Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose

Precursor: Lurkers in the Cave

While Jak and Twilight headed up to Snowy Mountain, to deal with the Lurkers that were up there, Starlight and Cozy did the same thing on their end, where they carefully jumped over the couple of rock pillars that were in front of them and found a Scout Fly box, the fourth of Volcanic Crater, which happened to rest on top of the last pillar that was near the first of the two trolley tracks that were in this area, where Cozy smashed it to pieces and freed the little robot that was trapped inside, just like they had done while exploring the other regions of the continent, before jumping over to the stone platform the tracks were on and waited for a cart to come their way. Not a few moments later a cart rolled down part of the track and came towards the sisters, where they took a moment to wonder how in the world they were moving since none of the carts had any sort of equipment attached to them that would allow such a thing to happen in the first place, before jumping onto the cart and just stood still as it moved along the track it was attached to, one that happened to be missing a few planks that did nothing to stop the carts, and it allowed them to pick up a number of Precursor Orbs for their efforts, which were added to their collection like everything else they had collected so far. Instead of jumping over to the next track and a cart that lined up with them, like one would have expected them to do, the sisters remained on the cart as it headed back to the area the pillars were resting near, as there happened to be another Scout Fly box over there and they were planning on collecting it as well, before heading over to Spider Cave and clearing it out like the other regions of the continent, and it wasn't long before they reached their destination, to which Starlight smashed it to pieces as well and freed the fifth Scout Fly, which had to mean the sixth and seventh were near the entrance to Spider Cave. Of course that meant that both of them had to wait for another cart to come their way, so they could get over to the other tracks, as there were actually three tracks and not the two they originally thought they had seen, but the wait was short and they were able to get onto a cart without delay, even if it meant that Starlight and Cozy had to wait for a few moments so their cart lined up with one from the next track so they could get at some Precursor Orbs and then, at some point, jump over to the last track, which was where they would find the entrance to their destination.

"So, Gol and Maia are going to be looking to kidnap Twilight at some point," Starlight commented, referring to what they had seen and learned when the pair of Dark Sages invaded the Red Sage's lab earlier, to talk to them and revealed a bit of what happened to Daxter, though she was still coming to terms with the fact that the person they had been looking for, to fix their friend's condition and possibly reverse it, was actually the villain that they needed to bring down to save the world, even though it was possible that they might be able to talk some sense into both of them, despite the fact that she didn't think such a thing was all that realistic, "should we be worried about her safety?"

"No, I'm sure Twilight will be able to defend herself against the Dark Sages when they try to kidnap her, if they try it before we reach the Citadel anyway," Cozy replied, because she had faith in her sister's abilities, especially since tampering with the Blue Sage's machine had allowed the three of them to boost their magical powers to new heights, but she could also see why Starlight would be a little worried about Twilight, as both Gol and Maia had been able to overwhelm both the Blue and Red Sages, and possibly the Yellow Sage as well, so it was possible that they would have the power to do the same to Twilight when they came for her, provided all four of them weren't together anyway, which was when the cart returned to the point where both of them could jump over to the third track and they did so without delay, "however, we should focus on clearing out Spider Cave and get to the Citadel, as that way we can ensure Twilight remains safe by being with her, Jak, and Daxter in case Gol and Maia show up."

