It didn't take Jak, Starlight, and Cozy that long to get back to the docking bay, where Daxter and Tess, who had been riding on Jak's shoulders the entire time, jumped back and prepared to use the turret once more, while Starlight joined Jak up front as Cozy remained back with the Ottsels, though once they were ready to go Jak pulled out of Aeropa and followed the energy signature of Twilight, which Starlight was tracking.
I would love to stay and chat, a voice said, where it appeared that the Pirate expected them to chase after him and he had figured out what their communication signal was, meaning he wanted to say something before he left the area that Aeropa was built in, so he could return to wherever his main ship happened to be resting, since it wasn't near Skyheed's city, at least from what they could see, but I have what I came...
"You let Keira, Twilight, and the Eco Seeker go right now, before we decide to rip out your spine and shove it where the sun doesn't shine." Jak replied, mostly because some people reacted and submitted to such a statement, like what happened when Cozy threatened Blitz back during the Championship, before they learned that he was Mizo hiding in plain sight, even if Daxter kept working on the turret.
All they got from that was that Keira told the Pirate right, that Jak would be angry and would no doubt threaten him for his deed, before the communicator went down and forced them to follow after the Pirate's ship, which seemed to be ducking into a open passage in a mountain formation, one that happened to have lava below them as they flew after their target, but it seemed that their target had no intention of surrendering to them. As they followed after their target Jak dodged a couple of flaming boulders and shot down some small Pirate drones, which were also taken down by Daxter and Tess if he were to miss one, though the main thing he noticed was that there were rings made out of Precursor metal working right now, molding the passage into whatever the Precursors wanted to create, making him wonder how much of the world was natural and how much was influenced by Eon's people. This did, however, give them an opportunity to use another tool that Keira had added to the Hellcat, as it was a grapple system that actually fired Daxter at Jak's target and he would do all sorts of damage to his target, collecting scrap and technology to either study or add to the Hellcat, which required him to get off the turret, leaving it in Tess' control, before doing his best to harm the enemy ship. Of course the Pirate moved out of the area after a bit of time and forced them to recall Daxter before following after him, finding that he headed into yet another tunnel in an attempt to lose his pursuer, though the second time Daxter actually stole a modification that could be added to the Hellcat, which was repeated on his third pass.
In the end, however, the Pirate got the better of them by luring them into an ambush near a waterfall, back near the Edge of the World to be exact, and as Jak started to move out of the way his enemies were able to shoot the engines, forcing Jak to land on another island as the Pirates flew off with Keira, Twilight, and the Eco Seeker, even though he landed in a way that tore the left wing clean off.
"I'm starting to dislike this place, and our adventure only just started," Cozy remarked, where she and the others climbed out of the Hellcat and found that there was nothing they could do to fix the ship, as Twilight and Keira were the ones that could do that, before she spotted what appeared to be a door made out of wood nearby, which her siblings spotted not a few seconds later, "though maybe we can find a few tools to fix the ship... or find another one to use to chase after them and come back when we rescue Keira and Twilight."
Jak said nothing, as he was angry over losing Keira in such a way, not to mention that Twilight seemed sick and unable to do anything to protect herself, before he opened the door and found a Scatter Mod for his gunstaff, which he collected as they moved forward, using a pair of poles and some stone platforms that were along the earthen path that happened to be on the other side of the door, one that brought them to a Precursor Oracle of some kind, as it was about Jak's size and had big blue eyes. What happened next was that it glowed before bestowing a new Red Eco power on the three of them, leaving Daxter and Tess, the latter riding on Starlight's shoulder for the time being, to watch for a few seconds before Jak and his sisters touched down on the ground, where they found that each of them were capable of shaping their Eco into a red sphere that could be left behind like a landmine and explode when necessary, doing no damage to them based on the test that Starlight ran. Cozy, on the other hand, used her new Eco Mine to blast apart a cracked boulder that was blocking part of the path, scattering rock while allowing them to move forward once more, though Starlight made a note of where this statue was since adding it to Twilight's arsenal would be good, especially since none of them were in pain and that was something she happened to be dealing with. With that done they continued to follow the path and discovered a number of yellow robots that were cutting into some trees with their saw hands, though when Jak and his sisters got close the robots turned and attacked them without even a second thought, causing the siblings to lash out with their weapons as each one crushed their opponents and opened the way for them to move forward.
