Chapter 42
The moment we met with Onin in her tent, Pecker immediately started to speak for her as she started to sign.
"Onin says that there are strange forces at work. She senses an unfathomable power that she has never before felt in all her years... something is now awake deep in the Catacombs," Pecker said.
"We need to get there right away or else Maia will activate the Dark Maker ship's cargo," I said with seriousness.
"Onin says that she sees your future turning black with uncertainty... you must make your way through the Palace ruins to the Catacombs. Pecker will lead you to the Cata-" Pecker was about to say before he squawked in shock. "What?! What did you say?!"
"You're the one that has a direct link to Onin, Pecker. Whatever you see, I'm sure she'll be able to see. Just get us as close as you can. Besides, we can fly alongside you," I said with a smile as I then activated my wings, Pecker gawking at them while Onin smiled.
"Okay, fine. But I am gone the moment that things get sticky. Let's go!" Pecker said with seriousness as I then looked at Jak and smiled at him.
"We may need some Wastelander help for this one. Want to activate our beacons?" I smiled.
"With pleasure," Sasha smiled as we then took them out and tried to activate them... but it only gave off a small light and it looked busted.
"Yeah, those things are more broken than a worn out pawn shop in South Town," Dax frowned.
"No, there is one way to check," I smiled as I then called up Errol.
"Jak? Did you just activate your beacon?" Errol asked.
"Yes, me and Sasha both did. Bring the biggest and baddest guns and vehicles you can get. And tell Kiki to get Metal Morah to join up for the fight. It's high time we finally breach the Catacombs!" I smiled.
"You heard her, Kiki! Time to get the Wastelanders and go out on the fight of a lifetime!" Errol exclaimed as he then hung up and I smiled afterwards.
"Time to fly?" I smiled as I then flapped my wings a bit, Sasha then letting her wings out as well.
"Time to fly," she smirked as we then proceeded to use our Light Flight wings to fly over the walls of the old fortress and directly into the ruined Bazaar area and we proceeded to take the time to shoot the brains of Metal Heads in this area of the city, which were mostly consisted of Metal Mantises and Crab Heads. After killing roughly fifty of each, we finally decided to touch down on the ground at the northern side of the Palace Ruins, where we then decided to take a breather from our Light Eco usage, mainly because we were low on juice.
"Okay, it's only a matter of time until we reach the entrance to the Catacombs..." Pecker said. But just as soon as he said that, we heard some piercing screeching happen as not one, not two, but THREE Dark Maker Satellites came down and zeroed in on me and Sasha.
"This does not look like it will end well..." I said with a gulp as I braced for impact... only for a loud engine to barrel through the crumbled walls, crash into the Dark Maker Satellites, and the driver skidded to a stop right next to us! And guess what? It was my dad, Damas! And he brought along some other faces!
"Haha! Boom baby!" Sig exclaimed as he came in on the Gila Stomper with Kliever while Errol rode in on Kiki and we then heard another loud noise.
"YEEHAAWW! This is the most fun I've had in centuries! WHOOHOO!" exclaimed my very excited mom as she rode on the top of a giant Metalpede with a lion face and at least twenty spikes coming from its sides!
"Well, I'm guessing that you must be Metal Morah, right?" I asked with a smile.
"Heehee, quite right, Mar. I decided to join in on this assault," Morah smiled as I Sasha hopped onto the turret of the Gila Stomper and I got into the side seat along with dad.
"Let's break through," I smirked widely as we then proceeded to smash our way through the numerous rubble of the entire place... which wasn't easy, since there were tons of Dark Makers invading the area and for some odd reason, there were mortars being fired from outside the city walls!
"Dammit! I knew that guy looked suspicious with his large machine!" mom said angrily.
"What guy?!" I asked loudly.
"He had a bald head and a fancy pants getup! Had a strange staff, too!" mom said, me growling at that.
"Veger," I frowned as we finally made it through the rest of the place... but then, just as we had gotten past all of it... the worst happened. A mortar hit mine and Damas's car directly on the backside! I flew out of it and landed on the ground face-first with Daxter beside me... it was a hard blow... but then, I heard mom scream in horror.
"Damas! No!" she exclaimed as I then rushed over and saw a sight that made me feel... defeated. My father was pinned underneath the full weight of the car... he had metal stabbing him all through his torso and even his leg. Even if we were to use Light Regeneration, it wouldn't be of any use with his severe injuries.
"Not... bad driving, son..." dad said as I held my hand to him and he smiled. "It was a good day to live... and a good day to die... I'm proud that I could... be by your side... at the end," dad said as I felt tears emit from my eyes. "Promise me... one thing, Mar... Promise me... you'll continue to do good... save the people... they need you... continue on... the House of Mar..." Damas said, me smiling at him.
