Well, here we are. It took forever even though I promised it wouldn't, but whatever. I hope you enjoy. Thank you everyone for your kind reviews. I'll work as fast as I can from now on.
The buggy swayed side to side, jerking violently with each of the giant Metal Head's motions. Jak was doing his best to stay calm, to keep his head together. He had to get out of his seat, this thing holding him helpless while the wrath of a wounded Metal Monster bore closer and closer to him. He had to get free, had to draw this thing away from the buggy and his unconscious friend.
The jerking was becoming much more violent, the earsplitting sound of tearing metal growing louder and louder, each jerk becoming more unbearable than the last. Jak's fingers were becoming numb. They felt like gloves filled with gelatin, limp and useless.
"Come on, you son of a bitch!" he hissed, hot tears beginning to roll up his forehead and mingling with the collection of sweat gathering at his hairline. "Come on!" Gripping the straps with his hands, Jak began to pull. His lips pulled back over his gritty teeth, a low growl escaping from his throat. He had to break the straps. His knuckles were turning white, the palms feeling as if they were on fire. "Come on!"
The straps broke suddenly, giving in at last. Jak fell from his cushioned seat face first in the sand below him. Had the situation been different, he would have whooped with glee. But it wasn't. There was a bloodthirsty Metal Head the size of a Freedom League Hellcat baring down on Daxter and himself, slowly but surely tearing through layer after layer of metal to reach them.
Wasting no time, Jak drew his gun and equipped its Blaster mod from his satchel. Without a second thought the blonde elf crept out from under the rapidly decaying buggy. This was risky.
As soon as he pulled himself out from under the buggy, once again in the full force of the desert's hot winds, he turned to face the attacker. The Metal Head was looming over the like a prehistoric predator over its prey. One of its massive, three-toed feet was pushing down on the buggy, holding it in place for it to rip apart with its dagger-sharp teeth. Apparently this Metal Head, so intent on tearing into the vehicle, had not yet noticed that he had escaped. At this point there was only one thing that Jak could do.
Activating the laser sight equipped on the gun's barrel, Jak took careful aim, pointing the laser sight right onto the side of the monster's armored head. "Hey!" Jak yelled, not once taking his eyes off of his target. The Metal Head halted, its fanged maw frozen in mid-tear. Slowly, its massive, crocodile-like head turned, a deep, heard-rending hiss escaping from its bowels.
Jak pulled the trigger the moment the creature was looking straight at him. The projectile was dead on. The small ball of concentrated Yellow Eco flew from the barrel like a comet. The Metal Head roared and toppled backward, a smoking crater seared into its forehead where the Yellow Eco had struck. The creature hit the ground with considerable force, landing on its side. The buggy and the dunes around it shook with the impact, as if the entire desert were trembling with fear.
Ten seconds passed, each of them feeling like an eternity. These Metal Heads were smart, and even the simplest of creatures knew how to play dead. Jak's heart felt like it was going to explode. Wiping his sweaty palms on his sand-stained pants, Jak grasped the handle of his Blaster and pointed aimed at the creature's dark green side, the red laser site wavering slightly from his shaking hands.
It took all of his nerve to pull the trigger. Another small ball of yellow fire erupted from the Blaster's mouth. It made impact with the creature's side, scorching the windblown scales like a burn left by a torch. Jak held his breath, his crystal eyes locked on the behemoth before him. There was no reaction, not even a cracked talon on the creature's colossal toe twitched.
Without hesitation Jak replaced the Blaster into its holster on his back and took off at full speed toward the buggy. His steel-toed boots sunk deep into the dune wherever he stepped, slowing him slightly, but he took no notice. He had to get Daxter out and get back to Spargus, buggy or no buggy.
Jak leaned back and slid down the dune's face to the ruined form of the buggy, still gleaming in the midday sun. Jak stopped himself as he neared the vehicle. The twenty-year-old elf scrambled to the Ottsel's side and peeked in, his breath fast and ragged. "Dax?" he whispered, not daring to get his hopes up.
The orange Ottsel stirred, one of his bulbous eyes opening halfway to gaze maliciously at his friend. "I'm gonna kill you," he said. The sound of his high-pitched voice brought more relief to Jak's heart than he had ever known. "What did I tell ya?" Daxter groaned slightly as he slid out from behind the seat belt. "That Kleiver guy is bad news! Anyone who looks that much like Krew is bad news!" Daxter's babble continued as he haphazardly clambered out from under the buggy's ruined frame. "Next time I tell you something, trust Orange Lightning and DO IT!"
