Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco

by Blackdrag-rose

Exile: Desert Storm

On the way back to Spargus Jak discovered that both Daxter and Raven's attention was on Pinkie at the moment, as they both were studying the changes that had happened to Pinkie's body and were coming up with reasons why she looked like this. Daxter was the one that was coming up with all the weird ideas, as he suggested that Pinkie could have been one of the Precursors and had been tasked with aiding Jak without him knowing it, which Jak countered immediately, as it felt stupid for the statue to reveal Pinkie's 'true' nature and sabotage her 'mission'. Besides the outlandish Precursor theory, which would never work in Jak's mind, the other one that Daxter was fond of was the one where he suggested that Pinkie was an inhabitant of another world and had been brought here for a grand adventure.

Eventually Jak decided to ignore his best friend, because while he was curious about what had happened to his sister he needed to keep his focus on the desert in front of them... and that included shooting down the brigands that were still trying to blow them up.

When they arrived in the garage they found that Kleiver was nowhere in sight, meaning that he either had another assignment or something major had happened while they were away, though to be on the safe side they decided that it was time to check in with Damas and see what their next mission was. As they entered the city, however, they found that the people of Spargus were running around, carrying boxes and crates with them, which made them wonder what was happening and knew what they had to do next. Jak and Pinkie quickly made their way to the elevator that would take them to Damas' chamber, which surprised Jak by how well his sister could move with her new legs and hooves, before they rode up to where Jak's father was likely waiting.

As the elevator came to a stop, however, they immediately spotted Damas standing near the throne, though it appeared that he was getting ready to use what looked like a fully functional PA system, so he could announce something to the entirety of Spargus.

"Attention all people of Spargus," Damas loudly said, to which Jak and Pinkie heard his voice coming from outside the chamber as well, indicating that this was definitely something major and that they would likely be needed to help someone out, "A large storm is heading our way! Prepare the city!"

Jak waited until his father was done announcing his message to the entire population of Spargus, and had sent the communicator down on the throne behind him, before he and Pinkie approached the throne, though at the same time he decided to wait and see what his father had to tell them.

"Jak, it is good to see that you and the others are alright, despite some obvious changes, but you'll have to tell me what happened later," Damas said, to which Jak and Pinkie nodded their heads, as this was what they had been waiting for since they entered the chamber, because they had known that something would have demanded their attention and they had been proven right, "There are four Wastelanders out there who still have not reported in, so I want you and Pinkie to go out and find them. Do whatever it takes to bring them back!"

"Give us their coordinates and we'll be sure to pick them up," Jak replied, though at the same time he and Pinkie, along with Daxter and Raven, rode the elevator back down to the streets of Spargus.

From there Jak and Pinkie quickly made their way back to the garage, where they both hopped into the Sand Shark, with Jak as the driver, before speeding out of the garage and started their search for the missing Wastelanders. It was times like this that Jak was thankful for the fact that all of Kleiver's buggies had the same radar in all of them, as it happened to be picking up the four locations of their targets. As they raced through the desert, and followed the signals that the radar was getting, Jak and Pinkie opened fire on the brigands that were chasing them, where Jak focused on using the Sand Shark's guns and Pinkie made use of her Eco-based attacks.

Daxter, once again, remarked how odd it was for Pinkie to have absorbed the Morph Gun and its modifications, and still use their abilities as if she was actually using the gun, but he was happy to have her along for the ride.

When they found the first Wastelander, who was standing next to a rock wall, Pinkie climbed out of her seat, pretty much offering it to the person they had come to save, before she put her goggles over her eyes and climbed onto the top of the buggy, where she laid done and let Jak continue towards the waiting transport. Thanks to her control over Eco Pinkie was able to make it so she could stay attached to the top of the Sand Shark, allowing her to shoot at any enemies that were coming from behind Jak if she wanted, though she mainly used it for looking out for the other Wastelanders. The second one was standing at the bottom of a hill, close to the edge of the water as Jak and Pinkie soon discovered, though he was extremely grateful for the aid and climbed into the open seat.

After dropping him off jak moved them around and made their way to the third Wastelander, who was standing by a rock wall that was positioned between two broken bridge pieces, and made sure that he was safe before hunting down the fourth and final missing Wastelander. When they reached the location on their radar, and climbed out to see what was up, they found that the Wastelander in question was dead and that he had been holding onto a Dark Eco Crystal when he died... though as Jak took it, however, one of the Dark Precursor constructs, like the first one they had seen, jumped out of the sand and attacked them.

