DJG: "Wow, I'm just all about the oneshots these days!"

Muse: "It's because you don't have enough creativity to post more than 3 chapters for any story."

DJG: *Tackles Muse* "Shaddup! (Once again, I own nothing but my Muse and my pet waffle. NO, it is not weird to have a pet waffle! Everyone has one!) Also, this takes place after Jak 3 but before Jak X. WARNING! Character Death! (Sorta)"

That's really all it came down to. In the wrong place at the wrong time. He was just minding his own business, walking through the Slums with his faithful best friend, Daxter, on his shoulder as usual, when he had gotten the call from Torn. "Jak! Metal Heads are attacking in Dead Town! Get there, now! There's a bunch of them, this has gotta be the biggest attack yet!" He had just laughed it off as he headed there. He could take down the whole freaking Metal Head army if they were all in one place. His communicator flashed again. "Jak? Where are you?" Keira asked. Daxter grabbed the communicator and began to talk to her. "Tattooed Wonder sent us out on another freaking mission to get rid of an army of Metal Heads in Dead Town!" Keira gasped. "Metal Heads are attacking? I'll get my father!" She hung up, Daxter still staring at the comm. "Yeah, good luck guys!" he muttered, putting it away.

The orange Ottsel groaned. He had had enough of all the stupid Metal Heads. All they did was break into the city, get their asses kicked, and lose time and time again. And yet, they still did it. Stupid Metal Heads. Well, it wasn't like he wanted them to get any smarter. A Metal Head was scary. A smart Metal Head was downright terrifying. "Um, remind me again why these stupid things are still here!?" He held on tighter as Jak hopped on a Zoomer to get there quicker. "Because they don't have a leader anymore. They can't have organized attacks like they used to, right now they're just trying to take us down with sheer numbers." Jak swerved to avoid a Freedom League Guard, and ended up driving off the plank boardwalk. He switched hover zones and continued.

Jak smiled once they got there, pulling his gun off of his back and chambering it. He waited for the door to open. "Relax, Dax. This should be a piece of-" He froze as the door opened. "Oh, shit."

Keira hurried to her father, Samos's house. Well, tent. He had moved in with Onin a long time ago. "Daddy! Daddy! This is important!" she yelled, rushing in. He was sitting next to Onin, sipping a cup of tea. "Keira! What is it? What's happened?" Keira pulled out her communicator. "Daddy, Metal Heads are attacking Dead Town! Jak and Daxter have to get rid of them! Torn sent him!" Samos sat up, staring sternly at her. "Is this some kind of joke? Torn's not here, he was killed in the last Metal Head raid." Keira stepped back, her face a mask of horror. "D-did anyone actually see him get…you know…killed?" Now it was Samos's turn to think. "No…no they didn't. But, still, how could he just hand out a mission to Jak and Daxter? They know he's dead. Missing, I mean. They heard the news from Ashelin this morning, right?" Keira closed her eyes, thinking hard. "No, no they didn't…Daxter left early to go to the bar, and Jak was in the gun course almost the whole day trying out the new gun mod I made him. It lobs grenades, just like the Dune Hopper." Samos grabbed her communicator from her hands. "Fertilizer! It's a trap!" He pushed the buttons to call Jak, but all he heard was static.

When he opened the door to Dead Town, he had expected to see Freedom Leaguers attacking a few straggler Metal Heads, not this. Hundreds of Metal Heads, hundreds of them sat on crumbling buildings, near the murky poison water, everywhere. "They were waiting for us!" Jak thought frantically, as a larger one stepped forward. In one hand, it held Torn's communicator. In the other, a limp body, which it held up in the air by his ankle. "What. The hell?!?!" Daxter screeched, looking from Jak to the motionless figure. It was wearing mostly red and blue, with familiar tattoos decorating his face. Torn had a large gash in his side, and his face was bruised, but he was most likely alive. Jak realized what they must've done. "This must be the entire Metal Head army! They either mimicked Torn to trick us into coming here, or forced him to do it. Crap. Just friggin' perfect!"

Suddenly, every single Metal Head pounced. Just like that. Lunged, as if some unseen foe had ordered them on. Jak ducked and dodged them, smacking or blasting them into oblivion with his gun. Daxter just held on for dear life, biting any Metal Head that snuck up from behind. They could both see it coming, though. There were simply too many of them to fight. Sooner or later, they knew there would be one sneaky one, one that got under Jak's guard and Daxter's teeth and ended it, right there and then, it was just a matter of when. Suddenly, one of the braver ones tackled him off guard, forcing him to the ground. Daxter was thrown backward, one Metal Head following him. "One? Just one? They're gonna send their whole freaking army after him, and just one after me? Bullshit." he thought, lunging at it. "Friggin' bring it, you oversized lizard!"

