A... third... chappie? My, this is getting a little bit long. Well, that's a
pity coz I'm gonna have to have three, maybe four more chappies to complete
it.
Vader: yeah, like you MIND writing more stuff now that you have that PIECE OF ELECTRICAL CRAP which you term a computer.
Necralis: All right, I lied. I NOW have a computer of my VERY OWN, a Toshiba laptop with all the things a writer needs. That is, Microsoft Word and very little else. BUT IT'S ABSOLUTLY COVERED IN JAK STUFF! (hugs the laptop, then, so Vader doesn't feel left out, hugs the muse, nearly strangling him) WABAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Vader: (covering his ears) she means 'Yay' in layman's terms. Gah, I hate it when she gets all – erk (Necralis squeezes him even harder then drops him) gets all over-affectionate like this. Tryna PRETEND she actually DOESN'T HATE ME.
Necralis: You're a cute fuzzy animal. I'm an evil authoress. Guess which is more popular (sigh) they don't like it so much when I torture you.
Vader: HAH!
Necralis: (grins evilly) So I'll have to be sneakier... anyway... He hee, thanky for ya voos. Maybe I should do a reviewer response... thing... to explain to all ye readers what exactly Vader is. Eh, Shadow Fox? Would that be useful? Not that anything I do is ever exactly useful... (mutters something about chickens.) ANYWAYS!! (pulls on a black authoring tunic and cloak) heh, do yas like me noo outfit? (strokes it lovingly) courtesy of many, many hours spent staring at the ceiling muttering to myself. I astound myself sometimes...
**D** I own very little! (beats away lawyers with a stick) No Jak! BUT MIALA IS MINE AND YOU CAN'T STEAL HER WITHOUT PERMISSION!!! Or I will eat you. Or something.. All typo complaints must be written on a 4 by 5 inch piece of card and then eaten. hm.. i've used up my supply of capital letters. whoops. except for the Q's. QQQQQQQQQQ. there we go!
When I Grow Up (ah, good, I found a spare canister...)
Chapter Three
~ -
1... 2... 3...
"Move your butt, Outlaw!
1... 2... 3... 4...
"Don't make me ventilate your skull!"
1...
"Keep moving or I'll fry your brain!"
Jak ignored her, and concentrated on counting the seconds it took for her to decide he needed extra encouragement. This girl had proven that she was fully incapable of going for more than 4 seconds without a threat of some kind. Well, at least one thing was certain: if the Baron ever decided to rethink his policy on women and the Krimzon Guard, Miala was a likely candidate for the second ever woman on the force.
I wanna go home, a small voice in his head whined. But home was hundreds of years away, and no place in 'Haven' city was safe enough to call home, thanks to Praxis and his ongoing campaign against rebellion.
Miala had marched him a long way deep into a place in the Forest he was pretty sure he had never seen before. The vines and various green things around were very thick, and he was tripping more often, earning pokes, prods, and once, an extremely painful whack around the temples with the Pinger. He bit back several swearwords that would hike the rating of this story up a couple notches, and ran through his plan again. It was a simple plan, (some might say, very quietly, that it was simple-minded) and all he needed now was some form of quick exit.
"What are you looking at, Outlaw?" demanded his captor, distracting him for a second. "Hoping your pals the Metal Heads will come and save you?"
Jak sincerely hoped that she was being sarcastic, but no – when he looked back, her face was totally straight.
"Metal Heads don't make very good pals. Trust me on this." 'And on the other stuff I said too,' he added silently, as if that would make any difference.
"Baron Praxis said you've been working with the Metal Heads," Miala continued, blatantly unaware of Jak's thunderous expression. "You passed vital information on the weaknesses of the wall, allowing them to break through."
Jak had to struggle with the darker side of his nature then, as Dark Jak started screaming to get out and teach this girl a lesson. 'She's just a kid', screamed his conscience, 'she can't possibly know anything about what really happened..'
He forced himself to laugh harshly. "Gees, if that's all Praxis can come up with, I think he's losing his touch."
Miala went very pale, and it was obvious she was trying to stop herself from slapping Jak across the face. "Don't you DARE laugh, you bastard!" she snapped. "My parents died in that attack, Outlaw,"
"My parents died before I even knew them," Jak said brutally. "I don't think that gives me the right to jump to conclusions about people."
"The Baron protects us from the Metal Heads!" Miala said desperately... but her resolve was starting to fail.
"Yeah, by making deals with the Metal Heads, promising Eco he doesn't have, and using the City's supply for... other purposes," sneered Jak. He turned away from the trembling girl in disgust, then almost froze at he saw something that filled him with hope. Hope that he could get away from the crazy girl before she lost it and killed him. Or he was forced to kill her...
There was a Gate-lock up ahead. Smaller than the ones he usually went through, but at the moment Jak didn't particularly care. Just so long as he could get into Haven and lose himself in the crowds before Miala caught on.
A painful poke in the small of his back gave him an excuse to turn around with a furious expression on his face, one he changed to shock as he looked over the girl's shoulder. "What the..."
There was nothing there, but Miala fell for it and turned to look around. "What are you looking-" The next thing she felt was a sledgehammer blow to the side of her head as Jak span and used his tied hands to give a solid whack that knocked her sideways into a tree, briefly knocking her out.
