Daxter was able to get Shining into the Fortress - an area connected to the palace which proved to be where Jak was actually being held - rather easily. Once inside and past the obstacles, the pair found Jak...undergoing Dark Eco infusion. At the sight of it, Shining shivered, the memory of undergoing the selfsame torturous experience coming to the fore of his mind from the image and sounds of the device itself, and the sound of Jak's screams.
"Easy there, Shiny," Daxter whispered, one hand on the unicorn's neck to try and calm him down. "We're no good to Jak if we get caught here."
Two other humans in armor stood over Jak as the machine shut down. "Nothing," the larger one stated. "I was informed that this one might be different!" At this, he gestured to Jak.
The smaller, younger one shrugged. "He is surprisingly resistant to your experiments, Baron Praxis. I fear the Dark Warrior program has reached a dead end."
Baron Praxis growled angrily, grabbing Jak by the head. "You should at least be dead with all the Dark Eco I pumped into you! Like that unicorn! Either that or metamorphosed like the failures! Why haven't you done either?!"
Jak's eyes flickered open and closed. "S...Shining..." he murmured, his voice heavy with sorrow and too quiet for anyone to hear...save Shining Armor and Daxter, both of whom had hearing much stronger than human.
"What now?" the other one demanded. "Metalhead armies are pressing their attacks. Without a new weapon, my men cannot hold them off forever."
Praxis' half-metal face contorted in rage. "I will not be remembered as the man who lost this city to those vile creatures! Move forward with the final plan! And finish off this...thing tonight." At 'thing', he once more gestured to Jak.
Shining felt anger beginning to stir in his heart, but he quickly quelled it. Not only had Samos taught him that anger could easily destroy him, his magic had always reacted to his anger in...unpleasant ways. Not only that, he could feel the Dark Eco inside him reacting to it even now.
"As you wish," the younger human confirmed his order. "I'll be back later," he whispered to Jak before leaving.
Daxter and Shining made their move immediately. Racing up, Daxter began to examine the controls. "Jak, you okay?" he asked worriedly.
Jak's eyes suddenly snapped open. "Praxis!" he roared angrily.
Dark Eco flared over his body. His skin turned grey, as did his hair. His hair grew out much longer in dreadlock-like spines, and his nails turned into black claws. His eyes turned into black pits, staring at the world around him in fury.
"That's new!" Daxter meeped.
"You'll pay for what you did to my brother, Praxis!" Jak shouted as he burst free of the manacles holding him to the machine, smashing it in the process.
"Jak, calm down!" Shining shouted, rushing to his brother's side. "You're going to bring every guard in the whole place down on our heads!"
"Bring 'em!" Jak roared. "I'll make them all pay for killing you..." His anger started to drain out of him as he turned to face Shining. "You...you're not dead?" he asked, reverting to his normal form.
"Thanks to Daxter, nope," Shining replied, only to get pulled into a fierce embrace.
"You're...you're okay..." Jak whispered, tears in his eyes.
"I hate to be a downer on this," Daxter began, "but as I'm apparently the reasonable one of this trio now, can I suggest having this tearful reunion back at our new apartment, after we've escaped the torturous death dungeon filled with enemy soldiers who will be out for our blood, or possibly brainwashing you when they discover their experiment was apparently successful?" He shrugged. "I mean, I can only assume that new 'super Dark Jak' form is what they were shooting for with something called a 'Dark Warrior' program..."
Shining managed to extract himself from Jak's embrace. "He's right you know," he admitted.
"Something tells me I'm going to be hearing that a lot more than I want to," Jak joked. He blinked, surprised the humor even came out.
"Good to see you're still you after all that, Jak," Daxter praised, climbing up to his friend's shoulder. "Now let's jet!"
"Here," Shining offered, levitating a bundle of clothes over to Jak, wincing as he did so. "Figured you'd want to wear something other than prison clothes."
"You okay?" Jak asked worriedly as he took the clothes.
"Dark Eco gave you a new super form," Shining joked. "It gave me nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, and magic headaches."
"You know, this place has this weird pink medicine to treat most of that," Daxter joked.
Managing a chuckle, Jak changed into the new clothes, a blue jacket, white pants, and black boots and gloves. He was under no illusions that things were 'back to normal'. He could feel the pain of everything he'd been through hovering just at the edge of his awareness, and the rage was bubbling endlessly beneath his mind, waiting to unleash the new 'Dark Jak' once more. He was focusing hard, holding all that at bay, shielding himself with the camaraderie and jokes. He needed to keep it at bay for now...at least until they were out of the Fortress. Once they were safe...then he could try and face it. Still, he had Daxter and Shining with him.
He wanted to ask about Samos and Keira - especially Keira - but he was afraid of the answer. With no communicator signal yet, he could only assume she wasn't in on this mission. That meant she was either missing, or...
He blocked that train of thought. He had to be strong now. Had to be strong...be strong...
You and your updates though. I love it.
Well... that took a much more depressing turn than the games showed...
It would be cool and scary if a Dark Eco-infused Shining took on Sombra, then went berserk.
Questions
1. will you be doing all the missions from the games and oracle?
2. you mentioned earlier that Gol and Mia had notes on the three. im hoping that they may have a more important role in your story.
3. will you include all the games that are available through out the city so that they can get all of the orbs?
signed your guardian of the multiverse
Spyro the Night Fury
well that escalated quickly...
6663521
1. yes
2. still being plotted
3. still being plotted
6663554 Not that different from the second game, actually.
6663774
Nope.
"Dark Eco gave you a new super form," Shining joked. "It gave me nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, and magic headaches." Anyone else think of the old Pepto-Bismol commercials ?
and then I read the next line. -_-
This is so awesome, love your fics. Also looking forward to when you do Sly Cooper.
Dude, did you seriously make a peptobismo reference... I LOVE IT!
Another enjoyble chapter. Good job.
I'm guessing it'll take light Eco to make Shining right again.
I am expecting a "Jak SMASH!" sometime soon.
I almost feel bad for it, but I am really looking forward to seeing Dark Shiney.
6664015
If we're thinking of the same Hulk then the person he ate might have been Wolverine.
Praxis's dialogue always kinda bugged me. He kinda felt more like he had been experimenting on Jak for days or weeks as compared to years. It was just like he didn't really have any connection to it, like he wasn't very familiar or something.
Good thing Shining didn't get magic diarrhea. As much as the pink stuff claims to help with that, even it has problems when magic is involved.
People in the comments: Hahahah! Peptobismo reference!
Me:......The f#%k does that mean.....
Oh Please help me comment gods, I'm not in the mood to research.
7432426 Medicine commercials. Pep is the medicine for constipation. Funny thing: It is one of many other man-made medicines with more or worse side effects than what it is curing.
Is that Pepto-Bismol or kaopectate?
Flim and Flam show up out of nowhere, in their kart, and do this:
Friends,
Has dinner at an Italian restaurant ended with a sleepless night of indigestion?
Have you been stuck all day on the can with the runs?
Have you been subjected to countless Dark Eco injections against your will, only to spend the rest of the day suffering the side effects that for some strange reason is mainly focused on your digestive tract?
Then, do we have a product for you:
cdn.genesis.pgsitecore.com/en-us/-/media/PeptoPilot/Images/Common/1_8ozPeptoOriginal.png?h=1020&la=en-US&w=1140&v=1-201412011006
One dose is able to relief the 5 digestive problems listed on the bottle.
Comes in liquid form and tablets
It's Daxter approved.
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/jakanddaxter/images/8/8c/Daxter_from_TPL_render.png/revision/latest?cb=20150201025654
7453058
And it tastes good ♥️