Miss. Ecofreak: finally! chapter 19 is finished

Zakura: it's not correct due to Jak 3 tough, You've got reviews.

Miss. Ecofreak: happy times (reads review) oh... Well let's take the first ones first.

Miss. Ecofreak: Thanks for the information Happy Jak, I'll make sure to get Keira's last name right in future apperances. As for this little romance-thing... Erol has had some arguments with Jak during Jak2 and one of them actually includes Keira, (in the race garage) Erol claimsKeira loves a winner. I don't know if he really likes her or if it's for another reason but this is a fanfic, many fanfics includes couples who would never last in the game.

As for what the rabbit said earlier... this is an anwer to both Happy Jak and Dark Mar. I hadn't played Jak3 when I wrote this story, I got it the 24 and am just finished so I know Jaks family isn't all like they should have been.
Then againg changing this so it would be correct would mean rewriting the entire story so I let it stay like this for now. I'll try to make the rest of the story more accurate in the future but Jak's family has to stay like this at least for this story.

Zakura: I guess this chapter don't have a place in Jak3's story either

Miss. Ecofreak: no... but it suits this one. I only uploaded one chapter this time because I got a bit sick of putting two chapters in at once. This one might be a nightmare for all of you who doesen't like changing of POV because it changes three times during one chapter. so maybe it was better that I put this chapter in alone, or else it would have been four POV's to keep track of

Zakura: wasn't this actually the first chapter you wrote?

Miss. Ecofreak: more or less. originally i wanted to write a prequel to another story I wanted to write which telled of how Jak lost his parents, then I wanted to show some more of his sister as well, it ended up going back 15 years before the original story which only included the first draft of this chapter, where you also see why parts of Haven is called Dead Town.

CHAPTER 19

DISASTER HITS NEW SANDOVER

215. Month 7

Maria

My life had gone from one disaster to the next.

Fourteen years ago my uncle and the whole city's good leader had died in a fire and been replaced by the worst tyrant known to elven kind, six years later I had left my husband, father of my first child and met my new husband. Things seemed to turn to the better two years ago when my son was born.

Unfortunately Jake had disappeared last year. I suspected the baron had something to do with it and Kate had gone out every day to look for him, along with her friend Cornelius.

But today it was hard to think about all these happenings.

The sun was shining from an almost clear sky and it was so hot that whenever the clouds came between us and the sun it was only a relief.

I sat in a chair outside the house, little Jak was playing with Crocket in the garden.

Kate had gone to visit Cornelius again.

It was a perfect day.

"Mommy! Look! Jak demanded, I opened my eyes and watched him toss a small stick.

"Fech it Clocket!" he shouted and Crocket ran after the stick and came back with it.

"Isn't him gleat?" Jak asked as he took the stick from Crocket.

"Sure Jak, the greatest dog there is" I said smiling.

No, nothing could go wrong today.

But nothings perfect, and it turned out this day was no exception.

The silence was broken by a large roar.

"What was dat mom?" Jak asked.

People came running past our house, one of them stopped in front of us.

"The metalheads are coming Maria!" he shouted, "They have broken through the city wall! Take your kid and get away, quickly!"

Metalheads in the city? I couldn't believe it. But still I didn't want to wait and see if the neighbour was right. I picked up Jak and ran towards the inner city wall with Crocket running after me, he barked constantly and I knew he had caught the smell of the monsters.

I turned around to see, ten or twelve of the most vicious looking creatures I have ever seen came running past the streets, killing anyone who got in their way.

Metalheads.

Most of them were small, like scorpions covered by metal plates or black and blue toads wearing a metal helmet.

Two of them were much bigger; they ran after us on four long legs and looked like large red dogs. These too were covered in metal.

All had four yellow eyes and on their forehead, a greenish yellow gem called skull gems.

Hunters hunting outside the city liked to collect these gems to show their friends how many metalheads they had killed.

I didn't plan to stay behind to look at the monsters, I just ran at top speed with Jak in my arms.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my foot and fell over.

One of the scorpion-metalheads had grabbed my leg with his sharp tail and held it tightly. His buddies came and grabbed my other foot.

I let go of Jak and pushed him forward.

"Run Jak! Get away from here" I shouted.

Jak hesitated, he just stared at me until Crocket came and grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

I saw them run around a corner when I felt one of the larger metalheads jump up on my back.

Then it all went black.

Samos

Metalheads in the city? Impossible.

That's what I thought when I first heard it but I had to come see for myself.

Now I could see them clearly.

The metal covered monsters came crawling through a large whole in the old city wall.

The thing that surprised me the most was that there was no sign of any crimson guards in the section, not a single one.

I tried to fight them of, and at the same time making sure that the citizens got away.

I had no weapons but a small gun, I didn't usually like to kill things but metalheads was an exception.

I noticed a toad-like metalhead was fighting a small dog.

Although the dog and the metalhead were both the same size the metalhead had an advantage, its metal covered head.

