The Fast, The Strong, and The Morbidly Obese
Hello again, people. Glad that I managed to get this thing uploaded in time, as my family is planning a rather lengthy reunion/vacation that's going to take me away from my writings for a while. In the meantime, I hope that this suffices for all you you who are graciously taking time out of your busy lives to read the work of this amatuer.
Light-Eco-Sage- Thank you, thank you, thank you for that list, you cannot imagine how grateful I am for it. I also hope that you are enjoying the story, and be sure to point out anything that I get wrong. (bows politely)
Smoke- Actually, the reason for Jak's iniate abilty to use Kitetsu will be explained soon, courtesy of a certain blind seer. On another note, I am glad that you think I am doing so well, and I thank you.
Lunatic Pandora1- At first, our little inner demon won't appear very frequently, though he will have some influence on the plot, and Keira will definitely get an eye-full of him. However, at a certain point, Dark Jak will undergo an evolution, whereupon he will become a far more critical element to the story line. If you like, I could e-mail you a brief synopsis of the plot.
To all blood sucking lawyers- I do not own this game or anything related to it, so you cannot sue me!
With that said, here's chapter four, may it hopefully be up to your expectations.
He could see the Hip Hog in the distance. Right now, he had parked his speeder about a mile or so back, hiding it underneath one of the piers that dotted the place. His luminescent eyes darted about, constantly probing the surroundings for guards. His package tucked safely under his arm, Jak increased his pace, wanting to get this job over with.
"Jak…" Daxter said, the first words he had spoken since his friend had performed the little roll stunt, and he still hadn't released his death grip on Jak's shoulder.
"Yeah, Dax?"
"You. Are. Completely. Psycho!" the Ottsel shouted.
"Keep it down, will ya?" Jak hissed, not wanting to draw undo attention to himself as they approached their drop off point.
They stepped through the front door of the bar, Daxter having finally calmed down enough to let go, and allow Jak to get some circulation back into his arm. They looked around. The saloon had booths set up on either side of the walls, and a sizable selection of drinks, both alcoholic and non, were on display at the rear of the place. The center was dominated by a large boxing ring, and along every conceivable surface, were the heads of the beastly menace that the population feared like Death himself.
Standing near the bar, was an elf. He was tall; nearly seven feet in height, and built like a tank. Adding to his imposing figure was a strange suit of body armor, seemingly composed of various pieces of Metal Head skeletons. What truly caught their attention, though, was his face. An eye of emerald green stared at them, but the other was artificial, and bore resemblance to one of the IR sensors on Jak's goggles.
"Let me handle this, Jak, just watch my finesse and style." Daxter said coolly.
The Ottsel waltzed right between the man's legs, not caring a wit for what he might think.
"One side, big guy."
However, the rodent was stopped short a moment later, as something descended from the ceiling on a hover unit. Jak's first thought was that this must be Krew, his second, was something along the lines of 'Oh my God, how is it possible to get that fat?'
"Are you Krew?" he asked, once he had finally stopped gawking at the man's obesity.
"Who's asking?" the corpulent…thing…replied with a growl.
Jak simply extended his arms, showing the carefully wrapped package of Eco ore. Krew's one eye, the other one was glazed over for some reason, took on a greedy look, and he hovered over to Jak, and swiftly deprived him of his package.
"This is good, ey, as a bag of rare Eco ore, is worth more than ten of your lives! And of course, I'd be forced to collect…slowly." he said with a sinister chuckle.
"Well, I do hope you're satisfied," Daxter growled, "'cause we had to deep-six half a dozen Krimzon Guards to get it to ya!"
"Is that so, well…I must say, that takes some skill, ey?" the bar owner mused, rubbing his six chins. "Sig, why don't you give our errand boys here, a little something extra for their trouble?"
The big elf nodded and walked over to them slowly. Jak stared intently at the eyes of the enforcer, and Daxter backed up nervously. However, once he got up close, he reached behind him, and pulled out a strange looking weapon. It looked vaguely like the pistol that he already had, but it was larger, with several knobs and switches adorning the area around the grip. He extended it, butt first, to Jak.
The teenager gripped the weapon carefully. It was lightweight, and he could see that it was fed by bottom loaded power packs, however, the gun was also a tad heavy on the barrel end of it. He continued to examine the blaster, and thinking back, could not seem to recall observing such a weapon being used amongst the Underground.