"Oof," she said, more out of surprise than pain, before Jak took to his heels, his entire attention focused on reaching the Gate-Lock before she gathered her wits.
He was only 100 metres away...
~The Lock wasn't opening...
75...
~He'd left his guns behind... no chance of going back for them...
50.
~The Gate-Locks usually opened when he got this close to them...
10 metres.
~Still closed...
5 metres...
~ He was going to slam into it...
The next thing he felt was considerable pain and shock, as he slammed straight into the stubbornly closed Gate-Lock. The world spun for a second, then he found his wits and lost his temper and started body slamming the door, with no apparent regard for his own safety.
'Unrecognized DNA pattern,' said a cool female voice, apparently from the Lock itself. 'Gate Lock-down initiated.' This only enraged Jak more, and his attacks grew more vicious as he let forth a stream of impressive and unprintable language.
A grinning, albeit slightly dizzy Miala emerged from the trees, a little scared by his display of temper.
"Having fun?" she enquired.
Jak rounded on her.
"You knew... you knew the thing wouldn't open..." he sputtered.
She shrugged, her Pinger firmly drawn on him once more. "I wasn't even planning to take you through there, originally," she said. "That leads to some kinda facility. No. I was going to take through there-" she pointed at a tiny little cave next to the Gate-Lock. He hadn't even noticed it. "It leads into the City, to the Slums." Her voice grew icy, her fingers tightened on the trigger of her gun. "Now, you're going to go through there, nice and slow, and I won't be forced to shoot you."
Jak gave her an extremely venomous look, but it changed as he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh... girl... I'd look behind you if I were you..."
Miala smirked. "Like I'm going to fall for that twice," she said, stepping forward.
That probably saved her life, as the Metal Head that had been sneaking up behind her swiped its claws at her. If she had been standing where she had been, the talons would probably have bisected her. As it was, they grazed her back, tearing through her shirt and ripping through the skin beneath. She gave a gasp of pain, dropped her gun and put her hand back to try and stem the flow of blood that was darkening her already grimy pants.
The Metal Head, backed by two others, snarled triumphantly as the girl dropped face forward onto the grass. It was one of the tall, humanoid ones, more lizard-like than most, with long sharp claws and fangs.
Miala, her face creased with pain, streaked with grime, was trying to reach her gun. With a growl, the Metal Head placed its clawed foot on her hand and kicked the gun away.
The girl, however, was not yet dead, and managed to kick the creature in the stomach. This only served to infuriate the beast further, and it slashed at her face, opening long gashes across her forehead and finally knocking her out.
Jak, meanwhile, was standing next to the door, his attention flicking between running for his life and trying to help Miala. Daxter usually acted as his conscience (such as he was) and his real one hadn't come into play for quite a long time (almost two and half years, in fact...). True, he hated Metal Heads, but he hated Krimzon Guards just as much, if not more.
~She's not a Guard.
They were doing the dirty work for him...
~You're just going to let an innocent die?
If Daxter were here...
~He'd tell you to run for your life. And you'd ignore him, wouldn't you?
She was stubborn... she had a temper...
~So Dark Jak isn't in any way related to your temper, is that it? She could be a valuable ally, if that's all you care about...
Miala had not called out for help once. Maybe she was used to looking out for herself...
~Or maybe she doesn't expect any help from a dangerous criminal.
"Ok, FINE!" Jak roared at his conscience, thoroughly sick of the argument. "She just better be grateful..." he muttered.
And with that, he sped down the hill, switching his brain into combat mode.
The first thing he did was yell, "Hey, pea brain!" The Metal Heads looked up from the helpless girl, distracted by this new annoyance. The one with blood on its claws reached out to swipe at the blonde elf, who timed the swing, leapt into the air and grinned as with a 'snik', the claws cut straight through the whipcord, the pieces falling to the ground. It was times like this he could almost thank the Baron for the combat training..
Next he landed in a crouch and snatched up the Pinger, cocking it and loosing several shots at the lead Metal Head. The shots ricocheted off the metal armor on the thing's face, bouncing wildly off into various trees.
"Shhhit!" hissed Jak. His own guns would have penetrated. But the Pinger was too weak. Time to get a little creative...
He ducked under the second swipe from the creature's claws, slid beneath it and fired at its back. But no, there was armor there too. The bullets bounced away again, one flying straight over his head and nearly singeing his hair. He cast a quick glance over the Head, trying to find a weakness. There. On its neck. A gap in its armor. He'd have to get up on top of it...
His train of thought was interrupted when the creature dived at him. He tried to back out of the way and felt the trunk of a tree behind him... that gave him an idea...
With a split second left, he scrambled up the tree and felt it shudder as the Metal head crashed straight into it. Leaping down, he landed lightly on the creature's back, jammed the muzzle of the gun into the weakness in the armor and pumped the trigger for all he was worth. This time, the bullets burnt a sizzling hole in its flesh. The Metal head arched its back and gave a deafening screech, then went limp.
There was no time to celebrate... as he rolled away from the dying Metal Head, something extremely heavy slammed into him and knocked him aside, one talon nicking his arm and drawing a line of pain from his elbow to his shoulder. There were still the other two to deal with...
