By the Blade
A/N: These chapters are just rolling out onto your eager little screens, aren't they? I thank you all for your reviews, and hope that the quality is holding. Now, I think it's time for our hero to wake up. Wake up Jak…
Jak regained a hazy measure of consciousness, waking to find the last rays of the sun slanting in through the windows of the room he was in. His bleary eyes made out two elven figures in the shadows, seeming to talk. A large, somewhat fat bird with a strange curled up tail flapped in the air near one of them, and a small furry figure stood on a table by his bedside.
"Jak?" asked the furry figure. "You okay, man?" The voice sounded far off and elicited dull pain's in the blonde's head. He moaned and the two elven figures looked over at him. One of them lit an oil lamp, and the sudden stabbing pain of the bright point of the light source brought Jak to full wakefulness.
It also illuminated Damas, Pecker, Daxter, and a Seem who was already leaving, casting a baleful look at a fat man with extensive scarring on his head that seemed to stand guard outside. Jak tried to sit up, but found his wrists tied to the sides of the bed. He looked up to see Damas approach. "Something you haven't told us, animal man?" he asked without preamble.
Jak groaned and started to answer, but Daxter cut in. "My boy here gets all mean and nasty when you piss him off. So don't piss him off. Word to the wise." He had a big smirk on his face as he said that, one that faltered as Pecker perched on Damas's shoulder.
"He has been touched with Dark Eco, my liege," said Pecker in a 'mystical' voice.
Damas considered this for only a moment. "This makes you dangerous beyond your skills, and therefore useful." Taking Jak's crysknife, he cut the bindings from the blonde's hands. "Also, the fact that you are a channeler is of great use to us, and will let you wield this blade well." The crysknife was pressed into Jak's hands again and Damas walked away from Jak, hand clasped behind his back. "I have activated a new form for you blade. Use it well in your service to us, for you are now a soldier of Spargus. Win yet again in the Arena, and you are a warrior. Once more after that, and you may lay claim to the title of Wastelander." He turned to face Jak. "Do you understand?"
Jak sat up and nodded. "Yes…I think so. Damas, sir?"
"Yes?"
Jak looked down at the crysknife. "What is this knife? I never saw a weapon like it until it was pressed into my hand as I was banished."
Damas looked at Jak in surprise. "You do not know? A crysknife is a carved tooth of one of the great Makers. Anyone who wields a crysknife is blessed in carrying a fang of Shai-Hulud."
"Makers?"
"Seem would be able to explain much better than I, but it is suffice to say that the creature who gave that tooth so that it could become your weapon is one of the creators of all Eco. Their teeth are unfixed Eco crystals, and the hilt allows us to influence their form and type. It is a powerful and valuable weapon you've been given. Know its worth." Damas then pulled a pair of pistols on a gunbelt sporting quick-draw holsters from a peg on the wall. "That being said, sometimes one must use a gun. These are a pair of the pistols that the Praxis's officers would wield. Their blast is much like that of a scatter gun but much more focused. Use them when you need them, but remember that they are naught but tools. You crysknife is your weapon. It will never leave you without ammunition, and you will find that in the Wasteland, ammunition is quite scarce."
Jak slid his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, buckling on the gunbelt and strapping the crysknife's sheath to the small of his back. "I understand. What would you have me do, king?"
"For now, nothing. Familiarize yourself with Spargus, and meet some of those who live here, especially Kleiver and Seem. Both of them are valued persons in my eyes." Damas picked up his staff and walked out as Jak bowed, blue eyes following the warrior king's retreating back. Pecker's feathered form followed Damas, so Jak was left alone with Daxter.
"Hooo!" exclaimed Daxter. "Talk about your strong leaders! He makes the Baron seem downright cuddly. Man, Jak, what are we gonna do? We're from Haven!" He seemed to be pleading for Jak to have a solution to their problems.
Jak couldn't agree with Daxter's assessment of the Baron and Damas, but he let it slide. "He certainly is firm…though very honorable, I think. And you forget Dax, we're not Havenites at all. We're from Sandover." Jak omitted the fact that he was indeed from Haven, but that hardly mattered. He considered Sandover to be his true home. "We'll make it just fine, you'll see." Daxter jumped onto his shoulder. "Well, let's see this city." He opened the door and strode out.
"Those were some pretty sweet moves in the arena boy, but a little more choke, and you woulda popped, eh?" Jak whirled to the sound of the voice, hand reaching back to where he was accustomed to his morph-gun being…
A/N: And that's all I wrote for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, it should be evident that there's more coming. Hopefully it'll be an enjoyable more. All this being said however, it's review response time. Everyone gets a cookie, but for those of you who give insightful reviews or I feel like making a comment to will get a little mention here from now on.
Keep Me In The Shadows: Heh, I kinda have an advantage when it comes to fight scenes. I'm a martial arts practitioner, and that kinda helps me. Besides, for the over-the-top stuff, I'm a bit of a kung fu movie lover. As for the cookie, one good turn deserves another, no? And it would be horribly bad form to forget my first reviewer for my comeback, no? Rest assured, I won't do it.
Jaklover123: Let's not be hasty. Swords, polearms, bows, and blunt weapons take skill to use, and a lot of it, but people underestimate the skill needed to be truly good with a gun. That being said, as a Expert rifle and pistol shooter as well as an American Archer, I can say that guns have much less 'soul' to them than a bow or especially a sword.
Air of Mystery: Confession? I liked the movie too, though the SciFi miniseries was much better. That dark secret being shared…I hadn't really thought of water as a problem for Spargus…they are right on the sea, and drinking water can be derived from the ocean. Of course, with your permission, I do think the idea has merit, and I'd like to have the Wastelanders and Marauders do battle over a nice secluded oasis sanctuary that the Marauders captured a while ago from Spargus. I hope you won't be too offended by my keeping the crysknives named that, as their core structure isn't too far removed from FH, just given a bit of 'Morph-gun' functionality. Mixes up the abilities a bit…knives are a bit limited.
Mandy138: I'm sure there's more worthy Jak fiction…you just need to look for it. Granted, most of the real gems are Jak 2 fics or from the original game, but there's plenty of good reading if you look hard enough.