A/N: I just got my braces tightened! They put in thicker wires and they are going to kill my teeth! I want to go back in time and totally KILL the guy who had the idea of making braces to put a stop to them once and for all! That would be SWEET!

Daxter: "Now all you need is a time machine. Where are you going to find one of those?"

Me: "Internet!"

Daxter: Rolls eyes and gives a long sigh like Napoleon from that awesome movie I just watched a few nights ago.

Me: "Shut up! I don't want to hear anything from you!"

Daxter: "I did not say anything."

Me: "Just tell my wonderful readers the disclaimer."

Daxter: "Pixie Girl 13 does not own anything from Jak2. If she did I would still be wearing a pair of pants."

Me: "That was not what I told you to say, Dax! Plus, I like you two feet tall and fuzzy! Cute and fuzzy makes you…um…you!"

Daxter: "It sounds better. You suck at writing disclaimers!"

Me: "It is a disclaimer! What is there to say?"

Daxter: Shrugs. "At least you have me to add some spark to it."

Me: "Oh, thanks. Now go and leave me alone, Orange Lightning. Sorry for randomness. I've had soda and a ton of candy today! I'm just a bit hyper. Please R&R!"

Daxter: "And she will not be answering reviews! She is too busy complaining about her braces. That is all you do, Pix! Complain!"

Me: "I thought I told you to leave! And stop calling me Pix! It is annoying."

Daxter: "Pix! Pix! Pix!"

Me: Picks up hammer and smiles wickedly at Daxter. "I'm going to have myself a little fun while you people go read my new chapter."

Chapter 21

"Buy the fruit and get back here, Flash!" Merlander demanded to the kid. "Simon told us to be back at the hideout by four. Right now it is five minutes to four." Flash paid for his fruit and ran over to Merlander in a flash of blue. The lady at the stand stared at Flash with wide eyes.

"Let's go," Daxter said while pushing on Merlander's leg to get him to move. "With all these eco freaks in one place it is hard to not get stared at." All of them agreed and started to walk away. They came into the farm area of the city where fruit crops were everywhere and the roads were not paved. A big tube of water ran along the walls to put water into the water cannon that gave the crops their water for the day.

Daxter hopped onto Flash's shoulder then jumped to Merlander's shoulder that was walking right by the kid. Merlander and Bo walked side-by-side and were talking about her new gadget. Akki and Roxie followed behind them, and the girl was flirting a bit with him. They were really kicking it off together. On Akki's back he had a backpack that Rose was sitting in.

It had been two months after Daxter had spied on Merlander, and they had made that deal. Everything was going smoothly. Roxie worked for Mod, but some days he had nothing for her, so she hanged out with Black Water. Daxter tried not to think of Jak, and he knew he would see him soon if Merlander was taking care of everything.

Merlander had told Roxie about her Mind Speaking, and she was getting used to it. She would sit down with him everyday for around an hour, and he would just go over rules, and she would test everything she knew on Merlander. She learned that she could get into most heads, but for some reason every time she tried to hear Merlander his thoughts were blocked off. He knew a lot more than she knew. He was holding back something, but she did not know what.

"So how is Mind Speaking going with Merlander?" Akki asked Roxie.

"I can get into most minds," Roxie answered. "I love going into people I don't know."

"Tell me what Daxter is thinking," Akki whispered to Roxie, and she giggled.

"He is most likely thinking about food," she said.

"Just try," Akki said while nodding over to their fuzzy friend.

"Fine," Roxie said and glanced over to Daxter who had no idea of what his friend was doing. "He is just trying to picture what the planet Earth would look like," she said. "All I get from him is a picture. I guess he is talking to Bo. All she talks about is Earth."

Akki laughed and said, "Try Bo. See if her picture is different."

Roxie smiled then rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Jumbles of numbers. I get that every time! She does not block me like Merlander does. Her brain is just so far ahead of everyone's it is hard to hack into it."

"It is not numbers," Akki told her. "It is Human language. They all think that way for some reason."

"Oh," Roxie answered. "How do you know that?"

"Simon told me," Akki answered. "He gets the same thing from her all the time."

