Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose

Spargus: Dealing with Seem

Upon entering Spargus once more, and finding that many of the citizens were in the middle of heading indoors to ready themselves for the storm that was coming towards the city, Jak and his sisters found that the female monk they had seen earlier, Seem according to what Damas had told them, was standing next to some Leaper Lizards with some of her monks, who were tending to their mounts at the moment, either meaning they were going to head out, a reckless decision and was likely the incorrect one, or they were preparing for a race.

"I take it Damas delivered my message?" Seem asked, her voice calm and collected, meaning she must have gotten over what she and the other monks had seen when Twilight and Midnight used their magic on the Dark Precursor device they had seen earlier, though as she said that she and her monks turned to look at Jak and his sisters, likely waiting for them to say something before they mounted their lizards and rode off, making Twilight wonder what sort of conversation Seem wanted to have with her and her siblings.

"He did, though he didn't go into great detail about why you wanted to talk with us," Jak replied, though the fact that their father mentioned the bazaar meant that Seem likely wanted to discuss the device and the Dark Eco Crystal that Twilight had claimed, not to mention stashed away in her storage area so no one could steal it from them while they were taking on all of their upcoming missions, since they knew that Damas would likely have some at some point in time, but for the time being they focused on Seem and the topic she wanted to talk about, "he also gave us a brief explanation of what you and your order do for the world, keeping it safe from the terrible dark artifacts that exist in our world."

"That is correct. We monks are sworn to discover and protect the secrets of the Precursors, along with locking away all of the dark artifacts that might case this world harm." Seem stated, likely referring to the fact that she and her monks might have been in the process of preparing the dark device they had seen in the bazaar for a journey to their temple, all so they could lock it away with the rest of the twisted Precursor artifacts they had been collecting for a long time, likely since the day this order had been created, making the siblings wonder what else the monks might have locked away, "the Dark Eco Crystal from the Dark Satellite, for example, is one such artifact we would like to recover, as in your possession it might prove to be far too dangerous for one or more of you... plus, I would prefer that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, like someone wishing to do our world harm."

"I understand where you are coming from, especially given that these four were trained by a Sage, but I'm pretty sure the Dark Eco Crystal is safe with us," Daxter remarked, because he knew that with the combined power of Jak, Twilight, Cozy, Starlight, and all of their Dark Forms there was nothing that would stop them or overwhelm them, and if there was he had a feeling that such a thing would cause them to develop new powers or something, which wasn't taking into account their friends, as in Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, whose true forms would likely smash everyone that dared to fight them, if such a thing was necessary.

"Perhaps it might be safe in your hands, stored in that odd storage area you have, but are any of you safe while its in your possession?" Seem inquired, as if implying that simply holding onto the Dark Eco Crystal in this manner would affect all of them in some manner, even if Midnight's storage area was like a separate realm or something, something that caused the majority of them to come to a decision on what else she might be referring to, before the monk considered something for a few seconds and focused on them once more, "One or more of you might find your Dark Forms harder to control with the crystal in your possession... though I have an easy solution for all of us: one of you will use a Leaper Lizard to race my monks through the city, and I'll wager one of the Light Eco Crystals in my possession against the Dark Eco Crystal that you have, as the winner will end up with both crystals."

"So if we win, the Light will balance the Dark, and if you win it'll be under control anyway," Twilight said, showing that she did understand what Seem was talking about, while at the same time Jak and the others nodded their heads as Jak walked over to where the Leaper Lizards happened to be standing, showing that he was ready for another race, though this time around his sisters could use their powers to float through the air and watch over them while they moved through the city, likely following a set of rings or something, before she glanced towards Seem, "oh, and you had best get ready to hand over that Light Eco Crystal, Seem, as no one can outrace our brother."