After that they found an area with several more cutter robots and it proved to be a good place to use their Eco Mines, due to their enemies rushing straight at them and they collided with the mines, which the siblings detonated on top of them a few seconds later, though just beyond where Jak found the second group they discovered a metallic chest that had what looked like a jacket inside it, which Cozy collected just for the sake of it, before smashing down a pillar to open the way for them to move even deeper. Not even a few seconds later Jak and his sisters found what appeared to be blue Blast Bots, in a style that didn't look anything like those made by Errol or the few Praxis had used before they freed him from Kor's dark control, which were capable of firing beams of energy at those they perceived to be enemies, namely the siblings and the two Ottsels, causing the siblings to be careful since Jak was the only one with a gun and their tactics were far more limited this time around. As such they had to rest every now and then, after clearing an area of enemies, but after clearing out all of the robots that were nearby, including the cutter bots, Jak and his sisters had to run through a tree sized passage as a few trees were cut down, no doubt pushed into this area for processing at some point, before reaching a river that had a number of cracked boulders blocking the way forward, so they took turns blasting their way towards whatever was at the end of this path. Daxter and Tess, of course, did their best to keep an eye out for enemies and informed the siblings of any hazards, since there wasn't much they could do since both of their abilities would cause harm to their bodies, before they found their way to another area that had a few blaster bots and a passage with cutter bots working on some trees, which fell as everyone moved by them.
That eventually brought Jak and his sisters to an area that had a white electrical barrier, though they smashed through all of the blaster bots that were guarding the area and Jak tore the power generator to pieces in seconds, allowing them to enter an area that had a hut of some kind in it, something that became their destination as they climbed up to what had to be the hatch heading inside, where an elderly man with a long beard, wearing complex looking goggles, poked his head out and stopped them in their tracks.
"The three of you don't scare easily." the old man stated, informing them that he must have been watching, how none of them knew and none of them wanted to question in, since they were on a time clock given what happened to Keira and Twilight, before a look of understand appeared on the man's face for a moment, no doubt seeing something while they stared at each other, "Ah, I see. You've been touched with Dark Eco... I know it when I see it."
"Okay. Who are you?" Starlight asked, though based on the man's words it seemed like he might be a Sage, a Dark Sage based on what they had just learned from him, or maybe he was just a student of Eco and happened to study the dark color at some point in the past, before she considered another question they might want to have answered, at least before getting to the main question on their minds, "Also, what are you doing all the way out here?"
"Huh, good questions... it's two for two, I have no idea." the old man replied, where he thought about that for a moment, no doubt worried about the fact that there were things he should know but didn't remember, even if he pulled himself out of his hut and revealed that he was wearing an older machinist outfit, something that caused them to smile since it meant they might have found their answer, "Oh, and the answer is yes, I built those robots. In fact, I've already taken a look at the damage to your ship... beautiful machine by the way... and the fusion rods are shot to Shiloh, though without any juice, be it a little or a lot, you're stuck here with me... however, there is one Velonium Power Rod on this island..."
"Just tell us where it is and we'll go get it... my girlfriend and our sister were kidnapped by Pirates." Jak stated, figuring that if the man knew that they were on a time limit he might give them the information they needed without beating around the bush, like so many others did when they discussed things, something that caused the old man to gesture to one of the paths for a moment and mentioned something about the 'Uber-Bot 888'.
As it turned out the Uber-Bot 888 was the old man's most dangerous robot, which seemed like a good challenge and even came with a chest that contained an upgrade for the Blaster, though with that done the siblings headed down the path the old man told them about, even though it meant passing through a pair of wooden barriers that had been set up to keep something away from the hut and the old man. The path brought them to a smaller stream and another Precursor Totem, as that was what Starlight was going to call these objects, which granted Jak and his sisters a new Green Eco power, one that allowed them to use the small patches of green crystals on the group to make large crystalline platforms, which let the siblings find an area with more cutter bots that wanted to tear all of them down. Using that power also allowed the user to make crystalline bridges for them to walk on, giving them a way to walk over a river a lava, before finding an open area on the other side, one that seemed large enough for a large creature to rest in, and sure enough a large yellow robot jumped down into the area they were in, one that had to be the Uber-Bot, even if the old man had failed to give them an idea of what they were looking for. As it turned out the robot seemed capable of creating shockwaves by bringing both fists down on the ground and could fire saw blades from it's back, though it appeared that the key to defeating it was to throw out an Eco Mine and detonate it on top of the Uber-Bot, damaging it so the others could deal some additional damage, wrecking all of it's plating and limbs as the next couple of moments ticked by, and when it tried to flee Starlight trapped it with her magic and literally tore the Uber-Bot apart.
