Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco

by Blackdrag-rose

Exile: The Volcano

Jak and Pinkie followed the path that was directly in front of them, as they couldn't leave the way they entered and the only warp gate in the area was being guarded by one of the floating white eyes, to which they climbed up into the ledge in front of them and were attacked by a trio of small scorpion Metal Heads. Pinkie, being the first one up on the ledge, waved her hand at the Metal Heads and released a scatter shot at them, knocking them down and tearing them to pieces, to which she helped Jak up to where she was standing. Jak spotted more enemies coming up behind Pinkie and pulled out his own gun, to which he fired his own scatter shot and took out the entire group in a single shot, allowing the two of them to progress further into the volcano.

They continued to shoot down the small Metal Heads that were in their way, where they eventually found a series of ledges that they needed to climb up, though at the end of them they found themselves in a large area of the volcano, which happened to have vegetation growing all around them. Jak and Pinkie assumed that the lava and the fires would have burned all of that at some point in time, but it appeared that the plants might have adapted to their surroundings... or something else was at play in this area. They also spotted a leaper lizard roaming the area, all alone they discovered, and that when they approached it the lizard ran off without giving them a chance to stop it, but at the same time it had no where else to go and was as trapped as they were.

As they followed the leaper lizard, and avoided falling into the lava when some of the rocks they walked on collapsed under their feet, Jak found that this was the best time to try out the new weapon mod that he and Pinkie had been given, the one they won after completing their second trial. It was called the Reflector Mod, which apparently shot the same time of beam as the Blaster Mod, only this beam bounced off the walls and ended up colliding with one of the wasp Metal Heads that was buzzing around their heads. Jak and Pinkie smiled at what the mod could do, as they were already thinking up ways to use this to their advantage in battle, but at the same time Pinkie decided to not try her's out, leaving it as a bead on her bracelet for the moment.

The next area that the leaper lizard brought them into had a group of dog like creatures that had small spikes growing out of their backs, though apparently they liked to roll around like balls and attack their prey in such a manner. The only response to that, other than Pinkie saying that the animals would be cute if they could be properly trained, was Jak and Pinkie shooting them with their weapons. Once the dogs had been taken care of the two of them separated from each other and chased down the leaper lizard they had been following, forcing it to choose which one of them it wanted to run away from... allowing the second one to startle the lizard long enough for the first one to climb onto its back.

With the leaper lizard under control, and Jak was riding it around to make sure that there was nothing they missed in the area they were in, he and Pinkie headed towards an area that had a geyser between them and the platform they needed to cross over to... though they had to avoid the fireball that the small geyser was launching into the air every couple of seconds. Jak carefully made his way through the path that could only be accessed by the leaper lizard, which meant that he had to be careful when jumping so he and Daxter didn't fall into the magma that was around them. He used the small stone platforms that were in his way to make it to a much larger area, though when he dismounted he noticed that the leaper lizard was abandoning him... to which he pulled his weapon back out and started shooting at the various enemies that were all around him.

A few seconds later Pinkie, riding on the back of the leaper lizard, dropped into the area and opened fire on the enemies that Jak was firing at, though once they were all taken care of she dismounted as well and they approached the ladder that would take them deeper into the volcano. They then jumped over another section of rocks that tumbled into the magma below them, before they approached what appeared to be a dead end, or so they would have thought had they not noticed a section where Daxter or Raven could climb on and reach the back end of a large rock pillar.

"No. I'm not going to climb my way through a series of death obstacles!" Daxter exclaimed, causing the group to rub the back of their heads, as they had expected Daxter to agree to it, especially with how he had been acting recently.

"How else are we supposed to get across then?" Jak asked, to which he beckoned towards Pinkie for a moment, who smiled in return, "I know Pinkie has a Shadow Step move, allowing her to use the shadows to go from one spot to another, but we haven't tried it out with multiple people... and this seems to be the worst place for us to try it out. You are the only one who..."

"Actually, Raven can simply fly over there and knock the pillar down with his tail," Daxter said, reminding Jak of the fact that Raven's hybrid form was more useful than he originally thought, as they had been making sure to use it whenever they needed it.

"Carrying you around and constantly shifting is extremely tiring," Raven replied, which caused Jak and Pinkie to nod their heads, as they understood what was up with Raven at the moment, "You'll just have to take one for the team."

All of this made sense to Jak, as Raven had shifted into his true form earlier that morning to take care of four larger Metal Heads, which must have consumed a lot portion of his energy when they considered the painful process that raven had to go through. Raven had also shifted into his hybrid form twice that day; once to help Daxter get onto the backs of those leaper lizards they were catching with Kleiver, and the second time was flying both himself and Daxter to the opening he had Pinkie had flown through. Jak was sure that Raven's energy supplies were running low and that he needed a break, which was why he wasn't doing anything... though when Daxter realized what was going on he mumbled to himself and climbed up the nearby tree.

Jak, Pinkie, and Raven watched as Daxter carefully made his way through the series of obstacles that were in his way, which involved dodging balls of magma that geysers shot into the air, avoiding the actual bits of pouring lava that he discovered, and kicked some leaper Metal Heads that decided to get in his way. That was quickly followed by him reaching his intended destination, where he walked up to the rock pillar and rested a hand against it so he could start testing how much strength it had... to which the pillar fell backwards and hit the platform in front of where Jak and Pinkie were standing, forming a bridge for them to walk on.