Miala appeared to have vanished. Jak wondered vaguely where she had gone until he noticed a strange dip in the ground.. that formed itself into the girl, curled up with her head between her knees. Her clothes had camouflaged her perfectly.
Of course, camouflage doesn't work so well against Metal Heads, and suddenly a large metallic shape obscured Jak's view of her. Jak would have groaned aloud, had the tip of something silver, bloody and obviously quite sharp not pushed its way through the back of the Metal Head's neck. It was his own knife. Miala had regained consciousness and jammed it through the creature's neck, despite the fact that it had managed to open a gash in her side, which was still bleeding freely.
"Wow," Jak would have muttered, if he had still had energy to spare for speech. The girl was a toughie.
She crawled out from underneath the creature's corpse and staggered to her feet, pulling something compact and metallic from her pouch. His Morph Gun. Wincing in pain and bleeding from half a dozen wounds, she tossed it to him, Jak catching it one handed and extending it out to its working form.
A few seconds later, the last Metal Head collapsed in a sparking heap, twitching slightly, with several large bullet holes stamped into its gut.
Miala watched it fall, then turned back to Jak, his bloody knife still raised in her hand. Very pale from loss of blood, she took a faltering half step towards him before the exhaustion overtook her and she succumbed.
As the knife fell with a thump, she collapsed facedown onto the grass.
- * -
She awoke to the usual twitter of birds that announced the setting sun, as well as a faint clicking noise of someone taking something apart.
Hauling herself upright, she noticed Jak sitting a few metres away, the pieces of his gun arrayed around him.
"So you're awake at last," he said, without looking up, as he unscrewed the Blaster attachment from its barrel. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't, Eco-patches being so cheap."
Leaning up against a tree, she felt something scrape and realized there were green Eco-patches on the gashes on her side and face. The patches were glowing faintly even in the twilight, working their healing magic. Jak had one on his arm.
"I have to clean out this thing a lot," he muttered, maybe to answer a question she didn't ask, maybe to break the awkward silence. "If I don't it jams up and won't fire. Sometimes I think Daxter hides candy wrappers in there."
Miala got to her feet and held out her hands. Jak reluctantly threw her the Pinger.
She stood and stared at him for a long time, her glittering silver eyes seeming to look at him and through him, as though she could figure him out just by looking at him.
"You saved my life," she said finally.
Not sure how else to reply, Jak said, "Yes."
There was a long pause, during which Jak pulled several Glub Burger wrappers from his gun and stared at them in disgust. Then Miala asked the obvious question.
"Why?"
Jak finally looked up, his blue eyes cool and calm, which was a rarity when Daxter was around. "You aren't a Guard. I can't go around killing innocent people, or I become as bad as them," he said quietly. Jak suddenly dropped his serious manner and grinned. "Besides, that was some pretty kick-ass fighting."
Miala nodded, a far away look in her eyes. "My brother taught me. Took him five years, until I was better at it than him," she said, smiling. "Broke his arm once," she added in reflection, her smile becoming faintly disturbing. "Bloodied his nose."
"Do I need to ask-?"
"We were playing Mercy. He didn't ask for it, I didn't give it. It got a little ugly."
"I see." Jak shook his head slightly. "Now that we have that settled, I want to... ask you something."
"I get to ask something in return."
"Fair enough," conceded Jak. "Why did you really capture me? And none of that 'I wanna be a guard' crap," he added. "No one in their right minds wants to join the Krimzon Guards, unless they're idiotic or got some serious grudge to settle."
Miala tilted her head, choosing her words carefully. "Reason one," she said with a sigh, "My parents were killed in the Metal Head attack on the city a few years ago. The one where they actually managed to break through the wall. No one knew how they did it, and, when you broke out of prison, the Baron said that you were the one behind it and he'd had you imprisoned for it."
Jak's fist clenched and he quickly busied himself in cleaning out the trigger mechanism of his gun.
"I didn't think about it at the time, and, since I'd never seen you, I thought you must have done it. I wanted to make sure a traitor like that never got a chance to do it again."
"What changed your mind?" Jak said, frowning at her.
"Seeing you fight just now. No one kills their allies with a grin like that, not unless they're seriously disturbed."
Jak grinned again. "So how do you know it's not the latter?"
Miala ignored him. "Reason two: My brother is imprisoned. He was caught with a group ripping off Krimzon Guard weapons and medical supplies. He didn't actually have anything to do with it – my father would have died of shame if he hadn't been dead already - he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, I was going to swap you for him.
"Reason number three: I hate Erol."
"Join the club."
"He was the one who arrested my brother – the one who gave orders for him to be locked away despite the lack of evidence, and without a trial."
Jak's face darkened. "I know the feeling."
"The one who left my parents to die, even though my father was loyal officer for most of his life, even though he'd saved his butt on several occasions. The one who nearly killed me, though he probably doesn't remember it, destroying my parent's old home on suspicion of harboring Underground Rebels."
"I take it you weren't."
"No," the green haired girl said sadly. "My father was a real stickler for loyalty. I wanted to catch the person he hated most to prove I was better than him. Now... I want to ask YOU something."
