Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Celebration

It took Jak, Twilight, Cozy, Starlight, their Ottsels, Keira, and Samos some time to leave the Metal Head Nest and travel back to Haven City, since the Lurker balloon was slower than one of the Krimzon Guard zoomers, though upon their return to the city everyone found that Ashelin, Torn, Brutter, Praxis, and all sorts of people waiting for them to come back with good news on what happened to the Leader of the Metal Heads, especially since the Neo Metal Heads were waiting alongside their new allies, showing the people of Haven that there were actually good Metal Heads in the world, to which Alvin, Simon, and Theodore jumped off the balloon and transformed into their true forms as they flew over the city, causing people to cheer as they watched the brothers. It was an interesting sight to behold, that the citizens of Haven City would actually work with and respect Metal Heads, given that none of the Krimzon Guard seemed to be trying to attack them, meaning Praxis must have told them what he had learned, or maybe it had been the Shadow who did it before he and everyone else left the city on the balloon, and even the Lurkers in the city, who naturally didn't like Metal Heads, seemed okay with their presence, meaning all of their efforts had given way for the people of the city to become united. Of course, as they witnessed this, Twilight came to understand that Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were likely no longer the Crown 'Princes' of their race, rather they were now the Crown 'Kings' of the Neo Metal Heads and it made her wonder if anything could be done to save the rest of their kind, as in enlighten those with yellow Skull Gems in an effort to make them either red, blue, or green, as those other colors meant they were different and much smarter than those that were made to focus solely on battle. She knew that, in time, they and the brothers would figure out if they were able to gain control over the other Metal Heads, which would be an exciting time to gain more information on their friends and their abilities, though after everything that had happened she wanted to rest up before doing anything else, even though she had a few ideas on how to gift Starlight some Dark Eco and grant her a boost to her power, similar to what happened to her and Cozy, hopefully without a Dark Form showing up.

"My Liege, it seems that you were successful in taking down the Leader of the Metal Heads," Praxis said, speaking once the balloon was on the ground and the group could climb off it, though at the same time he bowed his head and the siblings found that so many followed his lead, meaning everyone likely knew that they were, in some way, the heirs to the throne and, more importantly in their eyes, that if Praxis was doing this towards all four of them that they should follow suit, even if it was weird when the siblings thought about it, all while the brothers continued to fly around in the air, as a celebration of sorts before they rejoined the group.

"He put up a good fight, but he was no match for our powers," Jak replied, where he glanced back at the balloon for a few seconds and stared at the head of Kor, or Metal Kor he realized since it was stuck in his Metal Head form, as Daxter had wanted to take it back to Haven for two reasons, the first being a symbol to the people that the war was over and that the Leader of the Metal Heads had been defeated at long last, while the second was that he wanted to set it up inside Krew's old place, or rather his new place since Daxter has asked if it was okay to take over the saloon, hence why there was now a large glowing Ottsel, in his friend's image, standing above the bar, as a final trophy of sorts.

In that moment both Jak and Praxis raised their fists and declared that the war was over, that Haven City was safe and that the Leader of the Metal Heads was dead, something that caused the citizens and the Neo Metal Heads to cheer for their victory, even causing some of the Krimzon Guards to embrace their new allies as everyone heard the news, which caused Jak, his sisters, Keira, and Samos to climb off the balloon as Twilight lifted the head of Kor off the Lurker's device, carrying it over to the saloon so it could be set up inside it. As they walked towards Daxter's new place, while the citizens started to disperse so they could finally celebrate the end of the war with the Metal Heads, Praxis stood near Jak and quietly told him that Ashelin had asked Brutter, and several of his kind that were around his level of intelligence, to join the Krimzon Guard and have him be the Captain of that group, showing him and his sisters that more changes had been happening since they left to take on Kor, causing them to nod for a moment as they entered the Hip Hog again. Of course Daxter instantly told all of them that it was good that the races of Haven were getting along now, which seemed to be something that followed Twilight and her sisters, based on what he had seen, and jumped onto the bar as Tess took up her position behind it, due to the fact that she actually liked working in this place as she made all sorts of drinks, before declaring that the 'Naughty Ottsel' was officially open for business, he just needed to get a new sign to replace the old one. Praxis told him that a new one should be arriving in the next few days, showing that they had been busy talking over the Communicator on the way back, given that the Lurker balloon took some time to get back to the city, though he was preoccupied with the fact that he would be talking to Jak and his sisters about the fate of their father at some point in the future, something he seemed to be dreading, but for now his main focus was on celebrating their victory over the Metal Heads and their dark Leader, just like the rest of his people were doing. As they did that Jak noticed that Praxis didn't seem eager to speak about what had happened to their father, at least not right now so he could have some time to think about his actions and everything that had gone down since he took over the city, but for right now he was content to let the people celebrate their victory over the Metal Heads before getting ready for whatever the future held for them, hence why the Baron backed off and let them enjoy their victory.

