Rise and Fall

Chapter 10: Points of Authority

Jak got a call from Krew rather early the next morning asking him to come over to the bar. It woke me up but I wanted to get out of bed anyways. I was feeling alright. Still kind of weak and sore but I decided to tag along with Jak and Daxter for the day until something came up with the Underground. Though I doubt Torn would sent me on any mission alone anyways.

We headed over to the bar and Jak knocked on the locked door. Sig was the one that opened it and I avoided his eye contact and quickly walked passed him. Krew was floating over by the bar fanning himself. As we neared him the man turned to face us.

"I have a proposition for you, Jak," the fat man started out "Racing is the biggest sport in the city. Erol is the undisputed grand champion. He's crazy and dangerous on the track. Ha ha, my kind of guy. Only a fool would dare race against him, ey! And that's where you two come in. A client of mine is looking for fast drivers for her racing team. Uh, and here's you contract, with just a few trifles for me. I've already signed your name to save time mmmmm."

Daxter grabbed the contract and began reading it aloud but no one paid much attention to him. Krew looked over to me with a mischief grin.

"How would you like to try for a spot on my client's team?" he asked.

I looked up in thought and smiled lightly, "Sure why not?"

Krew grabbed the contract from Daxter and produced a pen. I signed quickly and handed the pin back to him.

"But I'm not working for you" I stated crossing my arms.

"Blood sucker," Krew grumbled "We'll work out the tiny details later. If you can get from her to the Race Garage near the Stadium in less than three minutes my client said she would consider letting her driver for her team. Make me proud, mmmmm!"

I roll my eyes and quickly leave the bar not waiting on Jak. I no longer wanted to be in that room with Sig staring at me. Two zoomers were already waiting outside for us. Jak climbed on one with Daxter clinging to his shoulder as I slid onto the other.

"After you" Jak stated waving his hand forward as he smirked lightly.

I took off across the port, dropping into the lower zone while over the water. There was a ramp leading up onto the street that I hit and shot over a few people's head. Jak was right on my tail as I went through the narrow area leading into the industrial zone. Citizen's jump out of the way of us and the guards pretended not to notice us. As long as we didn't hit them they wouldn't come after us.

The sharp turns of the industrial section made it difficult to maneuver at high speed. More than once I had to hit the brakes as I went around a corner so I wouldn't crash into a wall. I shot through into the Slums passing the area where the Hideout was at. I kept over the ditches so I wouldn't hit anyone. I turned sharply around a building before hitting a straightaway and speeding through it.

Main Town wasn't very crowed today and I easily dodged the few people walking. I pulled the handle bars up making the zoomer jump over the railing and into the waterway. I flew over the bridge and up the ramp on the other side. I turned sharply around the corner and sped up as quickly as possible going up the long stairs. I jumped off the zoomer with Jak following closely behind me and ran towards the garage.

"Ah… hello?" Jak called into the seemingly empty garage "Krew said someone was looking for a race driver?"

"I'm busy right now!" a high female voice stated from behind a curtain "You must be Krew's new errand boy. Look, I don't mean to be rude, you did get here fast, but I'm not interest in any new drivers right now, and I've got work to do…"

Jak smirked as he leaned against a table, his voice deepening as he tried to talk seductively, "Is there anything we can do?"

"No!" the women shouted, her silhouette barely visible behind the curtain as she attempted to hide what she was working on "No! I'm… ah… working on a secret ah, ah… vehicle project."

"Okay. Sorry…" Jak fumed rolling his eyes.

"Listen, if you think you've got the guys to race in this tow, try taking my prototype JET-Board out on the Stadium Course. Beat the Stadium Challenge, and maybe I'll consider letting you drive for my team."

Jak smirked looking up at Daxter at the mention of the JET-Board. I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. The mechanic could barely be seen leaning back onto the "vehicle project" as Jak look forward again. His jaw dropped. I growled lightly before turning on my heel and leaving the garage.

"Hey, Jenn, where ya going?" Jak called after me.

