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// Kras: Jak's 'Secret' 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When morning arrived Jak, Starlight, and Cozy found out something interesting as they watched the end credits of Blitz's interview last time, after the end of the Blue Eco Cup, and that was the fact that Twilight was wearing a long sleeved jacket that covered her arms and reached her wrists, why they had no idea, though for right now no one said anything as she let out a yawn and joined them for breakfast. While she did that Daxter tilted his head for a moment, as he was sure that there was something different about her and couldn't quite place his finger on it, especially since Twilight and her sisters were the oddest people in the world, even though he continued to have a few ideas on what that something might be, but he kept his mouth shut as Keira and the others joined them in the living area, spreading out once more. Everyone was clearly excited, as they had made their way through three of the four Cups that were part of the KGC, bypassed all of the events that had been created for it, and had beaten all of the top racers that Mizo could send to stop them from winning everything, to the point where Jak even called Mizo a coward on television yesterday, showing everyone that he was confident in his skills and that he suspected that their foe wouldn't be able to take them down. Ashelin and the others were eager to get this over with, as while racing was fine, especially against people like Shiv and his group, there wasn't much for them to do at this point in the KGC, because they were sure that they could fall out of the light for the rest of the competition, becoming backup in case something happened to, say, Keira or one of the sisters, but the crowd seemed to enjoy their team shutting down Mizo's and it lead to them sticking around to see this competition to it's end.

"Today is the start of the Yellow Eco Cup, the last one we need to win to win my father's bet with Mizo," Rayn said, as she walked in while everyone was finishing breakfast, choosing to give them some time before bothering them with the news she had about the events they would be facing over the course of the day, though as she came to a stop she raised a hand to stop anyone from speaking about the last part of her comment, "and yes, I'm sure that Mizo will uphold his end of the bet, otherwise no one will trust his word in the future and it'll be the end of him in all sorts of businesses... unless he tries to kill all of us, once we've beaten him."

"Don't worry, we're ready for anything," Starlight replied, knowing that Jak and her sisters could defend themselves if such a thing happened once the KGC was over and done, though after what happened yesterday, with the arrival of the vastly disappointing message from Mizo, none of them were worried about him trying something like that, rather it seemed like he would hire assassins and they would hunt him down after beating them up, "though I noticed we didn't earn any new vehicles after beating the last Cup... not that we were using any of the new ones that we've obtained so far."

"Normally racers are required to use Class specific vehicles, such as 1, 2, or 3, but the rules were bent for you and the rest of the officials haven't regretted it," Rayn explained, revealing why they were allowed to get away with using their powerful buggies to tear through the enemies that were on the tracks, that Rayn's friends didn't want to annoy the siblings and let them get away with using all of the vehicles they had created some time ago, before she focused on what Starlight said, as she had an answer for it, "but there is no Class 4, rather racers are allowed to use whatever vehicles they want in the last Cup, be they from the Red, Green, or Blue Cups, which also means that no new vehicles were rewarded for overcoming the Blue Eco Cup."

Jak and his sisters glanced at each other for a moment, finding that it made sense to most of them, before Midnight joined them, coming from Twilight's room and not her shadow so they didn't freak Rayn out, even if Jak noticed she had a jacket like Twilight's on, only hers was black and Twilight's was more purple, though no one said anything as Rayn explained that the rules were pretty much the same for the last Cup, they had to tackle events, gain medals, preferably the gold ones, and tear down Mizo's team like usual. The team nodded their heads, showing that they knew what to expect and that Rayn had nothing to fear from this point forward, as they would do what they had done since the start of the KGC, before she went into what the first of the day's events would be, to give everyone an idea of what to expect and how each of them would have to prepare before it was time for them to leave for whatever continent they would be racing in. She revealed that the first event would be taking place in the Icelands, the Mountaintop Highway to be exact, and that the event was going to be a Circuit Race, not that anyone was expecting it to be something different, especially since two Cups opened with the same event and one was the odd one out, but this just meant that Razer and the others would be gunning for them even harder than before, or at least the siblings hoped so. With Rayn handing them that information the group made sure to finish off their meals before heading for the garage, where Keira did one final check on every buggy that was going out on the tracks and found that most of them were perfectly fine, save for something added to the bottom of Jak's vehicle, a device that she determined was designed to sabotage his weapons and make him an easier target on the track, meaning Mizo was going to cheat to take them down, plus this was revenge for what he said in the bar.

