"Shoot it, Jak! Shoot it!"

I groaned, turning over and pulling my blanket over my head. One second, where's my blanket? Eyes still closed I ventured out a hand, feeling for the warm yakkow fur.

"SHOOT IT!"

I yawned. What sort of dream was I having?

Wait a minute...

I opened my eyes to the maw of Gigantus sprinklius; two sets of teeth ringing the bottom jaw and three above, the front incisor pairs dripping with toxic venom and the triforked tongue winding its way towards my neck. I could see down into its red throat with white ribbing, past the two huge infected tonsils and thorny uvula.

"Oh dear," I said.

BLAM!

The throat rocked backwards just as my shield activated. I sprang off the ground, groaning a little at my old knees. Definitely not a dream. Now I remembered.

The sprinklius reared up on its six hundred or so legs and roared. The Glakkickh recharged his Peace Maker, a new design, I noted, and Daxter screamed obscenities from his shoulder. He rolled to the left as the polylegged crawler spat venom. "Thrinaxia!"

I pulled my spartle gun out from my homemade subspace compartment and set it to Schwannsyl. "What?"

Jak ducked again and fired, blue energy crackling through the air and penetrating the sprinklius in the thorax. "You okay?"

"Fine," I squinted one eye and aimed. My morning arthritis was acting up, and I held my right hand steady with my left. "Clear out!" I howled a warning just in case any Metal Heads were nearby and pulled the double trigger.

Click-click! The first bullets were dark eco laced with Schwannsyl, and the second pure dark eco. They hit the creature's thick kretonate hide and buried through.

"Get back!" I screamed, running for the trees at the edge of our small clearing. Jak did an impressive double jump and joined me.

"What the heck did you do to that thing?" asked the ottsel, peering over Jak's shoulder.

The polylegged crawler convulsed, undulating its huge body through the air. It screamed. Eco pulsed through it, sending its legs into spasms. Lines of white flashed along its body, from its brain along the splintered spine, a disturbing skeleton of light.

"The dark eco bullets were infused with a nerve destroying substance," I said, quickly spinning my gun back to the off position. "The eco acts as a catalyst for the Schwannsyl, which normally eats through nerve tissue slowly. Though as I said, the eco is a catalyst," I paused and looked at them, the agony of the beast reflected in their wide eyes, "you do know what a catalyst is, don't you?"

They shook their heads no. I squinted and saw that the white lines in their eyes were turning red. "The creature's head will probably explode soon. I would advise ducking." With a careful half-nod I activated the shield to full power. The protective face covering rose and the world turned a little more green.

The Glakkickh took my advice, thankfully, and we crawled under some rockbrush. "This will protect us," I said, pointing to the plant's leaves, which appeared gray to Jak but an alien green-gray to me. Daxter looked at it warily. "A catalyst is a chemical that-"

The clearing exploded in a shower of steaming sprinklius guts and little conglomerates of dark eco. A reddish fog wafted through, stinking of raw meat and the sickening smell of combusted Schwannsyl.

"-accelerates or helps to complete a chemical reaction." I motioned for them to wait just a little longer, in case there were secondary explosions. "The eco speeds the Schwannsyl through the fibrous nerve casings, causing those cells to hyperactivate. That caused the violent spasms you saw," I pointed one finger towards the clearing. "The total amount of electrical energy running through a Gigantus sprinklius is enough to destabilize the eco, which has conveniently run through the entire organism and concentrates in the brain area, and it explodes."

"Uh huh," said Daxter, lowering his eyelids halfway. He wiggled his fingers at my gun. "So where can we get us one of those?"

I snatched it away. "You can't. I invented this one, and I doubt you could understand how half the settings work." I spun the dial, and we watched the words as they sped by, each accompanied by a specific clicking tone. Spartle, Schwannsyl, EnNervate, Primordial Expansion, and more. Some were worn, as I didn't have the right kind of paint to touch up the letters.

"Can I see it?" The ottsel rubbed his paws together.

I lowered my face shield. "No, you may not see it." I reset it to off and flicked on the safety. "This is a very dangerous piece of weaponry."

The Glakkickh grinned. "Something just draws us to dangerous weaponry, doesn't it?" He clapped Daxter on the back and they both smiled at me.

I rolled my eyes. "In most cases the male population of Procorsor elegens is sadly misdirected in the valuing of its priorities." Daxter opened his mouth to say something. "And in your case, the very tiny male population of Ottselus squattus is also in need of reconfiguring its priorities."

