Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco

by Blackdrag-rose

Renegade: Sewer Work

Once the group was back inside the city, and Pinkie had handed over all of the glowing gems she and Raven had recovered, Jak noticed that a new location had been marked on their map, though how it got there was a mystery to all of them. Since the new location was close to where they were standing, within a few minutes walk by the looks of things, they decided that they could take a few minutes to see what was going on in the nearby area. Pinkie knew that Krew could wait a few more minutes before they returned with news of their success, where she assumed that the fat man would send them out on another mission as soon as they returned, so she was okay with them taking a slight detour before they returned to the Hip Hog.

When they reached the location that had appeared on their map, which happened to be a large hut that wasn't surrounded by another other buildings, Jak insisted that they carefully enter the building... to which all four of them discovered one of the large Precursor Oracles that they had seen before, or recognized in Raven's case.

"Greetings Great Warrior," the Oracle said, though Jak could tell that it was greeting him, while at the same time ignoring everyone else, "I sense there is a dark rage burning within you, and in time it will destroy you with its madness. Your sister has been touched by Dark Eco, though she is in no danger of losing herself to its madness, while your companions have both been touched by it as well. If you bring me the skull gems of the creatures you call the Metal Heads, to demonstrate you skills in battle, I will teach you how to control these dark powers."

Ironically they happened to have enough skull gems, the glowing gems that Pinkie had been collecting, so Jak could learn how to use what he called the 'Dark Bomb', which required that he shift his his Dark Form, jump into the air, and then unleash a burst of energy on the ground that would annihilate all of his opponents. Both he and Pinkie agreed that it was a power that they could use to their advantage, provided that there weren't any innocent people in the area, before they bid the Oracle farewell and resumed their journey back to the Hip Hog. On the way back, however, Daxter felt the need to speak up about something that the Oracle had said to them, something that happened to be connected to Raven.

"So you fell into a well of Dark Eco as well," Daxter commented, looking over the other ottsel for a moment, wondering what he could have been before fate had played its hand, "what were you before you took the fall?"

"An ottsel that had the same color fur that you have," Raven replied, deciding to stick to the original story he, Pinkie, and Ashelin had come up with shortly after his awakening inside the Palace, "so I guess falling into the Dark Eco changed my fur color... and apparently nothing else of relevance."

"Really? That's it?" Daxter said, not believing his ears, though he made sure to brace himself as Jak turned their zoomer a bit, "That's an extremely boring story; that you fell in a pool of Dark Eco, popped back out with a new fur color, and went on with your life, as if nothing had happened to you."

Raven smiled and said nothing in return, though Pinkie knew that her companion was pleased by the fact that such a simple story was enough to cause Daxter to give up, which meant that she and Ashelin had done a good job discovering it. Jak also smiled as he made his way around the city districts that they had access to, where he maneuvered them around the traffic that was in front of them before they landed in front of the Hip Hog. Once he parked the zoomer they hopped out of the vehicle, made sure to collect their guns and strap them to their backs, before entering the building and looking for the man that likely had another mission for them.

After a few seconds Krew floated over to them, though the look on his face indicated that they had been correct in their assumption, which meant that he had another task for them to complete.

"You lot are turning out to be quite useful, though I have another task for you." Krew commented, staring at all four of them as he stopped behind them, essentially blocking them inside the Hip Hog until he said his piece, "The Sewers used to be a fabulous smuggling route for me before the Baron installed security devices... I need someone to go down there and blast all of the sentry gun that's down there. And I'll throw in a sweet weapon upgrade for the two of you, provided you survive the Sewers."

"Sounds easy enough," Jak said, a smile appearing on his face, because it meant that he and the others could screw with the Baron's toys and get some new firepower in return.

"Out of curiosity, why is the Baron trading barrels of Eco to the Metal Heads?" Pinkie inquired, knowing that Krew owed them the answer to that question, because he moved around it when they had last seen each other.

