Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose


Renegade: Weapons Factory

With Errol taken care of, at least Jak and his sisters were sure that he was gone for good after driving head first into a pile of Dark Eco barrels and being right in the center of a Dark Eco explosion, they followed the Baron over to the entrance of the the Palace, or at least the one they had used when they left the structure after listening in on his secret conversation with the Leader of the Metal Heads, where he used his pass to open the door and the siblings followed after him with the guards stayed outside, to guard the structure despite the fact that there were no enemies inside the city. Jak remembered the last time they had been in the Palace, given that it had happened not that long ago, even if it was mostly due to the awakening of Midnight Sparkle, Twilight's alter ego who always seemed to be watching since he was sure he noticed instances of her when he looked at his sister, and he was sure that Midnight was lurking in the shadows, watching everything that Twilight saw as she determined whether or not her power was needed to do something, even though he was sure she was mostly keeping an eye on the Baron for signs of trickery. Cozy, on the other hand, let out a low growl, likely part of her more feral Dark Form seeping through and was likely due to the fact that she was returning to the place where Twilight had been harmed, which caused Midnight's awakening to be exact, something that caused the Baron to glance back for a moment as Starlight made sure she wasn't about to snap, because out of all four of them Cozy was the one who disliked the Baron the least, like not at all even though Jak was tolerating him while they were at war with the Metal Heads, especially when one considered how long she had been trapped inside the Fortress, but she did nothing and that meant things were just fine. Other than that nothing happened as they headed into the elevator that would bring them up to the highest point of the Palace, that it had access to anyway, which happened to be a hallway which likely connected to several rooms, an eating area, and the large chamber that contained the throne room, though everyone remained silent as they walked towards their destination, with the siblings keeping an eye on the shadows in case this was a trap.

Eventually Praxis came to a stop and stared at the throne for a few moments, no doubt remembering something from his past when he wasn't the leader of Haven City and served as an advisor or something under Jak's father, giving the siblings some time to spread out and ensure that no one was in the area they were in, which allowed Cozy to find that Ashelin was here and she remained silent, allowing them to focus on Praxis and nothing else for a time, before the Baron sighed for a second as he turned to face them once more.

"As unexpected as Errol's actions were, its both relieving and annoying at the same time," Praxis said, meaning that he was conflicted by what had happened in the Stadium, given that Errol had gone made and tried to take down Jak by ramming him into the Dark Eco barrels that would have gone to the winner of the Grand Championship Race, which he assumed Jak would have either given to the Underground, hand them over to Vin to be poured into the Shield Wall, or used for some purpose like empowering one of his sisters with more dark powers, since Starlight seemed to be the only one who didn't have access to a Dark Form, "I'm somewhat relieved since he was constantly disobeying my orders, as I told him to stop the search for you four until we took care of the Metal Heads and he insisted on pulling aside guards to hunt the four of you down and drag you to the Fortress... its annoying, however, since I was hoping to remind him of his importance to the city as my right hand, and by doing this he's shown the public that my rule is breaking down, possibly to the point where I might be displaced simply due to the fact that the people don't feel safe anymore."

"Still, he got what was coming to him," Cozy remarked, as she didn't feel saddened by the death of Errol, because that had been one of the things she had been planning since she learned who had been tormenting her for the long three years she had been inside the Fortress, and she could tell that both Praxis and Ashelin didn't seem to enjoy her comment, since Errol had been a vital part to Praxis' rule over Haven City and, like he had just said, his insane stunt will cause damage to the current ruler of the city, so much so that the Council might make an attempt to dethrone the Baron before he or one of his associates did something equally insane.

"I've heard him ranting to someone, when he thinks he's alone, which started after you found the Tomb," Ashelin added, showing that she had new information to share with Jak and his sisters, even though her father likely knew about this and would have acted on it once the final race was over, though now that Errol had been done in there was no reason for them to worry about her former superior, but it did leave an opening for someone to replace him, before she considered what her father had told her about his time under the manipulating power of his metallic head piece, or at least the dark power that had infected it, "my father and I were wondering if Errol might be getting ready to betray us and join forces with the Leader of the Metal Heads, no doubt being promised power, the death of those who have annoyed him... you guys, to be exact... and likely sparing whoever he's interested in so they can be corrupted like my father was... thanks for saving him from such a fate."

