Hey guys! This one isn't quite as long as last time's, but it's still a length that pleases me, haha. Anyway, as always, hope you enjoy!
Trial and Error
The video game did not do Misty Island any justice.
The game made the whole island look creepy, sure. But seeing everything in person, I was able to realize that Misty Island wasn't just creepy. It was threatening in every way, shape, and form.
The fog hung around everything in a cold, humid cloud. The rocks along the shore were painful to walk on. What few gnarly trees grew along the path Jak led us down, were tall but dark in color, barren of leaves and all around looking dead. There were cracks in the stone ground, and I was genre savvy with myself enough to know that if I didn't pay close attention to them, I'd trip. That didn't even account for the large gorges in the ground. One false move around the edges would lead to a drastic fall and a watery death. Not a pleasant thought . . . but it was that thought that urged me to plant Amanda and Jak between me and that death.
Then there were the lurkers.
The purple ones lumbered along with the gait of gorillas, heads shaped like furry frogs with a full set of sharp teeth. And the blue ones, that dressed themselves in bones, they reminded me of the old pokemon Cubone, but I sincerely doubted the bones they wore on their bodies belonged to their dead mothers. I also did not need to know what animal those bones came from in the first place.
Jak, Daxter, Amanda, and I ducked behind a cliff outcropping. "What the hell are those things?" Amanda whispered.
"Lurkers, Dark Eco monsters. Or that's what old Green calls 'em." Daxter hushed back. "They've been spotted outside the village for the past couple weeks. Nobody knows what they're doing out there. The mayor's real irritated 'bout it too," He shared an amused look with Jak.
I slowly inched up the side of the outcropping, peaking around the wall. Another purple furry lurker lumbered past, and a few seconds later, two more came by. "Where are they going?" Daxter asked.
"Dunno," I frowned. I didn't remember this, but I did want to find out what was going on. "Let's . . . " I twisted around the corner . . .
. . . right into the furry back of a lurker facing the other direction.
My first reaction was to suck in a breath harshly. A scream of surprise was building, but a hand clamped down on me before I could so much as held my mouth and nose shut, muting any sounds for the few long seconds it took to yank me back behind the protection of the pile of rocks. I closed my eyes tight and counted to five, nodding my head weakly.
I turned when my face was released, offering a weak smile at Jak, who'd managed to catch me before the impending shit fit. It was a silent apology, and he lifted a finger to his lips and shushed me. I nodded.
"Okay," Amanda whispered. "Let's not do that again."
"Agreed." I swallowed. Then I glanced down at the arm around my waist. "Uh, Jak?" I looked back at him. "You . . . you can let me go now."
He did, holding up his palms. I'm not touching you! Not touching you! Daxter snickered behind him, and Jak snapped a glare around. Amanda and I shared a look, and we shook our heads. Never understood men. Never will.
Jak crawled around Amanda and I, peaking around the wall one hell of a lot calmer than I did. "Where are they all goin'?" Daxter asked softly. Jak chewed his lower lip and frowned, before he looked around. He spotted the wall of our hiding place, and reached up to grab one of the rocks. The three of us on the ground watched in silence as he tugged the rock two or three times, then started climbing.
"What are you doing?" Amanda asked incredulously.
"Up and over," Daxter blinked. Jak turned and freed one of his hands to give the redhead a thumbs up, then kept going. When he reached the top, he stopped and waved at us. "That's our cue," Daxter said, getting up to do his best at following Jak up.
"We're not climbing that thing." Amanda crossed her arms.
I grabbed a rock to follow Daxter.
"I'm not climbing that thing." She huffed.
I glanced down at her from half-way up. She was climbing.
Daxter slipped off a thin ledge, and his flailing to stay up kicked up a small cloud of dust. Jak shushed him sharply. I sided up to Daxter while Amanda ended up next to Jak, and the four of us hung in stunned silence.
Dozens of lurkers were looming in front of a large, Precursor door. Bronzish-colored steps led up to the circular door, implanted straight into the cliff side. It didn't look like the rocks had been hollowed out, more like the bedrock had simply grown up and around the door itself. Purple furry lurkers and the blue bony lurkers hung around the steps, staring at the door in what passed as anticipation. There was a large, flat platform leading up to the door, and that was what the lurkers stared at in almost hypnotic attention.