Seem stood there for a moment as she listened to what Twilight had to say, as she had a feeling that Jak might have bitten off more than he could chew this time around, though she moved away from where the starting line was and headed for the area that served as the end of the line, while Jak noticed his sisters were aided by Starlight's magic for a moment, as in all three of them floated up in the air, before he joined the three monks that were in front of him and they paused in place for a couple of seconds. Once everyone was ready to get started another lone monk, who was standing nearby, waved a hand and the race started as the other monks started moving not a few seconds after that happened, while Jak followed after them and found that whatever path they were following could be seen thanks to a number of Eco rings that had been set up before Seem asked Damas to speak with all of them, blue colored rings that weaved around the city in a way that would test one's ability to use a Leaper Lizard. Unfortunately for the monks Jak was a great racer and he had an affinity for animals, possibly something that was tied to his family line or his ability to wield all types of Eco, since Twilight was sure all of them could actually use Light Eco despite the fact that they hadn't seen any of it since the day they faced Gol and Maia, where his skills allowed him to weave his way through his three opponents and surged right up to the front of the line, no doubt leaving three confused monks behind since they were experts at riding Leaper Lizards and he was supposed to be a newbie at this, something that put a smile on the faces of Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight. Jak eventually found that the path brought him and his opponents back to the bazaar, around some of the stalls and curved around some of the buildings as well, giving him and his sisters a chance to see that Seem was hanging off to the side, watching the race, though while she didn't appear to have any feelings on the matter they knew that she had to be surprised that Jak was in the lead and that all three of her monks were a bit behind him, and was likely silently hoping that Jak failed at the last moment so she could get her hands on the crystal they had pulled out of the Dark Satellite earlier.

As luck would have it Jak reached the end of the line before any of Seem's monks could catch up with him, allowing him to reach the final ring, which happened to be a red one to symbolize the end of the race no doubt, and pass through it, which did cause all of the monks to come to a stop since their mission was to beat him and all of them had failed to accomplish their goal, though as everyone came to a stop Seem removed herself from the area that she had been standing in and just walked over to where Jak was waiting, all while his sisters landed nearby.

"Not bad, hero. Here, the Light Eco Crystal is yours." Seem said, where she pulled out a white crystal, one that the siblings found to be far more pure than what the dark purple crystal that came from the Dark Satellite, and handed it over to Jak, who took it and looked for it for a few seconds before he handed it to Twilight, as he knew it would be safe inside the odd storage space Midnight had created, even though Seem had a feeling she would study it at some point, hence why she felt a warning was necessary, before they did something stupid with the crystals, "The two types of crystals can be combined to form great energies, so please, be careful with them."

"So what you're saying is that we can combine the two types into, say, explosives?" Starlight inquired, though that was just a sample of what she imagined the crystals were capable of, because with all of the types of spells she and Twilight were able to use it made her curious as to whether or not they could use the crystals in a similar fashion, firing off blasts with a wave of their hands, loosing beams, or just blowing stuff up to clear out whatever enemies might be in their way, and it also made her wonder if the Precursors had left information behind for them to figure out what sort of machines they had designed for both crystals.

"This isn't a game!" Seem declared, showing that she didn't much approve of the idea of using the crystals to blow stuff up, even if the siblings were thinking of using the power against their enemies, especially given what little she had told them about what was coming towards their world, something she might have to do to make them aware of the powers that all of them were dealing with and what sort of danger they would be in if they continued to hold onto both crystals, given that they tended to attract all sorts of individuals to them.

"Oh, I like you... we're going to be good friends." Midnight replied, quickly surfacing for a few moments as Jak and both of his sisters found that she had replaced Twilight for a couple of seconds, given her eye color and her wings that grew out of Twilight's back, though as that happened she appeared beside Seem for a moment and placed a hand over her shoulder, something that seemed to freak out Seem a little bit since she went still, before she disappeared and returned over to the area that her siblings were standing in.

"Okay... anyway, when you die, do be kind enough to make sure the crystals return to us." Seem said, deciding not to even think about the strangeness of what was going on right now, as she was sure that Midnight was something she didn't want to worry about or even attempt to understand the being who seemed to share a body with Twilight, and instead focused her efforts on just telling the siblings about her desire to make sure both of the crystals remained in safe hands, while her monks started to depart for their next objective.