Starlight nodded as they reached the entrance of Spider Cave and found that there was one of the Scout Fly boxes outside it, the sixth for Volcanic Crater, so while she climbed off the cart and smashed the box, to free the little robot, Cozy stayed on it for a few more moments and that was followed by Starlight hearing the sound of something breaking, meaning that the seventh Scout Fly box had been found and it gave them a Power Cell, something that was confirmed when her sister returned to where she was standing and quickly showed her the artifact in question, which they stored inside their pack before facing the stone pillars that lead down towards the entrance of Spider Cave. One thing the sisters found out in the next few moments, before walking and jumping down all of the rock pillars that were in front of them, was a small metallic box that rested on a thick rock pillar on the other side of the tracks that had brought them over to this area, one that was out of reach and likely required them to blast it open with some Yellow Eco, based on everything that they had seen during their previous ventures so far, so both of them headed down the rock pillars and readied themselves for whatever sort of enemies and obstacles that would be inside the region they were heading towards. Not a few moments later they found a few clusters of blue crystals, similar to what both Gordy and Willard were mining, save for these being a lighter color, that were glowing at the moment and seemed to be lighting up the region the sisters would be exploring, which Starlight took note of and found a loose one that snapped off of the cluster it was attached to, something she wrapped up for later since she knew Twilight and Keira would be interested in studying this sort of thing, before she and Cozy focused on the rest of the area that was in front of them as they moved forward once more. After seeing the crystals the sisters found out what was in the next section of the cave, where it was easy to locate a number of long wooden support beams that seemed to be positioned in such a way to hold up the ceiling of this section of the region, before they noticed that there were a good number of large red colored centipede creatures, complete with long sharp legs that allowed each of them to move along the length of the beams, chewing into the wooden beams at the moment, where one of them pulled its face off the beam and roared for a moment, revealing that these were Lurker Centipedes, given the same yellow eyes that the other types of Lurkers possessed, metallic collars, and spurs on their jawlines, which was followed by it returning to its feast, even if the sisters knew they had to be looking for something at the same time.

"Great, Lurker Centipedes... what will Gol and Maia think of next?" Starlight inquired, though that was mostly due to the fact that these creatures had to be the results of the experiments the Dark Sages had done in the past, to understand all of the things that Dark Eco could do, but at the same time she made sure to make a few notes about what she and Cozy were seeing right now, since Twilight would be interested in hearing about these creatures and the fact that they were in the middle of eating the support beams that were holding the ceiling up, though it was in that moment both of them took a step forward and discovered that there was a lot of Dark Eco in this area, a massive pool which would be dangerous if one of them fell into it.

Cozy, on the other hand, said nothing to that as they noticed a smaller creature, a black furred spider that had red tips on its legs and a red Dark Eco hazard symbol on its back, descend into the area they were standing in and spat a dark ball of energy at them, where Starlight used a bit of magic to counter the attack as Cozy jumped into the air and smashed the Lurker Spider into the ground, as it was in that moment that they noticed it had a collar around its neck and the same odd jawline that the other types of Lurkers possessed, though at least this informed them that there were two types of foes for them to keep in mind as they explored the rest of this region. One thing they discovered as they moved forward was that there were a few small stone circles that had webbing on them, meaning each of the circles seemed to be jump pads for whoever moved through this region, to get over the Dark Eco pit and gaps, though as the sisters did that they noticed a few Lurker Spiders scattered throughout the rest of the cavern they were in and make sure to take out those that got near them, as in Starlight blasted the next one with a bit of magic and it collapsed in a matter of seconds. After that it only took both of them a few moments to reach a ledge that required them to roll jump over a gap and then double jump over the second one, before using the high jump technique to get up to a level that was above them, which brought them close to where a Yellow Eco vent was resting, and a wooden beam with one of the Lurker Centipedes chewing away on it, but that was when they noticed that there were a number of Yellow Eco vents and that there happened to be a second one nearby, one that had a few Orbs and the first Scout Fly box of the area, the latter being smashed by Cozy as Starlight took out a Lurker Spider that came down to attack her. Once that was done the sisters separated from each other and stood on two of the Yellow Eco vents, allowing their bodies to be empowered by it as they focused on the various support beams that were in danger at the moment, something that was followed by them loosing a number of fireballs into the air as both of them focused on different beams, where the Lurker Centipedes shrieked when they were hit for the first time and fled for a moment, heading into the wooden structures they had been chewing on, before emerging a few seconds later to crawl down the sides of the beams, which just ensured that the sisters could blast them apart from where they were standing and free the structures from what had been happening to them before their arrival.

