Thanks to those who reviewed! Oh yeah, the underlined text, in case you hadn't guessed, is Light Jak. The bold italicized is Dark Jak, and the plain italics is Jak's thoughts (unless in the middle of the sentence, in which it is added for emphasis.
The misspelling in the words of the barmaid are intentional, to give her an accent. The –ed is to show that she pronounces the –ed at the end of past-tense verbs like a whole syllable.
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Jak walked through the streets of the city, right next to the cars. He liked the cars, especially right now. They were so loud, their noises hurting his large ears as they roared past. The noise was good, as it drowned out the voices in his head. The Light voice, urging him to be some sort of superhero, pushing him to his limits in order to maintain a moral world. The Dark voice, speaking to Jak of abandoning all heroics, becoming utterly self serving, only doing what pleased him. Jak did not know which voice he feared more. Currently, the only voice he wanted to hear was Daxter's, as he walked through the city, looking for his lost friend.
Jak's searches for Daxter were interrupted when he saw the same old inn where they had been attacked. Scowling, the Eco Hero walked through the door, ignoring the "Condemned" sign hanging on it. The tired ugly barmaid looked at him, and wearily enunciated in her thick accent, "Zis place is clos-ed. Permanently."
Jak didn't care. "I know you had something to do with this. You called that woman, the one who attacked me. You're in league with the gang lords, aren't you?"
The woman had tears in her eyes as she responded to Jak. "I only called ze police. The authoreetees had notivied me earlier, when Zhinks 'ad arriv-ed. Zey told me zat if anyvone came looking for him, zat matched your description, to notify zem. It was ze government of ze City zat attack-ed your friend."
Jak was stunned. Kras City was no ally of Haven's, but they were not at such bad relations that the governments would send agents against each other. But the woman appeared to be telling the truth. "What about Jinx? Where is he now?"
"Ze police came in after you flew out ze vindow. Zey tried to catch him, but he had a bomb of some sort. But zen one of ze criminals came through, capturing him and shooting ze police. Zey blam-ed me for ze criminal, although I had nothing to do vith it. Zat is vhy Capitan Oreles has clos-ed zis building. "
Jak, frowning, replied, "How can the Chief of the Police Force close a building, all on his own?"
"Ze government has given ze police all powers zey require to stamp out the criminal organizations."
"So where would they hold Jinx?"
"Ze only base of zeirs zey vould have time to get to would be Kreon Tower."
Jak nodded at the woman, and then walked out of the building, heading toward the giant skyscraper, Kreon Tower. The tower was huge, the largest in Kras City, with blue tinted reflective windows, allowing no one to enter. Jak purposefully walked toward it, even as he argued with himself.
This is good, rescuing your friend. You should try to rescue him with no one finding out, to reduce the number of unnecessary casualties.
Don't listen to him, charge into the building; vent your rage on those stupid guards. So what if they don't know they're serving the wrong side?
Jak, you must remain moral. You cannot allow another massacre. To sneak in and free Jinx with no one noticing, it is the ethical thing to do.
But charging in and killing everyone in your path is the fun thing to do!
Shut up, both of you. Thought Jak.
It was at this point that Daxter almost ran him over on a hoverbike. Jak spun around, about to punch the fool who almost ran him over, and then saw that it was Daxter. "DAXTER!" he shouted, happy to see his friend.
"Hey Jak. I have arrived, to rescue you once again."
Jak smiled at Daxter. "I guess that your skills on those ridiculous things paid off in the end."
"Of course. Everything I do has a purpose. Unfortunately, I couldn't steal…"
Steal? exclaimed Light Jak, but Jak ignored the Eco Being.
"… a hoverbike that was in better quality. Nothin' compared the Ximon's, you see. But still decent. So, where we going Jak?"
Jak pointed at the giant Kreon Corporation Skyscraper ahead of them.
We really do need to follow my advice, sneak in and out with no one noticing.
But it's not fun!
I agree with Light Jak. I don't want to fight right now.
Fine, have it your way.