"Keira... he was interested in Keira... now I'm glad he's gone," Jak said, recalling what Errol had said when they found each other in the Hip Hog Saloon, as Errol had believed that by beating him in a race Keira would change sides and love him while betraying those that were close to her, though his statement was true for multiple reasons, as Errol's death meant it deprived the Leader of the Metal Heads of an ally that might have aided him in tearing down the Shield Wall, to which he focused on the more important topic they needed to talk about, before heading out to find Krew and obtain the Heart of Mar from him, "Praxis, you mentioned something about having plans for the Precursor Stone, or something like that back in the Tomb of Mar, before you decided to fight us... do you remember what those plans were?"

"Yes, I had planned on gathered every scrap of spare Eco we could gather, as a shield of sorts, so we could slip in a device that the Precursor Stone would be attached to," Praxis replied, where he paused for a moment as he pieced together the plan he had created while he was under the influence of the being who lead the Metal Heads, though he knew that he had been influenced to make several plans that involved simply delivering the Stone to his enemy and lowering the Shield Wall to allow the Metal Heads into the city, all of which he discarded instantly as he returned to their topic, "Krew and I had, in preparation for the eventual discovery of the Precursor Stone, developed a device that should, in theory, crack open the Stone, hence why we called it the Piercer Bomb, so by attaching the Stone to it, and delivering the shipment to the Metal Head Nest, we could detonate it and wipe out the entire Nest."

"Yeah, and destroy the entire world at the same time," Twilight stated, or rather it was both her and Midnight who said the statement, given that one of her eyes was Twilight's and the other happened to be Midnight's, though that was when Jak and his sisters, along with the Ottsels, Praxis, and Ashelin watched as a rush of Dark Eco surged over her body for a couple of seconds and Midnight appeared before them, closing her wings while she was indoors while dusting off her dress a little at the same time, before she focused on the Baron once more, "We found out, by having the Green Sage speak with the Great Tree before the Championship Race, that breaking open the Precursor Stone would destroy all things, and since that point I've been going over the numbers, especially with the sheer amount of power that resides inside the precious Stone, and I have to say that your plan... is stupid and insane, since breaking it open would wipe out the Nest, Haven City, the Wasteland, and everything else that exists in this world. Sure, you would kill the Metal Heads, but you would bring an end to the rest of the world... so yeah, even though you've been cured of the dark influence of Kor, who we've been suspecting might be the Leader of the Metal Heads in disguise, that's a dumb plan and we should focus on a frontal assault on the Nest, with just us fighting our enemy."

"Yes, I was planning on dismissing the plan as well, though I'm afraid that Krew might want to set off one of the bombs in the near future, to see how destructive the weapon really is," Praxis replied, where he nodded his head for a moment and Ashelin handed over four new Security Passes, one for each of the four siblings, which happened to be black colored this time around, something that caused them to raise their eyebrows for a moment as they considered why they picked such a color for this pass, hence why they focused on the Baron not a few seconds later, while Ashelin stepped backwards for a moment and simply stared at them, "I figured that, at some point in time, you would want to head there and confront him, so I had these Black Security Passes created for all four of you... they'll let you get into the Weapons Factory, so you can find Krew, convince him to not set off the Piercer Bomb that's there, and do whatever you need to do."