With the device removed, and she made sure each vehicle was safe for the future races, the team headed out and let the transport bring them to the Icelands, allowing them to set up at the starting line as Razer and the rest of his team showed up a few moments later, meaning either Mizo had been shouting at all of them for losing or none of them wanted to be here first so they could study Jak's team before another event started. Not a few minutes later, with Rayn joining them, the announcers called for the event to start and sure enough Jak found his way to first place with no problems, leaving Razer in the back with the rest of Mizo's crumpling team, as Shiv's group looked like they had admitted defeat and had no desire to race against Jak or his sisters, hence why they focused on facing off against Sig's group. UR-86, on the other hand, tried to get beyond Sig's group so he could face those who had beaten him in the past, as he seemed less interested in racing for Mizo and just wanted a true challenge that wasn't influenced by outside forces or parties, something Jak considered for the future, once they were done with the KGC, while Razer seemed to be racing to redeem himself after the humiliation he had suffered after losing so many times during the Blue Eco Cup. Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy decided to take turns falling back to where their enemies were positioned and make it so that none of Mizo's people got anywhere near them or Sig's group, though it really didn't matter since Jak placed first and gained the gold medal, Keira followed behind him, and the three of them followed after their brother with Midnight behind them, leaving Sig's group to take the places behind them and Razer's group ended up taking their usual place at the very back of the pack, earning no points.

After that they received word that Blitz was going to make a stop at the Naughty Ottsel, why they had no idea since it didn't seem to be a place that he would be interested in, where Jak decided to act like he hadn't thought anything of what he and the others had seen earlier, when he called Mizo a coward, and Keira joined him, where she revealed that the device that was attached to Jak's buggy was the same as what was used to kill Blitz's father in the past... only to learn that he didn't care about what happened to his old man, that he only cared about the ratings, and that he left in a bad mood, despite the fact that Daxter was more than happy to take his credits for his drinks.

With that done Jak and his sisters learned that the next event would be taking place on the Precursor Temple track, where it happened to be a Death Race event this time around and they discovered that the gold medal goal that they had to beat was a hundred and fifty, leading to Jak scoring over two hundred while his sisters scored between a hundred a eighty to a hundred and ninety, causing the rest of their team to nod as another gold medal was awarded to them. After that Rayn came over and informed them that the next event was going to be held in Kras, specifically the Mar Coliseum arena, and it was going to be an Artifact Race, hence why no one on their team was remotely surprised to see Razer when they walked off the transport and readied their vehicles for the event, as he still wanted to get his revenge for the humiliation they had wrought up him since he returned to the sport. Of course there was only one of him and four of them, so Jak raced against Razer and totally dominated him like the last couple of events they had tackled, where he scored all ten of the required points to earn the gold medal, Twilight and Starlight sat at nine while Cozy had eight, leaving Razer with only two points and caused him to race away with a look of annoyance on his face. Jak wasn't even surprised when he and his sisters, plus Keira and the rest of their team, learned that the first Qualifying Event of the Yellow Eco Cup was starting, as it would be taking place over on the Canyon Run track and, interestingly enough, it was a Death Race, meaning they had no reason to worry about Razer or the others showing up to bother them, allowing him and his sisters to smash through the gold goal in no time, as they needed a hundred and seventy and all four of them scored over two hundred.

After that Rayn informed them that the next event was going to be held in Kras, on the Seaport Strip track and that it was going to be another Rush Hour, to which Jak and the majority of their team stayed back as Twilight took to the field, as she must have been influenced by Midnight doing this when she first showed up, and sure enough she smashed her way right through all of the drones that were in her way, her powers keeping the vehicle from taking damage, before scoring more than the five hundred points needed to score the gold, as she ended up at five hundred and twenty.

