Torn Pages
Disclosure:
The following work of fiction is based on events from the video game series Jak and Daxter. Although most of this is original content, some names and locations were taken from the series itself and this disclosure is to clarify this fact.
Prologue: The sun was starting to go down in the city of Haven. Many citizens had already gone inside due to their fear of being caught by the ruthless force known as the Krimzon Guard. The air was hard to breathe and every breath was like inhaling the fumes of a zoomer. The city was always in constant need of the KG to keep order and make sure the Metal Heads were kept at bay. One of these particular citizens had recently joined the ranks of the KG. What he didn't know was that he was about to get himself into a lot more trouble than he had asked for. Of all the secrets that lay beneath the earth, deep in the catacombs, this was an adventure that he might keep to himself if he was an intelligent man. However our tale begins before the Krimzon Guard has been officially brought into effect. We begin by telling the story of a young man trying to find himself in the strange world he was born into. An experience such as this can make one give up on the world, but for this young man it hardened him and made him stronger. He became the hope that Haven needed. His name is Torn.
Chapter 1: A Misconception
One might say that Torn was a scoundrel, a nuisance not worth your time. To his mother though, he was just a troubled young man looking to fulfill a hole that his father left many years ago. She didn't understand why everyone always looked at her son with disgrace. All he wanted to do was make the city better, but always kept getting into trouble with the guards doing so. She didn't like talking about him because it brought back all the bad memories of how he had died. In fact, she thought to herself, I wonder what he's up to right now…
…
"Hey guys over here!" Torn yelled out to his friends. He waved over to the group who had been looking at a Lurker transport flying by. Torn was good looking, age 20, standing just over 6 feet tall, with large red sunglasses hanging from a chain around his neck. "Guys we probably shouldn't get in the way of the guards you remember what went on last time right?" "Oh relax, his blonde friend said. It's not like they can do anything to us with Damas in power right now." "Ya, said his other friend. Those are just rumors you're hearing don't worry yourself so much dude!" Torn watched his friends run off toward another cruiser and just decided he was going to head home. "Hey guys I'm going to head home ok?" His friends didn't even acknowledge him, so he left.
Heading home was almost like an adventure itself for Torn. He walked down the main stretch, but then instead of taking the winding curve into The Slums he decided to take a short cut through an alley. Making his way through he saw a hand come out of the sewer in front of him. Then a man slowly climbed out. He was short, maybe 5'6'', he had an eye patch and he was holding a Blaster. He was holding what looked like a precursor artifact. Then he noticed that Torn was staring at him with a look of shock. "Hey what are you looking at kid?" he yelled in a high pitched voice. Torn looked at the man more closely, "Hey you're that smuggler Mizo aren't you? What do you think you're doing with that artifact?" Mizo looked at him with a smug look on his face, "What's it to you boy? You've got not business snooping around in my affairs so beat it!" Glaring at Mizo, Torn bitterly yelled, "All artifacts of any kind are supposed to be reported and brought to the Palace so Damas can examine them!" At this point Mizo had become tired of the Good Samaritan attitude he was getting from Torn and decided to mess with him a bit. "Ok kid here's the deal, I'll hand the artifact over to you as long as you don't call any city guards on me ok? The last thing I want is trouble." Torn looked at him for a second; suspiciously thinking it over to himself. He didn't see any way that this guy could weasel out of this so he kept his poker face up and calmly agreed. Mizo walked over to Torn all smug and tossed him the artifact. "Hey kid I'll be seeing you real soon ok? Now you take good care of that thing there I hear it's worth at least 10 of your lives!" He walked off laughing at his own joke leaving Torn to examine the artifact for himself.
