CLEANED UP
Clean-up notes for this chapter: Holy crap, a section of the story that ended up SHORTER because of the clean-up? Reality must be unwinding itself... this puppy runs forward about two chapters because I've learned a great way to keep things going is to hop over the mechanics of the mission; we don't care because we already know, as gamers, how shit got done.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jak and Daxter.
Vacation or War
Chapter Fifty Four- Interpretation
Despite the dramatics that both girl and ottsel expressed when the red button was pressed, it turned out to be nothing more than a way to hop the machine over gaps; it engaged something rather like a jet-pack on the back, the legs bending and throwing the whole suit's weight up into the air as the jets added some extra 'oomph'. It was just startling, since neither of them were expecting it. The comm. unit, which was still engaged, communicated the fact that Jak was laughing at them and their loud protest to the suit's sudden movement.
Now that Loor knew how to drive the tank, and Jak came back to defend it as they made their way through the ruins of dead town, the going was fairly quick. A clearly weak wall of the island was broken open, Jakkie-boy took the lead to clear the zone ahead of nasties, and Loor would bring the titian suit to follow and open up the next area by way of either bashing a wall, knocking something down to make a bridge, or moving big stone blocks to make stepping stones. The suit itself had an on-board computer that told her where things were weak enough for her to break through, and easily gauged the size of blocks so there were no ill fits when she picked one up.
The trip made her somewhat sad; winding their way through old buildings she saw a part of Haven that was once a thriving section of big buildings and beautiful architecture. The stone walls were stained with old paint that was either scratched away or bleached by the sun, bits of tile broken and scraps of carpet molded and ripped apart. She almost felt bad, ripping out blocks of stone and re-bar to make some primitive stairs that the titian suit could climb as they pursued their ultimate goal.
She wanted to see this place before the Baron abandoned it to the metal heads; back when it was an important part of the city. She imagined Samos's old hut was a part of the city's history and thus allowed to survive as a famous landmark, maybe even preserved a little bit with protection from vandals.
Considering what Morgan had told her about the converter, that was within her ability to do. She'd worked out enough to understand that the device took eco, any kind of eco, and used it as power to throw that eco source into the future; where it would be able to tamper with the past. One had to assume how far forward was based on how much eco had been produced. Of course the machine would have to get past the Calamity, but the years after that would be determined by how much extra energy the device had to burn.
It likely also had a hand in her appearance; changing her ears so she looked like everyone else. The hair and eyes had been fault of the eco in her blood, but the ears were clearly something done upon her arrival, or in transit.
"Whoa, whoa, far enough toots!" Daxter protested, the girl getting dangerously close to a rocky edge as they ascended to higher levels of the runes. "Less thinkin', more driving!"
"Easy, Dax." The girl soothed, looking up and seeing they were only a few yards away from Samos's old hut. Jak was just ahead of her, jumping a gap she'd make easy work of with the red button. The platform they were headed for was once a wide-open room with tall windows. Sadly, the roof was gone and all that remained of the walls were the tall pillar-like sections that were between said windows. Even then, several lengths of stone had fallen into the water below, very few of them left standing.
One of them happened to be conveniently positioned to knocked down onto the deck that protruded from Samos's old hut. She didn't think twice about it, hopping and maneuvering to just the right angle to knock the big stone pillar down. A moment later she switched hand grips and gave the weak stone a few whacks, bringing it down into a noisy but neat bridge up to the ancient structure.
"Not bad." Jak chuckled over the comm., which was precariously balanced on the seat still; she'd been forced to save it with her thighs more than once because needed both hands to operate the titian suit. "I wouldn't walk that thing up there though. Hop out and we'll find whatever it is Samos is looking for."
"You got it." She answered, backing up the suit several behemoth steps before lifting her weight up and off of the leather back rest, grabbing her unit and breaking the connection while tucking it away. The titian suit responded by crouching down, the glass bubble over the cockpit opening up and Daxter diving out. The ottsel was back on Jak's shoulder by the time Loor had levered herself out, legs gone stiff with bracing against the motion of the suit. She landed on the stone floor of the old room only to groan and start rubbing her upper thighs. "Jeez... That's what I call saddle sore..."
Daxter started chuckling at her as she stood up straight again. She couldn't help a short growl at the ottsel, even if she'd made the poor joke herself. Jak, seeing the simplest way to defuse the situation, turned and began walking up the bridge that Loor had just knocked into the decrepit and crumbling hut. Loor followed, seeing no reason not to fall in step.
She also saw no reason not to give Daxter's tail a quick pull, as had become her custom for when he annoyed her.
"Yowch!" The ottsel cried, reaching back and yanking his tail away from where Loor could easily reach it while walking behind Jak. "What is it with you people and my tail? You can't have it, it's mine."
"For every action there's a reaction." Loor said with a smirk, using the saying since she really don't have much of a comeback. "And I don't want a tail... for some reason I'd think it would get really annoying really fast."