Truthfully this challenge seemed to be rather easy for the pair, as the Lurker Centipedes were rather easy to hit from the area that they were standing in and one thing both Starlight and Cozy noticed was that each of their targets dropped a few Precursor Orbs when they were blown apart, either meaning they had devoured some before eating the wood or they just happened to have some on them before this point in time, but that wasn't all they gained since defeating the last of the Lurker Centipedes caused a Power Cell to fall in the center of the cavern, something both of them would claim later, once they were near the bottom of the cavern again. Another thing both of them noticed was that there was a massive crystal cluster resting on a wooden platform near the top of the cavern, which had to be one of the Dark Eco crystals Samos had told them about due to the dark purple coloration it had, but to reach it normally one would have to traverse a number of moving platforms that were around the area it happened to be resting in, not to mention a Power Cell that seemed to be the prize for reaching the end of the platforms, but to make things a little easier Starlight loosed a blast into the air and it smashed into the side of the Dark Eco crystal, blowing it to pieces in seconds. From there she and Cozy regrouped near a couple of moving platforms and jumped on them to move forward, allowing the platforms to bring them closer to where the path leading to the Power Cell rested, even though Cozy did find a side area that had a few Orbs for her to collect and regrouped with her sister not a few moments later, allowing them to carefully use the path the platforms used, or rather one of them jumped along the platforms and the other loosed a few magical blasts into the air to take down any Lurker Spiders that dropped down to bother them. Eventually Cozy reached the Power Cell and grabbed it, adding another to the collection they were gathering, before she regrouped with Starlight once more, who found another Scout Fly box and took a moment to free the second little robot from its resting place, which was when they headed for an opening that brought them to another large Dark Eco pond, complete with a few moving platforms, a Dark Eco crystal that rested up on a ledge, a side path that had a few metallic boxes that needed Yellow Eco to bust them open, and what appeared to be a second tunnel that they suspected had to be the way forward, or at least in the direction they were heading in, since Spider Cave likely had two or three branches for them to explore.

As it turned out there happened to be another Scout Fly box in this area, so while Cozy smashed the third container open and freed the little robot inside it, like they had done in the past, Starlight just blasted the Dark Eco crystal and blew it to pieces in a matter of seconds, though Cozy also found a bit of water beyond another small pool of Dark Eco and used the roll jump to get over it, only to blow up a Dark Eco crystal that was at the bottom of the water, which was when she met up with Starlight near the second tunnel and started to head down it, even though it quickly became clear that it was much darker in the cavern it brought them to. Fortunately there happened to be a crystal cluster nearby that, when struck, since Cozy originally thought it was an enemy with the shadow it cast, lit up and caused parts of the area to light up, though one thing they noticed was that the glow faded with time and that they would have to be fast while exploring this cavern, not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things since Starlight had a solution, in the form of a glowing white ball that just floated above their heads, which happened to be a spell she had been working on with Twilight and this seemed like the best chance she had to test it out in the field. Cozy agreed, since it meant they didn't have to worry about the crystals and the light they gave off, so the sisters were able to move forward and carefully followed the path that was in front of them, while at the same time keeping their guard up since they knew there had to be enemies in this cavern, and sure enough it didn't take them long to figure out that they were right as a Lurker Spider dropped down from the ceiling, remained there as it hung on its thread, and spat at them like the rest of its type had done since they entered Spider Cave, to which both of the sisters dodged the attack and Starlight blasted it into the wall, leaving Cozy to clean up the couple of eggs their foe had dropped before more enemies burst out of them. From there the sisters followed a thin wooden path, sort of like the one that rested in Boggy Swamp, and had to be mindful of the gaps that were in the walkway, a few ledges that they had to jump up to, and some sections that were attached to devices that would cause them to fall and drop whoever was on top of them into the darkness, before resetting a few moments later, but the trap platforms didn't work on the sisters as they navigated their way around them and reached an area that had another part of the wooden walkway that they had to jump up to move forward, not to mention a side cavern which housed another Dark Eco crystal that Cozy blew up from where they were standing.

