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// Precursor: The Citadel 1 
// Story: Sons of Damas 
// by Tatsurou 
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	Jak, Daxter, and Shining made their way into Gol and Maia's Citadel carefully.  The front door irised open with a metallic hiss.  The inside was very high tech, beyond anything they had seen before...and, much to Shining's relief, temperature controlled.  When they made it through the first tunnel, they found themselves in a massive chamber dominated by a giant Precursor robot held in a Dark Eco field.  Without warning, Samos dropped down, suspended in a cage held shut by even more Dark Eco.  "It's about time you three decided to show up!" he barked.  "Shining, you doing better?"

"Yes sir," Shining confirmed.  "I'm up to this."

"Good!" Samos barked.  "Then get us out of here!"

"Us?" Jak asked in confusion.

"Gol and Maia kidnapped the rest of us to drain our power to fuel their Precursor robot!" Samos explained.  "I'm still close to full strength, but the other sages have been here much longer.  If they aren't freed soon, they might not survive.  So make sure you free them first!"

Nodding, Jak turned to plot a course into the citadel.  "I take it dealing with the robot will come later?" he asked.

"You'll need the power of all four of us to break the force shield protecting that monstrosity before you can begin destroying it," Samos indicated.  "Now get going!"

The paths into the Citadel were a maze of floating platforms and wooden bridges suspended over deep pits.  One thing was certain, none of them wanted to fall here.  Switches raised paths of colored squares linked together.  Standing on any square of one color caused all the squares of that color to drop back into the pit after a few moments.

"That's going to get annoying real fast," Daxter muttered as the group left off the first such bridge, which also collapsed in its entirety after a certain amount of time passed.

"Shh!" Shining hissed as they came to the next gap and set of rotating floating platforms.  As the platforms were spaced to be exactly the distance Jak and Shining could clear in a leap with their jump boots, they needed concentration to clear the gap.  The platforms leading upward were even more difficult, as Jak could just barely grab hold of the side to pull himself up, and then had to lean back over to grab Shining as he jumped upward to pull him up, and still having to plot the next leap before the platform had rotated enough to push them both off.

Reaching a stable, non-moving platform with a switch that would raise another color-bridge, Jak and Shining paused to catch their breath.  "Why would they even set this place up like that?" Shining demanded breathlessly.

"It's not like they even need platforms," Jak barked out.  "They can fly!  Why make it so hard to get through if you can't?  Why not just not have the platforms?  Most of them aren't even connected to anything!"

Daxter glanced around at the positioning.  "Well...either the arrangement is channeling Eco energy in a manner we'd need Samos to explain...or..."

Jak and Shining both turned to the little Ottsel.  "Or?" they asked together.

"Or breaking the barrier around the Precursor Robot is part of the activation process, and they want us to free the Sages to do it," Daxter concluded.  "The Sages wouldn't do it if they told them to, and we'd get suspicious if it was too easy to free them.  And if they can get us to get the Sages to do it, they don't need to expend their own power to do so."

Jak and Shining both swallowed at the suggestion.  "Two questions then," Jak spoke up.  "Since we need to free the sages anyway...if that is the case, then how do we stop them?"

Daxter glanced around.  "Well, with all the Eco tech around, there's bound to be a few Eco Vents, right?  So once they're on the robot, we just need to make sure Gol and Maia are more focused on us than unsealing the silos long enough for you two to tear their robot apart somehow.  What's the second question?"

"When'd you get so smart?" Shining asked teasingly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daxter demanded angrily, causing both Jak and Shining to start laughing.

"Maybe his brain evolved from the Dark Eco, too," Jak suggested jokingly.

"Couldn't have made it any worse," Shining added with a chuckle.

"Ha ha," Daxter replied with a roll of his eyes.  "Real funny guys."

While the laughter managed to dispel most of the worry brought up by the theory, the group continued with a more serious air around them.  When they came across a Yellow Eco vent before a long hallway that soon became flooded with Lurkers, Shining got an idea.  "Jak, Daxter, stay behind me," he ordered as he stepped into the vent.

The pair obeyed, keeping their eyes on their unicorn companion.  Shining closed his eyes, focusing the Yellow Eco his body was absorbing into his horn.  When he felt he could hold no more, he released it forward...in a flood, rather than a burst.

A blazing inferno erupted from Shining's horn, blasting the relatively weak Lurkers to ashes as it filled the hallway, subsiding as Shining fell back onto his rump and out of the Eco vent.

Daxter was the first to speak, expressing both his and Jak's reactions.  "Whoa."

As blasting away the Lurkers had also broken several dynamos of some sort, which opened another door.  The door led straight to where the Red Sage - a hulk of a man who looked more like a blacksmith than a scholar - was locked up.  Breaking another dynamo released him, as well as providing another Power Cell.

The Red Sage chuckled as he turned to face them.  "So you've finally come to rescue me," he said calmly, his voice rolling smoothly out of his mouth, showing a very laid back personality.  "You know how long I've been here?  What took you so long?  And what are your names?"

The group introduced themselves.

"Jak."

"Daxter."

"Shining Armor."

"You're real heroes, you three," the Red Sage complimented them.  "You've got to stop Gol and Maia before they can use their robot.  I'll use my Eco Power to start breaking down the barrier."  Turning, he aimed his hands forward and shot out a beam of Red Eco.

Glancing at each other nervously, Jak, Daxter, and Shining turned to keep going.