Fire-Eco-Sage: Hello! And welcome to Be Careful For What You Wish For! My Best Friend, jakxkeiraaddict, wrote this chapter!
JKA: And FES is doing the next!
JKA and FES: So, ENJOY!
Darkness engulfed the metal expanse of Haven City, the kind of blackness that completely obliterated the stars and sent chills running up your spine, giving you the constant feeling that someone was watching you from within those impenetrable shadows. The moon was just a silver haze struggling vainly to break through the overwhelming blanket of clouds decorating the midnight sky.
All in all, it was the perfect setting for one of Haven's favorite nights of the year: Halloween.
It had been so long since the people of the city had been in a "festive" mood, what with having to deal with iron-fisted tyrants and fights for the universe over the past few years. But now that Praxis was pushing up daisies and Erol was nothing more than scrap metal, Haven's inhabitants could finally feel the spirit of the holiday. Nearly every doorstep within the city limits housed a flickering jack-o-lantern of some design, and every surface imaginable was altered with some sort of Halloween décor.
Throughout the dimly-lit streets of each sector of Haven, children and young adults alike paraded in costume, some extravagant while others were more simple, all radiating the spooky atmosphere of the celebration.
And perhaps the most elaborate decorating job of them all adorned what was often referred to as "the hippenest, happenest, hoppenest joint in town" by its small-framed owner — none other than the most popular bar in Haven, the Naughty Ottsel.
Daxter, the elf-turned-rodent who had taken over management of the bar after the death of the late Krew, had insisted that his place be the best-decorated establishment within their fair city's walls; the reason being he had somehow concocted the idea for a huge Halloween bash to commence, of course, at his bar.
So, that was how Jak — his blonde-haired, blue-eyed best friend, not to mention the planet's savoir three-times-over — had been assigned what Daxter liked to call "haunted house duty". In other words, the Eco-infused elf had been stuck arranging and re-arranging fake spiders and hanging ghosts for six hours straight, while Daxter sat on the sidelines and gave "constructive criticism".
Now, aforementioned hero was situated comfortably in one of the few bar stools lining the counter at the back wall of the pub, admiring his handiwork while Daxter's party was in full swing around him.
Everything you could imagine that related to Halloween in some way, shape, or form was present in the main room, Daxter having made sure that nothing was overlooked. Dozens of rubber black widows were strung from the ceiling, looking ready to drop on the heads of whoever was unfortunate enough to walk beneath them at any moment. A long, cloaked ghoul guarded the area above the entrance, and a lone skeleton sat in one of the booths, causing everyone to give that particular seat a wide berth. The surface of the bar behind Jak was covered in refreshments, from soda, to chips, to blood-red wine, and everything in between.
All the lights within the walls of the 'Ottsel had been shut off for the evening, leaving only the disorientating flash of numerous strobe lights to illuminate the darkness. Fast-tempo rock music blared from the giant speakers Daxter had installed in one corner of the room, creating the perfect atmosphere for dancing.
Even the glowing thirty-foot-tall ottsel mannequin situated on the roof of the pub was decked out for the holiday. Jak had been persuaded into the grueling task of dressing it in a pitch-black cloak and plastic fangs reminiscent of its much smaller counterpart's Halloween costume, a vampire… rodent.
Jak himself had been forced into dressing up in Halloween appropriate attire. Much to his disdain, he had somehow been swayed into wearing a very hot, hairy, and not to mention itchy werewolf costume, complete with tail and ears. This was probably due to the fact that Keira had made it for him, and no matter how much he disliked the uncomfortable, furry suit, he did not want to come face-to-face with an irritated Keira… especially when considering she seemed to always have a wrench handy whenever she was upset.
The cerulean-eyed elf was dragged rather roughly out of his reverie when a sudden, unexpected weight landed on his shoulder, followed almost immediately by an ottsel-sized cloak smacking him in the face.
"Good evening, my sour-faced companion," Daxter greeted in a heavily exaggerated vampire accent. "Are you enjoying my little party?"
"As much as I'll ever be, I suppose," Jak replied, shrugging indifferently.
"Ah, come on, Jakky-boy, live a little!" Daxter pouted, dropping his "immortal" façade. "I know what your problem is; you're over here sulking because your girlfriend isn't here yet!"
Luckily for Jak, the scattered flashing of the strobes prevented Daxter from noticing the blush that dusted his cheeks.
Several weeks previously, Jak and Keira had officially begun "dating", to no one's surprise apart from Torn's, who hadn't pictured Jak as the "romantic" type. Ever since then, Daxter had taken it upon himself to poke fun at their relationship and interrupt their intimate moments whenever the chance presented itself — a skill that he'd all but mastered, much to the couple's annoyance.