"All I know is that the Baron cut a desperate deal with the Metal Head Leader." Krew replied, though considering that Pinkie didn't threaten not to do his task he felt no need to be aggressive towards them, because he already knew that she would ensure that her group would live up to their side of the bargain and not complain about his missions, "The Metal Heads need Eco, so the Baron supplies them with regular shipments... though in exchange the Metal Heads agree to attack enough to satisfy the Baron's continued rule. Baron Praxis NEEDS this war to stay in power, otherwise the citizens would put the true ruler on the throne... wherever that little boy is hiding."

"Well I thank you for the information," Pinkie said, not exactly liking the fact that the Baron was trading Eco with the Metal Heads to ensure a continuous war, as if he was searching for a way to obliterate all of the Metal Heads in a single attack, "Jak and I will clear out the sewers and get back to you in an hour or two."

Jak and Pinkie, both carrying their ottsel companions on their shoulders, walked outside the Hip Hog once Krew was out of the way, to which they climbed back into the zoomer they had been using earlier, which surprised them that it was still there, before they made their way towards the new area on their maps. When they reached their destination they climbed out of the zoomer, entered the elevator shaft that was in front of them, and silently rode it down to the entrance of the sewers, where they found a trio of the red lizard creatures waiting for enemies to come near them. Instead of wasting ammunition on the creatures, despite the fact that they got some from the crates near the entrance, Jak and Pinkie slammed their fists into the enemies and put them down.

When they turned the corner, after turning on the lights, they spotted a square box that was resting on a stand of some kind, which they quickly discovered had to be one of the sentry guns they were looking for, considering that it was firing between two to four shots at either her or Jak. Fortunately the sentry gun had no way to acknowledge small creatures, which was why Raven was able to get behind it without it even knowing, but thanks to his knowledge of machines the ottsel was able to disable its camera, allowing the group to get close and blow it to pieces with their Scatter Mod.

With the first sentry gun taken care of they crossed over some of the sewer pipes and carefully walked over the wall that was opposite of the area they had left, though as they moved forward they had to take out a Metal Head that was trapped behind a sewer wall. They then reached another passage that had one red lizard and three of the smaller green creatures walking around, though their weapons were able to take them out in a few shots. A few seconds later they turned on another light and found three Metal Heads, the beast like ones that could either walk on all fours or charge at a target on their hind legs, though they easily fell due to the combined power of Jak and Pinkie. Behind those Metal Heads they found another pair of red lizard creatures, which they took out within a few seconds, before they entered an area that happened to contain the second sentry gun.

As Jak moved behind the nearby sewer pipes, to avoid the shots that the sentry gun was firing at him until he could figure out how to get to the target, Pinkie charged at the gun and forced it to zero in on her, but she jumped over the shots that were coming at her until she was close enough to blow it up with one shot.

"Was it necessary for us to hide, when you were planning on blowing the sentry gun up like that?" Daxter asked, though at the same time Jak emerged from his hiding place, where his expression said that he wasn't annoyed with his sister.

"It was distracted when Jak moved to the hiding place," Pinkie explained, shrugging for a few seconds, as she didn't see anything wrong with what she had done, "it would have been wrong to not take advantage of the opening that was presented to me."

Jak nodded and they moved through the next tunnel that was in front of them, though as they walked on the walkway they had to jump as the entire structure fell out from under them. The two of them safely landed on the floor beneath them, but as they gathered their bearings they noticed that the room in front of them had quite a large number of Metal Heads waiting for them. Jak grinned for a moment and beckoned for Pinkie to stand back, to which he shifted into his Dark Form, which he knew how to do thanks to the fact that the Oracle gave him the knowledge earlier, charged into the room while activating the lights, before jumping into the air and releasing the blast the moment he touched the ground again.

The shock wave of the attack knocked out every Metal Head that was in the room, breaking them apart while scattering their skull gems everywhere, to which Jak let out a sigh as he reverted to his original state.

"You know, its a good thing that we visited that Oracle earlier," Pinkie commented, a smile appearing on her face as she collected the gems that were scattered around the room, "there's no telling how useful a skill like that will be in the future."

Jak nodded and finished collecting the skull gems, though once that task was done they climbed up the platforms next to them and made their way to the next tunnel that they needed to move through, where they were greeted by a group of five small green creatures. Once the group had been taken care of, and Jak had collected the Dark Eco that they had dropped, they spotted the third sentry gun waiting on the other side of some pipes that they needed to jump over, which actually was much easier than what they originally thought. Pinkie was able to distract the gun, by having it fire at her the entire time, while Jak swam over to it and loosed a blast from his Scatter Gun that tore the gun to pieces.

