Chapter 4: Memories of a Second Precursor Legacy
"Woah." was the word on everyone's lips as the Precursor Door. Jak just glanced at Daxter, winked, and rolled his eyes. Daxter smiled back from his perch on his shoulder, and gave him the thumbs up before making sure no-one had seen the silent exchange. Daxter. Jak really couldn't do this without him. He spent the first few years in Sandover struggling with doing his training alone, but he started to really miss Daxter. And it wasn't just the Daxter that was his good friend during the day, but Daxter who was his brother-from-another-mother. The friend that Jak shared everything with, and who yelled in his ear at everything he did. That sort of Daxter ended up being almost like a craving to him. And, as Daxter got more familiar with him, and learned to read his body language beyond what he was actively trying to say, the more Daxter realised that something was really bugging the apparent mute. Eventually, when they were about seven, Jak couldn't take it anymore. He knew that he should be training constantly in his spare time, but thoughts of the previous Daxter would catch up to him, until there was more daydreaming than working. He also spent less time having as free, shamelessly extending the time he spent with Daxter so that he could feel alright again. But again, this Daxter didn't nearly know him as well as the previous one knew the previous Jak, so he decided to come clean. Not everything, but most things, and he eventually managed to convey the whole time traveling business, and the fact that eventually they would be returning to Haven City. After he learned what Jak was preparing for, Daxter became even more loyal and would sit on a rock nearby on Eco Island while shamelessly doing absolutely nothing but watching. It was so typically Daxter that Jak could almost cry, and the results that he gained in this time spoke for themselves. He never told Daxter about the future in Sandover, as that had to play out at least mostly the same, but he taught him about everything to do with Haven City, its dangers, the people they met, etc. He also gave Daxter memories of Haven, but kept the one secret that he could talk, if only so he could see the look on his face. As this time grew more and more, with Daxter learning more and more of Jak's secrets, he actually became more and more the character of the previous Daxter.
It wasn't all training and life-or-death scenarios, although he still charged the Wumpbee Nest on his ninth birthday as a dare from Daxter after hearing what happened last time. He still got his arse handed to him, but he did a lot better job and walked out smiling. Samos never knew of this development, but merely raised his eyebrow at Daxter bringing him in for Green Eco. Samos did grow concerned that things weren't following the previous time line to the letter, but shrugged it off as inevitability as Jak seemed to have as much fun as last time. He didn't know that for going through with the bet Jak got to spend the next afternoon using Daxter for target practice with his Blaster while Dax was hyped on Blue Eco; the fact that he couldn't Channel didn't stop him from taking advantage of any extra speed it could offer him while Jak showed off his uncannily good aim, besides, it was only a small amount of Yellow Eco being put through the gun, just enough to set Daxter's clothes on fire and make him run even faster. But Jak really did try to be respectful about it, like that time when they were twelve and he walked into Kiera's garage with no top on and a thin film of sweat covering his upper body while asking the blushing half-android if he could please tell his best friend her secret. The shameless combination of a muscly body to play to her hormones, and the puppy-dog eyes that let her know exactly how much it meant to him worked a charm. Kiera soon regretted the decision, though, as next morning Daxter had talked Jak into stealing her morning top-up oil. His muscly body didn't help much then as the town awoke to a pissed-off Kiera chasing a terrified looking Jak and a laughing Daxter, who spent the next few days taunting her about "popping her fuse", and riling her up successfully at every opportunity. Now, Jak wasn't the only elf with "battle scars" as Daxter put it, but his looked a lot less like stings and claws and rather suspiciously like wrench-shaped welts. Ah well, at least the adrenaline junky in Jak was satisfied at these times. As much as Jak really did try to stick to the program, he found out really quickly that he wasn't that person anymore, he wasn't a shy hero. Instead, Sandover had a crazy, mute lunatic that was even worse than Daxter, and everyone really got how high on energy he was when Daxter of all people telling him to slow down. People were scared.
