He drove at a literal breakneck speed. One wrong move would easily kill him. The rain pelted him, his skin numb from the cold and he couldn't feel the tips of his fingers. Jak knew that his grip on the zoomer was steadfast only because his speed was maintained.

He cut the next corner wide, daring anyone to try and play chicken with him. Jak grit his teeth as he mentally scolded himself for being such a fool. Of coarse Daxter was going to take up with woman after the race. He'd won the Class Two; no easy feat for even trained racers. He was probably surrounded right now by every woman who saw the race. All of them cooing over his expressive eyes, petting his soft hair, admiring his soft supple skin and counting the dozens of freckles.

Jak's muscles strained the metal of the zoomer; the machine was pushed to its limit and could go no faster. Dark eco sparked in a viscous coil over his skin, sharp fangs protruded vividly as he gave an anguished growl. It wasn't his place to complain over such things, he knew he should be happy for Daxter. Let the good fortune roll. Listen as Daxter told the story of the race to the ears of the eager woman, as they would press up against him and beg for the story again.

A loud thunderous sound snapped his attention to reality as Jak realized he'd bent the handlebars and was very lucky to still have steering at all. Speed wasn't going to be enough to distract him. He spotted a flash of crimson and sped toward it on his stolen zoomer. Malevolently, though the guard was personally responsible for everything, Jak leapt from the zoomer and let it plow down into the soldier's back. The krimzon guard's partner sent out an alert and was trying to also get the safety off his gun. Jak already had taken the vulcan fury into his hands while leaping from the back of the zoomer. His finger pulling the trigger only after he was sure the guard called an alert.

He didn't want this to end quickly.

Jak unleashed an overkill of bullets into the guard. The one guard on the ground was crippled by the zoomer's blow and couldn't get up. He was struggling vainly for his weapon which Jak kicked out of his reach and switched the vulcan fury to a peacemaker.

On cue, other guards began showing up, with one of their fragile red zoomers bringing air support. Jak's smile was a cruel one as he began charging up the peacemaker and beginning to aim. To Jak the krimzon guard were an extension of Errol, their deaths meant that man was weaker.

They weren't human, they weren't even beasts, all they were was mindless brutes that derived pleasure from torture and humiliation of others. As Jak exhaled deeply and pulled the trigger there was no doubt in his mind he wanted them all to die.

The blast obliterated the zoomer; both vehicle and driver were sent to the ground in a flaming heap. As a testament to Jak's aim the vehicle itself fell over the men it was supposed to protect and killing most instantly in the weight and heat.

The dark eco inside him screeched through his body like nails to a chalkboard. There was no reason it couldn't be freed. His back arced foreword as his hair lengthened and turned ashen. His eyes blue eyes blinked closed only to open as black abyss. Teeth snapped with the ache of the fangs, hands burning and stretching outward as the black claws grew.

He arced back as he unleashed a primal scream to challenge the world. He would take on everyone and they would all lose. Because it was their fault, he hated the entire city. They were all monsters, and they created him to be a different sort of beast. They created their own destruction.

Daxter glared as Vin came closer with a thermometer. "If that ain't oral don't even think of it!"

Vin stuttered in the mix of broken words as he shook the thermometer in his hand and looked closely at it. "I guess I don't need that. But seriously, you're taking about two full transmutations. The implication makes dark eco even more unstable then already believed.' Vin suddenly got that doubtful look he would always get. 'Or maybe it's more stable… what.. What if dark eco is a stable form."

He ran to his computer fingers dancing faster then even Orange Lightening could follow. "What if dark eco isn't a random biological but a calculated arithmetic equation. It's always been assumed that it's impossible to equate the effects of dark eco because it fluctuates its multiple. But if there's a second equation, one to calculate the fluctuation then…"

Taryn and Daxter wore mirrored expressions of confusion while Vin darted back and forth to different consoles. "Oh no it would be very complex it was true. Formulating the minimum time to even calculate such a formula would at least seven hundred and ninety eight days… maybe if I squeeze it in between lunch break and eco grid net checks…"

"Vin!"

The frail man jumped with a scream bracing against the computer as he looked right from left. Taryn and Daxter both looked at each other before looking back to the intelligent but highly paranoid man.

Once he had calmed, to his usual level, Vin leaned against his computers as to him they were the center point of the world. He wrapped one arm around his chest whilst the opposite hand tapped thoughtfully at the end of his chin. "Well, like I keep telling people, I am not a physician but I have two hypothesizes based on the effects of rudimentary eco studies and the symptoms you have described."

Daxter prayed Taryn was paying attention because he was already lost. Vin spoke in his usual rapid succession. "The first hypothesis was that it was a large source of dark eco that reverted you back to a human form was a fluke due to an overload of eco. My second hypothesis that I think is more likely knowing dark eco like I do, and believe me you don't want to, is that the double helix in your DNA was mutated by the dark eco and changed to create a transmutation genetic code. I believe that to be the more likely case based on how Jak will go all dark and scary with the back claws and razor sharp teeth but the revert to a normal human."

Daxter was furiously scratching at the fur on his head trying to keep the feeling of an overloaded brain to a minimum. "What the hell does all that mean?"

Taryn folded her arms and shifted her weight to one foot. "It was either a short lived glitch that you turned human or you should be able to go back and forth."

Vin adjusted his glasses, "Precisely. I also have a theory on how this worked. First, when there is something scary or horrible in front of you, you want to shrink back become small and hide away. Panic, it's a genetic code for survival."