This construct preferred to float in the air, protected by a force field of sorts, and tried to trap them beneath it so it could impale one of them with the pointed end of its bottom, though as it pierced the ground it remained stuck like that for a few moments and dropped its force field. Pinkie immediately noticed this and started loosing shots from her hands, while Jak pulled out the Blaster Mod and opened fire as well, to which they forced the construct into the air and forced it to restore its shield. When the construct tried to do the same thing a second time, however, Jak and Pinkie avoided the attack again, but this time around their opponent summoned two tendril like items from its body to prevent them from getting close to it. That didn't stop them from firing at the construct, forcing it back into the air for a third time and causing it to attempt the same thing again, but as it struck the ground again Pinkie summoned her Dark Eco scythe from her bracelet and started swinging at the construct.

Jak simply watched as his sister used her more sinister weapon to carve up the Dark Precursor construct, scattering the pieces of the construct all around her, before the thing exploded... though Pinkie was unfazed by the explosion and returned her weapon to the bracelet.

Once the construct was taken care of, and Jak made sure that he had the Dark Eco Crystal, he and Pinkie pulled the dead Wastelander into the buggy and made their way towards where the transport was waiting for them, so that way the people of Spargus could have a body to bury when the storm was over. When the body was dropped off they got underway and started their journey back towards Spargus, while at the same time trying to avoid the danger that the storm, and the sand around them, posed to their well being. It didn't take them long to reach Spargus, even with the brigands trying to shoot them down like they always do, though when they entered the garage the door closed behind them and seemed to lock for the moment.

Jak and Pinkie then made their way to one of the holding areas, where they could rest and wait for the storm to be over, though an hour or two later the older Wastelanders told everyone that the storm was over and that they could go back to what they were doing before the storm had hit... to which they made their way towards the large gun that was near where they met Seem, as they heard that Kleiver was looking for them near that location.

"Isn't it time for you ankle-biters' naps?" Kleiver asked, though at the same time he chuckled, as if he found something interesting about what he had just said.

"Careful there, Raven and I can easily access your ankles," Daxter replied, to which he glared at the overweight Wastelander, still surprised that the man was much larger than everyone else in the city despite the amount of work everyone had to do while staying in the city, "and among the two of us, however, Raven can easily bite your ankles... and I wouldn't advise letting him do that, otherwise he might take a liking to your taste."

"Anyway, that gun turret used to be the only thing that stood between us and the desert's cruel kiss." Kleiver said, glancing away from Raven, and his wicked looking grin, and focusing on Jak for a moment, "I used to be the tall poppy on that baby! Want to try to beat me score?"

"Oh, don't worry," Pinkie stated, to which she also grinned at Kleiver, who chose to ignore her for the moment, which meant that she and her powers scared him, "Jak will beat your score in no time... so you had best be prepared to hand over whatever the trophy is, once he's done with the challenge anyway."

Jak smiled as he climbed up the ladder and jumped into the gun, to which Pinkie, Raven, and Kleiver watched as he started firing at all of the practice targets that appeared on his radar. From what Pinkie could tell there were three colored targets, disks she mentally corrected herself, that her brother had to shoot down in order to get any sort of points; an orange one, a blue one, and a green one. Based on Kleiver's reactions Pinkie determined that the orange colored disks were worth the least amount of points, while the blue colored ones were worth more than the orange ones, and the green ones, which there was a smaller number of, were worth more than the previous two.

Jak made sure to shoot down every disk that was launched at the turret, where he only stopped firing once he had been told that he had broken Kleiver's score, to which he climbed out of the turret and headed back down to where an annoyed Kleiver was standing.

"So, you nippers walloped me score." Kleiver said, clearly doing his best to contain his anger at his score being beaten, though at the same time he held something in his hand, something that Jak recognized, "Fine. The top poppy has to be snipped sometime. Law of the land says the top gunner holds a special trophy in honor of their skill. This crystal's yours now, but I'll be getting it back soon enough!"

Jak happily accepted the Light Eco Crystal and let Kleiver wander away from where they were standing, because that meant that they had another crystal and were a little more prepared for what was coming their way. Seem would be happy with their progress, in collecting the two types of crystals and solving the Precursor trials, but their recent success made Jak wonder when he and Pinkie would be called into the arena again... and what sort of test his father would throw at them.

Comments

[Supertoe]

Daxter was the one that was coming up with all the weird ideas, as he suggested that Pinkie could have been one of the Precursors and had been tasked with aiding Jak without him knowing it, which Jak countered immediately, as it felt stupid for the statue to reveal Pinkie's 'true' nature and sabotage her 'mission'. Besides the outlandish Precursor theory, which would never work in Jak's mind, the other one that Daxter was fond of was the one where he suggested that Pinkie was an inhabitant of another world and had been brought here for a grand adventure. Wow, Dax totally aced that one

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8667999
Eeyup.