" . . . what are they waiting for?" Daxter whispered.
I looked at Amanda. She glanced at me, face paling. "Isn't this the part when . . . ?"
A crackle of energy snapped through the air. Sparkling mist drew upwards from the ground, looking more threatening than it sounded. The mist darkened to smoke, and from the smoke emerged two figures, floating in the air. A man and a woman, lit easily by the flaming torches. I shrank down a little bit, ignoring the glance Daxter gave me.
Gol was tall and thin and almost frail-looking. His skin was a pale blue, eyes an ugly sickly yellow and pupils a chilling red. His jaw bones had grown outwards, metallic-looking. The sleeve on his left arm had been ripped off to accommodate his red glove, purple tubes reaching out of it and into his skin, through the muscles and vanishing into his body. The shackle around his waist made him look even thinner, and the iron balls chained to it hung heavily. Had he been anyone else, I'd have been concerned for his well-being. He stared out at the mass of lurkers, eyes like a corpse.
"Continue your search for artifacts and eco," Gol rasped, his voice echoing slightly out of his messed-up throat. "If the locals posses Precursor items, you know what to do."
Maia touched down onto the platform, her heels clacking against the metal. She took careful time to size up every lurker before her, face cold with a slight maniacal gleam. Her white hair was surprisingly long and voluminous, curling in gentle waves that Amanda would have been jealous of. She seemed to be in much better shape than her brother, his hair drifted weakly along through the air. Her Precursor metal armor shone in the firelight, helmet-mask-thing looking absolutely demonic.
"Deal harshly with anyone who strays from the village," She called, her voice clearer than Gol's. She didn't sound like she was underwater anymore, but Gol sounded exactly the same. "We will attack it, in due time." She clenched her fist, slight smirk curling on her lips. I swallowed, using my foot to try and get the feel of the rocky wall. I had to get down. I had to get down now.
"We are missing a valuable piece to our plan," Sneered Gol suddenly, and I froze. He never said that in the game. "It is not an artifact. It is our greatest work. Find it."
Maia continued for him. "If the creature has been damaged, there shall be no mercy." Her sadistic glee at attacking the village was replaced with cold, calm violence.
And just like that, they were gone, vanishing into the same cloud of dark eco they'd used to arrive. I scaled the wall downwards as fast as I could, and the boys and Amanda weren't far behind. We crouched behind the barrier of stone, waiting in silence as all the lurkers stomped past. Leaving to do their masters' bidding, I guessed. I sat on my knees in the gravely dirt, trying to rub away the sudden chill. Had it gotten colder all the sudden?
"Who were those guys?" Amanda asked me, softly, but Daxter answered.
"No idea," He rubbed his chin, then patted my shoulder. "You okay?"
I forced a smile. "Fine. I just . . . wanna get out of here. Can we leave?" The feeling this place gave me was like a slimy bug crawling up my spine. I twitched and shivered. So what if I completely demolished the entire game series? I wanted out of here. I wanted out of here now.
Jak was standing with his head peaking around the outcropping. He knelt on a boulder the size of an SUV, raising just enough of his head to be able to see. I didn't have the heart to tell him the rest of his neon yellow and green hair was pretty much a flashy sign saying HEY LOOK AT ME I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! He turned around and gave me a little begging look, then held up a finger. One more minute?
"Jak says just a little longer," Daxter translated. I chewed my lip, then nodded. I'd regret this.
"Okay."
I used Amanda to stand and we all peaked Scooby-Doo style around the wall. When the coast was clear and all lurkers had left the area, Jak stepped out and looked around. He waved at us, and we followed.
The Precursor metal steps drummed like they were hollow under out bare feet. It was a gift from above to be able to walk on a cool, smooth surface and not sharp and jagged rocks. My feet were crying in gratitude by the time I was going up the third step. Daxter hunched over a little bit, looking back and forth like a Lurker was going to jump out an attack at any second. Amanda looked a little anxious, but hid it well with a poker face of boredom. If I didn't know her so well, I'd think she was just totally done with all this.
Jak scratched his head, looking back and forth. He hummed, another of the few sounds he bothered making. I watched as he stepped up to the door and it spun open almost instantly. Loudly.
Daxter let out a sharp shushing noise, jumping. Scared as a kitten, the poor kid. He looked around wildly, realized everyone was staring at him, then straightened. He kicked the metal door. "Stupid door."
