Substitute
Chapter Two: To Headquarters
Jak was thinking as he stood outside the penthouse, staring down at the revamped city section below him. Zoomers passed by slowly. Much slower than I would take them, Jak thought.
He had to get to headquarters, but he had no idea how. He hadn't ever seen Daxter drive before, and was unsure if he could. He supposed he could call a cab, but the rudimentary Zoomer transport system hadn't done much for anybody. Jak had to chase after rogue taxi drivers once, who got the job just to steal the industrial-size, closed-air Hellcat for most of the day. However, he thought of another method of city transport. The idea came to him in an instant: the Underground Transit!
Only weeks before had he overseen the reopening of the subway lines as part security detail, part speaker. He knew Daxter's home was only minutes away from the industrial section, and the entrance to the rails only seconds from there. For Jak, that would regularly take minutes, but he didn't know how long that would take for a two-foot-tall ottsel with pants.
It's worth a shot. Jak dug around in the pockets of his smallish shorts, and found a small metallic identification pass. He hoped to the Precursors that Daxter reloaded his credentials recently, or his trek across the city could take hours.
Minutes later, he was filing in line with people milling down a set of escalators. He moved faster then everybody else: quickly readjusting to the aerodynamics of Daxter's body, he dashed in between legs and bags, scratching his paws slightly on the bumpy metal. Perspective really drove Jak nuts, though. He nearly got lost twice because he wasn't seeing landmarks from his height.
Jak skidded out onto the subterranean ground, looking for a map. Running up to the first one he found, Jak glanced at the confusing list of inter-networked tunnels. Scanning the list, he found the shortest that would lead him to the New Haven section. He strained his neck to see the longer legend of colored tracks. Hmm... Is that B Line? No... A!
Finally deciding upon his transport, he looked for a sign indicating his train. According to the electronic map he just removed his eyes from, it would arrive any second.
Stepping as swiftly as he could on Daxter's padded feet, Jak ran to the platform. There lay the futuristic equivalent of turnstiles: two vertical bars with a slot for a credential pass.
As he looked up at the lightweight machine he realized something that made him curse his luck. This is going to be hard.
Jak pulled out his friend's security pass, and began to frantically leap up and down, reaching for the slot. He stretched his small arms as far as he could.
He strained harder until he heard a voice. "Daxter, what are you doing here?" Jak instantly recognized the caring intonation.
"You usually don't take the rails." Damn! That would certainly explain some things...
Jak worked his best to sound like Daxter. "Well, when the mood strikes... plus, I wanted to try out the new rails. How are you, Kiera?"
"That's unlike you," Kiera giggled, "I'm fine." Double damn, now she's suspicious! "Need some help?"
"Erm, no, I'm good." Jak took back to jumping up and down again.
Ignoring Jak's response, Kiera lifted who she believed was Daxter up to level height with the slot. "Um, thanks." Jak slipped the card in, and it was spit out on the other side. A robotic female voice said, "Enjoy your ride."
Keira repeated the action with her own card, and followed Jak into the large vehicle that had just arrived. Jak flopped tiredly onto one of the shiny new seats, while Keira stayed standing.
"Is everything alright, Daxter? You seem quiet... not like yourself."
Jak laughed out aloud. The irony was murderous. "You have no idea."
Daxter would have had no trouble getting to the Freedom League headquarters (after all, Jak only lived five city blocks away, in the last sector of government leader housing) if it had not been for a particularly nasty problem: Metal Heads.
Their ranks were thinning slowly after the destruction of their inner-city nest, however, they still infested the sewers, where few ventured at all, regardless of Metal Heads. Therefore, many "Metal Heads will attack you while you're on the toilet" myths were started.
But, on to the attack. It was sudden, as was any surprise attack (the operative word in the phrase being 'surprise'). One or two people roaming through New Haven were instantly killed as the monsters crashed through the blockade between the new section and the destroyed remains of the stadium. Presumably, they had left behind a trail of destruction behind them in the massive construction site.
The scene was dramatic. A few of the larger creatures began to drill and beam their way through the blockade, spreading dust and concrete as they demolished part of the surrounding wall. Large chunks began to come out, and the smaller, scorpion-like Metalheads began leaking through the cracks, and they increased in size as the holes did likewise.
The whole wall was starting to topple, cracking louder and louder as some of the vibrant pink beams of light emitted by the monsters burst through the wall that blocked New Haven from the Old Stadium.
The monsters were flooding in around him. A reasonably large group of people huddled around Daxter. What the hell are these people doing?
He realized that he was their hero. He knew that Jak had a Freedom League uniform on that had an over-sized logo on the back. Am I supposed to save them? Time slowed down as the Metal Heads converged around the two dozen people with Daxter in the center, and they were closing fast.
Instinct told him to reach for Jak's gun. Daxter hoped he could remember how to put together the morph-gun. He pulled the weapon off of his back, and rotated the casing until he saw blue. He had used the Vulcan Fury before, and it was his weapon of choice. Daxter wouldn't push it to any of its other upgrades; he hoped his move would work. He had seen Jak do it in a couple of sticky situations: jumping up, and twisting around while firing. The trajectory of the bullets would push them out of his immediate radius, and, therefore, away from the citizens, and directly at the approaching Metalheads.
Man, I hope I don't get dizzy.
He enacted his plan at that moment, realizing he had done something both wrong and right at the same time. In his quick work to find the Vulcan Fury addition, he had activated one of the upgrades: the Arc Wielder. I've just found my new favorite. A pulsating beam of electricity leaped out of the gun, and Daxter jumped and begun to spun. The ammo hit every single Metal Head around him. The cowering citizens ducked further, and pulled in more. With every arc, Daxter fell gracefully to the ground and repeated his move.
