Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose

Spargus: The Second Challenge

With the Metal Beasts taken care of, and the siblings were sure of that, Jak turned around and headed back for Spargus, as he was interested in seeing if Damas had a way to contact Sig so they could hand over the device Twilight had collected not a few moments ago, though the first thing they had to do was tackle some Marauders who were in their way, who likely hadn't seen the true forms of Alvin and both of his brothers, allowing Twilight to collect more metal for later, be it being given to someone in Spargus or using it to make alterations to the vehicles she had made, though it didn't take them long to reach the garage and come to a stop, finding their father standing nearby, with a frightened Kleiver next to him.

"We've taken down the group of Metal Heads that your scanners spotted earlier," Jak stated, where he and his sisters took a moment to made sure each of their vehicles were placed around the garage, his in the spot Kleiver had made for it and his sisters placed theirs around the edges of this area, before they climbed out and approached the area that the door rested in, allowing them to see that Damas seemed to be thinking about something while making them wonder what had caused the fat Wastelander to be frightened of something.

"Yes, you did, and we're thankful for that... however, none of you actually did the deed," Damas replied, where he shifted his gaze towards Alvin and his brothers for a few moments, informing Jak and his sisters that their father knew about their true forms now, something Twilight hadn't explained since it would have taken too long if she added that fact into what she had told Damas after he and his guards had found them, after the vehicle they used to get to the Wasteland had been blown up by Veger's foolish actions, "When were you planning on telling me that your Ottsel companions, three of them anyway, are capable of transforming into those massive dragon forms?"

"We were planning on doing it later, but now that you know there's no reason to hide it," Twilight answered, to which Alvin and his brothers jumped off their shoulders for a few seconds and stood near the main gate of Spargus, quickly calling on their true power as they shifted back into their true forms, something that caused Kleiver to take a step backwards, which told Jak and his sisters that he had definitely seen what happened earlier, before she gestured to their companions for a few moments, "Allow me to properly introduce Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, the first of the Neo Metal Heads, which is the new breed that has come to light recently, who stand as the three Kings who rule over their new Hive, though originally all of them were the Crown Princes, sons of the Metal Head Leader... and no, they're not following their father's orders, nor are any of them seeking to destroy Spargus, as they helped bring down their father during our assault on the Nest that all of the Metal Heads called home. The Neo Metal Heads are allies of Haven City, using their new intelligence and powers to take down those who seek to bring about the end of this world, or at least the end of Haven City, though Alvin and both of his brothers are unique even among their kind, as each of them has the power to transform into dragons, as you have just seen and witnessed earlier, though they are part of why we decided to come to the Wasteland in the first place, to see if we could calm the Wasteland Metal Heads and free them from Kor's dark grasp... it hasn't worked yet, but we're hoping to free some of them, at some point anyway."

"You want to be friends with the Metal Heads? They'll kill you before you have a chance to do that," Kleiver stated, which had to be him referring to those who were out here, in the Wasteland, though while none of the siblings could fault him, as to most people it would seem that they had gone inside, or something to that effect, they also knew that things were in the middle of changing and everyone would have to get with the times, especially when Midnight was part of their group and she likely had some ideas on how to make sure things went their way.

"And yet we turned against our father, fought against his forces, and tore him down in his Nest," Alvin replied, where they found that he and his brothers were just standing there, staring at Kleiver and Damas like they were equals and not food to be eaten, or enemies to be slain, before tapping his own Skull Gem for a moment, reminding the pair that they were, in fact, Neo Metal Heads, the new breed that would take over now that their father and leader was dead, while Simon and Theodore did the same thing a few seconds later, "we are far more than simple Metal Heads, we are capable of thinking, of learning, of expressing ourselves, and so many other things... we are not the mindless killing machines that have plagued this world for a long time."

"And they are allies that none of our enemies will ever see coming." Damas said, showing that he understood what they were saying and, more importantly, that they were definitely allies of Spargus, ones he was more than willing to admit into the city, even though most of the fighting would be handled by Jak, Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight, something that caused Kleiver to pause for a moment as he heard what his King had to say on the matter, before he turned to leave and glanced at the siblings as he did so, "Come by the Palace before you do anything else, as I have something that might interest you to some degree."