With that done she jumped up to where Starlight was waiting for her, which was resting near the fourth Scout Fly box that her sister smashed open within seconds, and they moved forward once more, this time waiting on a spinning contraption to bring a wooden platform over to the edge of the walkway that they were currently standing on, something that took no time for them to overcome and were able to jump over to a new part of the path they were following, though while they did that both Starlight and Cozy noticed some carvings on one of the pillars in the middle of the cavern and suspected that it was the Lurkers that had made them, or the pillar was made of metal and it was Precursor related, as it was hard for the two of them to tell without getting closer, which was hard without creating any platforms. As such they took note of where they found the artifact or carvings for later on, so Twilight would have an idea where it was located, before continuing on with their exploration, even though the next platform had an even thinner section that required them to go one at a time and jump a gap before waiting for a small lift to come down so the sisters could use it to get up to the higher point of the walkway, which brought them to another spinning contraption and two drop traps, the latter Starlight and Cozy jumping over them with ease to get to the moving platform, where they waited for a few moments before crossing over to the next part of the path. It was then that they found another lift to take them even higher in this cavern, making both of the sisters take a moment to wonder how tall this section of Spider Cave was and if there was something they might have missed at this point, before they accessed the lift and rode it up to the highest point it brought them to, which happened to be yet another spinning contraption that allowed the sisters to reach a structure that had a Power Cell at the highest point, even if Cozy had to spin around for a moment upon landing on the lower level of the wooden structure, to knock out two small Spider Lurkers and opened the way for them to jump up to where the Power Cell rested. With that claimed, and a few Orbs were picked up as well, both Starlight and Cozy stepped onto the nearby lift, which had a set of three Orbs on top of it, and it took them downwards for a few moments, allowing them to return to the start of the darkened section of this region not even a few seconds later, to which they climbed off of it once it came to a stop and retraced their steps so they could get back to the main cavern once more, to find the next tunnel they needed to take.

Of course one thing they did was pause for a moment and empower themselves with Yellow Eco, or at least Starlight did it, and doubled back to blast the couple of metallic boxes they had left behind, just to get at the Orbs that were inside them, before she and Cozy descended down into the massive cavern and walked over to the various wooden beams, collecting all of the Precursor Orbs that were scattered around the area, both placed before their arrival and from when they took down the Lurker Centipedes earlier, and Cozy made sure to pick up the Power Cell that came from beating the creatures that had been chewing on the beams, before Starlight located the fifth Scout Fly box resting near the tunnel that would let them access the other portion of this region. There was a Lurker Spider guarding the tunnel in question, who couldn't do a thing against Cozy's punch and Starlight's magical blast, before they doubled back for some more Yellow Eco to blast open the couple of metallic boxes that rested in the tunnel that was taking them towards another pool of Dark Eco, which just so happened to be where another Dark Eco crystal rested and Starlight blasted it apart with a magical blast, though as the crystal shattered in the following explosion, like all of the other crystals they had smashed so far, this one flung a Power Cell out of the smoke and Cozy caught it, adding one more to the number the two of them had recovered so far, meaning they only had to smash five Dark Eco crystals and no more than that. From there the sisters used a set of web platforms to cross over the rest of the pool that was in front of them and found a little vent opening that seemed to be sealed, making them wonder what they needed to do to open it or if it might be an exit of some sort, like what Jak and Twilight had found in the Forbidden Jungle, according to what they told Starlight and Cozy earlier, but for now there was no telling what to do with it and just used a web pad that was beyond the vent to get to a walkway that had a few gaps in it, where they found a new type of Lurker waiting for them, or rather it was drilling into the wall and happened to be ignoring the direction both of them were coming from. This type of Lurker seemed to be wearing yellow-green colored armor over their body, which could be either made out of metal or leather, while it's hands were gripping a massive drill that was digging into the wall it was facing, and it had some goggles over its eyes and a pair of gloves over its hands, but it pretty much looked like the rest of the Lurkers they had seen in the past, with the odd mouth and the metallic collar around its neck, before they labeled it as a Driller Lurker and found that there was a gap between them and it, something that, when it spotted them and started to walk over towards the sisters, caused it to stop for a few seconds and then throw its drill down at the wooden walkway in frustration when it realized that it couldn't hit one of them from where it was standing.