"What is it?" he ventured to ask.
"It's called a morph-gun." Sig told him in a baritone voice. "That baby is the final word in military infantry technology. The gun's outfitted with several devices that allow for it to have mods installed on it, which lets you change it to a different weapon with the push of a button of the flip of a switch. They're state of the art, and far superior to that standard issue pea-shooter you got on you right now."
Now he remembered. He had seen a few of the veteran Underground members carrying such weapons, but never one with this particular blaster type.
"Then why doesn't the Krimzon Guard use these things?" Jak said, still trying to get a feel for the gun.
"We have a different supplier than they do." Krew said, returning from wherever he had floated off to. "She supplies us with these guns, and after we take a small transition fee, in the form of a…handful of the weapons, we deliver the rest of them to your little freedom fighter movement."
"In other words, it's a black market weapon." Jak remarked.
"I would prefer the term, Freelance Arms Specialist, but call it what you will, its still gets the same results." Krew said with a laugh.
"In any event," Sig spoke up, "your gun only has one mode at the moment, and that one's called the magnum, and don't let its size fool you. That gun packs a bigger punch than most rifles, and in the right hands, you might even be able to blast a K.G. speeder bike out of the air. But enough talking about it, you wanna give it a test run?"
"Sure." the former Channeler told him.
"Okay, follow me." Sig told the duo with a smile.
Behind the bar, Sig smacked an ordinary looking dura-crete block. A moment later, part of the floor opened up, revealing a staircase. The enforcer motioned for Jak and Daxter to follow him down the stairs. As they descended, Sig pressed a switch, and lights flickered on. They were inside a strange room. Along the walls, were racks with enough weapons and ammo to fend off a small invasion force, with strange things that Jak could only assume were blaster accessories. Two heavy metal doors also stood before them, each one nestled into a wall.
"This is Krew's gun course, where his men try to hone their blaster skills." the armorclad Sig informed them " Ya never know when you're gonna run into a group of guards, mutants, or worse, a pack of Metal Heads. Grab some ammo, and head through the door on your right, kid."
Jak nodded, stepped forward, and grabbed an ammo belt and a double handful of power packs. He slid one in, and smiled at the satisfying click it made, also noting how the weapon was now balanced. He felt it hum, and a readout near the handgrip showed him at full ammo. Sig went over to a computer station and started typing in commands.
"Okay, kiddies, here's your first course. Step inside and I'll guide ya through it."
The door slid closed as Jak stepped inside carefully, Daxter still perched upon his shoulder. The former Channeler could see the tracks on which the targets would spring up and move. Further staring revealed the place was built like a cityscape.
"Okay, boys, the rules of the game are simple: shoot the Metal Head targets, the faster you shoot, and the more you kill overall, the more points you get. You will, however, be deducted and penalized for shooting civilians, or wasting ammo, you copy?"
"Loud and clear." Jak responded.
"Before you get started, let me give you a few more pointers about that cannon you're toting. The magnum's clip has sixty rounds, and the gun itself has three modes of fire: semi auto, burst fire, and a charge shot. Semi auto fires one shot per squeeze of the trigger, and its good for faraway targets, accurate up to about five hundred feet. Here, take a crack at this guy."
A single target popped up. Jak took aim, and squeezed the trigger. The first thing that the dark elf noted was that this magnum had significantly higher recoil than the pistol the Underground had given him, and was also a hell of a lot louder, but the sheer power this pistol possessed more than compensated for it. As Daxter yelped from the unexpected amount of racket, the bolt of Eco slammed home, reducing the Metal Head to a few shards of cardboard.
"Not bad, rookie, not bad at all." Sig mused.
"Yeah, nice shooting, Jak." Daxter exclaimed, recovering his composure and jumping up and down on his friend's shoulder.
"Okay, now try burst mode. To change your fire mode, flick the little lever located just above the trigger area." The massive bodyguard told them.
Jak looked at the gun, saw what Sig was referring to, and flipped it. He repeated the process several times, getting to where he was comfortable with it and knew exactly how much force was required to move the device. Once he was ready he held the blaster pistol up, and Sig started giving them the run down on that mode of attacking.
