight and Cozy headed off to find their targets, due to the fact that the plan was to hit all three at the same time and eliminate the chance of reinforcements coming to stop them. The second of the three transports happened to be on the other side of the Baron's imposing statue, something everyone hoped would get destroyed at some point since it was an eyesore and it would show the city that the tyrannical ruler was facing the end of his rule, before Cozy found the third transport over in the farm area that happened to be near the ramp that allowed someone to go to the Mountain Temple, which was when all of them readied themselves for what was about to go down.
Jak and Twilight blasted their transport with their Blasters, figuring that the Vulcan was too much for this sort of thing, as Starlight weaved her magic through the air and used some wind to slice up her target, leaving Cozy to shift into her other form for a moment and tear the cage section of her target, something that surprised the driver of the vehicle, before she broke apart the cage so the Lurker could get on the back of her vehicle, which the other two did when they were freed, to which they headed for one of the dead ends of the Bazaar and found an odd stand that had to be Brutter's shop, which was where the Lurkers climbed off and disappeared once they walked around the backside of the stand, no doubt using a hidden tunnel or something to escape.
"Little colorful warriors, you have do great thing for Brutter and Lurker people!" a voice stated, where they found a purple furred Lurker, one of the Babaks based on what Twilight recalled from their first adventure all those years ago, who wore an old torn set of clothing that was mostly covered by his fur, which was when they noticed that he had a necklace made from fox tails around his neck and two large blue feathers that were on the sides of his head, like he was mimicking the Humans of Haven City in some manner, though what interested Twilight was the fact that he was capable of speech, or at least it was fragmented and primitive, "You great guys! Brutter not forget. Brutter pay you back. You see!"
While the group found it interesting that Brutter only cared about Daxter and the Ottsel brothers, since he had said next to nothing to Jak and his sisters, but instead of worrying about it they wished him well and headed back to the Hip Hog once more, making sure to head back with two zoomers and left the spare one behind, though upon their return to the building in question they found that Krew was pleased with their efforts and rewarded them with an ammo capacity mod for their weapons, meaning each of them would be able to carry more ammunition for each of their mods, which was followed by them leaving the area, as it was time to see what else needed to be done before bringing down the Baron and his plans.