It was quite an extraordinary device indeed. It had a bit of weight for a small little device it must have been at least 6 or 7 pounds. Suddenly Mizo appeared around the corner with 4 guards and a sly look on his face. "He's the one; he's the one with the artifact!" The guards' eyes instantly trained themselves on Torn who was standing there dumbfounded of what was happening. "Sir I'm going to have to put you under arrest for refusing to obey the basic city laws! Keeping precursor artifacts from King Damas is a Class 5 violation!" one of them shouted abruptly. "But… b-b-ut wait I didn't do it he's the one!" Torn pointed at Mizo who was casually surveying the scene. "Sir this man was the one who reported you in the first place. He said you were armed and threatened to kill him if he didn't get out of your way." "I'm not armed I never am!" he shouted. As soon as he said that he felt a pain in his gut as he remembered the knife that he always kept handy tucked safely in the back part of his belt. "Search him! Now!" the guard commander shouted. Torn started to panic as two of the guards held him while the commander stood silently staring at him with the coldest look that he had ever seen. He turned to look at Mizo who stood leaning against the concrete, silently chuckling as he watched Torn getting humiliated. Then there was only darkness and Torn slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 2: An Unlikely Recruit
Struggling to wake up Torn found himself in a dark room with no memory of how he got there. There were two Krimzon guard containers in front of him and boxes were stacked everywhere. Within an instant two guards stormed in with another one who was shorter, but seemed to give off a strong feeling of leadership. "On your feet you piece of Metal meat!" he shouted at Torn. Torn was on his feet as fast as he could, but wished he hadn't when he felt a sharp pain in his back and in his knee. "Get up before my men here beat some more sense in to you!" he shouted in what sounded like the coldest voice Torn had ever heard. Torn slowly but surely rose to his feet and looked at the three men straight in face letting him know he wasn't going to give up easily. The man spoke almost in a whisper, but still held a controlling tone, "Now I'm willing to bet a few precursor orbs that you've got quite a few questions and that you think I have the answers…. Am I right?" Torn was about to speak, but was cut off in an instant and was knocked back to the ground by the man. "You don't have the right to speak maggot! You're a criminal and in this city we only give certain rights to those who deserve it!" "You're in my world now and you'd best be getting used to it, because I don't think you'll be leaving for quite some time." Torn slowly stood up again and looked at his foe face to face, "What you're doing right now is a violation of rights and King Damas wouldn't stand for it!" he cried out in agony. The man turned toward the guards and motioned for them to leave; they marched out and closed the door.
Torn heard another noise that sounded like a lock, but tried not to show that he had heard anything as he did not want to give his perpetrator any more leverage then he already had. Then the man grabbed him with both hands and held him close to his face and whispered, "Well I'll tell you this much you fool, I don't know if you've heard, but I'm thinking that in a few years that old coot won't be running this town." He let go of Torn who fell to his knees. "Do you want to know why that is?" he asked glaring at Torn. He continued walking around the room and answered his own question, "It's because there are some of us who do not agree with some of the things he has done to prevent our methods, think of it as good nature if you will." He turned around to look at Torn again, "If you were thinking about your family I wouldn't advise it. You're mine now and there isn't anyone who is coming to rescue you." Then he turned around to exit the room and Torn yelled out, "You'll never break me and once I get out of here, mark my words I'll kill you myself!" The man turned around and gave him a cold smile, "You know something I think after I break you, which I will… I'll do the exact same thing." Torn looked at him and tried to give him his most ferocious look, "What is your name traitor?" The man walked up to Torn and got right in his face and whispered, "I'm no traitor, and as far as the city is concerned you're the dangerous one and will be kept in this KG training camp until you've shown that you can act passively amongst others! You can refer to me as your commander… Commander Errol!" With that he exited the room and Torn heard the words that he would always remember for the rest of his life, "Take him and leave nothing left."
