DJG: "I was playing the Lost Frontier game for Jak and Daxter, not sure what I think of it yet, and I had to fight a Dark-Eco gorilla. How lame is that? So, I decided to change that scene to make it more realistic (for a Jak fic) and that's what you are about to read! (Takes place after Jak 3, only the Metal Heads and KG bots haven't gotten inside the city yet, and Tess isn't an Ottsel.)Btw, I own nothing in this fic 'cept for my random babble and the parts I stuck in there to have it make sense. Scratch that. I changed so much it's barely even the same storyline anymore, so yeah. If you've played the game, you'll understand."
Jak yawned. He had just helped Sig and some other Spargans kick the crap out of some Metal Heads that strayed too close to Spargus, and he was royally exhausted. Daxter was unusually quiet as well. Jak realized that Daxter was probably just as tired as he was, only it was worse for Dax because he had to go straight to the Naughty Ottsel and work with Tess. At least he got to sleep. He almost crawled onto the Air-Train, and instantly fell asleep as the doors closed and it took off. Daxter used Jak's chest as a pillow and followed suite.
When they landed at the Port, Jak really just wanted to stay there and sleep, but instead, he forced himself into a sitting position and, standing up, carried the still-asleep Ottsel to his bar. Tess laughed when Jak put him on the counter. "Awww, is Daxy poo tired?" she cooed, stroking his head. Daxter sat up, looking around. "Nah, I'mb not tired, I gotsta go…justd gonna…" he mumbled, falling asleep again. Tess looked at Jak.
"Did you overwork my little schnookums again?" she demanded. Jak looked down sheepishly. "Oh yeah. He uh, had to save me from Metal Heads a lot of the time, and he's, um, pretty tired out." he said, lying to give Dax a story to tell later. He waved and left quickly, already picturing his nice, warm bed waiting for him at home. It had started to rain, big droplets that made visibility really bad. Jak walked past the Tomb of Mar, heading towards the Slums, where his and Daxter's house sat next to the Underground hideout. A beam of lightning hit, illuminating for an instant the silhouette of the statue on top. He shivered involuntarily. In the darkness, it looked like Baron Praxis, sword raised, ready to strike.
He fumbled for the keys to get into the dinky apartment quickly, before Torn could find him and give him a new mission. It was Torn's idea for them to live in the apartment right next door. But when he walked in, he knew something was amiss. Someone had been in his house. He and Daxter's possessions had been thrown around the room at random, completely ransacked. He slowly pulled out his Morph-Gun, still covered in purple Metal Head blood. Whoever it was might still be in there. He carefully checked all the rooms, and once he was sure they were empty, he walked to his bedroom. "Whatever. We can get another of whatever it is they took." he thought, collapsing into bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
"JAK! I knew you were grumpy, but did ya really have the need to trash the place?!?!" Daxter screeched. Jak grunted. He sat up, muttering curse words. Dax had come home early. "It was like that when I got here." Daxter began searching through the small piles of stuff. "Nope, nope, nuh uh, zero, nada, zilch, not happening, nuh uh, nope. Hey, there's my other glove! I been looking for this…" Daxter pulled on the glove and continued digging through more junk, while Jak looked on sleepily. "What are you looking for, again?" Daxter poked his head up three piles away. "Just as I thought! My new issue of Playboy is missing! Some crazy pornographic psycho stole it cuz they was jealous!" Daxter said, pointing at Jak. "It was you! No one else has a key to this place!" Jak smiled, rolling his eyes.
"No, Samos took it from you because you were "too young to read stuff like that." I'm surprised you don't remember, he screamed at you for like an hour." Daxter snorted. "If you think I even listen when he starts going on about "peace" and "impurity", you got another thing coming! He's so full of himself, last time he yelled at me I pulled out my Playboy and started reading, and Senior Shade Boy didn't even notice!" Jak stood up, wiping sleep from his eyes. "That's probably why he took it from you."
Daxter jumped onto Jak's shoulder. "Yeah, whatever. Thank Mar he didn't find my emergency stash under the bed." Out of habit, Jak reached up to his neck, fingering the pendant seal of Mar. Only it wasn't there. "Hey, Dax, do you know where my seal is?" Daxter stared at him. "Naw, you forgot to put it on this mornin' when Sig wanted you to come kill Metal Heads." Jak began to dig through the piles. "Dax, it's not here."
