Following Young Samos's plea, the heroes left Haven Forest back on the hover platform and toward the city security lock. As they mounted their zoomers, Cynder asked the group, "Where do we start? How can we stop Praxis if he has an entire city guarding him, as well as hunting us?"
"We stick to the original plan, I win the Championship race, gain access to the palace, and confront the Baron on his own ground," Jak answered.
"And if you don't win the race?" asked Hunter.
Jak was silent for minute pondering the question, all eyes were on him. He shook his head in attempt to clear it and said with firm tone, "I will win."
He started the engine and took off with the dragons in the back, both of them with apprehensive expressions on their faces. Hunter wore the same look as he started his zoomer and took off after them. As they flew around the corner toward the bazaar, Daxter asked, "what are we going to do in the meantime? The race isn't for another three hours!"
"Anybody up for another drink?" Jak asked.
"At the Hip Hog? With Krew? I'll pass," Cynder exclaimed.
"Yeah Jak, I think it would be best to make more productive use of our time, perhaps Torn has something for us?" Spyro replied.
Jak understood their reluctance to go back to Krew's place, though slightly bummed he was missing out on having one last Nightvaze before the biggest ride of his life. Although, Spyro's suggestion did have a good reason behind it, so he went with it, "Alright then, how about…"
Before he could continue, the communicator popped out, "Hey Cherries! Care to take some time out of your schedule for a job?"
"Its Sig!" exclaimed Daxter.
"What have you got?" asked Jak.
"There's an old friend in need of your expert assistance again, remember Brutter? I'm over by his stand, we'll discuss details in person," the communicator shut off as he finished.
"How convenient, were just a dogleg away from them," Jak said as he entered the bazaar.
"A what?" Spyro questioned hoping that he would explain the slang, but Cynder had a more prominent question, "Wait we're actually listening to him? He's Krew's head man! We can't trust him!"
"Relax blackie, Sig's cool, despite the company he keeps, he's got the right stuff," Daxter persuaded her.
"He's right, Sig has my respect," Jak added. Cynder wasn't entirely convinced, she mumbled under her breath while turning her head away showing her doubt. Spyro put his wing around her to ease the tension, it helped a little. Jak made a sharp left from the west main bazaar into a corner section that sat by itself. He flew all the way to the end and pulled to the right, underneath them was a small curio stand, Brutter's business. Jak landed right to the side of it, with Hunter following his lead and setting down on the other side of them. Sig waved them over from his seat at the stand.
"Hey Cherries! Glad to see you and the outlanders are still on the boat."
"Yeah, well recent events have been turbulent to say the least," Jak answered as he took a seat, and the others each found a spot along the bar where they sat down in conjunction, save for Sparx who floated in front of them. Until that split second when a large furry purple mass sprung up from behind the counter!
"ELLO!"
"WAAGGHH!" Sparx cried as he fell back in surprise at Spyro's feet. Everyone turned with wide eyes to the creature that had just showed himself, he chuckled roughly at his audience before speaking.
"Well now, its brother Jak and his little orangey pal! Brother Sig told you come stop by." It was then he noticed the dragons and the walking cheetah beside his old friends.
"You have new friends with you too, most unusual from anything Brutter or any Lurker has ever laid eye on."
"Yeah, same could be said for you…" Sparx stuttered from the ground, still in a daze from Brutter's surprise entrance.
Spyro decided to introduce, "Hello, I'm Spyro, this is Cynder, Hunter, and Sparx," finishing the introduction while looking down at his foster brother, "Are you a friend of Jaks?"
"Indeed, Jak friend of all Lurkers, he help Brutter save brothers from Baron's iron hand," he said turning to Jak with a cheerful expression.
"Lurkers?" questioned Hunter.
"Yeah, bunch of furry scowling beasts me and Jak have had rough encounters with," Daxter said whispering into his ear. "Though the weird thing is here, they're actually the nice ones."
"DAX!" Jak shouted, clearly having a good idea of what he was telling him regardless of not hearing it clearly. Daxter just shrugged and jumped off Hunter's shoulder and back onto the counter where he turned the countertop drinking barrel on and gulped the soothing nectar inside down.
"It's good to see you again Brutter, but we're in the middle of a crisis right now, we're still not sure what Sig called us out here for in the first place," said Jak.
"What do you think? To help an old friend liberate some more slave labor," Sig answered.
"Slave labor?" Cynder asked with monotone in her voice, knowing that the term slave was nothing but bad news.