Chapter 3: A Plot Awakens
"Alright men move it NOW!" This was almost a regular in the soldiers training camps. The troops were dubbed "The Krimzon Guard" by Lieutenant Praxis who led his own group of men. Torn slowly exited his chambers and was greeted by his two friends in the guard Gina and Colton. He had met them a few weeks after his initiation into the guard and they knew all about his sentencing. The brutal five years that had passed seemed like torture to Torn and he had kept his mind focused on one thing, exacting revenge. He had no love for Praxis as he and Errol appeared to be working together at times. It would seem that Praxis also had a daughter who had the luxury of being born in Haven Palace. Torn had only seen her a few times, but had become quite fond of her. He was excited when his friends brought him news that's she was going to be heading the training of the squad he was a part of. Gina looked at him with a smug look on her face, "Hey Torn I hope you aren't thinking of hitting on our superior officer right?" Torn, who had been dozing off, looked up at her in fake shock, "What? No of course not, why would even think that?" She looked at him and smirked, "No reason, I'm just saying if you tried anything she'd probably take your head off." Colton couldn't stop laughing as Torn gave both of them a sheepish look, one that was uncommon for him these days. "Ok ha-ha very funny can you just tell me what our assignment is today?"
The three of them started to make their way down the corridor towards the common room where all of the guards spent any free time they could find. Once they found a spot to sit Gina had an uncomfortable look in her eye. As soon as Torn was about to comment, she quickly sat up and said, "Oh I'm just going to grab a Lurker Burger, Colton can you fill him in? Thanks!" Then she rushed off to the other side of the room where there was food. "What's up with her?" Torn asked frowning. Colton looked uncomfortable as well, "Umm I have no idea maybe it's just a woman thing ha-ha." Remembering the task at hand Torn remembered they had a mission and tried to get any stray thoughts out of his head. "So what's the mission Colton?" Colton looked at him all business, "They told us only what we needed to know, but you know that." Torn nodded and showed that his friend could continue. "All we know is that there's some kind of sage in Haven Forest and Praxis seems to think he's a threat to the city." Torn looked astonished at the power that Praxis held, "But what does Damas think of this?" Colton looked down solemnly and then looked at Torn with a stone cold face, "Torn, Damas hasn't been informed about the last 4 missions and this one is no different, so stop asking because you still believe in him!" Gina stumbled over a few guards' weapons as she made her way back to their table and sat down again. "So how was the food then?" Torn smirked as she sat down. "Ok you got me, she said smiling. I just didn't want to have to tell you myself because I knew what you were going to ask." "And what was that?" Torn demanded in a harsh tone, this made her jump a little bit. Her smile instantly vanished as she looked over at Colton, "Did he ask about Damas again?" He nodded and she looked at Torn with a stern look on her face. "Look I'm sorry Torn, but I would have figured that after a few years you would have given up on the old guy. You know what Praxis and Errol are planning, so why don't you just give up on him already? Torn looked at feet and let out a huge sigh. Colton, noticing the tension piped up, "Hey guys let's just forget about it and get on to the mission ok?"
…
"Keep your patrols at the ready Praxis and keep your guard up!" Torn and the rest of his team looked over at Damas and Praxis talking in front of the entrance of Haven Forest. "Don't you worry your highness, I'm sure we'll be just fine against some little sage" Praxis retorted in what seemed to be a cocky tone of voice. Damas looked at him as if he knew what his true intentions were, but instead dismissed him and his men. Praxis and Errol walked over to Torns' team and began briefing them further on their assignment. "Alright men listen up! he shouted. This is going to be a tougher job then we thought." He paced back and forth as if he was worried about something. "I plan on taking Errol's men and my own around to the South so we can flank this son of a bitch! The rest of you will proceed through the main gate with Ashelin and take him head on! It is my belief that through team work and good strategy, this little sage will have nowhere to run… NOW GO!" "SIR YES SIR!" the rest of the soldiers thundered as they proceeded towards the main gate.
