It was a slow day in the Underground base. Yeah, I know, it's unbelievable, right? Torn actually can't think of a single thing for Jak to do! The Krimzon Guard hadn't done anything wacky, nor had the Metalheads. Yup, just a simple day…

"Nope. Go Fish."

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta be kidding me! You don't got any twos!?"

"Sorry Dax, not a one."

"No, I asked for twos, not ones!"

"No, I meant- Never mind…"

The two unlikely friends sat at a small table in the corner of the room, playing- you guessed it- Go Fish. Jak had at least five pairs by now, and poor Dax had none. Yeah, that's right, Jak plays a mean Go Fish. Poker, on the other hand…

Anyway, back on track… As I was saying, Jak was kicking Daxter's ass at Go Fish, while Torn stood in his normal spot.

You seriously need me to elaborate? Fine, Torn was standing at his table. Seriously, guys, I thought you knew this stuff…

Jeez! I need to stop getting side-tracked…

Like I was saying, Torn was standing at his table, growling in frustration. The two idiots in the corner were driving him up the wall! He couldn't concentrate with all their noise, he had strategies to devise, battles to plan!

Yeah, Torn really needs to get laid…

He was about ready to go over there and stab them with his precious dagger, but he really didn't feel like having to clean it again. Although, he was amazed at how bad Daxter was at the simple card game, and despite himself, went over to take a look.

He froze as he saw small plastic figurines on the table, as well as dice and… were those… Scrabble pieces!?

'I…really, really, don't want to know…' He thought to himself as he stalked back to his table. He once again tried to focus on his work, but the sound of the rat's complaints just refused to quit drifting his way. Then, to make things worse, the two started a small war with the random assortment of gaming objects on the table.

"I really deserve a raise…" He muttered.

Unfortunately for him, Daxter's keen ears caught that little comment, "Oh, you need a raise? What about us? We do all the dirty work, and what do we get? Lunch money!"

Meanwhile, Jak stood, confused, "Wait, we're getting paid?"

"Uh, yeah, about that…" Daxter stammered, looking around nervously while stashing his overstuffed wallet under his goggles.

"Never mind that!" Torn interrupted, "I have a… 'mission' for you."

Jak stopped glaring at the ottsel long enough to ask, "What kind of mission?"

The redhead rubbed the back of his neck, "I need you to…uh… Go to the store, and get us some milk!"

"…"

"Milk…?"

"Yes, rat, milk! You know, that white stuff?"

"I know what milk is, genius, I'm asking why the hell we need to go get it!"

"Because, we…Need to supply ourselves with food…just in case?" It was a pretty lame answer, but Jak was tired of beating Daxter at their odd beefed up version of Go Fish, and grabbed the ottsel.

Torn sighed in relief as the two nuisances left the base, and turned back to his maps. But then curiosity got the better of him, and he took another cautious look at the table the friends had previously occupied.

"Holy shit, are those light sabers!?"

The two casually made their way to a nearby gas station, not bothering to watch for KG. Of course, Jak had mugged his poor ottsel friend of the paycheck he didn't know he had, and now had enough money to supply the Underground with milk for months, by the looks of it. He was either paid a lot more than Daxter led him to believe, or his best friend had been holding out on him for a long, long, time.

He strolled down the streets, he didn't feel like stealing any poor civilian's zoomer today, so he just walked. Besides, the store was ridiculously close to the base.

The two were nearly to the store when, completely out of the blue, they heard loud footsteps.

Daxter's ears caught it first, "Hey, Jak? You hear that?"

Jak's long elfish ears twitched quite visibly, "Yeah. It sounds like-"

"A whole army of Krimzon guard!"

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of-"

"No, really, a whole army of Krimzon Guard!"

Jak looked up, and saw that, while Daxter had (naturally) over exaggerated, there was indeed a larger than normal group of KG coming their way.

Thinking quickly, Jak sprinted over to the nearest alley, and hid himself and Daxter in the shadows. He waited a few moments, then peeked out cautiously.

He saw the group gathered around something. He tried to get a better look, but didn't want to risk getting spotted. After all, despite all common sense, he hadn't brought his gun with him.

He settled with listening intently, seeing as that was his only option that didn't involve getting turned into swiss cheese.

A voice rang out clearly in the now nearly empty streets, and Jak gasped. He knew that voice.

"Spread out and search! We've received reports of their base being around here somewhere, and no one is going to rest until we find that blasted Underground! And that Eco Freak!"

Yup. It was Erol.

Jak barely resisted the temptation to go Dark Jak and kill all of them. He knew that would only draw unwanted attention, and pretty much give away the Underground's location. Even if it seemed they were well on their way to being snuffed out, Jak knew now wasn't a good time.

Jak shuddered as memories he didn't often reflect on made their way to the front of his mind. Memories of those two long years in the Baron's prison, of Erol's laughing face as he was pumped full of dark eco…

"Uh, Jak, now's really not a good time to be all tall, dark, and gruesome…"

Jak was shocked back into reality by his friend's nervous voice, and was surprised to find himself already halfway through his transformation. He shook off all his negative thoughts, instead thinking about puppies and the blacksmith dude's adorable muse…

There, all better. He quickly turned his attention to the more important matter at hand. Like getting the hell outta there, preferably alive.

