Sunrise slowly started to show up over the city, leaving a beautiful piercing light to shine through the tallest buildings. The roads looked so quiet and peaceful, looking almost empty after the night before. But…
"YAIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
The scream started to pierce throughout the city, from South Town all the way up towards the Water Slums. Along the port, stood the source of the scream – the Naughty Ottsel bar, where Daxter was seen roaming around the bar, looking under every single ale bottle he can find.
"Someone tell me where the contents of the cash register vanished to! Who stole it?"
He looked around the room, with a half-panicked half-angry look on his face. Then, his attention was brought to a black skinned male sitting on a table to the right of him. He was covered in silver armor, had a red lens stuck in his right eye, and showed a green eye in the other.
"Own up, Sig!" the ottsel shouted towards him. "You spent our earnings on a new gun, didn't you?"
"Hell, I'd swear to Mar's spirit that I'd never touch any of it!" he replied with a deep and casual voice.
He brought out his hands, and used them to block himself lightly. Daxter looked on at them with a pair of widened eyes, before sighing and bringing himself down onto the floor, his fists starting to shake.
"Fine, I'll let you out for the time being", he growled with his ears drooping down. "But until the money's found, you're helping me out in keeping this place in top form, brother."
All that Sig could do was just scowl under his breath, leaving the ottsel to start walking near the entrance to the pub. Over there, Jak was seen engaged in a game of "Whack-a-Metal-Head", when… he suddenly froze, leaving the puppets inside the machine to continue moving up and down.
"What's wrong, big boy?" Daxter asked him.
Jak brought his attention around the room, looking around at the view. The Metal Head trophies on the wall once stood so still, before they all started to glow with a bright golden color. The sight of them caused him to blink at them.
"How can the Metal Head trophies be… glowing like that?" Jak asked.
Sig showed an expression of surprise. "Yeah, I thought we already killed them off ages ago!"
"I think it's some side effect or something", sighed Daxter. "It'll wear off in a couple of hours."
He gave off a shrug, and while that happened, Sig stood up and went towards one of the trophies. He expected it, and brought his hand inside it, pulling out a bunch of green money bills all tied together with a shiny red velvet ribbon. And still, the trophy was glowing.
"Least we know it's not the loose change", chuckled Sig. "And… Jak?"
The sound of a light chuckle from behind him occurred – he turned around, and saw Jak covering his face with one of his hands, hiding a laughable expression with them. That left Daxter to raise an eyebrow at the sight of it.
"Better there than being put towards additions to Daxter's rap music collection!"
Daxter growled with anger. "You got no taste for today's entertainment, haven't you?"
He folded his arms with disgust, and started walking his way back towards the bar. While that happened, Jak slowly stood up, picked up a black gun from nearby, and walked outside, looking on at the view from in there.
"Either which, we'll probably find out more about this later on today", nodded Sig. "If something happens during your watch duty, be sure to warn us about it."
"You can count on me, Sig!" Daxter shouted while putting himself into a dramatic pose. "I've taken care of enough Metal-Heads to rival Arnold Schwartzneger!"
From the bar, Daxter picked up a spork and aimed it towards him… but while that happened, a monstrous face was seen coming behind him. He turned around, screamed at it, and ran outside, dropping the spork on the floor. The figure… brought her hand under the mask and pulled it up, showing herself as Tess, a blonde female with mainly khaki-green clothing and sapphire blue eyes, whom just looked on at it with a blank expression on her face.
"You were saying?" sighed Sig with an irritated look.
Back outside, the daylight started to shine down upon the individual pebbles that were brought upon the city floor, leading from south to north. It wasn't long until the light totally covered the city.
The light soon reached the northern wastelands, going across all the sand dunes that lied around the Pumping Station area, as well as every last shrub on there, which all blew gracefully in the wind.
While that happened, the slope near the entrance to the city started to get some light and detail, including the track that the egg rolled down towards its position, which gradually started to get softer in the wind.
And as the light reached the site, it shone down upon the egg, revealing… a large hole inside it. A black gas was seen escaping from it, making its way straight into the air, leaving some of the nearby shrubs to blacken at the touch of it.
From one of the larger shrubs, some of the gas started to make its way inside it. And in there, a pair of yellow eyes were seen starting to form in there, with black slits for pupils. It gave off a growl, turned away from the bushes and started heading further into the darkness.
A couple of hours passed, and near the waters of South Town, Daxter was seen going up and down the streets, carrying a long red brush, sweeping the dusty ground from underneath him, allowing cleaner roads for the civilians to travel on.
"See? What do they know about? Not much, as usual! I'm sure the trophies must be reacting to something as silly as Tess's cooking."
He continued sweeping, while maintaining an agitated expression upon him. It wasn't long until he reached a corner leading towards the industrial section, where the streets looked so spotless to his own eyes.