Torn looked at Gina and Colton and gave them an uncertain look, "I've got a bad feeling about this guys. "Gina looked up at him and smiled, "Don't worry so much Torn this is going to be easy; this little green guy doesn't stand a chance against us!" "It's not him I'm worried about…" He turned to look at Errol and Praxis walking away with their gigantic army (or what seemed gigantic at the time). He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Colton smiling at him, "Don't worry about them man, I know you hold a grudge against Errol, but just focus on the mission ahead and you'll be fine." "Ya I hope so," he sighed turning toward the entrance to the forest. "Come on dude let's catch up to the rest of the crew, Colton said smiling.
The group made their way into Haven Forest and slowly made their way toward the giant oak tree in the center, surrounded by flowers. Ashelin moved to the front of the group and began giving out orders. "Ok team half of us are going to explore the west and the other half will take the east, we'll re group with my father in approximately 2 hours… NOW GO!" "YES MAM" all of the guards shouted in unison. All of a sudden Torn's radio started going off like it was being hacked. Then Gina's' started to act up. In about 30 seconds everyone's radios were crackling and making weird noise and then there was silence. All of a sudden Damas came on the radio; he sounded like he was in a panic. "If anyone is out there please respond! There is a mutiny in the palace! I REPEAT MUTINY IN THE PALACE! I don't know if I can…" Then all the radios went dead initiating a panic with in the guard. Torn remained calm and collect as he pushed forward through everyone and right to Ashelin. "HEY ASHELIN!" he cried out. Ashelin turned around and looked at Torn and he suddenly went red. "You should treat me with more respect soldier as I am your superior officer!" She glared at him, but Torn wasn't about to give up that easily. "Look at this moment and time I couldn't care less about rank mam all I'm worried about is Damas; we need to get down there and help him now! Ashelin looked at him with a look that made him think she was worried, but it turned to one that was solid and cold. "I'm sure my father can handle it with his unit, I'm sure it's already over…" she turned away from him almost as if she was disgusted with her own words. Torn turned to look at his own unit, "Won't any of you stand with me? This is an outrage that someone would try to attack our king!" He looked at his two friends who he cared for, the ones he had talked openly about his fears of the Baron and Errol, and what Mizo might have done to his mother because he had interfered with his business. Then Colton chose to speak up for everyone, "Torn you and I both know what's going on here, but you alone could never face the truth. Praxis is taking over Torn, so just get over it and stand back in line…" Torn looked at his friend, he barely even recognized him. "Fine then I guess I'm going alone" And with that Torn headed toward the city.
Chapter 4: The Harsh Truth
Torn was almost out of breath as he made it to the palace and couldn't believe what he saw. There was fire and destruction everywhere that he could see. The door had been forced and was pushed aside. He quickly rushed inside to try and help defend Damas, but was shocked to run into him on his way to the Council Chambers. "King Damas I thought you were in trouble?" he said, relieved that he was okay. "Damas just sighed and spoke softly, "Oh I am my dear boy, but there is nothing I can do about it." Torn looked at him with a shocked expression, "What do you mean there's nothing you can do? You're the king you should be able to do anything!" Damas almost laughed, but all he could muster was another sad expression on his face, "I'm afraid you may stop calling me King from now on, that title has been transferred to Baron Praxis. Torn backed up a little and almost fell down in shock, "B-b-u-ut how? How could he take control?" Damas put his face in his hands and then looked up at Torn almost in tears. "It would appear that the Baron had been meeting up with Metal Head commanders and had been setting up quite a few deals with them. Now he has threatened me with a force I cannot repel. He demanded that I step down and leave Haven City or he would take all of the city's resources for himself and his men and let the Metal Head's run wild." There was an eerie silence that came afterwards. Torn looked at a man who was defeated and alone with nowhere to go, but the treacherous reaches of The Wasteland. Damas spoke again, catching Torn off guard making him jump a little. "I'm going to the front of the palace now m'boy and I suggest that you make yourself scarce." Torn looked at his feet; he was still in shock of what was happening. Then he felt Damas put his hand on his shoulder and he whispered, "Promise me one thing though, I want you to see what the Baron has in store for this city. Promise me one year and that will suffice. Then somehow you'll have to contact me, but if you can't then I have a contact in Haven City who goes by "The Shadow". Don't worry about finding him, when the time is right he'll find you."