Sure enough it wasn't long before the city started to celebrate, people dancing in the streets as fireworks were loosed at the sky, though while that was happening Jak, his sisters, the Metal Head brothers, and the rest of their group gathered all over the newly renamed Naughty Ottsel, where Tess made sure to pour everyone whatever they wanted, using the rest of the supplies that were from Krew's time running this place, while Daxter, using the funds that Praxis had given him, which he assumed had belonged to the now dead fat man, made sure to order supplies to restock for the future, due to the fact that he had a feeling this place would be busy in the future.

"You know, that's a nice trophy," Tess commented, where she looked across to where Kor's head rested, as Daxter had chosen to place it above the entrance of the saloon so everyone could see it when they entered the place for a drink, all to remember that the war was over and that everyone was safe for the time being, since there was no telling what the future might have in store for them and the rest of the city, and right now everyone was looking at it, either admiring the brand new trophy or recalling everything that happened during the war for the city.

"Thanks, I worked with Jak and his sisters to take him down," Daxter replied, as he was proud of his contributions to them bringing Kor down and stopping the Metal Heads from invading the rest of the city, due to the fact that once their leader fell his forces fled from the city, though Alvin and his brothers were sure that it was only a matter of time until some of the stronger Metal Heads tried something else, even though they would be flexing their powers in an attempt to claim control over the rest of their brothers and sisters, to free the rest of the normal Metal Heads and give them a chance to live a new life that wasn't full of war or suffering.

"Honestly, I'm not sure who has a bigger head: him, or you!" Pecker stated, showing that he honestly didn't believe Daxter had been of any help during the fight with Kor and was just saying this to make Tess fall even more in love with him, as the lady seemed to be madly in love with him and didn't seem to know that Daxter wasn't as grand as he claimed he might be, though as he raised his cup to sip from it, however, Onin signed for a moment and Pecker nearly dropped his glass as he stared at his boss for a moment, "What do you mean he's telling the truth?!"

"Well, he did hurt Kor while we fought him, so he's not lying," Alvin answered, where he and his brothers sat at the end of the bar, as in to the left side while Jak and Keira took the right side, leaving Samos in the middle while everyone else was scattered around Daxter's new place, though in his opinion this was nice, taking a break for the first time since they had left the Hive with the plan to bring down their father, meaning they could finally relax a little, as in truly relax, and plan for whatever the future held for them and everyone else.

"Indeed, though we must not forget those who were lost to bring down our enemy," Samos spoke up, where he had been thinking about everything that had happened since he first took the siblings through the Rift Ring all those years ago, so they could be safe in the past and he could train them, to prepare them as best as he could for the destiny he knew they would complete, and knew of the lives that had been taken from them in an attempt to save Haven and the heirs to the throne, even if many had no idea what happened to the younger heirs, to which he raised his glass and toasted to those who gave their lives to beat the Metal Heads, which Jak and the others did without delay.

"At least we stopped Kor and sent the kids back into the past," Cozy said, though while her brother and sisters might miss their younger selves, which she shared a tiny bit, her focus was more on the fact that they had saved the city from Kor and his Metal Heads, who Alvin and his brothers would worry about once this party was over and they started to worry about the future, since none of them had any idea what might happen after tonight, especially since she and Twilight needed to make sure their Dark Forms were tamed before something big happened.

"Are you sure you guys are okay?" Keira asked, mostly because she knew that being exposed to so much Dark Eco had to be bad for someone's health, even though it looked like Jak and his sisters, for the most part, could control all six types of Eco, despite the fact that Starlight was the only one who didn't have access to Dark Eco, and she was worried that the four of them might be suffering in some manner, hence why she wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with them as they moved forward with securing the city, "Are you sure that there are no serious consequences for overusing your Dark Forms and their powers?"

"Actually, we're doing pretty good, and Midnight is sleeping for the first time since she first woke up," Twilight replied, as she understood where Keira was coming from, hence why she felt that it was important that they visit the building that the Precursor Oracle rested in, the one that had first aided them in gaining some measure of control over Jak and Cozy's Dark Forms, since there was a chance it might aid them in some manner now that Kor was defeated and the slumbering entity that had been inside the Precursor Stone had been freed from its protective casing, "Oh, Starlight, you and I should take a few hours to practice our magic on some targets... with Midnight's help we might be able to figure out a safe way to grant you the same power we have, without the negative side effects of going into a rage and everything that happened when we freed our siblings."

