Chapter: 9

The next morning, Torn practically threw the trio out. It was about six A.M and the sky was still dark; the sun barely lighting the horizon. The stars and moon were slowly fading away. Audrey sighed and pushed her hair back and shagged it down to its usual hairstyle, her bangs spilling out in front of her face. Jak stretched out his arms, his muscles rippling beneath his tunic. Audrey blushed and looked away. Daxter lay slumped on Audrey's shoulder, mumbling about hot babes and pants. She held her folded jacket in her arms not being able to put it on with Daxter on board her shoulder. They walked their way to the fortress Jak not having the energy or the awareness to drive. They cut through many alleys until they made it to a dead end. The back wall was painted red and white; a pair of double doors with the baron's signature painted. Audrey Stepped forward to the doors but they didn't slid open. She frowned, "so how do we get in?" Jak looked around and noticed a huge vent at the far end corner,"how about that?" he pointed. Audrey smiled and skipped towards it. It looked big enough to fit them both. The two boys watched as she tugged on the metal vent trying to pry it open with her small hands, "It. Won't. Budge!" she said between breaths. She shrieked when her fingers slipped after pulling too hard and fell backwards. A pair of warm strong arms caught her around her middle. Audrey blinked. She looked up and found herself starring into dark blue eyes. A small squeal came out of her lips. Jak chuckled at her reddening face making her turn into even darker shades of red, "are you okay?" he asked. Audrey couldn't find her voice so instead she nodded. He smirked and helped her stand up right. Audrey coughed and looked away, trying to regain her composure. Jak pried the vent open with ease. The brunette pouted, "I loosened it" she stated before crawling into the vent. Jak rolled his eyes and smirked at her figure, "sure you did" Daxter chuckled into his hand before they followed her in and pulled the vent back into place.

Audrey kicked the vent grate with enough force it clattered noisily on the tiled floor. She looked down, seeing they were almost to the ceiling. She heaved herself down and jumped, landing on her feet; Jak following suit. Dusting off her coat she pulled it on and surveyed the area. A security tank stood in place; its spiked roller moving on its own accord. A couple of operating machines were set up behind it, its buttons lighting up in uncoordinated patterns. She looked to her left and noticed a circular room and a heavy looking gate at the end. Something about this room was familiar but she couldn't place her finger on it. It seemed pretty important. It seemed ironic how many times she's played the game and she couldn't remember what was supposed to happen. She starred at the tank for a while as Jak made his way into the room, and then it clicked. Audrey's eyes were as big as saucers as she saw the gun mounted on the top of the tank had pointed its target at her head," oh shi-!" she jumped out of the way when she heard it fire a missile and landed on the spot she once stood. Audrey scrambled to her feet and ran towards Jak who already started running ahead. The security tank followed after them, shooting its laser bullets at them. Daxter screamed and hung onto Jak's shoulder for dear life, "get us out of here, Jak!"

I'm trying!" he growled.

The tank continued to fire at the walls around them. Jak saw a huge metal gate blocking their path. A security pad rested on the wall beside it, "Audrey! I need you to open the gate! I'll cover you!"

"What!? Why me!"

"You're closest to it!"

Audrey yelped, barely dodging another shot. She dashed ahead of the blonde as he distracted the heavy machinery. She reached the pad and tried typing random codes. Every code she typed came out as an error. Audrey punched the wall in frustration," work!" Looking behind her she found Jak struggling to keep up with the death machine. With an aggravated grunt, she took out her eco pistol and bashed the pad with the butt of her gun. The pad broke and let out a spluttered, 'access granted.' Audrey let out a victorious whoop as she watched the gate fly open," jak let's go! Aghh!" she ducked again as the bullet aimed for her head.