"Burst fire's my personal favorite, squeezes off a quick three shots, much better for taking down Metal Heads, and still capable of bull's eyeing one of those nasty critters at three hundred feet or more. Have whirl with it."
Three targets appeared, and were almost as rapidly gunned down.
"Finally, you have the charge shot. This blast takes about two or so seconds to charge up, and will drain fifteen shots from your pack." Sig warned him. "On the other hand, it's got a limited homing capability, and it'll tear through titanium-A like nobody's business, so use this on heavily armored targets only, you read me?"
"Roger." Jak responded.
The words had scarcely left his mouth when a new target zipped in from the side. This type of Metal Head cutout was different from the others, a type that Jak had never seen before. Also, this one had armor, apparently taken from some hapless guard and reworked to resemble that which the Metal Heads wore. Jak did as Sig had instructed, adjusting the firing mechanism yet again and holding down the trigger. There was a humming sound, and the gun began to shake violently after a couple of seconds. The dark elf then released the trigger.
The gun flew up from the power of the shot, and a bolt larger around than the elf's fist leapt from the barrel of the magnum. It smashed into its target, punched through the armor on it, and kept going until it blew a good sized hole in the course walls.
Another such target came out, and met with a similar fate. As Daxter whistled, Jak felt the gun pulse faintly, and he looked down to see that the power readout was at zero. He reached down with his pinky, and pressed the release catch. The empty power pack slipped to the ground with a clatter, and Jak replaced it with one motion. He felt it hum once more, and flicked the firing switch back down to burst.
"Okay, rookie, here it goes for real."
Jak raised the gun, looking around carefully. Suddenly, a Metal Head popped up to his right. He twisted, and fired, the three shot burst tore it to pieces. He heard the sound of another one popping up, behind him, he turned, and a trio of high-pitched discharges testified to its demise as well.
Onward he continued, destroying the artificial enemies. Once or twice, he had gotten overly-eager and had accidentally mowed down a hapless elf that popped up. But he was rapidly improving, and Sig whistled to himself as he monitored the boy's progress.
About halfway through the course, Krew had floated down to see how the Underground errand runner was doing. The bar owner had seen many people fight their way through this simulated battle environment, but never had he beheld someone doing so well on their first try.
"The lad's good, ey?" he asked Sig.
"So far, he's doing better than about half of our boys, and that's including the vets." the armored elf told his boss, gesturing with his thumb to a computer monitor that held the readouts of the high-scores.
"Hmmm, let's see how he does under pressure." the obese man told his guard.
Sig smiled then, and punched in a few commands on the computer.
From where he was, Jak could see the other door, and knew that he was nearing the end of the course. A few more targets and he'd be done. Or so he thought. Without warning, dozens emerged from all around him. For a moment, the Eco infused elf was at a loss for what to do, until an idea hit him.
Sig and Krew watched, perplexed, as Jak flipped his gun into his left hand, and pulled out Kitetsu from within his trench coat.
"What is that rookie doing?" Sig mused aloud, while his disgustingly overweight employer was more concerned about the fact that the Underground fighter had been able to sneak that weapon by him.
Jak began to move about, spinning and jumping, his dark katana cutting down the targets closest to him. He spun around again, decapitating one that was behind him, and at the same time, he stuck his left arm out. He stared out of the corner of his eye at the more distant targets. The bolts flew from the pistol, scything through the cardboard and leaving only smoldering wreckage.
Tucking his arm back in, he turned once more. A pair of angled slashes brought down two more "Metal Heads", and blue energy sailed out between the whirling blade, ripping the targets apart. This was followed by a ten foot leap, with the dark elf performing a twist about halfway through that cleaved the head and left shoulder from a target, whilst the magnum's booming testified to other "kills".
For a full ten seconds, he kept up this unusual way of fighting. He didn't get all the targets, but when he was through, most of them had been reduced to scraps of waste. He heard a bell ringing, and clicked the safety on. As the door opened, Sig stepped inside.
"What the heck was that?" the burly elf asked, genuinely surprised at the amount of co-ordination that Jak possessed. Sig was no stranger to combat, but had never seen anyone who had the multitasking capabilities to use both a gun and a close range weapon in cohesion with each other. Still, he could not deny the effectiveness of the strategy.