Jak and his sisters glanced at each other for a few seconds as their father and Kleiver exited the garage, leaving them with the transformed Ottsels for a time, who quickly made sure to revert back to their base forms and return to the shoulders that they usually rode on, something that caused the siblings to leave the garage and head for the Palace, because there wasn't much for them to do right now, and it didn't seem like any of the citizens wanted to talk with them as they headed for the Arena, causing all four of them to raise their eyebrows as they used the lift to head back up to the Palace, finding Damas standing in front of his throne once more.

"It is time for the four of you to face your next Arena challenge... yes, you just had your first, but the second always comes quickly after one earns the first Battle Amulet," Damas stated, something that confirmed his earlier statement, Jak and his sisters were interested in facing whatever might be waiting for them in the Arena, where he turned for a moment, turning towards the edge of his throne, before pulling out four items that he tossed over to them, which looked like three cylinders that were connected by metal bits at the top and bottom, something that Jak and his sisters collected as three of them just attached them to their guns and activated a new Red Eco mod, "Those are Wave Concussor mods, a special Red Eco mod that will transform your blasts into attacks that will create rings around you, hence why it is best to aim at your feet and hooves when using this mod."

"Nice, sounds like something Keira would think up, if she was interested in weapon mods," Jak said, as he knew that Keira had a good idea on how to use the various types of Eco and it happened to be reflected in how she created the vehicles in Haven City, and she might have had a hand in the creation of Praxis' mechs when he thought about it, though as he said that Twilight studied the mod and transformed it into a gemstone that was added to the first red gem that represented the Scatter modification, something that caused Damas to raise an eyebrow as he witnessed it happen, "this is something that happened when Midnight first showed up, she transformed Twilight's Morph Gun into that bracelet and each weapon mod was turned into a gemstone, the color reflecting the type it belongs to. She's got a gemstone of four of the six Eco colors, not counting Green or Light Eco, though now that we know she can make more than one for each color we'll have to be on the lookout for new modifications that might boost our power and add a new stone to her bracelet, despite the fact that I'm sure that she'll find a way to make gemstones of the other two colors at some point."

Damas stood there for a moment, taking in the fact that Twilight was capable of turning weapon mods into gemstones of some kind, which apparently contained the same power of the mod she gained, though instead of saying anything he just nodded his head and watched as his children quickly departed from the throne room, so they could make their way over to the Arena and get ready, before he chuckled as he used a hidden tunnel, that only he and Pecker knew about, to make his way to his throne in the stands of the Arena, surprising Jak and his sisters when they discovered he had arrived ahead of them, even though he knew that some of them might already know what he had done. Based on the fact that the rest of the crowd cheered Jak and his sisters understood that they must have been told about the upcoming Arena battle while all of them were outside, dealing with the Metal Beasts, to which three of them quickly pulled out their guns and switched to the new mod as they headed down into the newly modified Arena, as this time around there were four platforms, which were arranged in a square formation, and were separated by lines that meant if one sank into the lava, like what they had seen earlier, the other three would remain up here. As such Jak took the immediate one to their left, Twilight took the one to their immediate right, Starlight took the one that was just beyond where Jak ended up, and Cozy took the last platform, leaping over to it and landing without delay, causing them to glance around the arena as several of the towers opened up and lead to them bracing themselves for what was coming next, as it was only a matter of time until each of them faced a few Marauders that had been captured by some of the other Wastelanders. Not a few moments later the battle started as their enemies jumped down into onto the platforms that Jak and his sisters were protecting at the moment, which caused Jak to lash out with one of his feet and kick one of his foes away before firing the new Wave Concussor, something that did come with some new knowledge in the fact that one had to charge a blast for a bit before firing it at the ground, loosing a ring of red energy that knocked all of Jak's enemies backwards, which caused his sisters to smile for a moment as each of them opened fire on their enemies, though Twilight found that she was able to create the rings in front of them and pick out where to drop them, a useful alteration to that power in her mind.

Of course, since she was a beast of battle, Dark Cozy surged to the surface and seemed to be in control as she lashed out at the Marauders that were around her at the moment, though as it turned out one of her eyes seemed to be their normal sister, meaning the two might actually be sharing a body right now, something that allowed Cozy to jump off her platform as it sunk a few moments later, and once it emerged she returned to her position to continue the fight... not that it really mattered in the end since all of them knocked out their foes and lead to them being allowed to return to the platform that was resting in front of their father.

