THEMAKEROFLIGHT: I apologise for the shitty font, my dads computer is slightly different from mine. Anyway, on with the show, for the benefit of people who can't just assume, the light eco creatures look like light jak.
CHAPTER 13: THE LIGHT ARMY
Samos had spent most of the week living it up in a luxury apartment, milking his amnesia for every little titbit it could give him. Keira and Jak still hadn't got round to telling him they were already married, each were dreading it, he had insisted he be there for it, or else. Jak didn't particularly want to find out what 'else' was.
The light army, after explaining their position in political matters, had dissapeared back to the vast caverns of eco below the islands, making it very clear that only Jak, Keira and Maealan were to be allowed into their city. Even after their help Torn still made preperations in case they turned ugly, Maealan had hen tried to give him a once over about being so presumptous, he didn't get far before he looked like he was staring at a demon.
Jak's next priority was the Hora Dailan, which hadn't launched an attack since the last attack on Morien, over a month ago, their power noticed by it's abscence. The monsters in the east usually attacked once a week, only trouble could come out of such a death drout.
Jinx came striding into the Naughty Ottsel, his usual smugness and suave annoying everyone immediately, he saw Keira sitting alone by the counter, a can of beer in her hand.
"Hey there Keira, how ya doin'?" His nasal voice giving her an instant headache.
"I was fine, then you came in."
"Aaawwwww, don't say that, hey, you and Jak still together, or can I budge in and uuhh, you know?"
"You know, I'm reassured by the fact that Jak will rip your arms off your body if you come anywhere near me, not to mention Sig, Daddy, Torn, Maealan, Jasen, and most of the city for that matter."
"You look down on your luck, what's eatin' ya?"
"It's this army that we ran into, I feel something familiar in it, I still can't place it, Jak gets the same thing." She reached for a bottle of Punner on the other side of the counter.
Uuuuhhhh, Keira, I wouldn't drink that if I were you, it's strong, real strong, seriously don't drink. DON'T DRINK!" Too late, she swigged it down and looked at him rather boredly.
"I've tasted stronger." And she walked out leaving Jinx staring at the bottle.
"It must be a set up, must be, glug ooohhh god no it's not, Jesus that thing stings.
Keira turned out of the slide doors and began to walk to the race stadium, a good race always calmed her nerves. She was walking through the gardens when she saw something, just a light in the directon of the south forest, no one had been in there since Jak had awoken the communication device, they all seemed to revere it as a way to talk to the stars. She found it strange that someone would want to do it without Jak, who was off riding with the ragles (A/N, some people have asked me about the ragles, they are evolved forms of flut fluts, they are capable of flight for hours and are almost as smart as humans.), so she went to investigate.
The young mechanic stepped through the airlock and into the forest, she could see the pillars in the center of the basin, a glowing purple light at it's pinnacle, she recognised it as the colour of dark eco. She hopped behind a rock to protect herself, knowing that if it was an eco creature that she was no match for it without a gun. Risking a peek she poked her head out, and saw what it was, a huge dark eco crystal was sat a the top of the comm device, the darkness was already eating away at the precursor metal, soon it would be completely destroyed.
She ran out from her hiding place, no longer caring if she was seen, if their only way of talking to the precursors was broken, then they would be sitting ducks for any dark maker ships that were passing. She jumped onto the first platform, pulling herself up to the next, and then the next, peices of metal were falling from the top, she had to dodge the falling quantum reflector. Upon reaching the top she hesitated, if there were any creatures still around hen the explosion would attract them, and she couldn't push it into the water because the forest supplied most of Haven's drinking water.
She decided to risk the explosion, taking out her Bronco B36 cutting hammer, she gasped in the cold heat from the crystal, coming close to it was already burning her. Braving a little closer she swung the pliers over her head and hefted it into the heart of the purple rock, it began to glow brighter and brighter, cracks appeared from the point of the pliers contact, spreading deep into the crystal, as soon as they reached the center it would blow. Keira got back down onto the nearest pillar, crawling away from the natural bomb, here eco burns slowing her down.