I took aim and shoot the metalhead.

As soon as its opponent had died the dog turned to me and growled.

"Don't be afraid little one, I'm not going to hurt you" I said calm.

The dog just kept growling, and then I noticed there was something under a plate he seemed to be guarding.

I pushed the small crocadog away but it kept barking as I removed the plate.

Underneath it was a boy, probably about two-three years old.

He was very scared and I could see he was crying.

The metalheads had obviously taken his parents and this dog was probably his pet.

"Poor kid, what are you doing here all by yourself?" I asked.

The boy just kept crying.

"Come on kid, I'll get you out of here" I said and took the kid's hand.

That made the crocadog angry; it jumped up and bit my arm.

The kid reacted by pulling the dog away and tried to comfort it by petting it on the head.

"Don't be afraid, I just want to help" I said, both to the kid and his dog. "You can't stay here, come, I'll take you somewhere you can be safe"

At least the boy believed me; he took my hand while the crocadog kept growling, but at least he didn't attack again.

We hadn't gotten far when a man in a yellow armour appeared around a corner.

A crimson guard and judging by the colour of his armour he was very high ranked.

I felt the adrenaline started flowing, though no one outside the underground knew I was working against the baron I still got a bit scared seeing a guard looking straight at me, but I stayed calm.

"About time someone came to help" I said, sounding irritated "Is this the better future the baron always talks about?"
"The baron ordered this entire section is forbidden area" The guard said, "I knew I shouldn't have listened to him"

Well, this seemed to prove that even crimson guards could be against the baron.

"Do you mind helping me out? I have to find out why the metalheads attacked this section. Will you please escort the kid and his dog to the new city wall?" I asked him. (Ms.Ef: please don't ask why there are two city walls; I just needed a way for them to get away from the monsters)

"I can fight the metalheads" the guard said.

"Please take the kid, at least you don't need an excuse if the other guards see you come out of a forbidden area with a young boy" I said, "I don't even live in this section, so it would look a bit suspicious."
Finally the guard agreed, I left the kid with him and ran of to find the rest of the metalheads.

I was a bit worried about the kid though, although part of my brain kept saying the crimson guards had no reason to harm a kid, I had a small feeling saying he needed protection, even from the crimson guards.

I was a bit angry about what the guard had said though.

The entire section had been abandoned, and right after the metalheads broke through and the citizens were left with no one to help them.

After all his speeches about a safe future he leaves New Sandover to the metalheads.

Finally I found the last metalheads in front of the old hut; obviously they wanted to get in.

One of them had by accident managed to destroy the bridge and now the others were yelling at him.

They argued only for a few seconds, and then the four metalheads attacked the fifth one (apparently it was the one that had broken the bridge) and ate him alive.

I looked away for a moment, even though I knew they were metalheads, the enemy, I didn't want to see that monster get eaten alive by his comrades.

When I opened my eyes again only three metalheads remained, one had been kicked down into the water during the struggle.

I took by gun and shoot the remaining.

I walked up to them to make sure they were dead and then I felt something strange. It was coming from the hut.

Apparently there was some sort of energy field inside it which attracted the metalheads, which explained why they came.

But why didn't the baron stop them?

There was no time to wonder about that, I had to get back to the kid.

Crimson guard

Apart from the constant growling and barking from the crocadog it was no problem getting the kid inside the new city wall.

I had carried the kid all the way and now I put him down right beside the entrance to New Sandover.

"That damn baron" I said to myself and threw my helmet in the ground so it almost hit the kid's dog. It ran up to his owner and stood guard beside him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you" I said to the dog.

It kept growling, the kid held the dog back so he wouldn't attack.

"What's your name kid?" I asked.

The kid didn't answer, he just held on to the dog's collar.

"I can understand if you don't want to talk after an experience like that" I said.

I looked at the kid and smiled, that's when I saw it. The kid had some sort of amulet hidden under his clothes.

I pulled it out, the amulet was red, and had the shape of two circles spinning around each other like two comets. I knew this sign!

"Damn metalheads. If anyone's worse than the baron it has to be them!"

I turned around; the old man came out through the security door.

He looked up when he saw me, "is the kid okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, he's fine" I said, "But you better come look"

The man came up too us, "great precursor" he said, "the seal of Mar!

Miss. Ecofreak: anyone who wants to guess who the crimson guard is?

Zakura: I knew there was another reason why you didn't upload two chapters this time

Miss. Ecofreak: right. The identity of the crimson guard will be revealed in the next chapter.

Zakura: Is it Ashelin?

Miss. Ecofreak: Ashelin is a girl stupid rabbit.

Zakura: she could have been dressed as a man because she didn't want to get recognised.

Miss. Ecofreak: Perhaps we should stop here. Before Zakura manages to guess who it is. Remember to review, and tell who you think this guard really is

Zakura: could it be baron Praxis?

Miss. Ecofreak: forgive her. she has never played Jak2