"Me Lurker brothers and I forced to serve as Haven lower class," Brutter explained with grief, "Baron see us no more than mindless animals, but friend Sig, Jak, and Daxter help free Lurker brothers and release outside wall."
"Right now, there's a Lurker transport heading for the construction site, rumors say Praxis is constructing some new superweapon of some kind, in secret," Sig added.
"And he's going to use his so called Lurker labor force to build it," Jak finished getting the full picture.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Spyro asked Cynder.
"That what Samos warned us about is unfolding?" Cynder replied with great concern in her voice.
"It not only dangerous in city for Lurkers, but underground home in danger too," Brutter said interrupting the conversation.
"Metalheaders have been hunting for long time, now they find hidden Lurker village in caves, they bite and hurt village real bad, and me Lurker brothers, trapped like animals."
"Hello? They are animals!" Daxter exclaimed.
"We no longer evil lurking, bad to bone orangey boy," Brutter stated as he rubbed Daxter's chin for assurance before turning toward the group with a grin, "We good now, metalheaders are bad, they is enemies."
"Yeah, I guess we're all in the same boat now," said Jak. Daxter went to add something, but Sparx beat him to it.
"And this ships sinking fast, hero"
"Hey I was gonna say that!" exclaimed Daxter.
"Not from where I'm planted, and there's still time to make a stand," Sig told the group, "I don't how the whole story of how the lot of you managed to last this long through the fire called life, but I do know this, the fact that your still standing right now proves that you can withstand the heat and pull through. I don't know what's coming next, but I'm willing to go all the way, that's how a true wastelander does it, and I'm not leaving my friends behind, right?" he asked turning to Brutter, who replied with a friendly nod.
"I'll say this much, the guy has a way with words," Sparx said to Spyro, who had listened to Sig's every word and was starting to believe what Jak said about him was true, he hoped Cynder felt the same.
"Well then, I guess it's time to rally our forces," stated Jak. "What about you guys?" He said turning in Spyro's direction.
"We've come this far haven't we?" Spyro responded.
"Please, save four lurker brothers quick, and Brutter will kiss your foot," he said while mistakingly putting up four fingers on both hands and turning to Daxter who pulled his feet away instantly. "Yeah, do me a favor, and hold onto that."
He jumped back onto Jak's shoulder while Sparx snickered behind his back. Jak mounted his flyer with the dragons right behind him, while Sig got Hunter's attention saying,
"Hey wildcat, ride with me, I could use a main gunner while I pilot."
"First of all, my name is Hunter, and I'm afraid I'm not accustomed to using your particular brands of firearms."
"All you need to know are the basics, grip, aim, and shoot, nothing too different from shooting your bow, luckily I have fire already attached to my cruiser," he said pulling just out of the way to show his cruiser parked next to Brutter's stand. It was a modified dark brown transportation cruiser with a larger jet exhaust manifold in the back, no doubt the engine was supercharged to accommodate for the upgraded exhaust. Like he said, there was a long range semi auto eco shooter attached to the top of the vehicle body and extended halfway down the front end.
Daxter eyed the shooter with high admiration stating, "Only you Sig would think of turning a common citizen approved mode of transportation into a war tank."
"How did you get something like that through the city without Krimzon guard on your tail?" asked Jak.
Sig walked up to the cruiser and flicked a switch on the console, a compartment opened up in the back, wide and long enough to hold the front mounted gun, thus answering Jak's question. "Luckily it's detachable," Sig said before climbing into the pilot seat, whereas Hunter was still hesitant.
"You coming?" Sig called to get his attention.
Hunter turned back toward his friends, Spyro and others showing they were willing to go through with it. Spyro nodded to him giving him his vote of confidence in Sig. Hunter nodded back and walked over to the cruiser and mounted up. Both vehicles roared to life as their hover engines hoisted them off the ground and into the sky, Brutter waving them goodbye as they sped around the corner.
Leaving Hunter's single seater behind, Sig led the way with Jak and the dragons zooming right behind him. He activated his front console radar and installed a data drive he received from Brutter, regarding the transports delivery route.
"Luckily, Krew shared his findings with Brutter last time we liberated Lurkers from the Baron, all these transports communicate with each other on their own specific frequency, the data on this drive should isolate that frequency, and display their respective position on this radar," Sig explained. Hunter couldn't follow any of that, and simply asked, "So you can find them?"
Sig gave him a blank look and said, "Yes." He turned back toward the skyway and turned the wheel toward the Main Town gate. The two zoomers flew along a far stretch of farmland which doglegged left, where they saw a very large sprinkler cannon watering a vegetation garden. On their right was the Main Town checkpoint, where Sig noticed two transport signatures in the vicinity.
