So, this is a short project I worked on a while ago and some of my friends on here talked me into posting it and seeing if there was an audience for it. If you love it, let me know by reviewing, following, favoring or PMing me about it. That's usually what drives me to keep writing these things and trust me that this story will need support.

Oh, and one more thing. This takes place about eight years before Jak arrives in Haven and Ten years before he escapes prison. So, this is not about the Dark Warrior program.

"Chase! there are metal heads in my rooooooooobwaaahahahahahahahahhaa."

Chase struggled to open up his eyes and slowly took in his surroundings. He was on something soft, his futon and there was a dripping sound, in the kitchen. Chase was in the kitchen and dining room adjacent to the bathroom next to Mali's room. In Mali's room, Mali was crying.

Chase planted his left hand on the bed to balance himself as he sat up. In mid-motion, Chase's arm rubbed up against something soft. When he looked over he saw a girl with brunette hair wearing one of his shirts. Chase scooted away from her and threw his legs over to the carpet, knocking bottles over in the process.

Picking up one bottle, he got up and walked toward Mali's room, "I'm coming Mali, what's wrong?"

The lights shot on in Mali's room temporarily blinding him. His eyesight slowly came back to see Mali was huddled in her covers with one of Chase's tools in hand, "I had a bad dream."

He turned left and smashed into Mali's dresser, "Ow, damn it. Mali, where's your chair?"

Mali pointed next to her bed, "Right there."

Chase pushed off the dresser and sort or walked, sort of fell into the chair, "Alright, what do I have to do to get you back to sleep?"

Mali shut her eyes tight and pulled the covers over her head, "Tell me a story."

Grabbing a book off the shelf next to Mali's bed the tired drunk began to read, "Our almighty Baron once stood in the bowls of an unnamed island owned by the metal hea-"

"No! I want you to tell me a story. Not one of those ones", Mali said with spite in her voice.

He looked down at the bottle in his hand and read it, Sage's #1 Gin. He took the first word and began to make up a story, "Have I ever told you the story of The Sage?"

Mali pulled the covers down so her nose was just peaking over the edge, "No, is he mean?"

Chase let his eyes shut for a minute and began to float away but quickly caught himself, "No, no he's not mean. He's a hero."

Mali's eyes widened, "A hero? What's that?"

Chase's eyes widened and he realized just how much of a gap there was between him and his sister. It was hard but he could recall times when his parents told him stories of heroes. The boy and the ottsel had taught him that even in a hopeless situation you must stay fearless. The hero and the giant, the man who took on a boulder throwing lurker. Even the Shadow, a man who held off the metal heads.

He slammed back a big swig of Gin and the burn woke him up all the way, "Aaaaaaah Hero! A man who stands up in hopeless situation and becomes a legend!"

"Quiet down you fucking kids!"

Chase looked up to the ceiling and stood up, "Shut up Mr. Anders. I'm telling my sister a story."

There was silence for a few seconds before Mali spoke, "I don't think Mr. Anders likes heroes."

He sat back and took another drink before continuing, "Forget Mr. Anders. The Sage was a great hero. He lived long ago."

Mali cocked her head to the side, "How long?"

Chase took a split second to think before continuing, "Long enough, anyway, the Sage lived in a time when there was civil unrest. They would take away any channeler they could find for experiments causing them to stifle and hide their talents."

Mali's eyes widened in concern, "That's mean, who was doing it?"

there ran several names through his head. The lord, the master, the controller, "The duke. The Duke was the man who ordered his armies to take all channelers captive. No one stood to oppose him except-"

"The Sage", Mali beamed with a smile.

Chase snapped his fingers and pointed at Mali, "Bingo. Now the Sage was a channeler himself. He was able to channel blue eco through his body and us it in amazing ways."

"What could he do?"

"He ran every method he knew by which he could charge himself with blue eco an then everything he could do with it. After he had everything he just multiplied the abilities by awesome and continued, "The Sage could absorb eco from and electrical outlet and even raw eco from wires. He was just a man but a man's man of the manliest qualities. He stood at six-feet-nine-inches and had a notoriously imposing stature. The Sage was able to use blue eco in ways never even seen."

"Like what?"

"Well", Chase didn't let himself pause for more than a moment, "he could use his powers as a living battery like a regular blue eco channeler and power all sorts of objects. He could power an entire fleet of zoomers. He could amplify and use the eco within something to make it work better and faster."

Mali beamed forward with eyes that showed amazement only a child could have, "Like your jet-board?!"

He pointed at Mali with two fingers, "exactly, like my jet-board. Now do you want to hear about him or not?"