Jak laughed and walked in. I sighed, looking at the sky and wondering why I said yes to coming here. Nothing good was going to come out of this little trip. Daxter trailed after Jak without any prompting. I looked at Amanda, who shrugged.
There was no rooftop over the large colosseum-sized arena. Just an overhang from a lurker ship, whirring and buzzing in the background. Jak seemed to have spotted something of interest, and was currently headed toward a set of rickety, sloppily put together stairs. "What are we doin' here anyway, Jak?" Daxter asked, hurrying to keep up with the blond.
I noticed the thing in his path a second too late. Daxter's foot hit the artifact, and he toppled easily with a cry and a thud. Jak looked around in alarm, but when he saw Daxter on the floor, all he did was snicker.
"Are you okay?" Amanda asked. The redhead nodded, looking down at the . . . thing. I didn't know what to call it. It was made from Precursor metal, like most of everything else around this place. It was copper colored, but hadn't tarnished in the possibly thousands of years it'd been around for.
"Yeah, yeah," Daxter waved her off, getting up and grabbing it. "Stupid Precursor junk."
He carried it up the stairs after Jak, me and Amanda not far behind. She seemed content for the moment to just sit back and watch everything. Whenever she was quiet for too long she was either thinking, or listening to her iPod. But since iPods didn't exist right then, she had to have been thinking.
The Dark Eco pool was about ten feet in diameter, maybe more. It went down about two feet, until the bubbling liquidy-shapes took over. It didn't really look like liquid, though. It seemed more like a shifting, cloudy hole into nothingness, reflecting the nonexistent lights with dark blues and bursting purples. Dangerous as that shit was . . . it was actually a pretty color.
"Yech!" Daxter called suddenly, louder than necessary when he appeared next to me. "What is that dark oooze? It sure duddn't look friendly."
Amanda sneered down at the crap, and shuffled backwards a little. "Gives me the creeps, if you asked me. Who cares what it is?"
Daxter glanced at Jak, then down at the thingy he was still holding. He smirked slightly, then tried to blow dust and dirt of the thingy all slick and smooth-like. "The Sage always yapps on about the Precursors who built this place all the time." He made a funny face and started to talk in a deeper voice. "'Where did they go?' 'Why did they build this crap?'" He laid his hand dramatically to his head, then tossed the thingy to Jak over his shoulder. Startled, the blond reached out to catch it before it hit the ground. Amanda giggled at his surprise, getting a glare in return. "Now, I like Precursor Orbs and power cells as much as the next guy . . . " Daxter continued, as Jak peered a little closer at the thingy.
He brushed off another speck of dirt, and I leaned closer. Wasn't it supposed to . . .
The whole thing lit up red like there were LEDs hidden inside. Both me and Jak jumped a little bit, looking at each other. Did you see that? Did that just happen? Yeah! Yeah!
" . . . but if you ask me," Daxter trumbled on, even though we weren't listening anymore. "They musta been real losers . . . Woa-hoh!" He cried, running back to us. "How did you do that?"
"Uhh," Jak started, and I felt my eyes widen. Was he actually about to talk?
Amanda let out a scream and tumbled backwards, just in time to avoid getting herself crushed. A bone lurker had dropped down from the ledge above. It's eyes narrowed into slits as it took us four teenagers in. Maia's voice rang in my ears. Deal harshly with stay villagers. Guess what we were?
"J-Jak," Daxter stuttered as he hid behind the blond. "I think we're in trouble!"
The Bone Lurker let out a snarl and a roar, waving it's club back and forth. It charged, bringing the club down with enough force to dent the metal floor. I shoved Amanda out of the way, splitting our group down the middle. "Let's get out of here!" I shouted, as the lurker snarled and raised it's club again. It ran on three legs until it got enough momentum, and raced forward on two. It raised the club again with full intention to smash open our skulls. "Shit!" I yelped, rolling out of the way and pushing Amanda in the back to keep her going. "Shit shit shit shitshitshitshit-!"
Jak grabbed my upper arm when I ran past him and shoved me out of the way, then pushed Amanda in the same direction. He left Daxter behind as he ran forward suddenly, chucking the thingy at the lurker as hard as he could. "Jak!" Amanda yelled when the monster exploded into a cloud of dark eco, knocking Jak backwards from the shock wave. Jak tumbled into Daxter, who lost his balance and let out a scream when he fell over the edge and into the dark eco pool.