Daxter crawled over Merlander's head to his other shoulder to get a better look of Bo's new gadget. She held it up for all to see. It was a little handle with a tiny red button on the side.

"I call it a light saber!" Bo said with a smile. "It is totally my own idea." She shoved the book she had been reading lately deeper into her pack that was around her shoulder. It was Star Wars from Earth. A sly smile came to her face as she pressed the red button on her new gadget. A blue stick came out and made a buzzing sound. It was small to the ones she read about in her book. The blue stick was only half the size of the real one.

"Wicked!" Flash said while looking at the light saber. "I want one!"

"I want to make a longer one, but I can't get my hands on pieces for making it," Bo said with frustration.

"How strong is it?" Merlander asked his Human friend.

"It can cut through almost anything," Bo said.

"Can I test it out?" Daxter asked. Bo shrugged her shoulders and handed the gadget to her Ottsel friend. "Nice!" Daxter said while swinging the light saber around like a sword. He got the hang of it quickly.

Merlander laughed and batted Daxter off his shoulders. "Don't swing that thing crazily on my head," he said as Daxter jumped down to Bo's shoulder. Flash laughed out loud when Daxter stuck his tongue out at Merlander when he was not looking.

"That thing is real cool," Daxter said to Bo while handing the mini light saber back to her. She shoved it back into his hands and shook her head.

"You can hang onto it for a while," she said. "I don't have enough tools to make a bigger one at the moment."

"Thanks!" Daxter said while pressing the red button again and the light stick came back in. He jumped back to Merlander's shoulder and rested his elbow on his friend's head. The group walked up a steep platform to Haven Forest. They waited for the doors to open, but when they opened the day flip flopped.

"Surprise," Erol said from inside the room the group was about to go into. He was standing in front of Merlander with his hands on his hips, and about a dozen of Krimson Guards were behind him with guns raised.

Merlander was too stunned to say anything at that point. Daxter frowned and said, "Let me guess. You want to know where the kid is?"

"Close," Erol said coldly. "That is only part of it. The Baron just wants some eco freaks put behind bars."

"I thought we made a deal, Erol," Merlander said while his eyes went dark.

"Eh!" Rose yelled with a nod. She meant something like, "Yeah, you backstabber!"

"Did you know I had to take a ton of acting lesions for that whole thing," Erol said with a laugh. "You're very hard to persuade, Merlander. You used to be such a push over. Now look at you! You're as stubborn as a yakcow."

Merlander's head was spinning. The wheels in his brain were flying by now. He was barely listening to Erol. He finally found something. Merlander quickly took out his pistol and shot at the hinges that held up the ramp to the door of Haven Forest.

"Hang on!" he called to his group while the ramp fell. Erol jumped back so he would not fall with the ramp. Roxie gave a scream of surprise as the ramp crashed to the ground. Dust flew up from the ground, and that was the right time to move.

"Curse that guy!" Erol yelled as he looked down to only see a huge cloud of dust.

Merlander quickly found all of his team and ordered them to hide behind the huge fruit stalks that were right next to the fallen ramp. They all obeyed quickly, and only Roxie asked a question.

"What are we going to do?" she asked Merlander while taking out her dice with a gloved hand and getting ready for a fight.

"Let me think," Merlander said while taking out his pistol and shoving more bullets into it. Bo grabbed something out of her belt. It was a tiny pole that was only around five inches long and an inch wide. She twirled it once and it formed into a staff. Bo Staff would be the right name for the old Earth gadget.

"We better think of something quickly," Bo said to her friends. "Erol and his group are jumping down to our level, and it looks like he is calling in more KG's."

Merlander saw that Bo was right. He muttered something under his breath and looked to Flash. "Flash," he said and the kid nodded. "I want you to run as fast as you can to our backup way to get into Black Water."

"Fast as I can?!" Flash asked with excitement in his eyes and voice.

"Yes," Merlander said with a nod. "You know where to go?"

"Merlander, you know that warp gate has been disabled for months now," Bo said.

"I know that," Merlander said while fishing into his pocket, "But I'm going to finally activate it." He took out a round object and threw it to Flash. "It goes into the warp gate. Simon thought it was just not activated, but I really took out one of those projectors that it needs to warp someone. Place it in the right spot and it will be fine. Stay there when you're done. Now go!"