"Don't plan on that happening, Seem, as we're kind of hard to kill." Jak stated, which was the truth of the matter, the four of them were incredibly tough to kill and all of their enemies had failed to do such a thing since they started their quest to save this world, especially when one took into consideration the fact that each of them had access to all six types of Eco, or at least five since they had no confirmation on Light Eco, and his sisters had their magic to fall back on, but even as he said that he knew there was something else he wanted to ask before seem disappeared, "Though I have to ask: why are you so obsessed with death?"

"Because of that!" Seem replied, where she pointed up into the air and the siblings followed her finger, finding a glowing purple star up in the sky, though from the area that they were standing in it sure seemed like it might be as large as the sun itself, something that might be bad if it happened to be true, before they glanced back at Seem, who seemed to be in the middle of thinking about something that they needed to know about the object in question, "The Day Star approaches, and every day it grows brighter! This planet's final trial is coming."

Daxter started to open his mouth, so he could suggest that many they used the energies of the crystals to blow up the Day Star and save their world, though before he could say anything a siren sounded and they heard one of the Wastelanders mention that it was due to the storm Damas had told them about when he sent Jak out to retrieve those artifacts earlier, to which Seem pulled away from them and headed for whatever area that her monks were heading in, while the rest of Spargus' citizens headed for their own homes, before the siblings returned to the Palace, as it was the best place for them to head to since they had no official home in this city and Damas would be pleased to see them. Sure enough he turned towards them not a few seconds after the lift came to a stop, where he showed them a hidden path that lead to the other section of the Palace, where he and his advisors slept, as there was a chamber that his bed was in and another one down the way that had been set aside for Gol and Maia, even though they had turned it into a bedroom that was combined with a laboratory, something that caused Twilight to call dibs so she could see what sort of information the Dark Sages might have left for them. Such a thing left Jak, Starlight, and Cozy to pick from some of the other rooms that were around their father's, something none of them really thought about since they were glad to have found their father and had a chance to learn from him, though once all four of them had picked out their rooms Damas had them join him for dinner, all sorts of cooked meat and berries, with a few pieces of fruit as well, giving them a chance to tell him about what happened when they talked with Seem, both near the Dark Satellite they had found her near and in front of the race that she challenged Jak to after they claimed the artifacts, before mentioning the two types of crystals. Once they were done with that Damas told them more about the Keepers of Secrets, the order of monks that Seem was the leader of, though the important fact that Jak and his sisters discovered, since they already knew about the important mission the monks were trying to fulfill, was that 'Seem' appeared to be a title that was bestowed upon the highest ranking member of the order, who discarded all personal identifiers when they accepted the position, while Twilight was sure that the title represented all the leaders of the order, as in past, present, and future, though she didn't care which pronouns someone used when talking about her, which was interesting to discover.

Eventually it came time for the siblings to turn in for the night, as they would need their rest for whatever the morning had in store for them, especially after Damas mentioned that the storm should be over by that point in time and he was sure that something would come up for them to do, to which Jak and his sisters went to sleep knowing that something would be waiting for them once morning arrived, something that would help them prove themselves to the people of Spargus and allow them to get closer to fulfilling their various objectives.

---

When morning arrived Jak and his sisters woke up and had a quick breakfast, as there was no telling what might happen in the desert and they needed to be ready for anything, before their father informed them that Kleiver was waiting near the vehicles in the garage, meaning he would have their next assignment while he took some time to gauge whether or not all of them were ready to tackle the second Arena challenge, to which they departed from the Palace and headed over to the garage without delay, where they found Kleiver standing in the middle of the area, though it appeared that he had calmed down after seeing Dark Cozy's anger the previous day, which was good since none of them liked an annoyed Kleiver, as it seemed to trigger their sister and no one wanted that to happen again.

"The lot of you looking for a bit of action?" Kleiver asked, though what surprised the siblings wasn't that he was asking if they wanted to go fight something, or take a vehicle out and tear down whoever was trying to mess with the city from the area that was outside the massive main gate, it was the fact that he spoke in a more cordial sense, like he was trying to be much friendlier towards Jak and his sisters, no doubt due to being lectured by Damas the previous night or after seeing the dark depths of Cozy's hatred for him, for suggesting that he take one of them for some purpose.