Mali pulled the covers up and snuggled herself under them, "Tell me about him."

Chase took another swig of his Gin and held up one finger, "Okay, but you have to go to bed after I am done telling you the story. And only one story."

Mali crossed her arms and huffed, "Fine."

"Okay", he shouted the word immediately bringing Mali back into a world of wonder and inquiry she had before. "This was to be The Sage's first night of standing against The Duke. It was winter and snow covered the streets of The Sage's dear city he cared so much about."

"What was the cities name?" Mali said gripping her sheets.

Chase panicked and just thought backwards, "Nevah, his city was Nevah. It was a beautiful city where the people and buildings all were natural and alive but that was when it was still young. As a dark army marched across the land Nevah was about to be over taken and the first person that came a long and told them that they could be saved was put in charge. This man was the Duke and for many years the Duke was a good upstanding man that cared about the people and did all he could to keep the people safe. He even had a wall erected by his own men to keep the city safe. The Duke promised that the wall was impenetrable and the people allowed him to carry on with whatever business he needed to."

Mali cocked her head and was confused, "I thought you said the The Duke was a bad guy."

He took another swig and sat forward, "He is, or will be. Just let me finish. Now, The Duke believed that the wall was impenetrable but even precursor metal can have cracks in it."

"No it can't."

Chase huffed, "Yes, it can."

She shook her head, "No, my teacher at school said it can't. It is the only metal with-"

"I can go lay back down and go to bed if you want to contemplate the meaning of that saying", Chase said annoyed.

Mali pulled the covers up over her nose and whispered, "I'll be quiet."

Chase rolled his eyes but got right back into the intensity he was carrying before, "The Duke made a plan to take channelers and begin using them for experiments."

"What kind of experiments?" She questioned from under her covers.

"Experimental experiments", Chase said continuing, "these experiments were bad and the people began to be afraid that The Duke was running wild with power but nobody could do anything do to fear that The Duke would throw them outside the wall."

"Until the sage showed up." Mali said peeking out of her covers even more.

"Yes, The Sage was just an ordinary channeler and he was to be sent off for the experiments once the next subject died. Now, The Sage knew that to save himself, he had to incite a rebellion. To do that, he had to become a symbol to the people."

She got a look of dejection, "So he was a hero out of self-preservation?"

He let his face fall into shock at what he said and froze for a good three minutes before pulling it back together, "Yes, he did at first. Normally, a hero's call to action is a selfish desire or need for individual gain that a hero begins their journey."

"But how is he a hero?"

Chase finished off the last of his bottle and began to lose his control over his voice, "A hero is not defined by his reason but by his ability to rise to the occasion. A legend is born in hopeless situation."

"Well, then tell me about it."

"Fine, so The Sage dawned his outfit and took to is first night. Now, it was a cold winter's night, the first snow had just fallen on Nevah and there was a rebellion that needed to be ignited. The Sage stood up for the first time that night, he knew all that rebellion needed was a single spark. To do this, The Sage would need to be a symbol to the people, a living legend that everyone could get behind and follow to freedom. He planned to do this by…"

"By what?"

"By saving someone, he needed to get his name out there. Let people know of someone that could help them that wasn't the Duke or his forces. He found a way to conceal his identity with his hood and a pair of goggles. Then, he began to trek around the city in search of injustice. His search rewarded him with opportunity."

"What's oppanuitnty?"

"Opportunity, it's a chance to do something. Now, he saw a woman walking down an alley that led to nowhere with a man close behind her. The man followed the woman's every step into the alley where he pulled out a blaster pistol on her."

"What does the Sage do?" She interjected.

"Okay, one more interruption and I am going back to bed", Chase said annoyed.

Mali Just pursed her lips and sank down even deeper, "Okay."

"The Sage saw the man pull out his blaster and moved quickly. He sprang forward using blue eco to boost his speed and gave a hard kick to the man's leg causing him to crumple. The Sage then brought his fist down on the man and started rapidly punching the man until he passed out. The Sage then turned to the lady and gave her just a nod before taking off back into the night. He knew that he had just started it. The spark was lit and the rebellion was in motion."

"How?"

Chase stood up and hit the lights, "That, dear sister, is a story for tomorrow night."

Mali rolled over and let out a sigh of exhaustion, "Okay, good night Chase."

"Good night Mali", Chase said as he left the room.

He left Mali's room and entered back into the dining/kitchen/washing room on his way to his futon in the center of it. Chase arrived and the futon and just collapsed onto it, forgetting that there was a woman lying in the bed too. Chase's head landed right next to hers causing them to smack together.