Flash was only there for two seconds then all they could see in his place was flashes of blue lightning. "So what is your big plan?" Roxie asked while glancing around her stalk of blue fruit.

"It might take awhile for that warp gate to boot up," Merlander answered. "So by the time we get there it will be up and ready to go."

"Surrender now, Merlander," came Erol's voice. "And the Baron might be kind."

"Give it a rest, Erol!" Merlander yelled while coming out from behind his cover and shooting at Erol then returning to his spot.

"Fine!" Erol said after ducking. "Fire at the fruit!"

"But," one Krimson Guard said but never finished. Krimson Guards were never really smart. All they knew was that firing at the fruit that was their food would be a bad thing.

"I said FIRE!" Erol yelled while pointing toward the crops.

Around five yellow fireballs came blasting out of the crops and hit some of the Krimson Guards. A blue dice came flying out and landed at Erol's feet. Erol looked down and only had time to cover his face before the thing blew up. The explosion sent Erol flying backwards into two other Krimson Guards.

By this time the Krimson Guards were firing at the crops. One blew up, and they heard the person behind it give a yell. Akki ran to a different stalk as his blew up and threw some more yellow fireballs at the Krimson Guards. Merlander covered for him with a round of bullets from his pistol. He got three Krimson Guards down and smiled.

Right when the small Black Water team thought they could defeat Erol's group, around two-dozen more Krimson Guards came running around the corner to take them down. Two KG zoomers came flying up and started to fire at the stalks with no mercy.

"We have to find another place to hide!" Roxie yelled over the massive gunfire. She stuck her gloved hand out and three dice zipped into it. She quickly leaned against her fruit stalk and glanced over to Merlander. Laser dust was in the hot air and she could barely make the shape of Merlander out.

"I'm thinking!" he yelled back. He stepped out of his protection and fired blindly at the Krimson Guards through the dust. He then jumped back behind the stalk while swiping the sweat off his face with his arm. "There are too many of them."

"On three, fire at the zoomer on the right!" Bo yelled from behind a stalk. "One, two, three! Fire!"

Roxie bared her teeth and threw two dice at the zoomer. Merlander pressed a button on his pistol and aimed at the zoomer. Three big fireballs hit the zoomer too, and the thing blew to a million burning pieces.

"Nice!" Roxie heard Bo shout from behind her. "Prepare for another attack on the second one."

"Wa!" cried Rose, which most likely meant something like, "That was a great attack, guys!"

"They are circling us!" Roxie heard Daxter yell above the mess. "Watch your backs!"

"They never stop!" Akki yelled while turning around and throwing more fireballs at the daring Krimson Guards behind him. "I'll take down the ones from behind."

"On three, we destroy the other zoomer!" Bo shouted. Merlander shoved another pack of bullets into his pistol and nodded to Roxie. She looked behind her stalk and saw Erol point to Merlander's stalk and yell something.

"Merlander, move!" she yelled to him. He did not waste time and rolled out of the way to another stalk right as his exploded. Roxie covered her face with her arms, as the juice from the fruit splattered all over her body. "I need a new outfit after this."

"If we make it out," Daxter said as he jumped to her shoulder. "Right now it looks like we are going to be spending most of our lives in a prison."

"Not if I'm around," Roxie said while throwing her dice at the Krimson Guards. "Where does the Baron come up with so many Guards?" She glanced up to her shoulder and Daxter just gave her a one-shoulder shrug.

Daxter looked up and saw Erol point to Roxie's stalk. "We best get moving, kid!" Daxter yelled. But it was too late. Her stalk exploded, and she was left in the open. She was dead meat if someone did not do something.

"Roxie!" Akki yelled. His eyes glowed a brighter yellow. In his hands he created a huge ball of fire and let it loose at the group of Krimson Guards. Everything after that was a blur to Roxie. The explosion of the massive fireball blew her into another fruit stalk and put her into a fuzzy world.

"Do something, Merlander!" Bo yelled to her friend as she saw Roxie halfway knocked out. More Krimson Guards came around the corner. Erol got up and leaned against a wall for support. His whole face was black, and he coughed into his hand while wincing. He did not know that the eco people would be so powerful and hard to capture.

