Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco

by Blackdrag-rose

Exile: Action

Once Jak had pulled his sister away from where Seem had been standing, and had managed to get her to stop laughing, he brought them to a shaded area and asked what was wrong with her this time around. The last time something strange had happened to Pinkie it resulted in the creation of her Dark Eco form, the being known as Pinkamena, and this time he wanted to snip the bud before it became a problem. Pinkie's response, however, was that she had no idea why she had found what Seem had said to be funny, though Jak knew his sister well enough to know when she was lying... and she had told him one when she answered his question. He was sure that Pinkie knew what was humorous about what Seem had said, but he decided not to press the matter and determined that waiting might yield better results in the long run.

The four of them then spent about half an hour wandering around Spargus, memorizing where everything was in case they had to run around the city again at some point in the future, before they decided to head back to the garage and have some fun with the buggy that Kleiver was letting them use. When they arrived at their intended destination, however, they found the fat man waiting for them, though standing near one of the larger buggies was Damas, which told them that something interesting had to be coming their way. Even Pecker, Damas' adviser, was present, which confirmed what the group was thinking... to which they approached Kleiver so they could see what was going on.

"You guys looking for a bit of action?" Kleiver asked, though at the same time he rubbed the handle part of his weapon, as if he was trying to intimidate them in admitting something or was making sure that they were paying attention to the action part of his question.

"We're always up for some action," Jak replied, to which Daxter, Pinkie, and Raven nodded their heads in agreement, though at the same time Jak crossed his arms, "So tell us, what did you have in mind?"

"The scope shows a group of Metal Heads moving through the desert not too far from here." Kleiver stated, briefly giving them some knowledge on how Damas had found their beacon, before the man growled and stepped closer to the group, "No one in Spargus likes Metal Heads, so intercept those bad boys and give them hell. Who knows, you may even get a few toys for your effort."

"Okay, so which buggy are we going to use?" Daxter asked, to which he pointed at the one they had been riding in earlier, which had no weapons attached to it, before gesturing to the ones that were sitting around them, "Please tell me we're allowed to use an offensive buddy this time around."

"Yes, you have been granted access to the buggy we call 'Sand Shark'." Damas commented, causing the whole group to turn towards him, where Kleiver once again growled, as if he didn't like that Jak and Pinkie were being allowed to use a second buggy so soon after receiving the ability to use the first one, "Pecker told me that it wasn't necessary to do that, considering who is with you, but I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to get you some practice with a vehicle that actually has weapons... and see Raven's secret for myself."

"Don't worry, we can handle a few Metal Heads." Jak said, knowing that even if the guns failed them he could rely on Pinkie's strange abilities to save them, or have Raven shift into his true form and crush their enemies.

"Have any of you ever seen a Wasteland Metal Head?" Kleiver inquired, though at the same time he had this look on his face that none of the group liked, as it almost looked like he was going to laugh at whatever they said.

"No, but I'm willing to bet that they are large and really imposing," Pinkie replied, to which she giggled for a moment, telling Jak that his sister had to be losing her mind with the instances where she was laughing at something, before she hopped into the buggy, which happened to have two seats for them to use.

Before Kleiver had a chance to respond, and ask why Pinkie seemed happier than he remembered her being, Jak joined his sister and the small group of four departed from the garage, heading out into the Wasteland to hunt down the Metal Heads he had been talking about. A few seconds later Damas chuckled and climbed into the vehicle that he had been standing near, to which he got it into gear and headed out as well, leaving Kleiver to wonder what was going on.

It didn't take Jak and Pinkie long to find out where the Metal Heads were located, as they simply had to follow the radar to discover their location, though they were surprised by what they found. The Metal Heads in question appeared to be twice the size of the Sand Shark, maybe even three times as big, while having a wide frame and a long body at the same time. On the backs of the Metal Heads were what appeared to be a cannon, which seemed to move as the creatures moved, though fortunately they didn't seem to have a lot of armor, unlike the enemies they had found back in Haven City.

"So those are the Wasteland variety of Metal Heads," Raven commented as Jak brought the Sand Shark to a stop, to which he grinned as he prepared himself, because it seemed like the King of Spargus had come to watch after all, if he was correctly reading why a second buggy had followed them out here, "Finally, I get a chance to exercise my true form..."

As Raven jumped down onto the desert floor and started walking forward, however, Damas stopped his buggy and turned off the engine, as he was curious as to what Raven's true form looked like. Sure, it had been described to him while Jak and Pinkie were recovering from their trek through the desert, but it was one thing to hear about Raven's true form and another to witness it in action. A few moments later, when Raven reached a certain distance away from the Sand Shark, a dark purple mist seemed to spring out of nowhere and started to cover his body, though not seconds later Damas could have sworn he heard the sounds of bones breaking and realigning.

As the mist started to vanish Damas got a good look at what Raven's true form looked like, to which he took in the body that was the same size as the Metal Heads that were around them and claws that looked powerful enough to rip anything that wasn't made of the special Precursor alloy to pieces. The spikes on his tail and his razor sharp teeth also appeared to be strong enough to rip through anything he attacked, once again excluding anything that was made out of the Precursor alloy. Damas even noticed the large wings that Raven had, no doubt for him to fly around when he needed to do so, though he grinned as he stared at the creature that was in front of him.

Kleiver had said that no one in Spargus liked Metal Heads, but Damas was sure that they would make an exception for Raven once they discovered that he was a dragon, which was one of the rarest creatures in the entire world... though it was said that dragons had been extinct for a long time, but he was happy to see that there was a friendly one in the world.

