The group of four suddenly found themselves in a tunnel-like place of shining purple, white and blue. The Machine rushed them forward at a speed they had never known, pushing them back into the seats as they held on for dear life, the machine swaying with the movements of the free space. Kiera tried to look back but found she couldn't see past the machinery to where they had come from.
"What was that thing?!" Her question went unanswered as Samos screamed out for them to hold on. Daxter turned to Jak as his lips were blown back to bare his teeth and his ears flew back like sails.
"I want off this thing!" Suddenly, as if his wish were granted, a bolt of lightning struck the machine, and it split apart and tossed the four forward. They saw as the lightning bolt had suddenly brought two more people into the picture, a girl being thrown forward with Jak, apparently unconscious and a boy exclaiming in joy as he flew off in the same direction as Samos. Samos yelled out before the tunnel suddenly ended, and cut the six apart. Kiera by herself, Jak, Dax, and the girl in the center, and Samos and the boy to the right.
"Find yourself Jak!" Jak, Dax and the girl found themselves momentarily scraping along the pavement. Jak had managed to grab the girl as she floated forward so she didn't break her neck when they landed, and she slowly cracked her eyes open as they came to a halt, the people around them all running away.
"Woah!" Dax looked the girl up and down.. she wore just jeans and a tight gray shirt but Dax gave her a look all the same. "Jak how come you always get some beautiful girl in your lap and I end up with nothin'?" She fluttered her eyes as a reflex and Jak stood up, pulling her with him and allowing her down… She stared around and then it appeared that what happened finally sank in. She turned back to Jak frantically and started pushing him down the road.
"Jak, we have to get out of here. Erol's coming and I know for a fact that you don't want to be here when he gets he-er.." Jak suddenly caught her again as she collapsed on him. It appeared she was suffering from a concussion and Jak put her down gently as several men came up to him, many of them in armor, and one in the head in a more unique outfit. He stared at them bewilderedly as they noticed him.
"There he is, move in." The men surrounded Jak, Dax and the half-unconscious girl Dax was slapping her face and moving it in odd positions in an attempt to keep her eyes open so she wouldn't go into a coma. Jak however was preoccupied by the fact that they were now surrounded. One of the men aimed a gun at Jak.
"Step away from the animal." At this menace, Dax immediately bolted, abandoning the girl half awake with Jak as he rushed through the legs of the commander of the group of soldiers in red armor. The commander ignored Daxs scream and instead stared at Jak and the girl focused.
"Forget the rat, The Baron wants him." He motioned towards Jak. Jak stared between the men, the girl, and the commander confusedly. The commander leered darkly at Jak. "We've been waiting for you." With that last word, the soldier closest to Jak slammed the butt of his gun into Jaks face. As Jak crumpled, the man picked him up and one of the soldiers motioned towards the girl, speaking incoherently into his communicator in his mask. The commander looked down at her for a moment before answering. "Take her too, the Baron can always use more test subjects, and by the looks of it, that girl doesn't belong here either." She moaned softly as the soldier roughly picked her up but she registered what was going on and struggled for a little bit before they threw here into a transport vehicle and headed towards the fortress. Just before the engine started up and the soldiers closed the back of the truck, Nik faintly heard Dax yell.
"Don't worry Jak, I'll save ya before ya know it!"
:::::Separation Line:::::
Two Years Later…
Echoes ricochet around the metallic chambers filled with prisoners in the fortresses' dungeon. The sickly-sweet stench of death clung to the air with the heavy stink of urine and compost in the dark room filled with smaller cages built into the wall of an endless pit. In the center of the pit was an island that reached up to a metal chair complete with shackles at the wrists and ankles a menacing device hovered over the chair and a dashboard of buttons, dials, and levers clicked and blinked softly to the side of the chair. And at the moment, a girl was now tied down to the chair. Her back arched in agony as her croaking screams filled the air. There were scars all over her neck, from where Erol, the commander who administered the 'treatments' that were applied through the machine over the chair had slit her throat carefully so that her voice was hurt and he would not have to hear her high-pitched screams as he tortured her, instead hearing the same agonized sounds, except not painful to himself. Her wrists bled from her forcing at the shackles and as the flow of purple electricity stopped flowing from the machine, she went limp. A bulky man paced across the small platform, staring at her as she lay there, panting softly and silently. he stopped and spoke to Erol.
"Ha. Nothing! I was informed that this one might be different" He motioned to the girl as his voice grew angrier the more he spoke. As he spoke over her, the girls head lolled to the side exhaustedly, her eyes closed but she was not yet unconscious. Her hands relaxed in the shackles. Erol stared down at her face with contempt.