Erol looked up and saw Merlander trying to drag Roxie behind a fruit stalk for cover. Daxter was at his side and trying to help. Erol got out his pistol and aimed at his old friend. For two seconds he could not shoot. This was his friend!

"He used to be my friend," Erol said to himself. "I work for the Baron now. This is a war. People die in wars!" He then pulled the trigger.

"Ahh!" Merlander yelled while holding onto his side and dropping down to his knees in pain.

"Merlander!" Bo and Daxter yelled at the same time when they saw their friend go down. Akki was too busy fighting off the Krimson Guards behind them to notice anything.

"Gah!" Rose yelled which most likely meant, "Oh no! Merlander is hurt!"

Merlander winced and pulled his hand away from his side to see his hot blood drip down his side and stain his shirt. The bullet had gone in deep. A far-away look came to Merlander's eyes. He clenched his teeth together and kept pulling Roxie out of danger.

When his friend was behind a stalk, Merlander said to Bo, "I have a great idea." She looked very worried for him, but then a smile came to her lips. "On three, we shoot at the water tube behind the Krimson Guards."

"I like it," Bo said as Akki nodded. "Give me your pistol, Mer," she said. "You can't fight when you're like this." He nodded and threw his pistol to her. "Okay. One, two, three! Give it all you got!" She fired at the water tube as Akki used all his strength to fire one more fireball.

Boom! A wave of water came crashing down onto the Krimson Guards and knocked them off their feet. Akki picked up Roxie carefully while Bo gave Merlander his gun back. Daxter got onto Bo's shoulder while pointing to a zoomer.

"Let's get a three seater," Bo said. "And quickly!" Two Krimson Guards ran over to the Black Water group to try and take down the group. Bo frowned while taking out her staff. "You do not want to PO me!" she said while swinging her staff around expertly. She jumped into the air and came crashing down on the one Krimson Guard's head. With no hesitation she swung her staff around like a bat and hit the other guy in the back of the head. She then smiled and led her team to a zoomer.

Merlander hopped into the zoomer and started it up. Akki sat beside him with Roxie in his arms. Bo got in on the other side. "Are you sure you can drive after getting shot like that?" she asked Merlander.

"I'll be fine," Merlander said. "I'm running on pure adrenaline now. It should hold out till we get to the warp gate. And you know that I'm the only one who can drive a zoomer."

"This is not over, Merlander!" Erol yelled while getting up from the water. "I'll find you and your stupid Black Water group sooner or later and kill you once and for all!" He then tripped over another Krimson Guard and did a face plant into the muddy ground.

"Have fun with that, Erol!" Daxter yelled back to the enemy.

Merlander slammed on the gas and did not say anything for the whole ride. The Krimson Guards were on their tails the whole time. "Are we heading for Dead Town?" Daxter asked while looking around the slums. They had finally gotten away from the Krimson Guards.

"Yes," Bo said while looking up at him. "It looks like Roxie is finally waking up."

"I've been awake," Roxie said. "Just that everything was fuzzy." She glowed green and then rubbed her forehead. "And I could hear everyone's thoughts so clearly. My brain is in massive pain right now because of so many thoughts going through it."

"We're here," Akki said. They all got out of the zoomer and quickly went through the door to Dead Town. Flash was waiting on the other side for them. He smiled, then saw how beat up they looked and dropped the smile quickly.

"Let's get home," Akki said. "I'm sick of Haven City."

"You can say that again, brother!" Daxter said while jumping to Roxie's shoulder once again. She never complained about him hanging onto her shoulder anymore. It was part of her now. She gave him a weak smile and followed Merlander and Bo.

Merlander winced again and held onto his side. "Let's hurry," he said with a grimace.

"La!" Rose yelled which meant something along the lines of, "I agree with Merlander!" They finally found the portal and without hesitation they all jumped in one by one.

A/N: This was a fun chapter to write. Please give a review! Next chapter will be mainly on Roxie and Daxter. Someone told me I was too much on Merlander. After that I'll give my readers a Jak chapter. Have a happy new year!