"Was that an insult?" Daxter pointed one digit at me and frowned.

"Yes. Especially if you can't tell it was."

"Humph."

I crawled out from under the rockbrush and stood. "Be careful," I warned, attaching the spartle gun to the ring at my right hip, "there are small pools of suspended dark eco everywhere."

"Jak loves those! Oo, watch this- Jak, run into that little bunch over there," the ottsel pointed to a patch. Jak jumped over smoking exoskeleton pieces and leg shell.

"Don't-" I stepped over a heaving pile of sprinklius small intestine.

The dark eco spun for half a second, then flew through the air and absorbed into the Glakkickh. Eco crackled from his body to the ground in fine lightening form. I wiped sweat off my forehead. "Fascinating. Utterly fascinating!" He smiled. I made my way over carefully and inspected him. He didn't move as I took his arm and pulled the sleeve up. "No outside disturbance to the skin, and you obviously aren't dead. Does it run through the nervous system?" I squinted at his arm, flipping it over and pressing my first two fingers into the inside of his elbow. A pulse of blood and dark eco. I pointed to the conglomerates on the ground. "What does it feel like when the eco enters your body?"

His face fell and he looked away. "I don't really want to talk about that." He pulled his arm back.

"Is there a common axis to the absorption?" I indicated a line down the center of my chest to show what I meant.

He shrugged.

"This is due to the Baron's experimentation?"

"Yeah." He kicked at the ground and there was an uncomfortable silence until the ottsel shouted again.

"There's some more! Go get that!"

Jak took off and started absorbing all the conglomerates of dark eco in the clearing. I watched for a few more minutes, then bent my head and inspected the ground for the remains of the polylegged crawler's liver.

I found it at the other end of the clearing, partially charred but still usable. Sealing an undamaged portion in a special bag, I shoved it into my subspace compartment. "You might be handy later," I said. I turned and measured the area of the biological wreckage with a laser tape and scribbled notes.

"Glakkickh!"

He looked up, blue and purple crackling around his hands as he took in the last of the dark eco. "What?"

"Can you please grab that bit of leg shell? Right there, by your foot. Yes, thank you."

He jogged over and handed it to me. I pulled out some disinfectant. "This," I said, pouring the cleaning fluid over the shell, "is an excellent source of calcium." I took a bite.

"Gross! Lady, you just ate that thing's toenails!" Daxter stuck out his tongue and made gagging noises.

"Leg shell," I corrected, my mouth full. "A leg shell a day keeps the osteoporosis at bay. Well, not really a day," I waved it around, "just every once in a while. Try a little?"

Jak made a face. "Uh, no thanks."

I shrugged and finished off the shell. It ground to a fine powder and adhered to my teeth. I didn't like that feeling, as it made my tongue squeak over them, but it was also good for preserving the enamel.

I washed my face and hands with disinfectant. "Hold this a minute, will you?" I handed Jak my laser tape and dug into my subspace compartment for my arthritis pills. I popped two and took the tape back. "Thank you." I shoved everything into the compartment and pulled out the map. "We're about here," I pointed. "Maybe another ten hours or so and we'll be at my house."

"Ten hours?" Daxter scratched behind his ears with one furless leg. "We can pass the time with a song! I know a little ditty about the adventures of a fearless ottsel named Daxter-"

Three minutes into our walk I turned to the Glakkickh and spat in clear Metal Head, "shut up that Schmekag, now."

Jak didn't know what I had said, exactly, but got the overall message. "Dax, put a lid on it."

"-had vanquished the mighty Metal Head nest, and conquered Kor the unbrave, for he was a mighty fine ottsel, and had never- mmmffffkk!" Jak slapped his hand over Daxter's muzzle.

"So, what kind of gun is that?" The Glakkickh said over the sound of his companion's angry muffled protests.

I sighed. "It's called a spartle gun."

He laughed.

"What?"

"Spartle."

I shook my head. "It means 'scatter.' I developed it shortly after I arrived here. It's a perfect defense against Metal Heads. It will render them incapacitated for short amounts of time, in case something unusual happens and I need to extract myself from a dangerous situation. It doesn't hurt them at all."

He snorted. "That's a shame."

I turned, glancing at the ground to make sure I wouldn't trip over some roots. "You do not understand," I said. "There is no reason to exterminate an entire species. They have so many incredible adaptations and organic materials that cannot be found anywhere else. The few things you've seen on my person," I pointed to my shield, my gun, and where the cranial scintillation was buried beneath the skin of my shoulder, "are almost nothing compared to what we could harvest from them."