That was followed by Cozy dashing forward, as in jumping over the gap and landing near the Lurker in question, and then kicked the Driller Lurker in the back of the head, knocking it right into the nearby rock wall and taking it out in a matter of seconds, though once that was done Starlight joined her and they continued along the walkway, not to mention jump over another gap in the wood, before they stopped and stared at the area that was in front of them right now, as there was a massive metallic creation halfway trapped in stone, though the familiar beak or nose structure revealed that this had to be a Precursor Robot, giving them an idea of what Gol and Maia were working on inside their Citadel, and right now it looked like the various Lurkers were in the middle of excavating it. Giving the Dark Sages a second robot would be a bad idea, due to what they wanted to use the first one for, though stopping the Lurkers was what the sisters were going to be doing as soon as both of them reached the lowest part of the wooden walkway, though as Starlight and Cozy walked down to the area in question one of them noticed that there was a lot of Dark Eco under the walkway and, more importantly, there was a set of three web pads that lead right to a small tunnel that had a Yellow Eco vent, a bunch of Spider Lurker eggs, and a number of metallic boxes, something that drew them to the vent since this seemed to be what the vent they had spotted just a few moments ago was connected to. Sure enough, when the sisters gathered the Yellow Eco into their bodies and started to move forward, small Lurker Spiders burst out of the eggs and out of small openings before rushing at the sisters in an attempt to take them down, to eat them since the spiders were different from the rest of the Lurkers, but that didn't stop Starlight and Cozy from opening fire on their enemies and the metallic boxes, though the latter were a secondary goal since there happened to be a Power Cell in this area as well, something they were planning on collecting before heading over to where the Precursor Robot rested. At the end of the tunnel, which was easy to get to given that two of them were firing upon their enemies and forced them to retreat into all of their hiding places, Cozy quickly collected the Power Cell as Starlight threw up a barrier in the main part of the tunnel and sealed the openings so the two of them could access the bit of Blue Eco that rested nearby and stepped onto the jump pad that was just in front of where the Precursor artifact had been resting, where they jumped through the air and returned to the tunnel that contained the vent that they had walked by earlier, confirming their thoughts before they headed back to the robot's resting place.

Once they returned to where the Precursor Robot rested the sisters headed up a ramp that the Lurkers had set up earlier and started to deal with the various Driller Lurkers that were in this area, as there happened to be one resting near a pair of spinning drills that rested in the middle of the walkway, even though they collected a few Orbs along the way, and just stood there for a moment as it noticed that they were standing there, causing it to throw a fit when it couldn't reach them and lowered its defenses for a few seconds, leading to Starlight blasting it in the side with a magical blast and caused it to fall to the ground for a time, allowing them to move forward once more. From there the sisters found another foe working on some of the stone that was covering part of the robot and drew it over to them once more, even though it ended with a gap and caused it to open its guard so Cozy could punch it in the face and knock it out, though once that was done she and Starlight took a moment to find a few Orbs resting on the rock structure to the left and collected them, before find a bunch of Yellow Eco clusters nearby, above the various sections of the walkway and opened fire on a few targets not a moment later, which were metallic boxes and a few Driller Lurkers, which would allow them to fully explore the rest of this section of Spider Cave. One obstacle that the sisters had to avoid were what appeared to be cylindrical furnaces, which they could see came in pairs, that were blowing fire out into the air in short bursts with short pauses following the bursts, though the first thing Starlight and Cozy did was turn to their left and head down the path that had a number of floating Precursor Orbs above them, which had been contained inside metallic boxes before both of them blasted them open, and they took a moment to collect the Orbs that were over there before ignoring the lift that was over there, mostly because there was another part of the level they were on that needed to be explored and they found a lift that took them down to where a good number of Orbs were resting, something they were getting used to at this point, which was followed by them taking a moment to wait for the lift to come back down before using it to head up to the level they had been on earlier, to break a few more metallic boxes, collect a number of Orbs, and then free the sixth Scout Fly. From there they used the lift to head up to the next level that was above them, where they found a new wooden walkway that had a few Lurkers, both the first normal type they had seen at the start of this adventure and a pair of Drillers as well, guarding the area, but along the way Cozy noticed that there were a number of swinging poles to the left of where the Precursor Robot rested and it seemed to lead the way up to a Power Cell, something she and Starlight would collect at some point, since they were focused on just clearing out the area and collecting the Orbs that were in front of them.