"Well… I, um —" Jak stammered, struggling vainly to come up with an argument against Daxter's jibe — quite a hard concept, considering the orange furball had been spot-on.
"I knew it," Daxter laughed without giving Jak a chance to really think over his predicament. "Come on, buddy, it's a party! Even ole Tattooed Wonder's enjoying himself!"
Indeed, Torn was in the center of the dance floor, his hips swaying in a rather unsettling way to the beat of the music. He, too, had been dressed by his girlfriend, and had arrived at the Naughty Ottsel in a neon purple wizard robe, complete with pointy hat and magic wand. For once, the Freedom League Commander didn't seem to mind he was ruining his rugged image by dancing like a complete lunatic, although judging by the bottle of beer in his hand he wasn't quite in his right mind.
Sig was also present, although he didn't appear to be inclined to join Torn on the floor. And speaking of blown reputations, there had been a mutual reaction of shock when Sig had arrived at the bar, dressed in his Halloween costume — none other than a large-scale replica of his one and only poopsey-bear.
"You know I don't dance, Dax," Jak pointed out, rolling his eyes and trying to erase the memory of Torn's disturbing movements from his mind.
"You may want to rethink that when the girls get here," Daxter snickered, knowing that Jak was defenseless when it came to the charms of women — or one in particular, that is.
As if on cue, the automatic doors of the Naughty Ottsel parted, revealing a cluster of she-elves ranging in age from fourteen to twenty-four.
The first one through the door was one of the two youngest of the group. She had shoulder-length blonde hair with natural red streaks, and bright blue eyes that glittered with excitement. Her outfit consisted of a crimson shirt and matching pants, with a pair of tiny horns atop her head and a pointed tail to complete the whole "devil" look.
"The life of the party has arrived!" she called over the deafening roar of the music, skipping into the room while her companions followed more slowly behind her.
"About time you got here, Chris!" Jak yelled to her, rolling his eyes at her insatiable enthusiasm. "We were beginning to think you weren't showing up!"
"We would have been here sooner, but we had to wait for a certain redhead over there to finish getting ready!" the first girl's twin answered him, shooting a death glare at Ashelin Praxis — the woman in question — over her shoulder.
This fourteen-year-old also sported shoulder-length hair, although her tresses were a dark brown rather than golden. She was dressed in a long, ivory gown, and had sparkly wings strapped to her back and a halo crowning her head. When the two girls stood next to one another, they appeared to be exact opposites — one in an angel costume, the other a devil.
"Aleighna, can't you pretend to like Ashelin for one night?" a third woman scolded, striding up beside the younger teenager and placing her hands on her hips.
"Nope," Aleighna replied automatically, smirking at the sapphire-haired she-elf.
"Ditto," Chris agreed, discreetly giving Aleighna a high-five out of sight of their older friend. "Besides, Keir, it's not like you're that fond of her either."
"Guilty as charged," Keira admitted, grinning sheepishly. She then turned her attention towards Jak, — who had abandoned his bar stool in order to join his friends — her smile softening into an affectionate one. "Hey, Jak. Have you been enjoying yourself while you were waiting for us?"
Upon seeing his girlfriend up-close, Jak's jaw dropped to the floor and all but rebounded and smacked him in the face. Keira had donned a tight black dress that was cut in a jagged pattern on the bottom, and accented her curves to perfection. She was wearing matching high-heels that nearly made up the difference between her height and Jak's, and black-and-white-striped socks that stretched up to her knees. On her head she wore an unmistakable, ebony witch's hat that threw her emerald eyes into shadow and completed her outfit.
"Not nearly as much as I am now that you're here," Jak murmured, regaining his composure. He wound his arms around Keira's waist, pulling her closer, and lowered his face to hers.
"Hey, none of that!" Chris protested, interrupting Jak and Keira in a very Daxter-like fashion. "We're standing right here, you know!"
"Then leave, sis," Jak grumbled, throwing her an annoyed glare before returning his gaze to Keira.
Chris pretended to gag as her older brother tenderly kissed his girlfriend, and Aleighna rolled her eyes teasingly, silently agreeing with her twin.
"Hiya, guys!" a new, feminine voice greeted, causing Jak and Keira to break apart once more with simultaneous groans.
All four of them turned in time to see Tess approaching them, appearing as if she were walking in slow-motion thanks to the effects of the strobe lights. Her blonde hair was curled and rather wild looking, and she had dark eyeliner framing her aqua eyes. She wore a simple grayish tank top and black jeans that were ripped in several places, along with a pair of Dr. Martens donning her feet.
"What exactly are you supposed to be?" Jak wondered aloud, earning him a glance from the blonde she-elf.
"I'm Kesha!" Tess informed him, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Who?" Jak inquired, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Just go along with it," Keira advised him under her breath, having been forced to listen to Tess' lecture on exactly who Kesha was on their way over to the 'Ottsel.