Raven let out a roar, one that sounded like a challenge to Damas' ears, before he flared his wings and took to the sky, where the closest Metal Head was caught off guard when he barreled into his side and knocked him to the desert floor. As his opponent hit the ground Raven landed on top of him, using one side of his body to pin him down while the other side dealt with the cannon that the Metal Head was wearing. Damas watched as Raven ripped the cannon off and tossed it into the distance, before picking up his opponent and throwing him into one of the small rock structures that surrounded them. As the Metal Head collapsed on the ground Raven made sure that it was actually dead, which meant landed on top of it again and tearing the creature's throat out... before finally beheading the Metal Head.

Damas, while shocked at the brutality of how Raven worked while he was in his transformed state, couldn't stop himself from chuckling a bit, as he was pleased to find that there was one Metal Head that he actually liked... though while his son group worked to defeat the targets he made his way back to Spargus. Now that he knew how strong Raven was, and had seen how Jak and Pinkie worked in the Arena, he knew that there was no need to supervise them, though he planned on having a surprise ready for them when they returned to the city.

It took Jak, Pinkie, Daxter, and Raven about thirty minutes to hunt down and defeat the rest of the Wasteland Metal Heads, as they had separated themselves from each other and made the group hunt them down by using Raven's true form, but they eventually succeeded in bringing them all down... though the last one, upon his death, dropped both a Dark Eco Crystal and what appeared to be some sort of communicator.

"Metal head commander, report!" a voice said, to which a head appeared above the communicator, though the person that was speaking definitely sounded upset about something, "What's happening? If you lost that cargo, and you're still alive, I'll kill you myself. I want every Dark Eco Crystal you can find! Time is short. Did you hear me?"

Jak, deciding that whoever was speaking had said enough, approached the device and stared down at it, to which the head looked up in his direction and managed to state 'Wait, not you!' before Jak smashed the communicator with his foot.

"Hah! You sure kicked sand in his face!" Daxter commented, as this appeared to be the only violent deed that he would be apart of this time around, though at the same time Raven landed nearby and reverted to his ottsel form, before climbing back onto Pinkie's shoulder, "Oh yeah, that was good."

"That face looked familiar." Jak said, as he was sure that he had seen someone wearing that face at some time in the last year or two, but as he tried to place it he found that he couldn't remember who he thought it belonged to.

"It should be familiar, because that was Errol's face." Pinkie stated, though at the same time she noticed that three heads were facing her this time, as if they couldn't believe that she had said that, "What? I spent four years learning from Ashelin and Errol, so I would know his face better than anyone else, save for the Baron and anyone that spent a lot of time in Errol's presence."

"But Errol died one year ago, in the Class 1 race." Daxter said, not understanding why Pinkie would think that the face they had seen was Errol's, but at the same time he suspected that Pinkie might be onto something.

"Vex told me that there was supposed to be some sort of cyborg project, but then the Baron scrapped the idea," Pinkie replied, remembering what the smart Metal Head had told her the last time she had spoken to him, "Seeing how the KG Robots are now a separate force in Haven City, maybe a part of Errol survived the Dark Eco explosion and was put into a cyborg body... that's the only thing that makes sense to me at the moment."

"Come on, let's get back to the city and tell Damas the good news," Raven commented, to which they piled into the buggy that Jak had been driving and set of towards the city.

---

When they returned to Spargus, and informed Kleiver that they were successful in dealing with the Metal Heads that had appeared on their radar, the group made their way to where Damas was waiting for them, where they found the King standing near his throne.

"Jak, Pinkie, I have something that you need to know," Damas said, to which he turned towards them and tossed the two of them something, which looked like three gun barrels lined up side by side, which the two of them caught and stared at for a few seconds, "The time has come for the two of you to once again test your fighting skills in the Arena. That weapon mod I just handed you is called the Wave Concussor, which charges Red Eco into the weapon and releases a wave of energy as its blast. You should be able to use that to great effect in the Arena."

Jak smiled as he attached the new weapon mod to his Morph Gun, which happened to recognize the new mod and changed the Red Eco mod until it was the Wave Concussor. Pinkie, on the other hand, stared at the mod for a moment before it broke apart and became a new Red Eco bead on her bracelet, though she had to flex her fingers for a few seconds to be sure that nothing was wrong.

"Okay, that's still freaky," Daxter commented, though at the same time Damas waved a hand to dismiss the matter, indicating that there would be a time for talk later.

Jak and Pinkie, taking the hint, made their way to the Arena, where they lowered themselves into the fighting stage and discovered a box full of Dark Eco waiting in one of the four square stages. Jak, upon taking some of the Dark Eco into his body, shifted into his Dark Form and suddenly remembered one of the moves that the Oracle in Haven had taught in over a year ago, to which he jumped into the air as enemies came near them and slammed down hard on the ground. The resulting Dark Eco shockwave knocked literally every enemy off the stage that he and Pinkie were on, to which he shifted back to his normal state and pulled out his gun.

Pinkie, on the other hand, shifted back into Pinkamena, who grinned as she realized that she had a new toy to play with and allowed the Red Eco to create a ring around her wrist. As the enemies drew closer to her, and waited for an opening that would never show itself, Pinkamena threw her hand towards the ground and released a wave of sinister red energy that tossed all the warriors, save for her and Jak, off the stage. After that she and Jak made their way around the area, jumping from one stage to another as they sunk into the lava, fighting more enemies until they had touched each stage at least once.

Eventually they reached the end of the second trial, as nothing that Damas had prepared at the moment was up to their level, to which Damas called them back up to where he was standing and awarded them with their second Battle Amulet fragment... to which they left the Arena and went looking for more work to do, regardless of who was asking for assistance.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

Aw.... i wanna know what Kleiver would have said if he saw Raven's true form