Jak & Daxter, the Untold Tale
The tires of the Sand Shark screeched to a halt as it finally arrived at its destination. A thin youth, clad in a blue shirt and white pants, stepped out of the vehicle. His hair was blonde with a shock of green at the roots and strapped on his back was a gun half his size. It was a wonder he didn't topple over with a large gun like that.
"Time to have some fun," he said to the orange ottsel, who stood on his shoulder, leaning on the blonde's head.
"Just like old times eh, Jackie boy?" He replied.
"Yeah Dax, just like old times," Jak replied. He and his friend, Daxter, were sent on a mission to investigate the rumors about an abandoned eco mine lying just beneath an old KG factory. If the rumors were true, then they would be able to extract the leftover eco and use it to their advantage. That might help to turn the tables on those metalheads.
Suddenly, the sand picked up and swirled around the pair. It stung Jak's eyes and would have burned his mouth, if not for the red cloth that covered it. Daxter, however, was not so fortunate. He leaned heavily on Jak's head and started coughing. "Hey buddy," he said between coughs, "you think I could get one of those cloths?"
Jak didn't have one to offer besides his own so he just shook his head and started off toward the factory. The sandstorm wasn't so bad that he couldn't see where he was going. The building was a wreck. That wasn't surprising since it hadn't been used in a long time. There was rubble piled high and holes in the walls of the blood red building, but it was still standing. It looked like some ancient battleground, perhaps the result of a war long ago. Now, it was only the twin forces of nature and time that threatened its existence. Jak opened one of the heavy metal doors and made his way inside the building.
The inside was just as dilapidated as the outside was. There were piles of various parts of machinery, and there were several conveyer belts that were stopped midway with weapons still on them. The whole place looked rather strange and ominous, but Jak had seen worse. It was silent, save for Daxter's coughing and that died down eventually.
Jak proceeded to go deeper and deeper into the factory. He held his gun in front of him, ready for any kind of surprise attack. He knew that this place was supposed to be abandoned, but he had learned that even the most barren looking places could be inhabited. What if metalheads had decided to take up residence in this place? He couldn't chance a surprise attack, so he made his way slowly to the center of the room. This was one of those times when Daxter came in handy.
"Hey Jak," he said as he tugged on the blonde's hair to get his attention, "I smell something REALLY funky and it burns my nose!"
Bingo.
"Can you follow the scent Daxter?" Jak asked and with much complaining, Daxter jumped off of his shoulder and walked toward a machine that seemed to be used for making guns. Then he squeezed underneath it.
"I think there's some kind of trapdoor here," He said when he appeared moments later, "It must be the entrance to the mine, because it STINKS," he added.
"Alright, stand back Dax," he ordered. Daxter scampered away, knowing all too well what Jak was going to do. He watched as purple lightning surged around his friend, the transformation into was beginning. His blonde-green hair turned snow white and tiny horns arose from his forehead. Enhancing his demonic appearance were sharp teeth and deathly pale skin. In place of fingers were now sharp claws.
He had changed into Dark Jak, a dark entity born from the two years he spent in prison. He was so powerful that he picked up the machine and threw it across the room. Daxter had witnessed Dark Jak's power many times before and it always startled him at how vicious and wild his friend seemed, but it was over almost as soon as it started and regular Jak appeared in its place. Daxter scampered over to him and took his usual place on Jak's shoulder.
Jak examined the door. It had a combination on it. Jak pulled a communicator out of his pocket and punched in a number. Soon there was a voice on the other end.
"Hello," the voice on the other end answered.
"Kiera, I need the combination for the lock on this door," he replied. In a matter of minutes the combination appeared and Jak set to work unlocking the door. It took him a few tries, but eventually he got it to open. Dust swirled everywhere, a sign of how long the door had been in disuse. There was a ladder inside, one that led so far down that he couldn't see the bottom.
"Jak," Daxter said, "I don't think we should go down there."
