Micro-Masters
By Snare-chan
Pairings: Daxter/Tess, mentions of Torn/Ashelin and hinted Jak/Keira
Ratings: T
Category(ies): Action/Adventure
Warning(s): Cussing, violence, spoilers for up to Jak 3
Status: Continuation, 2/7
Summary: On a routine visit to an old friend, Jak and Daxter find themselves swept into another adventure. Old faces, new toys, and the same wacky hijinx guaranteed!
Notes: Yay, another installment is here! Things get a little more interesting for the boys, but I promise that this is only the beginning of all the fun. The next two chapters (three and four) were returned as well, so I will try to alter what I need and get them out as soon as possible. Gotta make them last, though!
All chapters are beta read by the dedicated Keppiehed who, despite complications in moving and other real life obligations, has somehow found time to correct the chapters to this story. So be sure to say a little thanks, since Micro-Masters wouldn't be half the story it is without their advice. :)
Disclaimer: I dun own Jak and Daxter; wish I did like everyone else. They should put J&D in stock, then I'd buy it all!
Chapter 2 –
The world was fragmented.
No – do over; that assessment wasn't quite correct. Jak was in pieces: floating right there, here, and maybe in the middle of nowhere. It was disconcerting, to come to terms with the fact that he wasn't whole, but felt no fear.
He ordered his eyes to open, and surprisingly, they did. There wasn't a clear indication to confirm this; all that he could decipher was pitch blackness. The shade was never-ending, making it so that he was unable to see what it was he was lying on. When he tried to shift into a sitting position, he definitely felt a solid surface supporting him, but that was his sole clue.
"J-Jak! Don't! Don't move!"
That was Vin. Jak recognized his voice. A second later, the other man's face – clear, in full 3D color – came into view, accompanied by his body. It was in the same state as his head. This struck Jak as odd. He had almost forgotten what the other looked like before the accident, and seeing it again made his thoughts go hazy, as if he was unable to grasp them.
"You, um, need to take it slow," he said, his teeth chattering so hard in his nervousness that it was difficult to figure out what he was saying. "You're not finished downloading."
"Hnngh?"
That was the extent of coherence Jak could manage.
"Seriously, hold on five more minutes. You…y-you're almost complete."
Jak glanced around (that was all he could do in the meantime) and his eyes widened as they landed on his own hands. They were normal up to the wrist, where blue ones and zeroes were swirling en masse, gradually forming his palms and fingers. Shortly after the numbers collected, a grid appeared and filled in with skin tone, fingernails and fabric. He'd seen a lot of bizarre occurrences in his life, but that was among his top ten.
"Don't panic!" Vin shouted, hurriedly collapsing to his hands and knees to be on the same level as Jak and filling his vision. His next sentence grew in volume as he said, "Whatever you do, don't panic!"
He wasn't sure why he was freaking out; Vin wasn't the one whose limbs were missing!
"What the hell is going on?" Jak tried to roar, but his vocal cords weren't cooperating. His voice came out sounding hoarse and worn, like he'd been screaming too long, but that didn't make sense. Nothing about his throat felt raw – he was intimately familiar with the consequences of overabundant screaming, what it meant when the soft tissue was too dry and stung with each breath. He wasn't getting that kind of feedback; it was more like he didn't have the energy or the full set of mass to pull it off.
"T-two and a half minutes, and then I promise to tell you everything. Just two and half minutes!"
Grinding his molars, he waited for the allotted time to tick past. Forced to remain motionless, he became increasingly annoyed with the whole situation. He kept devising more questions – important ones that needed to be addressed. Just when he didn't think he could tolerate it any longer, he returned to himself.
There was no other way to describe what happened, because he'd never experienced anything akin to it, nor did he think he ever would again. Everything that made Jak what he was went crashing into him, refreshing and disorientating all at once. His memories – past and present – flooded his mind, his instincts returned, and sensation tentatively resurfaced. The latter was different, though. He was still flat on his stomach, and he comprehended that there was ground underneath him, but he couldn't identify textures, temperatures…nothing. Currently, whether it was because he couldn't collect such details or there wasn't anything to gather, there was no telling.