"Get ready on the gun kitty," said Sig.
Hunter gripped what appeared to be the trigger of the gun, given he had never used anything of this scale before, he felt like he was firing completely blind…figuratively. Pointing to the trigger he asked, "Is this what fires the weapon?"
Sig turned to where he was pointing and said, "Yeah, point aim and fire Spots."
"My name is Hunter," he told Sig with a stern expression.
"Sorry"
"Transport at 1 o 'clock!" Jak yelled out. Sig turned his view toward the front again and saw a large red Krimzon transport was coming around the bend, with a Lurker caged in the backside pen. Though their quarry was in sight, the sight of the stationary armed zoomer and the unusual passengers seated in both cockpits gathered some unwanted attention from the crowd down on the walkways.
"Are those mercenaries?...Aren't they the aliens the broadcasts warned us about?" Those were only a few of the dialogues the team could depict from their suspicious audience.
"Why do I get the feeling were about to be busted?" Sparx said shakingly.
"Not today," said Jak, as Daxter appeared on his shoulder holding the blaster with both hands and aiming it at the transport, "Time for some long awaited and refreshing KG chaos!"
He opened fire, hitting the transport with two shots, at the same time the crowd of people started running away screaming from the firing vehicle.
"I thought we were trying to get on their good side?" Cynder asked, voicing her concern into frightening the populace.
"Trust me blackie, this will pay off in the long run!" Daxter said as he continued firing. The ship reversed its direction as it continued to receive pelting fire from the blaster. Jak gunned the engines as it flew off.
"We got this one! Find the other!" Jak yelled to Sig as he flew away. Sig gunned his thrusters and followed them close behind.
"Look out!" Spyro shouted noticing something bad.
Sig and Hunter turned around to see two Krimzon H-cat zoomers were incoming fast, intending to knock them out of the sky. Sig had yet to pick up speed, so he did the next best thing, he lowered his hover zone to the ground, and the patrol ended up passing over them, with one of them following Jak's zoomer around the bend. The other started to turn around and begin firing at them, Sig had already engaged thrust and plunged into the water canal beneath. They flew above the water surface with the KG zoomer flying above firing with his bottom mounted laser gun.
"We lost the others!" Hunter exclaimed over the gunfire.
"We'll meet up later, Jak can handle that one but we need to find its partner, these transports always travel in pairs, the other has to be close in this sector, what's the radar show?"
Hunter turned his attention toward the radar screen on the dashboard. Sig made another turn avoiding another laser blast while one just scraped the spoiler. Hunter regained his bearings and looked at the radar, there was one blip close to them, moving away, and another signal was showing up on the outermost ring of the screen.
"There's two dots, one close to center, and one near the outside."
"The one near the center is Jak's bounty, that other signal is near the heart of Main Town, we'll follow the canal and meet it halfway!" Sig continued snake winding through the canal, avoiding more laser blasts from above. A couple hundred yards down, the signal pulsed closer on the left, and he raised the zoomer above the waterway and toward another alley on the left, weaving around traffic and with the KG zoomer still in hot pursuit.
"I'm starting to think we bit off more than we could chew with this job!" Hunter said as another laser blast hit their spoiler.
"You're just not used to the heavy fire yet Hunter!" Sig replied.
"The heavy fire is one thing, the high speed chase is another!" yelled Hunter.
The zoomer entered a large plaza, with a large roofed pavilion in the center and the palace in the background. People starting running in all directions attempting to avoid the speeding zoomers that entered the plaza. Sig paid them no mind and turned his attention toward the Lurker transport he noticed on the left section of the plaza.
"We got him, hold on Hunter!" Sig shouted.
He gunned toward the transport and made a sharp turn around its right, with the KG zoomer still right on his spoiler. They narrowly avoided a collision with another citizen flyer, going low into the surrounding canal, causing the KG zoomer to collide with the flyer, knocking both of them away in opposite directions, with the zoomer having its front end nearly smashed in. Sig flew out of the canal carefully avoiding traffic and focused his attention on the transport, which started to flee in the same direction they had come. He thrusted forward, sideswiping the KG zoomer, causing the pilot to fall right out onto the walkway and the zoomer to crash into the wall of the pavilion. With the pursuit out of the way, they targeted the transport.
"Get ready to fire!" Sig ordered Hunter.
Hunter gripped the trigger, and prepared to take aim. "Aim for the thrusters!" Sig added. Honing in as best as he could, hoping inside his natural skills would transition, he aimed for the jets and pulled the trigger. Three shots fired from the gun, Hunter struggling to keep steady from the recoil. The shots hit the right side of the cage, damaging the cage, but not the jets.
