|Hip Hog Haven|
"I'll handle this one, Jak! Watch and learn." Before either Jak or Valentine could protest, Daxter had already ducked underneath Sig's legs, going straight for his target. When he did meet Krew eye to eye, he was a little less in a hurry to start talking business, as had been his intention.
"Krew, you're looking well." Valentine said, standing next to Jak in a way that suggested she was on full alert, and ready to lash out at the fat man when necessary. Krew's eyes glided over Valentine's body as he showed an appreciating grin.
"Valentine! What a rare treat to see you here. Who's the runt?" he asked, only once looking in Jak's direction before returning his attention to the disgruntled woman.
Valentine glanced to Jak once, showing him a quick smile, before turning back to Krew. "He's my new bodyguard and partner, Jak. You'd better play nice with him Krew, he can be quite dangerous if you piss him off."
Krew grinded his teeth when he heard that. "I can be too, little girl. You had better not forget that if you know what's good for you. And what about the rat? The Shadow's mascot of the month I assume?"
"Hey, watch your mouth!" Daxter shouted, before Krew patted him on the head, feeling the quality of his fur.
"Ooooh… soft… this might go well with my silk suits, eh Sig?" Krew asked, already being able to envision it in his mind.
"Uh, right…" Jak said, not wholly sure on how to handle a man of Krew's… caliber. "Look, we brought you the dark Eco ore, so now we want some info! Why is the Baron handing Eco of to the Metal Heads?" he snarled, resorting to anger in an attempt to get some info. Krew let his carrying machine fly up, outraged at the questions the man dared to ask him.
"Questions like that could get a man killed eh? I don't know if I can trust you either, so I'm going to pass out on this one. Say thanks to Torn for the ores, and he shall have his payment shortly. Now, run off, both of you."
Valentine frowned, putting a hand on her hip as she resisted the urge to rip the man apart when the Eco tried to persuade her to give in to the anger. "Krew… got any firearms here? I find myself in need of one, and everybody knows you have the sweetest toys in town."
Krew raised his eyebrows as he cast Valentine a curious look. "Firearms… for someone who claims to have solely a scientific interest, this is quite a strange request indeed. Why the sudden need for them?"
Valentine gestured to Jak with her head. "I don't need them, but I thought I might upgrade my partner here a bit. Have any mod guns available at the moment?"
Krew grinned, showing of yellow teeth as he did so. "Very well, I do happen to have one that was delivered a little while ago. Very touchy merchandise it is too, so you might want to avoid getting caught by the Baron's incompetent guards. Although I can guess the two of you might be having bigger troubles at such a time. What about payment, eh?"
Valentine pulled out a card from her back pocket. "I've got that covered. Thanks for the business Krew. See you next time."
Jak caught the gun that Sig threw at him with a pleased grin. As they were starting to walk away, Krew called out after them. "Actually, if Jak is interested, I might have a job for him. If he's up to the challenge, at least."
Jak turned around, his curiosity spiked. "What kind of job are we talking about?" he asked, eying the man with unhidden suspicion.
Krew let out a short chuckle, pleased with what his bait had landed him. "Sig needs to bag me some Metal Heads outside of the city. They make for the best leather when it comes to new chairs, and I can't afford to go without. You go with him, and in the meantime I'll tell your partner all she needs to know about the Baron's dirty business."
Jak glanced at her, not comfortable with the thought that he would have to leave Valentine alone with Krew. But then again, the chance to gain information about the Baron's doings was too good to be true. "Valentine, what do you think?"
She sighed, shaking her head at that question. "What do you mean, what do I think? You're the one that's going to go out and face some very vicious Metal Heads while I'll be sitting here on a cozy chair with a drink in my hands. If anyone, I should be the one to ask you if you're up to it." She cast him a smile, touched by his apparent concern. "If you think it's the right thing to do, then go. I'm not about to make any rules about what you can and cannot do."
Jak grinned, thinking things over. "Fine, I'll be going out, while you get as much information as you can. This is teamwork too, right?"
Valentine nodded, waving Jak goodbye as he and Daxter left with Sig. When they had left, she turned back to Krew, seemingly a whole lot less cheery.
"Okay Krew. Start talking."
|Around two hours later|
Jak and Daxter entered the saloon, looking as tired as ever. Sig followed, carrying a big bag that seemed to be leaking blood. As Jak plopped next to her, Valentine couldn't help but noticing blood on his shirt. "Jak, are you okay?" she asked, trying to not seem too concerned.
Jak glanced down at his blue shirt too, noticing the blood for the first time. "I'm fine. Some Metal Head got too close, and I ended up splattering half his brain around." He mumbled, taking the cup that was sitting in front of Valentine, chucking down the contents in one swig.