The monsters were pushed back with each spin, more and more dying each time. Daxter realized something grave as the smaller monsters thinned around him.
There has to be a smarter one. A bead of sweat rolled into his eyes. A leader. His mouth was dry, as was his lips. A huge one. Fear shook him, though he reminded himself he wasn't as vulnerable.
Daxter also realized something just as grave as the final wave of smaller monsters disappeared, but it was too late. As each one died, their carcass disappeared to be only replaced by a globule of eco. Dark eco. His held his breath. The eco that made me an ottsel. That didn't hurt him. It also made Jak a monster. His heart stopped. The citizens had taken the momentary peace to run into random buildings, leaving Daxter alone with his friend's body, a gun, and an approaching Metal Head that was rearing to kill him.
Daxter gasped. Oh, shit.
At that moment, all of the eco around him began to spin. It began to spin around him, Daxter realized. The purplish ooze spun closer and closer, until it was forced into his friend's unsuspecting body. Or, rather, readily absorbed.
The pain was unbearable. So this was what Jak felt... his transformation hurt, but was only a minor sting. This was unbearable... and Jak withstood it! A million needles pierced his skin, stabbing repeatedly like tiny knives. He shouted in pain. His mind drifted away. He couldn't stand the pain. Oh, God, that hurts...
As his mind began to drift out of consciousness, he heard a voice. It was malevolent in its tone, and was sinisterly hanging on the end of each syllable. He had heard the voice only once before, in a phrase to the effect of, "I'm gonna' kill Praxis!"
"Nice to meet you. Welcome to the family."
What the...?
Jak was not paying any attention to the rest of the world as he followed Kiera lovingly off of the subway and into the city. He did not notice the other citizens hanging behind, nor did he hear the monotonous alarm.
Jak realized instantly that Daxter could stare at all the women he wanted to without a second thought. He was small, orange, and furry... compared to his regular self, a literal pile of strong-willed, steely-eyed joy.
Jak was swept out of his love-induced stupor as he heard the sounds of explosions and roars. Metal Head roars.
He ran smack into Kiera's legs, which would have normally made him happy, but he felt how rigid her whole body was. Jak glanced upward, around his love interest, and out of the subway portal into the city section. What he saw was horrifying, and almost made him faint.
His own dark eco-afflicted image was terrifying. He had never seen his dark self, or his light self for that matter, during the transformation. He had heard descriptions, but never seen the true image. He wasn't in too much control over his body during these times anyway, but having rational thought while his dark self fought to take over was impossible.
The image was nightmare-inducing. He saw the basic composition of his own body, though much was different. His skin was an eerie ,pale purple. The hair was a grey, spikey mass slicked own backwards to his shoulders. His eyes were black marbles of death. Purple beams of what seemed like electricity – in the form of dark eco – sizzled across the surface of his body. Gruesome claws protruded from his knuckles. His clothes appeared as rags, and a malevolent grin spread across his hardened face.
An ever-so-cuddly ball of pure rage.
In pure terror, for both himself and his friend, he screamed out, "Daxter!"
Kiera heard the odd-sounding outburst from the ottsel and whirled around, instantly doing the math. She cocked her head, and ducked down, trudging back down the metallic stairs while dragging the small body of Jak. She reached the bottom of the stairs by rolling, and pulled Jak from her chest, who was momentarily enjoying the cuddle.
She looked deep into his eyes. "...Jak?"
Glancing around at the cowering businessmen and women nervously, Jak chuckled a little. In as normal of a voice he could, sounding much more like a younger version of himself than Daxter, he coughed, "Um, hi, Kiera."
The chaos surrounding paused for a moment as they stared at each other, but quickly resumed. The poundings above became closer, and they both looked up. They could see the start of Dark Daxter's eco aura coming down the stair. Pulsing in the red light of alarms, a set of solid metal bars began to drop from the ceiling.
Every person in the room prayed to the Precursors that it would fall fast enough.
However, to the sound of a supernatural laugh of evil, they did not fall fast enough.
Soon, everybody in the room was staring at the gruesomely evil smirk of the Eco-tainted elven being. He looked around, and found Kiera and Jak, staring at them with a look of everything wrong in the world: the pure hatred that the Dark Makers cursed upon the world. The pair began to backup slowly, as the evil character continued to grin.
Dark Daxter stuck one arm out, a crackle of eco popping out of his arm. He raised one leg, and began to spin in a move oddly reminiscent of what Daxter ha done only minutes ago. The Dark Eco began to concentrate in the vicinity of the protuding arm. The beam began to solidify, spreading faster with every spin the character made. Kiera and Jak tactfully ducked with each revolution of deadly power, though their luck wouldn't last for much longer.
Many of the people in the room were hit instantly, demonstrating the true destructive power in the beast. More and more people were being blasted with the energy repeatedly. Jak and Kiera had come to a reinforced bench, which they slid behind for protection. The attack was slowly ending, but they knew a new wave would come soon. Their only hope...
"Subdue him!" A squeaky voice of a teenager was echoed via an amplifier. The pair looked up to see a set of blue, signaling the Freedom League guards.
If only they could...
But they would not stop the attack. At that moment, Dark Daxter leaped into the air, pushing his fist up towards the ceiling. The world went into slow motion. In that period in which time slowed down, both Kiera and Jak could attest that the monster turned toward them, and winked.
The world began to speed back up, and the dark beast began to turn back to the earth, ramming his fist into the ground, sending out shock waves of eco instantaneously.
And, just as instantaneously, blackout.