"Or you'd loose fur every time someone pulled it..." The ottsel whined, petting the abused appendage.
"I donno, Loor." Jak snickered. "Tail might be kinda useful for you; then I wouldn't have to get a leash to keep you in line. You'd have one built in."
Loor found herself growling again as both boys laughed about this. "I'm going to kill you both... eventually."
"Yeah, well save it while we're up here." Daxter said as they got off the makeshift bridge and made it to the hut proper. "Samos might not live here anymore, but he'd prolly still get up in knots if we got blood on the floor... or anything else for that matter."
Loor nodded while looking up. It was her first time seeing the hut, and now she was nearly standing inside it. They were on a thick wooden deck that ringed the upper level; Samos's home. There was a way to get to the lower tier, where Keira had once lived so very long ago, but that's not what they were there to look at. No, they walked along the deck that had blackened with age to get inside the hut proper.
The old walls had begun to crumble, but the things within Samos's old home were still growing. A small tree had broken through the roof, and ferns still managed to cling to life along the molded floor. The warp ring at the other side of the room had fallen from its mounts, and now had a thin coating of ivy where it leaned against the wall.
Again Loor was saddened by the effects of neglect and time, able to imagine this place as it once looked. Vibrant greens as opposed to the dark and dreary colors taken by the plants still living inside the hut, fresh planks of ash-brown, light tan stone walls, likely smoothed with some kind of clay, and a fully functional warp ring that would take anyone as far as the door to Gol and Maia's citadel in the northern reaches of the known world.
Daxter hopped down, looking around the place with a huff. "I spent many a day cleaning up this place for old greenie!" He groused, as if unimpressed that all of his sweat and toil had been in vain.
Loor was still looking about; she knew what they were looking for. It was a seed the size of her head from a huge tree that Samos had been taking care of back in Sandover. The sage expected it to be still alive and somewhere in his hut, since it was an object of natural power that would likely attract anything that sought eco energy.
Both her and Jak seemed to zero in on that fact at the same time. By relaxing their own senses, attuned and attracted to eco power, they were both drawn to where the tree was growing. Jak was the one who moved, digging through some vines and pulling away dead plant matter to unearth a large seed that was glowing faintly.
Loor also felt a buzz at her back. The draw was incredibly weak, but she felt it... behind her. And up. She wanted to turn and look, but first tried to consider what it could be. All the metal heads had been bashed till kingdom come, and Jakkie-boy had taken the time to adsorb the eco out of them, so that couldn't be what was tickling the back of her brain.
But she was getting the very distinct feeling of something on the roof... unable to watch, but listening to the activity inside the hut.
She could have smacked herself. Morgan. She followed the trouble twins everywhere, somehow undetected... but Loor was sensing eco on the woman's person. She wasn't a fellow experiment, and thus most certainly not swimming in eco energy, but she did have something going on; contamination. Her damaged hand; she still carried a small amount of eco, slowly destroying and mutating her flesh.
Jak's comm. unit activated before she could consider anything else dealing with the woman-gone-stalker. Loor had just gotten an idea, but it would wait till another time for her to think it through; Samos had called them to congratulate them on finding the seed.
"Good work, you Jak! And... Daxter, I suppose."
Loor didn't point out that she'd been completely forgotten to Daxter, who was making faces on the floor for being an afterthought.
"Before we came through the rift long ago, I was nurturing that life seed from the great tree. It seems the metal heads are attracted to its power. Take the seed to Onin now. She will prepare it for Samos."
Daxter snapped out of his grumpy mood. "You mean you?" The ottsel questioned.
"No, the other me, Daxter!" Samos snapped. "My younger self needs the seed's power to become... sagely."
"So..." The ottsel was putting things together. "Let me get this straight. It's fair to say that by bringing your younger self the life seed now, we helped you become the sage you are today? We helped you get your powers in the first place? And you never thanked us?"
Samos seemed hesitant to accept this, but then relented. "Thank you Daxter... now go do it!"
The comm. unit made a small clicking noise as Samos disconnected, similar to the click on a telephone, Loor thought.
"Grouch..." Daxter grumbled, getting back to Jak's shoulder. "Doesn't even recognize the lady! I'm surprised you didn't speak up, Loor. You're the one who drove the damn tank for crying out loud."
"Take it easy, Dax." Loor smirked, shrugging. "You're the ones he knows. I'm surprised he's even comfortable mentioning the fact that this is his hut, and rifts and so on..."
"Hey, that's a good point. How come you aren't going nuts asking us questions about all this stuff?" The ottsel cocked his head. "Unless Jakkie-boy told you all about it while I wasn't looking... in which case I'm very disappointed that he doesn't take better advantage of time alone with a woman- WHAT THE HELL!"