"Sorry," Jak said, raising his bandana to hide his growing smirk. "I was afraid I had lost ya, Dax."
"Lost me?" Daxter scoffed, kicking his feet in the hot sand. "It takes more than a few puny Metal Heads to finish off this Ottsel, let me tell ya!"
Daxter's boastful words were cut tragically short, his perky ears drooping, his eyes glazing over in a look of pure, unimagined horror. His short, orange fur was standing on end, quivering like a mouse before a cat.
Jak's sky-blue eyes traveled slowly to the side, his teeth crushing down on his bottom lip. He already knew what was wrong. The Metal Head wasn't dead. He could just imagine it, its monstrous form looming over him, strings of gooey saliva sliding between the rows of jagged, yellowing teeth.
In one second Jak had already turned completely around, the Blaster weapon armed and ready in his white-knuckled hands. It was as he had feared. The Metal Head was up and ready, its large red eyes, completely lacking any pupils staring down on him with a deep, burning hatred.
Jak's finger pulled down hard on the trigger three times, unleashing three mini fireballs of Yellow Eco, spiraling like comets through the baking desert air into the Metal Head's rough, scaly hide. Three black spots were left where the projectiles struck like small craters in the desert's beaten flesh.
The Metal Head roared again, flinging its Leaper-sized head into the air with a cry of pain and fury.
"Run Daxter!" Jak yelled, scooping his friend up onto his shoulder as he himself took to his feet in a mad sprint for survival.
He didn't look back when the Metal Head's roar stopped, nor when its thunderous footsteps began to shake the desert sands beneath his feet, growing louder and more powerful with each step.
He knew what he had to do. His present arsenal was not enough to hold back this creature powered only by hate and bloodlust. He needed a force just as brutish, an instinct and cunning just as animalistic as the monstrosity that hunted him. He needed the creature that plagued his nightmares, the voice that forever haunted the back of his mind. The embodiment of his own id, Dark Jak.
Jak had not transformed since the first day in the arena. That single transformation had used up the remaining reserves of Dark Eco flowing through his bloodstream. He needed a new source, enough Dark Eco to generate the transformation, the only thing that could save his own life, as well as his friends. There was only one source of Dark Eco out in the desert at the moment. He had to find the bodies of the defeated Metal Heads and the Dark Eco-powered guns strapped to their backs.
Jak was running for the Wasteland mountains, the closest one coming up fast. He hoped that with luck its craggy, windblown sides would provide enough protection until he could find the Metal Head that had passed away beside the mountain.
The mountain loomed up suddenly like a match struck in a pitch black cave. Hope began to burn brighter in Jak's heart. Five feet from the side of the mountain, Jak came to a sliding halt, his boots kicking frantically at the loose sand. Not two seconds after Jak had resumed his sprint, the enraged Metal Head slammed into the side of the mountain, its massive body shattering the carefully shaped rock forged over centuries of life in the unforgiving desert. The Metal Head growled maliciously, shattering a solid rock in its gaping maw.
With a hiss the monster continued its unrelenting assault.
After nearly ten minutes of rolling, sliding, and dodging, the first Metal Head's body appeared out of the rapidly increasing wind.
Despite his pounding lungs, his legs begging him to stop, Jak forced his ravaged body to speed up. Just a little farther.
He reached the Metal Head's body, already half-buried in the rapidly changing desert landscape. Panting heavily, he began to climb up the Metal Head's smooth, scaled body. The sparking turret was strapped motionless on the dead creature's back, exactly the same as before. A thin stream dark, bubbling Eco leaked from its base like a poisoned stream. At the moment, it was the most beautiful thing Jak had ever seen. With one final, desperate look back at the approaching Metal Head, Jak plunged his hand into the stream, wincing as the acidic substance spread over his willing flesh.
The footfalls, growing ever louder, suddenly stopped. Jak knew, even as his mind began to sink back before the oncoming other mind, that this was closer to death than he had ever come in his life.
Jak felt the changes spread over his sand-scarred body. His exposed, peeling tan skin began to fade, as if he had sustained a wound so horrible that every drop of blood flowed from it like a crimson waterfall. Jak gasped almost spasmodically from behind his red bandana. His canines lengthened to nearly an inch in length, growing deadly sharp.