"Why not Dax?" Jak asked, already knowing the answer.
"Why not?" The ottsel repeated, "Because that place REEKS!" He jumped off of Jak's shoulder and started pacing, "Besides, do you know how many dark, creepy places we've been too and we ended up get our butts kicked?" He turned away from Jak and shook his head, "I'm not going with you this time, nuh-uh, nope, never, zero chance, NO WAY!"
"Fine, then you can stay here with all of the Metalheads" the blonde elf retorted.
"M-metalheads?" Daxter stammered, looking around the place with eyes wide as saucers.
"Yep, they probably built their nest here" as if on cue, one of the machines in the factory gave a low whine, which startled Daxter. He gave a high pitched squeak as he dashed toward Jak and climbed on his shoulder. "Fine, I'll go with you," he said, "but only because you wouldn't last a second without me."
Jak ignored that last comment; he's heard it millions of times before. "Then plug your nose Daxter," Jak said, "we're going in." He grabbed the ladder and started climbing down. The further down he went, the stronger the smell got. It was a familiar smell to him. It burned the inside if your nose and made you want to gag. It was defiantly Dark Eco. It is a known fact that Dark Eco is the strongest smelling eco of the six types.
When he reached the bottom of the pit, he found that the walls of the cavern glittering with five different types of eco; dark, green, blue, red, and yellow. He also knew that light eco was rare and that there wouldn't be any here. He was surprised by the massive amount of machines in the cavern. There were cranes on the ceiling and the stationary conveyer belts under them were stacked high with boxes.
It looked like the place had been used recently given that the machines were rust free and the boxes remained undamaged. Daxter jumped off the elf's shoulder to have a look around the place. Jak warned him not to go too far, to which the ottsel gave a small "uh-huh" as a reply. Then Jak turned his attention to the eco. He felt the dark eco drawing him in, urging him to turn into his dark form. He tried to resist as dark eco was being absorbed into his body and his very bloodstream. He's had this feeling many times before, but it was stronger in here. That was probably because there was a bigger source of dark eco than he had ever seen before. He hadn't ever felt this vulnerable and in loss of control.
While Jak was busy looking at the eco that was scattered around the mine, Daxter preoccupied himself by looking at the machinery. He jumped up on a conveyor belt and made his way over to the control panel. There were many buttons, but the one that caught his attention was a large red one. Daxter was just itching to touch it, but he knew that big red buttons almost always meant trouble, so he pushed one of the smaller buttons. The lights on the ceiling flickered on. Not a single one of them was burnt out. That wasn't satisfying enough. Daxter wanted to push that large red button, so he placed a hand on it and covered his eyes while he pushed it down.
Wrong move.
Daxter felt something squeeze his body. Then, moments later, he was lifted off of the ground, his arms pinned to his side by the crane. He opened his eyes to find the conveyer belt several feet below him. One of the cranes had picked him up and was moving him somewhere, but where? His animal instincts started to kick in. He tried to squirm and wriggle his way out of the grasp of the machine. A huge lump of fear had formed in his throat, so all that came out were small squeaking noises.
He finally caught Jak's attention. He looked upward, where the noise had come from, and saw his ottsel- best friend far above him, caught in the vice-like grip of a crane. He saw where Daxter was headed to, an abandoned box that sat on a conveyer belt. It was made of steel and reeked of dark eco.
The crane was too high up for a normal elf to jump, so there was really only one thing he could do. He needed to use all of the light eco in his body to turn into his light form: Light Jak. He only had one chance, since the mine did not contain any light eco.
Again, lightning surged around him, only this time it was blue. It stuck to his skin, his hair, and his clothing, making it fluoresce a light blue. His eyes turned white with no pupils at all. Then glowing blue wings sprouted from his back. He used his Light Jak powers to stop time, and then he flew up to where Daxter was. He grabbed the crane and tried to pry it apart. It didn't work and soon he found himself falling off of the crane. His Light Jak form had already worn off.