"I promise... father," I said with a smile. Damas did the same thing before I saw the life leave him. And then I heard someone I did not want to hear.
"Yes. You were that child," said Veger as I looked up to see him and all of my allies looked at him angrily. "I took you from Damas, hoping to harness your eco powers for my experiments. Then, I lost you to the Underground," Veger said, me growling as I could feel the anger boil at a thousand degrees.
"AAAUGH! VEGER!" I exclaimed in pure fury as Veger then looked behind him with a smile.
"Thank you for opening the door to the Precursors. Don't worry, I'll be back to put you all out of your misery," Veger said as he hopped into one of only 2 available Precursor cars.
"After him, guys! Sasha, me and Jak, CHARGE!" Daxter exclaimed, me and Sasha rushing to the vehicle and both of us riding in it through the Catacombs. This time, we were going downwards through a long tube and we had to encounter much more obstacles in the form of the power nodes, some machines that shot at us constantly unless we shot and destroyed them, electric traps, and a lot of holes in the grates! It was an exhilarating ride until we got to an area that was very dark as we proceeded forward into the darkness... before the entire place came to life with the bronze orange lights of the Precursor technologies.
"Greetings, great warriors! Before it is too late, you must activate the Planetary Defense weapon," the Precursor said in its fake, deep voice, Sasha smiling and showing off that she had combined the 8 Eco crystals into a perfect sphere, which she then put inside of a console as I saw a weapon start up on both sides of the giant statue. "The weapon will take some time to charge to full. But when it fires, the Dark Makers attacking this planet will be no more," the Precursor said as they then had an apparition appear before us. "You are worthy of your heroic status, Jak and Sasha. We grant you the gift of evolution. The honor of becoming one of us..." it said, me shaking my head along with Sasha before we then heard Veger from nearby as he held a pistol in his hand.
"Step aside! I will be the one to evolve into a Precursor! THE RIGHT IS MINE!" Veger exclaimed angrily, Sasha, myself, and the Precursor entity saying the same thing at the same time.
"Be careful what you wish for," we said as Veger then got Light envelop his body and I saw he didn't get the transformation immediately and he looked smug about it.
"It is done. Don't worry, you freaks. It is for the greater good that I assume this role," Veger said as Sasha then growled at him.
"Listen, Veger. You think that everyone is going to WANT you to be their savior when they all know that me and Jak did all the work? You did zilch and we have witnesses that can prove that you did horrid deeds," Sasha said with anger as she then looked at the Precursor and smiled. "Besides, we know exactly what the truth behind the Precursors are. Hey, glow boy? Why don't you show us your real self? Show Veger what he's about to turn into and make him realize he just got major comeuppance for his crimes... or would you rather let us tell the whole world on our own?" Sasha smirked.
"Very well," the Precursor said as the apparition disappeared and a hidden door in the base of the statue opened up... and it was just as I expected. The Precursors were right there and they were all Ottsels. One looked a bit on the dumber side with a Precursor orb on his head and buck teeth, one looked like he could be a surfer dude, and the last one was a bit chubbier and had an even more impressive staff than Veger.
"Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, I guess," the middle one smiled, Veger looking at them in pure dumbfounded shock as I saw his eye twitch. "You can understand, can't you? Why we had to fluff up the myth about us Precursors? If people knew the truth, that we were a bunch of little fuzzy rats, it'd be impossible for us to have as high a reputation as we deserve... so we fluff up the myth... a bit," the chubby one said with a smile.
"Then we get da respect we deserve!" the dummy smiled as Veger then growled angrily.
"YOU IDIOTS! Step away from there and stop defiling that glorious machine!" Veger exclaimed as he aimed his pistol at the middle one... and the fuzzy rat fired a beam at Veger that was lightning fast and trapped him in a stasis bubble!
"Do not let our size fool you. We are the most powerful beings in the universe," the leader smiled... at least, I hoped he was.
"We are?" the dummy said, Sasha smirking at that as she then asked a very important question.
"Hey, how come whenever you guys touch Dark Eco, you turn into Dark Makers... but Daxter and Tess turned into Precursors after touching the substance?" she asked, bringing up a valid point.
"Ah yes. We full-blooded Precursors have that disadvantage of being able to be corrupted by Dark Eco. But as for humans such as Daxter and Tess, they turn into Precursors if they happen to have a certain blood type and they touch Eco of a specific group. The blood type in question is O negative, the rarest out there. So when they touched the Dark Eco, they were blessed to be half-Precursor and half-human," the leader said, Daxter smirking at that.