Finally permitted to move, he pushed himself up and grabbed Vin by the collar, which brought them nose-to-nose.
"Explain," he said. Simple, short, and to the point. Much like how he'd threaten him again – the next level involving a short-range gun at point-blank range.
"P-promise me you won't get mad."
"Vin, I'm already mad."
The threatening growl that tinged his words caused the man to quiver, and remorse prodded Jak's consciousness. He ended up dismissing it, because it wasn't like he was really aiming to hurt the advanced technician. Vin got to the point that much faster under pressure, and he needed answers, pronto.
"You're…it's…I! I…" he started, immediately after the foreboding prompting of his name. "Virus…not my fault…and then Daxter too…"
"What about Dax?"
Seemingly devoid of the courage to continue speaking, Vin pointed over Jak's shoulder. Looking in that direction, he spotted Daxter curled up on his side, immobile. Stricken with worry, he released Vin and rushed over to the ottsel, skidding on his knee guards the last couple of feet in his hurry. Jak's rush was negated when fear froze him to a standstill.
Was his friend damaged? His fingers hovered close to his fur, concerned that the faintest touch would cause him undue pain, but at the same time needing reassurance that he was alive.
"What's wrong with him?"
"His rate of download is at fifty percent. He should be coming around soon," Vin said, voice borderline falsetto due to mounting hysteria. He was pacing and wringing his hands.
"Downloading?"
"Yes. I can't explain exactly how, but I would I theorize that since the equipment was going haywire, one of them must have been activated and brought you two in."
Jak shook his head, Vin's babbling further muddled the situation rather than clarifying it.
"Vin, stop. You're not making any sense. Try telling me what you know from the beginning," he said, and was swift to add, "in layman's terms."
His pacing picked up tempo, and his hands stopped twisting and started waving around in the air as he said, "You're in the computer, Jak! My computer, with me!"
It was so obvious what had happened that he felt like a moron for not figuring it out himself, but in his defense, the option had seemed farfetched. He didn't recall the 'uploading process' – there was a large gap in his memory, in fact – and having it explained to him with no prompts threw Jak off. Reeling from the blunt change in tracks, he kept silent as Vin continued.
"Oh, how I should have foreseen this! It was going smoothly – too smoothly! N-nothing ever goes that well in these kinds of situations! Why does this always happen to me?" he bemoaned. "And now the two of you are stuck here. Not that I don't mind the company, since it gets awfully lonely-"
"Stuck? Did you just say stuck?"
Vin nodded morosely.
"To protect myself, I had to cut the connection between my personal storage units and Haven City's network. On top of that, the hardlines were destroyed; I couldn't reconnect even if I wanted to. Most of the city is probably without power because of that."
"Great," Jak said, running a hand through his hair in agitation.
There came a moan from Daxter, the sound temporarily halting their exchange, and Jak concentrated his full attention on him.
"Dax! Are you alright?"
"Not with you yelling into my ear like that," his friend groused, rubbing at said ears to enforce his point. "Can't a guy recover in peace and quiet?"
Jak laughed, more out of relief than in humor, and said, "You're okay then, if you're talking like that."
"Ugh, and what happened? Did Kleiver run me over with the Dune Hopper and then sit on me? I sure feel like it."
Sobering at the reminder of their predicament, Jak turned toward Vin, who was still pacing.
"Actually, I've been trying to make sense of that myself. Vin, you mind trying again?"
"Mmph, do you intend on giving me a coronary? Just hypothesizing the implications of your arrival indicates catastrophic-"
"Oh, hey, if you're there, and we're here, that means I'm in the bean-counter again, huh?" Daxter asked, interrupting Vin mid-tirade. He reached out his arms to examine them, and did the same for his hind legs and tail. "Boy, the quality sure is high-def! The last time I was here, it was pixel…y. Ish."