Jak snarled, firing again and again, but every time he killed one, two more took their place, enraged by their comrade's death. He soon ran out of ammo. "Shit." He kicked, punched, bit, did everything he could to hurt them. It actually began to work, and soon, he pulled himself to a standing position, forcing them backward. "Where's Daxter?!" He thought frantically, as he realized the weight on his shoulder was gone.

Daxter, against all odds, had brought down the huge creature. He stared at the huge pile of thrashing limbs and bloody corpses. "There's no way I can help him in there. Unless…" He thought, looking around. He saw the large Metal Head, still standing in the same spot, still holding Torn upside down. He ran at him, using dead Metal Head bodies as cover, until he was directly behind him. "If Tattooey wakes up, he can help Jak finish the job!" He thought, launching himself onto the Metal Head's shoulder, taking him completely by surprise.

Daxter pulled back his tiny fist, and put all his strength into a punch. Right into its bulbous yellow eye. "ARRGGG!!" It screamed, dropping Torn and the communicator. Daxter scurried down its leg as it tumbled to the ground, shrieking in agony. "Good God, thing, it was just a little punch…" Daxter muttered, scampering over to Torn's unmoving body. "OK, time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty! Time to kill some Metal Heads and save Jak's sorry ass, now, OK?!?!" He smacked him a few times, but he remained unmoving. "COME ON!!!" He jumped up and down on Torn's face, hoping to enrage him into waking up. Suddenly, another Metal Head was there, a long piece of wood torn off of the remains of one of the buildings in its claws. It smacked Daxter out of the way and slammed the piece of wood into Torn's chest, throwing the body into the poisonous water.

Jak was losing. There were Metal Heads on all sides, every time he attacked one, he was hit by another one. He whirled around, furiously impaling it with the butt of his gun, only to be struck by a larger one. Suddenly, (Which I say way too much) one of the larger ones slashed his chest, leaving a trail of four long, red gashes. Clutching his wounds, he stumbled backward, dropping his gun. "Uhhnn…what the hell just happened?" He thought, falling to the ground.

Samos and about the entire Freedom League were running toward the Slums, Ashelin leading them in a fiery red Hellcat Cruiser. Keira was with them as well, blending in between the guards with her aqua-blue hair. She prayed to the Precursors that her father wouldn't catch her trying to sneak in with them. She'd rather fight the entire Metal Head army than listen to that particular lecture. "Oh, please don't let us be too late." She thought, running faster.

Daxter was in total shock. Torn, the only person close enough to help him help Jak (That's a mouthful) was gone. They were screwed. Totally, fatally, screwed. He glared at the pile, that was becoming less of a pile, and more of a ring around Jak. He was on his feet now, but couldn't nail any of them without getting attacked from behind. Anger flared up in Daxter, and, before he knew what he was doing, he was running to the center of the circle. He saw Jak get slashed in the chest, saw him fall backwards, drop his gun. "Crap! Run faster, Dax!" He yelled at himself, trying to pick up the pace.

Jak lay on his back, trying to drag himself to his feet but failing miserably. The same Metal Head that had knocked him down in the first place was holding him down, putting a clawed limb on his throat so he couldn't breathe. "Wait…..what about Keira's gun mod? That…..one that shoots grenades." He didn't know where his gun was, though, and he couldn't even sit up. How the hell was he going to shoot it, anyway?

Daxter skidded underneath a Metal Head's legs, snagging Jak's discarded weapon. He knew it had to be empty, otherwise Jak probably wouldn't be in this mess. One of the Metal Heads had put a scaly claw on Jak's neck, cutting off his air supply. Daxter swung the gun with all his strength, smacking the Metal Head in the head. It hissed in recoil, but didn't move from its position. Jak was reaching one of his hands toward Daxter, gesturing for the gun as he tried to push the Metal Head off of him. Daxter threw it past several Metal Heads, and Jak caught it like they had choreographed the motion.

The Freedom League was finally there. Every Metal Head other than the one on top of Jak ran to attack the sudden onslaught of enemies. Keira pulled out a wrench out of her pocket, smacking any Metal Heads that got too close as she ran blindly, looking for Jak. She stifled a scream as she saw Torn's mangled, half dissolved body in the murky water; a piece of wood sticking out only added to the gore. "Oh, Precursors!" She thought, turning away, trying not to be sick. "I hope it was quick…"

Jak used the side of the gun to stop the Metal Head from ending it and turned it at just the right angle for his plan to work. The pressure on his neck became greater as the Metal Head Daxter had punched came over and added its weight to the gun. Daxter jumped onto their faces, biting, scratching, and kicking anything that moved to give Jak a chance to get loose. Jak stuck his other hand in front of the barrel of the gun, praying that it wouldn't blow his fingers off, and fired twice. He had only seconds, he knew it, so he stuck a grenade in each of the confused Metal Head's mouths and ducked down.