"Hey, what about me, I'm hurt too!" Daxter yelled, showing Valentine his tail. "One of those stupid baddies stepped on my tail, and I'm pretty sure it'll be bruising up soon." He pouted.
In the meanwhile, Jak had started coughing violently, getting his throat burnt by the alcohol in the glass. "What the hell is this?" he asked, his eyes tearing up.
Valentine suppressed a giggle when she saw his face. "When you're going to drink something here, it's best to order something that will kill all of the germs in your glass. Krew isn't exactly famous for good hygiene." She whispered to him, making sure the saloon boss wouldn't hear them.
"Seems like the two of you are getting awfully…. cozy." Krew commented as he neared them.
Valentine frowned when she heard him say that. "What of it, Krew? If you have a problem with that, you can rest assured that I do not care one bit." She was quite thankful for the darker atmosphere in the booth where they were sitting though. She suspected she was blushing, and she needed no comments on that.
"You're being awfully snappy, aren't you?" Krew said, pleased to know that he had hit the mark. "I wonder if you'll be this snappy after you get this little thing done for me ; I need someone to go down in the sewers and take out those blasted sentry guns the Baron installed. It's hard to keep up a smuggling business when every shipment gets blown to smithereens."
"What's in it for us, tons of fun?" Daxter asked, waving a finger at the big man.
Krew practically fumed when he heard that. "A reward, is that what you want? Well, I can offer you a new mod for that gun you purchased of off me today. You get rid of those sentry guns, and I'll get you that sweet little upgrade, hmm?"
Jak grinned, sitting up at once. "That sounds like a deal to me. Valentine, let's go!" He grabbed her by the arm, dragging her and Daxter out of the door, of to his next mission.
As Valentine took her usual place behind him, she couldn't help but make a small remark. "It's all good and nice that you're feeling perked up for this mission Jak, but I think you missed out on one little detail here."
"Which would be?"
"We have to go in the sewers! Do you have any idea how filthy it is in there? Not to mention it's full of bugs and it stinks horribly! My hardware will be ruined if we get in there." She complained, wishing he had paid better attention before he hurried off so he could earn that promised upgrade.
"It'll be fine. Just trust me."
|The Sewers|
"Trust you, huh?" she asked, pinching her nose shut as she left her little pocket computer near the entrance. If anything happened to it, she would be hard-pressed to find a new piece of technology that was so finely tuned to her specific needs. "This place smells worse than that time Krew farted. And that managed to knock out three of his patrons." She mumbled, following Jak through the dark.
"Krew did what?" Daxter asked, appalled at the idea of such an event.
"There's a reason he doesn't have a large clientele, you know. Not that he needs it, most of his profits have always come from his smuggling activities. He's a dirty, fat bastard, but the Underground needs him." Valentine concluded with a sigh, before she closed of her mouth again.
"Dammit! I inhaled!" she moaned, doing her best not to shriek at the smell.
Jak looked back at the two of them, his scarf bound in front of his mouth so he would have both hands free to operate his gun. "Don't be such a wuss, Valentine." He said grinning underneath the red cloth. "I thought you were tougher than this. Now, come on, it's this way."
Valentine followed with Daxter perched on her shoulder, doing her best not to inhale any more of the foul-smelling air. "I'm going to need a shower after this one…" she mumbled, not happy about the current situation at all. Jak was far ahead of them, already having taken care of two of the sentry guns. Though effective, they were also very easily shattered to pieces by a well-aimed shot. The Baron also valued his wallet when it came to pricey investments.
"I. Hate. Sewers." She mumbled, not happy at all when she slipped her foot in some of the dirty water. "Jak, wait up!" she yelled, just as one of the pathways the man was walking on caved in, sending him down to the ground. "JAK!" she ran closer, almost slipping on the wet floor. When she fell to her knees, she peered in the darkness. "JAK?" she yelled, hoping he hadn't broken anything.
"I'm here." He replied. He sounded to be closer than she thought, but the darkness could be deceiving her without her realizing it.
"You okay?" she asked, hoping he wasn't hurt.
"I'm fine, really. You and Daxter have to come down here too, okay?" Jak said, trying to sound reassuring. He did a fairly good job, although it wasn't that easy to calm down a freaked out Valentine.
"Come down there? Did you bump your head? I am NOT, repeat, NOT coming down there. I'd rather go all the way back."
"There could be more Metal Heads out there, or even just those nasty little bugs. You sure you're up for that? I'm supposed to protect you after all. I can't do that when you're running off."
