Chapter 46
After winning the next few races, all in first place, we managed to get a total of 24 points, which opened up some more venues for us to race at for different events. There was a Freeze Rally at the Forbidden Jungle, a Circuit Race at the Icebound Citadel, and a Turbo Dash event at the Mountaintop Highway.
"What's the requirements for the Turbo Dash event?" I asked with curiosity.
"A bunch of racers collect Power Cells around the track and then use their boosters in order to fire the cells off as a missile. The one who shoots the most Power Cells wins the gold medal, but be wary of getting hit by them, since each one will do a ton of damage to your car," Rayne said, me smirking at that... but before I could say I was going for it, some of my allies spoke.
"I think Ashelin, Torn and I can handle the Turbo Dash," Kiki smiled.
"Meanwhile, I'll do the Circuit Race with Errol and Sasha," Keira smirked.
"And I call dibs on the Freeze Rally in the jungle!" Tess smiled, me and Daxter feeling left out for this one.
"Okay, then I think we'll go ahead and get a meal at the bar," I said, Daxter smiling at that as I simply held my gun on my person, just in case I came across any unsavory patrons.
"I wanna come with you, daddy," Maria said with a smile, me smiling at that.
"Sure, we'll protect you while we're there," I smiled, holding her close to me as I then took our trio to the garage and then proceeded to the bar, which was called the Bloody Hook, us going in and getting some soda instead of beer as well as a couple of Yakow burgers to eat, which were Maria's favorite. And then we looked at the screen to see Blitz speaking again.
"Hello, race fanatics! Sadly, the network has decided in their infinitesimally small wisdom to add a co host to my show... I don't know who could possibly outshine yours truly, but please, give a lukewarm welcome to my new 'color' commentator as it were... mister, um... Pecker?" Blitz said as the screen then showed the co host... and it was the same Pecker we were friends with.
"Thank you, GT. And hello to all you peoples out there watching," Pecker said with a smile as Daxter simply gawked angrily. "The network has hired me on to save this anemic little show," Pecker smiled.
"AHAHAHAHA... Yes, well, welcome aboard.. Pecker!" Blitz said with animosity in his voice.
"THAT'S IT! Who's his agent?! Pecker always gets the sweet gigs in these adventures!" Daxter exclaimed in pure aggravated annoyance, Maria smirking at that.
"That birdie's funny," Maria smirked as Pecker then spoke again.
"My first assignment on this show is to report on the supposed 'super bet' on this year's big championship race. Sources say that a high-level underworld crime connection is involved. But sadly, my sources won't return calls. And are now missing! And are probably dead!... But, Pecker is not so easily swayed. I will uncover the truth and report my findings right here on our show, GT," Pecker said, me smirking at that.
"Sounds like the birdie is playing with fire," I smirked.
"Of course you will. And let me just say it is going to be SO GREAT working with you," Blitz said, again with animosity as Pecker then smiled.
"You too, Blitzman!" he smirked as he smacked Blitz on the back and the best thing ever happened. It revealed that Blitz's pompadour was actually a wig! "Oh, so sorry..." Pecker said afterwards.
"Why you little bird shi-! !" Blitz exclaimed as he then tried to choke Pecker and the cameras then cut off, me smirking at that.
"Okay, like him or not, that was priceless," I smirked at that, Daxter finally smiling afterwards.
"Fine, that was golden, I will admit," Daxter smiled afterwards. We then decided to go out of the bar and back to the hotel, where we ended up running into GT Blitz in the garage.
"Hello there, Jak! Getting some local color lately? You certainly need it, because you look positively pale onscreen," Blitz said, me smirking at him.
"Doing well," I frowned at him.
"I just wanted to tell you that you can get sweet rewards and gadgets for completing missions from the administration," Blitz smiled.
"What kind of rewards?" I asked.
"What kind of gadgets?" Daxter asked shortly after.
"Good stuff. For instance, there are some dirt forming robots that have gone out of control in the Dirt Stadium, so the administration is offering medal points and orbs for whoever can kill the most without getting blown up themselves. Go there and clear 'em all out and you can win a special upgrade to your car on top of that," Blitz smiled at me.
"Sounds fun," I smirked.
"Sounds cool!" Maria giggled.
"Sounds dangerous," Daxter frowned.
"It is, but the rewards are worth it. But be careful, we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to one of our star, up-and-coming racers," Blitz smiled, me smirking at him widely.
"Let's go and tell the others," I said as we then went to our room and I then signed myself up for the event at the Dirt Stadium that said Sport Hunt, the others looking at me in confusion.
"What's a Sport Hunt?" Sammie asked.
"That would be an event where you hunt down different wildlife or other things and kill them with your weapons in the arenas," Rayne explained.
"Then I think that I'll do that event with you two," Tess smiled at us.
"So Jak, me, and Tess are going to do the Sport Hunt. Has Keira finished my ride yet?" Daxter asked with a smile.