Jak's hand was behind his back, and Daxter jumped to once again get his tail out of hostile reach. "What the heck is wrong with you people?" The ottsel snapped, even more irritated as his partner tried to smile innocently. "I'm going to have a bald spot by the end of this, and I'll have you two to blame."
"Awe, but you love us anyway though, don't you Dax?" Loor asked while holding back on a giggle.
"Precursors knowing why..." Daxter grumbled. "C'mon, giddyap or whatever. Sooner we have that oversized bulb over to Samos's afro-version, the sooner I can visit Tess again.
Both Jak and Loor stared blankly at Dax for a second, questioning the same word. "... giddyap?"
"Yeah." Dax's little shoulders moved in a shrug first. "Y'know, what you say when you're riding an animal and you're trying to get it to go faster..." He trailed off, eyes widening, along with a toothy grin. "What, Lorie-Loor? Are you the only one who's allowed to say that to Jakkie-boy?"
Daxter had leapt off of Jak's shoulder a moment later, dropping to all fours to scamper down the stone bridge.
"IT'S MY TAIL!"
Chasing Daxter back through most of the ruins made the trip back to the city go by quickly, peace eventually made when they got back to the giant doors and the ottsel was cornered by both teenagers. Some groveling later, and a lot of laughter, and things were back to normal with the ottsel on Jak's shoulder and hostility towards the orange fuzzy rat limited to the threat of a possible midnight shaving. From there it was a drive though most of the city, abandoning the zoomer when needed to get into the section of the Bazaar where zooming was blocked off.
Onin's tent was only a short walk from there, where she and Pecker were waiting for them. Particularly Pecker, who was, as always, impatient.
"Onin says what took you so long?" The bird snapped, hopping out of the crone's head basket to scold the trio from the floor. "We had to skip lunch waiting for you two!"
Onin, not approving of the bird sticking more words in her mouth than usual, clapped her hands. Several sparks of blue came from the action, though Loor wondered if she'd channeled eco to calm her interpreter or threaten him. Either way, he backed off, waving his wings like hands. "Okay, okay... she really says 'Thank you for saving the life seed'. But I wouldn't say that if I were her! Give Onin the seed, and she will prepare it for Samos."
Jak nodded, approaching the small fire in the center of the room and looking as if he were going to directly hand it to the woman. Such was unnecessary; once he was close enough she made a motion with one hand charged with a blue aura; the seed responded and was lifted out of Jak's hand without a visible reason why. Loor watched, both she and Jak mesmerized as the seed literally floated in air, Onin beginning to add to its green glow with other bright and intense colors; all of the energy was based in eco.
She wondered where Onin had learned all of this; the girl had to assume that she'd been an apprentice to one of the old sages, or perhaps a descendant there of.
Pecker and Daxter were watching too, Daxter having climbed down since the seed was handed over, but neither were quite so fascinated with the manipulation of eco energy. Pecker, as usual, was thinking about his latest missed meal.
"Mmmm... bird seed..." The accented moncaw muttered.
Daxter took offense that the bird brain was drooling over what they'd just worked so hard to retrieve. "Back off, feather weight!"
Pecker quickly took on the air of an old man trying to school a little kid. "Listen tiny tail, I was leading my hundredth flock south before you had fur one between your legs! Not that your fur means anything!"
"At least I'm not some over stuffed, over yappin', feather dusty mouthpiece for the worlds oldest professional!" Dax waved at Onin before beginning to wander back and forth, making silly gestures and faces. "Jak says 'have a nice day.' Jak says 'I can't think on my own.' Jak says 'Go bite yourself!'"
"That's it, rat boy! Now you've really pissed me off!"
The two of them tensed, exchanging karate poses and yells before they finally got on Jak's nerves enough for him to step in.
"Knock it off, both of you!" He snapped. Loor had been tempted to kick them both for a while. It would be like punting a football... With bones.
Being forced to stop, the two creatures stared at each other for a moment more before Pecker gave in, huffing "You're lucky I'm famished!" before returning to his lady. By now Onin had finished with the life seed, its glow much brighter and swimming with all four primary colors of eco; green, red, blue, and yellow. It floated back to Jak, who plucked it out of the air. "Onin says take the energized life seed to young Samos in Haven Forest. It will give Samos the power he needs to finally see the forest from the trees! Go. Quickly!"
Loor and Jak looked at each other, a quick nod exchanged. Daxter got back up on Jak's shoulder, and the three of them took off for the forest.
Lauren tried not to think about the ambush that would be waiting for them the second they gave the seed to Samos's younger version.
The Author's Corner
COFFEEEEEEEE!
Uh... yeah. Meow. Some fun in this chapter, but the people who know and remember the original know that we're heading up to a big scene... and those who remember are likely dreading it too.
Loor is so about to get her ass handed to her...
MUHUHAHAHAHA!
HOKAY So I'm off to work! See you punks later.
Happy reading,
-Loor
