I do not own Jak and Daxter. MEOW.
Vacation or War-Endgame
Chapter Twenty Nine-Hunter
Despite having the whole walk between Ryan's apartment and the front gate to talk about it, neither Loor nor Jak decided to explain her morning episode to Daxter. The ottsel hadn't woken up, sleeping like a rock through the early disturbance and staying that way until the smell of Ryan making breakfast (more plain soup with tough bread) gave him a more meaningful reason to wake up. Ryan had been the fastest to finish and out the door just as quickly, and the trio hadn't taken much longer. The sun was rising, and assuming Kleiver had something for them to do it would surely be another interesting day in the wastes. Stopping only for water at the public well, the group moved on in silence.
Almost.
"Alright, I know this dance a little too well... What's up?" Daxter asked, glaring between his friends. He was sitting on Jak's shoulder, only lazily hanging on to his friend's hair. "You two are being way too quiet."
"People don't have to make noise all the time." Loor pointed out to the ottsel when Jak made no motion to answer. "Mornings are nice because they're quiet; haven't you ever watched a sunrise before? It's beautiful, tranquil... and silent." She punctuated her last word with a playful glare, as they all knew that Daxter didn't have the capacity for silence.
"Not to mention bo-ring!" Daxter laughed at her glare, scuttling to properly stand on Jak's shoulder. "C'mon Loor, who do you think you're kidding? I know that look on her face."
"What look?" She asked, not aware that she was making a 'look.' She'd just been thinking about that morning, particularly the sense of eco she'd gotten on the way back to the city. She was honestly wondering if she'd actually sensed something or if Lyra had been messing with her head; it wouldn't be the first time the animal made her feel something that wasn't there... though usually such sensory confusion was limited to their arguments on the inside. "I was making a look?"
"Yeah!" Dax tried to imitate, his fuzzy face drawing a concentrated glare to the sand as his brow furrowed and his lips pressed together. "Like that! You make that face whenever you're thinkin' too hard!"
"Not exactly." She shrugged, the lie rolling off of her easily. "Just zoned out. It's early, we're probably going to go through all sorts of new hell today... taking the relaxing moments where I can get them."
"Tch, you two." Daxter looked to his partner, who was also technically an offender. "Why do I even bother? You're both hopeless! All quiet and stuff when ya should be makin' the most of it."
"Gotta keep busy." Jak dismissed his friend's prodding. "Unless you wanna be on Damas's bad side."
"Heck no, but travel time between the three of us used to be fun!"
Loor felt her temper spark at this comment, giving only a brief glance to Daxter before picking up the pace, growling to herself as Jak fell in line for a speedy walk.
It's not like I meant to forget everything. I don't even know why my brain got burnt out. This isn't my fault.
"Hey, hey, what'd I say?" Daxter wouldn't give up, even with tensions rising. "I was just sayin'... Jeez Loor, I was just sayin' you could loosen up a bit."
A heated reply was forming in her head, but the ottsel was right; living in the moment was probably best. There was no point in throwing her brain against mysteries when she didn't even know if they mattered. Taking a deep breath, she let it out and felt her shoulders fall a little, out of her tense posture. Looking back, she forced a smile in hopes that her mood would follow the faces she chose to make. "Sorry Dax... You're right. Still, it's tough. I donno how you keep that grin on all the time."
"I don't like to mope, simple as that. Heck, between the two of you if I got all serious too we'd be one big party of downers, and that's no fun at all! Jakkie-boy here is always quiet, so he's got an excuse, but if you ain't speaking up I know I've gotta poke you and get you to let off some pressure before you explode. It's happened before! You nearly clocked Jak once!"
"Nearly?" She looked to Jak, raising an eyebrow.
"You missed." Jak reported with a small smirk. "Though if you'd actually hit me..." He let off a short laugh. "Let's just say I'm glad I have good reflexes."