"Back to the Hideout," I snapped, throwing my leg over the zoomer "You shouldn't need my help beating the challenge. Besides I doubt she'll hire you anyways. She doesn't seem very fond of Krew."

With that I took off leaving Jak alone to do the JET-Board challenge.

As I flew back towards the Hideout I began thinking. There was no reason for me to be angry at Jak's attempt at flirting with the mechanic but for some reason it rubbed me the wrong way. Jak and I didn't have anything more than an attraction to each other and the beginnings of a friendship. So why did it bother me so much?

I landed the zoomer and went inside. I flopped down on my bed on my stomach not bothering to address Torn as he seemed to be in deep concentration. I ran my hand through my tangled hair and sighed.

"Where's Jak? I have a mission for you two" Torn growled as he took his attention away from his papers.

"He's trying to get a racing job he should be done soon" I mumbled, sitting up "I'll call him."

I pressed a few buttons on my comm. and Jak's image appeared on the screen. He seemed to be leaving the garage.

"Torn has a mission for us," I stated "Get back to the Hideout ASAP."

Jak nodded and disconnected. I checked over my guns and made sure I had enough ammo. I grabbed a brush and a hair tie from under my bed and pulled my hair back into a pony tail. It was getting really long, almost to the base of my back, and was staring to get annoying. I thought about maybe going to Tess to see if she could do something with it.

Jak walked into the Hideout and looked immediately over to me. I knew he was curious as to why I snapped at him but I wasn't planning on answering him truthfully anyways so I looked away and over to Torn.

"One of my old Guard comrades was sent to the Pumping Station," Torn began as Daxter pushed the lamp hanging above the table "There's been no word from the patrol, and after what you guys ran into out there, I'm afraid she may need some help."

"Did you say 'she'?" Jak asked, as Daxter made stupid faces every time the light passed over him.

"Don't even think about it," he growled before grabbing the lamp and getting in Daxter's face "STOP THAT! This is serious, you moron!"

"Wha!" Daxter yelled as Jak made to back hand him "That's right! Don't mess with the sugar!"

Torn sighed in frustration, "This friend of mine has helped the Underground many times before. Go back to the Pumping Station and take a look around. Render assistance if needed. Now get your squirrelly ass outta here."

I went over to the table and grabbed Dax by his scruff and grabbed the front of Jak's shirt and dragged them out of the door. I dropped the rodent and let go of Jak when we made it outside and went and got on the zoomer. Jak got on behind me and Daxter squeezed between the two of us.

I gassed it the zoomer shooting into the air and making Jak grabbed ahold of my hips.

It didn't take long to make it to the Pumping Station. I parked the zoomer on the docks and walked towards the airlock. The door opened and I stepped into the small circular area with Jak following behind me and the other door began to open. I walked out of the airlock and landed on the soft sand.

.

.

.

We had finally made it up to the ledge where this KG patrol was supposed to be. I fired at one of the two metalheads with juice rods before they noticed us and Jak took down the other. I saw a guard cruiser parked at the top of the hill and we went to go check it out.

"Ehh, what the heck are we doing risking our lives to rescue some old Krimson Guard hag anyways?" Daxter asked, stopping by the cruiser to scratch behind his ear "She's probably got more facial hair than me."

I heard a noise from the tree above us and pulled out my pistols as a woman jumped down from above and pulled Jak into a head lock. I glared at the red head and pointed my pistols at her head.

"Who the hell are you three?" she growled looking from Jak to Daxter and then to glare at me.

Before I could say anything Daxter started talking.

"Mmmmm, I do love a woman in uniform. Wanna bark some orders at me woof… woof" he saluted as he spoke before jumping up onto Jak's chest and getting close to the woman's face "I'm your soldier on the frontlines of loooove. Waiter… Foxhole for two!"

The KG woman shoved Jak away from her and pointed her gun at Daxter, "Keep talking and I'll raise your voice a couple of octaves."

"Easy," Jak growled lightly "Torn asked us to help you."

