Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco

by Blackdrag-rose

Exile: A New Ride

Jak and Pinkie spent a few minutes checking Spargus for any signs of people that may need some assistance, though it quickly became clear to them that most of the Wastelanders took on their own tasks and only called on aid when they had something that was hard for one person to do. Once the group determined that the people of Spargus didn't need their help, and were just fine working on their own, they turned around and headed back to the garage, where they were sure to acquire some sort of mission from either Damas or Kleiver. Jak clearly wished that he could spend more time with his father, especially now that they had met and knew who each other was, but he guessed that Damas was waiting for him and Pinkie to fully become Wastelanders before announcing that his heir had joined them in the Wasteland.

When they arrived at the garage, however, they found Kleiver waiting for them, indicating that he likely had another mission that they needed to do so they could prove themselves to the people of Spargus.

"Damas has a job for us," Kleiver stated, immediately confirming what Jak and Pinkie were thinking, though at the same time he glared at them for a moment, "but I'm no babysitter, so stay out of my way!"

"Look Kleiver, I'm only going to say this once," Daxter said, surprising both Jak and Pinkie by how brave he was acting, though this wasn't the usual trick he was pulling on someone, namely Tess, he was actually showing that he wasn't frightened this time around, "Jak and Pinkie, as well as Raven and I, aren't afraid of you!"

"If you knew what was happening out here, you'd be afraid all right." Kleiver commented, as if he was actually trying to intimidate them into backing off and accepting him as their superior, though at the same time Jak knew that if the man pushed Pinkie he could awaken the anger inside her.

"Oh, we already know about the Day Star," Pinkie said, glancing up at the shining star that they had been told about earlier that day, and the potential threat that it posed to the entire world, "Don't worry, we already have a plan to deal with that... once it gets closer to the planet anyway."

"What's going on here?!" Damas demanded, to which he walked through the gate that Jak and Pinkie had walked through earlier and approached the group, though his tone indicated that they should have departed from the garage and started their mission already.

"Nothing, your Lordship." Kleiver lied, surprising Jak and Pinkie by the fact that he would so blatantly lie to his King, though at the same time it appeared that Damas already knew that Kleiver had said something that he shouldn't have, "Just offering Jak, Pinkie, and the little ones some healthy advice."

"I see," Damas said, apparently choosing to go along with Kleiver's lies this time, indicating that whatever the mission was had to be more important than arguing with his Quartermaster, "Jak, Pinkie, didn't your teacher, this Green Sage you mentioned, ever tell you to pick your battles wisely?"

"To be honest, I'm sure he did at some point," Jak replied, knowing that his father would be a tad bit ashamed that he had forgotten some of Samos' lessons, "but it has been a rough ride and I may have forgotten some of his teachings."

"Then allow me to say this," Damas said, though at the same time Jak and Pinkie noticed that Kleiver was interested in what he was going to say, as if Damas actually didn't speak to those he rescued very much, which would mean that this was a rare occurrence in Spargus, "sometimes you face your enemy head on, and sometimes you wait until his weakness is revealed. Patience is one of a warrior's greatest weapons. Do you understand?"

Jak and Pinkie nodded their understanding, because now that Damas had told them that they easily remembered Samos saying something like that in the past, back when they were training for their big adventure to turn Daxter back after he had fallen into Dark Eco.

"Good." Damas stated, to which he looked at the assembled group for a few seconds, indicating that he was about to tell them their mission, "Jak, Pinkie, I want the two of you, along with Kleiver, to go into the desert and herd a group of lizards into a waiting transport. We must prepare for whatever lies ahead; I need all the resources we can gather."

"No problem," Jak replied, to which he glanced over at Daxter as Pinkie did the same to Raven, though this was one excuse they had used in the past a few times and knew that it worked like a charm, "We're good with animals."

"I'll see you out there." Kleiver stated, to which he climbed into one of the buggies and drove off, passing through the main gate and headed out into the Wasteland, leaving Jak and Pinkie to do the same thing.

Jak and Pinkie wished Damas well before climbing into the Sand Shark, taking a brief moment to make sure that everyone was ready to depart, before Jak started up the engine and burst out of the gates as well. Since Pinkie was closer to the radar, and he needed to concentrate on the enemies that wanted them dead, he had her tell him the direction that they needed to head in. Fortunately they now possessed a buggy that had guns, which meant that Jak could easily turn towards whoever was chasing them and gun them down, before resuming the journey to wherever Kleiver was going. The ride also gave them the opportunity to observe the layout of the Wastelands, where they tried to remember where certain rock formations were in the off chance they were told to come out in this area again.