"The answer to that question is most certainly yes," Keira smirked from the entrance of our room with a smile. "You'll be quite impressed, Daxter. And I also did something similar to Tess's car," Keira smiled, all of us minus Maria going to the garage and seeing the fruits of the labor... and it honestly looked badass. Both of the cars looked exactly like Daxter and Tess's bodies with the front fenders being designed like their heads, Tess's car having a roof that was colored like her blonde hair, and bodies that looked exactly like they did, clothes and all.
"Sweet! These are perfect!" Tess smiled at her car happily as Daxter did the same with his.
"Time to go melt some robots," I smirked, all three of us darting towards the warp gate to head to the Dirt Stadium to see that there were a couple other contestants from Mizo's team and Osmo's in the event, all of us then starting as a buzzer went off and we then proceeded to go out and destroy a whole ton of different robots. I got the lead earlier after destroying two different robots with Mizo's drivers managing to get one a piece as I then saw that this particular event was one that was based on teams, as each side had three cars competing in it. Daxter and Tess managed to slay two different robots apiece while Osmo, Ximon, and Speetunc got 5 in total, them being quite good at this event. By the time the clock had 30 seconds left, our team and Osmo's were neck and neck with 20 robots killed each and Mizo's gang had only 7 total between their three goons.
"Only a few bogeys left until our next qualifier! Let's get 'em, son!" Osmo said happily as he then destroyed another robot with some rocket launchers and I did the same, but with Plasmite grenades. And after the thirty seconds were up, Tess got the final destroyed robot that put our team just two points above Osmo's with 33 kills and his having 31... and Mizo's group only had a measely 13 kills of three combined people.
"Oh yeah! That was awesome!" Daxter smirked as we got our first place medal and Osmo and his group smiled at us.
"I'm proud to be competing against good drivers this year. The last one was very dubious to win, since it was just me, my son, and Taryn going up against Mizo's drivers and them being outright dirty. But now that we have some added competition, I think one of our teams have a fighting chance this time!" Osmo smiled at me.
"Yeah, you bros are doing wicked cool at these events. But if you'll excuse us, we've got a date with a qualifying race. You should check it out," Ximon said with a smile as we then parted ways and went back to base, the others smirking at me and the rodents.
"Now we have the next event happening in half an hour, that being the second qualifying rounds for the Grand Prix. And this time, it's held on the streets right outside of our hotel. It's a three lap track rather than the 2 lap ones we're used to seeing and I've heard a very nasty rumor that someone is hiring top mercenary drivers to race us and getting bonuses for destroyed cars," Rayne said with a frown.
"And you can bet money that they'll try to play dirty and cheat at this thing, especially if there is a super bet with crime involved," Sasha said.
"Oh great, that's just what we need," Daxter frowned as our room door then opened up and we saw two people come through that we didn't want to see.
"Uh-oh, here's a rather large specimen now," Ashelin frowned as we saw that it was Razer alongside a very large and hulking KG robot, one that looked very advanced.
"Ah, you guys are getting high points for this season aren't you?" Razer asked, me frowning at him.
"This is a private party, Razer, please take your business elsewhere," Keira frowned at him.
"I just wanted to introduce Mizo's new racer. Meet UR-86, the deadliest driver on the planet... well, second to me of course. Even I have to watch out for this one," Razer chuckled as the robot then looked at Maria and then grabbed her by the head, me gasping at that as Maria screamed in pain.
"OW! OW! LET GO OF ME! DON'T MAKE ME GO DARK!" Maria exclaimed angrily, her referring to something she got from me and Sasha when she was conceived. UR-86 didn't listen and continued to shake her around as Razer chuckled.
"Oh, don't worry, this bucket of bolts loves living things... so he can make them dead! Hahahee!" Razer sneered as Maria then lost it and went out of control, her hair standing on end, her body going pure black and her grabbing UR-86 by the arm and doing the impossible. She ripped it off with her own two hands and then did the same for the other arm, Razer gawking in disbelief afterwards. "YOU! You just harmed a fellow racer, you bitch!" Razer exclaimed, me growling at him as I grabbed him by the neck and started to choke him.
"Don't swear like that in front of my kid, or you're the one that's going to get harmed next. Capiche?" I growled, Razer gasping and nodding afterwards as I stopped choking him and for me to see that Maria then destroyed the rest of UR-86 angrily. "And by the way, Maria isn't a fellow racer. She's too young to compete, so she's on the sidelines... and if you bozos do anything to hurt her, all of you are deader than that robot is," I said, Razer then gulping and then running for the hills when I went dark myself, him rushing out of the hotel dorm and everyone smiling at me.
"See, this is why I don't try to say anything rude to you guys anymore, especially with those feral sides of yours," Errol admitted to me.
"At least you know to be wary about us. But now that Mizo's lost a racer to a little girl, he's going to be royally pissed. So from now on, we sleep in shifts when we're staying here," Sammie said.
"Okay, then I'd say it's time for us to go to the next event and move one step closer to the Grand Prix of the Red Eco cup," Sasha said as we then agreed the ones to race would be Errol, Keira, and Torn.