Jak crossed him arms and lifted his chin. "Provided it's not about my lack of furry cargo. Bad things were said, words misunderstood.. I don't particularly wanna talk about it." He wondered what Daxter was doing now. Most likely drinking himself into a stupor.
Miala looked slightly confused, then said, "Oh... no, actually. I wanna know... Why do you hate the Baron so much? Why do you do... what you do?"
Jak scowled heavily, hand unconsciously reaching up to rub a faint burn scar on his temple. "Praxis had me arrested. For no reason, no explanation. Then he had me experimented on like a plaything." He grimaced as he remembered waking up strapped down to a table, cold, bruised, terrified beyond belief. Then the pain. The awful, searing pain, and with it, a growing sense of darkness. He smiled grimly. "When I finally get my hands on him, I'm gonna ram my gun down his throat and make him beg for mercy. Then I'll kill him," he added, very, very softly. "I'll kill him as slowly and painfully as possible."
"And the damaging of various city landmarks?"
Jak shrugged. He didn't know about damaging landmarks. He had a tendency to damage PEOPLE, certainly, and facilities. But not landmarks. "I do jobs sometimes. That's what brought me here, actually."
Miala stared long and hard at him, then brightened up.
"Would your 'job', as you put it, have anything to do with a secret facility hidden in Haven Forest?" She then pulled the explosives out of her pouch. "And these?"
"Sharp, aren't you?"
Ignoring his sarcasm, she looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm going to help you."
"Ooooh no. I was hoping I could do this one with out useless creatures hanging around." (N&V: Man, is Jak usually this mean to Daxter? Vader: only when you're controlling him.)
She frowned. "I am not useless. I know this place better than anyone else. I know how to get in there too, although it won't be easy. I can also handle myself in a fight, as you should know."
"Yeah, you handle yourself really well in a fight," Jak said sarcastically. "That's why I had to save your ass."
She gave him the finger. "And I need to repay you for the life-saving thing. And also," she added, wincing as though she was afraid he would explode, "I need a favor. Help me get my brother out of prison. It would make the Baron angry," she wheedled, "and you may need a diversion in the facility."
Jak stared at her for a long time, still neatly screwing the laser sight back onto his gun, doing his best to mimic her penetrating silver stare.
Standing up, he folded the gun down to its compacted size and put it into the holster in his back. "Ok," he finally agreed, though he had a bad feeling and was pretty sure that Daxter would be screeching "WHAT!?!" right about now. "Would now be a good time?"
- ~ -
Necralis: Done! See? What do you think? Man, is it long or am I just crazy?
Vader: The latter.
Necralis: (looking stricken) really? I wonder about that sometimes. (walks off saying 'split crack, split crack, used cold water' in a sing-song voice)
Vader: Well. I better hide the fire-ax. Actually, I think it's both the latter and the former, coz this does look REALLY long in Microsoft Word.
Necralis: (races back screeching and hugs the muse) Hear that? Didjas hear that? Vader AGREED with me!
Vader: (turning blue) eeeeeerrrhhhh!!
Necralis: Oh. Oops. (drops him on the ground and waves her hand to heal his broken ribs) Sorry about that.
Vader: You are nuts.
Necralis: True. (starts running around in little circles wailing to prove it)
Vader: I had to pick the crazy one. Five different authors, and I get the one that thinks shrieking in public is a great way to get laughs. (scowls at the wailing authoress) I don't know why I keep her sometimes. I really don't.
Necralis: But I'm not just insane. I got the powers of an authoress too! That makes me a DANGROUS lunatic.
Jak, Daxter, Miala and Vader: (together) Oh, God help us! (Necralis gives a raucous shriek of laughter and starts running amok with a chainsaw)
Voo sponses. (lets just say, that for this bit, I laid down my chainsaw and let them all live. For now anyway. (grins in an extremely deranged manner)
[Shadow Fox777] Necralis: Vader is a small squirrelish thing, similar in looks to Daxter, only a lot cuter. He's red with black stripes and he makes sparkles when he walks. Um.. for a better idea of what he looks like, look at the muse in Jak and Daxter. The one you have to rescue for the Sculptor. He's American (I think), which is slightly unusual because I myself am Australian. All clear?
[EagleRider] Weeeell, my reasons behind that are fairly complex.. I based it on the idea that he still has a conscience, and that he wouldn't murder a girl in cold blood just because she was ignorant. And also, have you noticed that he mellows out slightly near the end of the game? Yes, yes, I know – he has a nasty tendency to shoot people who annoy him, especially Krimzon Guards, but he obviously isn't completely heartless, because 1: he did go to save the Kid, and 2: He still lets Daxter hang around, right? Although not in my fic... ahem...
And besides, if I had let him kill her when she jumped out at him, this fic would have been rather short, neh? ^_^
I'm too lazy to write any more, and I did answer the questions, so yeah. Do you peeps think I should put more of what happens to Daxxie? I'm just no good at writing him; his witticisms are slightly beyond me. If you guys REALLY want it, and you beg on bended knee, and you tell every one how good a writer I am and make them review, I MIGHT consider it and make a concentrated effort. Emphasis on MIGHT.