He quickly rolled the opposite of the woman and clutched his now throbbing forehead, "Damn it!"

He felt a hand fall on his shoulder as the girl next to him spoke, "You're very accident prone aren't you?"

Her voice was heavenly and it gave Chase a feeling of security, "Uh, no, sorry. I just told my sister a bed time story because she woke up with a nightmare."

The girl rolled Chase over to get a look at his face, "Of course, nobody could miss your shouting about a hero that never existed."

Chase couldn't see the woman's face, so he brought his hand up and brushed her hair over her ear, "Hey, a hero that never existed is not constrained by the laws that we make for heroes to live up to. The Sage can be whatever I want him to be."

The woman had blue eyes and that was the only feature that Chase could see. The rest was a black silhouette in the night, "Uh huh, so what time do you have work today?"

Chase looked above the exit door where his clock hung, "its 2:30am so in about seven-and-a-half hours."

The woman brought up a finger and the tip lit up green, "Then you probably shouldn't go with a big red spot on our forehead."

The woman put her finger to his forehead and he felt the healing green eco repairing any damage that had occurred, "You're a channeler?"

She smiled but that was the only other feature besides her eyes that Chase could make out in the green glow produced by her finger, "Of course, it's how we met, remember?"

Chase brought his left hand up and began channeling the blue eco he had through it so that small zaps of electricity began jumping out of his arm, "I am a little too drunk and tired to remember anything right now."

The woman drew her hand away from Chase's forehead and kissed him on the cheek, "I figured as much. My name is Angela in case you forgot."

Chase rolled over and put his arm around Angela as they lay in the bed, "I didn't forget that."

"Sure you didn't", her tone along with her name had begun to jog Chase's memory but he let it die and fell into his sleep again.

Chase was sitting in a familiar room. It was grey, bland and had a desk in the middle. There was a man in a lab coat and glasses across from him looking over charts before he closed it and put his hands together.

"Now, Chase, your parents have been 'drafted' into the Krimson Guard due to their unique channeling abilities. As you must know, this is a great honor to be handpicked by the Baron himself for his forces."

He sat back in the chair and weaved his fingers together, "Fuck you."

The man put his hands up in self-defense and kept his voice monotone. "We don't have any plans to take you, yet. We here in the Guard realize that it wouldn't be wise to separate you and your dear sister."

Chase felt his foot begin to tap as his emotional control loosened and the blue eco in his body began to run wild. "That's just because your damn orphanages are full of channelers' kids."

"Look, Chase, you are going to be allowed to stay with your sister as long as she is too young to take care of herself. After that", the man grew a grotesque smile, "we will be in touch."

Chase stood up and grabbed his chair for a weapon. "What are you talking about? Unique channeling abilities, hand selected, and where the hell will they be!?"

The man stood up and picked up his papers, "That will be all for now Chase."

Chase swung his chair at the man but it was blocked by someone and the man pulled a gun on Chase, "That will be all Chase."

He felt himself get dragged backwards and his vision cut out.

Chase's eyes shot open, and the smell of hiphog bacon filled his nostrils. When he opened his eyes he was met with pure, unstoppable light that filled his vision and welcomed him like no lover he ever had. Soon, it faded away and all that Chase was left with was the sight of his crummy one bedroom apartment and Mali sitting at the bar eating breakfast.

"Who-?"

"I did", Angela cut him off from over by the door. "You were sleeping and I thought you would need the break after waking up in the middle of the night. I have to go now though, works starts at eight and I need to be there in twenty minutes. Is there a hover-bus that runs by here?"

He sat up and cracked his neck. "You already missed it."

"Oh shit", Angela hit the open-door button and began out the door.

Chase's hand shot up real quick to stop her. "Wait, I can drive you there!"

She stopped and turned around. "How? Not on that hoverboard you were riding around on last night."

"Nope, I got a class A zoomer", he said with a wink.

Angela let out a huff. "You have a zoomer and were bar hoping on a jet board?"

Chase stood up out of the bed and grabbed his clothes from the coffee table that was beside the couch. "It's a racing zoomer. I can't just rip it out for bar hopping. Plus, if I wreck it my friend will kill me."

"You're kidding me, you are a racer?"

He buttoned his pants up and pulled his shirt over his head. "No, just a tester. I am the one that tries the equipment that racers use and then figure out what is wrong."

She bit her lip and began to step out the door. "Yeah, I will call you later. There is no way I am getting on a zoomer that is still in testing."

Chase kicked himself for telling her he was a tester, "Yeah, okay, bye."

She was gone before he finished his sentence and he was alone in the apartment with Mali. "You think she's going to call?"

