Jak looked around at the battlefield. The oasis was littered with the bodies of marauders, the smoking, charred remains of their cars polluting the skyline. The wind from the north suddenly picked up blowing sand. Jak's ice blue eyes shone from excitement of battle, he smiled ironically as he threw the Vulcan fury over his right shoulder. From seemingly nowhere a floating communicator appeared at Jak's side and the voice of Torn boomed from it.
"That seems to be the last of that band Jak, we don't know why the marauders are working with the metal heads? Never mind you got the artefact, come back to head quarters Samos has something he needs doing." The communicator went dead and floated off. Suddenly a small orange bundle of attitude jumped in frustration on Jak's shoulder.
"WHAT! We do all the work and no "thanks Dax and Jak, great job." How comes we always get the dirty, dangerous jobs." Daxter carried on grumbling, sitting on Jak's shoulder armour. Jak shook his head, walking swiftly back to where he parked the sand shark. Jumping into the front seat, Jak started the engine, revved, the back wheels spinning, throwing sand everywhere, and then they were gone. Speeding over the dunes, racing past the mountains, Jak was in his element, behind the wheel was his domain. Then the communicator appeared above their heads again blaring out a message, this time it was from Damas.
"Jak we need you to track a new type of metal head that has been spotted. They have stolen several artefacts and attacked citizens of Spargus. It appears that they only come out at night. Come back for more information."
"Might as well go back to Spargus first, it sounds more fun and it's nearer!" Jak said taking a sideways glace at Daxter, and smiling at the Ottsel's shudder. So they raced on through the desert, heading towards the high and sturdy walls of Spargus city. As they sped forward the doors began to open, metallic clicks and whirs temporally drowning out the engines roar. Jak continued his speed, only breaking sharply at the last minute and skidding to a halt in the car compound. Then swinging gracefully from the roof bars Jak leapt from the front seat to the sandy floor. Together Jak, carrying Dax on his shoulder made his way through the streets of Spargus. The dusty, sand weathered buildings stood firm and tall against all. As did the people of Spargus, all of them muscled, desert people going about their daily business, riding leaper lizards, going to market just like all normal people thought Jak. But unlike the people in Haven city the Spargus people always carried their weapons with them, they were always ready for action, for the desert had taught them that being strong and being prepared meant survival.
Jak shook his head and snickered slightly, now he was thinking too much. So Jak carried on walking to the entrance to the elevator that would lead them to Damas. Going in the creaking wooden elevator, they were pulled up remarkably smoothly until it clunked to a stop and Jak stepped out into Damas's water filled throne room. Damas looked over from where he stood at the bottom of the throne, Jak could have sworn he saw a brief smile as Damas looked over at him. It was gone as quickly as a desert wind; Damas was once again the leader of Spargus.
"Jak a group of Metal Head from near the volcano have been attacking our people and stealing the artefacts that we collect. It also seems that these are no ordinary metal heads, they have only been seen at night and they appear to be quite a lot smarter than most metal heads. You need to be extremely careful. Now go, and make war your own!"
Jak bowed his head slightly to Damas and exited the room, going down the wooden elevator and leaving the palace. The evening was pleasantly cool after the scorching heat of the day; Jak ran his fingers through his short, green-blonde hair as he walked towards the nearest leaper lizard. Jak always rode a special black leaper lizard; the creature just seemed to follow him and to be fair Jak had gotten quite fond of seeing the scaly black creature. It always waited by the entrance to Spargus, or outside the place or arena. Jak had even called it Storm, but only in his head. Storm trotted to meet Jak, his lavender eyes shining in the dieing light of the sun. Jak mounted and Storm sprung off, his powerful legs making short work of the distance between the palace and the cars.
Soon they reached the front of Spargus and Jak dismounted, gave Storm a fond pat and walked out into the car pool. It was already dark, the sun had set completely and a few stars already twinkled above. It was time to leave and quickly, Jak wanted to get there before the moon rose. So jumping into sand shark again Jak revved the engine as the doors of Spargus opened, in the second before they zoomed off Jak looked at the desert. They were still within the walls of Spargus and the desert looked so peaceful in an alien way, so barren and lifeless yet still beautiful.
Then Jak took his foot of the break and they sped away into the desert. Jak's mind was in battle mode, already he was thinking of the terrain around the volcano, plans he could use. In truth he had very little information on these creatures, but he was well prepared with at least seven different type of gun at his disposal, each with full ammo.
Jak shivered slightly as the chill wind raced passed him, normally he wouldn't mind as the sun was beaming down, but now the temperature had dropped to below freezing. Dax had even moved from his place on Jak's shoulder to round his neck, and his teeth were chattering slightly. Soon they reached the hill looking down to the base of the volcano and Jak could clearly see the metal heads lair in a cave. Well it wasn't hard to spot, bones and fragments of car debris lay scattered about, but there was no sign of the metal heads themselves. The metal heads had chosen their lair well, for Jak to reach the lair he would have to cross quite a large river, which provided an oasis to grow in front of the cave. Jak assumed that the cave would have once been occupied by people probably as a in between place.
Jak turned off the purring engine and got out of the car. There was still no clue about the metal heads whereabouts, he would have to wait, and Damas said they only appeared at night maybe it was only at a certain time. The river near the cave had many thick rushes growing in it; he could hide there and still watch the cave. Before moving down the hill however Jak knelt and turned his head to look at Daxter, who was still shivering round his neck.
"You cold Dax?" Daxter nodded his teeth still chattering, the temperature had dropped even further and Jak's arms and fingers were numb with cold. "Jump down for a sec Dax." Daxter moved from round Jak's neck, back onto his shoulder then jumping to the ground. Jak pulled off his scarlet neck scarf, and wrapped it round Daxter's shaking form, starting at his head to just above his legs. Laughing slightly Jak looked down at an over wrapped Dax, his face was still visible and he looked amusedly disgruntled.
"Jak really, I mean red. It clashes with the fur!" Jak really did laugh then, so did Dax. "Well I don't think you will be able to run anywhere in a hurry, but since your on my shoulder it won't matter. Looks like we are going to have to wait for them to show themselves, any way lets get going." On cue Dax jumped once more onto Jak's shoulder, and they set off Jak still kneeling trying not to disturb the sand on the dune too much. Then still creeping forward like a monkey, Jak silently entered the river.