Jak simply shrugged, and suddenly noticed that Daxter had once again gripped him hard enough to cut off circulation, and was pale as a ghost.
"Dax, what's wrong?" he asked, his tone concerned.
"Do you…have any…idea…how close…you came…to hitting me with that oversized toothpick!" the Ottsel screeched.
"Well, cherry, maybe you should consider moving along the ground on your own two feet." Sig said, looking at the orange rodent with his cybernetic eye.
It was then that the armored bodyguard's gaze drifted to something else. The blade that the other elf gripped in his right hand. Sig couldn't believe it, but that sword was unmistakable.
"How'd I do?" Jak inquired, yanking him back to earth, while at the same time he noted Sig's interest in his weapon.
"Weeeeelllll," Sig told him, "Your point total was in excess of eight thousand, no small part of which was due to that fancy ballerina stuff you pulled off towards the end."
"And what's a normal score?" the dark elf asked, cocking his head slightly.
"Usually somewhere in the three to four thousand area, you're a natural at this, kid." Sig told him, and let it be known that he did not hand out such compliments unless they were earned.
Jak simply smiled in his now grim fashion. Perhaps with these weapons…
"Matter of fact, I think Krew would like to have a little chat with you." Sig continued "Load back up and head upstairs, we'll talk there."
Jak headed over to the ammo rack, and picked up another handful of energy packs, sliding them home in his belt as he went back up to the bar room. He walked out from behind the serving counter, and saw Sig and Krew engaged in a hushed conversation. They looked up as he entered, and Krew smiled, baring his unsightly teeth.
"Sig was just telling me about your performance, excellent work, Jak. Tell me, have you ever considered becoming a Wastelander?" the fat man inquired, rubbing his pudgy hands together.
"Can't say that I have." Jak replied truthfully.
"Wastelanders are people who find artifacts and weapons for me outside the city walls, ey. Any weapon worth having comes through my hands. If you consider working for me, I'll toss a few of the sweeter items your way." Krew proposed as he floated closer to the former Channeler.
Jak pondered for a moment. This Wastelander thing sounded promising, but he had a responsibility to the Underground as well, or more appropriately, a responsibility to seeing to the demise of a certain local tyrant. But, then again, weren't Krew and the Underground allied against the Baron at the moment? Even if it seemed that both were using each other as a means to an end, they were nonetheless united in a common cause. Finally, the young elf made his decision.
"Kill Metal Heads, get toys, sounds good to me." Jak answered, his voice chilled and venomous.
"That's the spirit, boy!" the miniature blimp said with a chuckle, "I'll let Sig explain the rest to you."
"But I'm not doing anything until you tell me why the Baron's forces are giving Eco to the Metal Heads." Jak finished.
Krew growled, but after weighing out the pros and cons in his calculating mind, could see no harm in telling the boy. Besides, if it would solidify the loyalty of this young warrior, it would be all the better.
"All I know, is that the Baron struck a desperate deal with the Metal Head leader. Those monsters need Eco, so the Baron provides them with regular shipments, and in return, they attack the city just enough to ensure that Praxis stays in power." the bar owner told Jak, who detected a slight bit of grudging admiration in Krew's voice. "He needs this war to stay where he is, otherwise the city would put the true ruler on the throne, wherever that little brat is."
Jak's eyes widened in a sudden understanding of who Krew was referring too; then he nodded silently and turned to face Sig, who had an eager gleam to his eye.
Alright, I hope this one was up to par. Treading on experimental ground here, with Jak's unusual form of duel wielding, so let me know what you think of it. As I said above, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next, but I'll try to get some writing done during this trip, when I'm not hanging out with relatives or frantically trying to accomplish schoolwork that I'm going to be missing.
Also, for those of you who may be curious, the magnum looks very much like the SOCOM pistol from the Metal Gear games, while its charge shot looks like the plasma pistol's overcharge from the Halo series. I should also note here that while it possess vary degrees of firepower, this pistol will not be some sort of superweapon, its more like a modified version of the blaster, with its charge blast, while powerful, not being anywhere near what Sig's Peace Maker is capable of dishing out.
Let me know how I'm doing if you feel like it, and if you don't, well, I just hope that this has been worht the time that you took to read it.
Thanks, and remember, all days are good, just some better than others.