With the bridge made, and Daxter returned to the group, Jak and Pinkie continued forward, where they used their high jump ability to reach the ledge above them and pulled their weapons out to fire at the leaper Metal Heads that were bouncing around the area. They followed the path that had been opened for them and attacked the enemies that roamed the area, more leaper Metal Heads and some of the rolling dogs, before they came to a steam vent of sorts with a rather large stone resting next to it. Pinkie, immediately seeing something, accessed the Eco inside her body and pushed the stone platform, to which she moved it until it was covering the vent and backed up, where she and Jak watched as the steam lifted it into the air for a few moments before hitting the ground.

With that information in hand the two of them climbed back onto the stone slab and let the steam lift them into the air, where they jumped off and landed on the walkway in front of them, to which Jak shot down the leaper enemies that were apparently waiting for them to arrive before they moved onward. They then followed the path by jumping over a decent sized gap, shot down some more of the enemies that were trying to kill them, and crossed a second gap that allowed them to descend downwards once more. They descended downwards and shot the Metal Heads that tried to attack them, both the leapers and some of the wasps that they haven't seen since they left Haven, before coming to a pipe... which appeared to end up where another stone slab was resting.

Daxter, seeing nothing else to do but get the task over with, jumped off of Jak's shoulder and climbed up the pipe, to which he was forced to ride down some larger pipes, where he had to control himself to avoid falling into the lava and jump over gaps, before he reached the end of that ordeal. Once he was off the pipes he had to climb all the way up to where the stone slab had been located, to which he had to use some springy cloth sections to ascend back to the top, as well as deal with some of the mutts Jak and Pinkie had dealt with earlier. The moment he reached the top of the path he was following he spotted the stone slab and jumped onto it, though when he reached the end of it his weight suddenly changed everything and caused it to fall over.

When Daxter opened his eyes he found that he was okay, as the stone slab had landed to his left and had completely missed him, to which he returned to Jak's shoulder before he and Pinkie moved the stone into position and allowed them to move on once more. Jak and Pinkie then rode the stone slab up to the next area and found their way through the small group of enemies that were in front of them, before they found three more stone slabs and three more geysers. Seeing how they knew what to do they each pushed a slab into position, on the left and right of the middle slab, before joining together and pushing the final one into position... though it was the third one that carried them up to the next part of the area they needed to go through.

They rode the stone slab up to the next area and found, while they were taking out the enemies that were coming at them, that there were some dark colored vine like structures ahead of them... and on the other side of a river of lava rested what appeared to be a dark structure of some kind, like the construct that Seem had been staring at earlier. As they climbed up to observe the structure, however, they discovered the statue of a monk that happened to be carrying some sort of Dark Eco artifact in its hands... and it was wearing an expression of horror on its face.

"So this is where Seem's monks went," Jak commented, though at the same time he and Pinkie made their way towards the once human statue, while looking at the artifact that the statue was holding, "and something tells me that this artifact is important... somehow..."

Daxter, on the other hand, jumped onto the ground and approached the statue, to which he gripped the artifact and started to pull on it, despite the warning looks Jak and Pinkie were sending his way. A few seconds later Daxter managed to snap off the statue's hands when he pulled on the artifact, causing it to fly into the air for a moment. Jak and Pinkie reached for the artifact at the same time, though when they touched the Dark Eco artifact they were surrounded by a surge of energy that made them vanish... only to reappear when they accidentally dropped the artifact, where it shattered.

"What was that?" Daxter asked, because while he knew that Dark Eco was dangerous, if Pinkie's alter ego was anything to consider, he was still curious as to what type of ability the siblings had just unlocked.

"Some kind of... invisibility power," Jak explained, flexing his hands for a moment, as he was shocked by what he and Pinkie had just done, though at the same time Pinkie was smiling at them, "one derived from Dark Eco."

"At the very least we can tell Seem what happened to her monks the next time we see her," Raven commented, to which he and Daxter returned to Jak and Pinkie's shoulders, before looking around the area that they were in, "So... where to next?"

Jak and Pinkie jumped off the ledge that was behind them and landed on the floating rocks that were in the lava, where they waited for a few seconds before they jumped off and crossed over to a walkway that descended towards a lower level of the volcano. They fired upon the enemies that were in front of them as they walked downwards, noticing that there was a low number of them for the first time since they entered this area, before they were able to drop down into the area that the glider was resting in... and allowed them to notice that there was a Dark Eco Idol near the glowing white eye, which was also glowing.

The duo approached the idol and laid their hands on it, allowing them to turn invisible for a few seconds, to which they approach the glowing eye and step closer to the warp gate, where the eye went out as they became visible once more... allowing Jak and Pinkie to grin as they entered the warp gate. Once they had jumped through the warp gate, and appeared back in the temple they had been in earlier, they noticed another idol sitting in a small insert on the wall opposite of where the warp gate they had jumped out of.

Jak and Pinkie smiled at each other, because now they could pass by the white eye that was protecting the inner area of the temple and see what they could learn about the Precursors this time around.

Comments

[Crescent Glaive]

Huh....to be honest, i thought Pinkie would get some other power from the idol....