Suddenly, Jak's communicator began to hum and vibrate. "Jak, you there? We got a problem!" Torn's voice was loud and commanding. "I swear to God Torn, this better be really important, or someone's head is gonna roll." he muttered, laying down on the bed. "Does a Metal Head attack on the wall count as important?" Jak sat up. "Did they get through?" Torn shook his holographic head. "I've been trying to get a hold of you all morning. Right now we only see some little ones, but Ashelin wants our help to clear 'em out. They're all over the city. I'm by the place they got in through right now, in the Port, by the Air-Train. She also wants us to check the place out just in case some bigger ones got through, so hurry up and get over here, NOW." Daxter snagged the communicator from Jak. "Alright, alright, don't get yer tattoos in a knot, we're coming to save your scrawny hide."
They were just passing the Tomb of Mar when Torn called them again. "There is a bigger one, it's huge! It's somewhere in the city! No one knows where, sonar can't track it!" Suddenly, there was a large crunching sound from behind them. A colossal Metal Head leapt over the Statue of Mar on top of the Tomb, grabbing it and tearing it right off, as if it was made out of paper. It landed in front of Jak with the upper torso of the Statue in its claws, and it slowly crushed it into rubble. "Uh, Tattooed Wonder? I think we just found it!" It stared directly at him, and Jak's eyes widened as he looked closely at its skull gem. The Seal of Mar, his Seal of Mar pendant was somehow imbedded in it. Its features twisted in a look of extreme hate, and it lunged at him. He barely got out of the way in time.
"JAK! It wants to do that to your FACE!" Daxter screeched. Jak pulled out his Morph-Gun and set it to Super Nova. As the creature charged at him again, Jak let him have it right in the face. BOOM! When the dust cleared, though, it was still there, still alive. "No way! Come on, we freaking NUKED 'im!" Daxter complained. But before Jak could react, it had him in its claws. Daxter was thrown backward. Jak struggled, but he couldn't get out of the heavy arms. It slowly began to crush him. Daxter sat up from where he had been tossed. "Jak!" He ran toward him, standing on the creature's black, muscular arms. It didn't even notice him. It was too busy killing his best friend. Jak had stopped struggling, and hung limply. Dax cringed as he heard something snap. He tried to pry the arms apart, but he wasn't strong enough to move them even an inch. "Get your hands off of him, you damn dirty bitch!" He swore, and he tried harder. He tried his damndest, but even that wasn't enough. " Arggg!!!!" Daxter was so sick of not being able to help him, so sick of being the sidekick, the one who always boasted about saving Jak all the time, yet couldn't help him when he really needed it.
Jak's Morph-Gun slid from his hands and hit the pavement with a dull clack. To Dax, it felt like it was proclaiming to the world it was over. But it wasn't over. Not by a long shot. The realization hit Daxter like a sledgehammer. He was a Precursor, wasn't he? Ever since he had found out, he had wondered if he got any cool powers, or something like the other three Precursors, but he never had tried to find out. But what if he didn't? He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the tears streaming down his orange cheeks, and the thought of what would happen if this didn't work. "I need somethin to help him I need somethin to help him I need somethin to friggin help him help him help him HELP HIM!!!!!!!" Suddenly, there was a flash of white light, and Daxter felt nauseous. The white glow faded, and suddenly, Daxter realized how tall he was compared to before. He saw his hands, no longer paws, his hair, red and as unruly as before. Somehow, he had made himself human again.
He had no time to be excited. He used his newfound strength to clutch the Metal Head's arms tighter, and pull harder. To his immense surprise, he actually began to move them. The improvement was short-lived, as the Metal Head, now noticing him, head-butted him backwards. Daxter scooped up the Morph-Gun from where it had fallen. But then, he was stumped. How did he shoot the damn thing without hurting Jak even more? Then he remembered the mod Tess had made just for Jak. The Mass Inverter.
He switched it, and fired at the beast. As it began to defy the laws of gravity, it became confused, and released Jak. Daxter then switched it to the Plasmite RPG, and unloaded on the bastard for hurting him. That actually seemed to hurt it. Just then, the Mass Inverter shot wore off, and both the beast and Jak fell. Even human, there was no way Daxter could catch him, so he slid under where he was going to land, and awkwardly used his own body to take some of the impact off of the fall. The Metal Head landed on top of the now sharp remains of the Statue of Mar, effectively impaling it. Just then, Sig, Torn, and Ashelin ran around the corner. "Oh, sure, ya couldn't come when ole beastie over there was givin' out killer hugs, but'cha can show up now and hog all the glory!"
