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// Brink: Start of a Journey 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Jak and his sisters found that they didn't have a lot of time to rest after the events of Kras City, rather the day after he made the deal with Rayn, joining Kras to the rest of his coalition, Eon called for him, his sisters, Keira, Daxter, Tess, and Samos to join him and his assistants in the meeting chamber that they had spoken in previously, when they explained the nature of this world and the universe, or a portion of it anyway, to everyone, and with the urgency of his summons Jak suspected that a new quest was going to start soon. When they arrived Eon explained the situation to them, that the planet was running out of Eco, as in the four physical colors of Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, and it was allowing all of the vast Dark Eco to act up in an area of Feolorath called 'Brink', or the Brink as some called it, starting with Eco Storms that would eventually lead to the worst possible future, a total planetary collapse that would kill pretty much everyone who called the planet home. Of course part of the problem was the awakening of the Titan who had been sleeping inside the planet, something Eon and the rest of the Precursors on this world had been preparing for, but things were moving too quickly and there wasn't much they could do, save for using their facilities to stall the incoming destruction and give the siblings time to save the world, though this time Keira needed to join them. Eon explained that a Sage's awakening allowed them to do all sorts of things that were seen as odd, sort of like what happened with Jak and his sisters, though with them, Daxter, and Tess being Sages, in a sense for two of them, Keira's awakening as a Green Sage, combined with her intense knowledge of machines, was the best combination to save the world from what was coming, especially since he was sending them in search of something called the 'Eco Core', a device that not even he and the others knew about.

Since they would be heading into the Brink, an incomplete land that was 'forgotten' by the Precursors, the popular theory many people considered, where Eon explained that it might have been left by something harming Feolorath while he slept, as it was the only thing that made sense to him, Keira went to work with Twilight and Starlight, as she had a prototype ship that would fly through the air, though she needed time to make sure it was operational before they headed for the Brink and started their quest. What she meant by 'prototype' was that the ship in question was one designed to deal with what Eon had warned them about, the Eco Storms that occasionally ravaged the Brink, which were becoming more and more common as time went on, something they could now explain, and she wanted to be sure that the vessel was ready before they left, though with Twilight and Starlight helping her they were able to enchant the inside to be larger than the frame, allowing it to carry more people than she originally intended. Of course that meant that she had to quickly redesign their weapon systems, namely the gun that had been designed to split the back in half before revealing a turret of sorts, though the new design was built for Daxter and Tess in mind, so they could fire at enemies while not being shaken by the recoil, so no accidents happened while they were out in the Brink, and it would come out of a hatch this time around, revealing less targets for any potential enemies to fire at. The other thing they had to do was find some melee weapons for when they reached their destination, as with the Eco instability none of them would be able to transform and Eon was sure that any Eco powers might be rendered useless, so Midnight and the other Twilights wouldn't be able to assist them, which also annoyed Cozy since she was too used to her Dark Form being her melee power, so most of them were being forced into a weaker state to make sure nothing bad happened to them.

Jak went with a staff that resembled the one his father carried at all times, only it had a modification that allowed it to use gun mods, while carrying Mar's sword as well, Cozy went with two Eco daggers that fit into her form so she could fly with her wings and cut her foes down, Starlight decided on a staff as well, this one pure metal and not designed to be a gun at the same time, while Twilight went with a single Eco blade and a smaller gun, allowing her to cover her bases since she was trying to follow the suggestion Eon, Gol, and Maia gave her earlier.

While they worked and got ready for their newest adventure, this one right on the heels of the last one since they wanted to get ahead of the end of the world, before things got worse than they already were, Jak changed into a set of attire that was a combination of his racing attire and what he had worn during their very first adventure, while Starlight, Cozy, and even Twilight did nothing to their clothing, showing that they were fine with what they had on and that it would suit them just fine. Keira, on the other hand, changed into a dark blue coat that had a fair number of buttons and happened to be long sleeved, showing that she might be taking a page out of Twilight's book despite the fact that hers seemed more for a pilot of a ship like what they were building, and she switched her pants for a purple set, one which was designed for more heavy duty work, as she had a feeling that she'd need it while out in the field. While they did that, however, Jak noticed an odd thing that surprised him, Twilight was sticking to avoiding her magic and any of her Eco powers, even refusing to call out her other selves for a short period of time, since this might be the last time she could speak with them before she and the rest of their group reached the Brink and headed into the unknown, but he was sure that she had her reasons, only he hoped that if she was in trouble she would tell them. Other than that nothing major happened, save for Alvin and both of his brothers sitting this adventure out as they considered the nature of the Brink, as everyone let Keira work on the ship, making sure it was airworthy and that they had everything they might possibly need for the journey into the Brink, even if she wished that they could make use of some of the powers that the sisters had used during all of their other adventures, but, despite those thoughts, she was going to do her best to make the most of what they had.