As everyone figured out that she was referring to Dark Eco, so Starlight could match up with her siblings, they found that the main door opened and Sig, in all his glory, stepped into the Naughty Ottsel with a look of disbelief on his face, which let all of them know that while he was glad to be alive, he was also shocked by all of the Metal Heads that were outside the bar, which made sense given that none of them had told him about the Neo Metal Heads or that there was more to Alvin, Simon, and Theodore than what everyone was seeing, even though his presence caused everyone to cheer as Jak took a moment to walk over to where their friend was standing.

"You cherries didn't think some nasty-breath, giant-sized lizard was gonna keep me from the biggest party in all of Haven City, did you? Or someone knocking said lizard into me on accident?" Sig asked, showing that, despite everything that had to be happening outside Daxter's new place, nothing had changed since the last time they saw him and that his fall in the Underport hadn't annoyed him at all, even though he might be a little sour that he couldn't join the assault on the Metal Head Nest, and was blaming Cozy for her actions in the Underport, before he considered something as he took a moment to look at all of them, "Oh, and Vin is just fine... it appears that some of your, um, unusual allies headed over to the Power Station and protected it from the Metal Heads that tried to take him out... the four of you are going to have to explain how you got some Metal Heads to defect to our side, among other things."

"Don't worry, we'll be sure to do that in no time... also, I knew you were too tough for 'em, big guy!" Daxter stated, as Sig was one of the best warriors in all of Haven City, or the best Wastelander since he was the only one of his kind inside the city, so while all of them might have been worried about him, given his fall in the Underport earlier, he knew that it was only a matter of time until Sig found his way back to the surface and rejoined them, either with wounds to show he had been in a big fight or having no wounds and appearing like he had, though it wasn't long before Tess made sure to serve Sig a drink so they could talk and plan out their future.

Sig accepted the drink as Jak pointed out Kor's head to him, set up in Krew's style, before they delved into the tale of how they first met Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, which was why Twilight started the story and Jak took a step back for now, due to the fact that she was the first one of them to encounter the brothers, and during her story they found that there were a few more arrivals, such as Torn, Ashelin, and even Vin, the latter still being nervous around Metal Heads, even though he was thankful that the Neo Metal Heads had saved his life. Of course it wasn't long before a true party started as Alvin and his brothers started to sing, an odd thing to hear and have them more information on what their friends could do, though it wasn't long before Daxter joined them and focused on dancing along to the tune, with Tess joining him and as she tried to mirror his movements, which had to be hard since she wasn't an Ottsel and didn't have Daxter's maneuverability, but it did cause the couples that were in the Naughty Ottsel to get up and dance as well. Even though none of them had a dance partner Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy joined the party not a few seconds later and just let loose for the first time since they started their quest to bring peace to Haven, by defeating the Leader of the Metal Heads, where Samos nodded while he watched all of them, showing that this was a good time to relax and let loose, since there was no telling what the future held for the city, especially since there were still Metal Heads to worry about and all sorts of enemies that might attack the city now that the Shield Wall had been knocked out by Kor's actions. As it turned out the only one who didn't come to the bar to celebrate their victory was the Baron, where Jak and his sisters knew that Praxis would be busy making sure all was fine in the city and that he had to be getting himself ready for the eventual conversation Jak wanted to have with him, to go over what had happened to their father before Praxis took over, so this gave him the time he needed to get ready for that moment and also allowed the siblings to have a well deserved break, even though they would be back in action in the very near future, hence why they were enjoying the night while it lasted, like everyone else that called Haven home.

Eventually the celebration spilled out into the rest of the city, as in the citizens must have been impressed by their party or something and were inspired to turn the entirety of Haven into a party zone, where even the Neo Metal Heads got invited to it, showing that the citizens understood that they weren't enemies and deserved to be welcomed into the city, before all of them found fireworks and all sorts of celebrations going on, which put a smile on their faces as they watched what was going on in the Port, knowing it was echoing across the rest of Haven as well.