As they walked toward the building, Daxter looked at a gigantic window near the top of the awesome structure.
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Melonius Kreon was staring out of the gigantic window in his office. He liked the window, as it allowed him to stare over the huge city, which he considered his. Kreon had never been very strong, or skilled in fighting. He was not a super charismatic person. But he had been incredibly lucky, born into a rich family. Kreon also was a cheater, using the slight advantage of a somewhat wealthy family to slowly amass connection after connection, until he was able to hire the various organized crime organizations to remove all competition to his company, making Kreon the wealthiest man in Kras City, perhaps the wealthiest man in the world.
Kreon did not look like much. He was in nice clothes, similar to those of Veger, except for Kreon's being in a dark shade of purple. He had dark grey hair, which he kept fairly short, and he kept his square chin hidden by a short beard. To most of the world, Melonius Kreon was just a too-successful-to-be-legal business man. To the members of the Kras criminal organizations, he was a gracious benefactor, who they in turn helped by eliminating competition. But none knew the full extent of his evils. None save for those few others who had the same tattoo hidden somewhere on their bodies.
Kreon was thinking about those few people who had the same tattoo. He was lucky that he made it a rule never to go to beaches, it made it easier for him to put it on a more dignified part of his body. Kreon thought briefly to the two comrades of his who he was having an uncomfortable amount of contact with lately. The leader of the many criminal groups that plagued the city, as well as the ruler of the barbaric Marauders, the mysterious Marauderking. The powerful businessman then thought of the dead members of the organization. Dr. Saserpov, killed in the Haven City Prison when one of his freakish experiments got loose. Duke Skyheed, trying to repeat the same experiments. And Errol.
Errol had been a good friend of Kreon's. Kreon had donated vast amounts of money to propping up the Praxis Regime, with the old Baron never thinking that it was only because of connections with Errol. Kreon built both weapons factories for the Krimzon guard, the ground-based one and then the flying one. It had been scientists from Kreon Corp. who had repaired Errol the first time he died. But the second time that Errol blew up, there wasn't enough of him to repair.
Kreon scowled, recalling Errol's failure. The gods had been so close to returning, their violet star had shone in the sky! They had sent their wonderful creations, the soldiers Kreon had modeled Errol's new body after, down to the planet! In the end, however, Errol had failed, and the gods had left. Next time, Kreon knew, the gods would return for good, and cover the land in their Holy Darkness.
Kreon was broken away from his thoughts when two guards entered the room, carrying in between them a struggling man. The man looked up, and said. "Melonius Kreon, never thought to see ya behind this criminal scheme. What gotcha, driving honest, hard-workin' men outta business not enough for ya?"
The incredibly wealthy man glared at the agent. He would kill this man, after he tortured the secrets out of him. Well, Kreon wouldn't do that actual killing or torturing. He would hire people to do that for him.
"Silence, fool. You don't know what you are involved in. Now, tell me everything. Who are you, and where is the one who came to get you? I already know where you both come from, and who he is, and why you are here."
"M'name's Jinx, and I'd rather die then sell out m' friends."
"We shall see about that," intoned Kreon, smiling. For Jinx, it would be a long night indeed.
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Jak casually walked up to the Kreon Tower. No one paid attention to him, as he had hidden Daxter in a backpack, and there were a lot of people all around. Unfortunately, he had not counted on the elevators being carefully guarded.
You're gonna need me to be invisible, if you want to break in there.
No, you cannot allow it, he'll kill everyone in there.
Shut up, flashlight skin.
I will not fall to your low level, and begin the insults.
Mr. High and Mighty here, he's ready to sacrifice the world, as long as it prevents him from being dishonorable.
Sacrificing the world would be unethical, I would never…
Ya don't get it. What I meant to say was…
Quiet you two. Dark, I'll let you take over, and you can invisibly hide in the elevator, until someone with the security clearance to get to Kreon's office comes in. Light, I'll only let him kill that one person. OK?
If it is the only way to succeed…
Sure thing!
And then Jak let the darkness consume him.