On that fateful trip to Misty Island, Daxter was more resigned than protesting, and actually not scared. Jak had built his danger tolerance up simply by hanging around him. Jak had just finished his Eco Training, and was glad for the adventure to test his new skills whenever it was just him and Daxter. So when they were discovered at Misty Island (with Jak having to sneeze himself to get them caught) Daxter just stood, irritated at tripping over the Precursor Artifact. Despite the fact that it was the biggest Lurker he had ever seen, he was just waiting for Jak to open up a can of woop-ass and then take them safely home, he was cold for Eco's sake. Just as he lamented the fact that practically nothing could surprise him anymore, he saw Jak perform the recklessly stupid maneuver of running up and throwing the Artifact at the Lurker, and only pure shock kept him from dodging as Jak got blasted back into him and he fell into the Dark Eco pool. 'Hmm, I think I should be dead by now' Daxter thought as he floated around the abyss while his entire body tingled. In another microsecond, he started moving again as he got hurled out of the pool and back onto dry land. Looking up, he saw Jak smirking at him triumphantly as he sat there. He closed his eyes at that point as he remembered when Jak 'told' him he had a major remodeling in his future. He knew it had happened and he knew for certain he would freak out. With his luck he was probably a Lurker Shark, after all, his breaths seemed to come quicker and less air was moving. Resigning himself to the worst just so that he wouldn't give Jak the satisfaction of freaking out, he opened his eyes and looked around. 'Hmm, small and furry, this isn't actually so bad' he thought, and felt the huge amount of energy he now had. He cracked a grin "Awesome!" taking Jak by surprise. "What?" he asked and leaped onto his shoulder. "I'm officially holding you responsible Jak, so lets go back and give the village the shock of their lives. Also, I'm calling permanent shotgun on anything and everything you do." Jak was pleased to have his ottsel-buddy back and 'explained' the whole Gol and Maia problem to the north, and that Daxter had to at least appear to want to go back to his old self so they could have an innocent excuse to go and take the trip up north in convenient time to stop their evil plan. Seeing them in their Dark forms on the Island had really pushed it home for Jak, and he lamented the loss of Maia's sanity. As Dax really didn't want to go back "Dude, this body's way cuter for the ladies, and, it's my 'I fell in a pool of Dark Eco and lived, fool' badge, why would I want to give that up?" Jak just shot him a glare, motioned that it wouldn't work anyway, and eventually just plain bribed him with a pair of pants. God he missed pants.
Geyser Rock was a pushover, and the two literally talked (well, conversed) their way through it. Still, Dax thought it was at least kinda cheating where Jak simply sat in the Blue Eco Vent and summoned all the Precursor Orbs and Scout Flies on the Island, then simply re-routing the Blue Eco to work all the machinery. Jak simply held a sarcastic smile as he fist-pumped when he got to the first Power Cell, making a show of how much of a huge deal it really wasn't. Daxter shared the sentiment, and they tossed the next Power Cell in the pack like it was nothing. Five minutes after arriving, the Warped back from Geyser Rock with every worthwhile thing it had stripped bare, and they acted like it was nothing. Before moving on to Boss all of the other areas, Jak stopped by Kiera's workshop to check on the Zoomer. While Dax was actually flirting well, Kiera didn't fall for it and came back with the same line "Rule number one: I don't date animals." Rather than needing Jak to smack him over the head, he simply retorted "Yeah, whatever, you're just jealous this didn't happen to you 'cause an ottsel body would take less oil to run." "Yeah, well for your information, I found a way to keep my parts running smoothly without needing any more oil thank you very much." "Wow, Kiera, that's huge. So now I know I won't have to carry a giant oil container, how about that date?" "Grr!" She looked ready to kill so Jak waved their attention over to what he had been doing, the last traces of Yellow Eco dying from his hands. Kiera looked stunned. "Jak, what did you do?" She asked in awe, after checking that none of what he did compromised the vehicle's performance. "He modified the engine and gearbox so now it can travel at ridiculously fast speeds." Daxter caught on to what Jak expressed the moment he did so, making him as responsive as his own mouth. "He says that should make it more fun. Also, he said that he made the heat shield more effective, and that it now can withstand Fire Canyon with the four Power Cells we have here, but we'll collect every last one in this area before moving on for the exercise, okay? That should give you time to test what he's done, so we'll leave Misty Island until last, 'cause that's where we saw the teleporter pad." Kiera officially lost interest at this point as she stared at what Jak had done, which was essentially a bastardised version of the Air Racer's engines at the Haven City races. It was better, of course, but Jak wanted to see what he could get it to do. Leaving with a smirk, Daxter called out for Jak "And was your breakthrough mixing the Green Stuff and oil to keep it permanently fresh? You coulda just asked for that solution, you know." And they ran off as Kiera let out an earthshaking yell to rival her father's "YOU KNEW ALL THIS TIME!" "Yep, time to go, our work here is done." Daxter was sporting a self-satisfied smirk with Jak as they went to show the world who's boss.