He glanced around, checking to make sure that the searching KG weren't anywhere near him. Blocking out the ottsel's protests, he charged out of the safety of the shadows and made his way into more populated streets.

Daxter nearly screamed as he heard a shout from behind. They'd been spotted. Jak continued to speed through the empty streets of Haven, finally finding his way into a somewhat safe crowd. He looked around, searching for a place to hide, knowing that the people around him would clear out as soon as the KG appeared. He stopped when he saw another alleyway, and ran in. He ducked behind a huge stack of random crates conveniently left there. Daxter sighed in relief as they settled in the shadows, safe. For the moment, anyway.

Jak let himself relax, knowing that the KG were too stupid to check behind the totally inconspicuous pile of crates. He closed his eyes and laid down, tired from sprinting around. Daxter settled in beside him, curling up and letting out a purring sound.

Jak sighed as he let sleep take him.

The gray stone walls around him were stained with suspicious red splotches, but Jak, being the naïve kid he was, didn't have the slightest clue as to what it could be.

Giving up on trying to identify the mystery stain, he focused on more important things. Like how to get out of there, for example. He studied the room closely, trying to see if there was an air vent or something that he could crawl through. But alas, there wasn't.

The room was rather bare, only a hard looking bed, a toilet in the corner, and the boy occupied it. He looked over at said toilet in disgust, it looked very used. Plus, there wasn't even anything to cover whoever was using it, no privacy whatsoever.

The blonde looked distrustfully at the guard standing outside his cell, standing stock still. If he weren't a mute, Jak would have tried his hand at convincing the guard to let him out. Oh well, it probably wouldn't have worked anyways…

Suddenly, the barred door creaked, and a figure walked into the room. Jak looked at the strange person curiously, wondering what was about to happen. The person chuckled. Well, at least Jak knew it was a male.

The man walked over to the boy, and knelt down to his level. Jak took in his strange tattoos and orange hair.

"Hello, boy. What is your name?" He said in a kind voice.

Jak simply shook his head and pointed to his throat, hoping the man would get the message.

"I see, you're mute. Well, this certainly complicates things…"

Jak frowned, "Oh, don't worry boy, it is quite alright. Here-"

The orange haired man reached into his pocket and pulled something out, then offered it to the blonde. Jak looked down and saw that he was being offered a notebook and pencil.

(why is he carrying things like that in his pocket?)

Jak took the offered items and scribbled something down, then turned it for the man to see. In sloppy handwriting, 'Jak' was written on the paper.

"I see. So, your name is Jak, is it?"

The boy nodded, "Very well, my name is Erol."

Jak smiled at the man, and wrote something else. He showed it to Erol.

'Why am I here?'

"Well, Jak, you are here because you have a certain talent. You can channel eco, boy, and that proves to be quite a useful skill for the Baron.

'What's going to happen to me?'

Erol's once friendly face fell into an annoyed one, "Boy, you are asking too many questions."

Jak frowned and wrote once more.

'Well, I think I should know.'

Erol gripped Jak's chin tightly in his hand, "You know, it'd be quite a shame to damage such a beautiful little face…" He growled.

Jak started struggling in his grasp, and was rewarded with a swift slap to the face.

"Oh well. I think I can handle it." The man said, grinning.

Jak was shocked at how quickly everything had gone sour, as Erol proceeded to throw him to the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his torso where Erol was kicking him repeatedly.

The orange haired man continued to beat the boy, kicking him over and over until he saw blood leaking out to the floor.

Jak let out a silent scream of pain as he heard a sharp crack, probably one of his ribs. The attack continued, Erol not paying any mind to Jak's agony.

"Jak!"

Jak cracked open an eye, looking around for whoever was calling his name.

"Jak, wake up!"

He silently screamed again as he heard another crack.

"Seriously, you're starting to freak me out here, buddy!"

Jak opened his eyes, and was met with the stare of his best friend. Letting out a startled yell, the blonde stumbled backwards against a metal wall behind him.

"Finally!" The ottsel yelled.

Jak looked around frantically, and realized he was still in the alley.

"It was only a dream…" He murmured.

Daxter walked over to him, "That's what I've been tellin' ya! You were screaming in your sleep, Jak!"

The blonde looked down at his friend, and only then realized that his body was covered in sweat. He wiped some off of his forehead with his arm, and settled back down again.

"Seriously, pal, are you ok?"

Jak looked at Daxter again, starting to calm down, "Yeah, Dax, it was nothing…"

"Sure didn't sound like nothin' to me…" The ottsel muttered, but didn't push the subject any further.

"We should head back. Torn might be wondering where we are by now." Jak stated, getting up and walking out from behind the boxes.

Daxter snorted, "Yeah right, he'd probably celebratin' with his pals over our deaths…"

Chuckling dryly, Jak continued on his way back to the base with his still complaining sidekick on his shoulder.

Ok, the end! I've got the rest all written out already, all I want is one, hear me, ONE, review, and I'll post the next chappy. ^^

This bit has way more humor than I originally intended, lolz… I actually plan to make this an angst fic, so this is gonna be one of those rare Humor/Angst combos! x3