"Hey there, sweetheart!" a familiar, obnoxious voice cut in, and a moment later Daxter appeared quite literally out of nowhere, followed by Torn, Ashelin, and Sig a step behind.
The vampire-ottsel leapt toward his elfin sort-of-but-no-one-really-understood-how girlfriend, who caught him expertly in her arms.
"Hi, Daxxie!" Tess cooed, scratching him fondly behind the ears. "The decorations look great, shnookums!"
"Yeah, well I set all this up myself, baby," Daxter bragged, earning him an exasperated sigh from Jak.
"I'll believe that when hell freezes over," Ashelin scoffed, rolling her eyes and snatching a half-drained bottle of beer away from her more-than-tipsy boyfriend. "And I think you've had enough of that."
Ashelin sported one of the simplest costumes of them all, a plain black long-sleeve shirt and pants with bones drawn onto them, conveying what was supposed to be a "skeleton" look.
"You're not the boss of me!" Torn slurred in a very little kid-like manner, grabbing his drink out of Ashelin's hands and taking a generous swig.
"Torn, the party's barely started, and you're already drunk!" Ashelin scolded, struggling vainly to steal Torn's alcohol once more while the latter held it high above his head.
"What's the matter, Ashelin?" Aleighna asked in a mocking tone, sneering at the much older woman. "Can't control your boyfriend?"
Chris grinned at her sister and bumped fists with her, while Jak scowled disapprovingly at his younger siblings.
"Knock it off, you two," Jak reprimanded them, winding his arm nonchalantly around Keira's waist. "We're supposed to be partying."
"Oh, that reminds me!" Daxter gasped suddenly, wriggling out of Tess' embrace and dropping down to the floor. "I just got in a whole shipment of Lurker Brew, and it ain't gonna drink itself!"
With that being said, the cloaked ottsel dashed away from his friends and petty enemies, disappearing around the bar counter and into the back room.
"Lurker Brew?" Keira sighed, shaking her head sadly. "Doesn't he remember what happened the last time everyone drank that stuff?"
"Of course!" Chris answered automatically. She began counting off events on her fingers as she named them. "Jak went all Dark and started tearing up the place; you and Tess were singing '70's karaoke — not well, I might add; Ashelin passed out in one of the booths and Daxter colored her tattoos neon green; somehow Aleighna and I ended up hanging from the ceiling; and Sig and Torn started dirty dancing with each other!"
Everyone shuddered as the last memory flashed disturbingly in his or her mind, and Sig took several steps away from the foggy-headed Torn, wanting to put as much space between himself and the commander as possible.
"Just when I thought I'd forgotten about that, too," Sig grumbled, narrowing his good eye jokingly at Chris.
Meanwhile, in the back room, Daxter was shifting through his never-ending supply of alcoholic beverages, searching for the crate of Brew that had been delivered earlier that day. He pushed random bottles and jugs aside, his mind only half-registering the names scrawled on each one as he searched.
A splash of color caught his eye, and Daxter shifted his focus to a rapidly growing pile of discarded drinks. After a moment of digging, he uncovered a dark blue bottle that resembled a potion-type container more than an alcoholic one.
Across the front of the bottle, the words "Vampire Breath" were written in blood-red ink.
"Vampire Breath?" Daxter repeated, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "What the hell is this?"
Highly puzzled, Daxter began rubbing off the dust that had gathered on the side of the glass, wanting to see if there was anything else scribbled on the drink that would give him some clue as to what it contained.
To his utter astonishment, blue smoke began to billow out of the rim of the bottle, spilling out onto the floor and surrounding the now-officially-freaked-out ottsel. The choking cloud rose up high over his head, obscuring his vision and gagging him with its suffocating presence.
As quickly as it had appeared, the smoke vanished. When the stinging smog had cleared from Daxter's eyes, he glanced around himself for a moment, utterly bewildered.
What he saw made his jaw hit the floor and his eyes widen until they nearly consumed half of his face.
Hovering several feet in the air was one of the most beautiful women Daxter had ever seen. She had ebony hair with dark purple streaks that flowed down to the small of her back, and her eyes were the most unusual shade of violet. Her outfit consisted of a baby pink half-shirt and long, matching skirt.
But perhaps the strangest feature of this mysterious she-elf was the fact that her legs were non-existent. Instead, her lower body seemed to compress together into a vapor-like tail reminiscent of a ghost you'd typically see on cartoons and such.
"W-who are you?" Daxter stammered, any rational thoughts that may have been present in his mind taking a coffee break as he tried to process this turn of events.
"My name is Diane," the odd woman announced in an eerily soothing voice. "And you, furry one, are the new Master of the Bottle."