"I don't need help," she stated beginning to put her guns away when she saw something behind us "But you might. We've got company."

I turned around and saw metalhead crabs and goons with juice rod jumping down from the cliff above and coming towards us. There must have been thirty of them standing up in the tree line. I groaned and began firing at the oncoming metalheads.

The KG woman was a skilled fighter but it was hard to imagine why they would let a woman in the guard. She was just as good as any of the men maybe a bit better. She was holding her own against the metalheads using twin pistols that used red eco slugs.

Jak had pulled out his blaster but he soon ran out of ammo and started using his scatter gun. But having to cock it after every shot was slowing him down and the metalheads were beginning to overwhelm him. The mark on my wrist began to burn as I rolled away from one of the goons before shooting it in the back of the head. Remembering what happened before when Jak got hurt I ran towards him trying to draw the attention away from him.

I took down the crab that was stalking him but there were three more goons. Jak shot at one while I fired at the other and we took them down easily. But the last one was faster and had its juice rod raised above its head before Jak or I could shoot it enough times to kill it. So I did the only thing that came to mind.

I shoved Jak out of the way as the goon brought the juice rod down. It buried it into my side and I cried out as I was raised from the ground from the shock. I crumbled back to the ground when Jak fired at it. I shot the goon two more times before standing, wobbling slightly. There were only a few left by then and we easily took them down.

"Watching me take care of those metalheads was ahh… pretty… exciting… wasn't it sugar" Daxter stated trying to flirt with the red head as she turn her cruiser on and the jets of air pushing the rodent back "Hew sweet stripes, gimme them digits so I can look you up some time. We'll party hard big city style!"

The woman ignored him and turned her attention to Jak and I, "Tell Torn Baron Praxis is planning something big. I think it has to do with that symbol."

Jak and I both looked at the symbol I recognized it immediately but apparently Jak did not.

"What is it?"

"It's the seal of the House of Mar," she informed "The founder of Haven City. We're being sent out on suicide missions to locate artifacts from the time of his rule. If curiosity is worth dying for, you can ask the blind old soothsayer in the bazaar named Onin. She might know something about all this. Here's my comm. number in case I find something worthwhile."

"You're names Ashelin, huh?" Jak questioned, just as the woman took off.

"We're even now" she hissed before flying off.

"Wow! What a woman! Argghh."

I rolled my eyes at Daxter and stormed off. I shoved my pistols into their holster before scaling down the cliff side. Jak had followed but I was moving too fast for him to keep up. I really didn't want him asking about my anger at the moment.

But unfortunately, just as we made it to the exit Jak caught up and grabbed my arm and jerked me around to face.

"What's wrong?" he questioned, his eyebrows narrowing in concern "You've seemed angry at me all day."

Daxter jumped off the blonde's shoulder saying "I'll wait for you two by the airlock" before running off.

I glared at Jak, "Nothing's wrong."

"I beg to differ," he stated sarcastically "Ever since…"

He paused for a moment as he thought and his eyes widened in shock.

"That's what it is!" he shouted, seemingly shocked "You're jealous!"

"WHAT?" I shrieked ripping my arm out of his grasp "What the hell is there for me to be jealous of?"

"Oh like you don't know," Jak smirked "You got jealous when I was trying to flirt with that mechanic and just now with Ashelin. And don't even try to deny it."

I growled, knowing he was telling the truth. I looked away from him at towards the ground. Because of my attentiveness towards the sand I didn't see what was coming next.

In one motion Jak had grabbed my chin to face me back towards him then quickly pressed his lips against mine. I gasped which only allowed for him to slip his tongue in and explore the inside of my mouth. He wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me against him and I was too shocked to move.

Jak pulled back and smirked at me before leaning in to whisper in my ear, "Ya know if you wanted me all to yourself you could have me."

He smirked one last time before letting go and walking away towards the airlock. I stood there stunned for a few more seconds before taking off after him. Oh he's going to pay for that!

A/N: So what ya'll think? First little hints of a little romance going on.