After some time they eventually came to what appeared to be a ruined city of some kind, which seemed to have ruined walls and structures that were slowly being buried by the sand... and in the middle of the city they spied what had to be the transport, along with several small groups of lizards resting from a hard days run.

"Okay, how are we going to get them into that transport?" Daxter asked, though at the same time the only way he could see this happening is if he was flung at one of the leaper lizards and forced it into the transport.

"I'll just shift into my hybrid form and fly around the ruins," Raven said, his wings started to emerge once more, though at the same time he eyed the area in front of them, "It should be easy for me to fly around here and land on one of the lizard's backs, then I can direct them into the transport and repeat until Kleiver is happy. Or we can do it this way, I can fly you around and drop you off on the backs of the leapers, allowing you to direct them towards the transport. Or we can take the third option, Jak can drive around and you can jump out onto the backs of the lizards..."

"Option two is the best one of them all," Daxter replied, surprised that Raven could come up with three plans that involved him, though at the same time he climbed onto the top of the buggy and held his hands out, "Come on, let's get this over with."

Raven grinned as he jumped out of the buggy and finished transforming into his hybrid form, to which he circled back to where Daxter was and grabbed onto him, pulling Daxter into the air as they started to hunt down the leaper lizards. Jak and Pinkie, on the other hand, moved into the middle of the ruins and watched the two ottsels fly around and hunt down their targets. Raven would swoop down every now and then, allowing Daxter to get a feeling for when he would actually have to let go, before he actually let Daxter go, to which Daxter latched onto the lizard they had chosen and made it run around the ruins before entering the transport. Once the lizard was in the transport Daxter charged out of the pen the lizards would be held in and allowed Raven to pick him up again, where they resumed the hunt for another lizard.

The two ottsels did that two more times, dropping Daxter onto the backs of two more lizards and delivering them to the pen, before all of them gathered around the Sand Shark and waited for Kleiver to arrive... though when he walked over Raven had already returned to his ottsel form.

"I have to admit, I underestimated the lot of you." Kleiver said, though Jak and Pinkie were a little bit surprised to hear that he actually sounded impressed by what they had done, with just Raven and Daxter no less, "Have another one of me vehicles, you earned it."

"Damn straight!" Daxter stated, though at the same time he rubbed his wrists, because hanging onto Raven like that had hurt a little bit, but not enough to actually make him complain about what he had just gone through.

Jak and Pinkie looked at the new vehicle that Kleiver was allowing them to ride, to which they discovered that it was actually the one he had jumped into and rode off in earlier. The vehicle appeared to be designed with a highly reinforced suspension and large wheels on the back end of it, though Jak and Pinkie agreed that it almost looked like something that was ready to pounce on someone. As they studied the vehicle, however, Kleiver hopped inside the Sand Shark and drove off with it, indicating that whatever their next mission was involved the usage of their new vehicle, the Dune Hopper according to what was written on the side of the vehicle.

As Jak and Pinkie climbed into the vehicle, and made sure that Daxter and Raven were with them, they studied the controls, in the off chance that Pinkie had to use this one without him around, and spotted a lever that looked out of place. When Jak pulled on the lever the buggy sank low to the ground, almost like an animal that was getting ready to pounce on its prey or something, though the real fun came when he let go of the lever. The instant the lever snapped back into place the buggy bounced high into the air, though when the buggy landed a few moments later Jak and Pinkie were delighted by what the new buggy could do... and imagined what they could use it for.

"Check this out," Pinkie commented, pointing at the Dune Hopper's built in map, which was showing a brand new icon that none of them had seen so far, "according to the map it appears that there is something important nearby... and I have the feeling that we'll be needing this buggy to get at whatever it is."

"Well then, let's ride." Jak said, to which he engaged the engine and headed in the direction that the icon was in, though he noticed that it was leading them towards the water.

They quickly discovered that, while the Dune Hopper didn't have the same amount of armor like the other buggies they had used, the new buggy had a pair of grenade launchers, which destroyed any attacking brigands that happened to be in the area. Jak then used the high jump ability of the Dune Hopper to go from the shore they came to and jumped over to the small rock island, though when they landed he continued the process by jumping from one small outcrop to the next one in line. That was quickly followed by them landed at what appeared to be the base of a mountain, out in the middle of the water and only accessible by the Dune Hopper, before they rode up the only available path.

Jak had to use the high jump to cross one more gap before having to stop in front of what appeared to be the entrance of an ancient temple of sorts... though the entrance was too small for the Dune Hopper to pass through, so they had to park the buggy and actually walk into the temple. Jak and Pinkie noticed that, when they walked into the actual temple, they spotted architecture and statues that reminded them of the other Precursor items they had seen throughout the years. From what they could see there were two paths for them to take, though the one directly in front of them, which was the one they wanted, was being guarded by some sort of glowing white eye and summoned spikes to keep them from moving... to which they turned towards the only other path they could take.