"Right." She nodded while reaching into the pouch at her hip. What thinking she had done had brought her to a conclusion; she grabbed the gate pass and tossed it to Jak. "Well think fast."
Jak snatched it out of the air before analyzing what it was, blinking at it before looking at her. "You sure?"
"I don't wanna have a repeat performance of this morning." She said with a shrug and a smile. "You keep in better control than me, so you hang onto it."
"This morning?" Daxter looked between his partners once more. "Ah! I knew it, something did happen! Oh, oh, you two run off somewhere?"
"Just me." Loor laughed at the ottsel's enthusiasm. "And seeing as I can be a tad... impulsive, given the right push, I figure giving me the key that lets me out of the city while possibly trapping you two on the other side of the door is... counter productive."
"Dammit, this is exactly what I'm talking about!" Daxter crowed as Jak put the gate pass away, the trio approaching the gate to the garage. "Wasting time being all serious when you could be having fun. I mean, c'mon, time and place for everything, right? Right?"
"Right..."
Loor and Jak stole a glance at each other. A secret smile was shared; Daxter didn't know about the moments they'd enjoyed the night before, and he didn't catch this exchange either. Granted, it lasted for only a moment, and then the door they were approaching began to clunk open so they could continue on in their early morning search for Kleiver.
As luck would have it, the large wastelander was present. Kleiver stood with a piece of heavy artillery in hand; some kind of large gun at the end of a bigger stick. Whether he'd been doing some maintenance on the piece or simply admiring it in the early light was anyone's guess, but his eyes shifted away from it when the trouble trio entered. "Back for more, eh? Figured you'd be scared off by now, Sheila."
Loor did her best to keep her growl to herself; for some reason she doubted she'd ever earn the necessary amount of respect to get Kleiver to call her by her actual name instead of some creepy-sounding pet name that referred more to her gender than anything. Instead she smiled, a cocky grin hiding her desperation to be taken seriously. "By a little rough riding? Yeah right. We came back looking for more."
"So you're looking for a bit of action?" Kleiver was wearing a smile himself under his ratty mustache. "The scope shows a group of metal heads moving through the desert not too far from here."
"Really?" Loor went from cocky to sarcastic. "Metal heads in the wasteland, not like they had a nest out here or anything. For some reason, I'm assuming you don't go chasing every pack in the sandbox down personally, or there wouldn't be enough people in this city to go around. What makes this group so special?"
"Damas said so, that's what." Kleiver glared, annoyed by Loor's questioning as usual. "I don't like metal heads almost as much as I don't like you! And you've got some proving to do! Intercept those bad boys and give 'em hell. Who knows... you may even get a few toys for your effort."
"Why does it sound like you're leaving out all the dangerous parts?" Daxter demanded before glancing at his partners. "Guys, I'm getting some nasty Juju vibes here... I don't have these whiskers for nothing, ya know!"
"Couple of metal heads in the desert, what could be the problem?" Loor pointed out. "We haven't seen combat since the arena yesterday, it'll be nice to stretch out the kinks."
"Yeah Dax." Jak agreed with a slight smile. "Relax."
"Have you nippers ever seen a wasteland metal head?" Kleiver asked, more menace than concern in his voice.
"No..." Daxter shrunk a little on Jak's shoulder. "Why?"
"Nothin'." Kleiver's smile came back. "Just wondering. Though you're gonna need a little more oomph to take 'em out than what you're packing, and the dust puppy you've been driving might be a bit slow..." Gesturing with a meaty hand, he directed attention to another one of the vehicles in the garage, parked near the door to the city. "Tell ya what, you take that one over there. It's got a couple of full auto guns up top and enough ammo to mow down an army. Come back with 'er in one piece, and I'll let you use it whenever you like."
