Disclaimer: The characters and storyline of Jak and Daxter belong to Naughty Dog. This is for fun, not profit.


The heat of summer was scorching as Jak found himself in the passenger seat of a zoomer. His hands were constricted tightly around the safety bar in front of him. His heart and stomach jumped as the vehicle switched to the lower hover zone then quickly back up. He had not felt this sort of heart gripping fear since his journey through the warp gate all those years ago. Now, Jak was more than regretting his initial idea of letting Daxter take the wheel. However they managed it, Jak wasn't sure-- his eyes being closed throughout most of the ride--but they reached the Upper Levels of the Industrial Sector without injury.

"Jak! Hurry up. Let's get this over with." Daxter scrambled up the walkway. He turned around to see Jak not behind him. Looking around, he saw his best friend still seated in the passenger's seat of the zoomer. Jak loosened his grip on the seat and slowly climbed out of the vehicle. Daxter found himself looking up as Jak stood before him.

"Never again." The warrior stalked passed the ottsel and through the door of the Eco Power Plant.

"What?" Daxter asked as he followed behind.

Inside the Plant, there were sounds of buzzing and humming from the movement of the eco currents. Vin's holographic head moved quickly through the room, stopping frequently. The screens flickered from one slide of data to the next. The engineer mumbled words to himself excitedly.

It had been almost four years since the internal war of Haven City had ended. Life had finally gone back to some semblance of normalcy. Life had gotten better for the citizens and their heroes. Everyone except Vin, at least.

"Jak, you're here." Torn climbed out from under the main computer when he heard the door slide open and closed. The FL Commander had been tinkering with a few of the old circuit boards. "Vin was starting to get worried." He cast an annoyed look toward the now present hologram.

Vin laughed nervously and popped over to Keira who looked as though she would rather be anywhere else. Jak only caught a handful of what the two were discussing.

" . . . okay, and then you would connect the filter wire to the input control. It allows me to upload my memory files onto the CPU . . . of course, now that I think about it, the microprocessor needs to be updated. I was thinking that the capacity could be better. I was dreaming last night and woke up with the idea of a ZT128 bit processor! It would integrate three parallelized levels that are interconnected to avoid bottlenecking. Just think of the possibilities! The reaction time, storage of the universe!"

"So what's the problem?" Jak shook his head while hiding a smile when Keira threw him a pleading look.

"Yeah, we got a call from Circuit Breaker over here sayn' it was urgent." Daxter gestured wide with his arms. "Everyone looks in one piece to me."

"You would say that." Vin popped over from his talk with Keira. "You haven't spent the last 942 days, 17 hours, and 36 seconds as a floating projector!" His head flickered.

"Well, it's not my fault you dumped your brain like last month's fish stew."

"So what are we here for?" Jak intervened before any arguing started.

"Vin's got a case of cabin fever. With the old eco grid lost, there isn't much he can do but monitor the foundations for the new one. We need his help working the system. Since there isn't any real way for him to leave the lab, we've decided to look for another way." Torn spoke. "We have Keira reworking some of Vin's programming to make the transition smoother, but it's slow going."

"In English please?" Dax asked from his perch on Jak's shoulder.

"I'm getting a body!" The cybernetic head floated around excitedly. "Not a real one of course." Vin looked to Jak. "Uh, that's where you two come in."

-----

"Remind me again why we're out here baking in our own juices?"

Jak wiped a hand across his forehead getting the sweat and hair away from his eyes. Daxter was hanging over the opposite shoulder, the metal from Jak's armor having grown uncomfortably warm in the bright sun.

"How much farther until we reach the warehouse?" Keira stopped next to Jak. She took out her canteen for a drink then handed it over to him.

"About another hour's hike." Vin spoke from the communicator at her side. His tiny head--small port, small projection--swayed back and forth with Keira's stride.

"Another hour?! It's been four already!" Daxter fell from Jak's shoulder only to have the others keep walking. "Why couldn't we have grabbed a zoomer?"

"Because, rat, the overgrowth is too thick. We wouldn't be able to land the hunk of metal let alone see anything from the sky." Torn had his pistol out and ready. "Now shut your ass up before the heat's the last thing you have to worry about."

"Okay, maybe we need to take a break." Keira exclaimed as Jak placed a forceful hand on Torn's weapon and threw a stern look at Daxter. Several minutes later and the small group was situated under a large tree replenishing their diminishing energy supplies.

Vin had told Jak and the others of an old abandoned warehouse that Mar had once used as a laboratory. In order to work the cybernetic body without error, Vin needed a power supply and the neuro-tech that had once been a prototype for the city's original defense system. Of course, there had been too many bugs to work out at the time, so Mar had to abandon the project in order to complete the eco canon. Vin was hoping he could work out the kinks and use the technology to power his new body. He'd have to learn how such technology worked, however.

Both Keira and Torn were well versed in the city's technology. Jak knew his way around the tools and his knowledge and usage of Precursor artifacts wasn't too bad either. Daxter, of course, went where ever Jak ventured. Though lately, there had been less Demolition Duo work and more Solo Hero action. Vin hoped that this group would be able to figure out whatever it was that they needed or be able to transport it back to the eco plant. But, uh, he was really hoping they wouldn't have to carry it back on foot. They all might decide it was better left undone and he really didn't want that.