On the highest level they found a few drop traps, a spinning contraption, and some spinning poles, so the sisters split up for a time and moved along the two paths that were in front of them, collecting the Precursor Orbs that were along their paths, before Starlight found that she had to carefully navigate some spinning poles to get to the highest point of the large Precursor Robot and found a Power Cell up there, while Cozy walked along the path that was below her sister and found the seventh Scout Fly box, allowing her to free the robot and collect another Power Cell for their efforts, before they took a few moments to climb down to the area that contained the large number of spinning poles. What they discovered was that there was a jump pad resting below the spinning poles and it had a bit of Blue Eco near it, before Starlight and Cozy found a number of Precursor Orbs resting along the path, not to mention a few more bits of Blue Eco, so what happened next was that Cozy jumped down into the lower area that the jump pad rested in and used it to launch herself up to the poles, which she proceeded to use to collect all of the Precursor Orbs that were resting along the way and draw the other bits of Blue Eco into her body, before she came to a stop as she reached the point that the Power Cell rested in. With that done she used the power that was inside her body and powered up a small platform which rested near her, one that brought her back down to where Starlight was standing and they started to retrace their steps back to the start of this region, as at this point there didn't seem to be anything else for either of them to collect, in terms of Power Cells or Precursor Orbs, but that was when they remembered the one odd metallic box just outside the Spider Cave and Starlight determined that one of them could take a moment to gather some Yellow Eco later and rush towards the area it rested in, as there should be more than enough time for someone to get a single shot off if her calculations were correct. When the sisters returned to the entrance of the cave, however, Cozy made her way up to the closest Yellow Eco vent and took a moment to empower her body for what they would be doing next, though once she was ready, and Starlight replicated Twilight's platforms to make sure the descent was safe so she didn't break her legs by jumping off the edge, Cozy quickly descended to the area that her sister was standing in and together they headed up the rock pillars that they had used to get down here some time ago, but when they reached the edge of Spider Cave Cozy blasted open the metallic box and they found that it just so happened to contain another Power Cell, one that they claimed without delay.

From there the sisters headed back to the Red Sage's hut, as they were curious if Jak and Twilight were done with Snowy Mountain, and found that the gondola was back down in this area, meaning their siblings had to be here somewhere, but that was when they noticed the pair emerging from the passage that would take them back to Mountain Pass, which did make them interested in what sort of reason could have driven them to head back into that area, hence the reason that they walked over to where Jak and Twilight were standing, noticing that neither Samos or Keira were inside the hut and determined that they must have gone back to Sandover Village for a time, before focusing on their siblings for a moment, who seemed interested in what they had done as well.

"I thought you guys were going to explore Snowy Mountains," Cozy commented, referring to what Jak had told said before they separated from each other some time ago, where she understood his reasoning for wanting their sister to come with him and not head into Spider Cave, even though it was nice to see that Twilight was just fine and that Gol and Maia hadn't kidnapped her, which would have given them even more motivation to storm the Citadel and wreck the place, which made her and Starlight wonder if their siblings had managed to clear out the region Jak wanted them to explore, which was very likely given what they had done in the past.

"Indeed we did, and we cleared it of Power Cells, Precursor Orbs, and Scout Flies, and we found the Yellow Eco switch at the same time," Twilight replied, though she understood where Cozy was coming from, as she and Starlight likely thought she and Jak would be standing near the gondola or even the entrance to the Lava Tubes once they completed clearing out Snowy Mountain, instead of coming from Mountain Pass, before she took a moment to lift the Power Cell she and Jak had claimed just a few moments ago, "a switch that activated all of the sealed Yellow Eco vents throughout the world, and one of the vents in question, according to Jak, was back in Mountain Pass, so we took a moment to use the zoomer and flew back to the area it was resting in, where we took in some Yellow Eco and blasted open the boulder that had sealed off a short path that brought us to another Power Cell."

"That's good to hear, and we've cleared Spider Cave in the same manner that you guys did with the region you tackled a few minutes ago," Starlight said, though even as she said that she suspected that they had more than enough Power Cells at this point in time, as they were likely above eighty at this point and that meant Keira could empower the heat shield on the zoomer once more, causing her to glance back at the hut that they had walked by to reach this point and took a few seconds to tilt her head as she thought about something, "I guess all we can do now is retrieve the Oracle's Power Cells, which will clear out the rest of Volcanic Crater, and then tell Keira we got the Power Cells she wanted us to grab, despite the fact that she and Samos aren't inside the hut right now."

Jak and Twilight nodded their heads, as they had noticed the same thing and assumed that Samos and Keira must have returned to Sandover Village to get ready for the last push of this adventure, since once they reached the Citadel that the Dark Sages were working in there would be no turning back, and it would allow Keira to work on the zoomer before they acquired the Power Cells she needed to boost the power of the heat shield, before the four of them moved forward and headed over towards the area that the Oracle was resting in, but they were stopped when they heard the sound of the Warp Gate being used and found that Keira was now inside the Red Sage's hut, minus her father, and she had a worried look on her face, which informed them that something bad had happened.