Jak nodded for a moment, as he had a feeling that Praxis didn't mention the fact that the Black Security Pass wouldn't let them leave the Weapons Factory once they entered it, though with the powers his sisters possessed he knew that getting back to Haven City would be easy to do once Krew stopped messing with his toy and handed over the Heart of Mar, but as soon as everyone was ready to go, and both the Baron and Ashelin moved so they could leave to calm people down after what happened inside the Stadium earlier, he and his sisters left the chamber and used the elevator to leave the Palace once more. Once they were back on the streets, and the Palace door closed behind them, the siblings returned to where they had parked both of their zoomers and headed over to the Port, as they had an idea of where to find the Weapons Factory, but before getting on the air train, and departing from the city for a time, Starlight made a quick stop at the Hip Hog to see if Krew might be there, only to find that Tess was manning the bar and Sig was nowhere to be seen, meaning they might come across both of the figures at the peak of the Weapons Facility. After checking out the saloon the siblings headed over to their destination and parked both of their zoomers near the other side of the pillar the air train was near, where they walked over to the vehicle in question and found that it was opening as they approached it, though as Jak and his sisters entered the air train he found that the driver understood that they needed to head to the Dig and waited for all of them to be sitting down before he departed from the city, meaning Praxis had likely informed him that they would be coming by and had him get ready so they could leave at a moment's notice. As such Jak, Starlight, Cozy, and Midnight just sat on some of the seats that were inside the air train as it brought them over to where the Dig, and more importantly the Weapons Factory, rested, which was all the confirmation they needed to hear at this point in time, though each of them were getting ready for when they landed, as there was no telling what sort of dangers might be resting inside the secure building that Krew was likely resting at the end of, all while Midnight seemed to be checking the stones on her bracelet, no doubt thinking about what they might find when they reached their new destination.

When the air train came to a stop the siblings walked down the ramp and found that they were, in fact, resting outside the Dig, where they remembered that Kor had sent them here to disrupt the Baron's forces, likely to distract them so he could do whatever it was that he was up to, before Jak spotted a door that rested to the right of the platform that the air train had landed on, which happened to be at the top of a set of stairs and seemed to be what they were looking for, hence the reason that they allowed the driver of the air train to leave as they headed over to the door with their weapons ready for whatever might be waiting for them. Once the door opened Jak and his sisters noticed that there was a chamber on the other side, roughly the size of Keira's workshop, that had a circular indent in the floor and caused them to walk on top of it not a few moments later, where they discovered it was an elevator and that it lowered once they came to a stop on it, but it moved fast and only took a second or two to travel a short distance into the ground, to which Starlight had the feeling it would have been better to install a ramp and not an elevator in this area. After entering the small area the elevator had brought them to, where Jak smashed some ammunition crates and distributed what was inside it to his sisters, while only Midnight went without since she didn't need it, before they headed through the passage that happened to be in front of them and found themselves in a much larger area that had some Krimzon Guards guarding it, though these ones looked like they followed Errol given that one claimed that he was going to make them pay for killing Errol, even if the deed had been done by the fallen person these guards had been following. Instead of allowing her siblings to waste ammunition on these guys Midnight waved a hand and knocked all four guards close to each other, as if she was using the wind to knock all of them around, before she loosed a burst of Dark Eco, a Peace Maker orb, that rushed through the air and slammed into her target without wasting a single second, the power branching out to take down the other three as well, allowing all of them to move forward and find that there was an electrical wall blocking the way forward, even though Cozy found a button she could press, one that deactivated the barrier and opened the way for them to head deeper into the Weapons Facility, where she flexed her claws as they continued their search for Krew.

What they found on the other side of the deactivated electrical wall were three more of Errol's guards, or maybe they were Krew's guards at this point, but instead of firing at them Cozy rushed forward and smashed one of them into the wall, all before the other two could even react to what she had done, before she gripped the other two and pushed both of them into the ground, cracking the stone flooring and breaking part of their armor, causing all three guards to moan in pain as the siblings followed the short tunnel they had been guarding. After finding those enemies a new obstacle appeared right in front of them, a diagonal ramp that was a conveyor belt and it happened to be moving in their direction, so if they were to make their way up to the platform or area it lead to they would either need to use Starlight or Midnight's magic to get over it or, as they quickly decided on, just strike the bit red bullseye like device that was to the side of the conveyor belt, as Midnight loosed a single Blaster charge from her hand it caused the belt to change direction, allowing all of them to step onto the ramp and allowed it to bring them up to the next section of this place. The area at the end of the conveyor belt was a large chamber, with a bunch of pipes, metallic rails, and a machine or two that looked like they might be some sort of dispenser, for what none of them knew since this was the first time they were seeing them, though everyone saw a few Krimzon Guards who happened to be guarding part of the path that would bring them to where Krew was working, likely Errol's goons again, so while Jak, Starlight, and Cozy followed the main direction of the path Midnight used her magic to make sure their enemies didn't notice them until they were ready to face them. When Jak jumped down into the lowered section that was near where the first conveyor belt had ended he paused for a moment as the dispenser opened, due to his presence no doubt, before five spherical metallic objects, which were about half as tall as a normal person was when they stood at their full height, dropped out of the dispenser and started to roll around the platform in question, though all of them were red colored and seemed to be part of the Krimzon Guard, but they seemed to be targeting Jak and Cozy was the first one to strike as she leapt in front of one and smashed it into the ground, while Starlight blasted one of the other spheres as Midnight watched them take care of their new enemies.