"Hold it tight and keep steady, and hurry!" Sig advised as the transport made the right turn into the sections main canal. Citizen flyers averted themselves as the transport shoved them aside. Hunter gripped the trigger tighter than he ever did his bow, and fired again. Two shots hit the jet causing the transport to topple, veering off to the right toward the ground. It crashed right into the walkway, with people running away from damaged transport, which crashed into the walkway wall. The pilot was knocked unconscious, and Lurker freed himself from the broken cage as he broke it down with his bare hands. Sig flew down and landed near the free beast.
"Get in! We're getting you out of here!" he said to the Lurker. The Lurker jumped up onto the back of the armored cruiser as Sig took off into the sky again. Krimzon guards started arriving on the scene, but Sig had already flown off.
"Where do we take him?" asked Hunter.
"I know the dropoff point, but we need to find Jak first!" answered Sig.
They flew around for about two minutes, and eventually found them, and they noticed that they had the other Lurker on the back of their flyer. Unfortunately, they were still being tailed by the other KG zoomer. "Turn around!" Jak yelled to them.
Sig quickly turned in the other direction, keeping ahead of Jak and the zoomer. The zoomer continued firing on them, until finally Cynder spoke, "I've had enough of this high speed kill shot!" She opened her wings and jumped up out of her seat.
"Cynder, wait!" Spyro cried after her. She was already air-borne, directing all her momentum toward the KG pilot. He just noticed her as soon as she tackled him off his seat. She caught him in a mild whirlwind and let him go, sending him flying nearly 150 yards away into the canal. The pilotless KG zoomer crashed into a sidewall after him. With her task complete, she flew back to the zoomer, just as the crowd was starting to pull themselves up to view the aftermath. Both zoomers hauling the freed Lurkers picked up speed seeing that Cynder was coming back. She landed right back in her old place.
"Nice job," Daxter commented.
"eh, easy peasy," she replied shrugging her shoulders.
"Cyn, you keep surprising me, and scaring," Jak added.
"Just don't get on her bad side," Spyro said, smiling in Cynder's direction who returned it. The two zoomers with Lurker passengers rounded the next corner and followed Sig toward the drop-off point. Following his navigation, they came to an extruded manhole at the end of an alley. Both zoomers landed right next to the manhole.
"Here's where you furballs get out, go!" Sig ordered the Lurkers. The beasts jumped out and toward the manhole. Both jumped in, spinning the cover around as they entered. Sig turned to Jak and the dragons and said, "Two to go, let's leave before more Krimzon Guards arrive!"
Both of them fired up their engines again and exited the alley. They navigated to the canal and followed it out of the Main Town section and into the farm area, unfortunately where a large H-cat fighter was waiting for them.
"Uh oh," Sparx said upon seeing the obstruction. The fighter opened fired, both with its bottom mounted laser and twin gun turrets mounted on top. The zoomers split up on opposite sides, allowing the gunfire to miss them down the middle. They zoomed by the fighter on both sides, just as it started to turn around to pursue them. They flew through the farm area back toward the bazaar, navigating along the long stretch leading to the Mountain Temple exit, with the fighter rocketing right behind them, firing its top mounted gun. The fire was pelting the back of Jak's flyer, forcing Jak, Sparx, Daxter and the dragons to keep their heads down. The gun fire broke off one of the back wings, causing the flyer to jolt to the left. Luckily Jak leveled it out quickly, but knew they couldn't take it forever.
"Can you take this one like the last?" Jak asked Cynder.
"Not without getting pelted with fire!"
"Then we fire from here!" said Spyro, as he stood up with smoke billowing from his maw. He threw a fireball straight at the fighter, hitting right against its blast shield, causing it to halt. He threw a couple more its way, with two more forcing it back further. They lost sight of it as they rounded the right corner, and then made the sharp left turn into the bazaar. As they entered, it seemed they had escaped it, and carefully navigated their way through the crowded airway. They had gone straight ahead, passing the area where Brutter's hut was and heading toward the west side of the city. As they rounded another corner they saw their bounty ahead of them, another Lurker transport exiting the bazaar and into another farm area. Sig turned to Hunter.
"Blow him out of the sky!"
Hunter followed as he aimed and fired the gun. Two shots get it dead on in the back, even clipping part of the cage loose. The transport instinctively fired up and zoomed away from them, Sig followed in transit with Jak right behind. Hunter kept firing at the transport trying to ground it, but he was struggling to keep it level and make a direct hit, especially with the transport weaving about in a wide area, unlike his first triumph.