"Guys, I've got bad news... its father, Gol and Maia have captured him," Keira stated, confirming the suspicions that all four of the siblings and Daxter had when they noticed the worried look on her face, though that was around the time that Jak moved forward to comfort her for a few moments, just so she didn't break down or something, while Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy turned their heads a little and focused on the area the Lava Tubes rested in, as it seemed like it was time to head down it and invade the Citadel, before Keira glanced up and found that all of them were calm and collected, which came as a surprise to her, "How can you be so calm at a time like this, especially when all four of the Sages have been kidnapped and there are rumors of a Lurker army gathering to take over the rest of the continent?"

"Because we're heroes... okay, these four are the heroes, but the point stands," Daxter replied, as while the idea of using the zoomer to fly through the Lava Tubes didn't sit well with him, and neither did facing Gol and Maia if they were able to overpower and imprison all four of the Sages, he knew that Jak, Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy were more than prepared for whatever was inside the Citadel and that was why they were so calm, as this was totally normal for them at this point in time and he was getting used to seeing them fight the enemies that were around them, "besides, we were going to save the other three Sages anyway, so adding Samos to the list really doesn't change things for us at all... though we still need to traverse the Lava Tubes, and we have all the Power Cells you asked for."

Keira nodded and took the pack that contained all of the Power Cells they had collected so far, but before she jumped into the Warp Gate again, to power up the zoomer's heat shield, Jak had her stop for a moment as he walked over to where the Oracle rested and paused for a few seconds, where he returned a few moments later with the last two Power Cells from Volcanic Crater, meaning that there was nothing more for them to collect in this region and that it was time for him and his siblings to focus on the Lava Tubes, to which Keira moved through the Warp Gate and went to work on the heat shield for a time, with the siblings heading for the entrance of the passage north. After riding the carts for a few moments the four of them came to a stop at the edge of what appeared to be the start of the Lava Tubes, an area that was similar to what they had found in Fire Canyon, only this place was much more intense and each of them had to wipe some sweat off of their foreheads as Twilight checked each of their temperature regulators to make sure they could handle the heat that was in this area, because this region was much hotter than what they had seen in Fire Canyon and the ground was cracked in so many places that meant a normal zoomer would melt in a matter of moments. Jak determined that he and Twilight could do this, more in the sense that having a magic user with him to deal with any Dark Eco related hazards was useful and less in the sense that having her with him meant that Gol and Maia would be unable to kidnap her if she happened to be more of a moving target, though Starlight and Cozy didn't seem to mind the idea, since they knew that they would be able to join them and tackle the Citadel as a family, especially since they had no idea what might be waiting for them in that region or what sort of traps the Dark Sages might have set up for them. Not a few moments later the siblings watched as Keira sent the zoomer over to where they were standing, or the trans-pad that was below to on a whole piece of ground, and quickly used the Communicator to inform them that it would now withstand eight hundred degrees now, but they would have to hit the cooling balloons along the way to make sure the heat shield didn't break apart and the zoomer didn't melt at the wrong point, though once she relayed the message she made sure to mention switching on the Warp Gate that might be on the other side of the Lava Tubes, as they had no way of knowing if one even existed, before she had the Communicator return to the bag it was usually contained inside.