It took Keira three days to make sure everything was ready, and there were things that required a bit more tune up before she confirmed that they were ready to go, but it also gave Eon time to make sure the directions he knew were accurate, so they had a map to where the Brink started and some notes that should point them towards the Eco Core, though once all of them were ready, and Tess ensured that they had more than enough food for this quest, Jak and his sisters climbed into the airship, with Keira, Daxter, and Tess following them, before Jak started up their Hellcat and departed from Haven, as it was time to save the world once more.





It took them some time to reach what they assumed was the Brink, though it was hard to tell since they found a massive Eco Storm between them and where Eon's notes told them to go, especially when Keira consulted her map, causing Jak to fly into the dangerous storm as his sisters go ready for whatever might be waiting for them, where they discovered that it was far stronger than the estimates had been, even if it took them two days to reach this part of the world, meaning they had to brace themselves, especially since the ship rattled as Jak flew through the storm.

"Jeez, this is pretty rough," Jak commented, where he pushed through seemed to be part of the massive storm, even if he hoped that it was all of it since doing it multiple times would cause havoc on their Hellcat, though as he did that Daxter, Tess, and his sisters glanced out to make sure they were fine, since it was hard to tell what was around them with all the clouds that were covering everything.

"We have to find a place to put down, because this Eco Storm seems to be getting worse!" Keira stated, where she looked at her map and found that it was hard to tell exactly what was in front of them or what they were near right now, though one thing the sisters did was pour a bit of their energy into a shield that actually protected their Hellcat and made sure no lightning came at them, even if Twilight had sworn off her powers for some time, "Based on these readings we should be near the Brink, which means the Edge of the World should be somewhere right below us... or at least I hope so."

"Yeah, well I hope we land soon... all this crazy movement isn't helping," Daxter remarked, as the rattling of the ship wasn't good for them and their stomachs, or at least his at the moment, though he and Tess, despite not being able to use any of their own Eco powers given the state of the Brink, were equipped with their own weapons, as he carried a small dagger on his back while Tess had a prototype gun based on the Morph Gun, but she only had a few shots inside it and would need a new weapon if it ran out.

As Jak opened his mouth to reply, since he and Keira were doing everything in their power to stop such a thing, he spotted something that would complicate things, three small ships, which happened to be about the size of the Hellcat and were slightly faster, flew into the area and raced by them, though based on what they could see this was some confirmation on what they had been told, Eco Pirates patrolled parts of the Brink and it appeared that they were going to be targeted by a group of them. The information in question revealed that these individuals hunted the frontier, as the Brink was called the Final or Lost Frontier, depending on who was answering the question, and preyed upon helpless travelers, much like a few merchants or something similar, so while the Pirates were likely assuming that the Hellcat was another soon to be victim Jak and his sisters knew that they could protect it and get out of here. Since it appeared that they only had to worry about three enemies, even if more might be coming now that a target had been found, Daxter and Tess nodded as they hopped into their gunner seats and the turret hatch opened, allowing them and the guns to emerge from the Hellcat before the pair opened fire on the Pirates that were trying to take Jak down, even though they quickly found a new target coming out of the clouds a few seconds later. The new target happened to be a larger ship, red colored to be exact, that seemed to be the main hub for the enemies that were following them, to which Jak and Keira grabbed the controls, as it was designed with a second set in case Jak was distracted or there was a need for better maneuverability, like this moment, where they flew around the ship and angled themselves so Jak could fly the ship out of the area, only for the Pirates to loose grapple hooks that latched onto their wings and stopped them from getting away from their foes.