Valentine peered down in the darkness. "It's dark down there, okay? I don't want to jump down… what if I get hurt, or what if I hurt you on my way down? I'd rather stay up here." She mumbled, squatting down so she could peer a bit closer. She thought she could make out Jak's figure, although she couldn't be sure. The place smelled, and was dark and cold… it reminded her of the cells in the palace. Though she didn't want to admit it, she was scared to death. Now that Jak was separated from her in this way, she felt even less sure. In combination with the Eco in her body, she was feeling more and more miserable every passing second.
Daxter jumped down from her shoulder, moving behind her as Jak tried to persuade her to jump down. When she wasn't paying attention, Daxter jumped, hitting the girl in the back and sending her over the edge. "Woah!" she yelled, stretching her hands out in an attempt to break her own fall.
She feared coming into contact with the cold floor, but instead was confronted by Jak´s warm body breaking her fall. She heard him gasp as she hit him, his hands closing around her immediately by instinct. Sprawled out on the floor she slowly came to her senses.
"That hurts..." Jak groaned as he tried to get up. Valentine let out a deep sigh, her body being lifted by the fairly muscled hero. She was facing straight ahead, looking towards they should be going.
What she could see in the dark was the eerie yellow light that was only emitted by Metal Heads. At once she froze up, preparing herself should they be spotted.
'1,2,3… 8.' She counted, placing a hand on Jak's mouth when he tried to get further up. There were eight of those things, blocking the only way out. "Jak… I want you to get up very slowly… and don't make a sound…" she whispered, hoping that he would do what she asked without objecting. There was only one way to defeat all of those, and that would be to give in to the darkness. To become that ugly vicious beast Praxis had put inside her and unleash every last bit of bloodthirsty violence she had inside her.
She crept away from Jak, slowly getting up as she tried to keep her breathing shallow. Jak got up too, finally looking in the way that she was and by the way he gasped she understood that he had seen those things as well. He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to pull her back a bit. She tried to resist, not wanting to be kept back in such a time, even though she couldn't do anything. She wasn't a fighter, but a thinker.
She wasn't a fighter… but the thing was. And she had been hurting lately, hurting from all of the pent-up Eco in her body that had no way to go. It was dark in here, which meant she probably wouldn't be getting a better chance. She didn't want her partner to see what kind of monster she was, even if he would understand.
She didn't want Jak to see any more ugly things, least of all the ugliness that resided inside of her. The darkness would help her, keep him blind to her other side so that he wouldn't have to be confronted by it. Just as she reached for Jak's hand to push it away, the worst possible thing happened.
"Well, I thought I'd NEVER get down by my own. If YOU TWO would've minded to help me get down SAFELY, I wouldn't have to-"
"Daxter!" Valentine cried out as the Ottsel's voice echoed around the room. As one being the Metal Heads raised their heads and sniffed the air. In a catlike manner, they positioned themselves to form a sort of tunnel. If they tried to run away, they would be caught in their midst and devoured before they could scream. She shivered when she heard them inhaling the cool air, sniffing out their scents. Before she could say anything, Jak already walked up to them, shooting his gun, keeping them at bay. The animals were smarter, surrounding him, attacking from behind.
She fumed when she saw that. The anger that the Eco had been stirring up inside her flowed in her blood as she felt how her body adapted to it, allowing it faster and easier access. Her heart started to beat faster as she felt strength seep into her muscles, while the darkness plagued her mind into surrender. Valentine ran, feeling the stones beneath her feet as they pounded down. To her eyes, the creatures were too slow to ever stop her. Even so, she was an inexperienced fighter, lashing out whenever she could in an effort to deal damage when she could instead of calculating her decisions. They were drawn to her now, the Eco in her blood singing to them in a louder way than the one that resided slumbering in Jak's body. That was what she wanted most right now, hot blood gushing out of still breathing bodies as she ripped away at tender flesh. She could see the carnage in her mind's eye, and her entire system was solely dedicated to that one goal.
One of the bigger ones lunged for her, claws outstretched and aiming for her heart. He was stopped by a bullet of Jak's gun, slamming in his chest and throwing him back, knocking the smallest one out of balance.
'It's not enough…' she thought. The core of her being was not yet completely swallowed by the rage as she noted the creatures' movement. She would have to let it all out at once, and hope that the creatures would all be disabled. "JAK, GET BACK!" she yelled, hoping he would listen to her. She would give him five seconds. It was more than she could afford, but less than what he needed. She couldn't help it. Jak was new at handling the gun, and he didn't have the experience she had even though he was the better fighter.
The Eco pulsated as she focused it all in one hand, slamming it against the nearest Metal Head where the force moved further, knocking all of them back. Together with the Eco she also felt the anger slip away, and with it her consciousness. She didn't try to stay awake, knowing that slumber was far better then forcing her body to stay awake now. Jak was strong enough to protect her…
"Valentine, say something! Valentine, stay with me, hey!"
"Jak…"
He... would... protect...