He hit the conveyer belt so hard that it knocked the wind out of him. He got back up just in time to see the crane drop the little ottsel into the steel box. Then he saw a pipe appear above the box. Dark eco spilled out of it like water, followed by other types of eco. Then the box closed with Daxter shut inside. That made Jak really angry and he started pounding on the box. Then, after a few minutes of that, he absorbed the dark eco in the mine and turned into Dark Jak.
Daxter was drowning in a substance unknown to him. It didn't feel like water, it stuck to his fur in globs, disabling his ability to move. He tried to call for help but his speech was cut off when he felt his body expanding. Every inch of his fur tingled and burned like it was on fire. His fur was turning a deep blackish purple and bony spikes protruded from his back. He grew so big that he barely fit in the box. His fingers and toes were replaced by huge claws, and his eyes turned a pupil-less black. Just like dark Jak, he was turning into a dark alter-ego that only comes out when large amounts of dark eco have been absorbed. He kicked and slashed at the box with his mighty claws, but it was no use. This box wasn't just a normal steel box. It must have been specially built to contain dark eco monsters, which basically meant he was doomed.
Eventually he faded into unconsciousness. He felt was the burning of the dark substance as it continued to make contact with his skin, and the last thing he thought of what how Jak would react when he found out that his best friend had drown to death.
Dark Jak continued his onslaught on the box, but to no avail. He had changed into his dark form multiple times, yet the box still hadn't given way. There was something very strange about this box. He guessed that it was used to hold dark eco mutants.
He changed out of his dark form and took out his gun. He tried shooting at it, but that didn't work either. This dilemma continued for a few hours with him alternating between hitting it with dark Jak and shooting it with his guns. He figured it had to give way at some point. Eventually, he managed to make a hole in it with his scatter gun. It started leaking dark eco. He continued to shoot at the hole until it was wide enough for him to fit his hands into. He grabbed the sides of the hole with both hands and pushed outward until the box finally gave way and eco spilled out all over the floor. The elf frantically searched for his best friend among the eco. It wasn't hard to spot the small ottsel because he wasn't small any more he had turned into Dark Daxter and Jak knew that he wouldn't turn back until he was away from the eco.
"Dax!" He shouted when he finally spotted his friend. He put his hand on the mutants back and made him sit up, "Daxter, can you hear me?" His voice became even more panicked when the ottsel didn't move, "Speak to me Daxter!"
He put his ear to the mutant's heart and heard the distinct thump of Daxter's heart against his ear. To his surprise, Daxter's heart was racing. He was still alive, But for how long?
He stood up and surveyed the room, there was dark eco everywhere and nobody would be able to use the mine for a while. He decided that the first thing he needed to do was get Daxter away from the mine and the factory.
He struggled to pick up the eight-foot monster and after much effort he decided to just drag him to a corner of the cavern that was free of eco. Then, he proceeded to clean the eco off of his friend. He immediately changed back into a two-foot ottsel. He looked the same as always except for the fact that his fur was dyed a deep purple. Jak could tell that he was poisoned because he wasn't responding to anything at all. He picked up the little ottsel and started toward the ladder. Maybe Samos would know more about this.
A/N: Hello everyone. This is my first J&D fanfic ever! Jak and Daxter is my latest obsession, so I just had to write about it. Sorry if Jak and Daxter are OOC. Poisoning is based off of mako poisoning from Final Fantasy VII (my main obsession). I would also like to give a huge thank you to my usual beta reader Chibipinkbunny for revising this. I would also like to thank Cruel Fleeting Life for making sure that Jak and Dax are in character. I'm not really sure when this takes place. Dark Dax is from TLF, so it has to be after that game, so I guess it will be post TLF? If you have any ideas feel free to tell me and don't forget to review or I will sick Dark Jak on you! :3
Disclaimer: Jak and Daxter belong to Naughty Dog and mako poisoning belongs to Square Enix.