As her siblings fought these enemies, which were quite easy to dismantle as a single attack forced the spheres to stop and taken on a bipedal stance, forming a robotic soldier of sorts, and a secondary strike allowed them to take down their foes, so only two hits meant they were successful and could move onto the next foe, where Midnight decided to call these the Roboguards, as she had a feeling that the Baron had developed them to either reduce the city's casualties or empower the Krimzon Guard by adding new allies to their ranks. Thanks to that fact, which would likely annoy the Baron since he likely had these designed to be more durable than the normal armor of the guards, something that might be due to the power that the siblings possessed, Jak and his sisters smashed the couple of Roboguards to pieces as Midnight watched over the fight, though once they were done fighting their robotic enemies, and they were sure of that, the dispenser that they had come from closed and a device on the other side of the gap that was in front of them turned a second later. Such a thing allowed a set of platforms to swing into position in front of where the siblings were standing, leading to where the couple of guards were standing and turned in their direction, so Midnight waved a hand as she dismissed her spell and knocked all of her targets backwards, avoiding dropping them into the green acid looking water or material that was in the depths of the gap between where they were standing and where her spell had been resting, which allowed her siblings to jump over all three of the platforms to reach the gear shaped wheel switch. Once all of them were near it Jak spun around for a moment and kicked it, where they watched as the platforms swung back into position and connected to the other platform it happened to be connected to, allowing the siblings to move further into the depths of this place while Midnight took her time to study the Weapons Factory and see if there was anything for her to mess with, more in the hopes of improving the stuff the Baron put in this place, leaving the fighting to her siblings since she knew that they didn't need her help yet, and if they did she was going to make her move before they even called for her to lift a finger.

When they reached the other side of the moveable path Jak, Starlight, and Cozy stepped onto a circular elevator pad that brought all of them to an area that was above where they had been walking, with Midnight flying up behind them a couple of seconds later, even though there were a few Krimzon Guards up on the upper level and they were taken down within an instant of meeting the siblings, Cozy gripping both of their heads and slamming them right into the floor, allowing Jak and Starlight to move forward as they found a new conveyor belt that had two spinning blades that were moving based on the commands they had been given some time ago. As such the siblings carefully moved forward and jumped over both blades that were in front of them, with Midnight just flying through the air as she kept up with them, before reaching what appeared to be the end of this particular conveyor belt and discovered that the next think they had to do was jump over to a diagonal belt, which was what they did without delay as they headed down to their left, something that allowed them to jump over to a stone walkway, even if they had to knock some platforms into place to jump over there. Not a couple of seconds later they found another conveyor belt that lead deeper into the Weapons Factory, one that was shaped like an upside down v of sorts, which had a platform further ahead of it and Starlight blasted it with a Blaster charge, opening the way for her siblings to jump over to it and enter the chamber that was in front of them, even though Jak blasted some of the yellow armored Krimzon Guards as Cozy smashed one into the ground, where both of their foes were knocked out in a matter of seconds as Starlight and Midnight caught up and came to a stop inside the new area. From there Jak found a new conveyor belt system that lead to the highest point of this section of the Weapon Factory, one that was segmented and meant that they were going to have to be careful when moving through this place, to which he quickly blasted the red icon that rested off to his right and changed the direction of the belt, sending it diagonally upwards now, something that allowed him to reach a platform that had another belt attached to the end of it, before spotting an icon near a larger belt that seemed to be connected to the second one he had found.