Once that was done two figures slid down the cables and landed nearby, one appearing to be a bulky male figure who did seem ready for a fight, while the other, who touched down on the left wing after his companion stopped on the right, was a slim figure who seemed to be more like a commander or captain, while also appearing to be more ready to talk, or make whatever demands he had for them.

"Terribly sorry for the inconvenience," the more Captain-like Pirate said, where it sounded like he was more cultured and less of a brute, meaning they had to be right in thinking he was the leader of the Pirates, or maybe the First Mate if they had one, though he became the target of most of the group, even though Daxter and Tess continued to do their best with the turrets so the other Pirates didn't get near them, "but please, allow us to relieve you of your Eco!"

"You want some! Fine, have some!" Twilight replied, where she quickly removed herself from the compartment and did the first thing that came to mind, she rushed over to the bulky figure as Pele pushed a bit of Red Eco into her body, enough to give her strength while not compromising her limits, allowing her to punch him in the gut before knocking him over to the more polite Pirate, who caught his friend before she destroyed the first grapple with her sword, causing her to jump over to the other wing as she faced the pair, "Now, get off our ship... before I make you!"

"Sorry, but I'm not leaving empty handed... not after seeing such a lovely treasure." the polite Pirate stated, looking over to Keira for a moment, meaning he had his eyes set on her and on no one else, while his fellow seemed to understand that messing with them was a bad idea and used a grapple hock to return to the main ship, though Jak growled as Keira and his sisters calmed him, since Eco was becoming unstable and any transformations might be harmful to him.

The same couldn't be said for Twilight, as all six of her selves were protective of Keira, as she was important to Jak and that meant she was important to all six of them, something that caused part of Midnight's power to surge towards the surface as the dark energy washed over her, causing her wings to shudder and morph as Twilight suddenly fell to her knees for a moment, her body shaking as the unstable Eco reacted to what was going on with her. Jak and the others watched as her wings, which were now a mix of her pegasus wings and Midnight's raven wings, started to distort before their eyes, bits of Eco feeding the storm as her wings disappeared entirely, though as that happened Twilight struggled to stand as pain shot through her body, even though Midnight's anger at the Pirate caused the Dark Eco to jump from her blade and puncture the fuel tank, releasing more Eco to fuel the storm as it was damaged. The Pirate, seeing that happen after an odd thing he couldn't explain, did the smart thing as he grabbed onto the other grapple and disconnected it, allowing him to return to his ship with the rest of his crew, who pulled away as they left Jak and Keira to pilot the Hellcat down to a safe place, even though the others were happy that they had managed to escape the Pirates for the time being. As they descended, and Twilight held on as best as she could, they were able to bypass the cloud layer and could finally see what everyone called the Edge of the World, the cascading waterfall that seemed to go on forever, in terms of falling towards the depths, where islands were either held up by their own weight or by what seemed to be some Precursor structures, but Keira was able to land on a rather small island, one that would allow them to go unseen by the Pirates, at least for a time, though finding resources seemed to be a problem given the size of this place.

After landing, which had been rather bumpy, Jak and Keira climbed out and made a quick check of the Hellcat, finding that there were a few dents and holes that could be fixed in no time, though finding more Green Eco for fuel, in an area with no real sources of Eco, meant they might be stuck here, and with the siblings unable to channel their powers they had no real options on what to do next, and while they did that Starlight and Cozy checked on Twilight, who was resting nearby as she recovered from her episode.

"Okay, we just need to find some Green Eco for the fuel, and luckily Twilight missed the Power Cells," Keira commented, as she was done with her inspection and found that no real damage had been done to her Hellcat, rather all the main harm had come from the Pirates, though there was the matter of the damage to the fuel container that Twilight had struck, even if it was on accident, before she sighed and turned towards the siblings, where she focused on Twilight, as her worry was far stronger than whatever anger she might have due to her stunt, "you're okay... right?"

"As fine as I can be, given our situation." Twilight replied, referring to the fact that they couldn't use their Eco powers while they were exploring the Brink, though as she said that she continued to keep her personal problems from them, as this wasn't the time for Jak, Keira, Daxter, Tess, or her sisters to worry about her changes, even though she could feel more of her fur changing as her future Ottsel nature continued to take over, little by little, and it was spreading down her back, a fact that also revealed that her wings were gone, "we'll leave you to your work as we explore this area... hopefully we'll find something to help us out."