"The four of you have saved the city and more!" Samos commented, where he followed Jak and his sisters when they took a moment to head outside and see what fruit their hard work had created, seeing the various races of the city safe from all of their enemies and enjoying themselves, without having to worry about potential threats attacking and dragging people off or something, to which he came to a stop for a moment, when he reached where the siblings were standing, and raised his staff to the stars for a few seconds, "Kor, after all these years, has finally been destroyed, and somewhere out there, an ancient race has been revived... if our foe was telling the truth anyway, since Kor is known for being a liar at times... time will tell if the Stone contained the last Precursor or if there are more of them out there."

"At least that's what it seems like, given what happened in the Nest earlier," Jak said, as the Precursor issues was one thing they were going to have to think about at some point, as Twilight and Starlight would likely be talking about it for a good bit of time before they moved to figure out what had happened to their father, which would involve the talk with Praxis in the palace, since it was the best place for such a thing, before he returned his gaze to the city that was around them and let a smile appear on his face, "though if we're being honest, we're all happy to be home again."

"Yeah, well enjoy the celebration while it lasts," Twilight stated, as while she was enjoying herself, and was happy to see all of her family and friends were enjoying this as well, she knew that there had to be something else that would endanger the city and those they had fought to protect, even Midnight had mentioned that she felt such a thing might happen in the future, once Kor was destroyed and his control over the rest of the Metal Heads had been smashed, though she was more curious as to what they could discover about the Precursors and all of her Dark Eco powers, plus what Cozy had and the potential power Starlight might gain, "we've got a lot of work to do before the next threat reveals itself to us, so we had better enjoy the rest of the night, and the celebration, before turning our focus to protecting the city."

As she said that, however, Jak, Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight sensed something in the air shift, especially since the feeling did awaken the Dark Forms of the three that had them and it caused Starlight to follow suit, which caused Samos and Sig, the latter having come out to see what they were up to or might have wanted to ask them about being Wastelanders, to glance around the area as they sought out whatever Jak and his sisters were looking for, even though they zeroed in on the area the shift was coming from and glanced at the edge of the Port, at the top of the high wall. Standing up there, far away from all of them and the citizens of Haven City, stood a humanoid figure who was wearing what appeared to be a black robe of sorts, or maybe it was a coat of some kind due to the zipper that ran down the middle of it, where it was unzipped in the lower half and revealed that the person was wearing black pants, while the upper section remained zipped, though it did look like they were wearing black gloves and black boots in addition to that. None of them could see the figure's face, as it had a hood, black like the rest of the coat it happened to be wearing, that covered its head and made it impossible to see the face of the sudden arrival in Haven City, even though it was more like the hood was pulled down to prevent them from seeing the figure's face, and it was just standing there, either observing everything that might be happening inside the city or it might be watching the four of them, why they had no idea. The only thing they could see was that the figure had to be male, based on what little they could actually see of the figure's form from this distance, though in the following moments an oval shaped tear in reality, a portal of some kind, opened near the figure and he shifted his head so he could look at the magical entity for a couple of seconds, where a second figure, who was wearing the same sort of black coat that the first had on, joined the first mysterious figure on the top of the high wall. What surprised all of them was that the newcomer, if they were seeing things right, was female due to her chest area and maybe a bit of her form that they could see under the coat, though the really interesting thing was that the hood of her coat had pointed tips, like a animal and reminded Jak of his sisters, given their pony nature and ears, meaning that whoever had joined the first figure was either someone who just wanted animal ears on their coat's hood or they were an anthropomorphic animal.

Twilight shuddered for a moment as Midnight's wings came out, while Cozy let out a feral growl and Jak felt a rush of dark power surge into him, their Dark Forms telling them that these two were dangerous and likely stood on evil's side, like Kor had been before his defeat, meaning another fight might be about to happen and they braced themselves, though as that happened the pair glanced at each other as a second portal opened directly behind the male and they both disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, causing the siblings to revert back to their normal forms again... but one thing was for sure, they needed to find their father and maybe take Sig up on his offer to see his Wastelander friend, the one that could help them, because darkness was coming for this world and they had to be ready to face it.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

a city wide party... i can only imagine the city wide hangover the next day lol it was also nice seeing the neo metal heads rewarded for their efforts by being accepted by the citizens of haven, given the events at the start of the third game that could be quite useful in mitigating some of the damage to the city. Me doth thinks Midnight might be finally reaching too far though in planning to add dark eco to Starlight, given canon we all know how she does with emotionally charged magic

[badninja]

So I wonder if this is Discord checking in or someone else who got sent out?

[Moon_Fire]

10862297
Neither. I bet it's either Erol and someone he managed to contact, or it's a whole new enemy that's gonna be the BBEG of the third game.