"You are aware of what they've done to Haven, aren't you?" The Glakkickh regarded me with cool blue eyes.

"Of course I am. They are a separate population, operating under a different social hierarchy than those I am studying on this peninsula. They've got their own right to exist, just as we do, though."

He folded his arms. "They attacked the city, Thrinaxia."

I hate when people say my name like that. "Listen, young man," I pushed my shoulders back as far as they could go and tried to appear taller. "You have absolutely no authority here. You have disrupted my work. You will not take that tone of voice with me!"

Jak stared at me, not looking away. I stared back at him until my eyes watered.

"Innocent people were killed," he said softly.

I gritted my teeth. They squeaked a little from the leg shell powder. "Metal Heads were killed, too, I imagine."

"Yes, because they were attacking Haven!"

"Was that due to an eco starvation? Were you and the renegades charging into their territory and blasting their eggs apart? Is what he said earlier-" I jabbed my finger at the ottsel and poked his nose harder than I meant to.

"Hey! Don't touch the face!"

"-about the Metal Head nest being destroyed true?"

"Yes!" The Glakkickh stopped walking and stood with his feet apart, a threatening position. "We destroyed it ourselves!"

My fists shook at my sides. The shield sputtered, not knowing whether to raise itself or not. Finally I hissed something vile in Metal Head and turned on my heels.

"What, hey, what's she doing?!"

"She's pissed off, Dax."

"She can't leave us here! What're we gonna do?"

I activated my shields and then silently commanded the cranial scintillation to power up the green exoderm in a different wavelength.

"Hey! Where'd she go?"

"Aww... she must have that Metal Head invisibility."

I took a deep breath and stood behind a tree.

"Crap." I heard the Glakkickh sigh.

This is immature, I thought idly.

"Look, Thrinaxia," oh Mar, he was using my name again, "we're sorry-"

"We? What's all this we? She stabbed my nose-"

"We're sorry we messed up your egg hatching studying or whatever. I promised I wouldn't hurt any more Metal Heads here, and I keep my word. Help us get back to Haven and I'll talk to Ashelin. Maybe she'll let you keep working with these populations. As long as they don't attack the city, I guess."

"That's a lot of stuff from the guy who used to never say a word."

"Shut up, Dax."

They waited for a reply. I took another deep breath and switched the wavelength back to visible. "Apology accepted," I said. They walked up to the tree and Jak made a slight shrugging motion. "Schmekag, your eyes are getting red again." I fished out a vial. "Drink some of this."

He squinted at it and took a sip. "Ew!" He wiped his mouth. "I mean, thanks, doc."

I sighed. "The creature we destroyed in the clearing is an evolved form of the polylegged beasts you saw in the Spider caves. That's my hypothesis, though. It seems that there was a horrible rift in the time continuum which caused the migration. There were a few rifts, actually. Some from modern Haven to the past, and some back again." I deactivated the shield entirely and made doubly sure the spartle gun was firmly attached to my hip. "As I've said before, my specialty is with life and not physics and time travel and such."

"Some of those rifts were probably us coming here," said the ottsel. His eyes were clearing up.

"Yes, according to your story. Yes, that would work." I looked up through the leafy trees. "I've heard that Haven was once very beautiful."

Jak nodded. "It's where I grew up."

I checked my internal compass and pointed. "We need to start heading this way now. I'm very interested in what the Baron's experiments have done to you, Glakkickh-"

"You know, you could call him Jak-"

"-but I also understand it may be painful. Please let me know when I can study you," I said it as gently as I could.

He made a face.

"No, I don't mean," I put up my hands, "in an invasive way. Maybe I can figure out what he did. I'm sure you know more about what the eco's doing to you than I do, for the moment."

"Hey Jak! Maybe there's a cure for you!" Daxter smiled at his friend for a second. He gasped. "Maybe there's a cure for me!" He waved in my face ecstatically. "Do you think you can help me, doc?"

"With a proper laboratory I can try."

Daxter put his paws together. "Imagine! Me, scampering around on my front two feet again! And pants! Pants!"

I almost laughed as the Schmekag drooled. "We'll see what I can do while I'm in Haven. I don't intend to stay there. This is where I belong." I waved around the forest.

Jak pressed his lips together. "Yeah, we'll see."