Mali had a mouth full of food but managed to say, "I think she will."

Chase nodded and grabbed his socks from on top the TV that was on the opposite side of the room from the couch. He slipped them on real quick and noticed that his goggles and bandanna were on the stand too. This confused Chase, even when he was drunk he managed to put them away with his jacket.

His eyes widened in worry causing him to run over to the closet and fling the doors open, "Damn it!"

"What's wrong?" Mali questioned as she got down from the bar.

He fell against the wall and slid down. "I lost my fire retardant jacket. Ellise warned me that if I lost it I would be fired for sure."

"You didn't lose it", Mali said.

Chase turned around and looked at her with urgency. "Where is it?"

"Ellise called your communicator this morning. Look", Mali pointed at the communicator sitting on the table.

He hit the orange eye and it floated off the ground, "Is it on? Oh bloody hell, Chase? Are you there? Whatever, I have the jacket finished. Get over to the track as soon as possible, Nero promised us a lot of money if we can get the product into beta stage by tomorrow."

"Oh shit", he said as he grabbed the communicator and his wallet. "Mali, I have to go. What time does school start?"

She already had her jacket on and was following Chase. "Eight o'clock."

Mali took his hand and they ran to the garage. Quickly grabbing his jet-board off the table, Chase prepped to drive the Class A. Mali got a side cart they made from a scrapped cruiser and hooked it to the side.

He threw on his face cover and goggles as he jumped into the driver's seat. "You ready?"

She was already in the cart and sitting with her bag in between her legs. "We're going to be late."

He powered up the zoomer and hit the garage door opener. "No we aren't!"

As soon as the garage lifted high enough Chase hit the boost button and shot out into street. Chase threw the wheel to the left and barely missed a Krimzon guard but he was heading off in the wrong direction. Instead of heading toward the farm district, he was heading toward the entrance to the arena.

"Chase, we're going the wrong way!"

He hard turned right and did a U-turn into the water way, "Thank you, my human GPS."

She stuck her tongue out at Chase but he did a quick pitch causing her to lose her balance and fall back in her seat, "Ouch."

"Sorry Mali, there was a aliduck." Chase said trying not to laugh.

She just righted herself and then sat back in her seat with a sour look. Paying no attention to it, He saw their exit ramp ahead and readied for a tough maneuver. He would have to catch the ramp just right and hit the jump jets in order to clear the guard rail. Normally, one would just switch hover zones but class-As only had one hover zone, meaning they could only stay at ground level.

Chase adjusted their angle by forty-five percent and shot up the ramp. He managed to time the button just right and activated the jump jets clearing the guard rail. The boost and his current speed sent them flying over the pedestrians and right next to Mali's school entrance.

"Two minutes to spare, ah yeah." Mali just shook her head and climbed out of the side cart.

"See you later Chase."She said trying to not maintain eye contact.

He raised an eyebrow and began to point it out but stopped when he noticed a young kid walking toward her. Instead, he just smiled, sat back in his zoomer, and then revved the engine as he took off to the race track. Luckily, his future wasn't dependent on the time he arrived so he was able to stop back at his apartment and dropped off the side cart before getting to the track.

Immediately upon arriving he was met by and angry woman with brunette hair, blue eyes, and grease covering her face, "So... Not to sound like an overly attached girlfriend or anything but... Where the hell have you been, exactly? I've been waiting an HOUR."

Chase just smiled and walked past her. "Well, Mali woke me up in the middle of the night because she had a bad dream. So I read her a story for a little while and I slept in because of it."

"I swear, you need to let Mali take some time to grow up. What's she going to do if big brother isn't there to save the day." Ellise shot as she caught up with him.

"Well when you're raising Mali, you can do what you want but I raise her how I see fit. That means being her hero and living up to her expectations." He said before they finally entered the arena.

Looking out Chase saw that it was set for race track three and there were gates channeling blue eco every one-hundred yards or so. At the starting line, one of his fellow testers was on a zoomer and giving a thumbs up. There was the short five second countdown and then he was off, catching more and more speed as he went through each gate.

Ellise leaned next to Chase and pointed at one of the gates, "That's what I called you about this morning. The other mechanics and I have been here all night setting those up for testing today. Go get your gear out of the locker room."

"Aye aye, captain", Chase said giving a mock salute.

Ellise just turned around and rolled her eyes at Chase's inability to give a damn. Soon as she was gone, he was off to the locker room on the opposite side of the arena. There he went to his locker which was three from the left side on the side farthest from the door.