"Master of the Bottle?" Daxter repeated, his confusion mounting by the second. "What are you talking about?"
"You summoned me from my bottle," Diane explained, her tone suggesting she was trying to elaborate on something extremely simple to a kindergartener. "Therefore, you are my master, and I have to grant you three wishes."
"Oh, I get it!" Daxter exclaimed, the light bulb suddenly flickering on in his scatter-brained mind. "You're one of those genie things, aren't you?"
"Indeed, I am, small rodent," Diane confirmed, smiling sweetly at aforementioned ottsel. "Now, what is your first wish?"
"Wait a second!" Daxter protested, holding up his tiny hands. "I gotta make sure you aren't just messing with me!"
Diane rolled her eyes, as if the vampire-rat were being ridiculous. Sure, of course she was tricking him. What other reason could she have for stuffing herself in a glass bottle that was about fifteen sizes too small to fit her, and then appearing in a giant swirl of smoke just to tell him he had three wishes to do with what he pleased?
"Just let me think here for a minute…" Daxter muttered to himself, completely oblivious to Diane's lack of attention towards him. "I gotta figure out how I'm gonna see if you're telling the truth."
Tapping his chin thoughtfully, the orange rodent wove his way through the maze of crates and drinks — followed closely by the genie — and stepped out into the main room, studying his friends in hopes of finding something simple he could use to test Diane's claim of him having three wishes.
Movement near the back counter caught his eye, and Daxter spotted Aleighna and Chris standing in front of the punch bowl Jak had been forced to set out earlier, pouring glasses for themselves.
His mouth slowly curved upwards in a devious smile, and Daxter turned to the genie behind him, a mischievous glint in his sky-blue eyes.
"Alright, miss 'magic'," he snickered, jerking his thumb in the general direction of the two sisters. "I wish that those two would fall into the punch bowl. Go on, impress me with your voodoo hocus-pocus stuff."
"Whatever you say," Diane sighed, rolling her eyes. She flicked her wrist almost lazily, and then folded her arms over her chest.
A beat of silence passed between the two, in which Daxter waited for his wish to be granted, and Diane watched her two-foot-tall master with a bored expression.
"Ok… nothing's happening," Daxter finally stated after a long moment, glancing accusingly up at his floating companion.
"Wait for it," the genie commanded, and Daxter huffed impatiently, leaning against the nearest wall for lack of anything better to do.
Suddenly, Torn appeared out of nowhere, once again dancing like a complete idiot. In his drunken state, he didn't notice the two girls standing near the bar, and promptly crashed into them, sending them sprawling face-first into the punch bowl.
"Oopsie…" Torn giggled, and then went on his merry way, still swaying wildly to the beat of the music.
Daxter erupted into a fit of uncontrollable laughter as Aleighna and Chris extracted themselves from the punch, exchanging a shocked glance and silently asking the other what the hell just happened.
"Wow, you really are a genie!" Daxter gasped between chuckles, not even bothering to attempt to stifle his laughing.
"No, really?" Diane retorted sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed." She waited calmly for Daxter to quiet down, and then she smirked at him. "By the way, you have two wishes left."
"Wha — what happened to three?" the orange ottsel demanded, the amusement wiped clean from his face.
"You just used one," Diane reminded him, sighing in exasperation.
"Oh… right," Daxter muttered, casting a quick glance in the dripping, still-bewildered twins' direction and fighting back another bout of laughter. "Well, in that case, my second wish has to be really good…"
His gaze swept absentmindedly over the main room of his pub as Daxter pondered his next wish. He couldn't help but notice Torn seemed to be the only one really getting into the spirit of the party, although the fact that he was drunk-on-his-ass probably aided that considerably. Everyone else was just sitting around chatting, the exception being Chris and Ashley, who were attempting to clean themselves up with a towel that Tess provided them.
"You know… no one seems to be really having a good time," Daxter mused, a bit crestfallen at his friends' lack of enthusiasm. He frowned, turning to face the genie once more. "For my second wish… I wish that this party would really come to life!"
A strange, almost evil grin tugged at the corners of Diane's mouth, and she flicked her wrist once more. "Be careful what you wish for, rodent."
Almost as soon as she'd "granted" the ottsel's wish, Diane abruptly disappeared, leaving Daxter alone in the doorway leading to the back room.
"Hey, wait a minute!" he protested, searching frantically for the genie. "I've still got one wish left!"
This concern was rather forcefully shoved to the back of his mind, however, when a low, eerie howl rang out over the ear-splitting music. Daxter whipped around to locate the source of the noise, and the sight that met him made his breath catch in his throat as shock slammed into him, derailing whatever train of thought he'd been on and sending it exploding into a fiery inferno.
"What in the name of the Precursors happened to you guys?"