Jak waited for a few moments, just to be sure that the robot was destroyed and that it wouldn't put itself back together, as it was possible, though once everything was said and done he found a blue crystal in a device that had to be the piece they needed, so with that in hand they turned around before retracing their steps back to the old man's hut, where they found that their ship had been pulled into a makeshift docking bay and that it was all patched up, so Daxter and Tess took a few moments to make sure everything was fine, and the power rod and their new modifications were in place, before they all climbed in and took off.
Of course he would have said something about the old man, since it seemed unfair to leave him behind after all his hard work on their Hellcat, but he seemed to be stuck inside his hut and didn't want to come out, to which he took to the air in a matter of seconds and sought out the Pirate who stole Keira and Twilight, something that allowed him to find the rather large Pirate ship they had flown around earlier pulling out of the area. As such he targeted it immediately, which gave him a chance to use both of their new ship abilities when they found some of the smaller Pirate vessels flying around the main one, maybe a defensive measure in case they survived and came looking for revenge, though this time he focused on their true target while Daxter and Tess focused on all of the smaller ships, leaving Starlight and Cozy to watch what was going on and keep an eye out for danger. Jak's first target happened to be the massive propellers below the ship, a pair that did seem to be one of the ways that allowed the Pirate ship to move around this part of the world, though instead of totally destroying them he damaged them enough to make them stop working, leaving them intact so that the Pirates could do repairs once Keira and Twilight were safe and the Eco Seeker had been reclaimed. Once those were taken care of he took a look at the rest of the ship and opened fire on the three main thrusters that were on the backside of the ship, repeating his movements by damaging them enough to knock all of them offline, without totally destroying them, while Daxter and Tess continued to gun down all of their enemies, sending those with pilots down to the various islands while destroying all of the drones without a second thought.
With all of that done, and the turrets were wrecked by Daxter and Tess, Starlight found that the docking bay hatch for the Pirate ship was opening with no message, causing Jak to fly in as she and Cozy prepared themselves, though once he came to a stop, and they were brought up into a large docking bay with room for five ships, he powered down the Hellcat before he and his sisters jumped out with their Ottsels riding on their shoulders, before they headed into the ship and found that all of the Pirates they passed by stood off to the side, allowing them to move without obstacles... even the brute took one look at them and stepped out of the way, allowing them to see Keira standing near the Pirate Captain, though Twilight was nowhere to be seen.
"You!" Cozy growled, where she approached the Pirate Captain as her Dark Eco flared, something that caused some of her Dark Eco features to appear once more, like whenever she morphed into her battle form in the past, and since Keira and Twilight had been kidnapped she wasn't too happy with the Pirates anymore, though while she had to suffer through a bit of pain, since transforming wasn't allowed in the Brink and her anger overrode her judgement, the Captain jumped when he saw her claws and scales, before they heard the sound of a nearby window being broken.
"Oh by the Precursors! You had one job!" Keira exclaimed, something that caused Jak and his sisters to pause, as it looked like Keira must have talked with the Pirate Captain and figured out a way to make him, not to mention his crew, serve her in some manner, something Jak could agree with since sometimes she was the one with the better answers and ideas, to which she rounded on the Captain, who must have been holding onto the Eco Seeker before their arrival, an artifact that was now missing based on what they were seeing, "Phoenix, I told you to hang onto the Eco Seeker until we figured out how to unlock it and use it to find the Eco Core... how could you mess that up, especially after everyone in the Brink has heard the stories of what Jak and his sisters are capable of?"
"Seeing is believing, at times... and her rage form is more deadly than the stories claim," the Pirate Captain, Pheonix, said, showing them that while he was usually brave and fearless, good qualities to have in someone who wanted to lead a band of Pirates, he had also been caught off guard by Cozy's partial transformation and it had caused him to jump, even if such a thing meant he dropped the Eco Seeker, which was now either on one of the scattered islands or down in the water, the latter meaning it would be impossible to retrieve it without magic, "plus we have heard of the Four Sages, of what you are capable of doing... I only acted arrogant since I did not believe that you were them, but it would appear that I was wrong to think that way. You have my apologies, great ones."