Toodle-pip for the moment, and, out of curiosity, how many of you have DeviantART accounts? (www.nowingedvulture.deviantart.com is mine) (starts chasing Daxter with a chainsaw again) AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
Vader: yeah, like you MIND writing more stuff now that you have that PIECE OF ELECTRICAL CRAP which you term a computer.
Necralis: All right, I lied. I NOW have a computer of my VERY OWN, a Toshiba laptop with all the things a writer needs. That is, Microsoft Word and very little else. BUT IT'S ABSOLUTLY COVERED IN JAK STUFF! (hugs the laptop, then, so Vader doesn't feel left out, hugs the muse, nearly strangling him) WABAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Vader: (covering his ears) she means 'Yay' in layman's terms. Gah, I hate it when she gets all – erk (Necralis squeezes him even harder then drops him) gets all over-affectionate like this. Tryna PRETEND she actually DOESN'T HATE ME.
Necralis: You're a cute fuzzy animal. I'm an evil authoress. Guess which is more popular (sigh) they don't like it so much when I torture you.
Vader: HAH!
Necralis: (grins evilly) So I'll have to be sneakier... anyway... He hee, thanky for ya voos. Maybe I should do a reviewer response... thing... to explain to all ye readers what exactly Vader is. Eh, Shadow Fox? Would that be useful? Not that anything I do is ever exactly useful... (mutters something about chickens.) ANYWAYS!! (pulls on a black authoring tunic and cloak) heh, do yas like me noo outfit? (strokes it lovingly) courtesy of many, many hours spent staring at the ceiling muttering to myself. I astound myself sometimes...
**D** I own very little! (beats away lawyers with a stick) No Jak! BUT MIALA IS MINE AND YOU CAN'T STEAL HER WITHOUT PERMISSION!!! Or I will eat you. Or something.. All typo complaints must be written on a 4 by 5 inch piece of card and then eaten. hm.. i've used up my supply of capital letters. whoops. except for the Q's. QQQQQQQQQQ. there we go!
When I Grow Up (ah, good, I found a spare canister...)
Chapter Three
~ -
1... 2... 3...
"Move your butt, Outlaw!
1... 2... 3... 4...
"Don't make me ventilate your skull!"
1...
"Keep moving or I'll fry your brain!"
Jak ignored her, and concentrated on counting the seconds it took for her to decide he needed extra encouragement. This girl had proven that she was fully incapable of going for more than 4 seconds without a threat of some kind. Well, at least one thing was certain: if the Baron ever decided to rethink his policy on women and the Krimzon Guard, Miala was a likely candidate for the second ever woman on the force.
I wanna go home, a small voice in his head whined. But home was hundreds of years away, and no place in 'Haven' city was safe enough to call home, thanks to Praxis and his ongoing campaign against rebellion.
Miala had marched him a long way deep into a place in the Forest he was pretty sure he had never seen before. The vines and various green things around were very thick, and he was tripping more often, earning pokes, prods, and once, an extremely painful whack around the temples with the Pinger. He bit back several swearwords that would hike the rating of this story up a couple notches, and ran through his plan again. It was a simple plan, (some might say, very quietly, that it was simple-minded) and all he needed now was some form of quick exit.
"What are you looking at, Outlaw?" demanded his captor, distracting him for a second. "Hoping your pals the Metal Heads will come and save you?"
Jak sincerely hoped that she was being sarcastic, but no – when he looked back, her face was totally straight.
"Metal Heads don't make very good pals. Trust me on this." 'And on the other stuff I said too,' he added silently, as if that would make any difference.
"Baron Praxis said you've been working with the Metal Heads," Miala continued, blatantly unaware of Jak's thunderous expression. "You passed vital information on the weaknesses of the wall, allowing them to break through."
Jak had to struggle with the darker side of his nature then, as Dark Jak started screaming to get out and teach this girl a lesson. 'She's just a kid', screamed his conscience, 'she can't possibly know anything about what really happened..'
He forced himself to laugh harshly. "Gees, if that's all Praxis can come up with, I think he's losing his touch."
Miala went very pale, and it was obvious she was trying to stop herself from slapping Jak across the face. "Don't you DARE laugh, you bastard!" she snapped. "My parents died in that attack, Outlaw,"
"My parents died before I even knew them," Jak said brutally. "I don't think that gives me the right to jump to conclusions about people."
"The Baron protects us from the Metal Heads!" Miala said desperately... but her resolve was starting to fail.
"Yeah, by making deals with the Metal Heads, promising Eco he doesn't have, and using the City's supply for... other purposes," sneered Jak. He turned away from the trembling girl in disgust, then almost froze at he saw something that filled him with hope. Hope that he could get away from the crazy girl before she lost it and killed him. Or he was forced to kill her...
There was a Gate-lock up ahead. Smaller than the ones he usually went through, but at the moment Jak didn't particularly care. Just so long as he could get into Haven and lose himself in the crowds before Miala caught on.
A painful poke in the small of his back gave him an excuse to turn around with a furious expression on his face, one he changed to shock as he looked over the girl's shoulder. "What the..."
There was nothing there, but Miala fell for it and turned to look around. "What are you looking-" The next thing she felt was a sledgehammer blow to the side of her head as Jak span and used his tied hands to give a solid whack that knocked her sideways into a tree, briefly knocking her out.