Daxter was blow backward. He hit a crumbly building hard, knocking the wind out of him. "What the hell was that?!?!" he shrieked, before he realized his best friend was not in sight. The blast had not only obliterated any trace of the two unlucky Metal Heads, it had also shattered the already weak support beams on one of the buildings, causing it to collapse.

Keira froze. Even from a distance, she could tell that was her grenade launcher firing. She screamed when the building collapsed, judging from the shot exactly where the person who had fired it was standing. Where the building had just landed. "No…no no nonononononononono!" She thought, falling to her knees. "Please, no!"

Daxter ran towards the pile of rubble, praying that what he thought had happened was just a coincidence, that Jak had suddenly thrown himself out of the way, but he knew he hadn't seen him move as the old building collapsed around him. He had to find out for himself. He began trying to throw pieces of wood aside, no matter how big they were. He grabbed a particularly large piece and tried as hard as he could to move it, but it didn't budge an inch. Suddenly, it was lit up by a green light, and tossed away. Daxter turned to see Samos standing there with four Freedom League Guards, Samos's old face lined with worry.

They had won. All the Metal Heads had been destroyed by sheer numbers by the Guards, and, according to Ashelin, the nest was empty too. Keira hadn't moved for almost an hour. She knew Jak was under there, that they were digging him out, but what would they find worth all that work? A mangled body, like Torn's? She knew she couldn't handle seeing him like that, but she also wanted to see him one last time.

"Okay, we got a hole We're makin' progress.!" One of the Guards yelled, gesturing to a tiny hole. Samos grunted, using his powers to lift the heavy stone. It was still very exhausting for him, but they had succeeded in creating a hole, big enough for Jak to crawl through, if he was able. As Samos put the stone down, he noticed a strange glow from inside the structure. "Hey, somethin's glowing in there, Grandpa Green!" Daxter yelled, jumping on his shoulder. Samos concentrated all his energy into lifting the final stone, and then they saw it. A circular bluish-white dome covering a creature with long, elegant wings sprouting out of his back. He had a large something with him, but no one could tell what it was from that distance. As they watched, the shield flickered, and went out, and as the blue creature faded back to a teenager with orange armor, blue tunic, and bright yellow hair faded green at the roots.

He stood up, wobbling slightly, and picked up the mass. He then walked up to them as casually as if they were on the street. "Got a little somethin' for the bar, right here, Dax." He said, holding it up. It was one of the unlucky Metal Heads' heads. "Jak! You're OK!" Keira screeched, launching herself into his arms. "Yeah, it's gonna take more than a falling building to take out our boy, here." Daxter said, jumping onto Jak's shoulder and grabbing the huge trophy. "Lessee, I could put 'im next to Kor's ugly mug, or right next to the door, freak somebody out…" Daxter trailed off. Samos patted Jak on the back. "You did well, my boy. I was worried at first, but…" He gestured to the Metal Head trophy. "It was actually Keira's gun mod that made the whole thing work." Jak said, as they all left Dead Town, heading toward the Naughty Ottsel. Samos checked Jak's wounds out, and healed the four long gashes.

Daxter spent the rest of the night telling anyone who would listen about his "fearless" attack on the Metal Heads, and how his pure awesomeness caused the building to collapse, killing all of them and Jak protecting himself with a shield. Tess was really the only one who believed it. There was a moment of silence for Torn and all the other Freedom Leaguers who were killed in the attack, which was ruined as Ashelin walked in with Torn, who was still very much alive. "What the HELL?!!" Daxter screeched, running up to him. " You're-you're dead!!!" Torn rolled his eyes. "I found him tied up in the nest. That other Torn you saw was a fake, it was a Metal Head disguised as him. The other Metal Head only killed him to make it look real." Ashelin explained. "No! Awww, man! I had dibs on the Hideout! It would've made a sweet club!" Daxter groaned. Jak smacked him in the head. "Oww! What was that for?"

DJG: "So, how'd I do? PLEASE REVIEW! See, there's a little button to push, right down there! PLEASE PUSH IT!!!" *cries*

Muse: "I think this crosses the fine line from asking to begging."

DJG: *Sticks tongue out at Muse*