The vehicle he gestured to was bigger than the little dune buggy that had been won through Jak's race with Kleiver yesterday. Not much higher off of the ground, but longer bodied and with a more complete shell. It was still mostly an open roll cage with some great big sand tires, but the thing that Loor was mostly focused on was the fact that it had two seats. "Sweet." Was all she had to say, making her way over to the vehicle while turning to smile at Jak and Daxter. "So, Jak, it's your turn to drive, ain't it?"
"Hell yes." Jak was also grinning at the new set of wheels.
Kleiver stood back to give them a clear shot to the giant door leading outside. "Go get 'em, heroes."
Again, his voice was seeped in hardly contained smug malice, and the following chuckle was downright evil. Loor's enthusiasm was only briefly dampened; if Kleiver was keeping things from them for his own amusement, then they'd just have to show him up by kicking some serious ass.
Still, they were just going out to kill some metal heads. How hard could it be?
Jak took the driver's seat as Loor slid into the passenger's, mentally kicking herself the moment after that thought occurred to her. Even if she didn't say it out loud, 'How hard could it be?' were classic last words. What was it about this place that brought out the cocky idiot in her?!
Jak took all of two seconds to get the vehicle on and revving, shifting into gear and lining up with the massive gate to the outside. Grinding open, it was only a matter of time before they were faced with the desert; the breeze that had howled at Loor during the pre-dawn was mostly dead, leaving clear air and a yellow sea of sand under the morning sun. Despite this, Loor knew she'd be squinting for most of this trip; she didn't have goggles to protect her eyes this time.
Tension and excitement rose up as the door slowly opened. Then, when the gate looked barely open enough to allow them through, Jak dropped the hammer and shot off, the threshold of the wall launching them and giving the trio a brief and exhilarating moment of air. Jak and Daxter were laughing, and though Loor yelped at first she followed it with a whoop that came with the adrenaline rush. Aside from a strap on the seat, she didn't see and actual belts to strap in with, leaving her to grip the roll cage with one hand and the aforementioned 'oh shit' strap with the other.
Once out and in the sand, Loor's gaze turned to what was inside the car. The pieces inside were simple and rough; metal pieces covered in leather straps to make them more friendly to the touch. The gear shift was little more than a bit of pipe wrapped up in hide, though the gauge panel looked a little more sophisticated. Her interest was taken by two things; one was another stick besides the shift and the E-brake, a handle that looked more easy for her to manipulate than Jak, since it was on her side of the gear shift. It didn't look like it was meant to move much either, the only hint to its function being the fact that there was a red trigger under a curve of protective metal. It didn't take a scientist to guess that was to fire the guns Kleiver had talked about, mounted to the top of the roll cage. The other thing Loor noted was a circular display, placed forward from the shift and slightly raised, that after a few moments of blinking she realized was a map.
"They do have this place gridded!" She had to shout as Jak got up to speed, surprise hitting her while she pointed at the display. It wasn't even in color, a rough elevation map in black and neon green, but it was easy enough to understand. A dot in the center that never appeared to move as the lines corresponding with the landscape shifted; the vehicle had a computer that knew where they were, which meant the people of Spargus had some kind of locational system set up. She assumed it was like the grid in Haven, and used the vernacular. After being so long without any sort of map, it was a relief to have one now.
A further relief when another dot appeared on the screen. Red, not green, to the south west; no doubt whatever 'scope' picked up the metal heads Kleiver had talked about had set up a marker for people to avoid... or chase down, as their case was.
"Hunting made easy, 'eh toots?!" Daxter shouted as Jak only spared a glance to the map before pushing his goggles down over his eyes, turning to follow the red marker. Shit was gonna get serious now; they were turning to one of the gaps in the mountain chain that seemed to form a bowl around Spargus's front gate, heading for the first force of metal heads they'd seen since leaving Haven.
What they saw was not what they expected.
