Karigoya Yabureme
Chapter 20
By shadows/of/flame

There was eco in the walls. Torn could sense it, pulsing and thriving endlessly.
What sort it was he wasn't entirely sure of, but if it was green eco they were doomed. Regardless of where it was, high motion sensors could usually pick up any type of eco.

Footsteps echoed through the hallways, drawing nearer and nearer as the two comrades did, and Torn knew that the approaching soldiers would be coming for the two dark creatures.

Yes, destroying the green eco was a good idea at first, but if they didn't fight their way through the oncoming onslaught of guards, and stop them from administering the eco to Veger, then they could easily fail. Lose. Have Veger destroy them, and then the world in endless spirals of drugs, alcohol, and sleaze.

Jak obviously sensed his comrades distress, and placed a claw on his shoulder as the older paused.

Torn had never been one to mindlessly kill, but he knew that there would at least be one upcoming blood bath, and almost gagged at the thought.

Killing people was not very high on his to-do list.

His thoughts strayed to Keira, and how much he missed her.
The war had taken so much away from them, and all he wanted to do was finish the war, kill Veger, get Ashelin and Jak married and, obviously, a new ruler for Spargus, and live happily ever after.

But it was rare that happily ever afters came without hard work.

Jak reached the next door, growling furiously as he found it to be locked.
He raised his palm, shooting a thick beam of dark eco at the door; the metal didn't even stand a chance.

The metal of the doors shrieked and warped as the eco destroyed the lock, creating a loud screeching noise that temporarily deafened the dark creatures.

The metal flew back, a huge chunk of it hitting Jak square in the chest, and he fell to the ground, pinned down by the metal.
Torn roared with agony, feeling the sharp pain of their eco connection falter as Jak was hit. He immediately thought not of his safety, and ran to the horned beasts side.

Jak was changing back - a very very bad sign - and his skin was pale and muddied.
"Torn..." he choked, trying hard to breathe as the eco demon pulled the metal off him with ease.

A huge wound in Jaks chest made Torn freeze. Jak couldn't die!
"... Go. Go and... finish off Veger. I'll stay here, and pick off any guards that I can..."

The dark eco freak judged the size of the wound on Jaks chest. More like a cut, or a laceration than anything.
Without hesitation, he started licking the wound, leaving Jak looking at him in amazement.

'... of course! Dark eco healing. Only works if the wounded has dark eco inside them...'

Jak closed his eyes as the dark creature resumed his cleansing work on the wound, and then he wrapped a bandage around it ro stop any further bleeding.

A guard ran down the hall, and saw the dark creature and the renegade.

"Alert! Alert! Dark eco freak and renegade down this hall!"

Torn immediately lunged at the guard, smacking him over the head with a chunk of metal that was nearby, and when making sure he was dead, stole his gun and threw it to Jak.

"Please, Torn, for everyones sakes, take care." Jak murmured as the dark creature lunged off, the sounds of guards closing in only becoming louder, and louder, and louder.

0o0o0o0o0

"Ewwww, gross!" The two ottsels exclaimed together as they saw the murky, dark sewer through the hatch that the mechanic had just heaved open.

"Come on you two! We have to save our friends." Keira giggled, an ottsel clambering onto each shoulder as she prepared her journey down into the depths.

"Augh, I remember when me and Jak came down here to take care of the sensor guns... he was swimming in something awful in the water, ew I think it was wast--"

Tess smacked Daxter around the head before he had the chance to finish his sentence, giggling as he rubbed his head.

"Hey hey! No-a hurting the merchandise!"

Ashelin rolled her eyes, as Tess and Daxter made kissy kissy faces at each other.
"Lets get going before I puke..." she muttered, scaling down the ladder easily, and landing feet first in something foul-smelling.

"Oh great stench of the Precursors!" she groaned, wrinkling her nose in utter disgust as she realised exactly what she had just stood in.

"Haha! You did exactly what Jak did!" Daxter cackled as Keira joined the red-headed seductress at the bottom of the ladder.

