I do not own Jak and Daxter

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The coarse sand reflected the desert sun above, making it hot, dry and windless. Normal Waistland weather if you've been around. I was used to the heat here, despite my home being in New Haven.

I bet your wondering who I am; my name is Kaj and, thanks to my father, the Waistlands are my second home. I rode over the hot sands on my jet board, my most prized treasure, towards the ruins. Even thought I was told by my father not to go there under any circumstances, saying it "wasn't a place for 13 year old girls to play around in". But, of course, he made it a rule, and I've always believed that rules are made to be bent or broken.

"Are we there yet?" a voice sounded from inside my closed jacket.

I slowed my speed so I could look down at Tikka, my best ottsle friend. She popped her head out of my jacket and looked at me through her goggles.

"We're almost there Tikka, keep your vest on" I replied.

"You said that the last three times I asked…" she whined "how much farther?!"

"Relax, the ruins are just over the dunes" my lips curled into a smirk.

No sooner after I said that, Tikka ducked back into my jacket. She knew by now that anything higher than the ground, especially these wonderful dunes, will be used as a ramp. I crouched down on my board as it picked up speed; the dune coming up fast, I braced myself and shot up the side like a rocket. I stood slowly from my crouch to feel the air's force as I hung in the air, even though it only lasted a few seconds, the feeling was free and exciting as always.

Unfortunately during my bliss, I forgot to slow the board for the landing for my landing, meaning it wasn't long before the board flew out from under me, making me flip and hit the sand face first. I could hear my board dig itself into the sand. I pulled my face from the sand, glad to have my scarf over my mouth and nose or I'd probably end up swallowing half the dessert and snorting the rest. That's when I felt nudging under me; well it was more like struggling.

Wait, struggling?

I pulled myself up to my knees and quickly unzipped my jacket, letting Tikka fall out and onto the sand.

"What...was...that!?" she yelled in between her panting.

"Guess I forgot to slow down" I admitted innocently.

"You forgot!?" she said, she pulled her goggles down around her neck and went on "Shouldn't that be the FIRST THING you do when you LAND!"

I shrugged my shoulders, it wasn't all my fault, the rush over powered me. I stood the rest of the way up and went to dig out my jet-board, trying to ignore Tikka's ranting.

"This is that LAST time I'm ever riding with you out here. Your nothing but a speed demon" she ranted on, walking away "We're probably MILES away from the ru-" I heard a thud.

I looked up from pulling my board out of the sand; turns out I was right about us being close to the ruins. Seems Tikka hand walked right into one of the crumbling pillars, clamming her right up.

"Err…I never said anything" Tikka said

"Apology accepted" I held in my laugh.

I walked past her with my jet-board under my arm, it was hard to hold back my excitement and we moved towards the entrance inside the small canyon like area. This would be one hell of an adventure, way better than riding through constructions zones or ticking-off annoying soldiers, despite how fun those pranks were. But there was a problem, the entrance was closed up and, by what I could see, there was no way of opening it.

"Great..." Tikka complained "How are we supposed to get inside?"

"I'm not…" I set my hand on the rusted door, no latter after that, the door creaked and rolled open.

Tikka jumped onto my shoulder in surprise; even I backed up a few inches as the door opened. It stopped with a clunk and reviled the stone temple ruins inside, Tikka and I looked at each other.

"Looks like" Tikka gulped loudly "…someone's expecting us"

"Yeah, but who?" I replied.

That's when I felt it, a static-like shock run up my arms. That feeling was too familiar, I've had it forever.

It meant that eco was in there.

I never knew why I was sensitive to eco, all I know about this little feature was the stronger the shock, the more the eco. I hesitantly walked through the entrance, Tikka held tight to my jacket. I was stunned at what I saw, despite how old it had to be, they looked almost untouched, the only part that looked ancient were that markings on the rocky walls. I turned in a circle just to take everything in.

"This place is huge" Tikka said, jumping off of my shoulder.

"Doesn't even have a roof" I added.

As I marveled, I heard a noise behind me; it sounded like a scratching against something. My head whipped around to find the source of the noise, but I saw was a busted up warp gate, it was worn and sand-whipped. I couldn't help but walk towards it, it was pretty odd to find a warp gate in an ancient temple; I reached out to touch it.

"Kaj!" Tikka yelled. She jumped onto my head and looked down at me "Remember what happened with the door" she pointed at the door with her eyes "…maybe you shouldn't touch the old thing"

"Tikka, this gate probably hasn't been used in years"

"Neither has the door, but it opened anyway"

I couldn't argue with that, something is going on here, something strange. I plucked her off of my head and put her back onto my shoulder, when I turned to walk away from it, the gate made a whirring noise. I looked back at it and found that it was on and running, this made it official that something was going on here. I turned to face the warp gate and smirked.

"Kaj?" Tikka waved a hand in front of my face.

"We're going through" I stated, pulling my scarf from my face and tying it around my waist.

"We're doing WHAT!?" she exclaimed in my ear.

I took a few steps back and felt Tikka's claws latch onto my shoulder, it was a good thing I was used to those home grown needles or I would have flipped. I took off with a running start and jumped through the warp gate, it was cold for a second the back to normal as I landed with a stumble. Remember that static feeling, well it got worse; it felt like I was being electrocuted, and it was enough to make me double over with my arms clutching around my middle.

"Kaj?!" Tikka leapt off of my shoulder and stood in front of me.

"The eco…It's really strong here" I managed to strain out.

I looked up; there were HUGE statues in the middle of the room we warped along with room on different sides of the walls with no floor connecting them. But that's not where my eyes were glued; on the platform in front of the statue facing it was a mass of dark eco. It bubbled and fogged that air around it with purple fumes, that's why the shock was so strong, that much eco in one place was horribly deadly to anyone. Tikka followed my eyes and gasped.

"W-What the…" she started "How did all that get here!?"

I couldn't answer, I just wanted out of here, I looked over my shoulder at the warp gate and my eyes went wide.

It was off.

This was bad…very bad.

I heard a hissing noise coming from the eco pile; I turned my attention back to it.

"K-Kaj…is it supposed to be m-m-moving" Tikka asked.

The eco pile was twisting upward and morphed into something; as it twisted, the top of the eco tower branched out into three, they looked like, claws. Tikka yelped and jumped into my jacket, I put my arm over my chest to protect her as much as I could. The dark eco arm launched at me and I couldn't move away in time, it grabbed me.

All I saw was black.

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M.M.- The story starts! I'll take comments, tips, and constructive flames ^_^