He spun his locker's combination in and opened it to see his electric blue jacket; it seemed to be completely untouched despite Ellise saying she tinkered with it. Chase just gave a shrug and threw it on. Then, upon lacing it up he noticed that there was a small watch device in arm about halfway down his for arm. He tapped it twice and it lit up blue. The meter on it filled up about a fourth of the way and Chase realized that it was an eco meter.

Chase then put on his facemask and goggles before leaving and heading to the observation center. There Mali, Nero, The Baron, and one of the other Mechanics were viewing the man race around the stadium. He was going faster than Chase knew the vehicles could. Looking over at the Baron and Nero, both of them looked pleased.

Nero was a tall man with blond hair, and overly muscular body, and an affinity for racing. If it could go fast, hovered, and could carry him, he would own it. That also meant he was the Krimson guard's representative to race in the city circuits.

"Well done, I love it. This year's races will be the best yet. Not to mention the fastest", Nero said almost ready to jump out the glass and on to the track.

The Baron nodded next to him. "Yes, it will definitely make for an interesting year."

Ellise nodded with relief. "Thank you sir, we worked very hard on this years tracks."

"You all did very well, now tell the driver to stop so Nero can get a go at the track." He said giving a sense of superiority to his voice.

"Right", Ellise hit the transmit button. "That's enough Samual. Bring it in."

Samual's voice came back in panicked. "Uh, that might be a problem. I can't stop."

Ellise froze for a second but moved quicker than ever once she regained herself. "What's going on? Can you tell from where you are?"

"Mechanic, what's going on", The Baron questioned with a hint of anger in his voice.

"I'm sure it's just a small fixable glitch sir", Ellise said in her panic.

Samual buzzed back in. "Uh, it looks like the power intake is too off put by the use."

Chase noticed the Baron's hands clench. "What does that mean?"

She began using all the controls trying to find the right switch. "It means that if he stops or slows down, the zoomer will explode."

Praxis smashed his fist into his hand. "Well just turn off the power to the gates."

Chase saw Ellise begin to freak out as she continued to try and work the machines. "I tried, there is enough blue eco in them that they have become self sustaining. There is no way to stop him."

Chase thought up a quick contingency plan. "Ellise, I could head out onto the track and pull the blue eco from enough of the gates that you could divert power from other gates and make them lose their ability to self sustain."

The Baron turned around to Chase, "Hhmm, you think you could channel that much eco?"

"No Chase, you would risk eco addiction. We can't have that, I know we talked about it earlier but I cannot be the one to watch Mali.' She said without turning around.

Chase pulled his mask up over his face and goggles down. "I don't see much of a choice."

Before she could say anything else he walked over to the elevator in the observation deck and hit the down button. The elevator went down and put him right on the starting line. The first gate was about twenty feet away and Samual shot through it right as Chase touched ground.

"Alright Chase, try and expel the eco as you take it in", Ellise said from the head set build into his goggles.

Chase hit the button on the side, "Right."

He activated what little blue eco he had and ran over to the first gate, there was a basic wall of blue eco as the bolts started at the top of the pillar and made their way down. When Samual shot through the gate the eco would all focus into his zoomer. Chase stuck his hand into the eco line and began intake it.

Like when Samual went through the wall, all the electricity went into Chase's hand and he saw his eco meter shoot up to full and Chase was immediately risking eco addiction. He couldn't stop though; he had to take in all of the eco the gate could offer. He had to pull the eco in faster than it was giving him. In doing so he was able to cause the gate to shut down.

Blinding pain shot through him as he did so but he couldn't stop. Chase used the eco to move faster than he did before and he made it to the next eco gate before his meter could go down even a tenth. He wasn't able to wait for his meter to reach empty. He shoved his hand into the new gate and pulled all the eco out of it too.

This time the pain caused him to stumble and fall to one knee. His heart rate was elevated beyond points that would cause a regular person's heart to explode. He was breathing as fast as a Vulcan could fire rounds. He was shaking and couldn't feel his hands.

"Chase, stop. You can't go on. You are risking serious eco addiction and possibly heart failure if you go any faster." Ellise screamed over the comm.

Chase just stood up and began running to the next gate. "Ellise, have I ever told you about the Sage?"

"The what", she said confused over the mike.

"The Sage, he is a hero. A man who stands up in hopeless situation and becomes a legend." he said as he arrived at the next gate.

Chase shoved his hand in the gate and began absorbing its energy as Ellise spoke to him. "Chase, you're not making any sense."

He knew this was his last gate, there was no way that he could do another. "The situation is hopeless, and I am standing up."

There was a white flash and Chase lost all feeling in his legs.