"And how come you have pants and I don't?" Daxter asked with sass.
"These creatures are the great Precursors?! And I wanted to evolve into a..." Veger said before he then realized that he was about to get major karma. "NO! AAAAUUUGGGHH!" Veger exclaimed as his body then shrunk and became super fuzzy as his clothes all fell off of him and we saw he actually had darker fur color than the others, most likely due to his negative traits.
"A little drafty, isn't it?" Daxter smiled at him.
"The only way to ensure that Maia can not awaken the Dark Ship's cargo before the weapon fires is to go there yourself and stop her. We can transport you there from here," the leader said.
"But what about the weapon? How long will we have?" Sasha asked.
"Don't worry about it, girl! You should have at least 6 minutes to get there and back before-"
"Hopefully before-"
"Baboom! Oho yeah!" the surfer, leader, and dummy said in order.
"Okay, time to do this thing!" I exclaimed as we rushed into the teleporter behind us and we found ourselves right where I started me trek before with the Dark Maker robot. And we already had some enemies that needed mowed down. And once we did, the door to the north of us opened up and we went through. We proceeded to jump and shoot our way through the interior of the place until we came across a Light Eco vat that was in a cage, which we absorbed into our bodies and we then gained our Light Flight wings to get over some deep gaps in the ground. And when we went down a long elevator, we only had 3 minutes to go until the place blew up... and we saw a whole slew of gigantic war machines in what appeared the be the cargo bay of the ship.
"If any of these nasty things decide to wake up, the planet's finished!" Daxter gawked as we then saw that Maia was in front of us and that she was gloating to herself.
"All of these Dark Makers at my command... oh this is going to be fun!" she smiled as I then shot a blast of the Mass Inverter at Maia, her gasping in slow motion as she then floated in the air like she defied gravity. And with her jet pack busted, she couldn't easily escape it.
"Time to pay for your crimes, Maia!" Sasha exclaimed as she then took her Light wings and forced the Light eco to enter her hand as I saw it had a very powerful sphere in it. It was the exact same method I used to kill Maia before... and she looked scared shitless as Sasha rushed at her and connected the blast of Light Eco directly at Maia's face, which caused a massive explosion that not only destroyed her, but it also blew up every single one of the robots in the place! The explosions were so numerous that we didn't have much time before the ship exploded because of Sasha's sheer force of power! I immediately activated Light Freeze and grabbed Daxter and Sasha, rushing us forward along the crumbling pathway and jumping us directly through a teleporter, which warped us outside of the gates to Spargus city. And just as soon as we did this, we saw a massive laser fire form the south over the horizon and fire directly at the distant Day Star. The result was the entire ship exploding and making a shock wave that we could see from our standpoint! It was awesome!
"WE DID IT! We saved the world!" Daxter exclaimed in glee as I saw that Sasha looked a bit drained as she laid on the ground with a smile and laughing a bit.
"No... Sasha did," I smiled as I picked her up and she hugged me with her arms around my neck.
"Once Haven City... is cleared of robots... I want married... and at least one kid... no more putting it off... hon," Sasha smiled as she then fell asleep soon after and I smiled.
"Looks like I'm going to have wedding bells in my future..." I said with a smile as I simply looked at the city of Spargus and smiled. "Dad would be proud... he'd be proud of all of us..."
It only took five days time to get the remaining KG robots taken care of in Haven City and the exact moment the Day Star exploded, all the Metal Heads in the city came to their senses and left the city to go back to their original homes, namely to the different areas that Sasha mentioned. At least a third of them went to the volcano in the Wastelands to be with Metal Morah, some went further to the north to be in the Icelands, and there were some that went to the west of Spargus to enter the outskirts of a place called Kras City.
The Precursors then insisted that we all meet with them in Spargus's battle arena, since they planned on leaving our planet to go to a different one. We all decided to go there, even Metal Morah joined in a human disguise, which was a little much. She was very tall in her human disguise, roughly 6'8'' and she had on a slightly gaudy outfit that slightly helped hide her medium-wide frame.
"Great heroes of this planet, we owe you everything. To Onin, Samos, and all. Your continued efforts give us all hope for the future of the universe," the Ottsel Leader said with a smile as I saw that Samos was, of course, taken aback. And Seem stayed on a side platform along with Ashelin and Keira. And Seem refused to stop kneeling in the presence of the Precursors, even after learning how they really looked.