As Starlight and Cozy caught up with him, however, he watched as Starlight blasted two new platforms into position above the larger conveyor belt and allowed them to jump up onto them so they didn't have to worry about being slowed down at all, before they crossed over to another metallic platform that had two more smaller conveyor belts connecting to the top of this area, even though they were going in different directions and required them to blast the icon twice so they could reach their destination. What all of them discovered was that this definitely wasn't the highest point of the Factory, as in there was more for them to fight their way through, before they noticed that there was a dispenser nearby as it released several Roboguards to take them down, to which Midnight waved her hand and stopped several Krimzon Guards from firing down at them from one of the higher points that looked down on this place, allowing her siblings to focus on taking down the group of enemies by blasting, punching, or kicking them. This time around Midnight noticed that one of the red icons were in this area and it was protected by electricity, something that was likely linked with the dispenser and would disperse once they beat up all of the enemies that were in front of them, though as she thought about that she turned her hand and the guards she had stopped went flying into the wall far behind where they had been standing, knocking them out so her siblings wouldn't have to worry about them, allowing her to focus on watching them take down the robotic foes that were in this flat area. Once this section was cleared of enemies, and the icon had been smacked, Jak and his sisters used the new conveyor belt to reach the upper area that Midnight had cleared out and found a couple of wheel switches that controlled a single set of platforms, which they were going to have to use to move across the area in front of them if they wanted to leave this place, so Jak, Starlight, and Cozy manipulated the switches to form a path for them to use to get over to the other side of the chamber they were currently in, though thanks to Midnight clearing out every guard that had been up in this area they were able to get over to the other side without delay and saved them some ammunition at the same time, which was good since they had no idea what else was in this place.

From there they found one of the breakable floor squares and Jak smashed his way through it, allowing them to enter yet another new chamber that had a conveyor belt leading down to where an elevator rested, one that had to bring them up to where Krew and the Piercer Bomb rested, though there were three dispensers in this area and such a thing meant they would be bothered by a great deal of Roboguards, something that caused Jak and Cozy to shift into their Dark Forms not a few moments later. As soon as they did that the dispensers started sending out enemies for them to fight, where Dark Jak smashed his targets into the floor and even tossed one into a wall, Dark Cozy decided to grab one by the leg and use it like a flail of some kind, swinging it around to smash it into some of the other Roboguards as it broke apart, and once she was done with it she dropped the shattered robot and tore into another one without delay, leaving Starlight to blast her foes with either a burst of magic or one of her Blaster charges, sometimes both to take someone out. Midnight, however, didn't move as her enemies came rolling over to where she was standing, where the robots found that they couldn't roll into her and caused them to deploy into their humanoid state to try and punch her into submission, only to find that their fists also failed to do any damage to her as she shifted her hand for a moment and used small portals to sever their arms, like she had done back during their first fight with the Baron. With their combined powers the Roboguards stood no chance and it caused all the dispensers to run out of enemies to send at them, which also caused each of them to close, before the four of them walked over to the elevator as the door opened, while Jak switched out of his Dark Form as Cozy remained inside it, though once everyone was standing on top of the platform they stood still as it moved up towards the top of the shaft, which had to be the peak of the Weapons Factory and their final destination. Sure enough when the elevator stopped not a few moments later, and a door opened for them, the siblings found themselves on top of a flat circular area that Krew was definitely floating around in, looking at a massive circular metallic device that certainly resembled a bomb like he was in the middle of priming it or something, and it didn't look like he even realized any of them were there and continued his work on the large bomb, which seemed impossible to hide if Midnight was being honest.

Sure a thing allowed the siblings to step out of the elevator shaft and walk onto the platform that Krew was floating above, once more thanks to his hover chair, though since this place was outside the city's limits, and thus outside the Shield Wall, Midnight had Alvin, Simon, and Theodore hide themselves for a moment, as she had a surprise for the fat man that might grant them the Heart of Mar in next to no time, especially when one considered what the Metal Head siblings were hiding right now, and as they set their trap Krew noticed that they were there and moved over to their position.