"Oof," she said, more out of surprise than pain, before Jak took to his heels, his entire attention focused on reaching the Gate-Lock before she gathered her wits.
He was only 100 metres away...
~The Lock wasn't opening...
75...
~He'd left his guns behind... no chance of going back for them...
50.
~The Gate-Locks usually opened when he got this close to them...
10 metres.
~Still closed...
5 metres...
~ He was going to slam into it...
The next thing he felt was considerable pain and shock, as he slammed straight into the stubbornly closed Gate-Lock. The world spun for a second, then he found his wits and lost his temper and started body slamming the door, with no apparent regard for his own safety.
'Unrecognized DNA pattern,' said a cool female voice, apparently from the Lock itself. 'Gate Lock-down initiated.' This only enraged Jak more, and his attacks grew more vicious as he let forth a stream of impressive and unprintable language.
A grinning, albeit slightly dizzy Miala emerged from the trees, a little scared by his display of temper.
"Having fun?" she enquired.
Jak rounded on her.
"You knew... you knew the thing wouldn't open..." he sputtered.
She shrugged, her Pinger firmly drawn on him once more. "I wasn't even planning to take you through there, originally," she said. "That leads to some kinda facility. No. I was going to take through there-" she pointed at a tiny little cave next to the Gate-Lock. He hadn't even noticed it. "It leads into the City, to the Slums." Her voice grew icy, her fingers tightened on the trigger of her gun. "Now, you're going to go through there, nice and slow, and I won't be forced to shoot you."
Jak gave her an extremely venomous look, but it changed as he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh... girl... I'd look behind you if I were you..."
Miala smirked. "Like I'm going to fall for that twice," she said, stepping forward.
That probably saved her life, as the Metal Head that had been sneaking up behind her swiped its claws at her. If she had been standing where she had been, the talons would probably have bisected her. As it was, they grazed her back, tearing through her shirt and ripping through the skin beneath. She gave a gasp of pain, dropped her gun and put her hand back to try and stem the flow of blood that was darkening her already grimy pants.
The Metal Head, backed by two others, snarled triumphantly as the girl dropped face forward onto the grass. It was one of the tall, humanoid ones, more lizard-like than most, with long sharp claws and fangs.
Miala, her face creased with pain, streaked with grime, was trying to reach her gun. With a growl, the Metal Head placed its clawed foot on her hand and kicked the gun away.
The girl, however, was not yet dead, and managed to kick the creature in the stomach. This only served to infuriate the beast further, and it slashed at her face, opening long gashes across her forehead and finally knocking her out.
Jak, meanwhile, was standing next to the door, his attention flicking between running for his life and trying to help Miala. Daxter usually acted as his conscience (such as he was) and his real one hadn't come into play for quite a long time (almost two and half years, in fact...). True, he hated Metal Heads, but he hated Krimzon Guards just as much, if not more.
~She's not a Guard.
They were doing the dirty work for him...
~You're just going to let an innocent die?
If Daxter were here...
~He'd tell you to run for your life. And you'd ignore him, wouldn't you?
She was stubborn... she had a temper...
~So Dark Jak isn't in any way related to your temper, is that it? She could be a valuable ally, if that's all you care about...
Miala had not called out for help once. Maybe she was used to looking out for herself...
~Or maybe she doesn't expect any help from a dangerous criminal.
"Ok, FINE!" Jak roared at his conscience, thoroughly sick of the argument. "She just better be grateful..." he muttered.
And with that, he sped down the hill, switching his brain into combat mode.
The first thing he did was yell, "Hey, pea brain!" The Metal Heads looked up from the helpless girl, distracted by this new annoyance. The one with blood on its claws reached out to swipe at the blonde elf, who timed the swing, leapt into the air and grinned as with a 'snik', the claws cut straight through the whipcord, the pieces falling to the ground. It was times like this he could almost thank the Baron for the combat training..
Next he landed in a crouch and snatched up the Pinger, cocking it and loosing several shots at the lead Metal Head. The shots ricocheted off the metal armor on the thing's face, bouncing wildly off into various trees.
"Shhhit!" hissed Jak. His own guns would have penetrated. But the Pinger was too weak. Time to get a little creative...
He ducked under the second swipe from the creature's claws, slid beneath it and fired at its back. But no, there was armor there too. The bullets bounced away again, one flying straight over his head and nearly singeing his hair. He cast a quick glance over the Head, trying to find a weakness. There. On its neck. A gap in its armor. He'd have to get up on top of it...
His train of thought was interrupted when the creature dived at him. He tried to back out of the way and felt the trunk of a tree behind him... that gave him an idea...
With a split second left, he scrambled up the tree and felt it shudder as the Metal head crashed straight into it. Leaping down, he landed lightly on the creature's back, jammed the muzzle of the gun into the weakness in the armor and pumped the trigger for all he was worth. This time, the bullets burnt a sizzling hole in its flesh. The Metal head arched its back and gave a deafening screech, then went limp.
There was no time to celebrate... as he rolled away from the dying Metal Head, something extremely heavy slammed into him and knocked him aside, one talon nicking his arm and drawing a line of pain from his elbow to his shoulder. There were still the other two to deal with...