The cracks began to shine along the edge of the crystal, then a splitting sound caused Keira to look up, and then scream, as a wave of purple electricity exploded from the crystal, she was hit head on by the shockwave. It knocked her off the platform and into the water, she was breathing in eco from the infected water, but some instict told her to become light, she did so, and rose out of the water, unconcious, but alright.
Unfortunately the sudden surge of light caused two hooded figures to look round. Evil smiles spread across their warped faces, they couldn't beleive their luck, now they could kill two yakows with one eco bomb. They had come to stop any communication between the city and the precursors, just in case they were found out earlier than planned, now they could capture the girl, and lure Jak to his death.
They glided over to the suspended girl and reached out, but the light emanating from her body burned them.
"AH!" Exclaimed the first one. "Curse this girl, she will get her treatment all the worse for that."
"Patience my brother, we don't want the hero to see her harmed. The simple threat of it will be enough, and she won't give us any pleasure anyway, she's too courageous for that."
"she'll run out of power eventualy, she's not as powerful as he is, we just have to wait, and then, we will have our revenge."
Jak practically skipped down the corridor to Keira's room, he was always exhilirated by his rides on ragles, such power wasn't to be wasted, and he certainly didn't.
He chaped on the wood oak door, no answer. "Keira!" He called. "You there? The council needs you for some sort of announcement, or ribbon cutting or some shit like that." Still no answer, he opened the door, strangely it was ajar, after Jinx walking in on her while she was changing she always kept it locked. Inside there were trophies and medals and pictures of back in Sandover, but no Keira.
He saw a note on her bed, probably some lame explanation about how she was feeling to down to do queenly duties. Snatched off the quilt, barely glancing at it. But something on it caught his eye, the signature, not her's, he looked at it more carefully, his eyes widenng in shock, he read it through quickly, then ran from the room, sprinting down the hallway to look for someone, anyone, for on the note, the signature read 'Gol Acheron, and Maia Acheron.'
A thorough search of the forest had told phorensics all they needed to know, thankfully, the main part of the communicator had survived, but both te quantum reflector and the holo cube were missing, meaning they still couldn't contact the 'cursors until they found replacements.
Jak didn't particularly care about it though, he just wanted to know if they had found any evidence on where they had taken her, the boys were happy to oblige.
"It was quite a challenge I must say, more than we usually get eh guys?" Blabbered the scientist, and got a hearty response from his comrades. "Yeah it was hard but we got through it, after all we are the best company in town for this sort of thing, of course we are the only one in the city but that's neither her nor..."
"WOULD YOU GET TO THE POINT MAN! MY WIFE COULD BE OUT THERE DIEING, AND IF YOU DON'T HELP ME FIND HER i'LL HAVE YOU ASS NAILED TO A WALL!" Thundered Jak, the constant blabbing driving him up the wall. A strand of dark eco shot out of his body and actually zapped the man's finger, making him yelp and leap back.
"V-very well, we found a t-trail of eco leading o-over the sheild wall and straight north, t-towards that citadel that was supposedly lived in by Gol and Maia." Then he relaxed into his usual banter again. "Of course that was just an ancient myth, Gol and Maia probably lived somewhere else, people just accociated it with them cos they came from the north.
"That was where they lived."
"I beleive you are mistaken s..."
"Look here brain box, you may think you're smart cos of your damn GCSEs, but you make yourself stupid by choosing to ignore those who were there at certain events and instead listening to your misinformed books. So for your benefit, I'll put it bluntly, I was there, the legend tells of a light warrior who defeated them, that was me, I fought my way from Sandover all the way up to their citadel, and destroyed their robot, so I think you should shut up, and listen.
The man hid behind his clipboard and nodded to show he was listening.
"Good, now I want you to take this message to Torn, or if you can't find him, Maealan, and inform Shorine and Samos, they still haven't been told. Now, Torn is to lead a squadron of hellcats to the snowy mountain 100 miles north, from there we can invade the citadel from the bottom up, the zoomer team can transport people to the yellow sage's old lab, got it.
Another nod.
"Well get away then, no time to waste in war you idiot.