"Give him a hand Dax!" Jak stated. His orange buddy nodded and brought out the blaster again, targeting the transport and firing along with Hunter. They made a sharp turn to the right, and continued firing once straightened out. Soon, the transport's engines were smoking heavily, having taken so much pelting damage, and was starting to slow down. This gave Hunter and Daxter their shot, targeting the thrusters and with one final shot, exploded them and grounded the transport. The pilot crawled out, badly wounded, seeing he was no threat now Sig landed next to the transport and retrieved the Lurker from the broken cage. Jak flew over his head and called to him.
"We'll go ahead and find the other!" he said.
He turned his focus ahead of him again, avoiding any oncoming traffic as he made a sharp right turn, meeting an unfortunate surprise. Two KG zoomers propelled trying to ram him, but Jak lowered his hover zone just in time.
"WOOAAH!" came from nearly everyone in the cockpit. The zoomers slowed themselves down and turned around to continue the chase. Jak was flying low hoping to avoid any other oncoming zoomers, unfortunately citizens were walking through this section toward the bazaar, causing him to make a lot of quick moves which lost him speed. Most of them dove out of the way as he made another left turn, passing a Yakow pen on the way.
"There it is!" Daxter pointed ahead to the Krimzon transport as it was exiting the farm area for the port.
"And here they come!" Sparx replied as he pointed at the KG zoomers who were gaining ground.
"We can take them out! Jak, go for the transport!" Spyro told him as he freed his wings from his cape and prepared to take flight. Jak gave them a nod and watched Spyro and Cynder open their wings and head for the zoomers. The KG pilots took their attention off Jak and fired at the dragons. However they were too fast, and both dragons swerved to the side and propelled toward the pilots knocking them off their rides. The transports crashed into the ground, along with the pilots, and the dragons safely landing in front of them. The crowd dispersed in fear as the KG struggled to retrieve their sidearms, but their chance was never given. Spyro comet dashed into his guard knocking him out. Cynder bit down on the leg of her guard, causing him to yell in pain, and through him against the wall, knocking him out as well. As the dragons finished the guard, Daxter gripped the blaster aiming for the transport on Jak's left shoulder while Sparx clung on to Jak's right. His pelting fire was made aware of, as the transport rocketed ahead into the port, heading for the construction site.
"I think now would be a good time for the peacemaker!" Jak told his partner.
"Now you're talking!" Daxter twisted the morphing servo on the gun, switching from yellow setting to purple, turning the gun into the peacemaker weapon they had received from Krew, they had yet to use it until now. Daxter gripped the trigger and squeezed. Blue electrical energy was charging in the maw of the metalhead mount of the barrel.
Wooooooooo…
Sparx watched in awe. Daxter focused his laser sight right at the back end of the transport, and released the trigger. A blue electric orb released itself from the barrel, propelling toward the transport. The Lurker inside saw what was coming and covered its head. The shot hit dead on, blowing out the thrusters and splitting chunks of the metal hull away as the crippled transport crashed into the ground and skidded toward the port bay. The cage fell free, and the Lurker rolled out on the ground, dazed but alive. The transport broke through the port railing, and surprisingly leveled itself like a seesaw on the edge. People ran from the accident as Jak landed next to the Lurker who had been freed.
"You alright?" The Lurker tilted its head, not sure how to respond considering what they had done, but gratefully nodded saying no harm, no foul. Spyro and Cynder flew back down next to him as they witnessed what had just happened.
"So that's what it can do," Spyro complimented on the peacemaker.
"Yup, makes your electric breath look like a sparkler huh?" replied Daxter.
"Let's not get crazy," said Spyro.
"On aboard big guy," Cynder said to the Lurker as she and Spyro mounted as well. Jak fired the engines up again, just as three more KG zoomers approached them from the bay.
"Let's get out of here!" Daxter yelled. Jak spun his zoomer around and thrusted back toward the farm area. As they entered the zone, they noticed Sig and Hunter approaching them with the other Lurker, who unfortunately were being followed by the H-cat fighter they had escaped earlier. Sig looked ahead and saw Jak was zooming right towards him. Intuitively, they both picked up the hint and kept going full tilt toward each other.
"Jak? What are you…" Spyro stammered. Jak just kept his eyes ahead, the passengers on the zoomers growing more worried as the game of chicken drew closer and closer.
This is my longest chapter so far, I really enjoyed writing this thrilling vehicle chase! Wait and see how it ends!