His fingernails likewise darkened into an abysmal shade of onyx. The wiry muscles behind his torn tunic bulged and stretched, the fibers of his coat straining at the sudden gain of muscle mass. Dark Jak threw his head back and roared as the obsidian horns sprouted forcefully through the soft skin of his forehead. A thunderstorm of Dark Energy shot forth from his body, blackening the surrounding sand in his presence.
Even as he roared the dark entity felt the Metal Head falter, it's puny mind dumbfounded by the sudden, unexplainable metamorphosis that had taken place in its previously helpless prey. Dark Jak's nose twitched, taking in the pathetically short array of scents that were carried across the hot, dead air of the desert. Sand, Leapers, salt water, fresh water, a few dried plants, and of course the spilled blood of Metal Heads. But there was another, strong scent. The smell of uncertainty, of possible fear. This new smell radiated off of the leader of this small, pathetic band of Hora-Quan that now stood behind him.
That smell drove him crazy. In the wild, predators can sense fear in their prey. That smell indicates weakness, and possible mistakes that can be made. Though this was not the wild, Dark Jak was a hunter, a survivor, in the pit of his tortured soul. He was not going to fall at the feet of this cowardly beast. He would tear its throat out, slash it to ribbons, make it fall upon its knees and beg for mercy in its own tongue.
Without warning, Dark Jak leapt into action as he had against the waves of Krimzon Guards he had slaughtered in past adventures. The Metal Head had barely enough time to realize that his prey was upon him, slashing him like some sort of mutated tick that would not relent.
The Metal Head shook furiously, snapping at the foaming creature of Dark Energy and raw fury that had once been a fleeing elf. It bucked and galloped, twisting and raving, letting out roars of pain and fury that could be heard all the way back to Spargus.
Dark Jak was on back of the Metal Heads neck, sinking his fangs into the steel-hard scales, trying to rip them away in his bloodlust. The Metal Head, half-crazed in fury, bucked again, spilling the foaming creature onto the sand below it. Dark Jak landed on his back like a cat thrown to the ground by an abusive master. A split second later the Metal Head's three-toed foot fell down upon him, crushing the air from his lungs.
Dark stared up into his attacker's eyes, the pupil-less yellow-and-red orbs rolling wildly in its skull. Dark roared with what little air was left in his chest. He slashed vainly at the creature's leg, raking his talons across the jagged, rough scales. Each slash left four deep scratches in the tough plating similar to fingernails across wood.
For all his rage, all of his hell-bent fury, Dark Jak could not budge the rock hard package of muscle, blood, bone, and scale baring down on him; as thick as a tree. Dark Jak knew, even if he was not ready to admit it to himself yet, that this Metal Head had him in a death hold. It was slowly but surely squeezing the life from him, pressing him down into the needle-like sand of the Wasteland.
His vision was beginning to blur. His powerful lungs screamed for air, heaving and sagging in his barrelish chest. The reptilian face of the Metal Head was beginning to fade, blur at the edges like a pencil drawing in water.
And still Dark Jak clawed at the creature's treelike calf, searching desperately for something, anything, to cause it enough pain to let him go. If he could just find an opening –
And suddenly he struck gold. His claws, still desperately slashing, fell into several small crevasses each about an inch deep. The bullet holes.
Dark Jak wasted no time, especially when he had very little time left to waste. He shoved his three-inch-long claws deep into the ugly craters, pulsing with runny purple blood. With his last breath of air lingering in his lungs, Dark Jak tensed, forcing the Dark Energy that rippled relentlessly from his body into his arms. The electricity flowed from his arms like an unstoppable tide. It flowed from his fingernails into the already infected wounds in the creature's legs.
The Metal Head stiffened, its head raised, body jerking uncontrollably like an elf on the verge of a seizure. Its foot jerked away, trying to escape the sudden, unexplainable plain that had suddenly inflicted its ravaged body.
Dark Jak took the opportunity immediately. His black eyes, nearly bursting from his pale face, were wide with hunger as he gasped in mouthful after mouthful of sand-filled air. However, his momentary weakness did not distract him from the bigger picture. This creature had threatened his life. Twice. It had to die.
Much to his own surprise as well as the Metal Head's, Dark Jak did not let go as the creature lunged away. He held on, his claws sinking even deeper than before into the throbbing masses of swollen flesh in its legs. He held for a moment, dangling in midair like a mountain climber whose rope has snapped, and then came down. With his feet planted firmly in the shifting sand, Dark Jak held tight, the tendons in his neck straining and popping, his lips drawn back over his fangs in a mirthless smile.