The now paranoid phorensist ran away to spread the news to the main commanders, leaving Jak to start trekking over the landscape, if he could make it to what used to be Rock Village, then he could pick up transport from the villagers, and hopefully get there at the same time as Torn.
Stumbling through the burning houses Jak looked mortified. What was left of Rock Village was now no more than smouldering ashes, dark eco firse still burned in piles of dead bodies.
High above him he could see the first units in the armada begin to pass overhead, he waved to catch their attention, there wasn't anything rideable in this town. No good, they were too high, he looked for something to wave, there was nothing in sight. He gave up the search and summoned his light energy, making a line of light pointing to the sky, it worked. The lead hellcat turned and descended into the center of the old stronghold, Torn, Ashelin, and most of the Sages stepped out of the extra big ship.
"Jak, what happened here?" Asked Mosen, who had been this village's sage in the past.
"I dunno, I only just got here, we must have just missed the attackers, the fires are still burning."
"Well let's not stand around chatting, you have a daughter to save, or else" Said Samos with a threatening glare at Jak, who decided to let it lie and hurry up with saving his wife, he climbed into the cockpit, yanked the controls from the pilot.
"Ladies and gentlemen your regular pilot is not as good as me, so hold on to your hats, and if any of you ate any lunch today, well...you have only yourself to blame." After a chorus of groans from the back Jak fired up the engines. The heavy load being lifted off the ground like a feather, the cruiser shot over landscapes high and low, towards the looming presence, of Gol and Maia's citadel.
Low in the depths of the lava tube the entire group stood, all the men had made it through without too much bother, and were now standing guard at the door, making sure no one could come through without becoming a human fireplace.
"Alright, who's going in, we need a head count." Shouted Torn, all of the names we know stepped forward, but not a single soldier was brave enough.
"Come on, we're fighting for our queen here, I want volunteers." Still nothing.
"OK, anyone who steps forward, gets a manditory promotion, the rest get demoted." This time everyone stepped forward. "Good, now that you've put yourselves forward, I can tell you that the promotions were a lie, but lucky for you, the demotions weren't."
The troopers brought up a great battering ram to break through the door, the swung it practitionally, counted to three, and rammed the metal log into the door. But before it touched the seal, the iris opened, sending the carriers flying through with the momentum.
"Really damn sloppy guys, really damn sloppy." Chuckled Jak, and stepped over the groaning men, striding down the hallway into the main hall, it was relatively the same as before, except te cages had been removed, and instead of lurkers, eco creatures patrolled the platforms, strangely, they weren't attacking.
"Ahh, my dear Jak, I knew you'd turn up sooner oor later, or in this case later." Said a voice from above them, Jak turned to see Gol floating above the door with Maia at his side.
"Where the hell is Jak's wife you eco sucking bad excuse for a sage." Said Karena.
"Oohh, did you hear that brother, this imputent little brat is the one who tried to steal your thunder, and she says that you're the stooge." Snickered Maia.
"Now Jak, and collective idiots, you'd better be nice, or you won't get to see the prise of you efforts, just look there." Gol pointed to the central portal, and everyone looked to see Keira, suspended on a wire above the abyss below.
"Let her go you...thing!" Shouted Jak, making a gesture at Gol.
"Let her go? Now why didn't we think of that, ohh Sakken, let the prisoner go." The tortured creature at the top grinned, and let go of the rope.
"NO!" Cried Jak.
"Very well." Said Gol, and she stopped falling, still hanging, but considerably more shaken. "Here is how you are going to work, we will summon our champion, and he will face yours, the winner gets to have the girl, deal?" The group nodded. "Good, SAKKEN!"
The aforementioned creature leapt down directly in front of Jak, his firey eyes burning with pain induced hatred for both Jak, and the twins.
"No use prolonging your defeat, let's begin." Jak shook himself, trying to get his muscles working after a long stretch of sitting in the cockpit. He drew his sword, and his oponent did so too.
Circling each other, locked in the other's gaze they turned their weapons, slashing the air to get in the mood. The creature leapt into the middle, slamming his blade down onto Jak's, who parried and swung the sword to the side, making his enemy's fly to the side, he then tried to jab his blade into the thing's chest, but it grabbed the hilt and twisted it away. It drew a smaller dagger from it's belt, jabbing down at the hero's face, but just in time some clever troopers shot it out of the tortured man's hand, the jagged dagger spinning away over the edge.