As Keira nodded her head, and Tess remained with her to help her fix up the ship, Jak was worried about Twilight, as this was the first time he had seen her like this, trying to keep them from discovering something or even stopping them from worrying about what she had just gone through, but since she seemed unwilling to speak he simply nodded his head as he readied his staff as his siblings readied their weapons as well. What the siblings quickly discovered was that there was only a single path for them to take, one that seemed to head along the edge of this island, and that there happened to be a few red shelled Armadillos that seemed to be very aggressive, to which Jak and his sisters reacted accordingly, falling back on what they did during their first adventure, they punched and kicked their way through the enemies, this time taking their melee weapons into consideration while facing the Armadillos, though as they fell Jak found that they could collect bits of Dark Eco. One interesting thing Twilight noticed was a wall that had a Precursor door that would come out of the ground at some point, as once they were on the other side it raised up to keep all of the enemies on the island from reaching Keira, so when they returned she had a feeling it would close and allow the four of them to pass by before closing again, to which she followed Jak and her sisters as they jumped over a pair of large stones in a river, reaching another part of the island. The siblings then found a wooden bridge, a stone pillar that was just above it, and a large boulder that might fall at some point in the future, though they crossed over it and smashed their way through their enemies, finding their way to a large stone pillar that could be used as a walkway if they knocked it down in some manner, which happened to be what they did before moving forward again, allowing them to pass by a Yellow Eco vent before having to cross a pair of stone platforms to reach a massive stone that seemed to be the end.

What they discovered was that there were a fair number of Armadillos guarding the area, so the siblings had to beat all of them up, even if they didn't want to do such a thing since they were wild animals and not enemies like the Pirates, though after some time it looked like the critters got the message and departed from the area, allowing the siblings to find an odd crystal cluster off to their left.

"No way... that looks like one of the crystals we picked up back when we went looking for Damas," Starlight said, where she and her siblings walked over to where the green crystal was resting, something that Twilight stepped near and carefully pulled it from where it was resting, even though a small bit of Green Eco seemed to dance from the head sized crystal and wrapped around Twilight's right hand for a second, which didn't happen when she, Cozy, or even Jak held it, "I had no idea that the other colors could crystallize like this."

"Still, Keira said that we needed Green Eco... this should be more than enough," Cozy remarked, as the Eco Crystals always had a lot more energy than just an ordinary container, to the point where she knew that Twilight or Keira had considered ways to make a self sustaining world, if they had something that worked like this, though Daxter seemed eager to get out of here and she was eager to get back to their quest.

With the Green Eco Crystal in hand the siblings turned around and made their way back to Keira and the Hellcat, finding a good number of Armadillos in their way who actually fled after a few seconds, save for a pair that attacked the boulder so it fell and smashed the bridge, causing them to use a pole to spin and get back to the door, which opened and allowed all of them to return to Keira, who smiled as the door closed and she found that they had returned. Jak handed handed her the crystal they had discovered and Keira confirmed the thoughts that Twilight had since they discovered it, the crystal was actually drawing in Dark Eco and seemed to be converting it into Green Eco, hence the smaller crystals they had seen over were the siblings discovered it, something that caused her to smile for a moment as she turned back towards the Hellcat for a time. She and Tess went to work moving things and attaching the crystal to the ship's systems, adding a few things she had brought with them, just in the off chance they needed them, where Twilight found that it was linked to the fuel relays and that she added a power condenser plus some loop circuits to focus the flow of Eco, meaning that if this worked they could run off of the crystal for a long time. It took them a few minutes to get everything set up in their proper places, as it took a shorter period of time thanks to Tess and her smaller body allowing her to get places that Keira couldn't, or at least for the time being since she was going to become a Sage at some point and Ottsels followed Sages in the stages of evolution that Eon told them about, though once they were done they smiled and called the siblings over.

In that moment Jak discovered that the ship started just fine, that finding and adding a Green Eco Crystal to it gave them unlimited fuel, given the amount of Dark Eco that seemed to be all over the Brink, making them wonder what they could do with a Red, Blue, and Yellow Eco Crystal, though with that done he called for his sisters to climb in so they could leave and see what else the Brink had in store for them.