It was a moment that made Loor stiffen; revving up a steep incline to get to the gap between the mountains, and reaching a point that let the trio look out on the world beyond. Already squinting against rushing air, Loor wasn't sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing at first. Sadly, none of her senses were deluding her. As if to reassure her eyes, the definite sense of eco struck her only seconds after. Her mouth fell open, a stunned silence and a faint wheeze of air being all she could produce.
Some distance, more than a mile, a creature of incredible bulk was on the move. It ran in line with two others; creatures at least thirty feet tall if not taller at the shoulder, tromping on two massive legs with a build similar to the leaper lizards, though lacking in the wing-like front appendages. They had arms, but they were tiny compared to the rest of their bodies; dark brown and ugly, brawny tails whipping back and forth as they ran, great heads lowered to balance themselves. Dominating most of the skull, as if there was any doubt to what these creatures were, was a bright yellow gem-like formation.
These creatures were metal heads.
They were the size of a fucking house, but they were metal heads.
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KILL THOSE?!" Daxter was the first to outwardly protest the errand they'd been given.
"Lots of fucking bullets, that's how!" Loor snapped back, Daxter's energy pulling her out of her shock. Before Jak even asked her hand was on the grip with the trigger, though she still didn't abandon hanging onto the roll cage with the other, simply checking where her hand was to make sure it was behind where the guns were mounted.
Jak let off a yell that sounded like he was burning off adrenaline; the vehicle dipping down the other side of the dune and beginning the pursuit of the metal heads they were after. Between speed and the surprise of the current situation, Loor found herself doing the same. It was like going down a roller coaster, forcing her head to stay up and focused on their targets despite the weightless feeling she got from the drop. The fact that Jak still kept the vehicle in control was both amazing and a God-send, hitting the bottom of the dune and given a straight run up to their first mark's heels.
Assuming metal heads had anything one could call a heel.
"Open up!" Jak shouted.
Loor didn't hesitate, pulling and holding the trigger down. At once the clatter of bullets drowned out the noise of the air rushing by, slugs burning across the distance and finding their mark; the back of their first target's legs. The creature responded by letting off a scream of pain, and the two in front of it instantly broke off of whatever path they were following to wherever they were going to scatter. The one they were firing upon stumbled a little in the sand, and then suddenly stopped while it's body turned. While its forward momentum caused it to slide, it became a jumbo-sized wall soon enough.
A wall that had teeth, which Jak, Daxter, and Loor were speeding towards. Loor hadn't let up on the gun, bullets peppering the metal head's massive head and the even more massive body behind it, before Jak shifted to neutral and used the E-brake to turn sharply and get the hell out of the way.
The metal head hadn't stopped, it had just pulled U-turn. Getting back into gear and shooting off again, they were just barely out of the path before the creature lurched forward. If they'd been there, they would have been crushed. Thankfully they weren't, and the metal head was trying to gain some ground while they finessed into a U-turn of their own to chase after the thing. Loor's grip on the trigger was yet to ease off, and she doubted it would before this monster went down.
The wasteland was home to more than metal heads. Other creatures, both mundane and fantastic, called the sands home. Men rejected from the city also carved out a barbaric living, living like half-sane dogs. As expected the harsh landscape, dry whether, and burning sand made it so only the most hearty creatures would survive, but one may have thought the introduction of a new creature impossible.
Granted, she was not just any creature. She was aware. And she was watching. Following her instincts wherever the led her, as they had early that morning, before the sun had been up. She'd followed her senses close to the mountains and the walls, closer than she'd dared before, because of the sense. She'd assumed it had been another one of the many, many metal heads that usually attracted her attention, wandering away from its group and making it easy hunting for her. What she'd found had been a woman. A woman whom she knew from memories dimmed by pain. Her name had come to mind in a glance, despite minor changes like the length of her hair and burnt complexion.
