A/N - Here's chapter 2. the usual rules apply: read/review or chapter 3 says goodnight!
2. Convergance Point
Drake was the first to get close enough to clearly see the vehicle's occupants. One short, green man, standing on chopped logs with another through his hair. More bizarrely, he held a glowing green staff, levitating a tall, green-blonde haired man from inside. The other occupants appeared to be a slender female with green-blue hair and her pet. All, save the animal, had abnormally long ears. They didn't appear to be armed and he began lowering his gun. Sully and Elena stopped at his side seconds later, momentarily halting his actions with their own raised firearms.
"Nate, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Sully growled. He didn't answer, instead holstering the pistol and approaching with his hands held up in front of him.
"Uh, hey there," he said tentatively. "We're uh…" it was then that Nathan realised he had no idea what to say.
"We mean you no harm," came the voice of the green man. He had since placed the body of the levitating man on the ground, which now radiated a faint white aura.
"Yeah, that's peachy. But who are you?"
"Sully, don't be rude," Elena snapped at the old man.
"It is alright, I expect you're thinking similar thoughts to our own," the man with the logs hopped onto a low wall, dangling his feet inches from the floor. "My name is Samos Hagai. This is my daughter, Keira. The man on the ground is Jak-"
"And I'm Daxter!" the animal shouted, startling the assembled humans. "But you can call me Orange Lightning, baby," it winked at Elena.
"You should ignore him," the one introduced as Keira said. "He's always like this."
"Yeah, I intend to," the blonde woman agreed.
"Well, good to meet you all. I'm Nathan, Nathan Drake. This is Sully and this is Elena Fisher," he gestured to each of them in turn.
"Kid, do you think you should be doing this? They could be the guys on our tails!" the cigar-smoking man sounded exasperated.
"Use your head a little, Sully," Nathan said. "They just came through a portal in the wall. They're clearly not from around here."
"You can say that again. I just don't trust 'em so easy," Sully grumbled adamantly.
Elena too had put her gun away by now, not seeing any of them as a threat. She now sat on a wall opposite Samos, looking at him curiously. He seemed to be doing something with the plants, though she couldn't tell what. The jungle now felt like it heaved with previously untapped energy and for some reason she felt that this little old man was something to do with it. The sweet scent of pollen flew up her nose, bringing with it a calmness she couldn't quite describe. After a few moments she gained the will to speak.
"What is it that you're doing?" She asked across to him. He did not respond and she tried again to get a response, but to no avail. She sighed heavily, giving up. The rodent had scurried off someplace; probably looking for bugs and the girl that had accompanied them appeared to be attempting to fix their vehicle. Elena attempted to spark a conversation with her instead.
"Hey, excuse me, Keira was it? Do you want me to give you a hand? I may not look much but I-"
"Nope," the teal-haired girl replied shortly.
Elena harrumphed and let her thoughts stray to her surroundings. When her party had arrived, the air had been so still, undisturbed for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, save for the occasional piece of wildlife that scampered through it. Now, it felt positively alive; the grasses and other flora swayed in a nonexistent breeze while the air itself seemed as though it had risen to regular room temperature. Her gaze dropped to the ground, to the face of the man that had arrived unconscious with them. As she examined his visage, his eyelids blinked open, revealing two hypnotic, big, deep blue irises that drew her pupils into them. They both looked into one other's eyes for several seconds before Samos tapped Jak on the stomach with his staff.
"Good, you seem to have reacted well to the increased amounts of Eco in the air here," he commented. "And I apologise for ignoring you Miss Fisher, I was channelling Eco and disruption would have been quite unhelpful for our friend here."
"I understand. I think," she replied, confused.
"No, you probably don't," came the voice of Keira, lifting her goggles off and putting them back in the vehicle. She approached the blonde woman and came about an inch from her face. "And don't look at my boyfriend like that again."
Elena wore a look of shock on her face, partly at the girl's audacity and partly at how sure she sounded that she was eyeing up her man. Didn't this girl know that she already had someone in whom she was interested and equally happy with? No, you probably don't. She mimicked mockingly in her mind.
While Drake and Sully were once more arguing over what to do with the new arrivals, Samos was explaining to Jak what had happened.
"Your Dark and Light sides had an unexpected reaction to the Rift, my boy. They were fighting one another for control of your body. I think this place, wherever it is, has an unusually high concentration of Eco. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing yet, but be careful all the same," the Sage took a deep breath, feeding a native bird that had perched on his log in his pause. "Now we need to wait for Keira to tell us how to get home again."
Jak interjected immediately. "I don't think we should rush to that, I want to explore this place a little, get to know who these people are. What did you say their names were?"
"Nathan Drake, Victor Sullivan and," the voice gritted its teeth. "Elena Fisher."
"Hey Keira," he began.
"Don't you "Hey Keira," me, mister. I saw the way you looked at her when you woke up."
"I'd just regained consciousness, I wasn't looking at her in any way," the warrior cried defensively. "I was trying to get my eyes into focus!"
The mechanic grumbled and moved on. "Anyway, the reason I came over was this," she reached into her pocket as Daxter bounded up onto Jak's shoulder.
"Where've you been?" Jak asked his friend.
"Just exploring," he commented, spinning a round piece of orange metal on the tip of one of his claws. The eco-infused man shook his head and sighed.
"This was a device I was working on with those Precursor Monks. It locates Precursor artefacts and trust me, we're going to need it if we want to get home again," the in-training eco-sage had obviously been busier than Jak had known. "We need three parts and I've picked up quite a few hits on the scanner so…"
"So let's get going, shall we?" a voice unfamiliar to Jak called out and drew their attention and they turned to see the fortune hunter Nathan Drake standing just inside a set of massive doors that led outside the place. They looked at one another and moved towards him as a group.
They passed the Rift Rider on their way out and Jak quickly hopped inside, rummaging around for something.
"Come on Jak, we haven't got all day," Daxter told his friend.
"Found it!" the warrior proclaimed, pulling his trademark Morph Gun out from the storage box. "Can't go anywhere without this, can I?"
"That thing's nothing compared to having Orange Lightning at your shoulder," the Ottsel shouted with exuberance.
"Yes, Dax," Jak agreed reluctantly.
The doors came closer and when they passed through, they saw Drake and Elena sitting inside a small, motorised vehicle, with Sully in another.
"Come on, more than enough space for the rest of you guys," Nate called to them. "Samos, Keira, you can come in with us. Jak, was it? You and Daxter are with Sullivan."
"Fine by me," Jak kept his features set into his permanent half-scowl when talking to the man. He didn't like him and was sure he was going to start hitting on Keira. If he did… well, Jak was just glad that he had his Morph Gun now, but set it to the Blaster mod just in case before climbing awkwardly into the passenger seat next to the old man.
"Just follow us," came Jak's competition over the radio, obviously speaking to Sully.
"Will do, kid," he switched off the radio. "You uh, sure that thing's not a toy?" Jak grunted, not wanting to open his mouth to the smoke billowing out of the older man on his left. "Forget I asked."