"Come to think of it, anything strange can happen in a quiet city like this. Is there any way to shake this thing up or what?"
He brought his brush on the wall, and leaned next to it. But then, a ginger haired female with bright white clothing and brown eyes walked past him. He smiled at her, before he carefully walked behind her.
"Hey, sweet cheeks! How about we form a conga line together and get this city moving again?"
She brought back one of her feet, kicking a set of dust into Daxter's face, leaving him to take a step back with shock. As soon as he cleaned his face up with his own two hands… she was gone.
"I guess I'll take that as a no", he frowned.
He brought his head down, and started heading back the way he came. But… as that happened, a pair of hands started to show in the gutters. He came towards there, claimed his brush nearby, and looked down into the darkness below.
"Excuse me mister, but if you want to steal someone's shoes", Daxter said jokingly, "pick on that guy over there!"
He pointed towards a man in a green jumper in the distance, but… the two hands got towards Daxter's legs, took a tight grasp around them, and pulled him straight down onto the ground.
"OOMPH!"
He brought his head back up, and saw the gutter starting to rustle. The sight of it caused him to blink at the sight of it, and get up, before seeing the hand emerge again, this time showing a more monstrous attire.
"Is that… is that what I think it is?!?"
The gutters opened up, and from out of there came the figure in full motion. It was mainly pewter in color with silver markings around it, a golden gem on its head, and a pair of monstrous teeth brought upon it.
"HELP MEEEEE!!!"
He started to run away from the monstrosity, whom started chasing it, growling every five seconds. He was brought around the Industrial section, only to lead into a dead end a few seconds later. It seemed like there was no way to escape from there.
"Someone help me out!" the ottsel started to cry. "I don't want to die a slow and painful death!!! Give me a hand!"
"You've asked for it!" said a distant voice.
A bright yellow gunshot came streaming out of nowhere, hitting the monster in the back and knocking it down. That left Daxter to look over it, and see Jak holding his gun, growling at the figure.
"How about you bite back against some of that?" he growled with a sinister expression.
He folded his arms, and started heading back towards the main section, with the ottsel following him… but all of a sudden, another gutter broke open, and a lot of small jumping monsters with similar color schemes came out and went towards them.
"There's too many of 'em, Jak!" Daxter panicked. "We're not gonna survive this!!!"
"Ah, well that's where a bit of swift thinking comes in handy!"
He brought out his gun and started shooting again. For every one that missed them, ten more shot them right in the stomachs and sent them down onto the ground. One of which even came on his head, leaving him to bring his fist into the air.
"Take that!"
He spun around and punched it off him, leaving it to flinch to the ground. From the massacre, there was only one jumping monster left, which stood to be half the height of Daxter, whom was seen smirking at it.
"Let me take care of the pipsqueak!" smiled Daxter. "This'll be too good to be true!"
He rubbed his hands with anticipation, and started coming up close towards the creature… which ended up jumping up onto his shoulder, and pinched him at a tremendous force. His eyes shrank at the touch.
"I think the thing's just about to poison me, Jak! HEEEEEEELP!"
He started running around the circles, allowing the creature to hang on tightly as he ran. While that happened, Jak got out his gun, switched it to Blaster mode (yellow bullets), and shot the creature off him, leaving it to roll and fall back into the sewers.
"Is that better enough for you?" Jak asked.
"I guess so", Daxter sighed as he rubbed his shoulders. "Thanks, partner!"
The ottsel smiled as he rubbed his shoulder with ease, with a more relieved expression starting to show up upon his face. They then left the corner, and started looking around that corner of the city, looking on at the view around them.
Jak raised an eyebrow. "Well, now that we've seen a problem evoking, how are we going to get around it?"
"I don't know, but something fishy must have happened with it all", Daxter said with a frown. "What if not all the Metal Heads were gone by the time we sorted them out?"
Jak gave out a shrug. After all, from what he can remember, the Metal Heads may have stopped breeding after Kor was taken down the night before, but all it could have done is stopped its breeding cycle. It may not be over to his own eyes.
"Either which, I bet those still alive must be triggering the trophies for some strange reason", Jak pondered. "But… how are they doing that?"
"There's only one way to find out – get a few more clues on this", Daxter nodded. "As long as the shield wall's fixed up, there's no way we'll find any answers just standing out here!"
"Let's go for it!"
Daxter jumped onto his shoulder, and they both started running across the city, looking everywhere for any peculiar Metal Head sightings around them. Several minutes passed, and it was there that Jak's feet started to tremble.
He saw a hint of luck – an unattended hoverbike was seen leaning near the walls, causing him to smile and jump onto it. He then started it up, and drove it out of the Industrial Section of the city, up towards the Northern section.
And with the way things have gone with the ambush, there may be more setbacks to come his way than he could imagine.
-end of part 2-