Miala appeared to have vanished. Jak wondered vaguely where she had gone until he noticed a strange dip in the ground.. that formed itself into the girl, curled up with her head between her knees. Her clothes had camouflaged her perfectly.
Of course, camouflage doesn't work so well against Metal Heads, and suddenly a large metallic shape obscured Jak's view of her. Jak would have groaned aloud, had the tip of something silver, bloody and obviously quite sharp not pushed its way through the back of the Metal Head's neck. It was his own knife. Miala had regained consciousness and jammed it through the creature's neck, despite the fact that it had managed to open a gash in her side, which was still bleeding freely.
"Wow," Jak would have muttered, if he had still had energy to spare for speech. The girl was a toughie.
She crawled out from underneath the creature's corpse and staggered to her feet, pulling something compact and metallic from her pouch. His Morph Gun. Wincing in pain and bleeding from half a dozen wounds, she tossed it to him, Jak catching it one handed and extending it out to its working form.
A few seconds later, the last Metal Head collapsed in a sparking heap, twitching slightly, with several large bullet holes stamped into its gut.
Miala watched it fall, then turned back to Jak, his bloody knife still raised in her hand. Very pale from loss of blood, she took a faltering half step towards him before the exhaustion overtook her and she succumbed.
As the knife fell with a thump, she collapsed facedown onto the grass.
- * -
She awoke to the usual twitter of birds that announced the setting sun, as well as a faint clicking noise of someone taking something apart.
Hauling herself upright, she noticed Jak sitting a few metres away, the pieces of his gun arrayed around him.
"So you're awake at last," he said, without looking up, as he unscrewed the Blaster attachment from its barrel. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't, Eco-patches being so cheap."
Leaning up against a tree, she felt something scrape and realized there were green Eco-patches on the gashes on her side and face. The patches were glowing faintly even in the twilight, working their healing magic. Jak had one on his arm.
"I have to clean out this thing a lot," he muttered, maybe to answer a question she didn't ask, maybe to break the awkward silence. "If I don't it jams up and won't fire. Sometimes I think Daxter hides candy wrappers in there."
Miala got to her feet and held out her hands. Jak reluctantly threw her the Pinger.
She stood and stared at him for a long time, her glittering silver eyes seeming to look at him and through him, as though she could figure him out just by looking at him.
"You saved my life," she said finally.
Not sure how else to reply, Jak said, "Yes."
There was a long pause, during which Jak pulled several Glub Burger wrappers from his gun and stared at them in disgust. Then Miala asked the obvious question.
"Why?"
Jak finally looked up, his blue eyes cool and calm, which was a rarity when Daxter was around. "You aren't a Guard. I can't go around killing innocent people, or I become as bad as them," he said quietly. Jak suddenly dropped his serious manner and grinned. "Besides, that was some pretty kick-ass fighting."
Miala nodded, a far away look in her eyes. "My brother taught me. Took him five years, until I was better at it than him," she said, smiling. "Broke his arm once," she added in reflection, her smile becoming faintly disturbing. "Bloodied his nose."
"Do I need to ask-?"
"We were playing Mercy. He didn't ask for it, I didn't give it. It got a little ugly."
"I see." Jak shook his head slightly. "Now that we have that settled, I want to... ask you something."
"I get to ask something in return."
"Fair enough," conceded Jak. "Why did you really capture me? And none of that 'I wanna be a guard' crap," he added. "No one in their right minds wants to join the Krimzon Guards, unless they're idiotic or got some serious grudge to settle."
Miala tilted her head, choosing her words carefully. "Reason one," she said with a sigh, "My parents were killed in the Metal Head attack on the city a few years ago. The one where they actually managed to break through the wall. No one knew how they did it, and, when you broke out of prison, the Baron said that you were the one behind it and he'd had you imprisoned for it."
Jak's fist clenched and he quickly busied himself in cleaning out the trigger mechanism of his gun.
"I didn't think about it at the time, and, since I'd never seen you, I thought you must have done it. I wanted to make sure a traitor like that never got a chance to do it again."
"What changed your mind?" Jak said, frowning at her.
"Seeing you fight just now. No one kills their allies with a grin like that, not unless they're seriously disturbed."
Jak grinned again. "So how do you know it's not the latter?"
Miala ignored him. "Reason two: My brother is imprisoned. He was caught with a group ripping off Krimzon Guard weapons and medical supplies. He didn't actually have anything to do with it – my father would have died of shame if he hadn't been dead already - he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, I was going to swap you for him.
"Reason number three: I hate Erol."
"Join the club."
"He was the one who arrested my brother – the one who gave orders for him to be locked away despite the lack of evidence, and without a trial."
Jak's face darkened. "I know the feeling."
"The one who left my parents to die, even though my father was loyal officer for most of his life, even though he'd saved his butt on several occasions. The one who nearly killed me, though he probably doesn't remember it, destroying my parent's old home on suspicion of harboring Underground Rebels."
"I take it you weren't."
"No," the green haired girl said sadly. "My father was a real stickler for loyalty. I wanted to catch the person he hated most to prove I was better than him. Now... I want to ask YOU something."
Jak crossed him arms and lifted his chin. "Provided it's not about my lack of furry cargo. Bad things were said, words misunderstood.. I don't particularly wanna talk about it." He wondered what Daxter was doing now. Most likely drinking himself into a stupor.