"The four of you did very well." Damas stated, as while he knew that most of the challenges in the Arena were child's play to his children, after hearing what they had to tell him about their adventures, he also had to appear like they were total strangers, though throwing them a little praise every now and then would show his people that he was pleased with all of the skills that Jak and his sisters displayed in the Arena, before he gestured to the pedestal in front of them, showing them a crescent piece of Precursor make and a mod that looked like it went to the Blaster, "Here is your second Battle Amulet, and a new weapon mod, the Beam Reflector... one more Arena win, and all of you will be true Wastelanders!"

Jak smiled for a moment as Twilight collected the fragment of their medallion, allowing him and the others to attach their newest weapon mod to their guns, as it was odd for them to gain two back to back like this, making all of them take a few moments to wonder how many of them they would find out here, before they headed through the tunnels and returned to the streets of Spargus, though as Jak did that, and Twilight transformed her new mod into a yellow gemstone, he and his sisters stopped when the Communicator came out for a few seconds, which was Damas informing them that he had a mission for them and Kleiver, who was, as they expected, waiting near the vehicles.

"As you no doubt know, his Lordship has a job for us," Kleiver remarked, once more acting like he was a friend and not an enemy, no doubt terrified of what might happen to him if he decided to get on their bad sides, given that he had seen the darkness in Cozy's heart and the true forms of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, though Jak and his sisters found that he was in the middle of messing with two vehicles, one large enough for him to ride in and one that seemed more like a four legged spider of some kind, before he paused and turned towards them for a moment, "normally I would say something about how I'm 'not a babysitter', or something to that effect, but I'm not in the mood to be lectured twice in two days, given that Damas favors the four of you and your secret weapons. As such I'm just going to tell you the mission and we'll depart as soon as I'm done fixing up my vehicle: we're to gather a number of Leaper Lizards and herd them into a waiting transport, as his Lordship wants to gather as much resources as he can gather, for whatever the future holds, especially since Seem appears to be worried about something."

"Sounds easy enough, given that we're good with animals," Jak replied, though while Daxter and the transformed brothers simply moaned, deciding not to bother replying to his comment as he talked with Kleiver, he found that Twilight and the others were looking for their own vehicles, mostly to make sure the construction was still sound and nothing was falling apart before their eyes, though since Twilight had followed Keira's style of making vehicles he knew that none of the three vehicles she and Midnight had made would be anywhere near falling apart, something that was confirmed not a couple of moments later and put a smile on his sister's face.

Once Kleiver was ready to depart from Spargus, and head into the desert so they could complete their mission, Jak and his sisters climbed into their own vehicles and followed after him as he opened the main gate, heading out into the massive Wasteland that threatened those who lived in the City of Exiles, where Jak found that Kleiver happened to be heading off in the direction of where their transport had landed, before it had been blown apart by Veger's trap, and they followed after him as he drove through whatever was in front of him. Sure enough there were a number of Marauders who seemed to be driving around, looking for people to take down so they could salvage supplies and steal things before someone from Spargus had a chance to claim whatever was left in this place, though thanks to the beacon they had been given, before they had departed from Haven to start an expedition, their father and his guards had been able to find the transport and must have salvaged it while they were busy aiding some of the people in Spargus. As such Jak and his sisters declared war on the Marauders that dared to come near them or Kleiver, even though it would take some time before they forgave the fat Wastelander for his earlier actions, firing at every enemy that dared to drive in their direction, though Twilight added a few magical blasts to the enemies that were further away from where they were driving, despite the fact that she claimed the wrecks they left behind so Midnight could continue to work on them in the 'garage' area that she had created once she laid eyes on what was behind Spargus' main gate. While they did that, however, Jak spotted what appeared to be the last pieces of the transport that had brought them to the Wasteland, partly covered by the sands that had been pushed into this area by both of the sandstorms that had occurred so far, something that seemed to be weird since they were nearly back to back when he considered what they had seen, though given their father's habit of salvaging things he knew that it would be a waste of time if he headed over to the wreckage in question, so he focused on following Kleiver, who headed straight for the river that they had seen earlier.