"Now, Daxter, we need to know where we are, and where we have to go." Keira said, shaking her head at the ottsels flirting skills with his ottsel lady, AND Ashelin, even though she was engaged to a certain blond haired hero.

Who would be dead soon if they didn't hurry up.

"We're in the fourth sector. Theres an old labratory up here somewhere, if you guys can find it. It stores eco, which MAY help us."

Ashelin let the shaking mechanic take the lead, as she wondered what they were up against and what they would find. Jak and Torn, dead? Lying in a pool of their own eco tainted blood?
Veger, lying dead with dead guards lying faithfully around him like a protection halo?

None of them knew, man or ottsel, what they would find in the lab.

After a few minutes walking, the girls pushed down the door, only to find the room filled with green eco.

Keira smiled softly, and harnessed the power of the eco, just in case she'd need it later.

Daxter and Tess were still slightly amiss with the details of Keiras eco harnessing, so whenever she used her powers, they flinched.

She'd usually joke about it, threatening them with green eco, but this time the pulsing green goo was too important to waste.

"Whats that!" Ashelin exclaimed, as she heard footsteps. Lots of footsteps.

0o0o0

Torn knew the guard were approaching, and slid into a small nook where they couldn't find him, and waited.

He watched them coming out of a very suspicious looking room, and as soon as they were all running down the corridor, towards where the still-injured Jak was, Torn slid in the door, leaving a dark eco stain on the wall so anyone could find him.

What he found in there shocked him to his very core.

0o0o0

"JAK!"

Ashelin ran towards her fallen comrade and fiance, holding him tightly against her chest wearily.

"Ashelin... the guards are coming. Tell Keira to hurry up and go ahead - Torns gone ahead. He needs help, or we're stuffed. Please..."

Ashelin dug in her pouch for the small vial of dark eco that she had, and made Jak drink it, facing Keira.

"Keira, the guards are on their way as I speak. You have to go up ahead - take Tess with you. Torn needs help - he cannot fight Veger alone. I'll stay here with Jak and Daxter to fight the guards, but already I've spoken too long. Go into the hallway, and hide in the first nook that you see. Wait for the guard to pass, and then go down the hall, find Torn, and try to stop Veger. You're our only hope now."

Daxter slid off Keiras shoulder, running over to Jak, and Ashelin gave Jak back the Peacemaker.

"Go!"

The frightened girl nodded, running as fast as she could towards the warped double doors, Tess clinging painfully into her shoulder in an attempt to stay on her shoulder.

The guards were getting closer and closer, and Keira knew she didn't have much more time to find a hiding place, breaking into a quicker running pace as the thought occured to her.

Tess poked her sharply, and pointed to an air vent, just big enough for Keira to fit into.

Hey presto!

She quickly ripped off the vent covering, crawling into the hole and waiting for Tess to get in.

Once Tess was in securely, Keira attached the covering back on, and started mindlessly crawling through the vents, wondering where they lead to.

A heating system? An illegal smuggling route?
The answers could be anything, but Keira was dying to know, not guess, the answer.

"Look! Theres another vent over there! We must be able to get out that way." the ottsel hissed after a few minutes of mindless despairing on both the elf and the ottsels part.

The mechanic risked a look, and crawled on her stomach over to the hole, peering through.

She saw Veger, cackling with laughter as he held a bloodstained dagger in the air, and...

Dark Torn, facing him, claws raised, but with blood dripping from a laceration on his left arm.

Both of their eyes widened in shock, as claw to dagger fought, clangs and the warp of metal filling the air.

Veger had got the eco freak once, but unfortunately for him, the dark eco Torn contained was easily warping the daggers metal, making it next to useless, and more and more useless with every swipe Veger took at him.

While the green haired mechanic had been watching the brawl, her small ottsel companion had opened the hatch, and was urging Keira through.
"Come on! We have to go and help!" she hissed, and Keira got the message, crawling through after her.

As a last ditch atempt, Veger stabbed the dark creature with his dagger.

He got Torn straight in the chest.

A howl of pain emitted from the dark creature, and he didn't even hear Keira scream.