"I knew the lot of you were special when I first met each of you, and I commend you for making it this far." Krew said, his tone revealing that he must be distracted by something right now, likely the Piercer Bomb that was behind him, while also showing that he was impressed that they had smashed their way through everything that was inside the Weapons Factory and made their way to where he was located, even though they knew that he was expecting to meet the Baron here in the near future and not all of them, "I see you're eyeing the Piercer Bomb I've developed, which I have designed it to break open the Precursor Stone in a violent display that will wipe out the Metal Head Nest and save the city, or at least that was what I was asked to do to it... if you can't tell, I just love the appearance of weapons, how they feel, even how they smell after being triggered. Ah, but my favorite weapon has to be the impossibly powerful and fabled weapon Mar built, a large gun supposedly has the power to channel the power of the Precursor Stone into a focused blast, though he died before it could be turned on... he was a fool to his end... anyway, here's another ammunition upgrade for your weapons, you just need to forget what you have seen and get back to business."

"We're not going anywhere, Krew, not until you had over the Heart of Mar," Jak stated, though he was more than willing to take all four of the new weapon mods and make sure his sisters had one as well, despite the fact that Midnight didn't need it at this point in time, before he focused on the fat man once more, finding that Krew was upset with them wanting one of the artifacts that he had ordered them to claim for him, even though they had no idea it had been inside Mar's statue and he had his men blow it up without a second thought.

"Over my dead body!" Krew replied, where he stared at the siblings for a moment, no doubt assuming that they might just attack him once he decided not to hand over the artifact in question, before he noticed something interesting, three of the four small annoying creatures happened to be missing right now and he had no idea why the sisters wouldn't have their pets with them, though that was also when he realized that the siblings were smiling, or smirking for some, which caused him to frown for a moment, "What's so funny?"

"Look behind you." Alvin said, as he and his brothers had emerged from their hiding place when Krew descended to where Jak and his sisters were standing, so they would be behind him and not in his line of sight, though once he was in place all three of them shifted into their true forms and just stood there while Krew was focused on the Piercer Bomb, which was when the fat man paused as he heard Alvin's voice and turned around to face them, coming face to face with the brothers not a few seconds later, discovering their true dragon forms.

Krew paled as he noticed the brothers standing there and even managed to get the word 'dragon' out, which came out like 'dr... dr... dragons' when he said it, before Alvin lashed out with his claw and knocked the hover chair to the ground, where Simon and Theodore moved and trapped the device on the ground for a few seconds, much to his surprise as the Heart of Mar actually fell out of his clothing and slid across the floor so Jak could pick it up, before the brothers tore him free from his hover chair and devoured the fat man, splitting him three ways, though while they did that Midnight glanced over to the Piercer Bomb for a moment and moved it to another part of her storage area, far away from the Precursor Stone, just so they didn't leave something dangerous behind.

"You certainly have everything under control," a voice said, where the siblings found that Ashelin was near the platform that they were currently standing on, flying one of the wider Krimzon Guard zoomers, as in the two seater ones, meaning she must have come to check up on them and make sure Krew handed over the artifact he had taken, among other things since the Piercer Bomb was now inside one of Midnight's storage areas, before she focused on something that she had to tell all four of them, "Vin's detected something weird with the Shield Wall and is currently checking it, though we, and by that I mean Vin, my father, and I, have the feeling that we might have been played... father never trusted Krew, so he's a little worried that the dealer might have done something stupid and is just checking to make sure everything is operating the way they were designed to, before a nasty surprise comes out and bites us."

Jak and his sisters glanced at each other before Alvin, Simon, and Theodore lowered themselves for a moment, as in they were allowing the wingless siblings to climb onto their backs like they were dragon riders, and once they were ready to go Ashelin headed towards the city with three dragons and Midnight flying after her, a strange sight to anyone who might be watching them, though it didn't take them long to reach the edge of the city and discovered that the Metal Head brothers were able to pass right through the barrier without any resistance, meaning that something bad was going to happen and that they needed to be prepared for whatever might be coming their way.