"Accepted... and besides, I'd rather work with you than with Skyheed, as we figured some things out during our short time in Aeropa, which we can discuss later," Jak replied, though he was happy to see that Keira had calmed the Pirates down in the short bit of time they had been separated from each other, as right now they had two main objectives that needed to be completed before he even considered going after the legendary Eco Core, which everyone in the Brink seemed to be looking for, based on what they had learned so far, "we should focus on retrieving the Eco Seeker, since that's the key to finding the Eco Core and saving our world, but first I have to ask: where is Twilight?"
As Phoenix opened his mouth to reply, however, they heard the sound of someone groaning in pain, Twilight to be exact, coming from a room that they had walked by when looking for Keira, though Jak blamed themselves for being blinded by rage or anger for a short period of time, before they found that none of the Pirates were nearby as Starlight opened the door, revealing that Twilight was inside it and that she was sitting on the floor with her back to the door. In that moment, as Jak opened his mouth to say something, he and the others watched as something weird happened, her tail started to glow before their eyes, with the hairs becoming infused with Eco energy, before it all broke apart and surged through the hole in her pants that her tail usually poked through, just like how Starlight and Cozy had one for their own tails. Of course that was when something else happened, a fully grown Ottsel tail, one that matched what Daxter and Tess had while also being sized to fit Twilight's body, burst out of the hole in question before coming to a stop near the ground, where if she stood up Jak had a feeling it would nearly touch the floor, though it caused all of them to stand there with shock on their faces, even if Twilight seemed to breathe a sigh of relief before noticing that she had company. Phoenix, however, had no idea what was going on and silently excused himself so he could focus on the ship, that way they could figure out what in the world had happened, not to mention what he needed to be told to understand what he had witnessed, leaving Jak and his sisters to approach Twilight as Keira closed the door so they wouldn't be interrupted.
"Twilight, it's good to see that your alright," Starlight said, as there wasn't much to say in this moment, because what they had just witnessed confirmed what she and her siblings had thought during the course of the KGC, that Twilight's odd and irregular behavior could be attributed to something specific, namely the event that Eon had warned them about during their conversation, the Ottsel transformation, before she paused for a moment, "...your body is fine, right?"
"...for now..." Twilight replied, though as she glanced back she stood up and found that her body did seem better, that the sickness she felt back in Aeropa had gone away after another alteration had made itself known, where she already knew that walking was going to be weird with a brand new tail, but as she studied that Jak noticed something else, Twilight had decreased in size a little, two to three inches, before she sighed and glanced at them, "but this is only the newest change that my body has gone through..."
Jak, Starlight, Cozy, Keira, Daxter, and Tess watched as Twilight pulled off her jacket, both of her gloves, and removed her shirt for a time as well, even if the last part was positioned so it covered her chest, allowing them to see that her right arm and hand matched what an Ottsel had, while the orange fur was spreading everywhere else, covering the entirety of her back based on what they could see, meaning it was only a matter of time until the rest of her body changed and Twilight became an Ottsel fully.
"Twilight... when did this start?" Jak asked, speaking the question that was on everyone's minds right now, because while they knew that the tail was brand new, since they had just seen it replace her pony tail, the rest of the changes seemed like it had taken some time for them to become reality, though as she said that Twilight replaced her shirt, deciding not to even worry about the jacket or gloves.
"...back during the KGC, the day you told Razer and Mizo that the Championship was nothing," Twilight replied, where Jak could see that she felt terrible for keeping this secret from him and their sisters, even though he understood why she had done such a thing, since they had been focused on finding out where Mizo was and taking him out, before she looked at her right hand for a few seconds, "I didn't want to worry you guys, since we were on a mission, and when you talked with Rayn, about joining the coalition, I asked Eon about this and learned that they had no idea what was going on... I can't use magic or Eco anymore... I mean, it's not like I lost those powers, the problem is that if I were to use either one my actions would only speed up the transformation..."
Jak could see that Twilight seemed lost, that she had been so used to using her powers and now she couldn't use them, all because she was afraid of being turned into an Ottsel and not being able to help them in their quest, to which he stepped up and embraced her, promising that they would do everything in their power to help her out while they worked to save their world from the danger it faced, just like the others agreed with as they joined them for a group hug, as they weren't about to leave her to face this alone as they faced whatever the future held.