Jak grunted and ran passed the gate grabbing the brunette's wrist and into safety. The gate flew back down with a slam stopping the death machine in its tracks. Jak and Audrey huffed in exhaustion, "phew! That was a close one! Right guys?" Daxter grinned at the still exhausted teens. Jak rolled his eyes and smacked the ottsel on the head,"Hey!" "I wouldn't sing victory just yet" Audrey pointed to the tank as it smashed the gate down, "doesn't this thing ever give up?!" Daxter freaked

Jak and Audrey climbed the massive crates behind them. There was an opening to the next room and they climbed threw it, stepping on a ledge. The tank crashed into the other gate and searched for the trio. Jak scanned the room for a way out and found an electric eco fence on the other side. He pointed to the fence and the rotating platform machines in front of them. Audrey nodded and took the lead.

The made it across the room silently enough. The fence's power shut down and they eventually made it to the ammo dump filled with crates after passing though an automatic gun machine room. What a nightmare that was, to say the least, it was not Audrey's favorite room.

Jak picked up a security card lying carelessly atop a crate, "cool! That's a security pass. We need those to get through city check points!" Daxter exclaimed.

Then... the sound of a clank and a bunch of footsteps were heard.

Daxter had shushed them as they silently made their way to a grate on the floor and looked down to see two guards coming towards a pair of Metal Heads on the floor beneath.

"These barrels are the latest shipment of eco. The Baron says take them

and get out!" the guard spoke gruffly to the creatures.

The creatures let out an animalistic growl, but the guards brought out their guns and aimed at them.

"Metal Heads in the city? Why are the guards giving them eco?" jak turned to Audrey.

The young woman knew exactly why they were doing this but she couldn't tell jak the whole truth,

"I don't know, could he be bribing them?" she hinted.

Before an answer came... the sound of a whirr was heard. They turned to find another security tank I the same room. The tank aimed and shot at the trio.

They dodged the shots, and separated around the room. The tank fired a bullet at Jak who hid behind one of the cooling tanks in the middle of the room. The renegade got out of the way just in time for the tank to explode. "Jak get the tank to hit the cooling tower! It's our ticket to getting out!" Audrey demanded. "How do you know?" he called back.

"JUST DO IT!" she barked.

With an aggravated grunt Jak leapt to the side as another bullet came hurtling towards him. The two worked together to make the rest of the tower explode with much success I might add. A loud honking sound blared throughout the room as a computerized voice alerted them that the room was about to blow up in just 30 seconds, "let's get the hell outta here!" Daxter shrieked. Jak grabbed Audrey's arm and pulled her towards the exit. Just as they were about to jump a loud rumbling sound occurred followed by the destruction of the ammo dump.

The jump didn't go into slow motion like she had recalled in the game. the sense of vertigo and nausea hit Audrey's stomach as they began to fall down. She screamed as they hit the ground with a loud umpf. Audrey had fallen on top of the blonde and scrambled to get off him in embarrassing panic. Almost immediately, Jak sat up from his position, and Daxter popped his head out from underneath him.

With a dizzying headache Daxter snapped out of his daze," This place has too much excitement. We need to move back to the country!"

Jak grinned mischievously and stood up letting the ottsel breath. He held out his hand to the young girl who gratefully grabbed it. She yelped when he gave her arm a strong tug and brought her to her feet. She took a minute to compose herself and the trio took off back to the underground.

Authors note:

HAHA! i finally got the internet back! i'm so sorry to my viewers for such the long wait. my internet was down and i don't really like to go to the library (at least not the one in my area) but i finally got the internet hooked up to my place so no more problemos!

i know there isn't much going on in this chapter but don't worry the story is still in progress. the next chapters will get better.

i want to address a review that i gotten from DarkEcoFreak:

im glad you liked my story and im glad that it got your attention. you are right, jak does seem to be too nice in this fic so hopefully i can go back and rework that area. looking back in my last chapter i saw my errors and i feel silly about it. so thank you for bringing that to my attention lol.

thank you to all my viewers and those that reviewed! if there is anything that you feel is wrong in this fic or have any ideas you'd like to pitch in, please feel free too. i even take criticism into consideration. i understand that their are probably a lot of errors seeing as i am still an amateur writer but i'm doing the best i can.

so thank you so much, you guys, i love you and i hope you keep reading! :)