As it turned out he was focused on a metallic half bridge that rested nearby and used it, with a booster, to jump over the rest of the river, something that caused Jak and his sisters to follow after him not a few moments after they made sure all of the Marauders were taken care of, though once they landed they headed up the hill that was in front of them and found a massive ruin, a city of some kind that was made out of weathered stone and had a bunch of cactus scattered all over the place, to which Kleiver came to a stop at the top of the hill and they did the same around him.

"See that down there?" Kleiver inquired, where he pointed into the heart of the city and the siblings found that there was a large ring of some kind in the area that their guide was pointing in, one that appeared to have an electric fence to prevent anything from escaping, namely the Leaper Lizards, though based on what Jak and his sisters were seeing it looked like all they were here to do was track down and retrieve a number of the mounts they had seen around Spargus, which they also knew might serve as a food source given how many of them seemed to be out in the Wasteland, "That's where you lot will be directing the Leaper Lizards to, where they'll be safe while we wait for the transport to arrive and take them back to the city... and, if I deem you worthy, I might let you use the Dune Hopper."

"Consider it done." Jak stated, though once he said that Kleiver drove off, likely to take up a position that allowed him to do his part of the mission, no doubt to watch and observe them while he did none of the real work, to which he waited for a few moments, mostly to take in what was in front of him and his sisters, before he came up with an idea on how to direct some of the Leaper Lizards into the pen that had been set up a long time ago, no doubt after Spargus had been set up by their father and the first group of exiles, "Shall we get to work?"

Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy nodded their heads as they headed out, splitting the city into four sections as Jak and Daxter just drove after the Leaper Lizards that were in their section, though while it was likely that Kleiver might assume that they were going to throw Daxter at their targets, and have him direct them to the pen, the simple plan was to approach some of the lizards and move in the direction of the pen, where the Leaper Lizards stared at them for a few seconds before they followed the direction Jak wanted the pack of three to move in, eventually ending up right inside the pen. Once his part of the mission was done he found that Twilight and Starlight were doing the same thing, weaving some of their magic over a portion of the ruined city so they could create a path for their targets to use, as the lizards fled after seeing that Alvin and Simon were marching towards them, in their true form no less, so it was an intimidation tactic for them to use to get some of their targets into the pen. Cozy pretty much did the same thing in her section of the city, she used her Dark Form for a time and scared some of her targets in the direction of the pen, allowing those who managed to escape to flee, despite the fact that they would likely return at some point in the future, and sure enough it didn't take her all that long to make sure her Leaper Lizards made it to the pen her siblings were currently positioned around, though once they were inside the pen the fence became active and locked the lizards inside it. From there the siblings found that there wasn't much for them to do as they waited for the transport to arrive, though as they waited for something to happen Kleiver drove down to where the four of them were waiting and they found that he seemed impressed by what they had done, even though they had, in fact, used a method that was different from what the Wastelanders would have done had one or more of them been given this particular mission, allowing them to get the job done in a much quicker time frame than what one might be used to if they watched over people doing this sort of thing.

"I have to admit, you guys are certainly something else," Kleiver said, though he was fortunate that he had asked the driver of the transport to follow a few minutes after him, as a thick metallic vehicle, one capable of transporting multiple warriors at the same time, drove down through the streets of the city and came to a stop nearby, where some Wastelanders came out and one happened to be in the middle of something that caught the attention of Jak and his sisters, it happened to be the vehicle he had seen them staring at earlier, where the warrior in question parked it nearby and climbed out to join the group moving the Leaper Lizards onto the transport, to which he gestured to it, "and, as I said earlier, the Dune Hopper is now yours to use whenever you want... you certainly earned it."

Jak and his sisters smiled as they stared at the vehicle for a time, getting to know it while Kleiver and his team headed back to Spargus, though the interesting thing Twilight found was that it seemed to have a marker on its map, one that seemed to be linked to a mountain that was just off the coast on the other side of the Wasteland, as in it was likely close to where they were standing, to which she and her siblings nodded their heads, as it seemed like their next course of action was to check out the area that might hold Seem's temple and might give them some clues as to what was going on and what all of them could do so they could prepare for the future.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

very much enjoyed the scene between the metalmunk brothers, Damas and Kliever. was good to see them get acknowledged for their contributions. Now though Twilight or Midnight needs to meet up with Tirek, she has the braclet, now she just needs to make it... infinite