A few seconds, and a remark from Daxter to clean Jak's clothes after this mission, later the two of them walked on the platforms that were in front of them, where they turned on the fights and opened fire on the three Metal Heads that were coming at them. It didn't take them long to take out their enemies, and collect their gems, before they noticed that the final sentry gun was waiting on the other side of the room from where they were standing. This one proved to be easy to get passed, as they simply jumped onto a platform, waited for the gun to fire at them, to which they would jump to the next platform and continue on the same pattern until they reached their target and blew it to pieces.

Once the task was done they received a call from Krew on their communicator, to which they learned that the fat man was 'pleased' with their work and that he wanted them to come back to the Hip Hog for their next task. Jak and Pinkie assumed that they would be given their weapon upgrade once they returned, to which they would have a few minutes to understand what they had been given before being sent out on whatever the next mission was. They took out the rest of the red creatures that were in front of them, along with the two Metal Heads that dropped down on them, before they returned to the entrance and left the sewers... much to Daxter's relief.

---

It didn't take them long to return to the Hip Hog, though Jak did take a few extra minutes to dry his clothes against the wind, but when they returned to their destination they found that Krew wasn't waiting by the door... rather he was floating near the bar counter.

"What IS that horrible smell?" Krew asked, indicating that the scent of the sewers had stuck to Jak and Pinkie, which only seemed to annoy Daxter and no one else.

"Ohhh, great!" Daxter exclaimed, jumping off of Jak's shoulder and landing on a post that was in the middle of the room, though it was plainly clear that he was annoyed, "We do your dirty work in the sewers, and come back smelling worse than a wet hip hog in a warm barn! This could have a serious impact on the lady factor."

That last bit was directed to Jak, who rolled his eyes and shook his head, as if he couldn't believe that his friend was more interested in flirting than trying to take out the Baron or stopping the Metal Heads. Pinkie and Raven, on the other hand, weren't too surprised by Daxter's attitude, though at the same time they were both interested in hearing what the fat man had to say this time around.

"No, uh, I think it was my lunch, actually." Krew stated, making some movements that caused the group to take a step back, before the fat man turned on them, "Nice work in the sewers, 'ey, I guess you're looking for that weapon upgrade, mmm? Well, there's a pair of Blaster Mods stashed in a crate at the Gun Course. Find them and they're yours."

Jak and Pinkie waited for a few seconds, to be sure that this was the only task at the moment, before they got the silent fact that Krew wanted to see how they used the new weapon mod in the gun course, to which they left the Hip Hog and returned to the area where their reward was supposed to be resting. When they entered the building they found the crate that Krew had been talking about, which was easy to find considering that it was out in the open, to which Jak and Pinkie picked up one of the Blaster Mods and attached them to their Morph Guns, which incorporated the new modification and caused Daxter to rub his hands in the process.

The two looked at each other as they heard Sig mention how to use the new modification, because now they had another weapon to learn about... which meant they could see who had the higher score once they got the hang of everything.

Comments

[Sonata Blaze]

Ah that sewer mission... one of the easier missions in the game. Its easy to dodge the sentry guns and dismantle the enemies that you have to fight. At least the group has the blaster mods, one of my favorites.

[Aria Blitz]

Jak has the Dark Bomb, both he and Pinkie have Blasters, and soon they'll be going back to the Underground and getting some missions from Torn... which means that we're getting closer to a potential point where Raven's identity will be revealed to Jak and Daxter.

[Adagio Shimmer]

Well things are slowly heating up... which means that the next few chapters will have some excitement to them.

[FurryBrony]

You know, the Morph Gun mods each incorporate aspects of the Eco they use. The Scatter Gun, using Red Eco, is powerful, but dangerously short range. The Yellow Eco Mod is balanced, with great range and moderate power. The Blue Eco mod fires rapidly with great range, but lacks power. The Peace Maker Is extremely powerful, but also dangerous and easy to misuse.