Torn looked on as Damas exited the palace and decided he wasn't going to let him face the Baron's wrath alone. He ran after Damas and ran into two guards who knocked him over. They were wearing different armor. It was one Torn had never seen before, and yet it looked strangely familiar. The armor was mostly red and has a silver KG logo on the right shoulder. The guard glared down at Torn and spoke in a gruff and menacing voice. "Sorry sir, but we have orders to hold and restrain you until King Baron Praxis says otherwise. Torn was about to make a break for it, but then remembered Damas's words. It would be worth the torture… and the pain. Although it might change him forever it would be worth it. He managed to catch a glimpse of Damas walking out of Haven City's gates. He never saw him again.
Chapter 5: A Rebellion is Born
One year later…
It was raining. Torn stood outside his old home; the old house just seemed like memories really. It always seemed to rain in Haven these days. I guess it was ok though, at least the air was breathable. On a sunny day it was almost unbearable with all the pollution caused by The Baron's factories pumping out prototype KD Death Bots and new supposed efforts to help fight the war against the Metal Heads. It was a futile effort and Torn knew that it was only a matter of time before the Metal Heads figured out a way into the city. He decided that after today he was going to bid farewell to his guard comrades and leave the newly formed Krimzon Guard. After being forced into the guard almost 6 years ago he had become accustomed to the rules and habits. These rules did not come without a dark side as well. The pain and punishment he had received had made him a recluse and had made him a very mistrusting person. The last year had been one of biggest changes for the city of Haven.
Torn walked through the guard corridor silently looking through his things and found something. It was the precursor artifact that he had been accused of holding almost 6 years ago! He looked from side to side and saw that no one was there and put it in his pack. He was about to leave when he heard a voice behind him, "So this is him…" He turned around and was amazed at what he saw. A short green man wearing sandals; he was young, but had a certain look of wisdom. "Hello m'boy my name around Haven is "The Shadow", but you maybe call me Samos" Torn looked shocked, but then pulled back the memory from the palace almost a year ago. "So you're the one Damas was talking about then? What do you need me for?" "For everything," he replied. We need to fight Praxis and Errol and put a stop to what he's done. Vegar has taken a child that is vital to this plan. Torn stood back confused. A child? For what? Why would they need a child for such an operation? "He will be of great use to us in the future, but he is also Damas's child and that must remain a secret, for if Damas ever knew where his child was he would almost certainly try to get him back and that ruin history!" Then he laughed at Torn's confused face and said, "Do not worry Torn I'll explain all the greater details in due time, but now is the time to start a rebellion and fight back!" Torn understood and went through all the memories in his head. His mother, Mizo, Errol, prison, being a member of the KG. It had all led up to this. He thought of what Errol had said to them when he was torturing him all those years ago. I'm going to prove you wrong he thought. And when the time comes… I will be ready.
Epilogue: Torn was studying some of Haven city's oldest maps that he had sent one of his men out to steal. They had recently refurbished their base in The Slums, but it still looked like crap in his opinion. Tess came in and said, "Hey Torn there are two strangers outside looking for you. Well… a stranger and his pet." Torn looked up at her and said, "Fine I'll be out in a second." He sat up and wondered who these two might be and why they were here. As soon as he emerged from the hideout he was blown away by what he saw. What he saw was an angry young man with long blonde hair with green streaks through it with a green goatee. With him was a short, orange, ANNOYING ottsel who seemed like he was full of himself. As he was about to greet them he remembered something his Krimzon Guard training commander had said to him. "Never trust new faces Torn, always treat someone like they are nothing and when they complain tell them to prove themselves." So he approached them and the epic tale began with this line: "New faces make me nervous. Word is you're out to join the fight for the city. You know, picking the wrong side could be... unhealthy"
So ya guys that's the end of Torn Pages I hope you enjoyed it!