"But Daxter fought off metal head queens for precursors sake. I am getting sick of hearing that Daxter is a coward. He's got more gumption then most of the population of this spineless city of sheep."

Awe struck Vin did a dramatic double take as he looked at the small furry ottsel. "You! You took on a metal head queen? Oh, you mean with Jak right? For a moment I thought you meant on his own."

With a rather pissed off look Taryn's fingers were tapping rhythmically against her biceps. "I did."

"Oh you did well, I'm glad we cleared that up.. Wow it's kind of hot and…"

Panting heavily Vin started sliding down to the ground. Daxter and Taryn raised questioning looks as the scientist fainted. Daxter rolled his eyes, "oh yeah. 'Let's go see Vin he can help us.' Good one Taryn."

Hand on hip she looked down to the ottsel holding out an arm for him to climb up. "Hey it was a good idea. Vin's eccentric but he knows his stuff. Besides I think I've got the rest figured out. Have you had anything but alcohol and the bits of food that comes with it lately?"

Perched over Taryn's shoulder was no where near as comfortable as Jak's. First off she didn't have nearly enough real estate for him to get comfortable second her skin was too exposed and as much as he tried to be careful he would leave small thin scratches when he moved around. Though Taryn pretended not to notice. "Not really babe. I think I had some soup a few days ago but there really is not much time for food when you're laying down the heat with metal heads and keeping track of the golden boy wonder."

Taryn exited the electrical station where Vin worked. She looked both ways and glanced down the side of the walkway. She jumped into the passenger seat of a civilian's car. She gave him a solid kick on the shoulder to push him out but was courteous enough to change hover zones, unlike Jak. She took the wheel and Daxter put on the seat belt for the passenger side. "I think that your transformation doesn't deal solely with the DNA but the RNA as well. My guess is that a glucose count is one of the most important factors."

At the blank look she explained further. "Blood sugar, your body's energy. I don't think you'll manage to do any human time till you've put on weight. You're so fluffy as an ottsel I never noticed but when you're human you're definitely underweight, you've got muscle and bone but any fat is cosmetic and that's no good for a soldier. Plus, there is your mood. When you transformed you were definitely depressed. I think you're more comfortable in the ottsel body then the human one because you've gotten used to it. As a human you knew a much more friendly world, as an ottsel you know this one. I think your body reacted to the distress and lack of food by changing you back to the more adapted form."

Daxter was giving her a look she mistook for confusion but she gave it right back, though she was mostly focused on the cars. "Didn't you have a little more weight when I saw you last? You were always thin but your ribs look much more fragile then I remember them."

Daxter looked away for a second feeling the bones under his fur. "A little I guess. It isn't easy finding time to sit and eat, ya know? I mean, Jak's always on the move and grabs food for us while we're heading to this place or that but eating while running or moving or fighting makes me all wheezy like an old man. How do you know all those fancy medical mumbo jumbo words anyway? Come to think of it, you knew what Vin was talking about too. What gives?"

Taryn looked momentarily uncomfortable before she decided to tell him. "Vin used to be my tutor. My family paid for private lessons hoping I would enter the eco research field. Then I entered my rebellion phase and said I wanted to become a Wastelander and hunt for artifacts. I moved into the nearest residence that I could get to the gates so I could start training myself. I regret it now, because of what it lead to."

Her grip had tightened on the wheel of the car. Daxter's ears pinned back, "hey babe, you don't have to say it if it hurts."

She smiled, glancing over at him. "I'm prepping you Daxter. You want to learn about you're friend's past and I have a feeling his is even worse. As I was saying, my parents disowned me. I know they thought it would get me to come back because they told me so when they came to visit. They wanted me to come home, they loved me and were scared because there were so many bad things out there."

Taryn pulled down a dead end street and slowed the car to a stop; she was no longer able to focus on both driving and her story. "They didn't realize that the bad things outside the city were coming inside. And neither did I. The day they came to visit was the day that the place I lived became known as Dead Town. My parents and younger brother left barely an hour before the attack. When the attack started they came back for me. I know because when I went back after a couple days of not finding them I found them at my house. At the front door in fact, but I had locked it before evacuating with the others."

Taryn startled when the silence of her story was broken with a sharp breath. She looked to Daxter to see large tears running down his cheeks while crying. She pushed back with a hand any stray tears she might have had herself before reaching over and scooping him up to hold. He cried against her shoulder as she stroked his back softly. His small hands gripped her neck as he hugged her. "I'm sorry…"

She whispered softly while stroking his back soothingly. "It's alright. It was a long time ago."

"That doesn't make it any better! It shouldn't have happened."

Taryn felt an uncontrolled shudder run up her body as tears that she had thought had run dry welled up. Her face wasn't flushed, nor any other signs of crying but the tears fell all the same. She looked down to the small back that she now held in a tight hug. There was something special about him, so very special. Taryn rubbed the side of her face against him smudging her tears into his fur. "Thank you… thank you for saying that."

Author Note: Thank you to Nicend, Ezj and Dilapidated for reviewing. I'm very glad you all enjoyed the chapter. To Ezj, I hope you do begin to write your own Jak and Daxter fanfic, it's tiring but a lot of fun to do. Also I want to thank you for the idea, I'm hoping to put it to good use in the future.

Please everyone keep reviewing to let me know you like the chapter, and give ideas for the future.