"She is surprisingly resistant to your… 'Experiments' Baron Praxis." The Baron paced in front of the girls head impatiently, staring at the barred walls that surrounded that room. Erol stepped forward to the Baron as if it would make his point clearer. "I fear the dark warrior program has failed." The baron growled in response.
"You should at least be dead with all the dark eco I've pumped into you!" He whipped around and grabbed a handful of the girl's dark blond hair, hauling her head up to face him as he accused her because she had not become what he wanted. Erol continued to speak to him, and over the girl.
"What now? Metal head armies are pressing their attacks." Erol walked forward, for once taking his eyes away from the baron as he implored to him. "Without a new weapon, my men cannot hold them off forever." The Baron once again stared at the wall angrily, his voice soft at first but growing in volume as he continued.
"I will not be remembered as the man who lost this city to those vile creatures!" he threw out his arm and approached Erol, Erol in reaction backing away in surprise. "Move forward with the final plan!" Erol got out of his way as the Baron continued leaving. "And finish off the experiments tonight." Erol bowed his head after the baron and answered quietly.
"Very well." He followed the baron and halted at a cell right by the door. Within the dim cell one could see a blond-haired boy sitting slumped on a ratty bed. Erol leered in on him and knocked on the bars to get his attention. The boy glared at Erol in return. "I'll be back later…" with that he left the room after the baron and the guards followed suit. Just as they left, a small orange ottsel came up on a hover chair from the pit and Jumped down on the sill of the cell's window.
"Ding, ding… Third floor… Body chains, roach food, torture devices. Hey buddy, seen any heroes around here?" He looked closer at the huddled form that stood up and came to the door. Dax stared at his injuries and winced.. "WOAH! What'd they do to you?" As the boy regarded him with confusion and distrust, Dax got a hurt look. "Jak, its me… Daxter!" The boy gave him a disproving half-smirk. "That's a fine hello! I've been crawling around this place, risking my tail, literally… I've been lookin' for you for two years!" He leaned back into the side of the window and stared down, his ears flopped in dejection. "Come on Jak… Say something… Just this once!" Jaks smirk turned to a deep scowl and he growled out the first thing that came to mind.
"I'm gonna kill Praxis." Daxter reached through the bars and covered his mouth before sliding down to the lock and sitting on the device, wondering how the locking system worked. Deep breathing could be heard from inside the cell.
"SHHH! Right now, we gotta get you outta here. Just let me figure out how to open the security locks to your cells so…" A roar suddenly came from the cell and Dax got out of the way as the cell was suddenly knocked off its hinges, claw marks covering the inside of the door. A dark creature stood before Dax and it growled darkly, advancing on the small orange prey. Jaks skin had turned white, as with his hair, and two long black horns grew from his head. His nails becoming long, sharp and black like needles.
"Or ehh… You could do it." Dax stared up at Jak as he came up to him, staring at him almost hungrily. He backed up to the pit and eyed between them nervously. "Jak? Easy now. Easy buddy. It's. It's your old pal Daxter Remember?" For a moment Jak looked about to slice Dax in half, then he suddenly groaned and held his head, his face returning to normal.
"Daxter?" he backed away and held his head again. Daxter waved his arms angrily, his voice rising as he expressed the fear he had been feeling moments before.
"What the heck was that?! Sheesh, remind me not piss you off!" he started walking aside and towards the exit. "Come on tall, dark, and gruesome. We're outta here!" he paused and looked out at the girl still strapped to the chair. And instead headed towards her.. Dax took a moment before he realized that Jak wasn't following him.. "What the hell are you doing Jak? This ain't no party. We gotta get outta here before the guard realize you're gone." He ignored him and continued, brushing his hand against her forehead, now riddled with sweat. A small discharge of dark eco was shared between them as she slowly awoke.
"J-Jak?" she fluttered her eyes reflexively and tried to get up before the metal bit into her wrists' wounds. She bit her lip and relaxed again. "Dax finally came, didn't he Jak? He came to save you. I'm happy." Dax couldn't help but notice the vibe between them and knocked Jak's neck with an elbow teasingly.
"Alright Jak, I caught the drift, but if we run into some guards cause of your little girlfriend, its gonna be your hide, not mine!" he jumped down to the dashboard and looked over the machine contemplatively, then just randomly started pressing buttons and the locks came apart. "Come on, I got you some new threads, put em on…"
Nik: I like how this is coming out now that I have writing to warp. No doubt however that the only reviewer will be my buddy Pat, and thats just cause he's in it. Oh well, fics where you insert yourself in the game are so overdone that at this point its really for your own satisfaction than to write for others.