Ashelin looked at the strange red-haired boy. He had blue eyes similar to Jak's, brown goggles on his head, finger gloves, and front teeth that stuck out slightly. He wore mostly red, and he looked pissed. Ashelin was positive she had never seen him before, but he sounded so annoying and familiar. "Well?!?! What, are ya just gonna stand there like a buncha morons, or help him! He's not exactly sleeping, here!" Sig and Torn leaned forward to help Jak up. Now that the shock of someone saving Jak for once was gone, they noticed how bad of shape he was in. He wasn't bleeding, but his arms were both bent in places where they shouldn't be, and definitely had more than one broken rib.
"Get him to a hospital, or Samos, whichever is closest." She said to them, and walked up to Daxter. "So, what's your story? Who are you and why did you save him?" Daxter tried to push around her, anxious to help Jak. "Lay off, Sweet Stripes, I gotta-" Ashelin stuck her pistol into Daxter's face. "I'll ask you again. Who are you?" Daxter gulped. "You, uh, you remember me, right? It's me, Daxter!" Ashelin stared at him with a disbelieving look on her face. "No, really! I swear, it's me! I used the blue stuff, and some Precursor power, and boom! One adorable me, served up on a silver platter!" Ashelin rolled her eyes. "Sure sounds like the real Daxter." He finally pushed past her, kneeling beside Jak. "Ya better believe it, baby! Admit it, ya missed me!" Ashelin gestured to the dead Metal Head. "I had hoped that thing had eaten you, actually."
It turned out Samos was closest, so he came as fast as he could with Keira. "Oh, my God! Jak!" She had screamed, running to Jak. Daxter jumped in front of her to stop her from tackling him. In this weakened state, Keira would probably hug him to death. "Whoa, whoa, chill out!" Samos was staring at Daxter like he had just mooned him, but Keira didn't even notice he was no longer a two-foot tall orange rodent. "No, Daxter, get out of my way, I've got to see if-" Keira froze, and stared at him. "Daxter?!?!! You're a- you're not-" She pulled him into an unexpected hug. "You're human again! How?" Daxter shook his head. "Later. I don't wanna tell it more than once, so I wanna wait to see Tessy-poo and Jak to wake up." Keira stared at his limp body. "Daxter, is he….is he going to be alright?" Now it was Daxter's turn to stare. "I dunno. I just dunno."
In the end, it turned out that the Green Eco hadn't helped much, it was a Light Eco crystal Seem had brought in from the Wasteland saying it would help that saved Jak. None of them really knew what to do with it, until Daxter accidentally dropped it on him. Only one week after the accident, and Jak and Daxter were both back in the Naughty Ottsel. Jak had been unconscious during Daxter's "transformation", but he already knew what had happened. Daxter had given up being a Precursor to save him, and that was pretty much all there was to it, right? Wrong. In Daxter's version, he had single-handedly slaughtered 20 other huge Metal Heads before the last one grabbed Jak. So, Daxter had selflessly given up Precursordom to become a wimpy human. Then, he had picked up the Metal Head and thrown it into the Statue of Mar, impaling it and saving Jak.
"Oh, Daxter, you're SOOO amazing!" Tess cooed, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I know, aren't I! Am I amazing enough for a free drink? One of the purple ones with that gold stuff floatin' in there? Pleeeease?" Tess giggled and handed him the drink. "Thanks!" Jak rolled his eyes as Daxter continued to shamelessly flirt with Tess. He was still a little bit sore, but he was pretty sure he would survive. He looked around, and, seeing no one looking for him, he quietly left. He headed towards the Statue of Mar, the Metal Head still impaled on the top. Torn had decided to leave it there as a sign to other Metal Heads. They hadn't been attacked since. Jak slowly began the climb to the top, finding small cracks and grooves that no one else could use. When he got to the top, he pried the dull, still glowing skull gem out of its socket. He then threw it to the ground with such force that it shattered. Hopping down off of the Tomb, he looked through the pile of yellow shards, quickly finding what he was looking for. His communicator buzzed. "Hey, Jak! Where'ja go? Jinx thinks him an' his dopey friend can beat you an' me at a drinking contest! Wanna give 'im what he's got comin'?" Jak rolled his eyes. "On my way."
He slowly weaved around pedestrians as he made his way back to the bar, his Mar pendant once again hanging from his neck. He was lucky, and he knew it. He had Daxter, his awesome best friend who had saved his life twice now, Keira, who wanted him to come over to her apartment tonight and "celebrate" him surviving the Metal Head's assault, and now he got to go whoop Jinx and Mog at a drinking contest with Dax. Oh yeah. No doubt about it. Life was good.