"DAXTER!" Amanda and I shouted in unison, scrambling to the edge of the pool and looking down. Jak joined us in seconds, looking around for his friend frantically.
"Where is he?" Amanda squeaked.
"I don't know!"
The ooze gurgled. It shifted and let out a burst of blue gas. Purple sparked over the spot, until a wet popping sound produced a bright orange blur, shooting past the three of us and across the floor behind. We spun around, staring at it as it slid to a stop. There was silence, and Jak crawled forward a few feet.
The orange thing lurched upright. "Man that stung!" Daxter shouted, his voice making Jak jump backwards just a bit. The orange fuzzy animal was about two feet tall, with four paws and a long tail. Ears almost rabbit-like but a lot shorter. The orange fur lightened to yellow on his underside and around his face. He spotted the three for us sitting there in stunned silence, and stood up, stalking on hind legs toward us. "I told you we shouldn't have come here!" He snapped at Jak. The poor blond looked so confused, and Amanda was one step behind him. "And you listened, you heard me quite well, didn't you?"
The otter-shaped, weasel thing, ottsel, the game called him, scowled when he noticed the stares he was getting. "What?"
All three of us raised an eyebrow, let our jaws hang, and tilted our heads to the side.
Daxter looked around at our faces, and slowly, his eyes widened. He snapped his gaze to his hand. His paw. He twitched. Turned to us.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
I lifted my hands off my ears, wincing. Damn, he could be loud.
Daxter lifted himself off the floor, arms spread out to keep his balance. "Okay, okay . . . I'm fine, I'm fine . . . " He bowed his head, stared at his lower body for a seconds. His tail twitched.
The orange ottsel vaulted onto Jak's chest, gripping his collar tightly.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
The ride back to Sandover was . . . interesting.
Daxter spent the ride next to Amanda, curled into a ball, and hyperventilating. The sun inched its way up on the way back, and by the time we made it to the fisherman's dock, it was fully sunny. Jak helped Daxter out of the boat, and every few seconds he would turn, and look down. He'd just stare. And I couldn't blame him. If Amanda was turned fuzzy and orange, I'd stare at her too.
Samos was floating in his lab when we got there. I stuck my head around the corner, glancing back at Jak and Amanda sheepishly. "Who wants to go first?" I whispered.
Samos whirled around, a look of annoyed anger clear as day on his face. "Where have you two been?" He howled. I jumped back a little bit when I realized he was shouting at me, instead of Jak who was creeping behind me. "Keira woke up this morning and nearly went out of her head looking for you!"
"I-I, um," I stuttered. Samos was yelling at me? What was wrong with this picture? "W-we, uh,"
Jak put his hand on my shoulder and walked around me into the little lab, holding up his hand to block the green sage's verbal barrage. Samos sat back in the air and raised an eyebrow. Jak shook his head when he pointed at me and Amanda, then nodded when he pointed at himself. Not them, he was saying. Me. Us.
Samos huffed. "Why am I not surprised? Dragging Amanda and Ashleigh into your little clumsy antics now, are you?" His eyes, magnified by his glasses of odd sizes, narrowed. " . . . and now you've come back after such antics, wanting my help after a good dose of self-inflicted stupidity, don't you?"
Jak scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. Then he stepped back and gestured to the floor. Samos glared in that direction, and to his credit, didn't bat an eye when he finally noticed Daxter hiding behind Amanda's pants. The old Sage's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't tell me," He growled.
"I-I was-" Daxter yelped. "We was- just wanted ta'-!"
"You two went mucking around on the one place I've told you countless times not to go, didn't you?" Samos's anger went through the roof. His face turned a little brown, and for a second I wondered if that was healthy. But then I remembered that if you added red to green, it'd turn a brownish shade. So, heh, yeah. Red with anger. Hooo-kaay. "Misty Island, wasn't it?"
"Th-that's right!" Daxter cried. "A-and then-!"
"And, Daxter," Samos's voice was scathing. "You finally took a much-needed bath. But in a bathtub filled, with Dark Eco."
Finally it looked like Daxter had had it. "Look old man!" He shouted. "Are you gonna keep yapping, or are you gonna get me out of me out of this?" He waved at his two-foot tall, furry body. I took this moment to randomly realize that his goggles and gloves had survived the so called 'bath', but none of his clothes. Hm. I wonder why?