It was cool, going through everything that troubled them so much the first time around at lightening speed. It was also cool that ottsels it seemed were natural Eco Channellors, so Daxter sat on Jak's shoulder shooting fireballs at anything that was alive and not Elven, including herding Yakows, now that was funny. The Demolition Duo had officially taken the world by storm and it didn't know what to do. From the Pelican that ate a fireball, to the sculptor's muse run down by Daxter on Blue Eco, to both of them pumping the evil plant under the Forbidden Temple full of Yellow Eco as fast as a pair of machine guns. Everything was falling under the might of both of them, as they tore through everything that tried to stop them. The ambush on Misty Island was the first time Jak trialed the power of genuine Eco Transformations against the world. Eco, when taken orally, transforms the Channellor. Because the pores of the skin aren't open from absorbing the Eco, the body shifts into the form that the Eco is comfortable with. This Transformation lasts as long as you have that type of Eco in your system, and doesn't have a time limit as it is not dissipating energy in your aura. The Book warned that Transformations were the last thing an Eco Channellor should attempt, but Jak already knew his six forms, well five of them; The sixth one was saved for this moment. Waiting for the ranks of the enemy to fill up with all their troops, he threw Daxter up on a ledge so he could watch the show. Grabbing a Peace Maker ammo charge, he flipped the cap and downed the Dark Eco, his body already trained to handle it. Dark Jak was back, and to the max: His skin turned chalk white, as did his hair, horns and claws grew, and blue veins started to pop up all over the place, muscles bulged, but it wasn't as unnatural as his skeleton changed as it never had before; his spine and limbs lengthened until his five-inch claws were proportional. It wasn't an entirely elven shape though, as his feet became paws and his legs more feline, while his upper body hunched over. Daxter was awed and murmured to the Dark Eco pool that changed him "Wow, you sure are powerful." Jak stood up and looked at all the lurkers around him. They were cowering, but none of them were fleeing yet. He marveled at being conscious while being Dark, and the fact that it felt like a familiar part of him, rather than a taint like it had before. So, grinning like a madman, and sharing the moment with Daxter who found himself looking into the pitch black eyes of the abyss that held so much life and personality it was actually funny. At a look, Daxter braced himself, and Jak executed a Dark Bomb that took care of all the Lurkers. He shrank back down to himself without being physically tired or holding his head as he looked up at Daxter showing 'well that was fun!'
Their whole adventure became like this, a rather glorious holiday that had them joyfully tearing through armies of Lurkers. Who knew that simply having pants would change Dax so much? The bravery was always there, Jak just had to get it out of him. When they faced Klaww, the team explosion shook all of Rock Village, and the gruesome head of Klaww was thrown down to the village as proof. Even in Precursor Armor Klaww shouldn't have picked on two monsters bigger than he was, as Daxter had finally overcome his fear of Transforming to take on Klaww, and was still on a rush. "WOW, Eco is so cool! Man, I don't think I ever want to go back to my other body!" Jak was still rather shocked by this outlook, but then thought that anyone who knew the previous Jak growing up would likewise find his attitude really disturbing. No enemy in their way stood a chance, and it only kinda sucked that at the end, there was an audience watching their fight with Gol and Maia, so they had to play by the rules. They still kicked their arses, and watched with huge satisfaction as they sunk into the Silos, like Samos said, probably dead. Speaking of Samos, Jak noted that he hadn't really checked in with his training at all, and looked a little to much like he had his predecessor's attitude. It seemed that overexposure to Green Eco would do that to you, make you resent elves for destroying aspects of nature to make lives and care only for the plants and the planet, and the only elf that can possibly understand and help nature, himself. Seems like that's just Samos' curse, and there was nothing anyone could do about it; it was a lot like Maia's descent into madness, which probably just spawned from one Dark Eco experiment too many that she didn't want to be a part of. At least this Kiera appears to be made of stronger stuff, and might be able to accept Jak if he does end up going renegade; unless, of course, she has a morality circuit that makes it impossible for her to develop a thick enough skin in that area. Now the Door was opening, and despite the fact that Jak had managed to mod the machines that needed Power Cells to progress so that they needed less, his 'exercise' meant that he just 'happened' to have the right amount of Power Cells to open a Door that no amount of modding would be able to change.
It was all rather too easy, Jak smirked, but it faltered when he thought of going to Haven City in the morning. He had just enough time to shift the Rider and the Gate to Samos' through disassembly and reassembly, fill up his ammo at the Eco Vents, plan his next move after escaping Errol, and tell Dax the plan. He returned Dax's thumbs up discreetly and mentally prepared himself for Haven.
Paradise was over.
Hardship was about to begin.