Grunting, Dark Jak crouched for a moment, his muscles tensing, and then lifted, his maw opened wide, his tongue lolling out like some kind of mutated lizard.
As his hands reached the peak of their arch, he let go. The force of the motion, fuelled by rage and Dark Eco pumping through Jak's tainted blood, sent the Metal Head spinning, airborne like a monstrous, wingless bat.
An earshattering scream ripped forth from its gullet as it flew. It landed on the dunes some fifty feet away, leaving a solid imprint of its shape into the sand's malleable surface.
For about a minute nothing moved. The desert itself seemed to be holding its breath, waiting to see if this otherworldly monstrosity that roamed its breadth was truly dead. Dark Jak himself stood stock-still, barely daring to breathe, his obsidian talons nervously twitching. Suddenly the body began to move, its legs, as thick and hard as the trunks of young trees slowly, painfully righting their feet as if seeking to take root.
The Metal Head groaned, its deathly yellow eyes blurred and stunned. Dark Jak took this moment to his advantage. He would put a stop to this creature once and for all, end its life while it was still weak.
Like a lion converging on its prey, the Dark Eco creature hurtled forward, bulging legs pumping tirelessly, claws outstretched, ready to do all the damage they could before the Metal Head regained its sense.
Even in its weakened state, the Metal Head still saw the blurry form of its attacker barreling toward it across the dunes. With rasping roar, it too began to charge, leaning drunkenly from side to side as it came.
As it approached, it swooped its head downward in a wide arc, ready to ram this persistent creature off its feet.
Unlike the other beast, Dark Jak had his senses. His next action was one that the Metal Head least expected of him. Stopping in mid run, Dark Jak caught the creature's muzzle in mid-swing, wrapping his arms around it like one would do while carrying a piece of lumber.
Dark Jak winced as the creature's head struck him. He felt his ribs give dangerously at the Metal Head's impact. His booted feet sank deep into the sand to about his ankles with the impact, but he held firm, refusing to let go of this creature that had quite nearly ended his life.
The creature grunted in protest, pulling with all of its strength away from Dark Jak. Even with his feet planted firmly, the unstable surface began to give way. A long trail, about ten feet long, soon emerged as the creature pulled again and again, desperately trying to free itself from Dark Jak's unrelenting grasp.
The elf's body crackled with Dark Energy. As before, long fingers of purple lightning surged from his body, blackening anything they touched into a singed black. The Metal Head howled in pain, redoubling its efforts to escape, but the pale elf held, perhaps even harder than before.
Dozens of large, black freckled of singed flesh were appearing across the Metal Head's scaly back. The Metal Head pulled again and again, its tugs becoming desperate. Any experience it had had in past battles melting away as panic quickly rose to the surface.
Dark Jak's legs spread apart, his grip tightening around the Metal Head's muzzle, oblivious to the creature's now desperate struggle for freedom. With movements guided by instinct alone, Dark Jak twisted the creature's head sideways with one quick, spastic jerk. There was a sickening crack, and the Metal Head's body went rigid. For a second the beast stood still, wide-eyed with shock, and then collapsed, its body finally at rest, soon to be covered by the desert's unceasing sands.
Dark Jak stood for a moment over the creature's body, gazing down at it from his dark eyes. The creature's head had fallen at an odd angle, well past ninety degrees. Slowly, he sunk to his knees. Now that his foe was defeated, a lasting calm was beginning to fill him. His pale lids closed over the pools of darkness that were his eyes. Very slowly, Dark Jak sank to his side, curling into a ball before the Metal Head's body. With the satisfying taste of victory still lingering in his mouth, Dark Jak fell asleep.
Jak awoke some hours later. The sun was only a dark orange sliver disappearing swiftly over the top of the windscarred mountains. The sky as always was a deep, rolling tapestry of orange, gold, violet and scarlet. Spitting sand and grit from his mouth and out from between his teeth, Jak slowly rose to his feet. He glanced briefly at the partially covered body of the Metal Head behind him, barely surprised to see it. Whatever Dark Jak had done, he obviously had done it right. Jak had not neglected to notice the plethora of scratches and scorch marks that covered the creature's body.
"Dax?" he called, scanning the darkening dunes surrounding him. Jak began to feel worried. Spargus' gates would be closing soon, and if he couldn't find Daxter, he might have to head back without him. The thought of leaving his best friend alone in a Marauder-infested desert did not register kindly in Jak's heart. Plus, he thought with a sinking feeling, there were wild leapers out in the desert as well. The tame leaper may have released him, but what would happen if a wild leaper managed to get Daxter into its mouth? Jak didn't like the idea. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he screamed at the top of his voice. "DAX! WHERE ARE YOU!"