"I'm gonna keep yapping!" Samos snapped me back. "Because, in my professional opinion, the change is an improvement."
Daxter glowered and Amanda snickered. "Harsh,"
He glared over his shoulder at her, a snarl curling his lip. "Besides," Samos tapped his lower lip and stroked his beard. "I couldn't help you if I wanted to."
"WHHHAAAAAAT?"
"Daxter," Amanda snapped. "Stop yelling."
"I'd like to see how you'd be reacting if your ass turned fuzzy!" He whirled around, one, eh, finger jabbed at her threateningly. Samos whacked the poor ottsel with his wooden staff. "OW!"
"Focus that brain of yours for once, would you?" Samos demanded. "Although, I'm not sure how well you'd be able to do that, now that your brain is approximately the size of a banapple."
Amanda and I took this moment to share a look. 'Banapple?' she mouthed, looking deeply confused. I shrugged. 'I have no idea,' I mouthed back. The game never actually went into details about food or animals . . . at least, I didn't think so. Why would a fighting game worry about food and animals?
"Anyway, there is only one man with any chance at returning you to your previous form." Samos ignored the confusion between me and Amanda, trolling right on ahead as he jumped back into the air. "Gol Acheron, the Sage. He's been studying Dark Eco for about as long as I've been researching Green Eco."
"Well, okay," Daxter crossed his arms. "We'll just find this Gol guy and get him to change me back!"
I closed my eyes to take a deep breath as a wave of slight nausea drifted up my throat and down again. I tucked messy, frizzy hair back behind my ear, hooking my bangs out of my eyes. I listened quietly as Samos went on about how Gol lived up north somewhere, no one had heard of him for years, the teleporter gates were out of the question, and how going through the Fire Canyon would most likely result in foot burns so bad you wouldn't be able to walk again. Blah blah blah. My six-year-old self had restarted the game countless times, I've heard this speech over and over again.
I tuned out when Keira came up, looking smug about her zoomer's potential heat-shield, and relieved that Amanda and I were okay. She walked close to Jak while talking about the power cells around, hidden, waiting for a 'brave adventurer to find,' and I frowned. Jak blushed slightly and grinned back at Keira. As annoyed as this made me, for some reason, I put on a smirk and raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms when the blond glanced at me. His face turned brighter, and I had to laugh at him. Sure, I'd had a little crush on the guy, but now that he was really in front of me, and I wasn't six, I could rationalize myself and push that feeling away. It wasn't real. Just a little girl crush on a fictional guy.
I wasn't six. And Jak, apparently, wasn't fictional. So holding onto that feeling would just be wrong.
" . . . won't find any more of that dark gooey eco-y stuff, will we?" Daxter asked when I came out of my head. "'Cause I'd hate to fall in again and turn into you."
Amanda chuckled. "Ouch."
Samos rolled his eyes with a growl. "Get in there! Before I turn you all into ferns!"
Jak and Daxter shared a look, then a glance at me and Amanda. Jak waved at us then took a running leap into the blue swirling ring of the warp gate. Daxter blinked, looked behind him to look at his tail with an annoyed glare, then raised a smirk to us girls. He jumped in after Jak.
I hummed a few seconds after they were gone. "That wave," I mused. "It was either a 'Stay here,' or a 'Come on!'"
" . . . I'm going for a 'Stay here,'" Amanda guessed.
"Subtle," I snorted.
"Do whatever you want," Samos rolled his eyes, and Keira giggled. "Just don't go back to that Island."
"Trust me," Amanda made a big 'X' with her arms. "I have no desire to go there again. God forbid we find more of that stuff and I turn into Daxter."
I snorted another laugh, eyes still on the rift gate. Amanda followed my gaze. "No." She said firmly.
I took a step. It was another stupid idea. Something that would most likely come back to bite me in the ass later.
"Ashleigh, no."
I smirked. I didn't care if it was stupid. Insane.
"Don't you dare."
I took a running start.
"Nononononono-!"
I didn't know if it was courage or crazy. Whatever the feeling was, the state of mind, I dove straight into the teleporter with a big maniacal grin on my face.
All this craziness isn't gonna be good for her non-existent mental state . . . Review!