Loor had been the woman she'd seen in the sand that morning. And, if she didn't know better, Loor had seemed to sense her in the exact same way. She'd stopped, raised her head, searched and called out in the darkness. What had been a prospective hunt turned into a fearful curiosity. Curiosity was possibly lethal though; a trait useless to a hunter who already knew her range and her usual prey. She, possibly like Loor, had shrugged off the early morning events and gone back to things as she'd known them... or better put, she tried to.
But curiosity; the itch to know. She was sure that she'd been cursed with awareness, not blessed, left conflicted until she was finally driven to seek out the sense again.
Just to be sure, she told herself. To see if it truly was Loor she'd seen in the shadows, though at the time she'd had no doubts. Even then, she had no idea what she'd do with the information. Why chase down something so useless?
The answer was obvious; because she wanted to. There was no better reason than that.
And so remained out of her usual range, finding her way back to where she'd been before as the sun finally rose. She disliked the light, remaining close to shadows should the brightness ever overwhelm her. The mountains had many ledges to duck under, outcroppings that shaded her eyes that preferred the darkness. Climbing the rocks were of no difficulty to her, and she feared nothing that may have hidden within a cave. The greatest predators here were the metal heads, and she'd never had need to fear them.
She always sensed them coming, and knew quite well that they ripped easily when pulled the right way.
It was at this time, ducked into the shadow of a rocky crevice, that she was struck again; the warmth and sparks, the sense she depended on so heavily. She didn't doubt, looking up and listening, and soon enough seeing what she sought.
Loor was out in the desert again, and this time she wasn't alone. Another was with her, along with a small rat-like animal, all riding along in one of the vehicles the more civilized people of the wasteland liked to use. Perhaps she knew their names, but she didn't care. Her attention was focused on Loor. The vehicle was heading the way she'd come from, where she'd passed three metal heads of greater size not too long ago. She'd been briefly distracted by them, but the same curiosity that had driven her here had also lengthened her usual attention span. Now it seemed these metal heads became players once again; Loor was outside the city for a hunt of her own.
A quite successful hunt, she noted. First clumsy, then quite proficient, she was able to watch as all three of the metal heads soaked up shots before finally crashing down into the sand, bleeding out and stimulating her sense more. It gave her a desire to get closer to the action, but even that couldn't force her out into the harsh light.
No, she remained crouched down, watching with oddly intense interest as the third and final metal head crashed to the ground and the vehicle carrying the hunters responsible stopped... and for good reason. There was something down there, a greater source of the sense than the metal heads or even Loor. Something even more concentrated and powerful. It must have been contained before, but the fallen metal head's cargo had been cracked open when it fell, flinging out objects that were nearly impossible to see at such a distance. Still, if Loor could feel her, there was no doubt that she felt this.
Envy, jealousy, flashed through her when she realized whatever the prize was, Loor was going to get it.
Awareness was a curse; her curiosity had driven her to witnessing this scene, and now her aversions kept her from reaping any reward.
She could go out into the sun. It wouldn't hurt her much more than peering out into the bright daylight did already; damn her eyes. She could kill them, steal the prize. Metal heads tore easily enough, people were even more frail.
She could.
But was the prize worth such risk? Such curiosity? She'd nearly lost her life already, the last time she was anywhere close to 'civilized' people. Loor was part of dimmer memories, a time before that. She had a right to fear a face she remembered more than one she didn't; those were faces who might've been involved with the pain that muddied her mind.
That fear irritated her. She wanted to be more powerful, powerful enough not to fear anything.
Growling, she settled to watch. A hunter was patient, she reminded herself. All she had to do was wait. Loor had left the city before, alone, in the darkness. Another opportunity like that would have to be taken.
She'd have to kill Loor, and anyone with her. It was safest.
The Author's Corner
Aaaaand we have another character without a name. Hey, at least this one is a girl. XD And questionably human.
Has anyone guessed who Loor's friendly foe is yet? Hm, I wonder...
ONWARDS!
Favorites are goodies but reviews are sweeties! To pilfer the pondering of a certain someone on Deviant Art...
-Loor