-----

When the group finally reached their destination, none of them were too sure of what they saw. The building might have been impressive at one point in time, but that had long since passed. The Precursorian metal that was used for the walls was covered in thick vines and moss. Dirt had built itself deep within the carvings of their ancient language. The windows that had once held double sheets of glass, now lay cracked and shattered leaving the inside open to nature's wrath. The copper dome above was the only thing to save whatever awaited them inside. And the inside held so much more that the out.

The warehouse was like a surplus parts junkie's dreamland. Jak watched as the others walked through the doors. The stale air was filled with dust which captured the sunlight as it passed under windows and in front of the doors. Keira's eyes lit up and she hurried in further. Jak chuckled, she made him think of a child in a sweets shop.

"Don't get too excited. We don't even know what half of this stuff is let alone what it can do."

"Speak for yourself." Vin was looking around in amazement as well. "Just look at this place. I can just imagine the great Mar working day in and day out trying to make Haven City a better place. Oh look!" The electric blue head zipped to an area near to Keira's left. "It's the Shift Arm! This is the precursor to the modern day Morph Gun. It already shows the basic ability of channeling eco. Of course, the accuracy rate is so much lower than today's standards. Then there's the rate of fire and the ammo capacity--did you know that there was such a threat to the wielder that this model only lasted a few short months? Yes, you fire this baby and you might lose a couple of fingers--even an arm. I wouldn't want to be in that battle."

Jak had stopped listening when Vin had started on about the gun's parts. Not that he didn't find it interesting, Vin just didn't know when to stop. Daxter was mouthing him mockingly and rolling his eyes. Jak laughed. Torn and Keira had split up searching for anything that may have appeared useful. This place was so cluttered with junk, it was hard to tell whether what Jak was looking at was worth anything or not. Moving a heavy object or two, he didn't even notice the lack of weight on his shoulder from Daxter wandering off into the maze.

If I were a high-tech, low-tech energy supply converter, where would I be? Jak passed by a large board that was covered in illegible scrawl. Hmm, he writes almost as bad as I do, he thought in slight amusement. There was a large work area surrounded with glass containers. Some were cracked and broken.

Jak wiped away the thick dust. Within the containers were different colored wires. They were spiraled around a thick metal rod leading from the glass tubes. Above was another wire, this one red. The wire ended just before reaching a bare copper-colored pipe. More Precursor technology, maybe?

"It couldn't hurt to check." Turning back the way he came, Jak dodged the random artifacts. There was one thing Jak knew, this Mar person was a pack-rat. "Speaking of which, where'd Dax get to?

"Hey, Vin." Jak interrupted a talk that was going on with Keira as she shuffled through a few things. "I need you to check something out."

"Did you find something?" The holo-head in question popped over immediately.

Jak jumped back slightly. "Maybe. I just wanted you to see it first."

Keira handed over the comm. link with a quick 'thanks' and kiss for Jak, then went off into a farther corner where the pile of gadgets and gizmos was more than twice her height. Now she could explore in peace. Jak just shook his head and smiled.

"So what does this device look like?"

"It's got wires and stuff." Jak shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, real eloquent."

The walk back was spent with Jak describing the location and the arrangement of the wires and the different tubes that contained them.

"Okay, and what about the blue ones? Were they leading from the tube or into it?"

"Why don't we just wait until we get there? All I can figure out is that the Precursor pipe connec--"

"There's a Precursor item involved? Why didn't you say so? Let's get moving!"

"Hey, Jak!" A familiar voice called over.

"Daxter? Where are you?" Jak looked around. He heard the scurry of claws before seeing his friend.

"I found something you might want to see." The ottsel in question rounded a corner and he was covered in dust.

"Not now! We have to find this energy converter Jak found!" Vin was vehement.

"It's not like it's going anywhere." Daxter ran off in the direction that he came with Jak in tow and a computer Vin objecting all the way.

"What is it?" There was a ring in the wall at the far end of the warehouse. It wasn't any larger than a window. Rust seemed to have corroded the metal ages ago.

"I don't know. It looks like a door, but it won't budge. There's a hinge on the other side, but no handle." Daxter went over to a panel that held many different buttons of which he began pressing them all.

"Ah, Dax, I don't think you should do that . . . ." Jak warned. There was a bad feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.

"Don't worry, I've got it covered." A few more buttons were pressed. When nothing happened, Daxter pressed them more forcefully before giving them a good whacking. "Besides, it's a piece of crap anyway. It probably didn't work to begin with."

Daxter jumped from the panel. At that moment, a loud rumble shook through the area causing a few scraps to tumble to the floor and dust to scatter. Once the initial shock was over, Jak and Vin looked over to Daxter with a reproachful glare. The ottsel laughed nervously. Back at the panel, lights had begun to glow and blink. The so called 'door' was starting to spin. In a quick flash of light, Jak, Daxter and the computerized Vin were gone.


A/N: Here's the edited version of the prelude. I decided to go through and read my current postings before I added anymore chapters. It was a good thing too because I missed a few mistakes even after having read it a few times before posting. I wanted to make sure everything still flowed. So far so good. Only grammar and spelling changed, not actual content like the next chapter (nothing drastic). Anyway, continue on to the next chapter if you like and chapter two should be up soon.

Don't forget to check my profile for any status updates.