As Jak, Starlight, Cozy, and Keira congratulated her on scoring the gold medal, leaving the rest of the team to watch as they kept an eye out for Blitz in case he waltzed into their base of operations, Rayn informed all of them that the officials had decided on the next event, it was going to be a Capture event in the Clifftop Battlefield arena, which meant that only Jak and his sisters would be able to compete in this event, since the officials wanted to try and make it fair for Mizo's team, or at least it seemed that way despite their abilities. Sure enough Razer and Shiv's group were waiting in the arena for them, just like they had done on nearly every other event they were taking part in, and once everyone was ready to go Rayn and the announcers called for the event to begin, where she watched as Jak and his sisters, once again, dominated the event for a time and ended up scoring yet another gold medal in no time, even though Razer did put up a good fight and gave it everything he had. Interestingly enough after that Rayn found that the officials were still deciding on what the next event was and it allowed everyone to take a short break before getting back in their vehicles and showing Mizo that his chances of winning the KGC were none, especially after everything he and his sisters had shown off during the last three Cups, so they gathered in one of the local bars of Kras, everyone making sure to slip one of the pills into whatever they happened to be eating or drinking, just to be on the safe side since they had no idea what Mizo would do. Rayn, of course, joined all of them and found one of the pills as Jak added it to his drink, allowing her to understand why her father's poison had no effect on all of them, though she chuckled and claimed it was something that neither her or Krew had seen coming, even if it did confirm her feelings that using poison on them had been a bad idea.

"Hello race fanatics, we're coming to you live with a breaking story!" Blitz stated, walking into the bar while everyone was trying to enjoy their time off, with a pair of cameras floating around him like Jak and his sisters expected, before he came to a stop and focused on Jak for a time, especially since one of the cameras seemed to be following his movements, as it also looked at him as well, causing the others to focus on what was happening, "Yours truly has recovered documents that prove that Jak was the cause of Krew's death... that he and his sisters left him to die in a terrible explosion. How heartless can the four of you get?"

"You need to get your facts straight, Blitz, as we didn't kill Krew," Jak replied, as while the official story was that Krew died in the explosion of one of his prototype Piercer Bombs detonating on him unexpectedly, and that he and his sisters had gone to speak with him about something important, meaning one could make the connection Blitz had made about them being responsible for Krew's death, the truth was much more simple than what one thought, "Krew was torn apart and eaten by a pack of Metal Heads, the Tainted to be exact, even though he betrayed Haven City and opened the way for Kor and his followers to invade the city... he got what was coming to him, though we had no part in killing him."

Blitz paused for a moment, clearly not expecting Jak to say something like that, rather it seemed like he was expecting the news to upset Rayn and cause a crack to appear in their team, to which he growled and departed from the bar, though Jak confirmed that the story he had mentioned was true, as Rayn was curious about it, though this meant that Mizo was trying to spread lies about them in order to try and break their team before the final Grand Prix, causing Jak to chuckle as he and the others go ready for whatever events were coming up next. With that information up in the air, and people were likely talking about the truth behind Krew's death, especially since next to no one had known about his involvement in allowing the Tainted to swarm the city at one point in the past, Rayn found that the next event was going to be held in Haven, this time in the Atoll Arena, and that it was going to be a Deathmatch, meaning Razer would be showing up to stop them from scoring more gold medals. Razer, as predicted, joined them in the arena in question and raced against them once more, all to stop Jak and his sisters from gaining yet another gold medal, but once again he failed to account for Shiv's group doing nothing to stop their opponents, so it was basically one against four and Jak was able to score the gold medal in no time at all, scoring the ten points needed to do such a thing, leading to Razer driving away in disappointment. With that done the siblings, Keira, and the rest of their team returned to the garage and waited for Rayn to inform them of what event might be up next, or whatever Mizo had in store for them, though as it turned out they had overcome all of the day's challenges and the officials of the KGC were calling everyone to rest once more, meaning tomorrow they would have more races and events to tackle.

As such Jak sighed as he and Keira took a seat nearby, allowing Twilight, Starlight, Cozy, Daxter, and the others to spread out all over their base of operations and rest for the rest of the day, as they suspected that the tomorrow things would be somewhat harder than what they experienced today, or at least Jak hoped so, and bring them one step closer to the end of the KGC and the bet between Mizo and Krew, hopefully ending with Rayn gaining control of Kras' shadowy business.