"My life's work, it turns out was spent searching for a bunch of fur balls," Samos said with a groan as I smiled at him from my standpoint. Myself, Errol, Sasha, Dax, Kiki, and Tess were on the center platform near a Precursor rocket that would take the trio of Precursors to another planet.
"Jak, Sasha, and Errol, you have turned out to be great heroes. We need more people like you in the universe," the leader smiled.
"But bros, there are like, WAY more challenges in the future," the cool Precursor smiled.
"Yeah... Or was it da past?" the dumb one asked.
"Yes, yes, I was getting to that," the leader said, me smirking at that and being about to speak before Errol spoke.
"Apologies, but I'm not a hero. I'm just someone repaying a lifelong debt to some people that I did horrible things to in the past... also known as these two," Errol said with a frown as he hung his head.
"You may not say you are a hero, Errol, but being able to sacrifice your entire way of life to do the right thing is a truly admirable thing to do. And your misdeeds ended up creating two very powerful heroic warriors," the leader said, Errol still looking down. "If you wish, we can grant you one of your deepest desires," the leader said, Errol looking at him and sighing.
"I want my smile to be good again. I need new teeth to fill in the holes in my grin," Errol frowned. The Precursor leader then zapped a beam at Errol and we were surprised at how Errol's teeth actually were back in his mouth and they all had a shiny sheen of white to them. And Errol was shocked as well. "T-Thank you..." Errol said as he then knelt down, something out of character for him.
"Hey, if we're having wishes being granted here, I'd like it if Tess and I can have one, please?" Daxter said.
"Of course. We owe you much, Daxter and Tess, for staring danger in the face and braving impossible odds, we will grant your deepest desires," the leader smiled.
"Well, I know one thing that I'd like. I'd really like some snazzy pants. Like yours," Daxter smiled, the Ottsel leader then granting that wish and sending a beam at Daxter, him getting a new pair of pants in an instant.
"Sweet!" Daxter smiled.
"And as for my wish? I want me and my schnookums to have 20 pairs of our new clothing each," Tess said, me facepalming at that. The leader simply smiled and granted her wish, resulting in the two of them having 20 different sets of their new clothes. Daxter now had 20 different pairs of pants, all different designs... and Tess got 20 different outfits for her to wear in her new form.
"I don't understand why you decided for that to be your wish, honestly," I admitted before Sammie and Minnie spoke for me from up on the throne area, where they were standing alongside Onin, Samos, Sig, Morah, Torn, Vin, and Pecker.
"Girls like to wear a lot of good clothes, Jak. That's what girls like more than anything," Sammie smiled.
"That and finding the perfect person to be with," Minnie smiled as she then looked towards Keira and winked, making her blush.
"Well, it's about time that we set off. Farewell, everyone," the leader said as the Precursor rocket opened up and we saw a bunch of Ottsels inside already.
"Wait," Sasha said, them all being confused, but stopping regardless. "I wanted to know... are Tess, Daxter, and Vagina going to be the only Precursors on this planet after this? Or are there others around?" she asked. And that was a very valid question.
"There are other Precursors on this planet, Sasha Nell. As a matter of fact, now that the Dark Makers have been destroyed and we are leaving, more Precursors are going to start waking up from under the ground you walk on. Though we may leave, the Precursors will still be here on this planet. Do not worry," the leader said as I noticed that Kliever happened to convince Veger to be on his shoulder... and I could see that Veger was rightfully terrified of him.
"Ah, wot a team we'll make. Just don't make me angry!" Kliever growled.
"Bye, fuzzy Precursors! It was nice to meet you!" Kiki smiled widely, the Precursor leader then doing one final thing before the door closed. He sent a small blast of light at Kiki and I was confused by what he had done... but then, we were surprised when Kiki actually happened to grow once again... and this time, she breathed in and out a bit before picking herself up. And Morah looked at her in shock as the rocket then jetted off into the skies above us.
"My word... the Precursors just made Kiki a Metal Head Leader!" Morah gawked, me and Sasha being surprised at that and looked at Kiki, her smiling as we saw that her physical appearance didn't change, but we could literally see the power emanating from her.
"I... I feel weird... Morah?... What's going on with me?... Why does my tummy feel funny?" Kiki asked.
"You've become a Metal Head leader, Kiki, and part one of that is that you're going to need to make more Metal Heads from egg hatching. The good news, however, is that you can mold your children to look however you please for each egg produced," Morah said, me and Sasha looking at each other and then at Kiki with a smile.
"We're gonna be grandparents, then?" I asked, Sasha immediately looking at me with a glare as she then spoke again.
"You're going to pay for that comment later on, hon. I can promise you that," Sasha smiled at me widely.