"We're always up for a bit of action," Starlight replied, because that was the fastest way for them to show Spargus' citizens that they were capable of handling the hazards of the desert and would make good Wastelanders, especially since all four of them had copied some of Sig's movements when he showed them how to fight like someone who lived in the desert, all to ready themselves for anything that their basic fighting skills couldn't handle, before she considered something as all of her siblings glanced at the other vehicles for a few seconds, "though what makes you say that we were looking for some action in the first place?"

"One of my guys saw you speaking to that monk, Seem, and that you appeared to be happy when someone brought up a use for something," Kleiver answered, which meant he was speaking about the fact that they had learned that combining the energies of the Dark Eco and Light Eco Crystals could produce great energies, which someone who wasn't used to the terms could assume meant explosions and whatever else one might assume when hearing those words, which was when Kleiver rubbed the back of his head for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out what he was supposed to say to make them understand what he was saying, "like, um, blowing stuff up or taking the fight to those who annoy you in some way, like those Marauders who constantly try to attack our gates."

"Well, I can't deny that we like blowing things up... namely our enemies," Cozy remarked, confirming Kleiver's words not a few seconds after they learned what he meant, especially since some of their attacks could explode in the face of those they were fighting, though it also extended to detonating things like buildings to make sure their enemies had a difficult time getting their way or attacking their allies, something they would have done to the enemies that were supposedly in the middle of getting ready to attack Haven City, though as she said that her siblings found a worried look wash over the fat man's face for a few seconds, before it disappeared a few moments later.

"Good, because the scope shows a group of Metal Heads moving through the desert not too far from here." Kleiver stated, something that caught the attention of the siblings as the fat Wastelander said that, because they knew something about these types of Metal Heads, thanks to what Kor had said about them and Sig confirmed his statements, and this was also one of the things they had come to do, figure out if Alvin, Simon, and Theodore could free the Wasteland Metal Heads and allow each of them to forge a new future, before the man beckoned to a vehicle that was about the same size as the one he let Jak use for the race, only it had guns attached to it, "I've been authorized to give you access to another vehicle, as in one that can actually fight back and deal some damage to those monsters... out of curiosity, have any of you ever laid eyes on a Wasteland Metal Head before?"

"No, but we'll take care of them in no time," Daxter replied, as he had a feeling that Kleiver was trying to have some fun at the moment, almost as if he was using them for his own amusement or something, though at the same time he found that Jak was staring at the new vehicle they were being given access to and Twilight was studying it as well, before she called on her magic and pulled out a bunch of fragments from the Marauder vehicles they had smashed yesterday during the brief artifact run, where they watched as she formed three new rides in a matter of moments, causing him to chuckle as he and the others found a look of disbelief on Kleiver's face, "trust me, you'll get used to seeing them do stuff like this, breaking all of reality's rules without anything serious happening when they do it... or at least you will, eventually."

Kleiver watched as Jak, taking the main vehicle with his talking animal, moved towards the main gate as his sisters did the same thing, even though Twilight had colored the main bodies of her three vehicles so she, Starlight, and Cozy knew which one belonged to each of them, taking the main color of their own strange bodies, before heading outside to track down the Metal Heads he had mentioned, though before he could leave Damas appeared and not a few seconds later they left Spargus as well, as he could see that Damas wanted to see what happened next with his own eyes... though it didn't take the siblings long to find a large light brown skinned dinosaur creature with a weapon strapped to its back and a Skull Gem in its head, with Jak's vehicle revealing that there were four of them in the area.

"So, those are the Metal Heads that live in the Wasteland," Jak commented, as he found that they appeared to be ready to defend themselves from those who dared to attack them or their group, though while he said that he and his sisters came to a stop with their vehicles and stared at the enemies that Kleiver wanted them to take down, to which he glanced over to Alvin and his brothers for a moment and found that the three of them were concentrating on their power, to see if they could fulfill their portion of the mission, before they opened their eyes a few seconds later, "So, can we free them from the dark grasp of Kor, or is that impossible for you guys?"