"Mm, yes! That would be the upgrades in effect. What's left of them after the explosion, at any rate," Vin said.
"Awesome! What else is new?"
"Dax, this isn't really the right time to be focusing on such things. We should be thinking of a way to escape," Jak said.
"Hey, hey, hey, in a sec, wonder shirt! We're here, so we might as well scope this out. What about it Vinnie – what else can this pile of bolts do?"
Vin visibly brightened at the invitation to 'get technical', his inner geek shining through as he went into finite detail.
"Wait until you see! As you can guess, the graphics capabilities are through the proverbial roof! Of course, to take advantage of that, the processing output had to be increased tenfold. I mean, check this out," he said, holding out his hand. In the blink of an eye, something began to digitize in his palm, the final product a citrus fruit. It was small, but the amount of features involved made it appear authentic.
"Cool!" Daxter praised. "Do you reckon it can do something bigger?"
"Well, sure! The calculations that can be done are astronomical; the only limitations are the mind. You could do a whole person at this degree."
"Get out of town. You mean I could redo my entire, sexy self?"
"Dax, I don't think-"
Jak's warning came too late. Daxter's body vanished as it was reverted down to ones and zeroes. Frantically, he reached out for him, but his fingers touched nothing save dead space. Thankfully, the ottsel returned.
Except, he wasn't an ottsel anymore.
Sporting orange and red hair, eight fingers and toes, and standing an inch or two taller than Jak, Daxter was…normal. It was as if he was back in Sandover Village – albeit older – with long ears, freckles, big teeth and all. None of them could believe their eyes; the sight unreal. Testing the new image, Daxter stretched his appendages, the muscles moving as they should.
"Holy yacow, I'm-"
"Average!" Vin said.
"You again!" Jak said at the same time as Vin, his jaw slack.
"Drop dead gorgeous," Daxter finished, flexing a bicep. "Seriously, check out these guns! They're bigger than yours, Jak."
They weren't, but no one had the heart to correct him.
"How are you…?" Jak started, poking Daxter in the ribs. His friend flinched at the touch, unyielding under his finger.
"My technology has the capacity to formulate countless possibilities. In this realm, reality is skewed," Vin elaborated for their benefit. Even he was amazed by this turn of events, however, and circled Daxter with a critical glance. Adjusting his glasses, he said, "Still, there should be set perimeters! H-how could my machines take an ottsel and spit out a – well, look at you! This is impossible! Maybe it's a glitch?"
"Whatever it is, I can totally dig it."
"Don't get too attached," Vin said. "It's by no means permanent. In here, you can change your appearance, but in the real world, you return to your default settings, as it were."
"Speaking of the real world, you still haven't explained how to send us there," Jak said, backtracking to the original topic of discussion. "As interesting as this has been, we need to leave."
"That's what I was telling you before! Right now, there is no going back!"
"There has to be a way. You're a genius, Vin! Can't you figure something out?"
Vin scratched his cheek and gnawed on his bottom lip as he thought, struggling as he said, "But there isn't, I swear to you, Jak! Without outside assistance, I can't hook up to the Power Station, and I don't dare test any wireless options. I can't defend myself from a second attack, it'll ruin me – and in turn, you two – for good."
Rubbing his chin, Jak listened, but refused to give in as easily. He'd face this challenge head on, like he did everything else in life. As he pondered a solution, his eyes wandered towards Daxter, who was still admiring himself. Oblivious to their dire straits, he was talking to his 'guns', saying "Whose got lethal firepower? I do, yes I do! Set lasers to stun, for the ladies."
The more Jak stared, an idea started to take shape.
Staring down at his hand, he furrowed his brow in concentration.
"You might not be able to fight whatever started this mess, Vin," he said, the item he summoned finalizing solidly in his grasp. It was his Morph Gun, equipped with the red mod, and fully loaded. "But I sure have no qualms kicking its ass if it means getting us out of here."
To Be Continued…