Jak ducked to avoid a spinning attack from his adversary, he knew he could go on fighting for hours and no one would win, he needed to find a new tactic, something Gol and Maia wouldn't have thought of, something brilliant from that tactical mind. Then it came to him, he ducked and weaved between the creatore's flailing arms, gabbed the arm holding it's blade, and with his now glowing right hand he held steadfastly to Sakken's face, his power flowed from his body to the tortured man he was holding. Before the twins could do anything he began to change, his skin lost it's purple hue and returned to the norm, the spines up and down his arms retracted into his flesh, and his eyes, those hate filled eyes that had sen much suffering, now showed sorrow, not for himself, but for all the men and women he had killed during his slavery.
Jak dropped him to the ground and sank to his knees, the effort to change the very nature of one's mind and body was immense. The former dark warrior looked around, his clouded mind remembering where he was, and then he looked to the angry figures floating above him.
"You cheated!" Yelled Gol. "The game is null and void, and now you shall see your wife die, prepare..."
He got no further as Sakken leapt up the their height, the old remains of the dark eco super-charging his muscles, he clasped Gol's arm and leg, holding for dear life, the old hate in his eyes again, but for his torturers this time.
"Wha...what are you doing?"
"You forced me to go through terrible things, and now you want to kill the man who freed me, I won't let you." Shouted Sakken, his bravery giving Jak time to turn into Light, and fly to Keira's dangling point, the wire snapped easily, having been there for centuries. He flew her back to the front platform, and told them to go back to the lab and get away, then he turned back to Sakken.
"Come." He spoke, his ethereal voice calming the man's nerves.
"If I let go then he'll get you and the others." Replied Sakken, who seemed strangely unshaken by Gol's attempts to throw him off. "I don't even know your name, yet you saved me, and thenks to that, I shall die a man." He then looked back up to the former sage, fire burning in his heart, he jumped to the spiny body of the warped man, stabbing him with what was left of his claws, the dark eco in his body sating Gol's senses, making them less potent. Jak didn't have to stay to know the outcome, it was that brave man's choice to save some people he had never known, and he would be remembered for it.
Maealan and Karena wandered into the Freedom Tower control room and found Jak sulking in a cushioned chair, still in a mood about the council's decision not to give Sakken a proper funeral or memorial, they claimed he was both a traitor and a murderer.
"Hey Jak." Said Maealan. "Come on, you can't sulk forever, we need you for other things, like the city's protection for instance."
"And what if I want to sulk, I did all the fighting for everyone else for the last few years, I think I've earned some personal time to sulk."
"Well there's some hooded guy outside wanting to see you, he says to tell you he can help balance the war." Karena said, not expecting much reaction, she got more than she bargained for, buncing up from his seat Jak shot out the door and into the elevator, it only took a few seconds to get down in the hyper vator, he jogged out of the door and saw the man Karena had mentioned.
"I greet you great balanced one, I am Illumi, I am here to help you."
Jak stared at the man, he could feel a power emanating from his body, the power of light. He stepped forward to speak more privately to the man.
"Who are you, and how can you help us?" He whispered, not wanting to be overheard by any passer-bys.
"I can control what you call the dark army, and give you power to kill the dark animals as well."
"How, not even the precursors could control the eco creatures or metal-heads."
"The precursors did not create eco, and they can therefore never fully understand it, but we can, we can use our power to directly counteract the power of our enemies."
"And you still haven't answered my first question fully, who are you?"
"I? I am that who balances, I am of the light, I am the illumination, in short, I am the commander of the light army." As soon as he said the words people began to form behind him, glowing figures of light, thousands appearing out of the air, each one looked ready for battle, the men and women in the area looked around them as the were surrounded by shining warriors. Before them, was the light army.
THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well there you go, how was that, did you like it, cos if you did, REVIEW! Serously, I have about 700 hits and only six reviews, I need more, but those who have reviewed are appreciated, thank you, and goodnight.