Miala looked slightly confused, then said, "Oh... no, actually. I wanna know... Why do you hate the Baron so much? Why do you do... what you do?"
Jak scowled heavily, hand unconsciously reaching up to rub a faint burn scar on his temple. "Praxis had me arrested. For no reason, no explanation. Then he had me experimented on like a plaything." He grimaced as he remembered waking up strapped down to a table, cold, bruised, terrified beyond belief. Then the pain. The awful, searing pain, and with it, a growing sense of darkness. He smiled grimly. "When I finally get my hands on him, I'm gonna ram my gun down his throat and make him beg for mercy. Then I'll kill him," he added, very, very softly. "I'll kill him as slowly and painfully as possible."
"And the damaging of various city landmarks?"
Jak shrugged. He didn't know about damaging landmarks. He had a tendency to damage PEOPLE, certainly, and facilities. But not landmarks. "I do jobs sometimes. That's what brought me here, actually."
Miala stared long and hard at him, then brightened up.
"Would your 'job', as you put it, have anything to do with a secret facility hidden in Haven Forest?" She then pulled the explosives out of her pouch. "And these?"
"Sharp, aren't you?"
Ignoring his sarcasm, she looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm going to help you."
"Ooooh no. I was hoping I could do this one with out useless creatures hanging around." (N&V: Man, is Jak usually this mean to Daxter? Vader: only when you're controlling him.)
She frowned. "I am not useless. I know this place better than anyone else. I know how to get in there too, although it won't be easy. I can also handle myself in a fight, as you should know."
"Yeah, you handle yourself really well in a fight," Jak said sarcastically. "That's why I had to save your ass."
She gave him the finger. "And I need to repay you for the life-saving thing. And also," she added, wincing as though she was afraid he would explode, "I need a favor. Help me get my brother out of prison. It would make the Baron angry," she wheedled, "and you may need a diversion in the facility."
Jak stared at her for a long time, still neatly screwing the laser sight back onto his gun, doing his best to mimic her penetrating silver stare.
Standing up, he folded the gun down to its compacted size and put it into the holster in his back. "Ok," he finally agreed, though he had a bad feeling and was pretty sure that Daxter would be screeching "WHAT!?!" right about now. "Would now be a good time?"
- ~ -
Necralis: Done! See? What do you think? Man, is it long or am I just crazy?
Vader: The latter.
Necralis: (looking stricken) really? I wonder about that sometimes. (walks off saying 'split crack, split crack, used cold water' in a sing-song voice)
Vader: Well. I better hide the fire-ax. Actually, I think it's both the latter and the former, coz this does look REALLY long in Microsoft Word.
Necralis: (races back screeching and hugs the muse) Hear that? Didjas hear that? Vader AGREED with me!
Vader: (turning blue) eeeeeerrrhhhh!!
Necralis: Oh. Oops. (drops him on the ground and waves her hand to heal his broken ribs) Sorry about that.
Vader: You are nuts.
Necralis: True. (starts running around in little circles wailing to prove it)
Vader: I had to pick the crazy one. Five different authors, and I get the one that thinks shrieking in public is a great way to get laughs. (scowls at the wailing authoress) I don't know why I keep her sometimes. I really don't.
Necralis: But I'm not just insane. I got the powers of an authoress too! That makes me a DANGROUS lunatic.
Jak, Daxter, Miala and Vader: (together) Oh, God help us! (Necralis gives a raucous shriek of laughter and starts running amok with a chainsaw)
Voo sponses. (lets just say, that for this bit, I laid down my chainsaw and let them all live. For now anyway. (grins in an extremely deranged manner)
[Shadow Fox777] Necralis: Vader is a small squirrelish thing, similar in looks to Daxter, only a lot cuter. He's red with black stripes and he makes sparkles when he walks. Um.. for a better idea of what he looks like, look at the muse in Jak and Daxter. The one you have to rescue for the Sculptor. He's American (I think), which is slightly unusual because I myself am Australian. All clear?
[EagleRider] Weeeell, my reasons behind that are fairly complex.. I based it on the idea that he still has a conscience, and that he wouldn't murder a girl in cold blood just because she was ignorant. And also, have you noticed that he mellows out slightly near the end of the game? Yes, yes, I know – he has a nasty tendency to shoot people who annoy him, especially Krimzon Guards, but he obviously isn't completely heartless, because 1: he did go to save the Kid, and 2: He still lets Daxter hang around, right? Although not in my fic... ahem...
And besides, if I had let him kill her when she jumped out at him, this fic would have been rather short, neh? ^_^
I'm too lazy to write any more, and I did answer the questions, so yeah. Do you peeps think I should put more of what happens to Daxxie? I'm just no good at writing him; his witticisms are slightly beyond me. If you guys REALLY want it, and you beg on bended knee, and you tell every one how good a writer I am and make them review, I MIGHT consider it and make a concentrated effort. Emphasis on MIGHT.
Toodle-pip for the moment, and, out of curiosity, how many of you have DeviantART accounts? (www.nowingedvulture.deviantart.com is mine) (starts chasing Daxter with a chainsaw again) AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!