"Okay, this is going to be a problem," Jak commented, looking at the various pieces of stone that were just barely hanging on, as most of them looked like they were ready to crack and fall apart, "How are the two of us going to get to the top of this structure?"

"I have an idea." Daxter spoke up, though at the same time he glanced over at Raven, because it appeared that they could use one of his other forms again.

"One that doesn't involve Raven's hybrid form or his true form," Jak stated, amending his previous question, because he was sure that Raven was a little winded after carrying Daxter around like that.

"Come on, it looks easy to get up," Pinkie said, though at the same time she glanced over at Jak, as she already knew that her brother was going to want to go first, "I'll follow your lead."

Jak nodded and jumped onto the fallen stone that was in front of them, where he pulled himself onto the higher stone vase and then jumped onto the outcropping that was in front of him, allowing him to bounce up to the next platform. Once Pinkie had caught up with him he jumped up and grabbed onto the pole above them, allowing Pinkie to duck as he swung around and jumped to the next pole that was above him, before shortly jumping off and landing on one of the more worn platforms. He then turned around and watched as Pinkie repeated the same movements that he had done, allowing her to catch up once more, before he jumped over to the next pole and landed on the level above Pinkie.

Once they were back together Jak crossed the series of stone platforms until he was at the end of it, though at the same time some of the platforms cracked into pieces and fell down to the ground level, leaving Pinkie without a way to continue forward. That was when Jak remembered not to doubt Pinkie's abilities, as she simply did a long jump to cross the gaps that had been left behind, to which the two of them walked up the passage that was in front of them. When they reached the top of the passage Jak moved across the platforms and noticed that two of them fell apart when he reached the end, leaving him to wonder what Pinkie would do this time.

Pinkie, on the other hand, simply smiled and charged off the platform she was on, though Jak watched as she engaged some Blue Eco, where she got it he had no idea, and empowered her jump so she could reach her brother. From that point onward they followed the path of poles and platforms, going even higher with each passing second, before they finally reached the top of the structure... where they found a glider just sitting on the ground.

"Ooh, sweet!" Daxter said, jumping off of Jak's shoulder and landing on the ground, while at the same time observing the glider that had been left behind by the monks.

"Didn't Seem say that she lost an expedition of monks on the volcano?" Jak inquired, though at the same time he looked out over the breathtaking view in front of them, while also noticing that there were some rings floating in the air between where they were and the volcano in question.

"Yeah, and I bet that the monks built these gliders to reach the top." Pinkie replied, knowing that she and Jak were going to use the glider, because it appeared to be the only way to reach the volcano

"You know, lost was the operative word she used when she described what happened to the other monks." Daxter commented, though he didn't like what was coming next, "If they vanished, don't you think that was a sign? Hello!"

"Daxter, you know that you don't have to ride with me and Pinkie." Jak stated, beckoning to Raven for a moment, who nodded his head for a second, "Raven can easily get you to the volcano... though all Pinkie and I have to do is hit those accelerator rings and we're golden."

Daxter sighed as Raven shifted into his hybrid form, to which the two of them took off, allowing Jak and Pinkie to pick up the glider and follow after them, with Jak standing up on top while Pinkie laid down and held her hand out towards the rings that they had seen. Pinkie called upon the power of the Blaster Mod and fired small narrow shots at the closed rings that were in their way, allowing Jak to maneuver them through the rings and the air currents that happened to be in front of them. With their combined powers they managed to reach the location of the volcano, where they slipped into the opening that was in front of them... resulting in the destruction of the glider as they grabbed onto some broken pipes and lowered themselves to the ground without harm.

Seconds later Daxter and Raven caught up with them, though with no other way out of the area they were in their only option was to continue forward... to which Jak and Pinkie, with Daxter and Raven on their shoulders, walked forward and started the hunt for Seem's lost monks.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

I not much of fan of the climbing portions of the temple... the camera screwed me over a few times.....

[HB_DS2013]

8496324 I agree. It took me several tries to reach the glider area with the wonky camera. But you can't deny that air dashing and big jumps with the Dune Hopper are pretty fun~

[Midnight Moon]

Jak and Pinkie wished Damas well before climbing into the Sank Shark, taking a brief moment to make sure that everyone was ready to depart, before Jak started up the engine and burst out of the gates as well.

Sand Shark, not Sank Shark.

... do I want to know what a Sank Shark would be like?

[Blackdrag-rose]

8840671 That's a typo... definitely a typo... but I have no idea how I typed a k in instead of a d, as they're on opposite sides of the board.

Anyway, that will be corrected.