Jak gasped in surprise as he felt his satchel shift on his back. A moment later Daxter's groggy face appeared out of the top of the satchel. "What? What is it?" Daxter said grouchily, as if he had been awakened from a relaxing dream.
"How long have you been there?" Jak asked over his shoulder, his voice thick with relief.
"Eh, a couple hours," Daxter said, wiping his paw over his face. "I came out of hiding once the roaring stopped. It wasn't too hard to find you. I tried to wake you up." Daxter snorted, "No such luck. So are we heading back to the city?"
Jak faltered. It didn't take a genius to know that Kleiver wouldn't be welcoming them back with open arms after they had succeeded in demolishing one of his better vehicles on their first run-though. Yet still, a warm bed in Spargus was better than a cold, lonely night in a desert. "Yeah…"
A muffled voice suddenly halted Jak in mid sentence. The voice was too muffled to understand, but it sounded something like "Me-ed com'dr, reprt!" Whatever it was, it was coming from one of the many pockets and containers that decorated the Metal Head's "saddle."
Following the sound of the voice, Jak searched through numerous pockets, most only yielding scraps of Precursor metal and containers of raw Dark Eco, which Jak quickly shied away from. At last he found the source. In a pocket near the top of the saddle, Jak found a small, flat alien-looking device about half the width of a Precursor Orb. The device suddenly hummed to life. A small, holographic head appeared, floating above the device's surface. The head barely looked human. It was blocky and jagged with what appeared to be numerous cuts gashes lining the face. But the voice…the voice itself was so familiar…
In shock, Jak dropped the device to the ground, taking a step back. Daxter had climbed out of Jak's satchel and had taken his usual perch on his shoulder do gaze at the device and the holographic head that now lay swiveling on the ground.
"Metal Head Commander, report!" the head said, swiveling once again.
"Jak!" Daxter hissed, waving frantically at his friend. Jak tore his eyes from the disfigured head in the sand and glanced over at Daxter. The Ottsel was holding the flap of a pocket open and pointing inside. Jak inclined his head for a better view and gasped. Inside the shadows of the pocket the eerie purple glow of a Dark Eco Crystal could just faintly be seen.
"What's happening?" the head bellowed, sliding its holographic eyes over the endless waves of sand, apparently confused. "If you've lost that shipment and you're still alive, I'll kill you myself! I want every Dark Eco Crystal you can find, time is short!" Jak's eyes slid instinctively over to the pouch which contained the single, glowing Dark Eco Crystal.
Scooping Daxter back onto his shoulder, Jak began to walk very slowly over to the communicator. For some reason he hated that voice. It reminded him of a man he once knew, a man who had felt sure of his superiority over everyone around him; very similar to this man before him. "Did you hear me?" the voice hissed. At the sound of Jak's approaching footsteps, the head turned to the approaching elf, looking upward into Jak's face. The expression exchanged abruptly, from one of boundless hatred to one of badly-suppressed fear. "Wait…not you!" the head's scream was cut short as Jak brought his steel-toed boot down upon it, crushing the fragile device below it.
"I don't like the sound of your voice," Jak growled as the small machine cracked and sparked beneath him.
"Hah! You sure kicked sand in his face!" Daxter laughed, followed by a self-complimenting "Oh yeah, that was good."
"That face looked familiar," Jak said quietly, staring at the ruined device beneath him.
Daxter rolled his eyes. "Now you're getting paranoid, buddy boy. Come on, Bigfoot, let's get back," Daxter patted Jak reassuringly on the shoulder, "this desert gives me the creeps."
Indeed, the sun had set not two minutes ago. As the last of it had disappeared over the mountains, the desert had suddenly become dark and foreboding. An icy wind blew through Jak's hair, every bit of heat stripped from it in a split second. "Get used to it, Dax," Jak said, shivering slightly. "It's a long way back to Spargus."
Pocketing the Dark Eco Crystal he had pulled from the Metal Head's body, Jak and Daxter began the long march back to the Desert City of Spargus, guided only by the flaming beacon that burned brightly above it on the topmost tower of the city, its bright light cutting through even the fiercest of storms so that any lost Wastelanders may find their way back home.
Yeah, well that's it. I'll work as fast as I can on the next one, but don't get your hopes up. I'm surprised at how long this one turned out to be, so forgive me. R&R. Goodbye!