With that done Jak and Twilight climbed onto the zoomer and raced forward as Starlight and Cozy returned to the hut that was resting nearby, to wait for them to find out if there was another Warp Gate or not, where they made sure to follow the path that would bring them to Gol and Maia's Citadel and discovered that there was a thinner path Jak had to fly over to, due to gaps appearing on either side of the rock path, so to make sure he could focus on the path, and not fall over one of the sides, Twilight did something she and the others hadn't done before this point, she weaved her magic through the air and snatched all of the Precursor Orbs that rested along the way, just so Jak didn't have to worry about them. Jak, on the other hand, focused on smashing through the metallic boxes that were in the way, bursting through the cooling balloons to make sure the heat shield didn't overheat, and jumped over the gaps that happened to be in their way while avoiding any open lava pits, as the pits in question would really put some pressure on the zoomer, though he made sure to hit the pair of Scout Fly boxes that were in the way, even though Twilight also intended on yanking the first and second one over to them in the chance that Jak took a different route than what the box was on, even though he smashed through the first one and kept moving to ensure the heat shield stayed up. From there they flew through an area that had three Yellow Eco vents and found that there was a machine that seemed to be drilling into the middle of the section of the Lava Tubes that they were entering, an area that had a much of metal that Gol and Maia must have prepared a long time ago, before they fell to Dark Eco anyway, and they knew that Keira would want to look at this place at some point, before they noticed that the heads of the drill were more of a spherical shape, which didn't seem to be all that effective based on what they were seeing, but both had to wonder if this had been designed to help power the Precursor Robot or something. Either way that didn't stop the siblings from opening fire on the drill and pretty much blew apart all five of the spheres that were attached to it, though as the last one fell a nearby gate opened up and revealed the path that would take them to the next part of the region they were in at the moment, so what Jak did was pause as Twilight grabbed all of the cooling balloons with her magic and lined them up so he could fly through all of them, something that reset the gauge of the heat shield within a few seconds before he jumped through the opening and continued down the path that was in front of them.

After Jak moved through the opening Twilight noticed that there were a few hazards in their way, one of which happened to be a pair of metallic spheres that were hanging from the ceiling of the tunnel and were resting between them and the three metallic paths the zoomer would have to fly on after jumping over a small gap, though Jak took the one that was on the right and crossed over another path so he could smash into the third Scout Fly box, freeing the robot so it could be claimed by Twilight as he focused on making sure they didn't fall off the metallic platforms that would allow them to reach the Citadel's entrance. It didn't take them all that long before Jak brought them to an area that had a large number of Dark Eco containers moving from one side of the tunnel to another, which both Jak and Twilight assumed had to be sending the containers to the area that Gol and Maia lived and worked in since they moved out of Sandover Village, to supply the pair of Dark Sages with a decent amount of Dark Eco for their experiments, though thanks to the Yellow Eco vent that was in front of them meant that they could either blow up the containers, to deprive the Dark Sages of the substance they were in desperate need of, or Jak could curve around each moving crate and they could fire on some of the spiked spheres that were in this section of the tunnel. Jak focused on blasting his way through the crates while Twilight did the same on some of the spiked spheres that were in their way, before they located the fourth Scout Fly box and smashed it to pieces, similar to what they had done to others they had found so far, which was followed by Jak flying forward to tackle the rest of the area, even if he had to smash through some cooling balloons to make sure the zoomer didn't overheat at all. At the end of this area, before they reached a descending section of the tunnel, Twilight found a fifth Scout Fly box and blasted it with a bit of Yellow Eco, so she could grab the little robot with her magic a few seconds later, before her brother leapt into the air and they soared for a few seconds, allowing them to fly over some of the metallic fragments of the path they were heading down, which brought them to another area with spiked spheres, cooling balloons, and the sixth Scout Fly box, though the reason it was odd was due to the fact that it was close to the previous one, so Jak flew through it and let Twilight collect the little robot as he moved forward through the tunnel that was in front of them. That was followed by Jak dodging the Dark Eco crates as Twilight fired upon the various spiked spheres that were resting in their way, clearing the way for her brother to fly forward without having to worry about too many hazards, even though they grabbed the seventh Scout Fly box that was along the way as well, allowing them to claim the Power Cell the robots had collected earlier.

After that they used the ramp that were resting in front of them and jumped into the air, allowing the zoomer to soar over a decent sized gap and land outside a massive Precursor Door that both of them suspected that had to be the entrance to Gol and Maia's Citadel, due to a Warp Gate that had to belong to the Yellow Sage, so Jak made sure to park the zoomer on top of the trans-pad and collected yet another Power Cell for their efforts, even if they might not need them anymore, to which Twilight climbed off and activated the Warp Gate that was what they were looking for, something that was followed by Starlight, Cozy, and Keira jumping through it a few moments later, even though the siblings nodded to each other and faced the Precursor Door, as it was time for them to face whatever challenges Gol and Maia had in store for them, before facing the Dark Sages themselves for the fate of their world.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

well its almost time for the first game to end and the first major interlude to start. i wonder if you will be expanding on events between the games or not, as you did quite well with such in the spyro story