Jak shot out of bed, sweat drops beaded from his forehead and down his back. His short blonde hair was sticky and matted to his face. He looked out the curtained window, it was still about midnight and the night star shone brightly in the blanket of white stars casting his room in a ghostly blanket.

He looked at his hands and saw how bad they were trembling and clenched them into a tight fist to try and stop it. Something was wrong, he didn't know what but he felt like something bad was going to happen. Slipping on his usual attire that was made up of white trousers and short sleeved blue shirt and brown boots he made his way out of the apartment leaving Daxter in the room next door by himself.

'I have to see Torn and ask if anything's wrong' Jak thought as he hotwired and cranked up a nearby one seater zoomer and sped off toward the palace. The night air cooled off the sweat mark and bristled through his hair. Only a few patrol soldiers and late night citizens were out this late either opening up their shops or closing them down, who really knew? There was a lot crime since the days of metal head attacks have cooled down and now everything was at peace the way it should be and Jak could finally start thinking about his own life for a change and not what the precursors had planned out for them.

He stopped in front of the elevator that led up to the palace 'should I really be bothering them? They are probably going to think I'm crazy' he started walking away from the door a mini war going on inside his head. But something felt out of place he knew it, felt it. Clenching up his fist he bit down the impulse to just run back to his apartment and stepped in the elevator waiting for it to lift him up once it detected his pressure.

"Jak?" apparently Torn was already up, dark circles could be seen under his eyes like he too hadn't gotten any sleep which wasn't too surprising for the new commander of the freedom fighters "what are you doing here?"

The hero stopped as he hopped out of the elevator and the metal doors closed behind him, not sure exactly what to say his mouth opened and closed inaudibly for a few moments "I uh, I don't know I felt something had gone horribly wrong and came to ask you" he must have sounded like a complete idiot but it was the truth, if anything was out of place Torn would be the first to know after all. The room around him bleeped with machinery and the lights were enough to cause a headache to one who hadn't been here long enough to adapt.

The other eyed him skeptically as if he was checking his sanity then sighed and turned back toward the red scanner "actually something is wrong, but it's nothing major" his voice sounded preoccupied as he pushed a few more buttons making bleeping noises in the process "damnit" he growled and slammed his fist on the consol.

"What is it?" Jak came up on the other side of the round machine and peered down at whatever Torn was glaring at. Even if it was something small it may be what's causing these strange dreams that's been keeping him from sleeping.

Leaning on his elbows the dreadlocked commander gritted his teeth "the damn communications between here and Spargus have been completely wiped out, it's happened before but this is taking longer to reconnect than it used to" his eyes were red from staring at the consol so long and Jak could see this was bothering him more than it should.

"It's just a malfunction" the blond assured shrugging "probably another sandstorm wiping away power it'll probably be back on tomorrow"

Teal eyes shifted up to him in frustration and back down, the red glower ignited his face showing all the ridges and rough spots from the past wars and just by looking at him one could tell that he had seen both horrible and gruesome things even before Jak met him such as life for someone in the army he supposed "I have a friend there, she helped us out during the war with the metal heads and kept close connections to Spargus she always keeps an extra communicator with her incase the cities goes out to assure us everything is okay" he shook his head and leaned down further "none from that either, and our scanners don't indicate any storms brewing up out in the wasteland so that can't be the problem"

Jak huffed and chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully "do you want me too-"

"Wait!" Torn lifted up his hand and a small dot started flashing just outside the city walls "someone's heading this way in a vehicle looks like it's coming in fast" he snapped his head toward him "go, and make sure whoever it is get's in safe" Torn tossed him a simple blaster mod since he wasn't carrying anything on him at the moment.

Nodding the exhausted hero ran as quickly as he could down the elevator and recranked the zoomer waiting for him and speeded toward the eastern sector of the city. He pulled out the miniature scanner and saw the bleeping dot speeding up faster and faster like it was being chased by someone.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kai swerved the Dust Demon just in time for another bomb to land only inches from her right side, through the purple tint of her goggles two marauders vehicles were coming up on both sides, the men inside them glaring under their face mask in an inhuman manner. She has dealt with marauders before but something about these certain ones didn't seem right. Her mind swarmed with questions and constant worry distracting her from what was ahead. Her head whiplashed to the side when one of them slamed into her side bringing two tires up off the ground temporarily. Gritting her teeth she slung her weight to bring it down just for the marauder on the left side to repeat it scraping more than just paint from the sides of the Dust Demon

Smoke choked around sides and engines started sputter anymore of this and the car would explode.

"Argghhh!!" one of them had gotten close enough and used a makeshift pistol to shoot her straight through the shoulder. One hand on the wheel and the other clutching her bleeding wound. Her eyes trialed to the boosters but she had already used all three of them just trying to get out of that place.

The walls of the city were closer now and maybe someone was there to help or maybe she would get blown up before she could reach them. Kai grinded her teeth and slammed on the pedal as hard as it would allow her and the Dust Demon lurched forward in response the sputtering engines revving and begging for her to stop. Bullets bounced off the iron plating all around her and one was only inches from her hand when she tried to push the button that would let out a bomb in the rear.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jak came through the other side of gate after entering the passcode on the panel and was met with a scene of firefight between three cars, one looked like the Dust Demon while the others were Marauder and they were repeatedly crashing into the drivers side. Smoke and sand billowed up behind the unknown persona's car as it sped toward him.

Jak, in a practiced manner, pulled out the gun and aimed it at the nearest car, the marauders vehicle was shielded with all types of barricades but fortunately he learned a little something while being stranded in the desert and shot at the weak spot in one of their engines from the front side. The vehicle rumbled and flipped a couple of times before exploding and throwing up dirt and metal chunks all over the sand.

The car on the other side simply stopped, noticing he was getting too close to the city and the automatic shields and cannons would take him out with just one shot and after making a U turn the Marauder sped off the way he came.

Jak breathed a sigh of relief but then his blue eyes went completely wide when the escaping car let out one last missile that seemed to come out of nowhere and collided with the incoming Dust Demon throwing whomever was in it up along with the fire and metal pieces to where nothing was left of it but a tire spinning on the sand.

"Nooo!" the blond rushed out to the person who had came in on the car, he figured out he was actually a she from the orange hair that hung over her shoulders, and was half burnt off.

He kneeled down and flipped her around on her back. She was only eighteen by the looks of it and had fiery orange hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and her skin was sunkissed by the desert life. Heavy wastelander clothes were burnt off to where there was barely anything hanging on her save for a few shreds of it.

Blood mixed with ash covered a fraction of her face and skin. Jak was breathing deeply not knowing what to do and shook her gently. Young brown eyes slid open and stared at him horror as she tried to speak but blood gurgled up and spilt down her cheeks "p-please.." a hand came up and gripped his shoulder tightly and pulled him closer with unimaginable strength "S-s-save….Spargus" the seriousness of her eyes scared him as if she already knew this was her fate.

Jak gaped his mouth and shook his head "stay awake I'll get you help…it'll be ok" but before he could even stand up the girl fell limp and the light faded from her eyes as blood continued to seep from her lifeless body. Not again, smoke and fire burned the fallen car parts around him as he held her and hung his head.

Whoa I bet you weren't expecting that huh? It'll get more interesting I promise, and sorry this is short the next one will be much longer promise