"No... something powerful is blocking us from interacting with them," Alvin replied, where Jak was able to hear him easier due to the fact that Twilight had stopped her vehicle near her brother's when they found the Metal Beasts, what Twilight would likely call these types of enemies, to which he sighed as he and his brothers jumped onto the ground and walked a few steps forward, something that allowed them to call upon their true power and shift into their true forms, where it only took a few moments before three large dragons to appear in front of the vehicles, "oh well, we'll take down three of them while you guys take care of the fourth one, which should tell Kleiver and the rest of Spargus that we're not to be taken lightly and that we deserve to be part of their city."

Jak nodded as he and his sisters watched as the dragon Metal Heads took to the air and separated, Alvin quickly pushing the closest of their targets into the ground, Simon tracked down the second one and smashed his target into a large pile of rocks, and Theodore simply landed in front of the third one as he drove his head right into the head of the Metal Head he picked out, leaving the siblings to track down the fourth Metal Beast, which was further from its pack, but instead of using the guns to take it out Starlight weaved her power through the air and trapped it with some ice for a few seconds, allowing Daxter to run up some of Twilight's magical steps. While Alvin and his brothers fought and tore into the Metal Beasts that were their targets, which showed their observers what was going on right now, since Jak was sure that Damas and Kleiver had to be some distance behind them, observing what was going to happen to the four Wasteland Metal Heads and had to be staring at this with shock in their eyes, or jaw dropped when they thought about Kleiver, while at the same time Daxter used his small size to his advantage as he called on his own power once more. In the following moments, as Alvin and his brothers tore into their Metal Beasts, Daxter landed on the back of his target and swung his Eco Blade at the weapon that was on his foe's back, choosing to take it out first and succeeded in removing the gun in a matter of seconds, with Twilight using her power to snatch it so she could study it later, before he proceeded to hack into the backside of his foe for a time, while it tried to knock him off its back and smash him into the ground, something he knew wouldn't happen since he was capable of driving his blade into the backside of his foe and turning it into a hook to stay still. Thanks to his skills, which he had learned from observing Jak and his sisters in battle, plus what Alvin and his brothers did in their Ottsel forms when all of them were in Haven City, Daxter was able to stand his ground and deal a great bit of damage to his foe in a short period of time, causing the Metal Beast to wander around the area it was in while it tried, in vain, to knock Daxter from its back so it could escape and head into the vast desert to lose all of them.

Eventually Daxter found his way to the Metal Beast's head and drove his blade into his foe's neck, causing the beast to run into one of the rock spires that was in this area and seemed to do some additional damage to the poor Metal Head, only for him to put it out of its misery as he twisted his blade a few moments later, causing it to shift its weight for a second as it hit the ground, causing a Dark Eco Crystal to fly into the sand as a circular communication device that did the same thing a few seconds later, though as Daxter pulled himself off his foe Alvin and his brothers landed nearby, licking their talons as they did so, no doubt enjoying a more filling meal since it would be wasteful to leave this much food behind.

Metal Head commander, report! a familiar voice said, where Jak and his sisters came to a stop near the set of items a few seconds later, something that allowed Twilight to claim the Dark Eco Crystal and add it to the one that had been taken from the Dark Satellite earlier, though as that happened they found a hologram of a familiar face glancing around the area they were in, one that looked strangely like Errol based on what all of them were seeing, which was impossible since they knew he had been blown to pieces by his actions at the end of Jak's race with him, though he seemed incredibly angry at the moment and that meant he might make mistakes, What's happening? If you lost that cargo, and you're still alive, I'll kill you myself. I want every Dark Eco Crystal you can find! Time is short! Did you hear me?

In that moment Twilight raised her hand, something that was followed by the hologram saying 'wait' and 'not you' before she silenced the device for now, though she planned on returning it to Keira once they were back inside Haven City, as this seemed like a perfect piece of information for them to determine who was trying to take down the city, hence why it was picked up and stored inside her pack for the time being, though with that done she and her siblings, with Alvin and both of his brothers in their Ottsel forms, headed back to Spargus, to see what their father or Kleiver had for them to do next, all while searching for a good way to contact Haven and their worried allies.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

was hoping the metalmunk brothers would be able to free the dino metals as those things could be quite the force when on your side and properly led, though I bet damas and kleiver are going to have quite a few questions for the sibs when they get back